A few things you probably won't know about N.C. State's next chancellor until you read Jay Price's profile:

 1: He likes his home-brewed beer.

2. He learned the value of hard work at a rural Arkansas greenhouse.

3. Jay Leno once worked him into a joke.

Hooked yet? Click here to read the profile of Randy Woodson, NCSU's next leader.

It's been a busy week for the Woodson family of West Lafayette, IN.

First, dad Randy Woodson, Purdue's provost got a new job, the chancellorship at N.C. State.

But that's not the most exciting family news this week. Woodson's son, Patrick, got engaged Thursday to his girlfriend, Aubrey Roberts.

Here's the thing: Patrick's proposal came after the couple arrived in North Carolina on the eve of dad Randy's hiring at NCSU.

The site of the proposal? The Old Well. At Carolina. You know, NCSU's chief rival? The sky's Carolina Blue, all that?

 "Patrick thought the iconic well would be a good setting," Randy Woodson told a room full of well-wishers Friday following his selection as NCSU's new chancellor. "I'm a little embarrassed by this, obviously. I would have much preferred this would happen in Raleigh!"

 It appears the younger Woodson is already a fan of the mixed marriage. He is a graduate student at Purdue studying environmental engineering and Aubrey is a nursing student at Indiana University.

Purdue and Indiana are that state's two largest public universities and are, of course, rivals. 

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 is set to name Purdue's provost as its next chancellor.

NCSU and UNC system President Erskine Bowles this week zeroed in on William "Randy" Woodson, the provost at Purdue University in central Indiana.

Like NCSU, Purdue is a large, public, land-grant university and Woodson has a long background in horticulture.

The UNC system's Board of Governors is expected to approve Woodson's hiring Friday morning.

 Here's the story.

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.

James Oblinger won't be leaving N.C. State for the presidency of New Mexico State University.

Oblinger, who left the NCSU chancellorship earlier this year amid questions over his handling of the Mary Easley affair, was a finalist for the presidency in New Mexico.

But that university selected another candidate, Barbara Couture.

In an interview last month with the News & Observer, Oblinger indicated that he still has the bug for academic administration and felt the New Mexico State job would have been a good fit for him. 

At the time, he added that he hadn't been pursuing any other jobs and planned to return to the NCSU faculty if he didn't end up in New Mexico.

Well, this should help the old resume.

David Babson, an N.C. State student, just got published in a scholarly physics journal. Wait, isn't that what his professors are supposed to do?

Here's what happened: Two years ago, Babson was working through a problem in his electromagnetism textbook and just couldn't figure out how to get the answer the book was telling him was correct.

That's because the book was wrong. The problem concerning a basics physics principle was flawed.

Here's Babson's story.

There was a week earlier this year when all James Oblinger wanted to do was celebrate success. For the N.C. State Chancellor, there were three groundbreakings that week marking the start of significant new construction project on campus, each of which would eventually yield something good for NCSU.

Yet those ceremonial events all took place as the heat around Oblinger grew. He now calls it "the swirl," a frenzy of media activity surrounding the actions he and others took in hiring former First Lady Mary Easley for a job that didn't exist before she was placed in it.

It was during that week that Oblinger realized he had to step down.

"I never got a question about how great it was for the university," he said of the groundbreakings that week. "The only questions were about the situation. That meant I was overshadowing a lot of great work. I had never planned on anything other than retiring as chancellor at N.C. State University."

Since resigning June 9, Oblinger has stayed largely out of the public eye. But he's now in the running for a new job - the presidency of New Mexico State University - and he knows he'll be facing some tough questions there. 

He already has, in fact, and the folks doing the interviews seem pleased with what they've heard. He'll be down there in November for campus interviews, and the university expects to make a decision Nov. 19.

"We're aware of the situation that happened at N.C. State," Del Archuleta, who is chairing the New Mexico State search, told me this morning. "But he's extremely experienced, very professional. He appeared a very sincere man and very qualified. It looks to us like an unfortunate set of circumstances. He told us mistakes were made and things were learned from it."

In an interview Wednesday, Oblinger spoke at length about how he's spent the last four months since resigning the chancellorship. He has been on leave, and thus has had time to both reflect on his actions and to re-tool and prepare for his next venture, as an NCSU faculty member.

But when the New Mexico State job came up, it sounded to him like a good fit. 

Here's today's story from that interview.

James Oblinger, the former N.C. State chancellor who resigned earlier this year amid questions over his handling of the hiring of former First lady Mary Easley and other issues, is a finalist for another top university gig.

Oblinger is one of five finalists for the presidency of the New Mexico State University system.

Oblinger's departure at NCSU was an ugly one. He resigned as questions mounted over his handling of Easley's hiring and of the departure package he okayed for Provost Larry Nielsen.

Months after his resignation, the UNC system's Board of Governors even reduced the amount of pay he received in his own settlement.

And yet, he's not the New Mexico State candidate with the freshest wounds. That would be another of the five announced finalists, Richard Herman.

Herman resigned as chancellor of the University of Illinois just last week, embroiled in a scandal related to his university's admissions process.

Has it been 25 years already?

N.C. State's Centennial Campus is celebrating its 25th birthday today. Among the activities: a groundbreaking for a new library.

Jay Price reports.