Spring highlights

Carolina Development Highlights: Spring 2010

Development News

Kenan Trust expendable gift leads to $5.5 million to hire outstanding junior faculty UNC has received a $5 million gift from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to support the recruitment of outstanding young faculty.

The gift also has spurred a $500,000 commitment from an anonymous donor for the same purpose.

Chancellor Holden Thorp announced the gifts at the March 25 Board of Trustees meeting.

According to Thorp, the gifts make a strategic move possible to bring the best junior faculty to the University, and help signal how important junior faculty will be to American higher education and the nation’s livelihood in the years ahead.

Unlike most gifts of this size, the $5 million and $500,000 will be expendable rather than go into endowment. That means the University can use the funds immediately for more hires. Carolina plans to offer competitive three-year packages to 18 junior faculty members—14 in the College of Arts and Sciences, where most undergraduate education occurs, two in Kenan-Flagler Business School and one each in the schools of education and nursing.

After three years, as the economy improves, the University will support the positions permanently.

Renwick initiative launched UNC aims to create a $250,000 endowment to honor the late Dean Hayden B. “Benny” Renwick and support two key programs he spearheaded during his tenure in the Office for Student Counseling in the College of Arts and Sciences: Hayden B. Renwick The Minority Advisory Program and the Academic Achievement Awards.

When Renwick ’66 (M.Ed.) joined the staff of Carolina’s admissions office in 1969, there were only about 100 African-American students enrolled. By the time he was promoted to associate

dean in the newly formed Office for Student Counseling in 1973, black student enrollment had topped 900 and continued to grow. He also instituted a minority student tutorial program to help ensure each student’s success once they enrolled. The work Dean Renwick began continues in the recently organized Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling.

Head coach Roy Williams raises $1 million for cancer research In just five years, UNC men’s basketball coach Roy Williams has raised more than $1 million for cancer research, treatment and prevention programs through the highly successful Fast Break Against Cancer event, which was launched in 2004. Williams also directed half of the proceeds from the Roy Williams sold-out UNC Alumni Basketball game to support cancer research at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Cancer center director H. Shelton Earp, M.D., recognized Williams for this effort at the most recent Fast Break Against Cancer event.

N.C. Cancer Hospital receives $2 million for research, patient programs Sanofi-aventis U.S., an affiliate of leading global pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis, has committed $2 million toward the N.C. Cancer Hospital Endowment—which helps support the institution’s clinical research and many patient programs.

Sanofi-aventis company leaders announced the gift in a Dec. 21, 2009, ceremony at the N.C. Cancer Hospital.

In recognition of the gift, the hospital has named its advanced telecommunications conference center the Sanofi-aventis Conference Center.

These four conference rooms form a hub of multidisciplinary care, interdisciplinary communication and outreach from UNC to the

(continued)

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Development Highlights: Spring 2010 state and beyond—allowing UNC physicians to consult in real time with referring physicians across the state.

“This investment in the N.C. Cancer Hospital is a tremendous expression of confidence in our faculty, scientists and staff, and acknowledges their success in fighting cancer in North Carolina and the nation. This gift will support critical clinical research and program enhancements that will directly benefit cancer patients,” said William L. Roper, dean of the School of Medicine, vice chancellor for medical affairs and chief executive officer of the UNC Health Care System.

Roper noted that because the newly constructed hospital was entirely funded by North Carolinians through an appropriation from the state legislature, private gifts to the hospital’s endowment directly benefit patients and programs.

Social work professor named 2009 Harvey Award winner Joelle D. Powers of the School of Social Work received the 2009 C. Felix Harvey Award to Advance Institutional Priorities at UNC. Powers, a clinical assistant professor, will use the $75,000, one-year award to implement a one-year pilot project to boost Joelle Powers student mental health in the Durham Public Schools.

Powers’ project will form a partnership between Durham Public Schools and Durham’s public mental health provider, The Durham Center. It aims to train school staff in one school to recognize mental health problems in students, creating a school-based referral process, and bring professional mental health providers into the school to serve students.

The project’s goal is to increase the capacity of the school to recognize and meet the needs of students with mental health problems that threaten their school success.

The C. Felix Harvey Award to Advance Institutional Priorities supports a variety of institutional initiatives at Carolina, including community engagement.

The award is named for C. Felix Harvey ’43, chairman of Harvey Enterprises & Affiliates and founder of the Little Bank Inc., both in Kinston,

N.C. The Harvey family, which includes five generations of UNC graduates, endowed the award in 2007 with a $2 million gift to the University.

