Vision, tone key to chancellorship, Moeser says

Daily Tar Heel University Editor Whitney Kisling sat down with James Moeser, asking him to define his chancellorship and his approach to the position. From successes to unexpected challenges, he laid out how he views the past eight years in South Building.

DTH: Looking back at the first year that you were here, when you were just accepted and you knew that you were going to come into this position, what were the kinds of things you did to prepare?

Moeser: I did a lot of reading. I read “Light on the Hill,” I read the biography of Bill Friday.

I can’t remember how many books I read. I became a student of N.C. history so that I could understand the history and tradition of the place. . It seems to me the best way to position the University for the future is to understand its past.

DTH: In your position, what kinds of things did you do as chancellor to (support the state)?

Moeser: That’s where Carolina Connects comes in. That’s where the engagement task force came in to help begin to define the engagement initiative of North Carolina.

Now, that’s where Erskine Bowles comes in with UNC Tomorrow. . I think we serve the state in a deeper, more profound way, in health care, in transformation of the economy, as one of the major research engines in the country.

Maybe the most challenging element of all is restructuring our K-12 education.

DTH: It sounds like what you’re describing for this position is someone who really understands North Carolina and how it works. What other kinds of traits make a good chancellor?

Moeser: You’re absolutely right, one needs to understand North Carolina, for obvious reasons, for obvious reasons of politics, as well. That’s where support comes from.

But we don’t want to be parochial. We don’t want to just focus on the state. We also want to be a global institution. . It’s both a local and global commitment because that’s really what a great research university is about. .

The best thing we can do for North Carolina is to make it a player in the world, and the worst thing we can do for this state is not to do that.

DTH: As far as meeting with vice chancellors and deans on a regular basis and letting them have a hand in how policy changes over the years and the goals of the university change, how do you foster that?

Moeser: We have very strong deans at this University. The good news is they have a great deal of autonomy and authority in terms of how they run their schools. The deans are really where most of the action takes place. .

Every policy decision that we make gets argued out amongst the vice chancellors, and when I say argued, I mean that literally. I really encourage people to disagree and to express opinions.

I don’t want a group of people that are intimidated. . That’s an easy way to make some really serious mistakes.

DTH: You’ve had these things come up that suddenly you had to say, ‘I’m standing behind the summer reading book’ (“Approaching the Qu’ran: The Early Revelations”). That’s something that you can’t really plan for.

Moeser: No one said, ‘By the way, this book could be really controversial,’ and neither did I think of it.

We didn’t plan for it.

I think my proudest single moment at this University was defending that book because I think it was the right thing to do.

It demonstrated in many ways the real purpose of a great university.

DTH: A lot of Board of Trustees or Board of Regents have an agenda already for the university, and the chancellor is there to enact it. How does that work at UNC?

Moeser: I think there are goals that I’ve laid out that I think the trustees have adopted and I feel confident will continue.

The trustees, I believe, as they did with me, will look to the new chancellor to say, ‘Where do you want to take us?’ So that’s part of a conversation that they would have with the candidates.

It is part of the role of the chancellor to articulate that agenda.

This office actually has a lot less power than people think, and that’s because of the nature of the academy. There’s very little that gets done directly by the chancellor.

The major role that I play, I believe, is one of moral leadership, of setting a tone, setting goals and persuading people or inspiring people to pursue those goals.

To the ability that I can do that I will succeed, and to the ability that I can’t do that I won’t succeed.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.