Shannon Watkins of the Martin Center interviews Randy Ramsey, chairman of the UNC System’s Board of Governors.
Student success is central to the university’s mission. What are some of the student success initiatives the system is working on that you are most excited about?
Student success is probably the most important thing we work on here. Trying to get students in here and out of here with a degree that they can use once they get out; being able to support their families, not having too much student debt. There are a number of things that I am pretty excited about. I am really excited about the Partly Home initiative that is going on on every one of our campuses. That is my favorite initiative because we have students who left the universities with some amount of credit for some unknown reason and who are still in good standing; they are given an opportunity to finish their degree. Maybe there were financial issues, maybe there were health issues. I think we have a great opportunity there to bring some of those people back, finish those degrees, and help them improve their lives.
What do you see as the board’s role in keeping institutions accountable for student success?
The board’s role, from my personal perspective, is simply governance. Our job is to try to put the guardrails around—[define] our expectations for each of our universities and how they are going to go forward in ensuring student success. They’re actually doing a pretty good job so far; eleven of our twelve strategic plan goals have been met or exceeded, so maybe we should have shot higher.
We’re graduating more students now than in the history of our university, it’s just over 71 percent in a five-year period. We are providing more degrees per state dollar than in any time in 10 years. I think that some of the [student success] initiatives at the campus level and at the board level are clearly working. I do think every single person on our board is focused on ensuring student success and that’s always at the forefront.