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James Moeser started his new job yesterday as the ninth chancellor in
University history. Now he'll try to make history by making Carolina the best
public university in the country.
If past is prologue, he's got a good chance of pulling it off, according to
former colleagues who worked with him at various stages of his career.
"You'll find out something very interesting about James Moeser," said Gene
Budig. "He will outwork almost everyone, and he is especially good working
under pressure. He is the right man for the job."
Budig, now the president of professional baseball's American League, was
chancellor at the University of Kansas when Moeser served there as dean of the
School of Fine Arts from 1975 to 1985. The University of Kansas has a
state-of-the-art performing arts center, Budig said, and it is there because
Moeser had a dream and the determination to bring it about.
"He was a tremendous advocate at the University of Kansas, and the arts fared
well under his deanship," Budig said. "Like few other academics, he knew how to
marshal the forces in support of his school's objectives. He never lost focus
and did not permit the people around him to lose focus."
William C. Richardson, chief executive officer and president of the Kellogg
Foundation, was executive vice president and provost at Penn State when Moeser
worked there from 1986 to 1992 as dean of the College of Arts and
Architecture.
He remembers that recruiting Moeser to Penn State required buying him a
practice organ. At the time, Moeser was a renowned organist who had played
throughout the world. Richardson said he was pleased that Moeser managed to
keep up that professional side of his life even after he became dean.
"It was obvious from the very first month that he was a seasoned and superb
executive with great academic sensitivities and insights," Richardson said. "At
the same time, he had a clear-sighted vision of putting forward the best
interests of his college. He had a real gift for leadership and management, and
it was a pleasure to watch him do both. He has great energy and great
discipline and is very effective at sizing up what needs to be done and then
making it happen."
The search
Days after Chancellor Michael Hooker's death last summer, a 14-member
search committee of alumni, faculty, staff and a student was formed to find a
successor.
The committee's goal was to lure a chancellor with an unassailable record of
accomplishment from a large, prestigious research university. Members said they
wanted someone from one of the 62 public and private research schools around
the country that belong to the prestigious Association of American
Universities.
UNC President Molly Corbett Broad urged committee members to find someone who
"walks on water and doesn't scare the fish."
The first time the name of James Moeser came up publicly on campus was Oct. 12,
1999, in a University Day speech given by Robert Allen, a former associate dean
of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor with joint posts in
American and communication studies as well as history. But Allen's speech had
nothing to do with the chancellor's search.
Perhaps the only person who paid the reference much notice was Tom Warburton, a
Carolina music professor who befriended Moeser while they were at the
University of Michigan in the mid-1960s pursuing doctorate degrees.
They ate meals together, went to parties together and did all the other things
graduate students do to unwind. They grew to become good friends, and Moeser
ended up playing the organ at Warburton's wedding.
They stayed in touch for the next 15 years through phone calls and letters
before time and distance and the demands of work finally silenced their
friendship.
When he heard Moeser's name mentioned in Allen's University Day speech 35 years
later, Warburton "just went into orbit."
And he told everyone around him, "Oh, that's the guy that played at our
wedding," he said.
Afterward, Warburton and his wife began wondering why they weren't hearing
Moeser's name among the list of candidates being considered for chancellor.
A consultant had helped identify 145 possible candidates. The committee
winnowed the list to 50 or 60 and ended up interviewing 15. But because names
had been kept under wraps, Warburton had no way of knowing that his old friend
was rising to the top of the search committee's barrel.
The announcement, first expected in December, then January, finally came in
April. Then Warburton knew his old friend was about to become his new boss.
Most of Moeser's bio -- already familiar to Warburton -- is now familiar to
all. He was born in Lubbock, Tx., at the tail end of the Depression. His mother
taught music, his father counted out money as a clerk at a local bank. As a
boy, Moeser played with building blocks so much that family members figured
he'd end up becoming an architect. Then Moeser turned to music and made it the
building block of his career.
In Warburton, Moeser had a tie to Carolina, and on April 14, as he stood in the
Morehead Building introducing himself to faculty, staff and students, he let it
be known.
"I'm looking out here at one of my old friends, Tom Warburton..." Moeser said,
as eager as Warburton had been six months earlier to tell people Moeser had
played at his wedding.
