Madalyn Edwards curated this story published in the special “Orientation ‘82 Edition” of The Appalachian on Aug. 21, 1982.
Editor’s Note: Upon reviewing Chancellor Thomas’ vita one is struck by the many hats he has worn over the years. The Chancellor has degrees in engineering, law, and two degrees in business. He has been a business professor, a chairman of a general business department, a dean of a college of science and technology, a vice-chancellor of academic affairs, and now Chancellor of ASU. He also has spent seven years with NASA at Cape Canaveral as Director of Technical Support. Clearly he is most qualified to hold down the job of Chancellor.
Q: At this point in your life what personal and career goals have you set for yourself?
A: Well, career goals would be chancellor of ASU. You know some people have asked me if this is a stepping stone to other places and the answer is no. There is a great deal of work that needs to be done here. At my age, and I’m 51, I’m looking at devoting a lot of energy to doing what needs to be done here at ASU. My name is mentioned at other places but I’m not looking for another job. I do get contacts because we do have a good school here and other places are looking for presidents and chancellors and they look to good schools for prospective candidates, but I have no desire to go elsewhere. In fact, it seems like I just got started here. I can’t believe this is my fourth year already. But there seems to be so much for me to do here . and I really like the people here. So, that is my career goal, being chancellor.
PERSONAL GOALS
My personal goal is to broaden myself some… I feel like I’ve come to a place in my life where I would like to have the time to do the type reading that I’ve never had a chance to do outside of my discipline (business and administration). I’d like to have the luxury to have the time to do that and I think over the years I will be able to. A lot of it is self-discipline. Anybody who says they don’t have the time for recreation is just saying to you that they don’t put it high on their priorities.
Q: What can the students new here at ASU expect to see change in the next four years?
A: Well, (with) physical plant change you can expect to see the music building completed. We have in the budget a covered athletic space which we have been working on for years. It will probably be three to four years before that comes to fruition because in the planning lag and the time of funding, but we are planning on having that covered athletic building for intramurals… just for the students. That will include a covered track and place for the students to get in out of the weather. We’ve got it designed and we have put it in to the General Administration for approval, and the Board of Governors has to approve it, and we have to come up with the financing package. We are confident we can do it.
Q: And where would that be built?
A: Well, we have several sights in mind, none of which have been decided upon yet. We also have planning money for the expansion of the Industrial Education and Technology building. We’ve got the specs drawn for the addition to the present building. It will be pulled out to the street so that the present building will be the back of the new building. That should come within the next three to four years.
“Our student body has given this town every reason to believe that they are good citizens. If the town of Boone elected to have beer… there is no question in my mind that the students would handle it beautifully.”
Q: What about some renovations for Whitener Hall?
A: Yes, that is a change you will definitely see. It is in the budget. We will put that together with money from capital funds and with money for energy conservation. One of the problems there is the antiquated heating and cooling system and the vast expanse of glass that lets in not only light and heat but noise and that’s a real problem. What we are going to do at a cost of about $500,000 to and $700,000 is renovate the entire building. That is tops on our priority list. That should come within two to three years. It sounds like a long time, but I know from a practical point of view as a civil servant that you can’t move faster than that with all the layers of approval it ha^to pass through. It takes a long time. It seemed like a long time before we would get into the music building, but we’ll be in that building next spring . two months ahead of time. We expect to be in there by next April.
Q: Our current enrollment stands now about 10,000 students. How much can we expect that to expand in the future?
A: We will see it expand somewhat. Currently, we’re expanding at about 50 to 100 students a year, which is a reasonable and controlled expansion.
Q: You have described ASU, on many occasions, as the premiere school in this state. Could you elaborate on that?
A: One reason Appalachian is a very popular school, and you would expect me to brag on it because I’m the chancellor, but the reason ASU is the premiere school in this state in terms of places people want to go is obviously because of our academic programs. We have hired a faculty that I would put up against any in the United States. They are second to none. We may not have the depth that other schools, big universities, have, but we have our stars in the departments here. We have good programs here and people know they are going to get a good education here. The second reason I feel we are the premiere school of North Carolina is that we have watched our environment. We’ve made sure that Boone, NC is still a pretty place to come. We didn’t chop the top off of all the mountains, pave them for parking lots and say that we’re going to be Chapel Hill west. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to be what we are—a beautiful school. We are short on parking but didn’t do what everybody else does and build parking lots. Instead we started a bus system and that took some pressure off. And we’ll continue to innovate like that. We may have to go to double deck parking some time in the future, but when we do it’s not going to be one of these big ugly high rises. We are going to try and fit it into the landscape and make it blend in. Another reason people like to come to Appalachian is because we have controlled our growth and we are not expanding quicker than the city is.
Q: What about beer and wine in Boone?
A: I’ll tell you what. I’m asked this question all the time—downtown, from the administration and the ministerial associations and I’ll tell you those people have a right to know and be concerned about this because their parishioners are. So, I never hold back on them on this when they ask me this question. I use this example. Our student body has given this town every reason to believe that they are good, solid citizens. They handle the parking problem, the traffic problem, they vote, they carry out their civic responsibilities and they have service clubs. I have every reason to believe that if the town of Boone elected to have beer, then our students would act responsibly. That is all I can say about it. It’s up to the city and if they did, there is no question in my mind that the students would handle it beautifully.
