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James Moeser sketched his vision for this campus under an October sky cast in exactly the right hue.
That fact was not lost on N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt when he looked up from his prepared speech and crowed out to the University Day crowd on Polk Place, "This is a beautiful Carolina blue day isn't it?"
Moeser, too, felt compelled to stretch his arms upward and acknowledge such a perfect day at such an opportune moment.
"As a newcomer, perhaps I can see it more clearly. Not only is the sky bluer here than anywhere else in the world -- and the fact that people really believe it to be so is what I am talking about -- and is God not a Tar Heel fan? There is an atmosphere, there is a spirit on this campus that I have not seen or felt on any other campus in America."
Moeser had already been on the job for two months, but Oct. 12 was the day for the University community to welcome him officially.
University Day may come every year, but not every University Day comes with a new chancellor.
That fact was not lost at Memorial Hall, where professors gathered on the steps before taking their places for the processional.
Ray Dooley, chair of the Department of Dramatic Art, said the chancellor is crucial to the University as a whole, but particularly to the mission of every one of the faculty members. "I'm certainly very grateful to Dr. Moeser for taking on the responsibility," Dooley said.
Dooley, along with the other professors, was curious to hear just how Moeser plans to make Carolina the best public university in the country. Dooley sees that goal as more of a journey than a destination.
"I think it will be a question of one day at a time -- of making the decision each day to move a little closer to that goal. If we do that, no matter what ratings or magazines say, we will be moving in the right direction."
Lucy Savitz, an assistant professor with Health Policy and Administration, said the goal of being the best has added fuel to her own enthusiasm and ambition.
"Change is very exciting," Savitz said. "I think the preliminary comments I've heard him make about his agenda for the University and the strides that we are planning to take in the future are very promising. And it makes this University an even more exciting place to be a faculty member."
Staff members marching in the processional gathered inside Carroll Hall, while students assembled in Bingham Hall.
Among the staff at Carroll was Jo Bass, assistant to the dean in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Like all the other staff, she wore a UNC ribbon. She also carried her own unique sense of history about this state, this University, this day.
Bass had marched in two previous University Day processionals, including the one in 1995 when Michael Hooker was installed.
Bass was born in Burlington and her family's North Carolina roots reach back to the 1790s, which means her family has been in this state about as long as the University. She is as proud of the one as she is of the other.
"I love history in general and the history of this place in particular," Bass said.
Doug Crutchfield, an accountant in the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, also said Carolina's history made it an honor to be in the processional. But that wasn't the only reason.
"When I'm walking, I'm walking for my co-workers, too," said Crutchfeid, a 22-year employee.
The view from the distance
Once the ceremomy began, some 4,000 people sat listening in rows of folding chairs that covered nearly half of Polk Place.
The rows closest to the stage were in fact part of the ceremony, filled with faculty and academic dignitaries from all over the country, all decked out in their full-color regalia.
The back rows carried a different feel for the staff members and students who sat in them.
The difference could best be compared to being a part of a wedding party and watching it.
The pomp and ceremony on stage was contrasted back here by simple curiosity.
Who is this guy? What does he want to do? And, just as important, what does he expect from me?
A group of groundskeepers watched the ceremony from their seats atop a stone wall along the edge of Polk Place.
They had prepared for this day by setting up the chairs, clipping and manicuring the greens, and making the campus look its company best. And their day would not be through until they had cleaned up after it.
They wanted to hear what Moeser had to say, too, said Tim Miles, an employee here for 17 years who now works in recycling. "I've seen him once when we were up here working, but I've never talked to him and never heard him speak. It will be interesting to see what he says."
In the folding chairs, staff members and students in sunglasses sat beneath a still-green canopy of leaves. Before the processional started, their whispering mingled with leaves rustling in puffs of wind.
Polly Mebane and Sandi Davis sat far in the back at the end of a row empty except for them.
They work together in the medical science teaching lab. Mebane has worked at the University for 15 years, Davis for three, but neither knew much about the north end of campus.
"This is not my kind of music particularly, but I guess for an important day like this it will do," Davis said as she sat listening to the classical music that the University's Wind Ensemble was playing.
"I've never been to anything like this down here, and it's just interesting to see all that's going on."
The stage
Moeser sat next to UNC President Molly Corbett Broad, who hired him some six months ago. The South Building steps facing Polk Place served as their sunlit stage; three banners unfurled between the white columns served as a sort of curtain. The banners in blue surrounded the banner in white. Each carried a single letter, spelling out U-N-C.
