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New to Greensboro, Stanley Battle admitted to skittishness about jogging through unfamiliar neighborhoods before sunup.

"Based on the experience in the United States of America, an African American man running around in the dark has to know where he's going, how to get back, and if he doesn't get back, somebody better go looking for him," the recently seated chancellor at N.C. A&T State University told the News & Record editorial board in July.

No need to organize a search. Battle clearly knows where he's going and how soon he has to get there.

"I've got three years," he said. "I'm on a three-year contract. You've got to make reasonable progress."

Listen to the entire interview with Battle

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Battle, hired from Coppin State University in Baltimore, puts highest priority on students. Progress means reaching goals for retention and graduation rates, currently among the lowest in the University of North Carolina system. Meeting them might require concentrating "on quality as opposed to quantity" and being "a little more selective" in admissions, Battle said.

Meanwhile, A&T will work harder to keep current students enrolled -- even offering financial incentives to those whose conduct and academic accomplishments warrant. Awards would be spent on books and other necessities.

The idea is worth a commitment of resources. Nothing is more wasteful than enrolling students who drop out after a year or two and simply replacing them with others unlikely to fare better. If extra tutoring and a few hundred dollars worth of books can keep a student on track toward a degree, then not making the effort is unthinkable.

That's still not enough, says Battle, who supports a "K-16" model for education: "We have to start early. We cannot expect or anticipate that children will come to us prepared unless we reach back."

Coppin State successfully managed an elementary and middle school, and created a high school academy on its campus. Battle has similar ideas for Greensboro, revealing that "my good friend Bill Cosby ... will be coming here to help us with some things."

Battle advocates identifying talented high school students interested in nursing and tracking them from that point, and increasing cooperative efforts with GTCC to strengthen that program. Engineering students "have to be prepared," he said. "We have to recruit the best students, but we better have some dollars to support our swagger."

A&T needs to build on its strengths, including its agriculture and business programs and its Gateway University Research Park, a joint venture with UNCG. It also must improve its internal management, which drew a critical audit before Battle arrived July 1.

"First and foremost, everything is not where it should be at," Battle said. "Not yet." He pledges more accountability and "a tightening in terms of our work ethic on the campus."

Battle's "start early, finish late" days usually begin with a predawn run. A fast pace is good because there's no time for standing still at A&T or anywhere else in higher education.