Chris Coduto/Arizona Daily Wildcat Newly hired UA president Robert Shelton speaks to a group of UA alumni at an alumni breakfast at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, N.C., prior to the start of the Arizona and UNC game Saturday. Shelton is a provost at UNC.

When Robert Shelton visits the UA in the next few months to plan for his presidency, faculty and staff members said they look forward to taking advantage of his strength in sciences and challenging him to improve issues of diversity.

Shelton, who will succeed President Peter Likins, is finishing out his last semester as executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Between now and July 1, when he becomes the UA president, Shelton said he will make trips to Tucson to meet with members of the UA community, including faculty.

Samira Farwaneh, an assistant professor of Near Eastern studies, said if she had the chance to sit down with Shelton during one of his visits to campus, she would encourage him to focus on issues of diversity.

"I happen to be a minority and a woman," she said. "I'd ask him to pay attention to issues of diversity, not just to pay lip service to minorities, women and people with disabilities."

Farwaneh said Shelton should work to secure tenure, recruitment and respectful working environments for minorities, not just equal salaries.

Though Shelton is not a minority, he is "enlightened, educated and conscientious" and can still make a difference with diversity issues, Farwaneh said.

Robert Shelton

"If more minorities are able to have positions of tenure and equity, then one day there could be more minorities as university presidents," Farwaneh said.

Keith Dienes, an associate physics professor, said the UA will benefit from Shelton's research background and his service on the Hubble Telescope Committee.

"His connections to NASA and the astrophysics community should be extremely useful, given the strength of physics and astrophysics on our campus," said Dienes in an e-mail.

Dienes said Shelton, who received his master's degree and Ph.D. in physics, will be able to use his wide-ranging background to effectively serve the many needs of the university.

"As the executive vice chancellor at UNC, he has had considerable experience handling the financial end of things," Dienes said. "Yet as a physicist and academic administrator, he should have a broad view of the academic and scholastic mission of a university."

James Wyant, the dean of the College of Optical Sciences, said he had a chance to meet Shelton while he was here and thought the choice was "wonderful."

William Dixon, head of the political science department, said he's not worried Shelton's science and research background will negatively effect other departments on campus.

"A president with the background he has is exactly what we need," Dixon said. "He has experience in administration at a campus that is not dissimilar to ours. He did a tremendous job at North Carolina, and I think he will do a tremendous job here."

Ronald Marx, dean of the College of Education, emphasized Shelton's support for higher education and his ability to understand the needs of the university.

"He understands the need to stay closely connected to the public, both in the city and in the state," Marx said.

- Anthony D. Ávila contributed to this report.