In hiring Holden Thorp to be its chancellor, folks at UNC Chapel Hill had a pretty good idea who they were getting, given that Thorp is a native son, alum and had risen through campus system.

But what if he hadn't? What if he'd been from somewhere else, like, say, Amherst, Mass., or, oh, I dunno, Lincoln, Neb.?

Leadership at the University of Wisconsin learned the hard way that maybe punching a name into Google is worth the 20-second time investment.

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp kicked off a weeklong tour of the state today by hanging out with some students in an honors science research class at Chapel Hill High School.

Though in a suit and Carolina blue tie, Thorp was a bit overdressed for a high school class where even the teacher, Tom Herndon, wore a T-shirt and shorts, Carolina's new boss eased into things by asking students about their ongoing science experiments and talking up the university. He hit on a number of UNC's signature programs, espousing the virtues of study abroad, the hard sciences and undergraduate research.

And he distributed Carolina T-shirts to the eight class members and to Herndon, an N.C. State grad who made the sour milk face when Thorp plopped the baby blue tee in front of him. Thorp even tried to goad the teacher into making a friendly wager with the students on this fall's UNC/NCSU football game, where Herndon would have to wear the UNC shirt if Carolina won.

Herndon was having none of it.

"My wife's a [UNC] grad so I can share it with her," he said. "I don't know if I can wear it, though."

Thorp fielded a few questions from students. One asked what motivates him.

"Our institution is the one that created public higher education," he responded. "You know those bumper stickers that say 'Think globally, act locally'? We've been doing that for 219 years.

Follow this link for more info on Thorp's tour. 

Got a lull here in my Saturday night shift on McDowell Street (that's Raleigh for you western Triangle-centric readers). So let me spill more from my notes from this past week's Orange County Development Update.

We blogged last week about growing interest and concern regarding the new airport authority and its pending search for a general aviation site in Orange County. Another equally interesting discussion took place at the end of the chamber of commerce's briefing.

After officials detailed all the new retail and office space being built in Chapel Hill and Orange County, former Mayor Rosemary Waldorf, who now works for Southern Village, asked whether any thought had been given about how to fill the space. John Fugo, one of the developers of Southern Village, is also one of the three developers seeking approval for Buckhorn Village, the 1.1 million square foot mostly retail project at I-85 in Efland.

"It's a very early conversation on incentives," responded Bradly Broadwell, the county's new economic development director." "I am a firm believer in some incentives." He then told the crowd about a Calgary-based company that chose Wake County over Orange because Wake offered a better deal.

The incentive conversation (chamber President Aaron Nelson calls it "the third rail" of local economic development strategizing) is so early that most of the local media has missed it. We'll try to catch up in the coming weeks and tell you what's percolating.

Here are some of the stories in Sunday's Chapel Hill News

AIRPORT ANGST: UNC says it's too early, but that's not keeping White Cross residents from organizing against a possible airport being located in the southwestern part of Orange County. Read why a site there has folks worried about another land taking, like the one that created Cane Creek Reservoir.

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC: Grab your sunscreen and head to Carrboro tomorrow for a free all-afternoon festival of song. The 11th annual Carrboro Music Festival promises to be even bigger than last year when an estimated 7,000 people thronged downtown. Check out our map to see all the venues.

MAMA MIO: No, that's not a typo. A Mio is a type of scooter. Read correspondent Colin Campbell's story to find out why Mayor Mark Chilton won't be riding his to the Carrboro Music Festival tomorrow.

COLONIAL INN REDUX: Love that word redux, though I'm probably not using it right. The hotel in Hillsborough has been on its last legs forever. Read Cheryl Johnston Sadgrove's story to find out why some local preservationists are getting hopeful ... again.

Lots of letters, more on Glen Lennox, sports and more.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

Breaking news from Chapel Hill: UNC-CH's freshman class is talented.

So went the message this week from Stephen Farmer, the undergraduate admissions director. Each fall, Farmer gets to tell university trustees about all the talented youngsters calling Chapel Hill home for the next four years.