The `big, hairy, audacious goal'
Allen had never heard of Moeser until coming across his name while
perusing university web sites to confirm what he already suspected, which was
that university mission statements all sounded the same.
And this was central to the theme of Allen's speech, which he titled "Why Can't
Universities Be More Like Businesses?" (See:
A HREF="http://www.unc.edu/news/gaz/archives/99oct27/file.7.html">http://www.unc.edu/news/gaz/archives/99oct27/file.7.html)
In the speech, Allen cited a Stanford University research project that looked
at 18 premier companies and what set them apart from their lesser
competitors.
The study concluded that what made these companies great was not charismatic
leaders, complex strategic planning processes or elegant mission statements
like the ones Allen found on the web.
What set them apart was that they had a core set of values that gave the
companies a reason for being and infused their employees with a daily sense of
purpose. Further, these visionary businesses kept themselves energized by
coming up with what the Stanford study called "big, hairy, audacious goals."
In much the same way, Allen argues, great universities must also stick to a
core set of values even as they reach for further greatness.
But there is a problem, a problem that Moeser put his finger on in the speech
that Allen found on the University of Nebraska web site. It's the problem
facing all big research universities: knowing exactly what their core mission
is.
After World War II, Moeser said in the address Allen quoted, public
universities "tried to be all things to all people. To offer every possible
course title and major. To create new knowledge and research into a bevy of new
specialties. And these specialties increased and subdivided each time a new
piece of information was learned. Sadly many institutions are now collapsing,
or at least heavily sagging under the weight of too much extraneous matter."
When Moeser came to Carolina in April, he touched on many of the issues Allen
had raised, albeit from a different angle.
In his acceptance speech to the UNC Board of Governors, for instance, Moeser
said part of what attracted him to Carolina was its tradition of academic
excellence. The other part was its "audacity" to aspire to become the finest
public university in the United States.
It was a great vision, Moeser said, a vision that he knew he had inherited from
Hooker, and one he relished pursuing himself.
During his four years at Nebraska, Moeser had laid out a vision to transform
the school into one of the top land grant universities in the country by the
institution's 150th anniversary in 2019.
There, the audacious goal was not to stand at the pinnacle but merely to climb
higher up the mountain than anyone expected. During Moeser's tenure, Nebraska
did climb back into what U.S. News & World Report calls its "second tier"
of national universities -- those ranking between 51 and 100.
Moeser's successor at Nebraska will push that vision forward just as Moeser has
seized upon Hooker's vision here.
Already, Moeser has talked of a "retranslation" of the University's mission,
which he believes the University must exude and embrace to meet a new set of
challenges for a new century.
Moeser was one of 24 university presidents and chancellors who sat on the
Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities.
The group, in essence, redefined the traditional three-fold mission of
teaching, research and service.
In the place of teaching, Moeser speaks of learning.
In the place of research, Moeser speaks of discovery.
In the place of service, Moeser speaks of engagement.
It's more than a semantic game, more than slipping fresh clothes on an ossified
form.
Learning, Moeser has said, moves away from professors simply dispensing
knowledge and calls on students to be engaged and responsible for what they get
out of a class.
Discovery is a more expansive term than research. It's about finding out about
new things, which Moeser believes is the wellspring for everything a university
does, including teaching and public outreach.
Engagement conveys a change of attitude and approach that seeks collaboration
while offering expertise. Engagement, Moeser has said, "envisions an equal
partnership with the rest of society -- not a one-way street reaching out from
the university, but a two-way street with ideas passing in both directions."
Engagement is listening to people telling you about their problems rather than
assuming you already know the answers.
Allen believes the trick for Moeser and the University will be to measure the
University's pre-eminence by these core values rather than by how high Carolina
climbs in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Such rankings may be an accurate barometer of where the University stands, but
they make for a lousy compass.
What else it will take
In a "State of the University" speech at Nebraska in July of 1999,
Moeser talked about the importance of "building a culture of excellence."
At Carolina, the tradition of excellence is already here.
The reputation and rankings are already here.
Top-flight faculty and top-notch students are already here.
The key to reaching the next level will not be as much about raising
expectations as it will be about raising money.
And Moeser knows how to do that as well as anyone, said Budig, his old friend
from Kansas.
