Incoming Chancellor James Ammons made a special trip to N.C. Central University to address the entire faculty at their Friday, March 30 meeting. Ammons spoke about his history with the university and the process by which he was elected chancellor. He spoke at the end of the faculty meeting after a number of trouble spots were addressed.

Ammons spoke candidly about the university's financial and administrative problems and said he was enthusiastic about attacking these issues in the fall. He said he was optimistic about the administration, faculty and staff's ability to "turn around" the university. He emphasized the importance of fundraising. Walter Harris, Jr., Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, introduced Ammons. The entire text of his address with is below.

Thank you very much, Provost. I want to thank the Provost for trying to read that introduction that came off the Internet. I'm sure that many of you have seen it. I want to congratulate him, too, for being here this afternoon and bringing some of the tough news to you about the institution. I'm a Provost right now, so I understand some of those duties and responsibilities that you have.

Before I get started this afternoon I want to introduce someone who is here with me this afternoon, Mr. Leo Sams. Leo, are you still here? Many of the things that you hear about at Florida A&M University and all of the great things that have happened are a result of the leadership of Mr. Leo Sams. He is the former vice president of University Relations and Advancement at Florida A&M University and is the architect of our industry cluster program, a cluster program that now has over 150 corporations that support Florida A&M University. He was also in leadership when we moved our endowment from $2 million to over $63 million.

And that was done under the leadership of Mr. Sams. He is here with me today, and he is going to be here with us for the next several months helping us take a look at fundraising and advancement here. So I wanted all of you to meet him. You will see him around campus and you will know who he is and what he is doing here at the institution.

I want to say to you that I am very pleased and excited about being the chancellor at North Carolina Central University. This is an institution that I have had my eye on for quite some time. Back in 1987, when I was an American Council on Education fellow, one of the regional meetings that we organized was a meeting here in the Research Triangle. It was the original intent for us to visit Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State University. But I insisted that we put North Carolina Central on our agenda. And we came to North Carolina Central University, and we visited with Chancellor Richmond and Provost Burnum.

From that time there was something to me very special about this institution. And, in fact, after the official visit was over I brought my wife and son back to the campus. And after I was elected Chancellor we went back and pulled out the pictures that we took here at the institution.

Back then we said that if we were to leave Tallahassee - my wife and I are both graduates of Florida A&M and my son is a student at Florida A&M - that this would be the place that we would come.

And I will tell you that it is seldom in life where you have those kinds of thoughts and things work out that way. And I have to tell you I am a true believer that I am blessed with this opportunity. There was divine intervention in my being here at North Carolina Central University and I am very happy about that.

Also back in 1999, and as I look around this auditorium I see many of you that I met for the first time when I chaired the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Accreditation Team that came to North Carolina Central University. I had to opportunity to chair that committee, and so there were some things that I knew about the institution that the other 77 candidates didn't know.

And after listening to the Provost this afternoon some of you may wonder, "Well if you knew all that, why in the world did you come?" Well, I believe that everything we have heard today--all of the challenges that we have before us--are things that can be fixed. They are going to test our skills; they are going to test our patience.

But everything that the Provost talked about here today can be rectified. And with all of us working together, we can make that happen.

Now the other thing that I want to say is that the Internet is a powerful tool. This process for me started back in November when I was contacted by the executive search firm that nominated me for the Chancellor position. And I applied for it after I was contacted. But from that moment I monitored the Durham Herald-Sun, the News & Observer on the Internet. And I read about the fuss that the faculty had because you didn't think that the process was open and you worried they were going to do something terrible.

I wanted to send you all e-mail and say, "Wait a minute, not so fast." And I was really concerned at one point that something else would happen as the outcome of this process. But I continued to monitor the newspapers and Herald-Sun and News & Observer.

And the president finally said that she wasn't going to open it up. I didn't hear anything else. But there must have been some assurance [to the faculty] from somewhere that this process was going to turn out OK.

And I am happy the way that it turned out. I was hoping that you wouldn't push it so that another decision would be made. But that was an interesting process for me and through my visits and the work that I did as a part of the accreditation team, all of the thoughts that I had about the institution back in the 1980s have been confirmed.

That North Carolina Central University is a respected and loved institution--not only across the state of North Carolina but across this country. We have a great reputation in higher education in America. We are part of a state university system that is highly respected. We have a great location. Again, being a native Floridian, sometimes I kid people and I talk about Central Florida as God's country.

But have to tell you I think this is God's country. So we have a lot that we can build upon right here in the Research Triangle. Of course there are challenges as well as opportunities for us. And I want to stress the opportunities that we have here instead on focussing so much on the negative side of it.

I think that administrators, faculty staff and students can enlist the support of our alumni, the corporate world, and public officials and that we can solve all of those issues that we have been talking about.

These are opportunities for us to show what we have. And so as you listen to the presentation from the Provost and others I would like for us to take a look on the positive side.

And once these situations get turned around, we are going to be looked at as the geniuses of higher education because we had what it took to turn those things around. We have an opportunity because we have been identified as a focus growth campus. We are one of the campuses where there are opportunities for growth.

