Lee H. Roberts aims to keep pace with an evolving future

On Oct. 11, the nation’s first public university will celebrate its 231st birthday and the installation of its 13th chancellor, Lee H. Roberts.  

“I’m most excited about celebrating the remarkable history of this incomparable institution that day, to honor our distinguished alumni, and take the opportunity to reflect on our myriad accomplishments while challenging us collectively to set the bar even higher going forward.” 

Ahead of the event, Roberts addressed questions about the University’s future, enrollment growth and other issues in an interview with The Well. 

As you approach your installation, what are your thoughts about this institution’s future and your role as its leader?

I don’t think there’s been a more important institution to our state’s growth than this University. At a time when the pace of change has accelerated, our challenge is to make sure that’s true for the next 231 years and beyond.

What do you want the state’s residents to know about Carolina’s affordability?

Tuition has been flat for North Carolinians for eight years. In nominal terms, that means it’s gone down by 20%. That’s extraordinary. I’m not sure what else you can buy that’s gone down in price by 20%. We provide $37 million in University aid a year through our Carolina Covenant scholarship program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and we’ve added to that the Blue Sky scholars and the Tar Heel Guarantee. We’ve done the hard work of making a Carolina education affordable. We need to do a better job with the relatively easier challenge of getting the word out.  

How will you balance your goal of increasing Carolina’s enrollment with maintaining its reputation for excellence and affordability?

Anything we do to increase enrollment will be gradual over time, given the implications that it would have for our infrastructure, for our faculty, staff, and for the town of Chapel Hill. But I don’t think excellence requires being at a certain size. We have peer institutions to whom we compare ourselves nationally who represent excellence at a wide range of undergraduate enrollment sizes. So I don’t think there’s necessarily a trade-off there. 

How will you make sure that Carolina is accessible to students from all backgrounds and that they feel welcome and supported here?

We have to do a better job reaching into every corner of this state, literally and figuratively, to make sure that talented high school students understand that Carolina is a place for them, that it’s affordable, that it’s accessible, that when they get here, they can thrive and flourish. We sometimes lose admitted students because they’re worried about whether Carolina might be a place for them. We have almost 900 student organizations and several student centers. Students may find a way to feel comfortable through intramural sports, a service organization or Greek life. For example, we’re also looking at steps like making more halal meals available to Muslim students. We’ve made good strides, and we’ll continue to make more. 

What are the next steps based on the findings of the Chancellor Working Groups on these four issues: master plan, artificial intelligence, applied sciences and enrollment?

We’re gratified that the working groups did their work relatively quickly, especially given the complexity of the topics and the breadth of the constituencies. But the hard part comes now with implementation and execution, and that looks different for each one of the working groups.  x

• Master plan. We have three large capital projects underway: the Translational Research building, the Porthole Alley project and changes to our basketball arena. Each one of those has its own workstream and project plan. We’re also trying to do a better job prioritizing our repair and renovation needs and understanding our capacity utilization for our classroom and lab buildings, parking, housing and dining. 
• AI. We’ve broken the implementation into three parts. Our vice chancellor for research, Penny Gordon-Larsen, will lead our research priorities. Mike Barker, our vice chancellor for information and technology, is leading how we deploy AI internally to improve the University’s operations. And the provost is working with the deans on how AI can be deployed in the classroom for a more consistent student experience.
• Applied sciences. We have very strong demand for our existing programs in applied physical sciences, biomedical engineering, data science and environmental engineering. At a minimum, it seems clear that those programs should grow. We’re in dialogue with the UNC System office and the General Assembly about several different scenarios for implementation.
• Enrollment. Enrollment growth has implications not only for our campus and for our surrounding community, but for the system as a whole. And so we’re continuing to have those conversations with all the relevant stakeholders. We haven’t made any decisions about enrollment. If we don’t do anything, the percentage of North Carolina’s high school graduates that we enroll, now 3.5%, will continue to drop as the state grows.

Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state. What is Carolina doing to help in the recovery?

Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy. We’re especially focused on the needs of our fellow UNC System schools: Western Carolina, Appalachian State, and especially UNC Asheville, which appears to be the hardest hit. Our medical professionals at UNC Health have been working tirelessly to assist people in the West and our four regional hospitals there. Every part of our University, given our mission of service to the state, can play a role. The Carolina Center for Public Service is coordinating our efforts and sharing information and resources on its website. 

We were looking forward to the Tar Heel Bus Tour — which is really two tours, one to the western part of the state, one to the east. But we thought it best to postpone the bus tour this year and redirect those resources to hurricane relief. As terrible as the devastation has been, the silver lining has been watching the spirit of this remarkable state of North Carolina and the people coming from every nook and cranny of the state to help out in whatever way that they can.  

You have said that Carolina should be committed to being “head and shoulders” above the best public university in the U.S. How are you working to acknowledge and encourage the excellence here on campus?

I think, in a lot of ways, we already are the best public university in the United States. We’re excited about an upcoming media partnership to showcase faculty, staff and others who are doing fascinating things across our University. But there is excellence everywhere you look across campus. I was at an event last week for the Kenan Professors, a remarkable group of intellectuals from across disciplines. On University Day, we’re honoring distinguished alumni who have been exceptional in their respective fields, and on Saturday, we honored Julius Peppers, one of the greatest athletes ever to put on a Tar Heel uniform.  

The Innovation Junction on Franklin Street just celebrated its first anniversary. Talk about the importance of innovation to our campus and community.

The innovation effort being led by Vice Chancellor Dedric Carter is crucial to Carolina and to the state. Historically, we’ve been very successful at discovering new technologies and new ideas, but not as effective at commercializing those technologies and using our resources to benefit the broader community. He is off to a strong start in building on our efforts in those areas, and the Innovation Junction is an essential part of that. Having it on Franklin Street is important, both practically and symbolically. It’s a terrific space that I think is serving the community well and will continue to catalyze growth.