"We've had 11 regional meetings. Each meeting has lasted three hours, and in most of those three hours we simply sat and listened to people in the community talk about issues," says Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist. "As I think back about these 11 meetings and think about all that's been said, I see five themes:

"First I think people genuinely are looking to the UNC system and particularly faculty of this system for their expertise and wanting them to get involved in the state's challenges, helping us address some of the issues that we have in this state. So that's a very broad theme that I saw.

"More specifically, people are very much concerned about K through 12 education. They are concerned about teachers (and) teacher training. They are concerned about the dropout rate in high school, and they are concerned about kids getting basic skills. All of those issues are things that the UNC system can at least have some impact on," he adds.

"They also is concern about health care, in particular nurses -- the quantity and quality of nurses. And, of course, the UNC system does have many nursing programs.

"Fourthly they are concerned about access to the UNC system campuses, and they are considering things like distance learning, satellite campuses and working with the community colleges. People want all of those things, and they want all of those things to be easily available," he says.

"And then lastly an issue that came up time and time again was I think a growing concern with the environment," he concludes. "And people want the UNC system to both be a leader in educating folks about the environment and finding solutions to environmental problems as well as leading by example in terms of new buildings and new structures and how the UNC system operates its physical plant."