By Paul Fulton and Brad Wilson
Co-Chairs
Higher Education Works 

The Higher Education Works family of organizations extends a warm North Carolina welcome to Margaret Spellings, who assumes office today as President of the University of North Carolina System.

We hope President Spellings will nourish and protect what former President Erskine Bowles refers to as “our state’s greatest public asset.”

We hope she will also advocate for retention of talented faculty, the heart of our universities.

“I look forward to working with faculty in this state to advance our shared cause,” Spellings said when she was chosen by the UNC Board of Governors.  “I would ask them to give me a chance.”

She deserves that chance.

The futures of 225,000 students, 60,000 employees, 17 campuses and our state’s economy are too important to play politics with the University.  Those students’ futures, in particular, depend in part on Margaret Spellings’ leadership and her ability to win support for our universities.

Those students – indeed all of us – need her to succeed.

We are encouraged by her remarks to the Board of Governors at its retreat last month:

“We can work together to achieve an ambitious goal:  To make North Carolina the nation’s leader in affordability, accessibility, accountability and quality in higher education,” she said.

“I believe we can lead our nation in providing educational excellence and access to all interested and qualified students.  We must excel in affordability as the state constitution calls us to do, and we must provide the best chances for success in employment and in life.”

Bowles is optimistic about Spellings, who served as Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush.

“Secretary Spellings is competent and capable,” Bowles said when she was elected.

“She cares deeply about access, affordability, quality and accountability.  She’s managed something very big; she’s managed in a public environment; she has experience dealing with the press and a legislative body.  And she has great people skills….

“There’s no reason to expect she can’t be a successful leader of North Carolina’s greatest public asset.”

It is indeed an enormous asset and an enormous legacy – one that needs a strong leader to confront mounting challenges.

Margaret Spellings needs and deserves our support as she does that.