Former UNC-CH Provost Bernadette Gray-Little has her hands full.

Gray-Little left Chapel Hill last year for the chancellor at the University of Kansas. This week, she's facing a stiff early test.

Her university has revealed a shocking ticket-scalping scheme in which a handful of now-former university employees diverted basketball and football tickets valued at more than $1 million to sell for personal profit.

_{(Photo: Kansas City Star)}

Yikes.

According to published reports, five members of the KU athletics staff, along with a consultant, sold or used nearly 20,000 game tickets over about five years.

“There were many victims of this activity: Our fans, donors, alumni, Kansas Athletics and the university as a whole,” Gray-Little was quoted as saying. “We sincerely regret the distress that this situation has caused our loyal fans and any loss of confidence that may have resulted.”

Athletics officials at KU say they don't anticipate NCAA sanctions over this scandal, but it's an ugly incident nonetheless.

Meanwhile, another former UNC-CH provost running a major public university is also extra-busy these days.

Robert Shelton, who preceded Gray-Little as Carolina's chief academic officer, is now president of the University of Arizona. As such, he's knee-deep in the controversy surrounding that state's controversial new immigration law.

He said recently that some promising incoming students from other states had decided to go elsewhere out of concerns about racial profiling.

 Bernadette Gray-Little is the second straight UNC Chapel Hill provost to leave Carolina for the top job at another major public university.

Gray-Little, who was just tapped for the chancellorship at the University of Kansas, has served as provost at UNC-CH since 2006. She succeeded Robert Shelton, who left the post to take the presidency of the University of Arizona.

For UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp, the vacancy is an opportunity to put his stamp on his executive cabinet. And as he says in this open letter regarding Gray-Little's impending departure, the provost's job is a big one. The provost is the university's chief academic officer, overseeing 13 schools, the College of Arts and Sciences, the university libraries and assorted other academic units.

The local newspaper out in Kansas sent a reporter to profile Gray-Little. You can read that story here.