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Tom Ross found a comfortable feeling at Davidson College, his alma mater where he returned as president three years ago. “I think I do belong here,” the Greensboro native told News & Record columnist Jeri Rowe in a 2008 interview.

Davidson looked like the capstone of an impressive career in law, public service and philanthropy. The small, elite college with Presbyterian roots — Ross was a lifelong member and elder at Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Church — offered a chance to make a direct, personal impact on the lives of 1,700 students. Plus, the school had a terrific basketball team.

So, it’s surprising in one sense that Ross decided to leave for the huge challenges and responsibilities of leading the 17-campus University of North Carolina system, replacing another Greensboro native, Erskine Bowles.

But he’s accepted tough assignments before. As a Superior Court judge, he was asked to lead an overhaul of  sentencing policies for criminal cases. The work led to the adoption of North Carolina’s structured sentencing laws, which became a national model and earned Ross the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence — presented personally by the chief justice.

In a Carolina Law article published last year, Ross said he was interested in opportunities “to create an environment in which more leaders of tomorrow can be developed.”

He could proceed on that course for a small number of students at Davidson, or on a very large scale at UNC.

It won’t be easy. UNC budgets have been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars during the economic downturn, prompting sharp tuition hikes. The system is in danger of sliding from its mission of providing low-cost higher education to the people of the state.

Meanwhile, the financial challenges make it more imperative that universities contribute to economic growth and job creation by developing new technologies with commercial and industrial applications and that they train young people for success in cutting-edge careers.

The demand for effective teachers, health care and life sciences workers, engineers and professionals in countless other new and traditional fields is more acute than ever.

Ross is a graduate of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, but he has to make sure that other campuses gain a fair share of resources. The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering here is a good example, although denial of UNCG’s bid for a pharmacy school — opposed by UNC-CH — still stings and should be revisited. It’s also critical to raise academic standards and graduation rates throughout the system so more institutions join UNC-CH and N.C. State in the nation’s top tier of public universities.

UNC’s success depends on strong, visionary leadership. Ross possesses those qualities and commands respect in Raleigh, where UNC needs must be pursued with vigor. A comfort level may be harder to achieve, but Ross should find he belongs in this job, too.