Lee Roberts, the new Chancellor of the University of North Carolina (UNC), is shepherding a transformative initiative. His objective is to raise the academy to a position of national leadership among public colleges of education in America. Roberts brings deep financial expertise to the role, with three decades of experience as a managing partner in a private investment firm. This deep experience provides him with an invaluable perspective in his position. It has not been easy, and his tenure has already ushered in profound changes. To achieve his goal of making UNC the best public university in the country, he established a new school dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI).
After a long and storied career in state government, Roberts has made the leap into academia. He was state budget director for a GOP-governor’s administration. This experience has provided him a keen sense of fiscal prudence, judicious management of available resources and prioritization. He now vigorously applies this knowledge to the rapidly changing landscape at UNC. As he implements changes across the university, his focus on AI represents a strategic response to the shifting demands of higher education and the job market.
One of Roberts’ flagship initiatives is establishing “incentive-based programs” to encourage more AI studies across the university. This strategy aims to better align educational opportunities with the market while better preparing students to face challenges in the real world. Rather than recruit the new Vice Provost for AI from elsewhere, he’s announced plans to promote a current dean to fill the position. This $10 million move demonstrates the leadership that UNC is providing in this new area.
Roberts is responsible for the academic and professional welfare of approximately 4,000 faculty. He is deeply sensitive to their very real apprehensions about AI’s potential to upend education. While he admits that incorporating AI into the curriculum is important, it needs to not be seen as a threat. We couldn’t agree more with his call for collective impact. He notes that nobody will say to students after they graduate from college, “Good luck, but you’ll be fired if you use AI.” Some current faculty are doing just that to students at this moment.
As UNC moves through these transitions, difficulty certainly lies ahead, as the university recently experienced the departure of 118 federal grants worth $38 million. Roberts sees this one blow as part of a larger trend — a reworking of the funding formula for big R-1s. To him, figuring out how to respond to this disruption is key for UNC’s long-term survival and success.
“In many cases, [people] lose their life’s work,” – Lee Roberts
To address funding concerns, Roberts has engaged with policymakers and legislators in Washington, advocating for the significance of federal research funding. He knows that conserving various forms of federal financial support is key to keeping UNC the nation’s leading public university in research capabilities and academic excellence.
The Chancellor’s vision extends beyond immediate challenges. Most importantly, he sees AI as an opportunity — not a crisis — one that can help improve educational outcomes and even better empower students to learn for themselves. The challenge of AI is a tall order and one that we must move fast on. We have to work together academically across disciplines,” he added. This continued collaboration across disciplines is crucial to helping students get the kind of comprehensive education they need to meet the demands of jobs that don’t even exist yet.
Roberts understands that rolling out AI in a meaningful way to academic programs will face pushback from the faculty. But most of all, he is committed to creating a culture within the DOT that welcomes new technologies with open arms instead of peddling cautionary tales. He thinks that UNC’s approach to AI should be all-encompassing and inclusive –– supportive of the public good. In this manner, both instructors and learners can adjust and succeed in an ever-changing academic environment.
Roberts is furthering UNC down an ambitious trajectory. To do this, he often makes comparisons between his own leadership style and that of legendary coach Bill Belichick. He said, “If we’d hired someone else and gone belly up and lost a couple of games, everybody would be saying, ‘Hey, you coulda had Bill Belichick!’” This demonstrates his confidence in the path – a long overdue one – that he is finally guiding the university toward.