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By Jacqudine Charles
Ink Ediior-in-ChUf
Each year, hundreds of black
and Native American students
arrive at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill to find
themselves preparing for one of
life’s toughest challenges.
No mom, no dad, no high
school teachers — many wonder
how they will survive in the world
of University Life 101.
But for the past five years,
students’ fears have been eased
by Rosalind Fuse-Hall, former
associate dean in the Office for
Student Counseling.
Fuse-Hail’s 6-foot-and-a-half
statuesque build, her dominating
presence and fade, may seem
intimidating to some. But to the
freshmen—searching for
someone to care—Fuse-Hall is
just what the doctor ordered.
Starting this fall, however,
freshmen and others at the
University will have to look
elsewhere.
On Jan. 14, during a Board of
Governor’s meeting in Chapel
Hill, UNC-System President C.D.
Spangler announced that Fuse-
Hall would nil the role of
secretary of the 16-campus UNC-
System.
“This is an incredible job
opportunity," said Fuse-Hall,
who applied for the job after a
friend sent her a description of
the position that had been vacated
for a year.
Although she applied for the
job last summer,Fuse-Hall didn’t
hear anything until the end of
November, when she was called
in for an interview and met with
Spangler. She was offered the
job in mid-December.
“1 did not take the job as soon
as it was offered,” Fuse-Hall
said. “I had to think about it I
had to think about a lot of things.
“I had been interviewing and
had to consider one other
professional consideration," said
Fuse-Hall, who was chosen as
one of 100 up-and-coming
achieving women leaders from
With Dean Fuse-
It’s Definitely a
Fuse-Hall always had an open door for good conversation.
across the country by the group
Leadership America.
Chuck Stone, Walter
Spearman professor of
journalism and mass
communication, said he was
delighted to hear of Fuse-Hall’s
appointment
“I just think it’s excellent,”
he said. “It is so encouraging to
see that happening.”
While the news of Fuse-
Hall’s appointment took many
by storm, most surprised by the
aniKxincement were the students,
who have turned to her many
times for career, academic and
personal counseling.
“I just couldn’t believe she
was leaving,” said Andrea Jones,
a sophomore Pharmacy major
from Fayetteville. “It was so
unexpected.
“We’re going to really miss
her in the Office for Student
Counseling,” Jones said.
Also struck by Fuse-Hall’s
leaving was her administrative
assistant, Beverly Hester-
Stephens and her assistant dean,
Darryl Lester, who recently joined
the staff.
“It’s a double emotion,” he
said of Dean’s Fuse-Hall’s
dq)arture from the office. “I was
just beginning to develop a good
working relationship with her—
but I’m still very happy for her.”
In her job as associate dean,
Fuse-Hall worked to increase the
retention rate of minority students
by overseeing programs such as
the peer tutoring and academic
excellence sessions, the Minority
Advisor program and the Life
after Carolina Series.
Rahsaan Johnson, a
sophomore from Washington,
D.C., who is grateful for these
programs said, “Dean Fuse-Hall
was an asset to this University
that cannot be replaced.
“The University can try, but it
will never find someone with the
qualifications, the ability, the
kindness and the caring of Dean
Fuse-Hall,” he said.
A1980 graduate of UNC and
a former Miss BSM, Fuse-Hall
said leaving the Office for
Student Counseling was
probably one of the hardest
decisions she has had to make.
“I thought about it, I
contemplated it and I prayed
about it,” said Fuse-Hall, who
had declined other job offers in
the past “The thought of losing
my students was overwhelming.”
But the thought of not taking
advantage of the opportunity to
influence education from the top
was equally, if not more
disturbing to Fuse-Hall.
“(The students) should be
honored and proud, as I am
honored and proud, that they
have developed someone like
myself who can go to General
Administration and bring their
perspective with me,” Fuse-Hall
said. “That is why I had to
rationalize to myself what I was
doing, so I could be comfortable
enough to leave my students.”
Fuse-Hall said the new
position will broaden her
horizons and her views on the
educational system.
“It will provide me with not
only an aerial view of education,
but for the fust time since I
started in education, I have what
I have always asked for—the
opportunity to do some work
around policy,” Fuse-Hall said.
Fuse-Hall succeeds D. G.
Martin Jr., as secretary. She will
be the liaison between Spangler
and the 16 universities’ Board of
Trustees as well as the UNC-
System Board of Governors.
Martin is now the system’s vice
{H«sident of public affairs.
Despite her promotion, Fuse-
Hall said it’s important for
peq>le to understand that her
position doesn’t make policy.
“The Board of Governors
make policy,” she said. “But the
old investigator that I was when
I went to the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission
understands that it’s the legwork
that goes into presenting the
information that dictates how
policy comes out.”
At 36 years of age, Fuse-
Hall’s promotion is a welcomed
reward after years of dedicated
public service.
AftCT receiving h» law
degree from Rutgers University,
Fuse-Hall worked as an
investigator for the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission and served as
assistant director of minority
affairs at St Lawrence UnivCTsity
in Canton, N.Y.
But it was during her tenure in
law school that Fuse-Hall fought
her biggest battle and won.
“I watched my law-school
graduation from a hospital bed,”
said Fuse-Hall, who was
diagnosed with lymphoma,
cancer of the lymph glands a
few weeks befwe graduation.
Upon learning that she had to
have a summa of chemotherapy,
Fuse-Hall, the new lawyer that
she was, tried to negotiate herself
out of it
“My doctor, who is still my
doctor today, said, ‘You have two
choices, you could live or you
could die. That’s it,’” she said.
“That was just a big transitional
time for me.”
But fighting cancer, going
through chemotherapy and losing
all of her hair, not only proved to
Fuse-Hall that she could fight
anything, but it also “taught me
an important lesson about beauty
in our community.”
“I was wearing a long fall