Meeting Challenges

How can Carolina best adapt to and tackle new challenges?
by Ron Strauss, DMD, PhD
UNC-Chapel Hill Executive Associate Provost

Greetings! I was pleased to be asked by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities to reflect on the challenges being faced by UNC in a changing national and state environment.

First, an introduction would help. I have been at Carolina since 1974 and hold appointments in Dentistry (Dental Ecology) and Medicine (Social Medicine) and have doctorates in sociology and dentistry, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

My research at UNC has focused on the social experiences of persons with stigmatizing health conditions, particularly facial differences and HIV/AIDS. I continue to work at the UNC Craniofacial Center, the Carolina Center for Public Service and the UNC Center for AIDS Research and have a strong interest in global health and in scholarly engagement with communities.

Our Role in the Community and State

One of the largest challenges facing UNC is a reconsideration of the role of a research-focused state university in a changing economy. I believe that North Carolinians want their best learners to be able to access world-class higher education that will help create state and national leaders. They also look to UNC for its capacity to engage in research and scholarly inquiry that will set a course to a robust future.

One of our tasks will be to assess how we can have growth in student enrollment from 28,000 up to 33,000 while continuing the kinds of faculty-student interactions that have been vital to making Carolina an intimate yet large campus. Towards that end, we will need to foster more of a community for graduate and professional students, so that they feel central to the campus and become fully engaged in the life of the University.

Making Advances

I also believe that UNC should examine new instructional methods that reduce the reliance on lectures. Alternate technological learning approaches would permit faculty members to spend more of their instructional time in direct, small group interactions with inquiring students.

In my first months in South Building, I have focused on launching a major study of future promotion and tenure policies and procedures. Under the fine leadership of Professor Jane Brown from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, we are examining issues around the future of tenure, fixed-term appointments, engagement and new forms of scholarship, interdisciplinary work and how it is valued in the university, and the cultivation of faculty mentorship.

Building Community

The University has also recently initiated a Taskforce on Promoting Emerging Campus Communities. This group is exploring means to encourage ethnic, cultural and other affinity group recognition, inclusion and growth at UNC while building a unified university. The Taskforce is identifying strategies to attract an increasingly diverse faculty, staff and student body, which would have an enhanced sense of belonging on the campus.

The Taskforce is planning for the issues and needs raised by emerging campus communities, including the rapidly growing Latina/o population. Indeed, this Taskforce is determining the mission, focus and roles of ethnic centers or programs (Latina/o Center), seeking not to duplicate existing programs or resources. It also is considering how UNC’s artistic, scholarly, social and cultural life can showcase North Carolina's increasing pluralism.

The UNC Tomorrow and related engagement initiatives strive to foster local, national and global collaborations around public service, engaged scholarship and interdisciplinary work. Watching Carolina expand its efforts in global education and global health has been impressive, and I see this as evidence that we can increasingly help in finding solutions to problems as articulated by our community, state and global partners.

My observation is that our faculty continue to seek ways to improve the campus climate: conversations occur about how to advance the arts, about the appropriate role of athletics, and about corporate and entrepreneurial relationships. Faculty and staff share a desire to enhance campus safety and advance an ethos of caring and looking out for each other.

With so many changes and decisions before us in the next decade, it is clear that Carolina has an opportunity to become an even better place to work and study. I welcome your thoughts and would appreciate hearing from you.

Yours,
Ron Strauss, Executive Associate Provost