CHAPEL HILL – A town hall meeting Thursday afternoon at UNC-Chapel Hill provided a short glimpse into the mindset of a search committee commissioned to find a new president for the UNC system. The current president, Molly C. Broad, announced her retirement last month, effective at the end of the 2005-06 academic year.
During the one hour meeting, several people spoke about their desires for a new president – a strong leader who knows North Carolina was the most prominent of the wishes – and what they would like to see the committee do. At the end of the meeting, the only thing guaranteed was that the committee would be very deliberate in the coming weeks and months in selecting Molly Broad’s successor.
UNC Board of Governors Chair Brad Wilson, who serves as chairman of the 13-member search committee, said the committee would move slowly over the summer months. Members will speak with a consultant and other individuals and will then publish a job description and receive resumes for the position.
“We will pace ourselves throughout the summer,” Wilson said. “… We don’t have a deadline. We’ll be there when we’re there and we’ll recognize it when we get there.”
Until then, committee members will take under advisement comments made by faculty, staff and community members during Thursday’s town hall meeting. The meeting was the third of four scheduled by the committee across the state, with the final meeting to be held in Greenville later this month.
Those who spoke said they desired a strong leader and someone that knew North Carolina. Several said that they would like to see a new president resemble former President William Friday.
For the most part, those who spoke discussed qualities for the new president that would best help their constituency that they represented. In a letter to committee members, UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Chair Judith Wegner wrote that the new leader should have an “appreciation for the social importance of higher education.”
“Candidates should have a vision about the social compact between higher education and the public who supports it,” Wegner wrote. “Ideally they should have had some meaningful experience with education itself and educational policy, but they should not just be education bureaucrats.”
Bob Kennel, executive director of the Council of University of North Carolina Alumni Association Presidents, spoke of the need for a president who recognizes the need to get bi-partisan support in the legislature.
“The [p]resident must understand the North Carolina [l]egislative [p]rocess and be involved on a bi-partisan basis,” Kennel and Shelby Strother, the association’s president, wrote in a letter to committee members. “This is particularly important as the state funding percentage of the UNC budget continues to erode even as research and entrepreneurial funds increase. An understanding of the university/government/industry economic dynamic is mandatory.”
At the onset of the meeting, Wilson informed committee members that they would not consider recommendations for specific people for candidates. Chapel Hill resident Alden Dunham, however, in his remarks told committee members that he would prefer to see former Governor Jim Hunt named the next president. He also told the committee not to consider candidates who have made it known to the public they want the job.
Former Clinton Administration Chief of Staff and two-time U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles has said he is interested in the position. Bowles has been favorably mentioned by several politicians.
Shannon Blosser (sblosser@popecenter.org) is a staff writer with the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.