The Traveler

Issue date: 8/21/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Larry Ash Chancellor G. David Gearhart is begining his first year in office and is now the fifth chancellor of the UA.

Chancellor G. David Gearhart is ready and well prepared to fulfill at least that part of the UA mission that reads "student-centered." Regardless of whether the fifth UA chancellor extends former Chancellor John A. White's programs or plots a new course for the university, he will keep students in the forefront of his mind, he said.

"I think those of us who have the responsibility to present students with their degrees need to make it easier - not by lowering our standards by any means, but by giving students every chance to achieve their dreams," Gearhart said. "Sometimes, I think institutions such as ours tend to throw up bureaucratic roadblocks. My philosophy is we need to break those down."

No one consciously blocks students from earning their degree, the new chancellor said, but some barriers exist because of an insistence that things be done as they have always been done. Those barriers Gearhart wants to remove.

Putting students first

Above all, Gearhart said, "students come first," and, according to ASG President Carter Ford, Gearhart is true to that motto.

"On his first day of being chancellor, he stopped by all of the offices on the sixth floor just to greet everybody and to let us know that if we ever needed something, we could call him," Ford said.

Gearhart appointed Ford to the Provost Search Committee, which Ford thinks demonstrates Gearhart's overall student-centered mentality, Ford said.

"The position of provost is the second-highest position on this campus, and Chancellor Gearhart wanted to include students in the process of picking the next one," Ford said.

Students benefit from educational experiences that enable them to maintain their diverse personalities, Gearhart said.

"You have to give students the opportunity to experience their interests along with certain core values and certain core curricula, while giving them the latitude to express their individualism," Gearhart said.

Bridging the generational gap

Although students today are different from when Gearhart grew up in Fayetteville during the '50s and '60s, Gearhart thinks they will be able to relate to his ideas, he said.

Continued...

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