James Anderson stepped down as chancellor from Fayetteville State University, announcing his decision at a recent meeting of the school’s Board of Trustees.
The surprise announcement led to tears from some staff at the meeting and sent shockwaves through the Bronco community. In a news release, the university emphasized that he was not resigning but stepping down after 11 years as chancellor. He intends to take a sabbatical and could eventually return in a teaching role at FSU.
Whatever Anderson’s future plans, FSU is losing at the helm one of the more significant leaders in its 152-year history. Anderson, the school’s 11th chancellor, can fairly claim he helped the historically black university take a big leap into the future with a modernizing approach focused on preparing students for an increasingly interconnected and global economy. Meanwhile, he built a connection with students that was real. Their reaction to his stepping down showed it. “I didn’t see it happening,” one senior said. Said a recent graduate: “I thought he had a little more time to give.”
Perhaps Anderson relates to students because like most young folks, he did not always have things figured out and he had to overcome challenges — like many of his young charges at FSU. A strength of most historically black colleges and universities is that they take chances on students that might be overlooked elsewhere. It’s one way you build a community.
Anderson would tell the story of how he had inconsistent caregivers as a young child and ran with street gangs in Washington, D.C. He was a pimp by age 9, he said. Things did not began to smooth out for him until he was taken in at age 12 by the Andersons, a janitor and secretary who would officially adopt him at age 18. He would later go on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University and has served six academic institutions over a 44-year career.
“I have shared my story with different student groups,” Anderson said in a 2012 interview with The Fayetteville Observer. “They are really shocked. They think when you reach a level of a chancellor, if you are an intellectual, that you had a pretty easy ride along the way.”
Anderson has broad interests that range from vinyl records to Tai Chi to Marvel comic books and collectibles. He was also often in attendance at Lady Broncos bowling tournaments to support the team. But he is an educator at heart and it is the field of expanding education where he has made a lasting mark at FSU. As he noted in a letter he wrote Thursday to staff and faculty, many of the school’s online courses and degree programs rank in the top 5 in the country, and research faculty has developed five patents, with more waiting in the wings. Under his tenure, the school has developed partnerships in China, Poland and several African countries. The school is also one of the pioneers of the $10,000 degree, at a time when college is becoming increasingly unaffordable for too many.
Anderson’s love of education extends to history, and he has been a leading advocate for the N.C. Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, overcoming skepticism in the broader black community by highlighting that the proposed museum will tell the real truth about the war area, including the stories of African-Americans.
His advocacy for the center is one of many ways this D.C. native’s story has become interwoven with our own and we hope this goodbye is only see you later.
— The Fayetteville Observer