Carolina First Reaches $2 Billion on Landmark Public Health Gift
On the day that a weeks-long snap
of frigid weather gave way to a
sunny day suitable foran outdoor
celebration, the people who helped Carolina to its $2 billion capital campaign goal
10 months ahead of schedule gathered in
late February to toast their good fortune. Heel prints everywhere
The gift that put the Carolina First drive The campaign has left its marks in all
over the top was $50 million from Quin- corners of the campus, physically and pro-tiles Transnational Corp.’s Dennis Gillings grammatically.
and his wife, Joan. It will put their names The campaign has brought UNC 193
on the University’s School of Public new endowed professorships and 670 new
Health. scholarships and fellowships. At the goal
The University considers the Gillings’ celebration, Fulton announced a new $100
gift its largest ever because the Morehead- million drive for recruitment and retention
Cain Foundation, the
recipient of a $100
million gift the previous week, is a private entity. The Dennis and Joan Gillings
School of Global
Public Health is just
the second school on
campus to bear the
name of a donor,
along with the
Kenan-Flagler Business School.
“This is a special
day for Carolina,” DAN SEARS ’ 74
Chancellor James Just more than a year old, the Michael Hooker Research Laboratories
represent a large addition to the top-ranked School of Public Health —
Moeser told some now known as the Dennis and Joan Gillings Global School of Public
200 people gathered Health. It’s only UNC’s second school to take a donor’s name.
on the veranda of the
Graham Memorial. “We broke it with a
bang,” he said of the campaign goal, quickly
adding that the fundraising will continue as
scheduled through the end of the year.
The Gillings’ pledge raised total Carolina First commitments to $2.05 billion.
By comparison, the University raised $83
million in the final year of the Bicentennial
Campaign in the 1990s. The campaign
began with a three-year “silent” phase in
July 1999, amassing $621 million in gifts
before it was kicked off officially in 2002.
The original goal was $1.8 billion, which
was raised to $2 billion in October 2005.
Annual fund giving was applied to the
campaign total. The average gift during
Carolina First has been $11,407.08.
The University’s endowment grew from
$1 billion in 2002 $1.68 billion last year.
Campaign co-chair Paul Fulton ’ 57
noted that several schools and units have
not yet reached their Carolina First goals
and urged volunteers and donors to make a
“final push” to reach each and every goal
on campus.
of faculty, raising that goal to $500 million.
According to data from the Association of
American Universities, the average faculty
salary at UNC falls below the 50th percentile, compared to schools such as the
University of California at Berkeley and
Johns Hopkins University.
“This need, I want to assure you, is critical,” Fulton said. “We will never have a
world-class institution as long as we pay
faculty less than 50 percent” of what
UNC’s peers pay, he said.
Another co-chair, Charles Shaffer ’ 64,
whose father Charles Milton Shaffer ’ 35
was the University’s first development
director, pointed to the example of a student who had chosen Carolina over
Princeton based on a merit scholarship
funded through the campaign. Carolina
First also is apparent in new bricks and
mortar across the campus — Shaffer said a
musician recently was heard to prefer
Memorial Hall’s new acoustics to that of
Carnegie Hall. He also cited a chemistry
professor who had come to Carolina
because he was impressed with the plans
for the new science complex.
Gifts to Carolina First have rebuilt the
Campus Y; funded all construction costs of
the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black
Culture and History; fueled expansions of
the School of Government and the law,
nursing, dental, medical and pharmacy
schools; rebuilt everything within the outer
walls of Graham Memorial; and made possible athletics facilities such as the field
hockey and women’s lacrosse stadium, the
soccer center and the indoor track and
football practice facility.
Campaign contributions figured in the
construction of the Women’s Hospital and
Children’s Hospital, which opened in 2002.
Lead gifts placed the names of donors
Lowry ’ 79 and Susan Caudill ’ 80 and Max
Chapman Jr. ’ 66 on the first two buildings
in the physical sciences complex.
A different kind of name — that of corporate giant FedEx — will go on the new
Global Studies Building as a result of a lead
donation.
The campaign made the difference in a
classy conversion of Memorial Hall into a
modern performing arts center, and it created the basis for a $10 million endowment
to support UNC’s performing arts program.
It got a new music building off the ground.
Away from the main campus, the N.C.
Botanical Garden pulled in almost $6.5
million in gifts and pledges for a new education center.
Among the works in progress, or soon
to be, with help from campaign gifts, are
the expansions of Boshamer Stadium and
the Morehead Planetarium and Science
Center; major renovations of Gerrard Hall
and Love House, the Franklin Street headquarters for Southern studies programs; a
smaller-scale overhaul of Playmakers Theatre; and construction of the Rams Club’s
first campus building.
Among other contributions:
■ Julian ’ 55 and Josie Robertson gave
$24 million to create the UNC-Duke
University collaborative Robertson Scholars Program, now in its sixth year.
