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Editor's note: Here are excerpts from James Moeser's acceptance speech April 14 after his unanimous election as Carolina's next chancellor. Moeser begins work in Chapel Hill Aug. 15. For a complete transcript, go to http://www.unc.edu/chan/accept.html
On coming to Carolina
"The principal attraction to this University is its academic
excellence, its great tradition. But more than its tradition is its potential,
its enormous potential to be the finest public university in the United States.
It clearly ranks among the top three of the five such universities today. And
it's long held that status. But because of the great support for higher
education in the state of North Carolina, and because of the momentum of that
tradition, because of the support that has been gathered and the leadership
that has been brought to bear previously, this University does stand on the
precipice of being the very best. That is both an enormous challenge and a
great vision, and one that I would relish. And it's what attracted me."
On addressing serious issues
"I will work assiduously with the president and the other
chancellors to make sure that the facility issue carries the day. Clearly
that's a very, very important issue for this University. Likewise, if we're
going to reach and achieve our aims to be the best public university we must
address, continue to address, the faculty salary issue. There is clearly a need
for aggressive advocacy both for state support as well as for significant
private support. And it's clear to me, and I made this point to the search
committee, if this University is to achieve its full potential and its full
vision, it must be built with a partnership of solid support from the state,
which North Carolina has always provided and, as a matter of fact, has been the
envy of other states in this nation. But combined with that support and with
tuition support from students, the margin of excellence clearly will be private
support. This will be a major effort, and the success or failure of the vision
will really hinge ultimately on our ability to mobilize and to capitalize upon
what I believe is one of the most loyal, intensely loyal, alumni bases in the
world. And we will do that. We will mobilize that alumni base to support this
University. Carolinians love the University of North Carolina. We will simply
give them a reason to translate that love into concrete tangible support for
the University."
On the University's mission
"As a member of the Kellogg Commission on the future of state and
land grant universities, we have actually undertaken to retranslate the
traditional trinitarian mission of teaching, research and service into new
language, which represents, I will tell you, more than a semantic change. We've
begun to talk about learning in the place of teaching, and discovery in the
place of research, and engagement in the place of service. Now the content of
those definitions is somewhat changed. Learning changes the focus from the
delivery by a faculty member to the active participation in the learning
process with both the faculty member and a student. It also describes a
relationship which may be in the traditional residential setting, but it also
may be in a distance environment. And it also describes the responsibility of
the learner for his or her own learning.
"As a performing artist, obviously, I am keenly supportive of the concept
of discovery, a much broader definition of the University's research mission.
But clearly its old meaning is still there as well, advancing the frontiers of
knowledge. ... And let us recognize that the great research universities of
this country are, in fact, the reason why American higher education is
literally the envy of the world. It is the source of the information technology
revolution that is changing our lives, changing the way we do business. We now
must, I think, make sure that American research universities retain the same
energy that defeated communism, that led to the end of the Cold War, or that
defeated fascism during the Second World War. We have infinitely important
challenges in the 21st century. I think one of the real questions is will the
American people retain their commitment to the structure of research
universities? The enemies now are disease, terrorism, threats to our
environment."
"But we must not also forget that there's a third angle to this triangle.
That is the engagement of the University with the people -- the responsibility
of a public university to serve its people, first of all and primarily, the
people of North Carolina. To be a university that says we want to know what
your problems are. We want to know how we can partner with you and your
community, and how we can take the resources of this University to your
community to make a difference. Tell us what you need for us to do, and how we
can do it better."
On his role as chancellor
"I want you to know that I intend to be a chancellor who will be
present and visible both on the campus and in the state. There's an enormous
amount of work to be done. There is a leadership team to be put together. We
will begin work on the search for a provost and chief academic officer
tomorrow. And that search will be well under way when I arrive here in August."
"John Gardner once said that the `first and last responsibility of a
leader is to keep hope alive.' This does not strike me as a situation where
hope is in need because there is so much vision. There is so much optimism in
this state and in this University. But I will tell you that I subscribe to that
vision. I want to keep the hope alive and keep the vision alive that we can and
will attain the goals that have been put forward by this great
University."
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