12A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009
GRAY-LITTLE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
her choices in life
Courtesy of the Office of University Relations
Chancellor Bemadette Gray-Little greets Chris Reine, a 2009 KU graduate, at a press conference
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little meets with former chancellor Robert Hemenway and his wife, Leah, at the Chancellor's residence.
Gray-Little attended an all-girls Catholic school, where nuns served as teachers, from first grade to her senior year of high school. Her brother, Gray, remembered her intelligence and that the nuns took notice when the subject of college came about. Without scholarships, Gray-Little wouldn't have been able to afford college and would have been limited to working a blue-collar job or entering a convent, Gray said.
Courtesy of the Office of University Relations
"You could say it was a challenge to leave a small town in North Carolina and get a college education at a time when I came from a small school and my parents were not able to contribute anything to my education," Gray-Little said. "You might consider that a challenge, but at the time it was just something that you worked on and got it done. It's hard for me to pull things out like that because at the time I didn't experience them as a challenge."
"They said, 'Bernadette, you're bright. If you want to get an education we could get you a scholarship at Marywood up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and you don't have to become a nun," Gray said.
Gray-Little received scholarships and moved from Washington to Scranton for her undergraduate degree in psychology. She said the segregation in Pennsylvania was not the same as it was growing up in Washington. Segregation in terms of stores and other public places was not there, but in terms of neighborhoods it still was.
Her take on growing up and the difficulties she had in inaffording an education reveals something about her personality and how she approaches problems and challenges. She said certain things in life would be considered challenges in retrospect, but not at first.
From Marywood University she went to St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo., for her master's and doctorate in clinical psychology.
LIFE AT UNC
After that, she was offered a few professorships, including one at the University and at UNC. She took the position at UNC in 1971 as a professor of psychology and has been moving up in rank there ever since.
Her office didn't reveal she was in the process of moving. Excellently clean, barely anything covering her desk, with a single packing box in the middle of it.
"She ran a university and she would run the University of Kansas with such order and precision that shed have ten pieces of paper on her desk," Gray said. "Just ten. Just ten."
Working as provost, Gray-Little's latest job at UNC, meant she was in charge of personnel and money. One would expect her office to be filled with clutter from all the responsibilities that fall under that, but it was so well kept it looked like an office from a model home.
Starting out as a professor, she later ran departments, served as the executive associate provost, a dean and the executive vice chancellor and provost.
While at UNC, Gray-Little accomplished much as she worked her way up the academic totem pole.
Karen Gil, dean of the college of
arts and sciences at UNC, spoke highly of the work Gray-Little had done and said she thought Gray-Little accomplished a lot in every position she held.
"Some of these programs were her legacy here at North Carolina," Gil said.
Gray-Little spearheaded two prominent programs in 1999 when she was senior associate dean for undergraduate education.
One was the office of undergraduate research, where undergraduates were encouraged to use UNC as a research institution. Undergraduates prepared works focused on pressing issues locally, nationally and
inter nationality. This was a focus of Gray-Little's at UNC, and may be at the University as well, as she has made references to increasing research here.
She made it a point to have undergraduates understand what research is and
"They said, 'Bernadette, you're bright. If you want to get an education, we could get you a scholarship..."
how it can be conducted.
The idea behind the seminar was not only to encourage freshmen to learn about things that interested
The other program she started was a first-year seminar that all freshmen were required to take. A class of about 20 students met with a professor and studied that professor's expertise. Gil, for instance, taught a class on stress management, her area of expertise, to 20 freshmen who found the subject interesting.
BERNADETTE GRAY-LITTLE Chancellor
them, but also to build substantial relationships with professors in a close environment.
HOME LIFE
Gray-Little has two children, Mark Little and Maura Garcia, and a husband, Shade Little.
Mark is doing postdoctoral work at Duke and is a consultant for the business school at UNC. Maura just finished her master's in fine arts at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is also a choreographer and runs a dance company and is planning to relocate her dance company to Kansas.
Shade grew up in Washington
as well, and was called a math genius by several people in Chapel Hill. At the moment, he doesn't plan on teaching at the University when the couple arrives, but Gray Little said he wouldn't be sitting still for too long.
From what Mark said, his mother and father are quite different from one another
"He's been banned from thrift stores." Mark said. "No going to them in Kansas."
Though she and Shade are different, Mark said he thought it was complementary rather than problematic.
Mark said his mother preferred very nice things, while Shade enjoyed things purchased in thrift stores. He said that she was style-conscious, didn't go to thrift stores and dressed well — her shoes and jewelry go together.
Gray-Little, even at home, is quiet. But Mark said that even with the contemplative side her colleagues describe, she's actually a bit silly. Gray-Little and Shade didn't allow TV in their house on weekdays for the kids. If Mark ever had on a silly movie or TV show shed tell him to turn it off, but would still laugh at it.
"People have a list of adjectives to describe her," Mark said. "In our home context the first thing that comes to mind, she's a very silly person. None of those people would use that word; it wouldn't come to mind."
In comparison, Shade is said to be someone who likes to speak his mind.
"My father is very loud," Mark said. "I used to run track. You can't hear anything, but I could always hear my father yelling 'Run' because he's so loud. It's like night and day."
Gray, her brother, doesn't remember too much about growing up with Gray Little. She went off to her first year in college when he was in first or second grade, though he does remember meeting Shade for the first time when Gray was in his early teens.
"I was easily bought off," Gray said. "He bought me off with a quart
of milk."
Gray said he remembered his family saying his sister had a high school crush on Shade. She brought Shade by before she was about to go overseas to study and asked Gray what he thought of Shade.
"I remember thinking, 'Well. he just bought me some chocolate milk, so I think he's pretty all right." Grav said.
Gray-Little said Shade would not be idle for very long because it was not in his temperament. At UNC he worked with student academic services and did some advising, math
SEE GRAY-LITTLE ON PAGE 13A