His boss, UNC system President Erskine Bowles, made that abundantly clear Monday during UNC's University Day ceremony, which celebrated the university's 216th birthday.

"Holden Thorp is doing a phenomenal job," Bowles gushed. "He is, without a doubt, the single best decision I've made in my life."

Since taking the top job in Chapel Hill last summer, Thorp has spent much of his time grappling with the effects of more than $60 million in budget cuts. But while the state's economic struggles and their effect on higher education funding were topics of conversation Monday, they didn't dominate.

Instead, the university used the day's events, as it does each year, to boast of its accomplishments and talk big about its future plans.

Some highlights:

•Featured speaker Gov. Beverly Perdue lauded the university, more than once suggesting that state government ought to take note of how UNC operates. She specifically made reference to Bain & Co., the consultant hired to analyze the Chapel Hill campus' administrative and financial structures and suggest cuts or streamlining.

"Leaders here have focused on how to make the university run more efficiently and effectively -- performing a broad study and putting it into action," Perdue said. "And that's exactly what we must do across state government."

•Thorp, in accepting Bowles' very public compliment, reminded his boss that word may get back to his wife, Crandall Close Bowles.

"The governor and I think marrying Crandall was the best decision you made," Thorp said. "We can debate that later."

•Hannah Gage, who chairs the UNC system's Board of Governors, lauded the university's long history and perseverance during challenging times.

"Imagine trying to piece together a curriculum during the depression, when there was no money and no hope," she said. "But Carolina did."

•Five UNC-CH graduates received distinguished alumni awards. They included Janie McLawhorn Fouke, a noted biomedical engineer; Santiago Gangotena, who founded the first private university in Ecuador; women's soccer great Mia Hamm; Arkansas newspaper publisher Walter Hussman Jr., and Bill Little, the longtime UNC chemist and administrator who recently died.

Introducing Hamm, Faculty Secretary Joseph Ferrell began his remarks with this: "Charlie Justice. Michael Jordan. Mia Hamm. Think Mount Rushmore."

The crowd roared.