The Blue Banner
"Thousands upon thousands of of persons have studied disease. Almost no one has studied health." -- Mary Baker Eddy
Volume 22, Number 22
The University of North Carolina at Asheville
Thurs., March 31, 1994
Three candidates for chancellor meet with campus community
Search committee reviewing comments from students and faculty during candidate visits
Teri Smith
Staff Writer
On March 30, the same day the last of three chancellor candidates left campus,
the Chancellor Search Committee convened to review and discuss information
gathered during the visits and to decide which names would be recommended
to the UNCA Board of Trustees. The trustees will then review the candidates
and recommend two to three names to UNC President C. D. Spangler, Jr.,
according to James Banks, the search committee chairperson.
The new chancellor, upon recommendation by President Spangler, will then
be elected by the UNC Board of Governors.
“We will submit either two or three names to President Spangler, not one,”
said Banks.
Banks said it was not the role of the search committee to select the next
chancellor, but only to provide Spangler with some good candidates from
which to choose.
“I’ve been told that it could be a very quick and deliberate proccss [of choosing
the successful candidate] and be done in a very responsive way,” said Banks.
“The board of governors generally meets the second Friday of each month.
There is a meeting on April 8.”
“If he [Spangler] could arrange to meet with the candidates prior to that
meeting. I’m sure that he would,” Banks said.
There will also be a meeting of the board of governors on May 13.
Spangler is aware of the candidates being considered by the .search committee.
and is aware of who is on campus, according to Banks.
The three candidates, Barbara Hetrick, Patsy Bostick Reed and John Trainer,
visited the campus between March 21 -29. Several of the meetings during each
candidate’s visit were open sessions. There also have been opportunities for
members of faculty, administration, staff and student leaders to meet with the
candidates in smaller groups.
“I’ve been very satisfied with the attendance at the meetings,” said Banks.
“And, I think the committee has been very pleased with the tone of the
comments and questions. They are good questions that should be asked.”
Editor's note: Blue Banner reporter Teri Smith covered the open meeting each
candidate held on campus. Following are reports of the events that occurred
in those meetings.
Hetrick: UNCA "perfect" model
of public liberal arts institution
Teri Smith
Staff Writer
Barbara Hetrick, vice president and
dean of academic affairs and the
Andrew G. Truxal Professor of
Sociology at Hood College in
Maryland, visited the UNCA campus
March 28-29.
In her presentation to the university
campus, Hetrick discussed what she
considers to be some of the major
issues in higher education.
“In higher education, we must prepare
students to live and work in an
increasingly volatile, technological and
complex global society,” Hetrick told
a gathering that was attended mostly
by faculty, university administrators,
■and trustees.
“The role of our colleges and
universities should be to offer quality
education to even broader populations
of students, including those who
historically have not been served very
well by colleges and universities,” she
said.
■ “I believe personally that the best
possible education for the 21 st century
is a liberal arts education,” she said.
Hetrick cited; the rising cost of
education and the changing
demographics of the student
population as another issue facing
administrators of colleges and
universities.
“UNCA is the perfect model for the
kind of education that should be
available in all states,” said Hetrick.
“I believe UNCA has a special
responsibility to serve the educational
needs of a diverse student population
in the community and the state,” she
said. “You can do so by offering the
finest possible liberal arts education i n
the nation at a public university price
by recognizing your special
relationship with the community for
the shared benefits of student learning,
faculty development, and community
enhancement.”
“It would be a privilege to share
those responsibilities with you and it
would be sheer delight to help you
achieve you potential to becoming one
of the leading forces in American
higher education,” said Hetrick.
Hetrick said the administrative
accomplishment she is most proud of
is a “very carefully thought-out plan to
bring increasing quality to the
institution.”
“By that, I mean high quality-staff
and high-quality students,” said
Hetrick. “It started with a three-year
plan in which we reduced the faculty
course load, revised and expanded the
required core curriculum, and
introduced an honors program. We
did all of that without increasing the
FTE faculty size at all.”
