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Editor's note: The following is a transcript of remarks by Chancellor-elect James Moeser at an April 14 event in the Morehead Building for faculty, staff and students that celebrated the news of his election.
I can't tell you how excited Susan and I are to be here. I feel like I've
been a North Carolinian all my life, but I've never lived here before.
We are so excited. Let me just tell you a little about why we're excited
and why it's going to be so much fun.
I'm looking out here at one of my oldest friends, Thomas Warburton
(Carolina music professor and Moeser's classmate in the musical arts Ph.D.
program at the University of Michigan). I played the organ for Tom Warburton at
his wedding.
In the 18th century, the forefathers of the American Republic realized
that if democracy was to survive and even flourish that new institutions would
have to be created, that the European model would not suffice for a free,
enlightened democracy. And it was the people of North Carolina, followed
shortly thereafter by Thomas Jefferson and the Virginians, who realized that
the new institution that needed to be created to preserve, protect and really
inspire, and to continue to feed American democracy, would be a new kind of
university, a public university, dedicated to the idea of access to anyone who
is qualified to benefit from such an education, no longer limited to an
aristocracy defined by heredity and land.
That was a revolutionary concept, and from that concept sprang not only
this great University, the first public university in America, but a whole
system of public higher education which is now literally the envy of the world,
which has propelled this country to the position of world leadership, not just
in terms of military power or information technology, but in terms of culture
and indeed an enlightened democracy.
At the pinnacle
The United States of America in the 21st century stands at a unique
place as the only remaining superpower. The New York Times last week carried an
interesting article about how Europeans are beginning to view our country with
increasing alarm. And the comment made by one leading person in France was in
fact, omnipotence and ignorance mixed together are a very dangerous cocktail.
So the challenge for universities such as this is to maintain and rekindle and
renourish the flame that was ignited first in the 18th century, and to make
sure that the Jeffersonian ideal of an enlightened electorate and now of an
enlightened superpower, the only superpower in the world, literally rests on
the shoulders of the public universities in America.
The wonderful thing is that the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill not only stands at the beginning of this wonderful development which has
created the prosperity and the power that we enjoy as a nation. It not only
stands at the inception, at the Genesis, but it stands literally at the
pinnacle of the whole system of higher education institutions in this country.
Therein is both the challenge and the opportunity.
I told the search committee that what attracted me to Carolina was not,
important though it is, was not the preservation of a great tradition, (and let
me say parenthetically, I'm absolutely dedicated to doing that, and I'll talk
about that in a moment), but I do not regard and I don't want to regard my
tenure here on this campus as simply a preservation of the status quo, but
rather an opportunity to take this University to a position where it will not
be one of the top five or top three public universities in the United States,
but the best public university in America. That is our goal.
I told the Board of Governors and the search committee also, as you know
for a period of time I was the provost of the University of South Carolina, and
I've had a conversion, a new theology, and I know a new definition of what the
word Carolina means. There is no zealot like a convert.
A special place
I want to say a little bit about the special tradition and culture
of this campus. I talked about preservation, and while that's not our ultimate
goal, it's very important, and I want you to know that I have studied, and
will, in the interim between now and when I arrive full-time on the campus in
the middle of August, I will immerse myself in the literature and history of
this great institution, because it strikes me that knowledge of that and the
ability to articulate what is special about this place is actually critical to
the main goal which is not only maintaining and improving upon public and state
support for the University, but more importantly, building the endowment --
building private support for endowed professorships, scholarships, fellowships,
facilities, that will be the lever that will really move the University of
North Carolina to the pinnacle of higher education in America.
The secret of that will be for me and for all of us to be able to
continually articulate what is indeed special about Carolina. We will be able
to tap into the love and loyalty of Carolina alumni which is deep and resonant,
because students who come to this University, from the moment they set foot on
this campus, realize that there is something special about the academic
experience on this campus. They realize that they are really walking on
special, even hallowed ground that is unlike other universities, even very fine
universities. Very few, very few public universities, only a handful I would
submit, and actually only a very few special private institutions, have been
able to cultivate and maintain and capture the essence of that kind of a
special, special feeling so that students who are admitted to this University,
who come here and study and ultimately graduate from this University, develop a
particular and special bond that lasts for an entire lifetime, resulting in an
alumni base which is incredibly loyal, and beyond loyal, which really loves the
University.
Striving together
Our job is to take that love and to convince alumni to reinvest in
their institution which made such a difference in their lives, and to allow us
to take it to an even higher level. It's a tremendously exciting
challenge.
I look forward to the very first days after the summer when we will have
spent a great deal of time reading, learning all we can about the history of
this place, and then literally setting foot on it for the first time on a
full-time basis, walking this campus, sitting in faculty offices across this
campus, learning and getting to know the faculty, the administrative
leadership, meeting and interacting with students and absorbing, firsthand,
this wonderful culture, and then taking it beyond the boundaries of the campus
into every county in this state, across this nation and indeed, around the
world, to tell the story of this great University, of its great history and
tradition and its destiny to be the greatest public university in
America.
I really look forward to this challenge with enormous enthusiasm and great
optimism. John Gardner once said, "The first and last task of a leader is to
keep hope alive." Let us all embrace the hope; not the hope, the vision; not
the vision but the dedication and commitment; that this will be the best
university in America. Together we can do it.
I think we've set ourselves a very concrete goal of this decade. By the
end of the decade, nine years from now, this will be clearly recognized as the
best public university in America. Let's do it together. I'm delighted to be
here.