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Volume )[U; Number 13
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Tlie Student Newspaper of the Unheraity of North Cartiliiia at Qiarlulle
Cliarlotte, North fairoluM
December 13, 1977
Retirement announced, he retlects on 11 years of change
Chancellor Colvard Looks Back
By Bra4 Rich
When UNGC Chancellor D.W.
Colvard announced his retirement to the
school’s Board of Trustees two weeks
ago, it wasn’t a surprise — but it was a
shock. To members of the University
community and citizens of Charlotte,
Colvard’s name had become synonomous
with class and progress, and his
announcement meant the school would
have to choose a new Chancellor — for
the first time.
In his spacious office in the Reese
Administration building last Thursday,
CoWard talked about his career in
education administration, the growth of
UNCC and his future role in the
University’s development. All the while,
he smiled the contented smile of a man
who feels he’s lived a full and meaningful
life, and knows he deserves a rest. Even
more important, he’s in the enviable
position of making the decision to retire
himself rather than being forced out of
the job.
“The UNC system has a rule that a
person must retire from a primary
administrative position at age 65. You are
pemitted to stay on on a year to year-
basis if requested until you are 70,”
Colvard said. “One of the gimi-nicks in my
case is that the rule says a person should
retire no later than July 1st following his
65th birthday. My birthday is July
10 th... I have always felt that it
(mandatory retirement at age 65) was a
sound policy, so I was reluctant to take
full advantage of the accident of my
birth. I had originally planned to retire
right a t 65, but I didn’t because of the
illness and death of Mr. (Addison) Reese
(ex-chairman of the UNCC Board of
Trustees). You see, the chairman must
assume the responsibility of heading the
selection committee. I agreed with Mr.
Reese to wait.”
Colvard said he doesn’t expect to
play any part in the choosing of his
successor. “The process usually takes
about a year,” he said. “You advertise in
the educational journals and take
applications as well as actually search for
people. Anyone can be considered.”
photo courtesy ot UNCC Of+rce-ot Intofination
Retiring UNCC Chancellor D. W. Colvard accepting a copy of Dr. Robert Rieke's history of the University.
. During his 11 years at UNCC,
Colvard has witnessed many changes, and
it is those changes that he is most proud
of. He said, “I guess one thing that stands
out in my mind is that the quality of this
institution has risen while we’ve
undergone rapid numerical expansion. Of
course, there are a number other focal
points, too, like the opening of the first
dorms. At that time, many people had
argued, and I disagreed, that we’d never
need dormitories...But I knew to build
the kind of university we wanted, we’d
have to have dorms.”
Colvard said when Sanford and
Moore Halls, the first air conditioned
dorms in the state system, opened, they
were not ready.
“I remember one Friday afternoon
when the student counselors (later called
R.A.’s) were moving in. One girl’s mother
called me and said, ‘Did you know bow
bad it is over there?’ I said, yes I know
it’s not ready. She'said, ‘Do you know
they don’t even have showerhcads?’
Colvard said he told the Wonsan yes, and
that he’d talked to the people -in charge
and they had said they were scared to put
them in too early because the workers
might steal • them.
“Monday morning,” Colvard said,
“Someone came in and told me one of
the trucks holding the shower heads
burned. They had to reorder them, and
they didn’t come in for a couple of
(cont’donp. 4)
Too Hot In Dorm? Take Off Your Clothes!
ohoto by Jack Greene
Ed Avers.
By Brad Rich
In a “Scribblings” column which
appeared in the Carolina Journal last
semester, the question of overheating and
energy waste in the dormitories at UNCC
was raised.
In an effort to get the answers.
Physical Plant Director Ed Ayers was
interviewed last week. Ayers, the man in
charge of keeping UNCC comfortable
year round, 'began, by discussing the
problem of hot dorms.
“The problem in the wintertime,” he.
said, “is that we. have completely
eliminated air conditioning in most of the
buildings...So when the outside
temperature warms to 55 or 60 degrees, it
can get uncomfortably warm...It’s not
because we’re still heating but rather
because we just aren’t cooling.”
But what can be done? Ayers said,
“Not much except taking off clothes, or
opening windows. We have set 80 degrees
as a maximum temperature in the winter.
In the winter, the state says to try and
heat to an air temperature of 68 degrees.
We do that, but of course you can’t hold
it at 68. There’s got to be some
variation.” (In other words, 68 should be
the average temperature.)
“If the temperature goes to 80,” he
said, “we’ll turn on the coolers.” Ayers
went on to say that in one or two
buildings this year the temperature has
reached. 80. “I can’t recall which
buildings,” he said, “but we just put the
coolers on automatic pilot and left them
on for a couple of days.”
The main point Ayers made was that
when it feels too hot in the dorms, it isn’t
usually because the system is overheating
and, consequently, wasting energy. He
said, “It’s not because the heat is on, but
because the air conditioning is off. This is
generally the' way it is when an entire
floor is too hot. If the temperature on
one suite or in one individual room is
radically different, then the student
should call us. Then you have an isolated
problem and it may be just a runaway
generator.”
Ayers said he has formulated a plan
which will make UNCC a more energy
efficient institution over a four year
period. (A summary of this plan will
appear in next week’s Carolina Journal.)
“My requests are over a period of
time that suits me,” Ayers said. “If we
get them money when I ask for it, we
could have an energy efficient system in
four years. But we won’t get the money
when I asked for it, so the things I’m
looking for are going to take, instead of
four years, probably about ten years.”
Ayers said that be.sides renovating the
school’s current system, one other thing
is needed; cooperation of the entire
university community. “Cooperation
cannot be legislated,” he said. “And we
need real cooperation, not just lip service.
It means being willing to live with the
temperature at 68 in the winter...and not
needing the air conditionirig man in the
summer to ‘turn down just my
thermostat’...We need a real sense of
purpose...we’d have to come, out
something really coherent.”
But Ayers feels that such a spirit is
possible, though it will not be easy.
“We’ve got habits ingrained over the years
because of the ability to utilize cheap
energy. As long as we have fuel supplies,
energy supplies that allow us to fudge a
bit, we will. It’s not malicious or
anything, it’s just human nature.”