GREENSBORO – Erskine Bowles was inaugurated Wednesday as the 16th president of the University of North Carolina. His official swearing-in was held at UNC-Greensboro, four months after he took the job on Jan. 1.
The festivities began with a faculty procession down Spring Garden Street led by the N.C. A&T State University marching band. Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. administered the oath of office, and Crandall Bowles held a family Bible for her husband. About 1,500 people filled Aycock Auditorium to hear the former U.S. Senate candidate outline his plan for the 16-campus system.
“Serving as the 16th president of my University—the University of North Carolina—is by far the single greatest honor I can imagine ever being given,” he said. “But today’s ceremony really isn’t about Erskine Bowles. Rather, it’s a celebration—a celebration of our University’s distinguished past and an affirmation of the critical role that each and every UNC campus must play in the future of North Carolina.”
Among the notables on stage during the event were House Speaker Jim Black, Senate leader Marc Basnight, Community College System President Martin Lancaster, UNC Board of Governors members and former UNC Presidents C.D. Spangler Jr. and Molly Broad.
Gov. Mike Easley, who addressed the audience along with other officials before Bowles’ address, spoke about the need to cope with economic pressures facing North Carolina.
“We entrust that responsibility to the university,” he said. “And we entrust the university, confidently, to Erskine Bowles.”
Easley’s remarks were a fitting preface to Bowles’ message of warning.
North Carolinians are no longer competing for jobs with the citizens of neighboring states, he said. “In today’s knowledge-based global economy, we’re competing head-to-head with China, India, and dozens of other countries that are making tremendous strategic investments in education and research.”
As proof that North Carolina is lagging behind, Bowles pointed out that last year the entire system produced only three physics teachers. He was also concerned about how few North Carolinians graduate college.
“An economic tsunami is fast bearing down on North Carolina and our entire nation,” he said. “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.”
Despite the gloomy picture Bowles painted of the U.S. economy, his speech was an optimistic one.
“At pivotal points in our history, this University has provided the toolkit with which the people of North Carolina built their way out of poverty and mediocrity,” he said.
The University is the toolkit by which Bowles believes North Carolina can stay competitive in today’s global economy. To improve the University system, he recommended a plan he called his “conceptual prism.”
First, North Carolina must improve K-12 education by filling the teacher shortage.
“Our state has a crying need for more teachers, better teachers, science and math teachers, stronger curriculum, and better trained principals,” he said. “Over the course of the past year, UNC campuses produced more than 3,900 potential teachers, yet today North Carolina must hire more than 11,000 teachers each year.”
Bowles also voiced a desire to ensure a “seamless and collaborative” relationship with North Carolina community colleges and the need to improve access and affordability for all institutions of higher education in the state by keeping tuition low and increasing need-based financial aid.
“Our University must do everything possible to ensure that every qualified person who wants to attend one of our 16 campuses can afford to do so,” he said.
Once students enter college, Bowles also wants to make sure they stay.
“Our retention rates in our universities—all of them—are wholly unacceptable, and our campuses have got to do better,” he said.
Bowles also stressed the importance of having a continued commitment to University research.
“Our University research extends our knowledge, advances the welfare of mankind, and ensures the future economic well-being of the people of North Carolina,” he said.
Finally, Bowles touted faculty as the University’s greatest asset.
“We have to be able to attract and keep great faculty,” he said. “And to do that, we must pay them and provide them with the facilities, equipment, and freedom of inquiry they need to carry out their three-part mission of teaching, research, and public service.”