A message from the chancellor: Happy FDOC, Tar Heels

Dear Carolina Community,

Welcome back and happy first day of classes for the fall semester 2023! I hope you have had a restful and rejuvenating summer and that you are ready for an exciting new year filled with opportunities to learn and grow.

Last night, we celebrated the arrival of over 5,600 new undergraduate students and over 2,400 new graduate students at Convocation at the Dean E. Smith Center. Our undergraduates are coming to Chapel Hill from 49 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico), 93 N.C. counties and 100 different countries. Nineteen percent of them are first in their family to go to college. This incredible group of new Tar Heels have each earned their place in our community and I can’t wait to see what they will accomplish.

At Convocation, I asked our students to envision and describe their hopes for their Carolina journey in five words. For example, “Survive and get a job,” or “make best friends for life,” or “national championships for every team.” And while I hope that all these dreams are true for our newest Tar Heels, my five words for them are “the climb is worth it.” Their time at Carolina will be challenging and it’s not going to be easy. But it is worth it. Graduating from Carolina is an achievement that will change their lives and make them better people.

While some of us are beginning our climb at Carolina, others are continuing that climb. It takes hard work to reach our goals, whether it’s graduation, promotions, academic rewards or scientific breakthroughs. As we all begin this semester, I hope we can all remember that the climb is worth it. The work we do as a passionately public university to prepare this next generation of leaders and to solve the grand challenges of our time is worth it. As Nehemiah Stewart ’21, our Convocation speaker said, “education brings power, power brings responsibility, but with responsibility there is opportunity.” We have a responsibility and an opportunity to make a difference in our world as members of this storied community.

And so, I encourage each of you to embrace the challenges of the climb you will face this semester. Expand your opportunities outside the classroom, the laboratory, the office. Sign up for a club that is working to make this world a better place or try a new activity where you might fail. Whatever you do, know that as a community we are here to support one another in this climb. We can make it to the top together.

Our community has organized many events to welcome you back to campus. Check them out at heellife.unc.edu. And I hope to see you out at the newly renovated and accessible Old Well for your first sip.

Go Heels!
Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Chancellor