Endowed Deanship Drives College Forward

February 20, 2023

Dean Jim White meeting students as they line up to take a sip from the Old Well on the first day of classes. The time-honored tradition began in the 1980s and was promoted as a way to ensure academic success.

A new leadership gift from Vicki ’92 and David Craver ’92 during the Campaign for Carolina established 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 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.

This gift could be used to fund key priorities, 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.

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 2,300 graduate students, nearly 1,000 full-time 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.”