Carolina First

Making the Difference

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities

Reinvigorating Teaching

By Hope Baptiste

Long before the Carolina First Campaign, strengthening and retaining Carolina’s outstanding faculty were key priorities for the University. And for the last 20 years, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) has been on a mission: to recruit quality faculty to the College of Arts and Sciences; to retain the best teachers, scholars and artists; and to renew the teaching commitment of the faculty.

IAH
Hyde Hall, home to the Institute for the Arts and Humanities

Founded in 1987 by Religious Studies Professor Ruel Tyson, the institute has provided fellowships and other professional development opportunities for more than 400 faculty members since its inception. Tyson, the institute’s founding director, stepped down in 2006 after two decades and left a legacy of dedication and development for current director, English Professor John McGowan, to build upon. Tyson led the effort to create an endowment for faculty fellowships that now stands at more than $8 million and led the charge to build Hyde Hall, Carolina’s only center for faculty development.

Located on historic McCorkle Place, Hyde Hall was built and furnished with $6.8 million in private contributions to Carolina First, including a lead gift from Carolina alumni Pitt and Barbara Hyde of Memphis, Tenn. The IAH relocated in 2002 to its new, 15,000-square-foot home that aptly reflects the historic architecture surrounding it.

Far beyond bricks and mortar, Carolina First is helping to enhance significantly every facet of the institute. The Hyde Family Foundation pledged $5 million to endow the IAH’s Academic Leadership Program and name it for Ruel Tyson. The Ruel Tyson Academic Leadership Program in the IAH sponsors seven to 10 leadership fellows annually. The Academic Leadership Fellows, who come from all departments and schools at UNC, participate in a weeklong leadership training program, two overnight retreats, monthly leadership development forums, weekly seminars to discuss critical issues facing the University and other networking opportunities.

“I’ve been fortunate over the years to have had meaningful relationships with individual professors who inspired me as a student and with entrepreneurial faculty who I worked with when I was a development officer at UNC,” said Barbara Hyde, Hyde Family Foundation president. “It was from those relationships that I came to appreciate the central, powerful impact faculty have on the University.”

As a member of the UNC Board of Trustees, Hyde said she appreciates even more deeply the importance of retaining that intellectual talent. “We’re in a very competitive market, where universities are raiding each other all the time,” Hyde said. “Great businesses know that one of their first priorities is attracting and retaining talent. The University recognizes that as well. If we lose faculty and have to go into the market to replace them, it will cost a whole lot more. It’s smarter to invest money on the front end to retain those scholars and researchers.”

Carolina First helped launch strategic investments in IAH that will pay significant dividends well into the future, including:

Through these investments, the IAH will continue to serve the needs of faculty for years to come. For McGowan and his fellow faculty, it is not just about dollars and cents, but about the continued growth of an intellectual community that makes Carolina faculty better and more innovative. In his welcome on the IAH web page, he says: “A good conversation energizes and revitalizes, expanding the horizon and upsetting settled habits. In short, it educates all its participants.”

Thanks in part to Carolina First, the conversation is becoming even more exhilarating.

(Editor’s note: This piece includes excerpts from an article by Nancy E. Oates that originally appeared in the Spring 2008 Carolina Arts & Sciences magazine.)


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