Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s office is crowded with boxes of books in preparation for his June 30 departure, but he still has books that need to be packed before the new chancellor takes over.
On May 29, Bernadette Gray-Little, executive vice chancellor and provost for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was named as Hemenway’s replacement and Hemenway has been working to make the transition go smoothly. When he announced that he would step down, Hemenway said he would work on the budget during his final seven months as chancellor. Since then, he has been responding to the Board of Regents’ requests for information in its attempt to manage the impact of the state’s financial crisis on higher education institutions.
The University’s budget will be one of Gray-Little’s first challenges. She recently told the Daily Tar Heel that the last five months at UNC presented budget problems that prepared her for the budgetary challenges she will face this fall at the University.
“Gray-Little has a very distinguished record so there’s no question in my mind that she’ll be able to help the University make major moves forward,” Hemenway said. “I’m just happy that we’ve been able to hire an absolutely first-rate person.”
In 2005, Hemenway said the University’s number one priority was to achieve the National Cancer Institute’s designation. Since then, the University of Kansas Cancer Center has created new research programs, recruited international cancer experts and opened a new outpatient facility. The University will submit the application for NCI designation on Sept. 25, 2011.
One of Gray-Little’s top priorities as chancellor is to help complete the University’s campaign to obtain the NCI’s designation as a comprehensive cancer center. At the May 30 welcome ceremony held for her in the Kansan Union, Gray-Little said the NCI designation was a sign of the maturity, progressiveness and size of a university’s research program.
“It would attract researchers, it would attract more funding and it also has the potential to make substantial contributions to the quality of life. So it has many benefits that would be useful to the University and to the world,” she said.
Michael O’Malley, associate director for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said Gray-Little was a fabulous provost and a good friend to the cancer center. He said she helped guide the cancer center’s effort to reach out to different schools and departments across the UNC campus.
“Getting someone who has worked with a cancer center before and understands how to help build those bridges and to appreciate having a cancer center can help build the whole biomedical research enterprise,” O’Malley said.
He also said he thought Gray-Little would benefit the University in other ways.
“There’s been a trade: We got Coach Williams. KU gets Dr. Gray-Little,” O’Malley said. “Let’s call it even, and I think it is even. He’s a great coach and I think she’s going to be a great chancellor for KU.”
At the welcome ceremony, Donna Shank, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, said she agreed with Gray-Little’s feeling that a university should treat the importance of having a top-ranked athletics program the same as the importance of having top faculty and researchers. Hemenway said he was confident this would happen under Gray-Little’s leadership.
“I think that it’s appropriate to have that balance between the academic life of a university, which is always number one, and the athletic part of the university, which is supporting of academics,” Hemenway said.
Although he said he had no specific recommendations for Gray-Little, Hemenway said he was sure she would figure out the best way to create an equilibrium.
Hemenway said that he thought every KU chancellor would say that working with students was the most enjoyable part of the job and that he always hoped he was doing the best for students.
“I’ve loved every minute of the fourteen years that I’ve been chancellor, and I just want to thank everyone for the support that they gave me and the success for the future that came out of my experience. I love KU, and I think KU is the kind of place that you can spend a lot of time feeling good about.”
— — Edited by Hannah DeClerk
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