UNC system President C.D. Spangler Jr. is going out the way he came in--reminding people of North Carolina's tradition of low university tuition.
Spangler gave a farewell speech last week to the UNC system's Board of Governors as he prepared to end his 11-year tenure at the head of the 16-campus university system. President-elect Molly Broad takes office at noon on Friday.
"It seems like only yesterday when we had my inauguration 11 years ago," Spangler said.
Spangler said he would do the same thing with Broad that President Emeritus William Friday did with him--read the passage of the North Carolina Constitution that says the university's benefits "shall be extended to the people of the state free of expense, as far as practicable."
Spangler played for the board a three-minute videotaped excerpt of his 1986 inauguration address. In the address Spangler said the state's founders knew access to higher education was vital to a democracy.
Making the most of it
Spangler said he would miss the students, faculty and General Administration staff members.
He recognized and asked his two office assistants--Mamie Yarborough and Tracey Avinger--to stand to receive applause from the board.
"This Board of Governors and your predecessors have addressed your responsibilities and have helped me to meet mine," he said. "I cannot think of a single time when I was disappointed with the collective action of this board."
He quoted from the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot:
Let us do something while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed.
Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they
were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not.
Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!
Spangler said he wished for Broad the same support he had received and that North Carolina's economy would remain strong.
"More than I could ever adequately express, I thank you for letting me be president of the University of North Carolina."
Spangler's term
During Spangler's term:
* Enrollment across the 16-campus system grew by more than 27,000, the equivalent of another UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Asheville.
* Average SAT scores rose by nearly 60 points, while the national average remained virtually unchanged.
* The system's operating budget nearly doubled and campuses received more than $1 billion for building projects and renovations.
* Outside contracts and grants won by UNC system faculty rose from $175.5 million in fiscal 1986 to $473 million in fiscal 1996-97. Awards are expected to exceed $500 million this year.
* A 1993 study by the Board of Governors reaffirmed the concept of tenure and the board's position that teaching is the primary responsibility of the campuses. The board instituted its annual Excellence in Teaching awards.
* Spangler and his family's f oundation donated, publicly and privately, millions of dollars to establish or to complete funding for distinguished professorships on every UNC campus. Spangler has proposed a five-year matching plan through which the Spangler Foundation would contribute $100,000 for each of 80 new distinguished professorships, with five at each of the campuses.
* Spangler recommen ded a series of reforms--adopted by the board--designed to help ensure integrity within sports programs. Among the recommendations were a ban on any individual serving as both athletics director and as a head coach, and mandatory drug testing for all stud ent athletes.
Spangler's speech may be found at http://www.unc.edu/news/gaz/archives/97jul16/spangler.html.
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