Yeah, sure. Then the, you had the Consolidated University at that time
consisting of first four, and then six institutions, going with a
budget, then the others coming and fighting their own budget battles in
the legislature, and the legislators were getting weary of that, you
know. Having to, you know, form coalitions. That is to say, the people
from the Elizabeth City are those supporting the black institutions
—would have to form coalitions with others in order to get what they
wanted and whatever. So, the people, the legislators got a little weary
about it, and then the public began to say, you know, that this is
ridiculous when they saw the legislature granting University titles to
Page 4all the institutions. When I came on board as
Governor, by law I was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
Consolidated University, and so I presided at their meetings. It was
largely a big head position, because the Governor didn't have time to
deal with the issues. He simply went to the meetings, presided, and so
forth. The real work of the University was done by an Executive
Committee, which was a very powerful group, tightly held and jealously
guarded their prerogatives as the Executive Committee of the University.
I got the Legislature to name the Governor, which, in my case was me, as
the Chairman of the Board of Higher Education. Now the Board of Higher
Education had the responsibility of a coordinating function, not a
governing function, but a coordinating function for all the other
institutions outside of the University. That is, the four-year
institutions—the Pembrokes, the Appalachian, and all of the others. Now,
there was an editorial criticism that I was trying to get a power
grab—nothing wrong with me being Chairman of the University Board of
Trustees, but didn't see any reason for me to be the Chairman of the
Board of Higher Education. Well, my reasoning there was that why should
the Governor give his time and attention just to the four institutions,
or six that were in the Consolidated University. Why shouldn't the
Governor give his time and attention also to the other institutions in
the system? Again, this was a matter of perception on the part of the
supporters of the university, and they just didn't want the Governor
giving that kind of attention to the others. I said that the Governor is
responsible for all of higher education in North Carolina, not just the
four institutions in the university system. Anyway, that came about, and
I sat on that Board and was much more, by the very nature of it hands-on
and involved with Higher Education Board, which was largely a
coordinating and planning board. Much more so that the University Board
which was run by the Executive Committee, and the 100-person Board of
Trustees. Now the other Trustee really didn't have that much to do with
it, because with a 100-person Board, you know there is not much that you
can do. So after looking at what was happening in the legislature, Bill
Friday and, of course I went to work with him, as president of the
University because I was Chairman of the Board of the University. Dr.
Cameron West, who was the Staff Director, the Executive Director of the
Board of Higher Education, and as Chairman of that Board, I worked with
him. Well, I began to hear from the Board of Higher Education and Dr.
West and from the University folks and Bill Friday that there has got to
be a better way to do this that what we are having in North Carolina.
Well, it occurred to me, finally that okay, if I have the two top
professionals, Bill Friday and Cam West, saying the same thing, then
maybe the time has come to try and do something. I began to mull it over
in my mind, and I would talk to each one of them individually and there
was no plan, no concept really, but I finally put together a group, and
we began to talk about how this might occur. Well, Bill Friday agreed
that we needed to do something to bring them all together in some way.
So did Cam West. The trick was how to do it, and as we—as this effort
evolved, and we—finally got to the plan that was put before the
legislature, that was when we began to have differences of opinion about
how it ought to be done, not what should be done, but how it should be
done.