SciQuest, a Cary technology company that allows businesses and universities to order supplies and services online, has signed a major new client: the University of North Carolina.

The UNC system’s general administration will use SciQuest’s technology to help reduce costs as part of a broader effort to bolster its fiscal health.

To reduce its budget, the system also has been cutting hundreds of administrative jobs.

“From Day One of my tenure, we’ve been working on multiple fronts to operate our entire university more efficiently and effectively,” said UNC president Erskine Bowles, in a prepared statement. “SciQuest has a proven track record of enabling cost savings.”

The UNC contract, which could be worth “a couple million bucks over several years,” isn’t SciQuest’s biggest deal, but has the potential to be in the top five, said CEO Stephen Wiehe. The total value will depend on how much UNC uses SciQuest’s technology and whether all schools in the 16-campus system sign on.

But it’s an important victory for the local company to finally sign up this state’s university system, Wiehe said.

Erskine Bowles will tell you: He's no marketing genius.

But in his role as the president of the UNC system, he is a pitchman of sorts. He has a product and he has to sell it - to taxpayers, to legislators, to students and their parents.

And now, he wants to raise his game.

In remarks Friday during a meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors, Bowles spoke of recent meetings with legislators. He said those lawmakers were surprised, and pleasantly so, to hear about the long list of projects and goals Bowles and his staff have put together for the current year.

So Bowles now wants to tell the university's success stories more often.

To that end, Bowles now plans on monthly progress reports on big university initiatives to be distributed to lawmakers. He wants to demonstrate that projects funded by taxpayers are underway and doing what they're supposed to be doing.

"I haven't done as good a job as I should do to get the positive messages out," he said. "We have a job to protect the reputation of this critically important jewel. I've got to do a better job of that. I think we all do."

Each month during board meetings, Bowles runs down a list of accomplishments and notable achievements by UNC system campuses, faculty, staff and students.

A few from the last month:

* North Carolina A & T and UNC Greensboro broke ground on a new, joint nanoscience and nanoengineering school that will emphasize research and commercialization of products generated there.

For Greensboro residents, this new project represents economic hope, Bowles said Friday.
"They've lost textiles and apparel and furniture," he said. "This is a chance for new industry."

* The marching bands from N.C. Central University and Western Carolina were each selected for the Tournament of Roses, the big New Year's Day parade in Pasadena. Only 13 bands were selected.

* N.C. State celebrated the 25th anniversary of Centennial Campus, a public/private research venture that has served as a model for other similar ventures.

* A 2003 NCSU alum, Doc Hendley, has been recognized by CNN for a non-profit organization he set up that builds and sanitizes water wells in developing countries.

A day after forging a working relationship with a special operations unit from Fort Bragg, UNC system President Erskine Bowles was still excited.

On Thursday, the UNC system created a formal partnership with the United States Army Special Operations Command, the Fort Bragg-based unit that trains Green Berets, Army Rangers and the like for the sorts of overseas missions we don't always hear a lot about.

During a Friday meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors, Bowles spoke of the new partnership as the university's way of making a difference.

"It's not only a chance to serve a market where we can bring a great deal of expertise to bear," he said. "It's our chance as civilians to really do something to positively impact our national security."

Click here for more.

The UNC Board of Governors plans to take up the issue of paid leaves for administrators at its meetings Thursday and Friday, addressing concerns that the often six-figure payments to campus officials have gotten out of hand.

The leaves are intended to help administrators prepare for a return to teaching, but The News & Observer reported in August that paid leaves had been given to campus administrators who then retired, got jobs elsewhere or were shown the door. Some leave deals also violated UNC system policies.

Here's more from staff writer Eric Ferreri's Campus Notes blog. 

Documents:

The UNC system and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command are partnering to share expertise.

The two agencies will announce their partnership Thursday morning during UNC system Board of Governors meetings. UNC officials are billing the relationship as a "collaborative partnership" allowing the military and academic communities to share expertise and interest in national security.

Army Special Operations is headquartered at Ft. Bragg near Fayetteville. It is charged with the full range of special operations from unconventional warfare to civil-military operations, according to a UNC news release.

The working agreement between the two agencies will encourage: the exchange of medical, culture, language and management negotiation training instructors; business school suppor for an Army course; degree opportunities for soldiers and their spouses and families; a relationship with UNC-sponsored Fulbright Scholars, and other initiatives.

For more on this new partnership, click on the memo attached to this blog post.

Documents:

Some thoughts from UNC Chapel Hill's University Day celebration:

Holden Thorp can do no wrong, apparently.

