New Gift Endows and Names the College of Arts and Sciences Deanship
November 16, 2020
Vicki and David Craver
Craver family deanship will advance scholarship, discovery, strategic priorities.
A new leadership gift from Vicki ’92 and David Craver ’92 establishes the Craver Family Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Vicki Craver, a Campaign for Carolina co-chair and Carolina Women’s Campaign cabinet member, and David Craver, a board member of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund, Inc., are longtime Carolina advocates and supporters. Their commitment to endow and name the deanship recognizes the critical importance of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the role the dean plays in forwarding the University’s mission to teach a diverse community of undergraduate and graduate students to become the next generation of leaders.
The Cravers’ most recent gift, committed earlier this year, is one of many the couple has given to the College of Arts & Sciences and the University. Once fully invested, it will provide a lasting endowment that will give deans of the College unrestricted support as they advance scholarship, discovery and strategic priorities aimed at the College’s core mission.
“The impact of this remarkable commitment will be felt by students and faculty across campus,” Dean Terry Rhodes said. “The Cravers are benefactors in the truest sense of the word. Their philanthropic commitments over the years have propelled the College forward and enabled so much for our students and faculty, which makes naming the deanship for them even more meaningful for the College. The Craver family deanship will be linked with the College for the rest of its history, and we are forever grateful.”
The Craver family deanship will generate invaluable support while building upon the history of remarkable scholarship and leadership by Rhodes and her predecessors. This gift could be used to fund key priorities within Dean Rhodes’ four signature initiatives in the Campaign for Carolina, including the recruitment of full-time, tenure-track faculty and the best and brightest graduate students. Graduate students are vital to recruiting and retaining top-tier faculty, raising the quality of undergraduate instruction and magnifying the inventiveness and originality of Carolina’s research and impact on the world. This commitment could also enable the hiring of new staff members to assist undergraduates with obtaining access to high-impact learning experiences, such as credit-bearing internships, research opportunities or study abroad.
Dean Rhodes’ four signature initiatives in the Campaign for Carolina include the Chancellor’s Science Scholars program, which promotes diversity and inclusion in science and technology fields; the Institute for Convergent Science, which brings together experts from different disciplines to solve the world’s greatest challenges; the Program for Public Discourse, aimed at supporting a strong culture of debate and deliberation among undergraduates; and Southern Futures, which brings together unrivaled Southern expertise and resources for a transformative impact on campus, the state and across the American South.
The philanthropic leadership of the Craver family will equip future College deans with the resources to seize emerging opportunities and advance key priorities. It also further distinguishes the College of Arts & Sciences among its peers and as the oldest and largest school at UNC-Chapel Hill, the leading global, public research university in the United States.
The College deanship dates back to 1935, when the University’s oldest school took its modern-day name, and includes a strong lineage of academic leadership, honors and contributions. College deans are appointed by the provost and must be highly regarded scholars who have broadly demonstrated leadership and administrative ability. They oversee the more than 17,000 undergraduate and 2,400 graduate students, nearly 1,000 faculty and 570 support staff. As the largest academic unit on campus, the College of Arts and Sciences forms the academic core of the Carolina experience, or what Vicki Craver calls “the heart of the University.”
“The Cravers have long demonstrated their thoughtful and generous commitment to Carolina. I know they have thought long and hard about where their new Campaign for Carolina gift would have the most impact,” Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said. “As former dean of the College, I appreciate their strategic approach and how much they care about Carolina. I also know that transformative philanthropic commitments, like this one from the Cravers, truly provide the margin of excellence for which the College and the University are known.”
Vicki and David Craver
As a co-chair for the Campaign for Carolina and former chair of the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, Vicki, along with David, built relationships with Rhodes as well as several past deans, including Bernadette Gray-Little, Holden Thorp, Karen Gil and Guskiewicz.
“Carolina is a family affair for us: David’s parents and brother and both of my sisters all attended. In addition, many of our closest, dearest friends are the friends we made at UNC. So, the school has always had our hearts. In thinking about this gift, we were excited to enable Carolina, with its public mission, to be responsive to whatever opportunities are most important at any given time.”
The Cravers have long supported academic causes within the College. Their first major philanthropic commitment was nearly two decades ago. The former chemistry (Vicki) and business (David) majors donated funds to equip a lecture room in the Carolina Physical Science Complex. Since then they have supported innovative teaching, scholarly research and experiential learning.
In the 2018-2019 academic year alone, their contributions supported faculty and students in nine departments through the Vicki and David Craver Fund for Faculty Leadership. Prior to that, their support of the Honors Carolina Study Abroad Scholarship Fund enabled numerous undergraduates to study abroad; and their support helped enable the appointment of Beth Grabowski, professor of art and undergraduate adviser for studio art, as the Kappa Kappa Gamma Distinguished Professor.
After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, Vicki, a Winston-Salem native, earned an MBA from Dartmouth College and joined Goldman Sachs, where she was eventually named a vice president in the fixed-income division. She has since traded her investment banking career for one as a community leader in her home of Riverside, Connecticut.
David Craver, managing director of Lone Pine Capital, is a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund Board of Directors. He graduated from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1992 and earned an MBA from Dartmouth College.
The Cravers are parents to three daughters.
This generous gift counts toward For All Kind: the Campaign for Carolina, the University’s $4.25 billion campaign that is building on a 227-year tradition of excellence. Supporting the College will promote student success, innovation and leadership.
