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WANTED
New chancellor should continue growth

We are not ready just yet to wave goodbye to Chancellor Michael Ferrari.

As his last year at the university begins, there are still buildings to be finished, curriculum disputes to be settled and a budget to be balanced.

The skeleton of our campus is more technologically endowed, financially stable and diversified. But at the same time the search will begin for the man or woman to fill Ferrari’s place.

As an editorial board, we like where we are headed. We think the next chancellor should build upon what Ferrari started. Now is not the time to point the university on a radically different path.

Our physical growth, minus a parking facility, is all out on the drawing board. Now we need to concentrate on reaching our enrollment goals. We are excited about the state-of-the-art computer labs in Winton-Scott Hall, but the biology department still needs dissecting gloves.

The provost said a new core curriculum could be approved by semester’s end. A new chancellor should believe in the principles that core is based upon, whatever they may be.

But most of all, our next chancellor should be a Rich Uncle Pennybags of sorts, someone who can fill our bank without borrowing from the community chest. Fund-raising skills are pertinent for any chancellor these days.

Ferrari charted an ambitious — and different — course for the university. Here’s hoping the next chancellor will have the tools and the willingness to keep us on that path.