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."

Much has been made of late - particularly in this newspaper - about administrative bloat at the state's public universities.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles has called for a massive reduction in administrative positions across the state - to the tune of about 900 jobs, many of them filled.

But what, then, is an "administrator?" The broad use of the term is clearly bothering some folks. 

Take Alston Gardner, a trustee at UNC Chapel Hill. Gardner chairs the board's university affairs committee and this week gave a pep talk of sorts to Interim Provost Bruce Carney and to administrators, er, leaders, er, officials.

Anyhow, Gardner's point was that calling top academic officials at UNC-CH "administrators" sold them short.

"As if your job is to shuffle papers from one side of your desk to the other," Gardner said. "What you do is not 'administration.' What you do is leadership."

To give you an idea of just how vague the term "administrator" is these days, consider this: Last week, the UNC system released a list of administrative positions eliminated across the state as part of a massive budget-cutting initiative. At UNC-CH, 202 positions were eliminated. They all fall under that "administrator" umbrella. 

(You can see much of that information by clicking on the attachment below)

Here are 10 I'm picking out to illustrate how wide-ranging this categorization can be.

* Outdoor Drama program director.

*Project manager, N.C. Institute for Public Health Outreach

* Assistant dean, director of core facilities, school of medicine

* Receptionist - Renaissance Computing Institute.

* Security Guard, school of public health. 

* Associate vice chancellor, information technology.

* Facilities maintenance technician.

* Database administrator

* Development officer, Friday Center

*  Natural science educator, N.C. Botanical Garden

Documents:

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.

In the paper today, a Chapel Hill resident writes in knocking the UNC system's recent approval of a plan that will require all public university students to purchase health insurance.

She writes in part that the insurance mandate is "nothing more than a blatant attempt by the university administrators to force the proposed Obama/Democratic health-care policies on students without giving them a say in the matter."

The UNC system folks I've talked to about this program say they did it to create equity across the UNC system. Currently, each campus offers its own health insurance plan. Some mandate it, others don't, and coverage costs and terms vary pretty widely.

So is the health insurance plan a good idea? A political move? What say you?

Here's our story on the plan.

At some point in the next year or two, Erskine Bowles will most likely step down from his post as UNC system president.

He took office Jan. 1, 2006, and he turns 65 - the traditional retirement age - next August.

But in a wide-ranging chat Tuesday with reporters and editors at the News & Observer, he made clear he doesn't want to leave the job until he cleans up some of the messes facing him right now. 

Controversies over a retreat rights policy that for five years has paid top administrators boatloads of money after they leave their jobs; a bloated payroll filled with administrative jobs and associated costs Bowles is now pledging to reduce; and of course, the state's economic woes, which have led to more than $170 million in UNC system budget cuts this year.

Bowles has a lot to say on these issues and others. You can read our coverage here and watch a video of the interview here.

And click here for today's main News & Observer editorial, which lauds Bowles for his attention to shaving administrative costs.

Some other tidbits from the Tuesday conversation:

On the Mary Easley situation: Bowles said that when revelations about the former First Lady's pay hike - of more than 80 percent - first emerged, he was skeptical.

"I just grossly underestimated how long that matter would be before the people of the state," he said. "I honestly thought that, really, the hiring of her before I got here, that she was a big star and you all would look at it and there would be no "there" there. I just underestimated, grossly, the whole depth of the situation."

 On the growth over time of administrative costs, which he now pledges to cut back.

"I think we've made some progress, but facts are facts. My hope is that at this time next year you'll see incredible progress."

and...

"Universities aren't businesses. When given a new task, since everybody is busy, the first thought is to bring someone else on to handle the task."

 Bowles, a former White House Chief of Staff, has also managed in large and small business settings and led the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

But education, he said, is the most challenging field in which to manage.

"Education is more resistant to change," he said. "And it's more difficult to manage in than any of those other businesses."

On the hiring of chancellors: Bowles was asked whether he thought universities ought to be more open to hiring people like himself, "non-traditional" candidates with business backgrounds, to lead public university campuses.

"I think it's invaluable to have the breadth and experience for my job," he said. "But for the chancellor job, I really think you need a significant amount of experience on a campus. I didn't think that before I had a chance to manage in this field. [But] Having credibility with the faculty, and understanding the business, is not something that comes naturally to someone like myself."

The UNC system is looking at eliminating about 900 administrative positions as it deals with a $171 million cut to its budget.

UNC system campuses are under pressure to cull their administrative ranks, and UNC system President Erskine Bowles has urged campuses to make administrative positions the top priority and to protect the academic core.

The 900 positions will account for much of what campuses will be asked to cut this year, though UNC leaders say there may be other administrative reductions as well aside from jobs lost.

It isn't yet clear how many of those positions are filled, a UNC system spokeswoman said today. Since last fall, campuses have held positions vacant in the face of the budget shortfall.

Administrative costs on university campuses have come under scrutiny lately. An Aug. 17 News & Observer report showed that administrative ranks across the UNC system had swelled by 28 percent over five years, from 1,269 administrative jobs to 1,623 last year.

That increase in administrators outpaced the growth of faculty and other teaching positions, which was 24 percent, as well as student enrollment, which climbed 14 percent.

A tuition subsidy for out-of-state students - created in large part to help athletic booster clubs at UNC system campuses - is creating a surge in non-residents at UNC Chapel Hill.

Since 2005, the amount of out-of-state students in the UNC-CH freshman class has grown considerably.

Joe Neff reports.

The job title "associate vice chancellor" sounds prestigious enough. But at UNC Chapel Hill, it surely isn't rare.

At UNC-CH, there were 10 such administrators a decade ago. Now, 19.

We're not picking on Carolina here; this is just an example of the sort of growth in administration that campus and UNC system leaders are now honing in on now as the university enters a new era of efficiency and budget cutting.

In today's News & Observer, we take a look at how these administrative positions - that bring with them pretty good salaries - have grown in recent years.

Here's the story.

To the Chapel Hill campus's credit, its leaders were ahead of the curve a bit, commissioning a study last year that examined the institution's financial structure and organizational charts. It found some bloat and has made plenty of recommendations. You can read more about that here.

Former N.C. State University Chancellor James Oblinger just got a pay cut.

Oblinger, who resigned in early June amid revelations over his role in the hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley, had until today [Friday] been earning his full administrative salary - $420,000 annually, or $35,000 a month.

Under an agreement he forged with UNC system President Erskine Bowles when he resigned, he was to receive that full salary for six months before returning to the faculty at a lower wage.

But the UNC system's Board of Governors voted Friday to scale his pay back immediately. He will now earn $173,000 annually, a salary commensurate with other members of the NCSU faculty. He will teach food science.

"This is absolutely an appropriate salary, and after such a careful process I am completely comfortable with it," said James Woodward, NCSU's interim chancellor.

The UNC system board's vote was split, with 17 members voting for the change and 10 voting against it. Many who opposed the change said they did so in support of Bowles' decision.

The change in salary over the four months that Oblinger would have received his full pay amounts to about $82,000.

"I think the board acknowledged [Oblinger's] enormous contributions but felt there needed to be consequences for some things that went terribly wrong," said Hannah Gage, the UNC system board's chairwoman. "I think everyone is glad to put this behind us."

Oblinger resigned as chancellor in early June after admitting to Bowles that he had played a role in the university's hiring of former state First Lady Mary Easley in 2005.

Oblinger had long maintained that he wasn't involved, and in his resignation letter wrote that he had simply forgotten his involvement and hadn't intentionally done anything wrong.

Oblinger could not be reached Friday.

For more on this story, read Saturday's News & Observer.