Q: This last spring the College of Business went through what could be described as a salary dispute. Could you assess the damage that resulted from that situation?
A: Well, I couldn’t give it to you quantitatively. The make-up of summer school changes evey year depending on the external situation in our economy, but I think there is no doubt that by the College of Business not being fully staffed the total enrollment of summer school was down. There is no doubt about that. Many students would have liked to come here this summer but they couldn’t because we couldn’t staff a lot of the classes they wanted. That was the administration’s responsibility to try and staff it, but every year it’s our responsibility, and every year we are faced with a new situation and when you adjust your salaries you may find that you have impacted your ability to staff. Now, we feel we have worked out a salary schedule for the summer of 1983. The Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs (Harvey Durham) has submitted a new salary schedule and he feels, that the staffing for the summer of 1983 will improve immensely. I’m convinced he is right.
Q: What about faculty disgruntlement?
A: I can empathize with the faculty. I’m a faculty member myself and a faculty member at heart. Any time there is a decrease in salary or decrease in benefits in any way, as hard put as the faculty is for salary and benefits, it does have a demoralizing effect. Yes, there will be some bruises as a result of this but I think over the long run the administration’s policy toward faculty has been very positive. I hope the faculty understands that the decisions made in this office are made with theirs and the University’s best interest at heart. So, when the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs submitted his summer school budget he had to submit a balanced budget. He made a decision not to go for a student fee increase.
Q: Looking back over the entire issue, could you say that there was a lack of communication?
A: Let me say this up front: one of the real problems of running an institution of any size is communication and this is the responsibility of the administration. Once again, if the faculty perceives that there has been a lack of communication then indeed there has been poor communication and that responsibility lies right over there (pointing) in that chair. I’ve said this before, where a policy of this magnitude comes out it’s my responsibility.
“We’ve made sure that Boone, NC is still a pretty place to come. We didn’t chop the top off all the mountains and say we’re going to be Chapel Hill west. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to be what we are—a beautiful school.”
Q: We hear so frequently that the College of Business is the best in the South. What evidence is there to support such a statement?
A: Well, quantitative measurements come in several ways and they’re hard to compare, but the placement record is always one way to measure the success of our business school. Our placement record is enviable by any standards. They have been able to place their students. The other way to measure success is by passage of professional examinations. In areas such as the CPA exam Appalachian ranks very high. Also, your degree of acceptability in other disciplines, like the insurance industry and banking industry, is a measure of success. One of our Board of Governors members is prominent in banking circles and he pointed out to me that they hire an awful lot of Appalachian State graduates because they come out knowing what they’re talking about. They have a good liberal arts education to back up their professional degree. So, it is a compilation of comments and observations. It’s very difficult to say I can prove we have the best school. But one thing you can’t deny is the quality of faculty and that is fairly quantifiable—how many people have their terminal degrees from what good schools and what experience they have had. Without blinking, I’d put the faculty of the College of Business up against any in the United States in terms of quality people. When you look at the quality of the people we’ve got here what we have is young people with good business experience. So, it’s no wonder we have the reputation we do because it’s good. The faculty are right out there on the cutting edge of their discipline writing and researching.
Q: We are now in our second year of a faculty exchange with the North East Institute of Technology in Shenyang China. This is still only a trial basis program. Will it continue? Has a decision been made yet?
A: No, there is not a final decision yet. The president and vice president of NEIT plan to come to ASU some time in September or October at which time we will assess the success of the program from our point of view and from their point of view. At that time we will decide if we want to extend the program. All indications are that this has been a very positive program for the people involved, though we haven’t done a formal assessment yet. After that, the next contingency is can we afford to support this program with dollars? Money that we put into that program obviously can be put into other programs as well. So, we’ll have to weigh it and make our decisions. But we are very pleased with the program, there is no doubt that it has brought a great deal to ASU.
Q: We were speaking earlier about the University’s ethnic mix and its need to expand minority and foreign student enrollment. Looking at the 1982-83 General Bulletin (the catalog) one is struck by the black/white ratio of the photos. If you had to make a judgement about ASU’s ethnic mix based solely on the catalog one would conclude that this school is 50% black and 50% white. Is this an over reaction to the consent decree?
A: I wouldn’t say it’s an over reaction to the consent decree, I have discussed it with the general administration and we are under a consent decree and with the consent decree they do want to review our literature to make sure we are holding out to the minorities that we accept and encourage their attending our university. There have been many complaints about the 1982 catalog and I can only tell you that I am going to give my personal attention to the inclusion of photographs in the next one to make sure it is not misleading and that we don’t appear to be something we are not. Our admissions people tell the truth to everybody and I wouldn’t want an implied truth. We have a very low minority enrollment at ASU . about 2.42 percent or 242 out of 10,000 students.
