UNC has
named a new Chancellor for Chapel Hill, Dr. James Moeser, after a long
search. This will have an effect on the athletic department, which is the
first thing we think of here being a hoops site, but we expect a positive one.
No one has been in charge since Michael Hooker died, at least not with the
full-time position, and stability is always a plus.
On a more important level, he says he wants to continue his predecessor
Michael Hooker's quest to make UNC the finest public University in the land, and
we hope he does it. Sports aside, we believe in the mission of UNC, and we
recognize how much it has given to this state over the years. He faces
some significant challenges - a difficult state budget, facility demands, a
growing state, and on the one hand keeping tuition as affordable as possible -
and as mandated by the state constitution - and also increasing faculty
pay. That this is necessary to move forward is beyond dispute, and
students who are faced with higher tuition now will reap the benefits with a
more valuable degree for the rest of their lives, but that doesn't change the
difficulty of finding money you don't have. It's going to be tricky. One
thing which would be nice would be to see a program in Chapel Hill (or any
school really) where grads who are established pick up a semester or two of
tuition for a kid. There are a lot of prosperous grads who might give back
this way if asked.
Moeser's academic background is a bit different - he is an organist and
musicologist by training. That's a rare and lonely thing to study, and
relatively few organists get very far outside of the music department, at least
academically. As one UNC professor said, it's exciting to have an arts
background at the top.
He has some significant challenges, but it sounds like he's up to it.
We're sure all Duke fans, most particularly Duke fans living in North Carolina,
wish good things for UNC, sports aside of course, for a number of reasons. First
because it is a quality school. Second because they are our neighbors. Third
because in many respects they are our partners. Fourth because an enormous
number of their graduates stay in state, and the higher the quality of their
graduates, the higher the quality of all our lives here.
We'll not be pulling for athletic representatives of UNC, well not on the
field anyway. But we'll pull for Dr. Moeser to have a brilliant run in
Chapel Hill, and we hope when he leaves UNC is the envy of every public school
in the nation. We'd love to be able to say that on one end of 15-501 is the
finest private institution in America and on the other is the finest public
institution in America.