From staff reports

CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC Board Of Governors is expected to hire a new chancellor for N.C. State when the board meets today.

Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the board of governors, declined Thursday to either confirm or deny published reports that the board will be asked to approve William "Randy" Woodson, 52, the president for academic affairs and provost at Purdue University, for the post.

He has been Purdue's provost since May 2008. Before that, Woodson served as the dean of agriculture at Purdue from 2004-08.

If selected to lead N.C. State, Woodson would replace James Oblinger, who resigned under pressure last June after becoming embroiled in a scandal involving the controversial hiring of former Gov. Mike Easley's wife, Mary Easley, to a post at N.C. State.

Woodson joined the Purdue faculty in 1985 and became a professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in 1993. He directed the school's plant biology program from 1995-97 and served as head of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture from 1996-98.

Woodson, a native of Arkansas, received a bachelor's degree in horticulture and chemistry from the University of Arkansas and a master's degree in horticulture and doctorate in horticulture/plant physiology from Cornell University.

Prior to coming to Purdue, he was an assistant professor of horticulture at Louisiana State University.