Statement by Robert Morgan, Attorney General
Robert Morgan, ECC alumni, served as a trustee for fifteen years and was instrumental in the struggles for university status and the medical school. He addressed the Faculty Senate on the occasion of his retirement from the board of trustees. Citation: CH1000, Board of Trustees, Minutes, Book 6, pp. 193-194, May 15, 1973.
It has been my pleasure to serve on East Carolina's Board of Trustees for 15 years. During those years, I have tried to help further the institution's causes in every way I could. I have fought battles in public -- as you all well know -- and I have fought battles in private. Some of you here may not have always agreed with my side on some issues, but if you have been a member of the faculty during these past 15 years, you know that the Board of Trustees has never directly interfered with the internal operations of the university nor with those traditional faculty prerogatives of academic freedom, due process, and tenure; nor has it done anything to impede your attempts to broaden the base of faculty governance and policy making within the institution.During those 15 years, East Carolina has progressed a long way. By 1960, the institution had become the state's third largest. Most of you, I'm sure, remember, the great university debate of 1967. You are all familiar with the current medical school controversy. But these major changes are not the only ones that took place during these years. This body itself came into beign during them. Faculty loads have been reduced from 15 to 12 hours, pay scales have changed considerably, and many new programs of study have been added to the university's offerings. The university, through its growth and capital improvements, has taken on a new character. It is hardly the institution it was when I joined the trustees in 1958.
Of course, the trustees cannot take credit for these changes. But we are glad to have been able to help bring them into being. Much of the credit must go to the faculty which ahs stood up time and time again to the pressures of having to face overcritical "consultants" sent here by the now defunct Board of Higher Education. For if the faculty had not stood the test, our struggles would have ended in failure. Much credit for the changes that have taken place at East Carolina must also go to our energetic Chancellor, Leo Jenkins. He has bene the moving force in this institution's growth and devleopment. He came up with many of the ideas and policies, and he carried the fights to the people.
So, much has been accomplished here at East Carolina during the last decade and a half. But as I leave the Board of Trustees, I leave it knowing that much still remains to be done. And I would hope that our new trustees and the university system's Board of Governors will work to continue the progress that this institution has already made. I especially hope that they will work for equity within the system.
There is no good reason by the destinies of some institutiions should be furthered at the expense of the destinies of others. When the people of North Carolina send their children to any institution in the system, they should be able to do so with the confidence of knowing that their children will get educations where they go that are just as good as the educations gotten by other children at other institutions.
There is no reason why the faculties that teach at different institutions should be compensated differently or have different size work loads. The amount and kind of work any professor has to do and the compensation he gets should depend on his qualifications alone. Whether he works in Elizabeth City or Boone should make no difference.
And there is no good reason why the faculty at one instituion should have a lesser role in its governance than the faculty at another. And I'm sure those of you in this body agree with me on that.
As I retire from the Board of Trustees after having served these many years, I do so with sadness. Since coming here as a student in the 1940's, I have cared about what happens here, and no matter what positions I hold in later life, I will continue to care and do what I can to help. But I would like to leave you with this thought. There is an adage that says, "God helps those who helps themselves." In the same vein, I would like to say that men respect those who attain greatness on their own. In the long run, this institution's reputation will depend upon what the faculty accomplishes. It will not depend on who serves the in the administration or who serves on the Board of Trustees. Greatness comes to people who work hard at essential matters, who keep an eye aimed at great goals, and who do not allow other persons or concerns to divert them. William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature. He was neither college educated or academically employed. Yet his contribution to the intellectual heritage of this nation is vast, worthwhile, and secure. He perservered in the face of obstacles. Marian Anderson, in the face of overwhelming obstacles, succeeded at becoming the first black prima dona to join the Metropolitan Opera. Her contribution to this nation's artistic heritage is also vast, worthwhile, and secure, because she persevered. And James Hall had to teach himself the knowledge needed to enter Renssaler Polytechnical Institute where he managed to found the sciences of experimental geology and geochemistry -- again because he persevered. His contribution to the scientific heritage of this nation is also vast, worthwhile and secure.
So although a Board of Trustees and an administration can help to provide you with favorable working conditions, only you can provide yourselves and thereby this institution with those qualities that will rank it among the better insitutions in the land. East Caorlina's reputation is in the long run your reputation. If I have been able to assist you in the past in this task, the gratitude is mine, for your accomplishments are the ones that students carry away with them when they graduate and put to use in their careers to make life better not only for themselves, but for all other North Carolinians.