Erskine Bowles, who as the UNC system's president is Thorp's boss, told a packed house at Memorial Hall Monday that he was, shall we say, quite pleased with himself for naming Thorp to the UNC-CH chancellorship last year.

"Holden Thorp is doing a phenomenal job," Bowles told the crowd. "He is, without a doubt, the single best decision I've made in my life."

Both Thorp and Gov. Beverly Perdue - who gave Monday's featured speech - pointed out to Bowles that perhaps he'd like to temper his enthusiasm just a smidge so as not to enrage his wife, Crandall Close Bowles.

For three decades, James Holshouser has sat on the UNC system's Board of Governors, listening as others spoke.

His silence is so customary, in fact, that at the rare moment when the former governor does speak on an issue, the room quickly falls silent.

Hannah Gage, the board's current chair, likens Holshouser to the character in the old E.F. Hutton commercials. When he talks, people listen.

"He never preaches, never lectures, and he always illuminates our path," Gage said Friday. "He's the rare individual who only talks when he has something important to say."

Holshouser was the center of a quick celebration Friday by the UNC system board, feted both for his 75th birthday the day before and to honor his 30 years of board service. He was presented with a cake with 30 candles, and his fellow board members serenaded him with a warbly version of "Happy Birthday" that made clear that none should quit their day jobs.

Holshouser became governor in 1973, narrowly defeating Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles. These days, Holshouser sits on the board whose top staff member is UNC system President Erskine Bowles, the son of the man he defeated in that gubernatorial race.

Holshouser served one term as governor and not long after became a member of the UNC board, which sets policy for all public universities.

"If you keep your mouth shut most of the time, people will think you're smarter than you are," he quipped. "I throw that out as a piece of advice for some members of this board."

A UNC Chapel Hill professor is making the case for Erskine Bowles.

Walter C. Farrell, Jr., a social work professor at UNC-CH, writes in the Fayetteville Observer this  weekend that Bowles, the UNC system president, has deftly handled all manner of challenge during his tenure as the head of the public university system.

Farrell, who is researching higher education leadership, writes that Bowles has dealt well with a long series of challenges during his time in the university's top job. From a series of financial and leadership problems at N.C. A & T University, to the discovery of an unsanctioned campus run by N.C. Central University, to the still-ongoing saga related to N.C. State's former chancellor, James Oblinger, and his role in the hiring of former First Lady Mike Easley - Bowles has had his hands full.

And Farrell says he's done a good job.

He writes in part:

The UNC system has been fortunate to have effective leaders during critical stages of its development: William Friday at its founding, during the volatile phase of campus desegregation, and the merger of historically black public colleges into the UNC structure; and Erskine Bowles in this era of economic uncertainty and management malfunction on UNC campuses. Both were and are the right leaders for their times.

Here's the entire column.

This morning, UNC system President Erskine Bowles is speaking about the 900 or so administrative jobs being cut from the UNC system budget.

Stay tuned for details. But here's what Bowles just told members of the UNC system's Board of Governors at the start of two days of meetings.

Like every other organization in America, without exception, this organization has gone through some pretty tough times in the last 18 months. We've let a lot of folks go. We've abolished over 900 administrative positions. A year ago, well over 600 were filled. Anyone in this room who has ever fired anybody or instituted a RIF (reduction in force) knows that is really painful. It's really tough on the people who lose their jobs, but I'm here to tell you it's not easy on the people instituting it.

These jobs aren't just cuts. They're real people who were in them and real families who were depending on them. They were folks who were working hard at this university trying to do their part to provide the students the education they need. A lot of them still don't have jobs. I get emails from a lot of them and they're suffering a lot. So while we may get some kudos for doing the right thing in tough times, I'm telling you it's not without some pain.

We knew where to cut. We have cut our administrative costs on a permanent basis by over 18 percent. When you add the one-time administrative cut, we've cut it by over 22 percent. As I said, that was over 900 jobs that were abolished. At the same time, we were able to protect the academic core and on a permanent basis, we have only cut the academic core by less than 1 percent. When you add in the one-time cuts, it's about 5.2 percent. I think we've done this and done it smart.

These administrative cuts - they weren't just from anywhere. Because we had worked so hard to develop a roadmap. That's what we've been working on. We were able to make these administrative cuts where we had duplication or overlap, and where we had enough strength that we could afford to slim down. But most important, while we made these cuts, I can look you in the eye and tell you we have protected the academic core. We have protected our ability to manage this place effectively.