FPG FirstSchool Initiative receives $4 million grant UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute has been awarded a $4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support FirstSchool, a systems-based change approach for educating and caring for young children.

FirstSchool works with schools, communities, states and higher education to unite best practices for early childhood, elementary and special education.

FPG and its partners have been working on a new effort to improve experiences for children as they enter public schools. This new grant follows four years of planning and pilot programs in several North Carolina school districts.

The FirstSchool grant will be used for work in four North Carolina schools and four Michigan schools.

UNC’s endowment drops to $1.91 billion The value of all endowment funds supporting Carolina fell to $1.91 billion last fiscal year, down from $2.36 billion.

The majority of the endowment is invested in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund, also known as the Chapel Hill Investment Fund (CHIF). CHIF’s market value for fiscal year 2009 was $1.78 billion, falling from $2.22 billion, and its annual return was negative 19.6 percent.

Jon King, president and CEO of UNC Management Co., which oversees CHIF, announced the drop at the Board of Trustees November 2009 meeting. This past fiscal year was one of the worst years ever for university endowments. King said Carolina was “squarely in the middle of the pack” of what other universities experienced; however, CHIF continues to rank in the top 10 percent of funds for three-, five- and 10year performance for periods ending June 30, 2009. (continued)

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Development Highlights: Spring 2010

University News

UNC System President Erskine Bowles to retire by end of year UNC System President Erskine Bowles will retire by the end of the year.

Bowles, 64, announced his decision to the system’s Board of Governors during its Feb. 12 meeting.

The former White House chief of staff and U.S. Erskine Bowles Senate candidate took over leadership of the 16-campus University of North Carolina System on Jan. 1, 2006, after a successful career in finance and in Washington, D.C. In a statement given to the board, Bowles said that he believed the system was making progress toward the goals he had when he took over four years ago, notably to improve the operating efficiencies of the universities, to build a seamless relationship with the state’s community college system, to ensure access and affordability, and to improve graduation rates.

During Bowles’ four years in charge, the system’s institutions have undergone significant growth in terms of students, research and campus expansions.

Bowles is joining the Obama Administration as cochair of its recently formed federal debt commission charged with helping reduce the federal debt.

Carney named executive vice chancellor and provost Bruce Carney, who has served as interim provost since Bernadette Gray-Little left the post in 2009, has been given the position on a permanent basis following a national search.

Chancellor Holden Thorp made the announcement on Bruce Carney March 10 in advance of the Board of Trustees meeting where Carney’s appointment was made official.

Carney, the Samuel Baron Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has held several top

administrative posts and was most recently the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a post vacated when Thorp himself was elevated to the chancellorship.

Marchionini named dean of SILS UNC’s Gary Marchionini, Cary C. Boshamer Professor, has been appointed dean of the School of Information and Library Science.

His appointment, effective April 1, was approved at the Jan. 28 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

A Carolina faculty member since 1998, Marchionini heads the school’s Interaction Design Laboratory, chairs its personnel committee and serves on the Campus Gary Marchionini Research Computing Committee.

Marchionini earned a doctorate in curriculum development, focusing on mathematics education, and a master’s degree in secondary mathematics education from Wayne State University in 1974 and 1981, respectively. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and English from Western Michigan University in 1971. Before arriving at UNC, he served on the faculties of the University of Maryland and Wayne State University and taught in the East Detroit Public School System.

Crisp tapped to lead student affairs UNC School of Law alumnus Winston B. Crisp has been appointed vice chancellor for student affairs.

He will succeed Margaret Jablonski, who has been vice chancellor since May 2004.

His appointment, effective May 10, was approved at the Jan. 28 meeting of the Board of Trustees. Crisp Winston Crisp currently serves as assistant vice chancellor for student affairs.

A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Crisp earned a bachelor’s degree in 1989 from Johnson C. Smith University and a juris doctor degree in 1992 from the School of Law, where he was inducted into the James E. and Carolyn B. Davis Society, the school’s highest honor for leadership and service. (continued)

Development Highlights: Spring 2010

Zhou develops new ways to zap brain tumors

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Two seniors named Rhodes Scholars

Otto Zhou, the David Godschalk Distinguished Professor of Physics and Materials Science, is offering new hope to patients diagnosed with brain tumors.

