Perceptions
Posted on Feb. 20, 1991From the University Report (published by the GAA 1970-94)
During my nine years in Washington working on Capitol Hill with several members of Congress, I learned how important it is to have a clear understanding of one’s mission in projecting an image for one’s self, or one’s institution. Clearly, while most members of Congress have been effective in projecting a positive image for themselves, the image of Congress is often low.
As an Alumni Association, we are acutely aware that our mission is to both serve you — our alumni — and our University. To do this we involve and inform Carolina’s former students. Everything we do as an Association — publications, clubs, reunions, enrichment, travel, records, student recruitment, career assistance scholarships, awards, advocacy, etc. — all serve to inform and involve Carolina alumni. We hope our service to you is thoroughly professional, friendly, and reflects our commitment to excellence and our appreciation and understanding for what makes Carolina special.
The North Carolina General Assembly has just convened and faces perhaps its most challenging session in many years. A projected revenue shortfall of a billion dollars and an expanding need for public services combine to cause doubts about North Carolina’s ability to meet its public obligations. Regrettably, after three years of state budget cuts, our University may face yet another difficult year. Whether or how severe Carolina is hit could be determined by how we are perceived by the General Assembly.
Perhaps more than ever our alumni have the opportunity to help shape the public’s attitude and, therefore, the attitude of members of the General Assembly about our University. At best, the public receives through all sources of communication only two or three lasting impressions of art individual serving in or seeking public office. The same is true for institutions. How is Carolina perceived and is that perception consistent with how we wish to be perceived?
I hope that all of us can agree that perhaps more than anything else, we believe The University of North Carolina has a long, distinguished record of serving North Carolina, We can help our University by remembering and communicating this unique commitment to service. It is critical that we not presume that the public fully understands the extent to which so much of what we do is devoted to addressing North Carolina’s needs. We cannot, we should not be bashful in advancing our special mission. Not only could our future state support depend upon it, but ours is a message that is reaffirming and one about which we can be proud.
More than any other University in the nation, our campus is truly “public” in that so many of our resources are directed toward meeting compelling state needs — from teacher preparation to distributing quality health care across our state, from preparing professionals in social work, local government and law enforcement to nursing, pharmacy, law, dentistry, and medicine, and from developing better means to protect the environment to identifying ways to encourage private enterprise.
Like the U. S. Congress, we should not content ourselves by advancing only the individual units of our University. The College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of Business, Dentistry, Education, Journalism, Law, Library Science, Medicine, Nursing. Pharmacy, Public Health as well as the many institutes and research centers, are strengthened when the public understands that the mission that binds us together as one University is our shared commitment to serving those who created and have sustained the first state university for nearly two hundred years — the people of North Carolina!
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
Note: To assist us in better understanding the needs and expectations of our Alumni Association members, we have recently mailed a questionnaire to a random sample of our Alumni Association members. In order to achieve the statistical accuracy needed, not all members of the Association are being polled. However, if you wish to receive a questionnaire, drop me a note at P.O. Box 660, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, and I will be delighted to send you one.
