Holden Thorp

I was a bit of a doubter when Holden Thorp was first appointed to be the UNC Chancellor, but he has turned out to be the best thing to happen to South Building in decades. I’ve been surprised to see some of my friends blaming Thorp for UNC’s athletics scandal and acting as if staff abuse of med air flights was a capital crime.

Thorp clearly seems guilty of trusting Matt Kupec too much, and allowing him to waste taxpayer dollars. But Thorp is also a tremendously thoughtful and effective leader of this hugely complex academic institution. One stupid screw-up wasting money does not outweigh the great job he has done for many thousands of students, for Orange County, and for the state of North Carolina. In fact, I think he’s due a lot of credit for the badly-needed daylight that’s been shed on UNC athletics.

The Chancellor’s position has become untenable now because of athletic boosters and anti-intellectuals like Art Pope pounding the drums of “scandal.” These people are not concerned with the quality of education available to North Carolinians. Of course the Kupec/Hansbrough thing was a big mistake, but it doesn’t make Thorp unfit to do all the many things required of a good university chancellor. Let’s don’t blame Thorp for having to clean up the mess left by decades of athletic corruption and mismanagement.

Here are some photos I took on my visit today to Maple View Dairy in rural Orange County. They were hosting a celebration to thank UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp for halting the process for the airport. Mr. Thorp was there having an ice cream as well as many of the key parties that worked so hard to oppose the airport.

I was told later by someone that Chancellor Thorp is a regular visitor to Maple View already, but I did not know if that was shared in confidence so I will not divulge the source. :-)

I was struck by the circular logic displayed by UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp in his Chapel Hill News interview. To me, (and I admit having researched the issue and made my mind up about it) the notion of taking land by eminent domain, tearing up the countryside and spending 40-50 million of my tax money is just not justified by a dodgy economic "working paper" and Thorp saying "It's better for us to have a regional airport".

CHN: If RDU was acceptable then and it's acceptable in the interim, what difference does it make whether you take 35 minutes to get to an airport or 25 minutes to get to an airport.

Thorp: Because we can develop our own operations.