His work with tiny carbon nanotubes is shrinking the Xray machine itself. Zhou has been awarded nearly $2 Otto Zhou million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding from the National Cancer Institute to apply carbon nanotube X-ray technology invented at UNC to a promising experimental microbeam radiation therapy now housed in massive synchrotrons—facilities larger than Kenan Stadium. Using carbon nanotechnology, Zhou and Sha Chang, associate professor of radiation oncology, hope to be the first to deliver the same radiation dose with a desktop-size device. About 44,500 Americans are annually diagnosed with brain tumors; only 30 percent survive.

UNC’s Elizabeth Blair “Libby” Longino and Henry Lawlor Spelman were among the 32 American college students chosen as Rhodes Scholars for 2010.

Worth an average of $50,000, the scholarship funds two to four years of graduate study at Libby Longino Oxford.

Since the U.S. Rhodes program began in 1904, 45 Carolina students have received Rhodes Scholarships—the second most among all top public research universities. This is the sixth time that Carolina has had two Rhodes winners in the same year.

Since 2000, Carolina has produced Henry Spelman more Rhodes Scholars than any other state-supported university, and the ninth most of any public or private school. Over the past five years, UNC has trailed only Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton for most Rhodes Scholarship winners.

Carolina still the best deal around

Eve Marie Carson Garden dedicated

UNC remains the number one overall best value in U.S. public higher education, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, whose annual rankings appear in its February issue.

Carolina has ranked first on the magazine’s list of schools that “deliver strong academics at affordable prices” since 1998 when Kiplinger’s began its analysis.

Kiplinger’s rankings story detailed how some public universities are providing strong academics despite budget cuts, citing UNC as a leading example of campuses finding new ways to preserve quality while becoming more efficient.

Kiplinger’s said Carolina retained its top ranking “in part for its ability to attract and keep highflying students.” The story called Carolina “an academic superstar that competes with the Ivies” and is strongly committed to providing students with both need- and merit-based financial aid.

The Eve Marie Carson Garden at UNC was dedicated on March 4.

Named for Carolina’s former student body president, the garden is located off Polk Place, behind the Campus Y. A tribute to Carson, the garden also honors all Carolina students, past and future, who pass away before they graduate.

A project of UNC’s Student Government, Division of Student Affairs, Auxiliary Services and Facilities Services, the garden was funded by private donations. Its seating area, featuring a blue stone seat set in a traditional campus Chatham stone wall, orients people toward Polk Place and is flanked by some of Carson’s favorite plants.

The inscription wall is made of Georgia marble from Carson’s home state and bears a quote from Carson: “Learn from every single being, experience, and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others.” (continued)

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Development Highlights: Spring 2010 Shortly after Carson’s death in March 2008, a group of students and staff began work to design both a scholarship program in her name and a permanent physical remembrance of Carson on campus. Three Eve Marie Carson Scholars have been named: juniors Caroline Fish and Chase Jones in 2010 and Elinor Benami in 2009.

UNC earns presidential honor for community service Tar Heels spent more than 1 million hours last year helping others. Their efforts earned UNC one of only six spots on the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

The award, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency leading President Barack Obama’s call to service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve programs, recognizes universities for their community service activities.

The award recognizes service performed during the 2008-09 school year through such activities as meal-packaging events, the UNC Dance Marathon to benefit the N.C. Children’s Hospital and other service projects that involved more than 150 community partners.

Building updates

Storied Carmichael Auditorium reopens with victory After 18 months away from their home court, the UNC women’s basketball team returned to a newly renovated Carmichael Auditorium on Dec. 29, 2009, to beat the Kennesaw State Owls.

The $36 million upgrade added a new brick facade, a new scoreboard with full video capabilities on each of its four sides, individual stadium seats to replace the original aluminum bleachers and a revamped sound system. Also added were a museum area, a media room and office and support space.

The men’s basketball team returned to Carmichael for the first time in 25 years to open the 2010 NIT Tournament in a win against William & Mary.

Bell Tower Development moves ahead Begun in late 2008, this $221.9 million project addresses several key elements of the Campus

Master Plan. The program for the Bell Tower Development includes a 710-car parking deck, a 25 thousand-ton chilled water plant and a new Genome Science Laboratory Building that will provide approximately 210,000 square feet of modern classrooms, laboratories and offices. An elevated pedestrian walkway will link the WilsonDey area, located north of South Road, with the Sonya Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, the Bell Tower Development, Fordham Hall and Medical Drive. The project also will construct a new road running from the southern end of the project south to Manning Drive, and will provide for substantial storm water mitigation for the campus. A tentative completion date of fall 2011 has been set.