"You are one of the finest universities in America, Budig said. "You have a
first-rate reputation and have had that for many years, but it is of critical
importance that you maintain it. A reputation alone is not enough. You have to
stay current, competitive and relevant.
"That requires adequate levels of state support and increasingly greater levels
of giving from the private sector. To be successful today, a university
president or chancellor must have the ability to work successfully with the
private sector and raise funds for professorships, student scholarships,
graduate fellowships and general support for sophisticated research. It has
been front and center for probably a decade or so. If you at Carolina want to
be the very best, you have to have a sophisticated fund-raising apparatus."
Herb Howe, who served as the associate to the chancellor under Moeser at
Nebraska, said Moeser not only recognizes the importance of fund raising, he
has fun doing it.
"We announced our capital campaign about nine months before he arrived, so he
was here for the bulk of the campaign," Howe said. "It was all set up for him,
and we flew around the country. He never missed a step."
During Moeser's four-year tenure, Nebraska raised roughly $350 million.
Carolina is now on the verge of a fund-raising campaign expected to exceed $1
billion.
Moeser has said the success or failure of Carolina's vision will hinge on
private support and the University's ability to capitalize on one of the most
loyal alumni bases in the world.
"Carolinians love the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and we will
give them a reason to turn that love into concrete, tangible support," Moeser
said.
The first 100 days
The 61-year-old Moeser let it be known that becoming the nation's top
public university will take about nine years, or about the length of time he
expects to be chancellor before he retires.
But his first 100 days in office will be taken up with more immediate chores
and concerns.
He will hire a provost and a chief financial officer.
He will promote the $3.1 billion bond campaign for university and community
college facilities needs that state voters will vote on Nov. 7.
He will immerse himself in the minutiae of a campus master plan and sign off on
it before it is forwarded to the University Board of Trustees for approval.
He will resume discussion on the development of the Horace Williams tract and
what role this expanse of territory will have in shaping the University's
future.
This fall's University Day will also serve as the official day of his
installation, and Moeser will give a speech that lays out his vision and
strategies for making it happen.
While doing all this, he will get to know the people of this University and let
people get to know him.
Budig said he found Moeser to be more than a colleague. "You can share problems
with him, and he always has time for a sympathetic hearing," Budig said.
Warburton remembers the long talks he and Moeser used to have back in graduate
school. The one subject he remembers more than any other is how they talked
about their personal responsibilities as professionals.
"I knew from the very beginning he was an exceptional person," Warburton said.
"In the music world we tend to breed people who are very focused on the art,
but the thing that made him interesting to me was that he was interested in a
variety of things."
The term may not be in vogue these days, but Moeser is a Renaissance man who
reads widely and enjoys intellectual pursuits.
"That is something you don't develop," Warburton said. "It's something you
either are or not, and he was from the very beginning."
Another thing that has "tickled" Warburton about Moeser is that he knows how to
listen.
"I'm passionate about listening so for me to say that about another person is
high praise," Warburton said. "People who are intelligent and driven and
ambitious -- like I think he is -- are likely to be forming their own answers
rather than focusing on what you are saying. He doesn't do that."
Still, Warburton knows he will never be able to talk to Moeser in quite the
same way. "I knew him as Jim. I think he prefers James now. It's OK."
Howe said Moeser proved to be as warm and gracious with the people he worked
with as he was with the donors to whom he went for money. "It's not an act. I
can be just as motivated and inspired sitting down with him one-on-one as I am
when there is a prospective donor in the room. You are lucky to get him."
Howe remembers an early event, a dinner held at the chancellor's house, which
he attended when Moeser arrived in Lincoln four years ago.
It was a small gathering of key advisers and cabinet members and everyone
arrived excited at the prospect of getting to know their new boss and his wife,
Susan. But the dinner proved uneventful until they all got up and moved to
another room, where Moeser made a piano his stage.
"He sat down at the piano and started playing old Husker fight songs," Howe
said. Everyone circled the piano and joined in the singing, and it was at that
moment that Howe understood that Moeser's deft touch reached beyond the keys.
"You'll love to be around him," Howe said. "If you get to spend any time with
him one-on-one he will have an impact on you individually. And I'll guarantee
he'll have a big impact on the institution."
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