Updraft at N.C. Central

North Carolina Central University can be thought of as a rocket on the launch pad with its fuel tanks full. Why it hasn't blasted off is a puzzle, but only to a degree. It's not for want of attention. In recent years, attorney Julius Chambers, a respected and forceful leader, was among its chancellors. The university received $122.4 million to improve the campus from a multibillion-dollar bond referendum passed by North Carolina voters in 2000. When the UNC Board of Governors, the governing body of the state's 16-campus system, wanted a new biotechnology program, it picked the Durham school.

No, N.C. Central's slowness to soar is due in part to a lack of educational rigor. So Charlie Nelms, who was officially installed as chancellor a few days ago, is a burst of fresh air. The 61-year-old son of Arkansas farmers has a no-nonsense expectation of excellence and is not satisfied just to look backward at NCCU's proud history.

Nelms repeated in his inaugural address a call -- emphasized since his arrival in Durham -- for students to enter the university with the aim of graduating, and in a reasonable length of time. NCCU has had a high dropout rate in recent years. One measure of a university's quality is how well students move toward a diploma, and public institutions have a special responsibility in that regard to the taxpayers.

Nelms' call for the faculty to be more accountable for their students' education also is timely. Any professors who are mostly marking time may chafe at the admonition, but the chancellor is right to issue it. Otherwise, students aren't being well served.

Nelms has other initiatives in mind -- raising more money and beginning new professional programs, to name a few. But he wisely wants to shore up the basics first. N.C. Central and its students will have a far better chance to soar if he succeeds.