A New Recruiting Season: Alumni Help Needed
Posted on March 6, 1985From the University Report (published by the GAA 1970-94)
George Keller, now senior vice president of the Barton-Gillette Company and a former college professor, dean and assistant to three college presidents, points out in his provocative 1983 book, Academic Strategy — the Management Revolution in Higher Education, that the twenty years from 1955 to 1974 were “the most prosperous ever in American higher education.” The number of college students increased from 2.5 million to 8.8 million and the percentage of 18 to 24 year olds seeking degrees in higher education rose from 18 percent to 34 percent. More college buildings were built during that twenty year period than during the previous 200 years. The size of America’s faculty grew from 266,000 to 630,000, and according to the National Science Foundation, the amount of research and development taking place on college campuses in the U.S. grew from $312 million in 1955 to $3 billion in 1974. It is in this atmosphere of growth and change that the University of North Carolina assumes the challenge to locate the president to lead us toward the 21 st century.
In January the Board received a review from UNC Board of Governors Chairman Phil Carson and UNC President William C. Friday about the search for a new president to succeed President Friday when he retires in July 1986. Once we think beyond the difficulty of finding a successor to Bill Friday and begin to focus on the process, we are struck by how university life has changed during the nearly 30 years that Bill Friday has served as President and how important it is that all within the University family make their suggestions and concerns known to those who will ultimately be responsible for the selection of a new president.
President Friday’s successor will face circumstances very unlike the golden age of higher education that Bill Friday experienced during the early years of his presidency. No longer is the pie for higher education expanding. The number of college-age students is projected to decline and nontraditional students are becoming a major force. Keller says that “40 percent of those enrolled in higher education in 1980 attended part-time.”
Today’s university president faces a changing college curriculum and increasing competition within higher education for students, for foundation grants, for state appropriations and for federal aid. He or she must contend with an aging faculty, a decaying physical plant and continuing governmental regulation. The new president must manage a growing system with all of its complexities and constituencies and satisfy a legislature and the taxpayers of North Carolina. At the same time he or she must provide vision in a world that is growing increasingly complex with technological advances and increasing expectations and demands upon its universities.
These thoughts and others weigh heavily on the Board of Governors who must select a new president. Alumni will need to get involved in this process. Indeed, when Chairman Carson addressed the GAA officers and directors in January, he encouraged the active participation of alumni. Public hearings will be held across the state. Citizens are invited to attend and share their concerns about what qualities we need in the individual chosen to lead us forward.
Certainly many of the more than 155,000 Carolina alumni will want to make suggestions to both the ten member selection committee and the sixteen member advisory committee that will consist of chancellors, students, faculty, trustees and alumni.
If vou wish to recommend someone the search committee should consider, write the Search Committee for President at PO Box 2304, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. I hope that you will attend the public hearings. As an alumnus your participation in the presidential selection process is needed.
We are now entering the most important recruiting season of all. The selection of a new president may just be the most significaut decision not only for our campus but for all of North Carolina for the rest of the 20th century and beyond.
Participate. Help us recruit someone who will assure continuing strength and vitality of public higher education in North Carolina and particularly the continued preeminence of our Chapel Hill campus.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
