Janice Hardison Faulkner . . . People and projects
Biographical sketch of Janice Faulkner and her work with RDI. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.Citation for this article is: "Janice Hardison Faulkner . . . People and projects, " Pieces of Eight, March 1, 1983.
Janice H. Faulkner, the newly-appointed director of the Regional Development Institute, has a fine knack for meeting people, even at unexpected times and places.A few years ago, as a young East Carolina professor, she had the startling experience of encountering a strange man climbing in through the window of her office on the upper floors of towering Old Austin building.
She had kicked off her shoes and was engrossed in work when the man appeared, as if from out of the sky.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked. "I'm coming in," the strange man said.Assisted by Howell
Faulkner screamed and ran out onto the corridor in stockinged feet, yelling for help. A professor in a nearby office, who happened to be John M. Howell, came to her assistance.
"She was pretty shaken," Howell recalls. "Even more so when we returned to her office and there was nobody there."
It took a few days of detective work by Howell to discover the identity of the man, a much-embarrassed fellow who worked elsewhere in Austin and who had been climbing on the roof. He was trying to re-enter the building by the wrong window. When she screamed, he fled.
"Janice wondered and worried about that mystery -- and her sanity -- for a few days," Howell says. "I tell her now that I saved her life." People Involvement
Nowadays, Faulkner seldom meets a stranger. "She knows everybody on campus as well as everybody in the area," Chancellor Howell said in announcing her appointment. For years, she has been involved in working with people and projects.
The former Janice Hardison, she is married to Walter Faulkner of Greenville. Before and since her marriage, she was widely-known in university circles for her popular backyard picnics which became a sort of tradition after graduation exercises for a number of years.
She also is known for "working" lunches with friends, colleagues and associates to plan and discuss projects; for faithful attendance at conferences, meetings and workships and as a tireless worker.
A native of eastern North Carolina and an ECU graduate, she has been a member of the English faculty since 1957. For three years, 1960-1963, she served as director of alumni affairs. She has taught composition, literature, linguistics and folklore and has published works in each area.
She organized and directed the department's Language Arts conference program each year until 1980. Long active in Democratic party affairs on the local and state levels, she became executive director of the party's headquarters in 1981 and served 18 months while on leave from her faculty post.The Role of RDI
She returned to ECU last September and became assistant to the director of RDI for projects. In that capacity, she drafted plans for in-house management of personnel and resources and policies and procedures for screening and managing RDI projects.
Her base now will be the Willis Building on Reade Street, with a first floor office with windows that face the Town Common and the Tar River. But it is likely that her outreach and presence will extend across the entire 32 counties of the eastern North Carolina region and beyond.
The RDI, established in 1964, utilizes university resources and expertise in a wide variety of projects with local governments, associated agencies and business enterprises to promote and enhance economic development and cultural enrichment of the region.
She sees RDI taking on "new importance" in its role of "brokering" the resources and expertise of the university toward economic development and cultural enhancement of the region.
The Institute "is on the crest of an ever-increasing demand for its resources and services," she says. All members of the university family are going to be "more and more involved" in the areas of public service and applied research," she says. "We'll be calling on you."