Hetrick said she realizes that
fundraising is the key to providing a
quality liberal arts education. She
said she has been engaged in a lot of
fundraising at Hood.
Some of her experience includes
meeting with representatives from
foundations, establishingconnections
with those representatives, and
following up on grant proposals,
according to Hetrick.
“I’ve done some fundraising within
the state,” said Hetrick. “In Maryland,
the state does, in fact, support private
colleges and universities. We get a
portion of the state funding for higher
education.
“That means we, too, have to have
our programs approved by the Higher
Education Commission. We have to
present a case for state funding of
captital projects,” she said.
“I’ve engaged in much of what a
public institution has to engage in,”
said Hctrick. “Generally, I’m
comfortable with nearly every aspect
of fundraising, and I’ve been involved
intimately in the $45 million capital
campaign at Hood.”
Hetrick said there are many
similarities between UNCA and
Hood.
“The ethos of the Hood campus and
the core curriculum are strongly based
in liberal arts, just as it is at UNCA,”
said Hetrick. “Thirty percent of the
undergraduates at Hood are older,
non-traditional students, and a
majority of the undergraduates are
commuters.”
Staff Photo By Chan Carter
Chancellor candidate Patsy Bostick Reed addressed a crowd of students and faculty in the Owen
Conference Center on March 24.
Inside
Opinions 2
April Fool
Susan Hanley Lane
Perspectives 3
Parking problems
Leadership program
Features 4
The Oscars
Olde Style Hoagies
Sports 5
Track team sets records
Baseball team loses
Comics 6
Falstaff
Off the Mark
Announcements 7
Job opportunities
Events
Trainer says faculty
is heart of university
Teri Smith
staff Writer
Weather Report
Friday
Saturday
Hi 60
Lo34
Weather Report courtesy o1 the National Weather
Service
UNCA Atmospheric Science Department offers
updated forecasts through the 24 hour
Weatherlirw...251 *6435
John E. Trainer, Jr., president of Lcnoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, was the
first of the three candidates to visit the UNCA campus on March 21 -22. He
is also the only male candidate for the position.
“The faculty are clearly always defined as the brains of the placc,” said
Trainer. “In my philosophy, the faculty are much more than that. They arc
the heart and soul of the placc.”
Trainer said his philosophy about shared governance was developed when
he was growing up as a professor’s kid on a liberal arts campus.
“I think this institution has elected a faculty senate that is representative of
a cross-section of the academic programs,” he said. “That is what the
chancellor needs as his or her best source of information about what is really
going on at the institution.”
Trainer said that UNCA’s distinctiveness was a strength, and that it is
important for UNCA to preserve its distinctiveness.
“That distinctiveness will arm the chancellor with the hard data to justify the
type of funding this institution must have in the future,” said Trainer.
“Teaching has to be first and foremost. I was excited to hear how committed
this institution was to undergraduate research,” he said. “I’ve not heard a
publish or perish attitude here. I don’t think you can have that at a liberal arts
institution.”
Trainer said that the shrinking body from which to recruit students is a
national problem.
“1 can tell you that that has been a bigger concern and a larger problem tor
those of us in the private sector than for a public institution,” said Trainer.
“I have had a lot of experience marketing a liberal arts education at a much
higher cost. I also have had a number of experiences with retention both in
Jacksonville and at Lenoir-Rhyne," he said.
Trainer said that he believes that differences between the private and public
sectors are not nearly so significant as the differences between liberal arts
institutions and comprehensive colleges.
“Over my two-and-a-half days here, if anything, my sense that I can make
that transition from the private to the public sector has been affirmed rather
than yielding more yellow flags,” said Trainer.
