The East Carolinian:

Ballard reflects on first year at ECU
Chancellor outlines future plans for university

Nick Henne, News Editor
April 21, 2005


Chancellor Steve Ballard, nearing completion of his first fiscal year at ECU, reflected on the year's successes and is in the process of planning ECU's main objectives for next year.

"It's been a challenging, but a positive and rewarding first year," said Ballard.

"I feel comfortable here, it's the right kind of institution for me ... It fits me and who I am and there's a spirit here that I especially like."

Ballard said one of the main concentrations of his first year has been filling the vacant positions with good qualified people, which will bring positive benefits for years to come.

Upon Ballard's arrival, there were 15 vacancies that needed to be filled which he put as his first priority before addressing other opportunities or problems. Four major positions of his leadership team have been completed and a search is currently taking place for the vice chancellor of university advancement.

Ballard said he is especially thankful to the search committees, composed of primarily ECU faculty in addition to community members, who have played a large part in filling these vacancies with highly qualified people.

"We did it [the searches] in a cooperative, open fashion where the campus had a great chance to participate," Ballard said.

"That's a great model of shared governance and that's what we're trying to reestablish here," Ballard said.

Ballard said in every one of the searches thus far, ECU has gotten its number one choice and he plans to work with the members of his leadership team this summer on team behavior and organizational performance to enhance their ability to perform and take on future challenges, which will be a priority for next year.

"Now that we have finished the leadership side, we're going to work on the teamwork side ... That's the next step in this process," Ballard said.

With this year's main concentration on internal issues in putting people in place and making organizational changes, Ballard is planning to have a more external concentration next year to further improve the region.

"I'm going to get to know more of eastern North Carolina," Ballard said.

"I'm going to visit more communities, groups and organizations in the eastern part of the state."

A main aspect Ballard is planning on addressing is external fundraising, which encompasses a variety of different financial pools ECU can use to generate revenue to reduce the financial burden on the state and students.

Institutional partnerships with other institutions in eastern North Carolina is another initiative Ballard is going to address next year. This effort would help improve teacher preparation and retention.

The demographics of eastern North Carolina inhabit a large amount of poverty and call for the need of increased economic improvement putting a responsibility on ECU.

"We have a special responsibility for eastern North Carolina," Ballard said.

Ballard said business development is another important aspect ECU is addressing citing ECU's Entrepreneurial Initiative, Small Business Center and the Regional Development Center as three initiatives under the community engagement function.

The Economic Development Task Force, led by Rick Niswander, dean of the college of business is also working toward this initiative.

These efforts will be helpful to the regional economical development and will assist small businesses in eastern North Carolina.

Another aspect ECU is doing well and needs to continue to excel in is health education, which is crucial to both the well being of the people and the economy of the region.

"We cannot be strong economically if we are not healthy people," Ballard said.

Reports have shown if eastern North Carolina were a state, it would be ranked 50th in the nation with the abundance of several diseases which puts a high financial strain on the region in treating those people. Many of these people are uninsured and seek treatment at the Brody School of Medicine.

Ballard has responded well to both the UNC System and ECU.

"This system is by far the best university system that I've worked at ever," Ballard said.

Ballard, who has been through the public university systems the Ohio, Maine, Missouri and Oklahoma, said he finds the UNC system the best as far as how it treats higher education and how it works together. He attributed part of this success to UNC System President Molly Broad. He said the UNC system is recognized throughout the country as a reputable university system, which is partly what attracted him to it.

"One of the first things I learned over the first year is that [ECU] is even a better fit than I thought," Ballard said.

Ballard said the people at ECU are excellent, citing the ECU faulty senate and staff.

"Every bit of the community has been helpful to me in my first year here," Ballard said.

An additional future goal of Ballard is to spend more time with students including the student government association and other student organizations. While he has not gotten the chance to spend as much time with students as he would have liked, he has seen the quality of the students.

"I think the students here are really good," Ballard said.

He said ECU students and the institution sometimes do not get as much credit as it deserves. He said he has seen excellent students in the honor's program, dormitories and in classes that he has visited.

"The students are taking their work seriously and they're getting good educations," Ballard said.

Ballard said the best single thing ECU can do is make sure our students are prepared for the global economy, which is difficult considering the global economy is changing rapidly. The skills and competencies ECU needs to teach the students are also changing with the global economy.

"Preparing our students for tomorrow is the single most important thing we can do because if we do that well, our students are likely to stay in North Carolina," Ballard said.

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.

One crucial factor that needs to remain under constant consideration with ECU students is their economic situation. On average, the income levels of ECU students are not as high when compared to other institutions.

"We have to be very careful about the student financial needs at ECU," Ballard said.

Ballard said one of the great things ECU does to address accessibility is providing programs in multiple formats and in DE.

Typical DE students range from people living two hours away or people who cannot afford the room and board expenses to people living right here on campus.

we a reu nderway in pursuing the 12 other resources

we're making progress on that, we have a long way to go

research funding- that will help build our infrastructure here

there are a lot of souces of meney that can provide one time revenues - private, philanthropy, selling products, ...we'r econcentrating on the

federal funds of all kinds

"These are all long term goals, the take awhile to develop the infrastructure to do well in them,"

[There has been a good number of faculty

60 percent of those searches were made up of faculty along with community people

said the feedback on the search committee has been positive,

ask Catherine Rigsby as far as the search goes]

said he would like to bring

there are always things you can learn from other institutions

question we have to answer is what is the biggest way we can affect NC with an eye to ENC

This writer can be contacted at webeditor@theeastcarolinian.com