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Paul K. Mueller, News Services, 919/515-3470

May 27, 2004

Barnhardt Named Interim Chancellor for NC State

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Robert A. Barnhardt

Former College of Textiles Dean Robert A. Barnhardt will serve as interim chancellor of North Carolina State University during the search for Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s successor. The selection, to be effective July 13, was announced today by Molly Corbett Broad, president of the University of North Carolina system.

Fox is stepping down this summer to become chancellor of the University of California at San Diego.

In announcing Barnhardt’s appointment, Broad said, “In a career that has spanned four decades, Bob Barnhardt has distinguished himself as an exceptional administrator and proven leader, and he is highly respected throughout the NC State and higher-education communities. Having served NC State last year as interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, he understands the many challenges and opportunities before the campus, and is exceptionally well qualified to lead it in the months ahead. I am grateful that he has accepted this important assignment.”

Fox also praised the former dean. “Bob Barnhardt’s exemplary record of service to NC State makes him well-qualified to assume these vital duties,” Fox said. “Our faculty, staff and students can be confident that he’ll continue the university’s ongoing emergence into national prominence.”

Barnhardt served as interim provost at NC State in 2003, before Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor James L. Oblinger was selected for the post. Though he retired in 1999, Barnhardt continues to teach and mentor students, and he played a major leadership role in negotiating the cooperative agreement to locate the Institute of Textile Technology at NC State.

His leadership enabled the College of Textiles to become the most modern and best-equipped textile institution in the world. Under his watch, the college became one of the nation’s best examples of outreach and partnership. He joined NC State in 1987 and presided
over the college’s period of substantial growth in enrollment. At the time of his retirement, more than half of the nation’s textile degree recipients held degrees from NC State’s College of Textiles.

Prior to joining NC State, Barnhardt was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Institute of Textile Technology, then based in Charlottesville, Va. Before that post, he served as chairman of the Department of Textiles at the Philadelphia Colleges of Textiles and Science, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering in 1959. He holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Textile Technology, as well as master’s of education degree and a doctorate in education administration from the University of Virginia.

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