Carolina Today

I'm James Moeser, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

We just celebrated University Day, which marks the birth of American public higher education, on October 12th. Carolina's 211th birthday is the wonderful time to reflect on what's going on at your university.

We just admitted the best prepared freshman class in our history. We are making progress on a wonderful capital construction program. And alumni and friends are supporting us mightily through the Carolina First campaign. Join me for a quick look at Carolina today.

You may have heard about our vision for making Carolina the nation's leading public university. Only a handful of universities can even have that conversation. We are one of them. A leading public university is an engaged university that always puts its state first.

I've traveled every corner of North Carolina as part of a program called "Carolina Connects" to spotlight the work of faculty, staff, and students that improves people's lives each day.

Let me introduce you to a few of the wonderful people I've met from the University and in North Carolina communities:

Jill Fitzgerald, a School of Education professor, taught a year at Siler City Elementary School. Her experience teaching children who don't speak English as a first language changed about 80 percent of what she had been teaching her own Carolina students.

Skip Bollenbacher, a biology professor, leads our Traveling Science Laboratory, which brings the latest science to schools statewide. On board, students solve DNA mysteries. Without this bus, many of them would never see a high-tech lab or what a science career can offer.

Dennis Orthner and Doug Robertson were part of a team developing the Citizen-Soldier Initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. This national demonstration project will provide support at home to newly deployed and returning reservists and National Guard soldiers and their families.

These and many other faculty, students and staff are on the front lines every day demonstrating Carolina's commitment to fulfilling our commitment to the state. We work on real-world problems.

Last year, we launched the Carolina Covenant, a first for a major public university. The Carolina Covenant promises admitted students from low-income families that we will provide the full cost of their education so that they can graduate debt-free.

Following Carolina's lead, other universities have created similar programs, including Virginia, Maryland, Nebraska, the College of New Jersey, Harvard, and Brown.

This fall, we enrolled 225 Carolina Covenant Scholars. These are outstanding students, with an average 4.2 GPA and a 1209 SAT score. More than half of them are first-generation college students.

Now, we are extending the Covenant's reach. Next fall, we will expand it for families from 150 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent. That covers a family of four making $37,000 or a single parent with a child who makes $24,000. This will add another 120 Carolina Covenant Scholars.

We hope the Carolina Covenant challenges other universities to give qualified students across America the chance they deserve to earn a college degree debt-free.

The North Carolina General Assembly was exceptionally generous to the University this year.

Legislators authorized $180 million to build a world-class hospital in Chapel Hill for cancer patients and their families.

When completed, the new hospital will become the largest freestanding university cancer hospital in the Southeast. It will also be the clinical home for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of a handful of National Cancer Institute-designated centers.

Our number one priority at Carolina is strengthening faculty recruitment, retention, and development. We've made great progress on this front in the past year, thanks to strong support from the General Assembly, modest increases in campus-based tuition, and generous gifts through the Carolina First Campaign.

Carolina First has secured nearly 211 million dollars for faculty support – more than half of our 400 million dollar goal in this part of the campaign. These funds will support key faculty retention and recruitment initiatives – research stipends, summer programs, materials, graduate support and course development, as well as endowed chairs and professorships.

Our donors have created 127 endowed professorships toward our goal of 200.

Overall, we have exceeded the $1.2 billion mark toward our campaign goal of $1.8 billion. That's great progress. Private dollars are critical as we compete with the finest private universities for faculty and students.

Another University priority is to create the richest possible learning environment for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

What sets Carolina apart from the other great research universities is a culture for learning that rivals the finest private liberal arts colleges for undergraduates, and the finest graduate and professional school environments.

Last year, we increased the percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students and reduced the percentage of classes with more than 50 students. This is one of our own measures of excellence, as well as a number used by U.S. News and World Report. Our gains helped us move up 21 places in the magazine's ranking of faculty resources among all universities. In the midst of tough state budget cuts, we invested strategically, to support our priority for students.

Our University priorities also focus on strengthening the student experience at Chapel Hill.

We want to increase the percentage of undergraduate classes with fewer than 20 students by doubling the size of the Honors Program.

We want to improve our six-year graduation rate, now at more than 82 percent, and raise it to at least 92 percent, the highest level of any of our top public university peers.

And we want to make graduate teaching assistant stipends nationally competitive.

Our faculty's stunning research success has solidified Carolina's status as scientific leader.

This past year, faculty secured 577 million dollars in research grants – up 7.5 percent in 2003.

Engagement is another priority, and we think in global, as well as local, terms. We have study-abroad programs in 70 different countries, and our students and faculty are engaged around the world through hundreds of academic programs, partnerships, and collaborations.

If you haven't visited Chapel Hill lately, I invite you to come back. We are in the midst of a $1.3 billion construction and renovation program.

That has been made possible by the people of North Carolina, who voted to approve the Higher Education Bond Referendum, faculty research grants and contracts, and private gifts to Carolina First.

Some of the projects include the renovation of Saunders Hall and Playmakers Theatre as well new construction that supports research and instruction.

And we plan to begin Carolina North, a mixed-use development planned on a 900-acre tract near main campus. Carolina North holds great promise for advancing the University's mission and contributing the faculty's knowledge to the state's economy.

We envision Carolina North, a proposed living and learning community one mile north of campus, as a vibrant new setting for business innovation and economic development, for public service, and for engaging citizens of all ages in the life of the university.

Over time, Carolina North will help leverage the faculty's research directly into the state's economy. Carolina North is our future, and it is vital to the state's economic success.

We take seriously our leadership role in American higher education and are quite serious about the vision of becoming the nation's leading public university. Your generous support to the Carolina First campaign promotes academic excellence and makes a difference in the lives of our students and faculty.

Let me leave you with a word of thanks. We appreciate your taking the time to view this message, and we want to hear what you think about this way of communicating. Please send me an email with your ideas. My address will appear in just a moment. We look forward to hearing from you. Even more, we'd love to see you on this beautiful campus.

chancellor@unc.edu