Venable Hall reborn Venable Hall was demolished in summer 2007 to make way for a state-of-the-art physical science complex.

Now fully weatherproofed and enclosed, “New Venable Hall” is rapidly taking shape. New New Venable Hall Venable and a section of the building not yet named will house the chemistry library, classrooms, one large lecture hall, labs and conference rooms. Two floors of the 169,000square-foot building will house the marine sciences department. The ground floor of the building is an undergraduate hub, with four large classrooms, a lecture hall and the chemistry library. The lecture hall, with its large windows, serves as a visual anchor for the north end of the planned courtyard between New Venable and Chapman Hall. The new building will also connect Kenan Labs and Caudill Labs through bridges and corridors.

With a price tag of approximately $92 million, the building is scheduled to open for classes in fall 2010.

Kenan Stadium expands— still a ‘priceless gem’ Kenan Memorial Stadium was built in 1927 and since that time has undergone several renovations and expansions.

The New Kenan Project is the latest such effort to enhance and expand what is often regarded as one of the most majestic athletic venues in the country. (continued)

Development Highlights: Spring 2010 The comprehensive Master Plan for Kenan Stadium calls for a complete renovation of the stadium in multiple phases:  Phase I: West End Zone. This phase was completed in August 2009. The renovation included a fifth-floor addition (recruiting and media space) along with remodeling of existing offices and team spaces in the Kenan Football Center.  Phase II: East End Zone. This phase includes new construction in the east end zone for the Carolina Student-Athlete Center for Excellence and The Blue Zone - Premium Seating. The project’s $70 million price tag will be funded from the lease of suites and club seating as well as a private capital campaign that began in October 2009. No state funds or tuition assessments will be used.

This facility will include a new and expanded academic support center for all studentathletes, a home for the Carolina Leadership Academy, an Olympic Sports strength and conditioning room, a visiting team locker room, a men’s lacrosse locker facility, athletic department office space, bays for TV satellite trucks and premium seating for game days at Kenan Stadium. The facility is Phase II in the Master Plan for Kenan Stadium.  Future Phases: North and South Sides. These phases are under review to determine costs and possible funding opportunities.

From Holden Thorp’s blog:

UNC had right response to NYT article Feb. 12, 2010 There has been a lot of conversation [recently] about what was wrong with the New York Times article, “New Math on Campus.”

The story focused on enrollment trends and the gender gap at American colleges, and it featured quotes Chancellor Holden Thorp from several UNC students.

The assertion was that there are social consequences when the gender ratio is not perfectly split.

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The Daily Tar Heel has done an excellent job of covering the debate.

On Tuesday [Feb. 9], I attended a fireside chat organized by the Carolina Women’s Center, where the article was the focus of much conversation.

The general impression from this article seems to be that there is something wrong with UNC’s student body. But from my experiences with students at UNC, that did not ring true to me.

So rather than waste time talking about what was wrong with the article, let’s talk about what’s right about UNC students, which is just about everything.

We have a highly selective admissions policy because we need motivated, intelligent students to carry out our mission to “expand the body of knowledge, improve the condition of human life through service and publication and to enrich the culture.”

You have responded to that, which is why we receive more than 23,000 applications every year for admission to the University.

Once here, students demonstrate every day the success of our efforts to get the best of the best.

You excel, not just in the classroom but also in the research lab, on stage, on the playing fields, in the community and abroad.

You care about each other as individuals, and you work together to make not just our campus, but the world, a better place.

You know that the gender ratio at UNC is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it’s been roughly 60 percent female and 40 percent male for at least 30 years.

You may not know that the pool of 23,000 applicants has exactly the same ratio, and that most colleges and universities around the country reflect it as well.

And yes, we had the same male-female ratio when I was a student here.

Granted, I didn’t have a particularly busy social life at the time either, but it never occurred to me to blame demographics.

I thought it was just because I spent so much time either hanging out in a chemistry lab or on the road with my band.

My point is that UNC has the best students in the world, and here’s why: Your reaction to this article has been thoughtful, articulate, reasoned and sensitive.

You are using it to have conversations about accuracy in journalism, problems in K-12 education and gender roles and expectations.

In short, you are doing everything we hope Carolina students would do.