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16
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009
THE U
WEDN
CHANCELLOR (CONTINUED FROM 1)
She points out a window to a building, the university's Wilson library, which looks like a regal whitewashed capitol building. It's two football fields away from her office at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, across a vast courtyard filled with criss-crossing sidewalks, surrounded by trees and old academic halls.
Gray-Little ended her 38 years of employment at UNC as provost July 8. She will begin her role as the 17th chancellor of the University of Kansas August 15.
Born and raised in Washington, N.C., a small town in the then-segregated South, her parents placed a great deal of worth on receiving an education. Her younger brother Mark Gray said it was presented to them as a way out of poverty.
GROWING UP:EDUCATION
Gray-Little grew up the fourth child of eight with three brothers and four sisters. The first time she moved from her hometown was for college. Her father was illiterate and worked in construction. Her mother had a GED and was a homemaker who occasionally did custodial work.
Gray-Little still continues to pursue this early-established ideal. She sees the worth in it.
Though her family did not have the means to support her higher education, her parents always pushed that education was a way out of poverty, according to her brother, who's now a lawyer in Greensboro, N.C.
Her time at UNC shows her dedication to education. Her accomplishments, such as increasing diversity, and creating an office of undergraduate research and a first year seminar program, bettered UNC. She plans to do the same for the University.
"In some ways, education became such a big thing that it became the end as opposed to a means to an end," Gray said. "I just remember education was the goal; I guess it was also a
means."
Washington was when Gragg-Little of this, she said, t enced segregation borhood. She said instance to share ing her childhood life.
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Courtesy of the Office of Univ
Incoming Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little meets with Chancellor Robert Homwife Leah, at the Chancellor's residence (The Outlook).
University Relation