Cornelia Spencer and Carolina's Network
Posted on Jan. 14, 1997Carolina alumni who are students of UNC history know that in 1872 Cornelia Spencer urged Carolina alumni from across North Carolina to attend an important meeting in the Senate chamber in Raleigh to discuss the reopening of the University. Cornelia Spencer collaborated with Alexander McIver, the state superintendent of public instruction, to encourage influential friends to attend and secured public attention for the gathering in magazines and newspapers.
While Cornelia Spencer had no reason to think in such terms, she was forming what more than 100 years later the General Alumni Association would call the Tar Heel Network. And while the circumstances that prompted the GAA to create the Tar Heel Network are not as urgent as the need to rally support to reopen our University, the Tar Heel Network is a vital contributor toward developing broader understanding of Carolina and ensuring that it continues to receive much needed support from our many publics, including, most particularly, from the N.C. General Assembly.
Formed in 1983, the Tar Heel Network has members in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties. It is a broadly based organization of community leaders who have been committed to generating an effective and continuing voice on behalf of Carolina. There has been no fund raising, no dues and no meetings of the several hundred members of the Tar Heel Network. The only commitment members of the Network have been asked to make is to read and interpret concise information about the University. As hoped, the Network has provided ideas, opinions and independent grassroots help on issues where prompt and appropriate response from alumni and Carolina friends was beneficial. In essence, the Network has acted as sounding board, an idea source and as an advocate for the University in both public and private forums.
The first Tar Heel Network newsletter addressed the always challenging issue of undergraduate admissions. Later Network members were asked to assist then-state Sen. Dennis Winner ’63 in his effort to restore the historic name “The University of North Carolina” to our Chapel Hill campus. During the very difficult years of the early ’90s the Network provided members with regular updates on University priorities in the General Assembly and urged direct contact with legislators.
The Network played a critical role in developing understanding and support for the statewide vote for a bond issue for higher education capital construction. The Network gathered alumni in several communities to invite suggestions and recommendations for what should be the priorities of our new chancellor. And of particular note, the Network has been effective in increasing the number of Carolina alumni in the General Assembly and in persuading the General Assembly to provide needed funding for faculty salaries, graduate student support, and capital construction. Along the way, Network members have been provided summaries of legislative action that have a direct impact on our campus and have encouraged members to link their support for legislative candidates to those candidates’ support for Carolina.
In the most recent sessions of the General Assembly, the Tar Heel Network has urged members to aggressively oppose proposals in the N.C. House that would cut funding dramatically for Carolina. Fortunately, last summer the General Assembly adopted provisions in the Senate budget that were very favorable to Carolina.
Among our University’s many strengths has been the passionate support we enjoy from North Carolinians who take great pride in the fact that our state created and has nourished one of the world’s most distinguished educational institutions, one that has achieved excellence by providing unparalleled public service, outstanding teaching and needed, cutting-edge research.
We are grateful to all who represent our University with passion and devotion. In your community and in your professional and personal lives, to many you are The University of North Carolina. Following in the tradition of Cornelia Spencer, we hope all alumni will actively join the Tar Heel Network in urging your legislators to support all public education — kindergarten through 12th grade, the community colleges and our public University System, and most particularly the oldest public university, North Carolina’s “priceless gem” — The University of North Carolina.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
