Chancellor Reaves talks spring commencement, Bowman Gray Stadium in Q&A

This 2012-2013 academic year marks Donald Julian Reaves sixth year as Winston-Salem State's chancellor.

During a recent interview with The News Argus, Reaves talked about spring commencement, the new 10-ticket limit for commencement, Bowman Gray Stadium and WSSU athletics.

The News Argus: Graduating seniors were sent an email April 3 about a 10-ticket limit. How did that decision come about? 

Reaves: The 10-ticket limit is really a reflection of the progress that we've made in terms of graduating students.  We've simply just outgrown the [Lawrence Joel] Coliseum. 

Last year, the fire marshal threatened to shut commencement down. I'll give you some numbers that kind of make the point.

In 2008, we graduated 998 students. Last year, we graduated 1,472 students. That's an increase of about 500 students. We've just got to the point now where we can't accommodate everyone in there [LJVC] at the same time. So a 10-ticket limit in fact is not only reasonable, but we checked around at other schools, and 10 tickets is a lot more than a lot of places provide.

 The timing [of the announcement about the 10-ticket limit] was unfortunate. It came a little bit late because we were trying to explore all of the possible options. We could have been a little bit earlier; I admit that. 

The News Argus:  This year's commencement speaker is Nikki Giovanni. Who made that decision?

Reaves: That decision came about from student input. We made sure that we asked students who they would like to have as their commencement speaker.  They gave us a list of about four or five names.

The News Argus: Is there a plan to have commencement in Bowman Gray Stadium in the near future. Do you think that would be a better venue? 

Reaves: Every place that I've been has had outdoor commencements. Outdoor commencements are great.  They're more festive. It's a great time, unless it rains. That's always the fear.

The News Argus: The University is still trying to work out a deal to buy Bowman Gray from the city. What's the status?

Reaves: It's moving along, and it's on track. We are in negotiations with the city. The way I'll describe it is the city wants to sell it, and we want to buy it.  

Of course we need the approval and the authorization of the state legislature.  

It's included in a bill that general administration submitted on behalf of all of the universities, and it will be acted upon as part of the budget process.  We've worked with the Forsyth County Legislative Delegation, and the last I heard they were all in support of it.  

There's always the unforeseen, but right now it's on track, and if things go right, we should own the stadium with all of the approvals by Dec. 1.

The News Argus: What would it mean if the University owned the stadium?

Reaves: With ownership of the stadium comes control over the revenue streams. One of the problems we have right now is that we don't make any money in relation to the city. We only get half of the parking revenue; we get none of the revenue from concessions, and we end up having to pay quite a bit in labor cost to have city employees man the gates and provide other services.  [If we owned the stadium]  We would be able to do those things ourselves, and we would get to keep the revenue.  

The News Argus: There have been numerous parked vehicles vandalized over the past couple of weeks.  Some of the cars have been parked illegally in areas near Bowman Gray Stadium. Is there anything being done about that?

Reaves: Let's talk about the cars parked at Bowman Gray Stadium first.  That's not our problem.  That property belongs to the city of Winston-Salem. The students who park there are doing that to avoid buying a parking sticker.  We can't take responsibility for that. 

  Next year if we end up owning the stadium, and its surrounding areas, we will charge for parking over there, and then they can park [there legally if they purchase a parking sticker]. And we will patrol it.  

Parking on campus...we're like any other urban university. Those sorts of things happen.  We try to patrol the lots as best we can. 

The News Argus: What's your opinion of Greek Life on campus?

Reaves: I don't know a whole lot about Greek life. I never pledged. I don't exactly follow what they're doing.  But it's a student activity that a lot of young men and young women are interested in. It creates an environment for them and contributes to their educational experience, and I think it's great.

The News Argus: WSSU has different sports that performed extremely well this school year.

Reaves: This year was a good year in mostly all of our sports.The baseball team was able to three-peat, and what else is there to be said about the football team? 

   It was just a phenomenal year.  For the football team to get that far in the national playoffs was great. I wish we would have done better in some of the other sports like basketball, but we didn't. I'm glad we're competitive in everything.

The News Argus: What are some of the goals that you have for yourself and the University?

Reaves: I'm at a juncture in my tenure here where we've accomplished a lot, especially on the academic side of things and in terms of construction.  We did that by carefully following a strategic plan that focused on student achievement and post-graduation outcomes for our students.

We're at the point now where we're deciding what we want to do next. We put in a new curriculum two years ago, and we still need to do a lot of work around that to make sure students understand the opportunities that the curriculum offers. We also need to make sure the faculty understands and is comfortable with it [the new curriculum]. 

The UNC General Administration just completed its strategic plan. We'll spend the next 12-18 months making sure that the things that we're doing on this campus are consistent with the goals and objectives that the system has set for its schools. 

The News Argus: Do you have any parting words to the class of 2013?

Reaves: I offer my congratulations to all who are graduating. It's a major accomplishment. What I would emphasize is the word "commencement." Commencement means to start. You're just starting. I know it's an important day, and it's a milestone. Share the moment, but then the next week after graduation is the next chapter. 

Visit thenewsargus.com to see and listen to the entire interview.