Personnel announcements, current events highlight trustees’ meeting

At the July 21 meeting of the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Carol L. Folt announced the appointment of faculty member Kim Strom-Gottfried as the director of ethics education and policy management.

Strom-Gottfried is the Smith P. Theimann Jr. Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Professional Practice in the School of Social Work. Effective Aug. 1, she will succeed Todd Nicolet, interim director of ethics and integrity, in this cabinet-level position.

“I think it’s an exciting opportunity because I don’t know of any places that have actually tried to say, ‘We’re going to consolidate this into an office,’” Folt said. “It’s really working across institutions to try to streamline it, make it very clear and then use that to improve it.”

Folt also announced:

Rumay Alexander, professor and director of inclusive excellence in the School of Nursing and special assistant to the Chancellor, will serve as the University’s interim chief diversity officer, effective immediately;
The National Institutes of Health renewed funding for the Carolina-GSK partnership to cure AIDS with $23 million over five years; and
The frequency of Carolina Conversations events will increase this fall.

Chair Dwight Stone congratulated Folt on “the high level of civil discourse” on campus and urged his fellow trustees to keep national issues of race and violence top of mind in the coming year.

“Like most of you in this room, I’ve been deeply troubled by the events that have gone on in our country over the last several weeks and months,” he said. “We need to have earnest, intentional, honest conversations so that we can understand each other better.”

In her presentation to the trustees, Dean Susan King of the School of Media and Journalism said the school has won six Hearst National Championships in college journalism, more than any other school, and is also the only school to place in the top five every year (2002-2016).

Three recent MJ School graduates, all individual Hearst winners, praised the school for preparing them for the real world of journalism, which they credited for their job success. Carolyn Van Houten interned at National Geographic and is project photographer at the San Antonio Express News. CB Cotton works at WITN-TV, and Emily Rhyne is staff video producer for The New Yorker.

Rhyne, via Skype, also thanked her fellow alumni. “I would not be anywhere close to where I am without the UNC network. I had this leg up and didn’t even realize I had it,” she said.

At the meeting, the board:

Re-elected its current officers to another term;
Passed a resolution honoring interim general counsel David Parker for his “wise and pragmatic counsel” over the years; and
Approved designer selection for the demolition of most Odum Village student housing and renovation of the community building as a center for student veterans

Story by Susan Hudson, University Gazette. Photos by Jon Gardiner, Office of Communications and Public Affairs.
Published July 21, 2016