Trainer told the faculty senate and others who attended the open session that
See "Trainer," page 8
Reed: Opportunities for communication and
less beauracracy a plus for small university
Teri Smith
Staff Writer
Patsy Bostick Reed, vice president
for academic affairs at Northern
Arizona University (NAU) in
Flagstaff, met with the campus
community March 24-25. Reed is
currently on a three-month
administrative sabbatical after
.serving as NAU’s interim president
since July 1993.
Reed told the UNCA community
that there were several reasons why
she would find it attractive to move
from a comprehensive college with'
an enrollment of 19,000 to a liberal
arts institution with alittle over 3,000
students.
“I think that the opportunities for
communication on this campus are
extremely attractive,” said Reed.
“I would sec some levels of
bureaucracy falling away in moving
from a campus the size of mine to
this one, so that people can get
together in ways that are very
stimulating,” she said.
“You have a number of
interdisciplinary courses and
efforts,” said Reed. “We have a few,
but we also have a faculty that is 600
strong. So to get people to sit around
with a cup of coffee or a bag lunch
and talk about something that is really
exciting only happens in small
groups.
“To communicate between an
administration and a faculty takes a
lot of effort, and it takes a lot of effort
everywhere,” she said. “But I
somehow think that it would be a
real advantage to have a smaller
community where you still feel that
feeling of family and would be able
to communicate effectively.”
Reed said that, despite the difference
in size, there is a similarity in the
missions of the twooyiiversities.
“My university started as a normal
school, so it has always had a very
high priority on teacher education,”
said Reed.
“Soon after it started, around the
turn of the century, it developed the
liberal arts component of the
university. So, of its close to ICO
years, more than 70 years, it focused
on, almost exclusively, liberal arts
education.
“We have a very strong general
education core,” she said. “We have
a stong honors program. We focus on
undergraduates.
“And with these very positive things,
it would be very attractive to me to go
to an institution where they really can
pursue liberal arts education."
Reed said that she has been “the first
woman and the only woman in many
different situations” throughout her
career.
“I don’t feel uncomfortable with
being the first woman chancellor in
North Carolina, if that’s what works
out,” she said. “I would welcome the
opportunity to be the first woman
because I think it’s gofxl for society,
and it’s gocxl for women to see women
in places of leadership.”
Reed said that, in 1955, when she
made a decision about her
undergraduate degree in home
economics, there were three options
woman generally thought they could
pursue: to be a nurse, a secretary, or
a teacher.
“I decided to be a teacher... taught
for si X years and went back to graduate
school,” said Reed. “I was very
interested in the biological side of
nutrition and finished a masters in
nutrition and then a doctorate in
biological sciences.”
“Since that time, my post-doc[torate]
that I did at the University of Virginia
was in physical chemistry,” said
Reed. “It’s a long distance between
teaching junior high school seventh-
graders how to make gathered skirts
todoing a post-doc[torate] in physical
chemistry.”
Reed said that one characteristic of
great institutions is that thev have
the ability and willingness to confront
their future and take charge of it.
“I think this is an institution that
can do that and will do that,” she
said.
Reed said she believes one of her
strengths is the ability to create an
environment in whichcreativethings
can happen and in which groups of
people can build concensus.
“I would not bring an agenda with
me because I don’t think that the
agenda of a university should
necessarily be the chancellor’s
agenda,” Reed said.
“I think the chancellor should feel
comfortable with it and should be
able to aggressively and
enthusiastically support it, but that it
should not be something that should
come with the person,” she said.
Reed said her proudest
administrative accomplishment was
the fact that, in her time a.s academic
vice president, “every new program
we proposed to the state of Arizona
was approved.”
Reed said she recognizes that
faculty members are affected by
changes. She said she knows changes
are upsetting and raise a lot of
questions.
“As chancellor, to try to help get
through that, I would hope to look
forward,” said Reed. “I would hope
to, if we could, draw a line and say,
'Yes we have not always understood
what happened, but dwelling on what
happened is not going to be
productive, and there are many
productive things we can be doing in