When we increase enrollment all of those budgetary issues that you have heard about are going to be solved. And it's simple: we have to go out and market this institution. And let me tell you, we have a lot to market-this institution and its program mix, this faculty and staff.

And I have to tell you I think that this faculty and staff are among the most caring faculty and staff that you will find anywhere in higher education. We have so many things that we can go out and talk to students, parents, high school principals, teachers and guidance counselors about NCCU.

We have an opportunity now to redevelop this campus. There is $118 million that we have for new construction and renovation. I was talking with my president at A&M about the bond initiative in North Carolina, he thought back on the 16 years that he had been president at Florida A&M and I can tell you that it was only recently that he surpassed in new constructions and renovations $118 million. And we have that right now.

This is a positive for this institution. And I think with the list of renovations and new construction projects that this is going to be the campus of choice for young people in North Carolina and across this country.

We are going to have to raise some money through the private sector. And that's why I brought Mr. Sams with me to take a look at how we're organized here. And so we are going to develop new relationships and strengthen existing relationships with corporate America.

And I believe that because of the legacy that we have developed here that we are going to be extremely successful. Now are some things that we can do as well as faculty administrators and staff. Last night I met with the Institutional Advancement staff. And I wanted to know how the license plates were selling. And they gave me a number. Then they gave me a number of the alumni that we have across North Carolina. And then I thought about the number of faculty and staff that we have here at the institution. And I thought about the signal that that we could send to the world about how we care about this institution when we buy the license plate with the Eagle on it.

Part of the funds that you pay for that license plate comes back to the university and we can use it for scholarships and build endowments. And so I am asking each of you who work at North Carolina Central University to buy our license plate.

I understand that you may have graduated from another institution in North Carolina, but this is where you get your check. We need to show that we pride in the place we work. And I want to ask every one of you that when you go to renew your license plate that you give that extra $15 or $25 so that you can have that Eagle and show the people in this community how proud you are of the place you work.

I really think that with all of us pulling and working together and respecting each other we are going to move this institution to the next level.

It is clear that during these times we are going to have to set priorities. We are going to do some things that maybe we haven't done before. And we are going to have show a great deal of discipline on decisions that we make about how we expend our resources until we can grow the enrollment and grow into more funding.

We must continue as faculty members to write grants and proposals to supplement our state allocations. Because we have Ph.D.s we have crossed the hot sands and that means that we have a certain level of skills. That means that we wrote a dissertation. We wrote major research projects. We have written articles and textbooks. And that means that we can write proposals that will help us with the operations of our departments. This is a must. We must continue to write contracts and grants to support our students and to support our programs.

Now, the Provost talked about these hard decisions, but I want everyone to understand that the number one priority is teaching. There is no priority that's higher than teaching. So we must be steadfast in our commitment to provide a quality education to those students who have entrusted us with their futures. And therefore just as we must tighten our belts and make hard decisions, we must maintain our ability to teach in a quality way.

North Carolina Central University has a great legacy. And there are those that came before us - great teachers, great thinkers and great administrators. But now the future of this institution has been entrusted to us. We're the ones on the scene today. Therefore we all must pull together to make certain that this institution is recognized as a high quality institution.

Throughout my discussions here there was a consistent message that rang loud and clear. And that is that everyone that I have had an opportunity to talk to believes that we can get the job done.

But again, we must work together. We must respect what each of us does at this university. And in doing that, we're going to make it.

I had a meeting with the deans this afternoon, and that was a great meeting because I learned so much about our academic program and all of the opportunities that we have. And there were some areas where I had not thought that we had the kind of opportunities that are before us. But all of that was revealed to me today during the discussions. And again, because of these discussions I am even more encouraged about the future of North Carolina Central University. The work that you're doing as faculty and staff and administrators is going to move us to that next level.

I am going to be coming back to the institution several times between now and June 1. As I indicated to the deans today, I want to visit each academic program. I want to meet with faculties and departments and programs across the university. And so we are going to work out a schedule so I can do that. I want to see where you're living and how you're living. And the only way I can do that is to come to your offices and your conference rooms to meet with you. And so, that is a part of the plan that I have between now and June.

And when you come back in the fall I will continue to do that. Chancellor Chambers is not here today, but I talked with him about coming to this meeting. I had some mixed feelings about coming to this meeting because, after all, this is his last faculty meeting. I didn't want to do anything that would detract from his relationship with you and his being able to bid you farewell. But he told me not to worry about that and to "come on."

And so I did. And I'm glad I had the opportunity to come to this meeting because in the previous visits I've had - and the newspaper reporters have asked me about this - when I came the first time I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Shepherd's family and to meet with the students. And I came back and had the chance to go the CIAA tournaments. That was just a big happening and I've got to get used to that. In Florida, football is the major sport. And up here it's basketball. I had an opportunity to do that and I came to the campus and met with the administrators.

But I had to find a way to meet with the faculty because of your importance to the success of this institution. So I'm here today. I'm glad I came. I am looking forward to building on the legacy that we have built at this institution from Dr. Shepherd on through Chancellor Chambers.

I believe that we are just a few steps away from greatness. Again, I haven't heard anything that makes me shake in my boots. I have seen similar situations, and I have seen those situations turned around. And together we can do that because, again, I believe that together we can soar to even higher heights of excellence.