CHAPEL HILL – Five days after the University of North Carolina posted its athletic director job, search committee chair Lowry Caudill said this morning he has been pleased with the response.

“For a week into the process formally, I’m very impressed with the quality of the candidates that have been nominated or presented themselves,” Caudill said today after a meeting of the search committee.

The committee met for about 2 ½ hours this morning, and all but the first 30 minutes were conducted privately in executive session while candidates were discussed.

This week's News & Observer Tar Heel of the Week is Royce Murray, a chemist at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Murray, 73, is in his 50th year on the faculty in Chapel Hill. Yep. 50 years. The periodic table was smaller back in 1960. He's been around for a while.

But it isn't about longevity. It's about the longtime professor's influence on his students, co-workers and, in fact, the physical plant of the campus he's called home now for half a century.