A few highlights:

This morning, UNC's public health school will be renamed for Quintiles CEO Dennis GIllings and his wife, Joan, who have pledged $50 million. That's the largest single gift to the university from an individual or family, and as I reported today, the gift makes some folks at the school a bit uneasy.

But while some students and faculty have criticized the gift and what they think may give the Gillingses unreasonable access or control over academicsand planning at the school, university officials have vigorously defended the gift, noting that it has been properly vetted and will receive plenty of oversight. 

 Some of the folks who frequent the FedEx Global Education Center off Pittsboro Street over at UNC Chapel Hill are so bothered that an academic facility bears a company name that they go out of their way to simply refer to the place as the "global education center."

"So says Jane Brown, a UNC journalism professor and member of the university's naming committee, a collection of campus faculty and staffers who vet donations to the university that would require a change in name to a building, school or program.

"We believe in the unfettered pursuit of knowledge," Brown said this week during a discussion of the renaming of university buildings. "We don't want to appear beholden to a corporation."

Holden Thorp's hitting the road.

Though he grew up and Fayetteville and has spent most of his life here, UNC-CH's new chancellor will tour the Tar Heel State next week to visit high schools, give the university's recruiting pitch, and visit other UNC system campuses.

"You might wonder why someone who has lived in this state his whole life needs to go on a tour," Thorp told trustees this morning. " But I have a lot to learn."

 Read UNC's take on the trip here.

Got a lot for you in tomorrow's community paper.

TRASH TALK: Now that it looks like the Eubanks/Rogers roads area is out of consideration, some folks in Hillsborough are worried the solid waste transfer station may be coming north. Find out why Mayor Tom Stevens is casting a wary eye on the county's trash talks. 

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTS: Student rentals were trashing the Cameron McCauley historic district. Then two families moved in to what neighbors politely called two "problem houses." Find out how green renovations are restoring the balance in this modest neighborhood near downtown and the UNC campus.

COMING OUT: Forget Will and Grace and even Ellen. Being gay is still tough for many LGBT adolescents. Read how one Triangle organization is working to make the coming out process less difficult for local teenagers.

PLUM SPRING REDUX: More reaction to our recent story on insurance problems closing the Plum Springs Clinic. Read why local acunpuncturist Robert Malik Lawrence says Blue Cross is trying to have it both ways. 

We're also changing our policy on the blog comments we republish in The Chapel Hill News. Read about that in the Editor's Desk column.

Thanks for reading,

 Mark 

Not a lot of breaking news out of this morning's Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce development briefing. The local economy, judging by how much is being built here anyway, is robust, with hundreds of millions of private dollars being invested in retail, residential and office space in the county and its municipalities.

County planning director Craig Benedict and new county economic development director Bradly Broadwell stirred things up a bit at the end. Benedict wrapped up his presentation with a slide showing the silhouette of an airplane. Broadwell quickly followed up with enthusiastic comments about how the new county airport could be an economic engine.

But wait, reporters asked afterward, isn't it a university airport, and more specifically isn't it an airport that so far at least has been talked about primarily in terms of serving the Area Health Education Centers, the program that flies medical professionals to under-served parts of the state.  

"It can't be all about the health care system," Broadwell said. "It has to be multifaceted."

Broadwell said he didn't want to get too far ahead of the county commissioners. In talking about the airport they mostly have criticized the lack of local input. Chairman Barry Jacobs, for example, had sought a delay in the bill setting up an airport authority in order to have more communication with UNC. The county, as are many private citizens, worries about the future authority's ability to take private land for the airport by eminent domain.

Broadwell said he spoke with university leaders on the recent inter-city visit to Ann Arbor and they at least seemed emenable to working with the county to explore a new airport's economic development potential. 

Broadwell refreshingly speaks off the cuff, But he may have sensed he was ahead of the public debate. "I'm not advocating for an airport," he added. "I'm looking at what assets are out there. What are the opportunities?"