Carolina First

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Fall 2007

Chancellor's Column

Building a better Carolina - together

chancellor moeser

Photo by Dan Sears

This past September, I announced that I’ll leave the Chancellor’s Office in June 2008. Then, after a year’s research leave, I’ll return to Chapel Hill to join the music faculty.
I’ll have many wonder­ful memories of my time in South Building, but none will be more wonderful than this one:  Thanks to your support in the Carolina First Campaign, we have built a better university.

The campaign, now in its final weeks, will go down as the 11th most successful cam­paign in the history of higher education.

Set to end Dec. 31, 2007, Carolina First now stands at $2.28 billion, a total made even more extraordinary when you consider that we launched the campaign publicly in 2002 with a $1.8 billion goal.

At that time, we pledged that this would be a comprehensive campaign, benefiting every corner of campus. Now, looking back over the past five years, we can say most assuredly that we have lived up to that promise. Consider just a few of the numbers at the time this went to press:


An immensely impressive list of figures. But perhaps the most important figure is this one—191,103 donors. Without our donors, none of those other achievements would have been possible. Equally critical has been the nationwide mobilization of our campaign volunteers. Our steering and regional committee members, our minority alumni and women’s groups—all have stepped forward and shown extraordinary leadership and dedication in making Carolina First such a tremen­dous milestone in our university’s history and asset to its future.

Your support has helped us recruit and retain outstanding researchers such as Mike Ramsey, who came to Chapel Hill in 2004 to fill the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professorship of Chemistry, created by Carolina First, and carries out research in Chapman Hall, part of our new science complex benefiting from campaign gifts. Dr. Ramsey, who was featured in the spring 2007 issue of Carolina Connections, is a pioneer in the field of microfluidics and nanofluid­ics. Last fall, he received a $3.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop “lab-on-a-chip” technology that could lead to cheaper, faster and more customized DNA sequencing to help health care professionals tailor diagnosis, treatment and prevention to each person’s unique genetic profile. Then there’s Dr. William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson emi­nent professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences and senior associate director of UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South. He led the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1997 to 2001 and has earned numerous accolades, including the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities from former President Bill Clinton.

Your support provides outstanding programming for the Carolina Covenant, our initiative that enables deserving students from low-income families to graduate debt-free. That means we can do more for students like Erin Callender, a senior Covenant Scholar from Cary, N.C., who said this about the program:  “The Carolina Covenant has been such a stress reliever. We knew that we’d pay for college some­how, and now [the Covenant] has reward­ed us for working so hard. My parents hit the floor when we [first] found out.” (See page 8 for a story about how the University aims to raise additional private support for the Carolina Covenant.)

And I could go on with many more stories about the life-changing impact of Carolina First.

A particularly remarkable note about the campaign is that it has maintained tremendous momentum since it began. In fact, this past fiscal year we received $363 million in commitments, the highest total of the campaign.

As we seek to end Carolina First on an even higher note, I hope you will consid­er helping us continue our momentum—and do even more for every member of the campus community.