There’s ‘no wrong door’ at Carolina’s Heels Hub
Based in SASB North, the newly launched service is a one-stop access point for student questions.
Carolina held a grand opening Aug. 19 at the Student and Academic Services Building North for Heels Hub, the one welcoming location where students can get answers to questions about campus life and connect with broader resources at Carolina.
“Our job is to assist students and families in any way we can,” said Tyler Smith, who directs the Division of Student Success’ newly launched one-stop office. “There is no wrong door here at the Heels Hub.”
Heels Hub has a concierge desk on the first floor of SASB North, with its main offices on the third floor. Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the hub is staffed with employees from several departments who can assist students on everything from scheduling appointments on campus to registering for classes or accessing their Onyen accounts.
Chancellor Lee H. Roberts spoke to a crowd at the Heels Hub’s opening ceremony on Aug. 19, where he emphasized the importance of easy campus navigation for students. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
Jackie Copeland, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid, oversees Heels Hub. As emcee for the opening ceremony, Copeland welcomed Chancellor Lee H. Roberts to mark the milestone.
Roberts highlighted Heels Hub as an important part of Carolina’s commitment to an exceptional student experience, emphasizing that navigating the University should be simple and that students shouldn’t have to “understand our org chart to be a student at Carolina.”
“We’ve frequently heard from students that they would try to seek help with a problem or a challenge and be told, ‘Oh no, that’s Student Health, that’s Student Housing, that’s the Registrar’s Office, that’s the Cashier’s Office,’ and they were being passed around,” Roberts said. “We’ve taken a couple of important steps to try to address that.”
One of those important steps, preceding Heels Hub, was the creation of the senior vice provost for student success position. James Orr was hired for the role in summer 2025, and the creation of Heels Hub became one of his top priorities. The hub’s opening is a point of pride for him, and he sees it as a great example of how Carolina continues to raise the bar for student services.
Dr. Orr (center) took Chancellor Roberts, alongside Vice Chancellor and Provost Magnus Egerstedt (left), on a tour of Heels Hub’s main office as part of the Aug. 19 opening ceremony. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
“This will provide a location where students can get access to the services that we provide in a seamless manner,” Orr said. “It’s all to create what I hope will be the No. 1 student experience.”
Following the ribbon-cutting at the opening event, students, faculty and staff toured the hub.
In planning Heels Hub, the Division of Student Success partnered with Operational Excellence in coordinating campuswide focus groups. Devin Duncan, student body president, hopes his fellow students view the hub as a representation of how their perspectives can shape the University.
Student Body President Devin Duncan hopes Heels Hub serves as a reminder to his fellow students that they have an impact on shaping their university. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
“There’s no better partner than students in this work because we’re the ones who experience it every day,” Duncan said. “There’s an obligation for us at Carolina to not just be the nation’s first public university, but the best in everything that we do. I’m certainly thankful to Dr. Orr for delivering on that commitment.”
