NEWS

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$1 million gift enhances
UNC advising program

By DEE REID
College of Arts and Sciences

CHAPEL HILL -- A $1 million gift to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has launched a pilot faculty fellowship program to enhance academic advising for undergraduates as they enter their major fields of study.

The Abbey Fellows Program in the College of Arts and Sciences is made possible by a $1 million contribution from 1974 alumna Nancy Abbey and her husband Douglas, of San Francisco, as part of the university’s Carolina First fund-raising campaign.

The first two Abbey Fellows, selected because of their advising skills and knowledge of their fields, are Dr. Beth Kurtz-Costes, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of psychology, and Dr. Lillie Searles, associate professor of biology. They will begin their fellowships July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005, respectively.

The three-year fellowships will provide stipends of $8,000 per year for a total of five faculty members involved in advising for departments with large concentrations of undergraduate majors: biology, English, history, political science and psychology. Each fellow will act as the primary coordinator between his or her department and the college academic advising system.

The Abbey Fellows Program aims to ensure that students benefit from consistent and readily available advice from their faculty advisers, as well as career workshops, resource materials and small group sessions during freshman orientation. In its pilot stage, the program will benefit about one-third of each graduating class. The goal is to eventually serve all college undergraduates.

"The Abbey Fellows will enhance our overall advising program by serving as leaders and mentors in the advising process at a crucial point when students are considering future careers or graduate studies," said Dr. Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Our first two fellows are extremely well qualified and will be excellent role models for future fellows."

As director of undergraduate studies for psychology, Kurtz-Costes has been advising students in Carolina’s most popular major since 2001. She has served on a subcommittee involved in revising the undergraduate curriculum and on the administrative board charged with approving undergraduate curricula in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Searles, a member of the faculty since 1986, has served as a departmental adviser and a member of the undergraduate affairs committee, the steering committee for revision of the undergraduate curriculum, and the administrative board of the College of Arts and Sciences. She has taught and mentored hundreds of students during her tenure at Carolina.

The Abbey gift counts toward the Carolina First campaign goal of $1.8 billion. Carolina First is a multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

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Photo URLs:

· http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/kurtz-costes_beth.jpg
· http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/searles_lillie.JPG

Contact: Dee Reid, 919-843-6339