It was January 1995 and the new year lay ahead.
On the national front, Americans were mesmerized by the O.J. Simpson arrest and trial. Children were enchanted by a young lion named Simba, and adults were imitating Forrest Gump's memorable “life is like a box of choc-o-lates.”
At home, UNCG was facing a bit of an identity crisis. Student enrollment had dropped slightly from the previous year. State budget cuts loomed. Campus morale was low.
Into this environment walked the university's brand new chancellor, Dr. Patricia A. Sullivan.
For the first several months, Sullivan was in active listening mode. Absorbing, reading, learning all she could about the campus history and environment. As she attended countless meetings she posed the same question to everyone: “Complete this sentence: UNCG is ____.”
The responses she heard varied from “UNCG displays a blank face,” to “Our image is blurred,” to “UNCG is an undiscovered secret.”
By the time the next academic year kicked off, she was ready with her own answer. “I think UNCG has a face marked by determination to succeed, strength to weather adversity and change, and compassion to reach out and serve,” she said to faculty and staff at her state of the campus address. “Look at the face of Minerva on our seal — I think she looks strong, determined and ready for challenges. She isn't nondescript, uncertain or hesitant. And neither are we.”
In 1961 Sullivan had just completed her undergraduate biology degree at Notre Dame College of St. John's University in New York. She was up for a teaching fellowship at New York University.
As she was interviewing for the position, one interviewer turned to the other. “Should we give this to a co-ed?”
“I was naïve enough not to be insulted,” she later reflected. “I just wondered whether I would get the fellowship.”
She got it.
As a young scientist, Sullivan enjoyed discovering how things work. She specialized in cellular biology research, completing her dissertation “In Vivo studies of the effects of phytohemagglutinin on lymphocyte development in the rat.” In simpler language, she was testing the effects of phytohemagglutinin, an extract from a red kidney bean thought to stimulate growth of white blood cells, on rats by giving it to the animals directly. She found that it did stimulate cell division. At the time, the idea was novel. Now it's standard.
While in graduate school, Sullivan asked to work on a research project with a specific professor. Initially, he refused. He didn't work with women. He worried they would not have careers but would drop out to raise a family.
“He told me he wouldn't consider it unless I had outstanding grades. I studied hard and broke the curve.”
After graduate school, teaching responsibilities followed at Wells College in New York and Texas Woman's University. In 1981, Sullivan got her first taste of North Carolina and of administration with a post as dean of the college at Salem College in Winston-Salem. She also continued to teach biology.
She loved working with students, but administration posed a new challenge for her. “I see administration as a form of teaching,” she said when asked if she missed being in the classroom. “You frequently have to help others understand someone else's perspective.”
She also didn't see administration as so far away from her beloved biology. “I look at the university as a very large, complex organism,” she told a reporter with Business North Carolina in 2007. It may evolve, but basic beliefs and principles are encoded into its very DNA.
In her first press conference in 1995, Sullivan pointed out the positives of UNCG — its fundamental DNA. She cited a tradition of excellence, superb faculty, diverse students. She also picked up the theme that would characterize her mission at UNCG — students first.
A good student and a woman who always does her homework, she spent those first days at UNCG absorbing history and campus culture. She met with group after group gathering information much as a scientist gathers data.
All the while, she was conscious of her role as UNCG's first female chancellor. “I felt I had a lot to live up to,” she said. “I had to show them a woman can succeed.”
In those early days her leadership style as a consensus-builder emerged. In August, she encouraged everyone to have a voice: “I do not know all of the answers. Nor do you. But together we will find them. … We will discuss; we will debate; we will agree; and we will disagree. If we begin with trust and mutual respect in a spirit of open communication and dialogue, we can move forward to realize our vision.”
In the years that followed, that vision took shape. A plan mapped out aspirations to be the Triad's leading public research university, enrolling 17,000 students by 2008. UNCG wanted to become a university of first choice for students and be a leader in a number of programs such as residential learning communities and international programs.
UNCG wanted a recognizable face.
As with any journey, storms will arise. The earliest and most persistent threat came in the form of state budget cuts. Just four months into the job, a proposed state budget called for cutting $1 million from UNCG's budget.
But overall, the setbacks were small and the successes grand.
Sullivan campaigned aggressively for the higher education bond referendum, sometimes going door to door to spread the word. The day the new Science Building — the first of the bond projects — was dedicated, she was in her element.
Graduate programs continued to grow and each year some type of degree or new field of study was added. Some programs — such as genetic counseling — were the first of their kind in the state.
Major research initiatives kicked off, including the Gateway University Research Park, the joint millennial campus being created with NC A&T State University; and the Guilford Genomic Medicine Initiative, the first comprehensive attempt in the nation to translate genetic discoveries into everyday community health care.
Exchange programs with universities in other countries increased from 13 to 65, and the number of incoming international exchange students grew from 59 to 257. With this success, the UNC system placed its system-wide Exchange Program at UNCG.
Fast forward to 2008. Today student enrollment is at an all-time high — 17,157 students to be exact. And more than half of all freshmen report that UNCG is their first-choice school. Finances are in great shape as the Students First Campaign heads into its final phase, already exceeding $90 million. The university is considered a high research activity institution by the Carnegie ratings, and external funding for research has reached $36 million annually. The campus grows more beautiful each year with landscaping, pedestrian malls and numerous new buildings.
When you ask Sullivan the thing she finds most striking she'll tell you it's an improved sense of campus morale, a sense of camaraderie.
“I see more happy people on campus now,” she said. “We now have a sense of pride. We suffered from an inferiority complex for so long.”
It's been 13 years. Unlucky? Not for UNCG. The Sullivan years have been a time of positive change and upward trajectory. The university is poised to take the next step. For UNCG, 13 is a lucky number.