Carolina's Partnership

Posted on Nov. 14, 1997

In establishing the Distinguished Professors Fund in 1985, the N.C. General Assembly again demonstrated the importance of the 204 years of partnership that has built The University of North Carolina. Today at Carolina, we have 220 of these endowed professors. (The General Assembly provides a match of $167,000 for a private gift of $333,000 and a match of $333,000 for a gift of $667,000 .) Private and public funds come together to retain and attract distinguished professors who teach bright students, conduct cutting-edge research and provide unparalleled public service.

But the partnership doesn’t end with endowed professors. Try to imagine our University without any Morehead Scholars, Johnston Scholars or Pogue Scholars. Of the nearly $6 million of student aid awarded last year, roughly $3.5 million came from private gifts.

What if none of the 29 dormitories that house nearly 7,000 of our students existed? Few were built with public funds. What if there were no Kenan Stadium for our 58,000 Carolina football fans to gather each fall and no Dean E . Smith Center for our 21,000 basketball fans? Both were built entirely with private funds.

Just suppose John Sprunt Hill (1889) had not given our University the Carolina Inn or that his son never made the $3.5 million gift that inspired 14,000 Carolina alumni to build and furnish the George Watts Hill Alumni Center.

What if there were no Lineberger Cancer Research Center, no Morehead Building, or no Kenan Center? Did you know that of the nearly $548 million spent from 1973 to 1991 on capital improvement projects on our campus, 62 percent were constructed with non-appropriated funds? The first building on our campus built with state-appropriated funds was not constructed until the 20th century.

The history of The University of North Carolina is replete with examples of partnership — partnership among faculty, students, alumni, friends and taxpayers. As the chart below clearly illustrates, we continue to receive generous funding from North Carolina taxpayers as our alumni, faculty and friends give or generate much needed additional funding.

This year represents the first year that our campus budget exceeds $1 billion. Our faculty through their research are generating nearly 30 percent of that amount. Happily, 1996-97 was the first year in which our private gift support exceeded $100 million.

All citizens benefit from this remarkable and growing partnership.

Yours at Carolina,

 

 

 

Douglas S. Dibbert ’70

doug_dibbert@unc.edu