UNC's Tom Ross, in his own words

Tom Ross is the youngest of four boys born to Charles and Mary Ross, both Charlotte natives. They family lived in Greensboro, where young Tom developed a love for baseball by listening to Cincinnati Reds games on the radio.

He went to Davidson College, where he developed an interest in public service that has guided him through his working life.

On Jan. 1, Ross will leave Davidson, where he's the current president, to take over leadership of the UNC system. It's a big jump in scale - from a private college of 1,700 students to a 17-campus public system of 200,000 students. But Ross's many supporters say he's just the man for the job.

I spoke with Ross recently in his Davidson College office, which is dotted with baseballs and other memorabilia from his favorite sport. They include a Reds ball cap autographed by Pete Rose and a baseball autographed, illogically enough, by the staff of the court clerk's office in Catawba Cabarrus County.

That interview yielded a profile of Ross in today's paper.

A former judge who also directed the administrative office of the state's court system, Ross has cut a broad swath through North Carolina government and politics, and he spoke at length of his service.

Here are excerpts.

Why did you attend Davidson?

Probably not the best of reasons. In all candor, I'm not sure I was ready to go to college. I'm not sure I saw the value of college. I probably chose Davidson because my father went here and desperately wanted one of us to go here, and I was the last one standing. I got in, so I went. I think I knew I needed a small school that could give me some individual attention. If I went to a larger school, I probably would have gotten lost in the shuffle. And it turned out to be transforming for me.

How do you explain your interest in public service?

I think some of it comes from my parents. I'm sure some of it comes from my church experience, and from scouting. And I think it crystallized and became strongest in me when I was at Davidson. Davidson has as part of its mission to create lives of leadership and service. That's part of the mission. We're about preparing people for lives of leadership and service. I think I got that message here. It sunk in and resonated with me because I was involved in service projects here.

I was a political science major and got interested in the role of government. And then I got married. The day I got married was the day Watergate happened. June 17, 1972. And so a lot of my law school experience was with Watergate going on. It brought home the fragility of government. People forget how close we were to maybe the system not working.

I've been told you're a big fan of the Cincinnati Reds. How'd they do last night?

They won. Behind 1-0 in the sixth but scored 6 and won. (Editor's note: He's way off. The Reds actually scored 6 in the seventh inning. But yes, they won, 6-1)

How did you become a Cincinnati Reds fan?

When I was a kid, there wasn't much on TV. On the radio, the station I could pick up best was the Cincinnati station. The Reds was sort of the choice. I just became enamored of them.

What do you think about Pete Rose?

I can say I think the Hall of Fame has in the past been about baseball. There are people in the Hall of Fame whose morals and conduct I think baseball is probably not proud of, but were great baseball players. If it's a Hall of Fame for baseball, the guy with more hits than anyone has demonstrated an ability to play baseball.

(photo courtesy insidesocal.com)

He was one of your favorites?

Oh, absolutely. He was on those '75 and '76 [World Series winning] teams.

Did you really work the first-down chain gang at your son's high school football games?

I did it with three friends. There were five of us total, actually. Grimsley High School in Greensboro. We were just friends and it was a great way to spend a Friday night. I started doing it far before my son played, and I did it several years after he left. It was partially about the camaraderie with my friends, and it was partially about high school football, which to me is the best part of football because kids play it because they love it.

And it gave rise to the best campaign ad ever - An ad showing me holding the chains and it said "Keep the judge on the chain gang."

Some have said your time running the administrative office of the courts helped prepare you for the UNC job because both are large operations with many constituencies. What do you think?

I think the AOC is a management and budget challenge for anybody. It's an interesting but difficult job. You have lots of different constituencies. When I was there, there were more than 5,500 employees in 100 counties around the state. Five hundred of them or so are elected officials and most of the rest are hired and fired by those elected officials. So you have to manage without all the tools. You don't have the power to hire and fire. It had incredibly competing demands for money, whether the DAs competing with judges, or technology. There was always a shortage of resources. And everyone has needs. Everyone wants the resources.

So are there similarities with the job you're headed to next?

When I came here [to Davidson], I remember being asked about what experiences I'd had that might equip me for this job, and I talked about the challenge of managing without having all the tools in front of you. At the university - 17 campuses, 17 leaders of those campuses, faculty, staff, students, there's obviously a wide range of constitutent interests and groups that all have interests.

One thing you need to do is make sure the competition is in house. If you have constituent groups nibbling at the edges at the legislature the ultimate outcome could be worse.
The legislature has a tough enough job - if you're not clear about your needs, you're going to come out worse.

Your predecessor at UNC, Erskine Bowles, has described himself as a change agent. Do you see yourself that way?

I don't know. I have to get there and see. But that's a term that has been applied to me at every job I've had. So I'm sure changes will happen. On the other hand, we cannot be so focused on change and short-term issues like the financial situation that we lose sight of what's good every day. So I want to learn also about what we're doing well so we can hold those things up, provide more resources for them, make them better.

At the end of the day, it's about providing good educational experiences for students. I think Erskine's right. Anyone in this job has to be looking for things that need change, but I also hope times have changed enough that we can look for ways to support people on the front lines carrying out the educational experience.

Do you anticipate making significant staffing changes in the president's office at UNC?

I don't know yet. I don't even know yet how it's structured. I've always believed in the commitment and dedication of people in their jobs. Usually, they wouldn't be in their jobs if they weren't committed to it. But mostly, I start out thinking these are good people doing good work. I don't go in with preconceived notions.

Some conservatives are bothered by the work you did with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, saying you funneled money to many agencies supporting a very liberal agenda. Will you come at this job with a leftist agenda?

I'm sure we made some grants at the foundation some would characterize as conservative. We worked with non-profits of all sides. We had a coalition of funders who I think anyone would consider pretty conservative and pretty liberal.  I think what we did was try to build partnerships. And like any organization, no one person makes the decisions. There's a board that does it. And I think I have a history of working with people of all sorts of backgrounds to solve problems. I come to the University of North Carolina with one agenda - that is educational excellence in the state of North Carolina.

I'm not focused on what people say about me. When I leave the university, I don't really care if they talk much about me. I hope they'll talk about the institution and how successful it is and how strong NC is and how strong its economy is. There will be people on all sides of the aisle who will be critical of what I do. But that's the way it was. When I cut budgets here [at Davidson], there were people who didn't like it. But it had to be done. I was criticized during the sentencing reform for being much too tough on crime. The sentences were too long. So you get criticized. You just have to do what's right.

You clearly enjoy this job at Davidson. Why are you moving on?

Maybe you get a sense of the struggle I've had. I'm sorry if I get emotional. This place has really been a powerful force in my life. It's a terrific community. It's the hardest decision I've ever made.

I think there are times in somebody's life when you know you have a responsibility you have to fulfill. You can call it 'a call,' or a sense of duty or answering the bell, whatever. It is a force that tells you this is what you need to do. This is your responsibility, your duty, your calling. I'll be honest with you. I fought that a little bit here because I can't absolutely be sure it lines up with my personal desires. But this state has been my life.