Folt in her own words

After her election as UNC’s next chancellor, Carol Folt started immersing herself in campus life and learning more about Carolina. In this 4-minute video, she discusses how public higher education changed her life, what attracted her to the University and her family.

“I am so excited to be Carolina’s 11th Chancellor. It is a dream come true for me,” Folt says in the video. “I love the spirit of Carolina. It has these traditions that have made it an amazing place for more than 200 years.”

Folt, interim president at Dartmouth College and an internationally recognized environmental scientist, will become the first woman to lead Carolina. She will take office as the 11th chancellor on July 1. She succeeds Holden Thorp, who will step down June 30 after five years in the post. He will become provost of Washington University in St. Louis.

Uniquely qualified

UNC President Tom Ross said Folt was uniquely qualified to lead Carolina, not only as the president of an acclaimed Ivy League institution who will now lead a “public Ivy” but also as an accomplished academic educated in public universities.

Ross said Folt is “the right person to lead UNC-Chapel Hill at this precise time in its long and storied history.”

She has the life experiences to manage and lead a large and complex institution with constrained resources and maintain a commitment to scholarship, research and creativity, he said.

Ross said he knew he had found the right person for the job when he met with Folt in his office and he asked her what had meant the most to her during her role as interim president at Dartmouth.

“Without hesitation, and with clear passion and commitment, and really love, her response was, ‘the students,’” Ross said.