A chat with Glenn Adams, NCCU's new trustee chief

Glenn Adams knows N.C. Central University needs higher standards and better retention and graduation rates.

But as the new chair of NCCU's Board of Trustees, Adams also doesn't want a cookie-cutter approach where all public universities are evaluated in the same way.

Adams, of Fayetteville, is a criminal lawyer who received his bachelor's degree from N.C. State University in 1981 and his law degree from NCCU in 1984.

He talked with the N&O recently about his new role as head of the trustee board and what he sees as the key issues.

Here are excerpts:

So what's first on your priority list for NCCU?

The number one top priority is the budget issue that all the universities are dealing with in North Carolina. We have to make sure student quality is there for the students, as well as trying to preserve classes and faculty and staff. So dealing with the budget issue is the number one issue.

How do you see the board's role on that?

It's in conjunction with the chancellor - he keeps us informed with how he's going to deal with the budget cuts, what needs to go, what doesn't need to go. We're there to help him and give him suggestions.

The BOT, as well as citizens in general, we need to impress upon our legislature the importance of education. I think its incumbent upon us to talk to them. Though we're in a budget crisis, the brunt of it can't come from education. You don't want to have a big cut in education. And, in those cuts, you really don't want to make it more difficult for young folk to go to school.

So a trustee is essentially a lobbyist for the university?

Yes, that's one of the roles we have to play.

The UNC system is placing a greater emphasis these days on improving retention and graduation rates. How will this take place at NCCU?

That has been one of the things the chancellor has talked about. It makes sense. you recruit them, and you have to compete to recruit, but if you keep them there, you don't have to recruit as many new people because you're keeping people there. We have changed the way the university looks.

We have a University College now, where all freshmen come in and we make sure they get the proper advising. He says, all the time that graduation is the destination. So I think it can be fixed. What we're doing is putting it as a priority.

So that could mean more resources, which are scarce. But putting money into some of those things, like advising, are important, right?

Yes. We need to make sure on the advising side that our students know what to take at the right time.

These are young folk. Sometimes, we can take what we think is the easy way out. We need to make sure they stay on task. When I went to N.C. State, way back when, I had an advisor and before I enrolled I had to go see the advisor. That's what we're looking at. You have to talk to an advisor and take the courses that you and we think need to be taken. So yes, the advising piece is a big piece.

Is it your feeling that you can have success quickly?

With the people we have in place and the team the chancellor has assembled, I think we'll have a marked increase. Our goal would be to keep everybody. Whether that's realistic....it will take time to get to that. But what we want to do is see a steady, market increase towards that goal.

What's your feeling on the new UNC system philosophy to more closely connect enrollment growth with retention and graduation rate success?

I think that in theory it's a good idea. Each one of these member schools of the UNC system serve a different populace and a different goal. So it's fine, but you can't have one number to serve everybody.

They can't say that in order to do this, you must have an 85 percent retention rate. I don't think the UNC system should just say that this is the number and everybody has to reach it.

Success is done in different ways. I think it has to be tailored to each one of the campuses.

(Editor's note: The UNC system's tentative plan would use retention and graduation rate goals specific to each of the 16 public universities. There would not be one single target)

Meaning, your students have different backgrounds and abilities than those at other campuses?

You've got some universities doing the Ph.d and master's programs and some that don't. So just as each one of these schools has as different mission, when the UNC system talked about the retention rate they need to take this all into consideration.

For some of these universities, there are a lot more kids who are first-generation college students. That's different from kids at other schools whose father and grandfather went through and know what to expect.

How would you characterize the relationship now between NCCU and the neighborhoods surrounding it, given a somewhat contentious master planning process?

When we approved our master plan, I was sitting in the meeting. Inside the meeting, there's a somewhat vocal group that says we don't really like the master plan. But a number of those people in the opposition didn't own houses around the university. Some of the people who own houses - there was one lady who said she had a house near the university and that she knew she'd have to leave eventually and would. Another woman said "I'm ready to leave today."

So, it's according to who you're listening to. But the people around the university know the university needs to grow.

Even in the midst of the budget cuts, and we all felt that, good things came out. We looked at things that were working and things that weren't working to decide where best to put your money. But because of that we had to shift from dealing with the master plan to dealing with the budget cuts.

Do you feel that the New Birth situation was adequately resolved? (Last year, NCCU officials discovered that the university had, for four years, run an unsanctioned satellite campus housed at the suburban Atlanta church run by Eddie Long, who was a trustee then but recently left the post when his term ended)

I think it has been. The chancellor came in around the same time it came up. The chancellor, with the administration and the UNC system, resolved that matter expeditiously and in a very successful manner.

Do you have any idea how it originated?

I do not. It's before I got on the board.

Have you talked to Eddie Long about it?

I was on it six years and he was on it four or five of the six years. Eddie was an excellent trustee and was clearly an asset to the university.

Okay, but did he ever offer an explanation?

What we did was, the chancellor resolved it with the UNC system and reported back to us. I didn't get into it, into going to an individual trustee to get into it.

Tell me about the athletic department's move to Division I and competing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. How will that help the university?

The big deal is this: the university did the proper planning before deciding to go Division I. That makes all the difference. The administration did the proper groundwork to move us to Division I. In terms of the schools in the MEAC and the exposure - there's nothing like seeing your name come across ESPN on a Saturday or Sunday when you're playing football or basketball. It's just tremendous.

Is the exposure - the raising of the profile - is that the payoff?

Raising exposure is the payoff. But being able to compete - in your athletic program you want to compete against the best. That's what we're allowing our college athletes to do.