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The perfect chancellor

Sunday, January 27, 2008
(Updated Monday, June 9 - 12:03 am)

UNCG hires the ideal chancellor, who fulfills all the qualities everyone wants in a campus leader. This will be her typical day:

She rises early, careful not to wake her slumbering roommate. They partied late, and the roomie isn't likely to make her first class ... or three. But the chancellor can't waste time snoozing.

She's staying in a dorm her first year to learn how the students live. Her husband wasn't happy, but she told him students are her top priority.

She rushes to the campus radio station for her daily call-in program. It puts her in touch with the entire UNCG community. Even at this early hour, she has a wide audience and the calls stack up. She's candid, engaging and funny, making every listener feel like a friend.

She grabs a quick breakfast in the cafeteria, greeting employees by name. They're delighted she's promised substantial pay raises.

At the office, she confers with assistants about the day's schedule. She has just enough time to finish her plan for easing parking problems and improving traffic flow without any new construction. It's brilliant.

She spends the next 30 minutes on the phone, gaining several million dollars in pledges from new donors. She's closing in on the amount needed to kick off the UNC-Greensboro Guarantee, which will allow qualified students to graduate debt-free. It helps that she has a national network of best friends who are heads of financial institutions, high-tech firms and media conglomerates. They can't say no to her.

Her next assignment is teaching a class on modern poetry. Modestly, she doesn't include any of her own books in the course, although they've won critical acclaim.

The students want to linger and chat after class, but she owes a call-back to a writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is featuring her in its next edition. She gives a coherent interview while negotiating city traffic on her way to a civic club lunch, where she's speaking about the university's role in the cultural and economic development of Greensboro.

Receiving congratulations for her engrossing talk, she's bombarded with invitations to join community boards, task forces and charitable organizations. She accepts them all.

She hurries back to campus to conduct her afternoon class, this one in differential equations. Her second doctorate is in mathematics. Then she meets with a faculty committee to discuss teaching duties. She feels that if she can handle a couple of classes each day, so can full professors. They agree, particularly because of her pledge to raise faculty salaries, double funding for merit scholarships and compete with Duke and Carolina for the very brightest students.

After giving the women's basketball coach a hand with practice -- she's great at taping ankles -- she runs home to prepare for an alumni dinner she's hosting. She dazzles guests with her Terrine de Saumon aux Epinards and an original song delivered in a fine soprano voice, in French.

After attending a symphony concert -- she's a patron -- it's back to the dorm for an all-night card game.

She really loves her job.

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