The Big MEE-z
Meeting students one o£ chancellor’s top goals this year
By Paula Lavigne
Senior News Editor
If you’re eating lunch on a bench
near the Canfield Administration
Building and a middle-aged, slightly
balding man in a suit comes up to you
and sits down, don’t assume he’s try
ing to collect on your student loan.
He’s probably Chancellor James
Moeser. That’s pronounced MEE-zer,
and he’s going to take advantage of the
warmer weather to make his name
known among students.
“I knew next to nothing about the
chancellor at the University of Texas,”
Moeser said of his alma mater. “I did
learn who he was and came to admire
him.”
When Moeser arrived in February,
the bitterly cold weather prevented him
from “taking leisurely walks with stu
dents.”
After summer stops in England and
South Korea for organ performances
by his wife Susan Dickerson Moeser
and a stop in New York for an Ameri
can Guild of Organists Convention, of
which he is past president, Moeser
faces his first full academic year as
chancellor of the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln.
He has actually met the most UNL
students not in Nebraska, but on vaca
tion in London, where 67 of them were
studying at Oxford University this sum
mer. The visit encouraged Moeser to
push for more international programs
ai UINL.
In the meantime, he wants to focus
on freshmen. The first message he
wants to relay is how to use what he
calls “unstructured free time” with a
balance of pursuing academic goals
and having fun, which he will stress
during his Sunday afternoon speech at
the Big Red Welcome Convocation.*
He will also instruct faculty to be
rigorous and demanding, so a “degree
from this university will really mean
something.”
To do that, Moeser will pursue the
same goals he set for himself last De
cember when he was appointed to the
job. One of those goals, to raise ad:
mission standards at UNL, has already
been achieved and will be implemented
next fall.
Moeser has also started to work on
the creation of a separate honors col
lege. A faculty group is brainstorming
with the Office of Academic Affairs on
what an honors college would need,
more funds are being allocated to the
honors program, and Moeser is bring
ing in directors of three successful hon
ors programs from other universities.
He said he hoped to develop addi
tional honors courses for the spring
semester.
Another goal Moeser has for this
fall is to appoint a senior vice chancel
lor for academic affairs. The second
highest position at the university was
left vacant when Joan Leitzel left in
June for the University of New Hamp
shire.
This summer, Moeser appointed
Ricardo Garcia to head the Affirma
tive Action and Diversity Office and
will appoint deans for the College of
Business Administration and the Col
lege of Fine and Performing Arts this
year.
Moeser also took a strong stance
this summer with a “get tough” attitude
on campus discipline and student be
havior.
Moeser approved a recommenda
tion that faculty members, coaches and
advisers may not contact victims of
assault committed by other students.
The move was spurred by football
Coach Tom Osborne’s contact with the
girlfriend of former NU running back
Lawrence Phillips, after Phillips as
saulted her in October.
Moeser said his discussions with
Osborne and Athletic Director Bill
Byrne have been productive and that
all are in agreement over how the de
partments should operate.
But Moeser said he wanted to stay
away from micromanagement. He said
he planned stay on the sidelines of spe
cific issues if they did not constitute a
major policy change at UNL.
He also has gotten involved with
issues outside the university that affect
students. He said he took part in dis
cussions with the bars in downtown
Lincoln before 37 of them agreed to
stop giving away free birthday drinks
earlier this month, a policy change that
Moeser said would discourage exces
sive drinking among UNL students.
With all his commitments, Moeser
hasn’t had time to pursue his long-time
hobby of playing the organ. Moeser
earned his bachelor’s and master’s de
grees from the University of Texas and
the University of Michigan in organ
performance.
He spent 20 years on the music fac
ulty at the University of Kansas in
Lawrence, Kan., and served for 11
years as dean of the School of Fine and
Performing Arts there.
He also served as the dean of the
College of Arts and Architecture at
Pennsylvania State University from
1986 to 1992. His last career stop be
fore UNL was as provost and vice
president for academic affairs at the
University of South Carolina.
Ryan Soderlin/DN
CHANCELLOR JAMES MOESER talks about what he hopes to accomplish in his first full academic
year as chancellor earlier this week. Moeser came to Lincoln as chancellor last February,
NU President Dennis Smith named
Moeser chancellor ofUNL in early De
cember, replacing former Chancellor
Graham Spanier, who left to become
president of Pennsylvania State Uni
versity.
Moeser said he planned to stay for
five to seven years, and has a yearly
salary of $158,000.
And when he gets some free time,
he will try to immerse himself into the
flock of more than 24,000 UNL stu
dents.
“I look forward to having a whole
year with the students,” he said. He said
he had already dropped in on students
eating at the Selleck Hall cafeteria.
When that happens, he said, “they
don’t really know what to think.
“But it’s good to know what stu
dents are thinking.”
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