|
 Thorp announces appointment of
Energy Task Force at trustees meeting
Finalists for provost discuss ways to further diversity
A new Energy Task Force will study the University’s carbon
reduction plans and review what other universities are doing, Chancellor Holden
Thorp announced at the Jan. 28 Board of Trustees meeting. The task force will
work to develop a practicable plan for reducing Carolina’s carbon footprint.
The group – made up of faculty, staff and students, a
trustee and environmental activists – will be led by Tim Toben, chair of
the N.C. Energy Policy Council. Toben is also chair of the Board of Visitors
for the UNC Institute for the Environment.
“Our cogeneration plant is the cleanest it can possibly be,”
Thorp said at the Jan. 29 Faculty Council meeting. “Our folks do a great job,
but we’re open to doing it even better. That’s what this is about.”
Toben said he expects the task force to evaluate the
University’s plans and trajectory for becoming carbon-free by 2050, to
recommend practical, cost-effective improvements in the carbon reduction plan
and to examine the campus’s cogeneration plant in the context of state energy
policy.
Members of the UNC Energy Task Force:
 Trustee
Alston Gardner;
Royce
Murray, Kenan Professor of Chemistry;
David
McNelis, director of the Center for Sustainable Energy, Environment and
Economic Development at the Institute for the Environment;
Jonathan
Howes, former special assistant to the chancellor for local relations and
former secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment, Health and Natural
Resources;
Molly
Diggins, state director of the N.C. chapter of the Sierra Club;
Elinor
Benami, a senior and senior adviser to the executive branch of student
government; and
Mary
Cooper, a sophomore environmental science major and co-chair of student
government’s Environmental Affairs Committee.
Finalists for provost discuss ways to further diversity
The University is closer to identifying the next executive
vice chancellor and provost. Between Jan. 28 and Feb. 4, the three finalists
for the position were on campus to hold public forums and take questions from
the campus community. They are:
Anthony
P. Monaco, pro-vice-chancellor for planning and resources at the University of
Oxford since 2007, who also is professor of human genetics and head of the
Neurodevelopmental and Neurological Disorders Group at the Wellcome Trust
Centre for Human Genetics;
Jeffrey
S. Vitter, professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M
University since 2008, who also served as provost and executive vice president
for academics during 2008–09; and
Scott
L. Zeger, vice provost for research at The Johns Hopkins University since 2008,
who also is Hurley-Dorrier Professor of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“We are excited about these three candidates,” Thorp said at
the Jan. 29 Faculty Council meeting. “We have also gotten questions about the
diversity of the applicant pool, their race and gender and fields of interest.”
As the search process began, Thorp said, he met with search
committee chair Shelley Earp, vice chair Lissa Broome and consultant Bill Funk
to talk about Carolina’s commitment to diversity. The committee was among the
most diverse ever assembled and did everything it could to attract diversity in
the applicant pool, he said.
The job was advertised broadly in professional publications;
the committee appealed to the faculty to submit nominations; and the search
consultant appealed to AAU provosts and arts and sciences deans to nominate
qualified applicants, Thorp said. All three finalists have been asked about how
to further diversity at Carolina.
“We have been very pleased with the number of ideas that
have been raised by the candidates,” Earp said. “They have had experiences we
haven’t had here before, and the discussion has been very good.”
The lack of women or minority candidates among the finalists
highlights a challenge for administrators.
While the University has seen demonstrable success in
attracting minority students, there is not a similar success rate among faculty
members. In fact, at the current growth rate, it would take 80 years for
Carolina’s percentage of African-American faculty members and students to
become equal, Thorp told Faculty Council members. He cited data from a
presentation Bruce Carney, interim executive vice chancellor and provost, gave
the Board of Trustees the day before.
“In the future, we need to be ever mindful of our commitment
to diversity among the faculty and administration,”
he said. “This is a good reminder for me and for all search
committees.” |
