Chambers Stepping Down From N.C. Central University - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 3, 2000

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Julius Chambers, a civil rights lawyer who spent the last seven years confronting decades of neglect at North Carolina Central University, plans to step down as chancellor.

Chambers says he will leave in June, or after a successor has been chosen.

Administrators at a University of North Carolina Board of Governors meeting announced his decision last month and praised Chambers for raising academic expectations and the profile of the campus. N.C. Central, part of the 16-campus UNC system, is the nation's first public liberal arts institution founded for African Americans.

"This is a critically important time in the life of N.C. Central," says system president Dr. Molly Broad. "Certainly, Julius Chambers has made some very important investments in the future."

Chambers, 63, made no comments at the Board of Governors meeting, but he broke the news on campus at a press conference announcing a new basketball coach.

"I have submitted my resignation, or told folks I was retiring, and I'm leaving shortly," he says. "It's not because we've got a new coach, but I've got some other things I'm working on."

Chambers says he plans to return to the civil rights law firm he founded in Charlotte, now known as Ferguson, Stein, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham & Sumter.

When asked whether his battle with prostate cancer, diagnosed last year, played a role in his decision to leave, Chambers replied: "It sure helped. I'm doing all right. But I'm going to get some time to get away and recover."

When he took the job in 1993, Chambers had intended to make his stay in Durham a short one. He told university officials he would give them three years, but planned to go back to his law practice. He stayed four years longer than he expected.

"We're losing a jewel of a guy," says Ben Ruffin, chairman of the Board of Governors and a Central alumnus. "But we kept him longer than we thought."

Chambers brought with him a reputation as a civil rights lawyer who had won major landmark cases in school segregation and fair employment -- despite the bombing of his car, home and law office.

Chambers, who served on the UNC Board of Governors in the 1970s, went from his Charlotte law firm to become head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1984.

When he arrived at N.C. Central in 1993, the athletic department had accumulated nearly $900,000 in debt, and its former director was indicted for allegedly receiving kickbacks. Auditors had criticized Central's financial management practices for years, and a professor of public administration was accused of fixing students' grades and misspending $828,000 in grant money.

Chambers quickly replaced three of four vice chancellors, then set to work helping faculty double the new research money they brought in. He also demanded that incoming freshmen average at least 900 on the SAT. According to the latest enrollment report, the average SAT score of students admitted for 2000-2001 was 902.

"He has been a perfect chancellor," says Dr. C.D. Spangler, former president of the UNC system. "He's made it a lot better school, plus he's made the student body better and the faculty better. Nobody could have done the job more effectively than Julius Chambers."

Chambers is known for successfully arguing the Supreme Court case Swann vs. Mecklenburg, which mandated busing to integrate public schools in Charlotte.