Next Week’s Webinar and Roberts’s Remarks on Research

Roberts’s remarks on research:

At the Coalition for Carolina, we’ve been forcefully advocating for leadership at a time of great uncertainty for Carolina and institutions of higher education. This past week, we were encouraged to see UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts speaking out about the university’s commitment to defending itself from federal research cuts. 

According to Roberts’s remarks made to WRAL and reported on by The Daily Tar Heel, UNC has been upping its commitment to lobbying in DC in the wake of massive federal funding cuts to research. Roberts spoke about his own efforts in Washington to advocate for Carolina and acknowledged he isn’t alone in pushing back on the threat to research and higher ed. 

“The last time I was up on the Hill, it looked like an AAU meeting there were so many university presidents and chancellors walking the halls of Congress,” he told WRAL.

UNC-Chapel Hill receives $1.55 billion in federal research funding annually and over $600 million from the NIH alone, making UNC a top-10 research university. Protecting this vital funding couldn’t be more important to the future of Carolina – and the world of science and research more broadly.

We want to thank Chancellor Roberts for speaking out. We hope it’s the start of more regular communication from university officials at what the Chancellor calls a “crucial time” for Carolina and universities around the country.

We took it as our duty to lead the calls for leadership over the past several months, both in our weekly newsletters and also in our first webinar of the year featuring Coalition for Carolina cofounders Roger Perry, Mimi Chapman and Paul Fulton.

If you haven’t attended one of our webinars, we encourage you to join us in the future and catch up on some of the recent conversations we’ve had.

Just a couple weeks ago we hosted a conversation about student visas and immigration policy on campus with UNC legal scholars Jack Boger and Deborah Weissman. This is a topic that continues to be in the news daily, including an announcement this week that the U.S. is halting visa interviews for foreign students. 

More about next week’s webinar: 

Our next webinar will cover another complex topic in the news: artificial intelligence. There’s considerable speculation about how AI will impact our future – especially in education and the workforce. We’re fortunate to have several of UNC’s top experts joining us for what is sure to be an informative discussion.

Thank you for being part of our Coalition. We look forward to continuing this important work of holding our leaders accountable, having important conversations and supporting and defending the University we all love.