Kwesi Aggrey became N.C. Central University's provost Friday. His new job reunites him with Charlie Nelms, whom he knew when both worked at Indiana University -- Aggrey at an IU branch campus in Gary, Nelms as an IU system administrator.

As he cleaned out his office this past week at IU-Northwest, where he has been the vice chancellor for academic affairs, Aggrey spoke with The Durham News. Here are excerpts:

Q. Did you apply for this job because you knew Chancellor Nelms, or was it coincidental?

AGGREY: It attracted my attention because I knew he was there. I knew he was the chancellor there. I had been to the campus. I attended his inauguration. Once I saw the ad, I said, "Oh, I know that campus." I was very impressed when I was there.

Q. What was impressive about the campus to you?

AGGREY: Being a scientist, I was very impressed with the Research Triangle and the various companies that are out there. Then we went to the campus. Some of the things that were very impressive to me, as a scientist -- the science and technology building and the new research building -- BRITE. It's a smaller campus, an HBCU, with those facilities -- it immediately said something to me. That it's a campus that's on the move and I'd like to be a part of it.

Q. What's the first challenge you expect to face when you get to Durham?

AGGREY: The whole country is feeling the pinch in the budget. We'll have to address making sure we position ourselves for the budget cuts almost every state is facing. I suspect I'll have to sit down very quickly with the deans and department chairs and prepare for it. The worst thing that can happen is in the middle of the year [you] have to give back money that has already been given to you. There's a limit to what you can cut and maintain academic programs. But at the same time, we all know this is not one of those normal times for the country. So we'll have to deal with that.

And then we get back to the student area in terms of retention and building on what people have done. Making the campus very student-friendly. When I worked [at Ramapo College] in New Jersey with our big brother, Rutgers, sitting there, as a small campus, you try to really create a niche for yourself so students find a reason to go to that campus instead of going to another place. In Durham, you have Big Brother Duke sitting right next to you. We'll have to create something that will make more and more students choose to come to us. So student-centeredness. Being able to retain students and graduate students on time will be a priority.

Q. Have you worked on retention issues, specifically, as it relates to first-generation minority students?

AGGREY: Yes, I have. Here [at IU-Northwest], I'm the co-chair of the retention task force established by the chancellor. ... We had a consultant come in and the first thing that was identified was retention of students. If only we could retain a good percentage of students on this campus, we could address some of our budget problems.

We are in the middle of a city that is depressed. It is a city that had all these industries that have disappeared. One of the main things for this city is the university. We get students who would not normally leave the area to go anywhere. They come here, but somehow they cannot find what they're looking for, so we've lost students over and over and over. So we've tried to create a synergy between academic affairs and student affairs to help students succeed.