News-Record.com

N.C. A&T Interim Chancellor Lloyd Hackley is a smart, genial man with an easy smile and a quick wit.

I met him at a dinner Sunday night at the home of Henry and Shirley Frye.

But don't let that fool you. Hackley, tapped by UNC President Erskine Bowles to run A&T between chancellors, clearly is not going to be a placeholder until a permanent successor to Jim Renick is hired.

Expect a number of changes on the campus during Hackley's stay here.

Some wonder whether they might have begun with the impending departure of David Hoard, vice chancellor for development and university relations, effective Aug. 31. Hoard was Renick's point man for fund-raising and headed the school's ongoing $100 million capital campaign.

"David has decided to focus on some other creative endeavors at this time," Hackley said in an A&T press release. "We appreciate his contributions over the past seven years and wish him Godspeed."

It is not unusual for top leadership at a school to change with a presidency or chancellorship. New leaders like to pick their own lieutenants. But it's interesting that a national search for a permanent replacement for Hoard will begin soon, and not wait until the next chancellor comes aboard.