Chancellor’s vision for NC State starting to emerge

Our new chancellor’s vision for NC State is starting to emerge and I’m excited with what I’m hearing.  In today’s News & Observer, Chancellor Woodson talks about the need to improve the university’s “national and international reputation” and the need to make difficult choices in defining who we are and what we’re going to focus on.  I take that to mean One voice, One message.  How ’bout you?

“The grand challenges of society now – water, climate, energy – have science and technology issues that have to be resolved, and N.C. State is in a tremendous position to be among the leading institutions in the country that address those challenges. But we can’t do that if we’re not strong in engineering, the physical sciences and mathematics,” Woodson told the N&O.

That would mean taking bold academic risks, he said, such as identifying colleges, schools or departments that will get more funding, even at the expense of others.

“So academic risk is when you step up in front of your colleagues, and put a stake in the ground and say, at the risk of offending another discipline, we’re going to the next level in chemical engineering or we’re going to the next level in molecular biology and the life sciences.”

Woodson also talked about increasing the university’s endowment.  The endowment stands at approximately $463 million today, and of that, the 80,000-acre Hoffman Forest accounts for $117 million.  Thus, the true value of the endowment is around $346 million.  The average value of the endowments of our peers is around $1 billion or more than  $25,000 per student.  At NC State, the per student endowment is just $14,000.

The numbers are among the absolute lowest of all research-intensive universities and that’s got to change.

So stay tuned and speak up.  If you want to have a voice in the process, you’ve got to have a voice.

Passion Rules!

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