Broad was the first to speak and the first to speak of the proud tradition here that had drawn Moeser to this place at this point in its history.
"We are reminded that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before," Broad said. "And that we are forging our links in a chain that binds one generation of faculty and staff and students to the next, creating a chain that is made stronger as it grows longer."
And then she stood aside as Moeser took the oath of office from N.C. Supreme Court Justice Henry E. Frye and took his place in history as the ninth chancellor of the University.
The University, Moeser proclaimed, stands "at the precipice of a golden age."
"We have before us the potential of a new defining moment for Carolina -- the possibility of being not only the first, but the best, the leading, the pre-eminent university in America."
Many in the crowd had already heard of Moeser's mission, but never before spoken directly from him to them, with the ring of his own voice, the eloquence of his own words.
Hunt, as an alumnus, endorsed Moeser's goal to not only be the first public university, but the best.
Rich families or powerful churches founded most of the early universities, Hunt said. "We had the audacity to create a public university and call it the people's. That should always inspire us. In fact, this University has been a constant source of pride and inspiration to our people through all our years.
"It has been an example to us of what we can be and what we can do. It has prepared our leaders in business and the professions and education and in government. It has helped them have the heart to care, the knowledge and skills to improve society.
"I will say to you standing here today as a man who has served as governor longer than any other that the main reason for the progress and progressive tradition of the state of North Carolina is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Dr. Moeser is dedicated to taking this school to the position of the best public university in the country. He wants to keep the tradition of this great
university going, to make it better than ever, and I support him in that crusade 100 percent."
Moeser will need such political support from Raleigh, but support from within the University community will be no less crucial.
Joanne Kucharski, the chair of the Employee Forum, pledged to Moeser that employees would embrace his vision but not mute their own voice.
Over the past quarter century, she said, staff members have worked for a voice on campus equal to the contributions that they make to running the campus each day.
The Employee Forum has become that voice. Her presence on the stage stood as evidence of how seriously that voice is now taken. "On this day of celebration, we could be heard saying that we will stand beside you on your journey as trailblazers," Kucharski said. "We will follow not old paths but will create instead new paths and leave a trail to follow for generations of the Carolina family."
Sue Estroff, faculty chair, made it clear that support from the faculty is not something that can be decreed from a podium, but earned and accumulated over time like interest in a bank account.
"Today we honor both the legacy and the future of this truly splendid place," Estroff said. "A place that cherishes inquiry, creativity and diversity of people and ideas. Today, we warmly welcome James Moeser and Susan Moeser as Carolina faculty colleagues and we formally receive James Moeser as chancellor.
"We greet you Chancellor Moeser with generosity and curiosity. We do not yet know you. You do not yet know us. Today we begin our association with optimism, with enthusiasm and with questions yet unasked and unanswered. The poet Adrienne Rich described the foundation of what we seek with you and what we seek from you. She writes: `An honorable human relationship is a process, a process of refining the truths we tell each other. It is important to do this because it breaks down human self-delusion and isolation. It is important to do this because in so doing we do justice to our own complexity. It is important to do this because we can count on such few people to go that hard way with us.'
"The faculty calls to you Chancellor Moeser, `Come, come and go this hard way with us.' The faculty calls to you Chancellor Moeser, `Come, come and go this exhilarating way with us.'"
Pamela d'Empaire, a junior from Tarboro majoring in American Studies, was one of the students who marched in the processional and sat through the speeches.
She was impressed with the number of people who came and by the caliber of the people who filled the stage.
She was impressed that Moeser will try to triple the anticipated $500 million of bond money with private donations, and she agreed with him that antiquated buildings must be taken care of.
d'Empaire could not help but notice, too, the shrieks of protest generated by UE Local 150, a labor union representing campus groundskeepers and housekeepers
Its members protested during almost the entire program and at times drowned out the speakers on the stage, including Moeser.
But what impressed d'Empaire as much as anything was the way Moeser stood up to the protestors without trying to trample over them. She liked the way he paused in the middle of his speech and said, "The First Amendment is alive and well on this campus, and you can hear it."
And later on, when the chants resumed, she liked the way Moeser looked over at the protestors and said, "I will listen to you if you will listen to me."
"I had to give him credit, he not only appeased the protestors but also got the crowd laughing about it," d'Empaire said.
A willingness to listen.
An insistence on being heard.
It may not have been a part of his text, but by displaying those qualities Moeser had revealed for d'Empaire another side to like.
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