NCCU Welcomes First Female Chancellor
Community leaders avoided the rain and gathered in the student union to welcome Debra Saunders-White, former deputy assistant secretary for higher education with the U.S. Department of Education, to her new role.
Durham Mayor Bill Bell gave her a symbolic key to the Bull City after saying he hopes to continue the city-university partnership in areas including workforce development, safety and revitalization.
Other speakers included NCCU Board of Trustees member Paul Pope; NCCU Alumni Association vice president Calvin Kearney; and new student body president Stefan Weathers, according to the Herald-Sun newspaper.
Frankie Perry, president of the NCCU Foundation, said she is proud to see a “sister rise to the top” as one of the few black female chancellors of historically black colleges and universities in North Carolina.
During her speech, Saunders-White said she wished to uphold the ideals of the university’s founder, pharmacist and religious educator James Shepard. She said NCCU was built on the principle of pulling people up instead of dragging them down, and she will work to ensure students’ dreams are fulfilled.
Lou Suitt Barnes, a 90-year-old Durham resident who graduated from NCCU in 1944, attended the university while its founder, Shepard, was still alive. She worked in the student union office during her schooldays and got to know the founder’s wife, Annie Day. She said she was excited at the opportunity to welcome a female chancellor, according to the Herald-Sun.
“I told her anything that you want me to do, just call on me,” Suitt Barnes said. “I am on your side. It’s an honor and a privilege.”
Photo via the Herald-Sun.
