Martha Waggoner

Associated Press

CHAPEL HILL — The chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made it clear Thursday that his decision to resign is final. He also made it clear that he will not be a lame duck, saying he wants to handle some problems between now and June so they aren’t left for his successor.

“I will do everything possible to make Carolina an even greater university and to make sure the next chancellor doesn’t have to deal with some of the same problems we have been confronting,” Chancellor Holden Thorp told the school’s board of trustees at its first regularly scheduled meeting since Thorp announced his resignation.

Thorp, who has dealt with a series of athletic, academic and financial scandals for the past two years, said Sept. 17 that he would resign effective in June. Faculty, employees, students and the board asked Thorp to change his mind, but the chancellor made it clear Thursday that his decision was final.

“I am still confident it is in the best interest of the university and my family for me to go back to the faculty next year, and I am excited to do that,” said Thorp, who plans to resume his job as a chemistry professor.

Board Chairman Wade Hargrove said a 21-member search committee for a new chancellor tentatively will hold its first meeting Oct. 5. Hargrove will chair the committee, which will recommend candidates to the trustees, who recommend two candidates to University of North Carolina System President Tom Ross. The UNC Board of Governors elects the new chancellor.

The next chancellor will replace the 48-year-old Thorp, who announced his resignation after two years of scandals that include football players accepting gifts, no-show classes, instructors who didn’t teach and fundraisers who used donated money for personal travel. Despite the problems, Thorp is popular on campus and received a standing ovation from the audience at the trustees meeting.

Hargrove said he regretted that the school’s “collective efforts weren’t successful in persuading the chancellor to change his mind.”

The next chancellor should share the core values of the university, he said during a break in the trustees’ meeting. “What we have seen of late, there have been people who have violated those core values,” he said. “That’s unacceptable.”

The board aims to have the next chancellor in place by July 1, he said.

Among the issues the school must confront are faculty recommendations for a better balance between athletics and academics, Hargrove said. Thorp talked about that issue in an interview with The News & Observer of Raleigh, saying the school will establish tougher admissions requirements for athletes and that faculty members will have more oversight of classes that athletes take once they are on campus.

“Academics are going to have to come first,” Thorp said. “And it’s clear that they haven’t to the extent that they should.”

The changes will be part of a report that will be released in the spring, Thorp said.

An auditing firm is conducting a review of possible academic problems involving athletes following revelations of no-show classes in the African and Afro-American Studies Department. The audit will determine whether there are problems deeper than those found in a previous university investigation.

Also, the football team is under NCAA sanctions, and Thorp last year fired football coach Butch Davis.

Thorp acknowledged that he had not been diligent on athletics issues, saying he trusted those who betrayed him.

“I’ve made my share of mistakes as chancellor,” he told the newspaper. “Looking back, I can say there are things I wish I had done differently. I felt at the time, and I feel now, that the big decisions I made were the right decisions. But I wish I had been more questioning. I wish I’d asked for information sooner, and that I’d looked at things more deeply and critically. The next nine months, I will do these things.”

Huge mistakes were made at UNC-CH, Hargrove said. None was excusable, and Thorp addressed each as it arose he said.

“None of that should overshadow the enormous record of achievement of this chancellor during his five-year tenure,” Hargrove said Thursday. “By any traditional measure that is used to calibrate the performance of the university, the Chapel Hill campus has exceeded all expectations.”