CHAPEL HILL - Ending a lengthy search process, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named its new chancellor Friday, selecting James Moeser, currently chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
In picking its new leader, the nation's first state university chose a forceful, prominent defender of the public research university, a man who has been an administrator at four major state schools and was educated at two others.
On August 15, Moeser (pronounced MEE-zer) will replace William McCoy, the interim chancellor who has helped lead the university since last spring, when chancellor Michael Hooker took a leave of absence. Hooker died June 29 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Moeser, a finalist for the University of Florida's top job whose name had not surfaced publicly in Chapel Hill, explained Friday why he jumped at the chance to lead UNC-CH.
"The principal attraction to this university is its academic excellence, its great tradition, but more than its tradition, its potential to be the greatest public university in America," he said. "It was the audacity of that vision, to say that we're the third best university in the United States, but we want to be better then that."
After the UNC-CH board of trustees approved Moeser Thursday, UNC system President Molly Broad brought his name to the UNC system board of governors, which approved him unanimously Friday.
Broad expressed her confidence that "he will be an imaginative and effective leader for Carolina" in the future. "This is a day that has been eagerly awaited by students and faculty and citizens of the state," she said. "The outcome was worth the wait."
Moeser, 61, was trained as an concert organist at the University of Texas and the University of Michigan. He held administrative posts at the University of Kansas, Penn State University and the University of South Carolina before moving to Nebraska in 1996.
At Nebraska, Moeser has raised test scores, boosted the honors program and collected millions in private gifts, including several eight-figure donations.
"He will bring experience, sound judgment and a vigorous leadership style to the role of chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill...," University of Nebraska system President Dennis Smith said in a statement.
During his speech to the board of governors and a subsequent press conference, Moeser outlined his vision for his chancellorship.
One of his main goals will be increasing the resources available to the university, with an emphasis on tapping the loyal UNC-CH alumni base for donations to endow scholarships and faculty chairs. "The margin of excellence will clearly be private support," Moeser said.
The chancellor-elect also advocated what promises to be a controversial tuition increase for the flagship campus, while stressing the importance of boosting financial aid. "I don't think you can keep [tuition] rock bottom and keep it the kind of university we want it to be."
Moeser faces several other challenges: filling the vacant provostship, increasing faculty salaries and improving decaying academic facilities. During his first 100 days, he plans to learn as much as possible about his new home and what is necessary to solve its problems, he said. "I want to be a chancellor who will be present and visible on the campus and in the state," he said.
Moeser's enthusiasm also derives from his passionate conceptualization of the role of the public research university, and he spent a significant portion of his speech Friday explaining how universities have satisfied and must continue to pursue and update the three-part goal of research, teaching and service.
"It was, in part, the genius of the forefathers of this American republic, that a free democracy can only survive with a well-educated public, and that required a new institution, a university very different from what we had known...," he said. "[UNC] and other great universities came forward, and the result was America."
Duke President Nan Keohane said that with Moeser as UNC chancellor, she will continue to encourage collaboration down the 15-501 corridor. "I look forward to knowing him better," she wrote in an e-mail. "He has the record of a good leader and a thoughtful colleague, and I look forward to working with him."
Keohane added that she does not think the increasing efforts by public universities to solicit donations will harm Duke's efforts.
"I don't see this as competitive, since our support bases overlap only to a very minor degree-alums, parents, etc.," she wrote in an e-mail.
Moeser's selection on Friday came as somewhat of a surprise in a search that seemed to be moving rather slowly.
Although the names of several candidates-and non-candidates-had been leaked to the news media during the search process, Moeser was never mentioned as a possible chancellor.
"You didn't catch Chancellor Moeser until yesterday," search committee chair Richard Stevens told the media, "but he's been in our sights for a long time."
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