Erskine Bowles Installed as UNC President

Erskine B. Bowles was installed as president of the University of North Carolina, and set forth a vision in his address that calls for the 16-campus system focus on areas that will help the state attain a competitive advantage in the nation and the world.

The inauguration took place in UNCG’s Aycock Auditorium, the last event before the historic hall undergoes an extensive renovation. The ceremony was preceded by a processional that included 400 robed well-wishers who marched down Spring Garden Street.

Bowles proclaimed the post, which he has held since January 1, to be “the greatest honor in my life.” He succeeds Molly Corbett Broad, who was on the platform, along with her own predecessor, C.D. Spangler Jr.

“As I've gotten a little older, balder, and maybe a little wiser, I've learned that sometimes in life the real world is even better than your fondest dreams," said Bowles. “I thank you for the enormous trust you have bestowed upon me and for the privilege you have given me to serve the people of North Carolina.”

Bowles said the university system must do a better job of educating young people to work in a changing world economy. He cited jobs lost in North Carolina to other countries where labor is cheap, but workforces are becoming better educated.

“Our natural inclination might be to batten down the hatches and hope to ride the storm out,” he said. “But the truth of the matter is this: if we don’t grab hold of the future and get more people better educated, we are going to be crushed by this tidal wave of highly educated people from all parts of the world competing for the jobs of tomorrow – jobs that our children and their children will so desperately need to preserve their futures.”

Bowles said he has identified six key goals for the system:

• Improving K-12 education in the state by increasing the numbers of teachers graduated each year from the schools of education on the 15 UNC campuses.
• Forging a strong, seamless relationship with the state’s community college system, to make it possible for community college graduates across the state to move smoothly into four-year programs at state universities.
• Increasing access to a college education, keeping tuition low, and increasing scholarships and opportunities for need-based financial aid.
• Improving retention rates for college students once they have been admitted to UNC schools, calling the current retention rates “wholly unacceptable.”
• Sustaining the system’s long-time commitment to public service and research, and to build on and increase the $1 billion in research grants and contracts that UNC schools attract each year.
• Attracting and retaining faculty members by providing them with freedom of inquiry and excellent salaries, facilities and equipment.

“Now is not the time to be complacent,” Bowles said. “To win in this new knowledge-based, global economy, we must move forward quickly to train and educate our young people and non-traditional students for tomorrow’s new opportunities.

“The skills and knowledge required to get a job, keep a job, and certainly to advance to more senior jobs, now require constant retraining and re-education. Clearly, old patterns, structures, and approaches that have worked for centuries must be tested, revised, discarded, or enhanced so that they can serve our needs in this rapidly changing global world in which we live.”

Click here for the full text of Bowles' remarks.