Erskine Bowles doesn't leave office as UNC's system president until the end of the year, but plenty of people already have opinions on who should succeed him.

The search committee, once it's formed, will face plenty of pressure - or advice, if you will -  from the various university constituencies as it looks for the next leader of the public university system.

But unlike previous searches, the UNC system has a very tight budget - if any at all - with which to conduct a search, according to Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's governing board.

University campuses routinely spend $100,000 or more during searches for campus chancellors. Much of that money is spent on a search consultant, but it also pays for travel costs and other logistical expenses.

In 2005, the UNC system spend $89,000 on its search that culminated in the Bowles hiring, including $75,000 for a consultant.

Some say the system should look for a Bowles clone.

For more, read today's story.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles is expected to be named Thursday a co-chair of a new budget commission appointed by President Barack Obama.

Several news outlets are reporting that Bowles, former chief of staff in the Bill Clinton White House, and Alan Simpson, a longtime Republican senator from Wyoming, will co-chair a group formed to solve the government's budget problems.

Bowles announced last week his intention to step down as UNC president at the end of this year. He will have served five years as the head of the 16-campus public university system. The new role is not expected to draw him away from too much university business, said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

"I am completely comfortable with it and I am proud, frankly, that he has been selected," Gage said. "It is the kind of work that he is passionate about. I learned long ago that with Erskine Bowles, you never need to be concerned about his work ethic or the time the university system will receive."

In case you missed it: UNC President Erskine Bowles has announced his retirement plans.

Bowles, who started work at UNC Jan. 1, 2006, announced Friday that he'll step down at the end of the year.

But first, he has a lot of work to finish.

Jay Price reports.

An upcoming report on the state's pharmacist shortage may play into the UNC system's decision on two proposals by public universities to expand pharmacy programs.

UNC system officials said today they're still evaluating a request by UNC-Chapel Hill to create a distance education program to offer courses remotely to students in Asheville.

Additionally, the UNC system is considering a UNC-Greensboro request to create its own pharmacy school.

Those two requests are dissimilar and most likely would not both be granted, UNC system President Erskine Bowles said today.

"It's most likely an either/or," he said during a meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

UNC-CH currently has the state's sole public pharmacy school. UNCG wants the second, and has cited a 2002 study by the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-CH that found that the number of retail pharmacists per 10,000 citizens was decreasing even as the state’s population and the demand for prescription drugs was rising.

But is the demand for pharmacists the same as it was several years ago?

That may be the critical question here, and the Sheps Center has a new study on the way in a couple weeks that could shine some light on the current demand, officials said.

This morning, UNC system officials are updating the university's 2009-10 action plan, which is essentially UNC President Erskine Bowles' current to-do list.

The UNC system's Board of Governors is being briefed today on the status of this multi-pronged plan, which touches on a number of traditional public university goals like affordability, access and improving graduation and retention rates.

One big task this year: A comprehensive examination of the K-12 system in North Carolina to see how well teachers are doing and whether universities are turning out good teachers.

Another initiative: more closely linking enrollment funding to college campuses with their graduation rates. Bowles said last year he wants campuses to receive enrollment funding for new students only if they hit certain graduation and retention benchmarks.

You can read more about the university's 2009-10 action plan by clicking the attachment below.

Documents:

N.C. State got its man this morning.

The question now: For how long?

William "Randy" Woodson was named chancellor this morning by the UNC system's Board of Governors.

He comes from Purdue University, where he was the provost and, apparently, the chosen successor to current President France Cordova, who has held that post since summer 2007.

And there was a lot of interest in Indiana in keeping Woodson at Purdue. 

UNC system President Erskine Bowles said the university leadership made a significant counter-offer, going as far as saying Woodson was clearly Purdue's future president if that was his desire.

"They made it clear that when they get into the process of choosing their next president, when that time comes, it was his to lose," Bowles said in a press conference following the board's vote.

But, Bowles added, Woodson has assured UNC system leaders that he hopes the NCSU chancellor is his last job. 

Woodson is 52 and hopes to stay 10 to 15 years, Bowles said.

N.C. State University will soon learn the identity of its new leader.

A search committee has forwarded the names of three finalists for the chancellorship to UNC system President Erskine Bowles, who will conduct interviews and make the final recommendation to the UNC system's governing board.

A decision will most likely come at one of the board's next two meetings, Jan. 8 or Feb. 12, Jay Price reports in today's News & Observer.

Naturally, the search process and the identities of the finalists have been cloaked in secrecy. This has long been standard operating procedure for the state's public university system, where leaders have insisted that top candidates won't apply if they know their names will become public.

It can be a rather cloak-and-dagger enterprise. When N.C. Central University officials were looking for a new chancellor in 2007, members of the search committee took a secrecy oath. To review resumes of candidates, they had to use a secret password to key into a secure website. A consultant hired to help with the search communicated using code words rather than the actual names of candidates.

NCSU is looking for a successor to James Oblinger, the embattled former chancellor who stepped down earlier this year amid questions over his role in the controversial hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley.

Upon resigning his post, Oblinger brokered a severance deal with Bowles that the UNC system's governing board later modified, a move that led to subsequent conversations about the level of authority a university system president should have in negotiating with campus leaders.

Following his resignation, Oblinger was a finalist for the presidency of New Mexico State University. He spoke then about some regrets he had about how his tenure as NCSU chancellor ended. He also said then that if he didn't end up in New Mexico, he's remain on the NCSU faculty.

He didn't get the New Mexico State job.

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."

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