A message from the chancellor: Building a diverse community of excellence

Dear Carolina Community,

This week I had the pleasure of meeting with several alumni and donors to talk about our highest priorities. One of those priorities is recruiting the strongest class of students we can find, from eager first-year undergraduates to brilliant doctoral candidates. We can only do that with generous scholarships, fellowships and financial aid.

Welcoming talent and ambition from all backgrounds is a central part of what makes Carolina a unique place. While I was meeting with our biggest supporters talking about the link between diversity and excellence, Carolina’s Graduate School announced that we are one of the top public universities in the nation for the number of doctoral degrees awarded — and that we rank in the top five nationally for Ph.D.s awarded to Black doctoral candidates. For doctoral degrees awarded to American Indian students, we tied for 17th out of several hundred universities across the country.

That matters immensely for the future of higher education. The students who earned those doctorates will become the next generation of professors, researchers and mentors. They will shape the direction of their fields for years to come and pave the way for a rising generation of students to feel at home on our campus and thrive.

“We’ve worked for more than a decade to build community for underrepresented graduate students on campus and within The Graduate School,” Dean Suzanne Barbour said in the announcement. “Through that work, we hope to serve as a model for excellence in graduate education in our state and beyond.”

We can build on that progress by making sure that all of our students, faculty and staff have the support they need to succeed. It’s been a challenging year for mental health here and across higher education, but we are working hard to answer this call, too. On Wednesday, we unveiled the new Heels Care Network so that mental health resources at Carolina are easier to find and easier to access. You can find training, get 24/7 crisis support or refer a friend for help — all in one place. We’ll soon share details for webinars about specific areas of mental health.

Thanks to everyone who provided thoughtful feedback during and after last semester’s Mental Health Summit, and to everyone at Carolina for doing your part to connect with classmates and colleagues in need. “Build Our Community Together” is a shared calling, and it’s good to be working with you to support one another and Carolina moving forward.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Chancellor