Reviewing the Fall 2009 schedule for Fayetteville I ran across something somewhat interesting. Dr. James A. Anderson, 11th (current) Chancellor of Fayetteville State University, is teaching General Psychology (PSYC 210) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:45PM to 8PM. I reviewed the available information and determined that he is qualified to teach it, but why would he want to? He is not officially part of the Department of Psychology and the department has no shortage of faculty. Another really interesting thing to note about the course listing is that while all of the other sections of PSYC 210 are either full or almost full, Dr. Anderson’s section has all 25 seats still available (even the 45 seat section with no instructor has 41 students). If I were close to the campus and/or needed a General Psyc credit I would so take the course with him. I must wonder if everyone else is scared of taking a course with the Chancellor.

I do wonder about some of the potential for conflict of interest type situations that could occur with the Chancellor teaching though. Grade appeals is the primary thing that comes to mind. All of the administrators involved in such a process report directly to the Chancellor. The potential issues aside, I think it is wonderful that Dr. Anderson still teaches. I do not believe that any other Chancellor in the UNC system would actually have that much contact with students.