Changes in University Administration: Chancellor Woodson

Kelly Hook explains how students, particularly Student Government leaders, respond to changes in university leadership, specifically the installation of Randy Woodson as NC State's chancellor.

Interview on 2012-05-02 00:00:00 -0400

Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well the scandal with Mary Easley happened while Jim [Ceresnak] was student body president
00:00:07.014 and that really defined his tenure
00:00:10.690 and that's kind of my main memory because he was on WRAL talking as the sole representative of the university for a week, almost.
00:00:19.212 They were calling him for interviews and he just had to step up to the plate because of that turmoil that the whole campus went through,
00:00:28.179 and for student government we didn't really know what to do because many of has had spent so long trying to implement a few projects
00:00:36.469 that were just now making their way up to the chancellor, the original chancellor,
00:00:40.454 so when the new chancellor came in I think you have two sets of feelings.
00:00:45.602 One is: Is he going to see the projects that we've already been working on, and that's probably not going to be a priority.
00:00:51.393 I mean the poor guy has so many things he has to do when he first comes in.
00:00:55.063 What happens to all the things we'd set in motion that would need to be approved by the chancellor, funded by, hopefully, the university, etcetera?
00:01:03.185 But on the other hand I think you'd see it as a huge opportunity,
00:01:07.330 and we definitely saw it as an opportunity because here is a new chancellor that Jim was on the search committee for,
00:01:13.145 so he helped select that chancellor and he clearly was excited about NC State.
00:01:18.897 He had a different demeanor, not necessarily better or worse just different,
00:01:22.979 and in a good way I think for what student government wanted to do student wise.
00:01:27.588 I mean he came in and as any chancellor probably would he came in wanting to do great things for students,
00:01:35.211 wanting to hear student concerns, wanting to work with us on these projects and introduce new media, new avenues of communication, and so we saw it, and it was, a great opportunity.
00:01:46.632 He certainly right off the bat came to the meetings, came and met us all, hosted dinners, hosted socials,
00:01:53.286 hosted big Brickyard events, Ice Cream Dream, all these things that helped engage the student body
00:01:59.375 and we got to kind of be his main foundation for what the students expect from [him] as a chancellor.
00:02:09.802 So it was a great opportunity for me and everybody on student government and the student body as a whole.