Barnhart: University should embrace
"standing as a top-flight institution"

Although NC State must keep striving to enhance its reputation, the university’s interim leader said the campus community should embrace the school’s current standing as a top-flight institution.

Acknowledging the university’s present position was a common theme for NC State interim chancellor Robert Barnhardt in separate addresses before the general faculty, faculty senate and staff senate over a one-week span. In a speech before the Faculty Senate, Barnhardt recalled the words former chancellor Marye Anne Fox used when she was introduced to the university and said it’s time to celebrate what NC State has become.

“One of the things she said was that NC State has great possibilities to become an outstanding university,” Barnhardt said. “I think it’s time to claim that we are an outstanding university. We have become an outstanding university. We’ve got more work to do. We cannot stop. There are tremendous challenges that lie in our horizon, but we have arrived.”

Barnhardt also praised the university community for maintaining NC State’s momentum during a time of transition since Fox left in July to become chancellor at the University of California at San Diego.

“One of my first goals as interim chancellor was not lose the momentum that we have and build upon the relationships that we have on campus and off campus,” Barnhardt said at the General Faculty Meeting.

Barnhardt cited several examples of achievements that signal NC State has arrived. Among them:

• Improved relationships with key leaders in state and local government.
• Current totals of a capital campaign that are above projected goals.
• A recent U.S. News and World Report ranking that listed NC State as one of 50 “Great Schools at Great Prices.” Barnhardt noted that of those 50 schools, only nine were public institutions, and NC State ranked in the top half of those nine.
• A recent Princeton Review ranking that listed NC State as a “Campus with a Conscious.”

While praising NC State’s achievements, Barnhardt also acknowledged some areas of concern, many of which revolved around budget issues.

“Our budget is not exactly what we had hoped it would be, but it’s certainly better than it has been in the past few years,” Barnhardt said. “There are some good things and some bad things. The good thing is that we’ve improved. We have actually gotten increased funds and that has given us a higher profile. The bad news is that we’re still underpaid and open to people coming in and robbing our faculty from us.”

In addressing the Staff Senate, Barnhardt endorsed several areas of concern that were presented to him by staff members. Those concerns included issues related to health benefits, salary and compensation increases, protection of retirement benefits, and prevention of future reductions in operation costs. Barnhardt shared some personal accounts to illustrate that the concerns brought before him are issues that have affected him and his family, particularly in the areas of health benefits and retirement.

Barnhardt also said that reductions in operating costs present a challenge to keep NC State at the level he wants the campus community to embrace and expand.

“That makes it very, very difficult to keep things going at the level you would like and have the services at the level you would like,” Barnhardt said. “It’s not just NC State. It’s the whole university system.”

Posted October 15, 2004

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