A new $6 million gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust will help nearly double the number of students invited to the College of Arts and Sciences’ Honors Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The gift, which adds faculty to teach honors courses, qualifies for a $3 million grant from the North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust, bringing the total value of the gift to $9 million. The state fund, established in 1985 by the N.C. General Assembly, provides matching grants to recruit and retain outstanding faculty.
The Kenan Trust gift creates six $1 million endowments, each augmented by the state match of $500,000, and will support a minimum of six assistant or associate professors who will be designated as William R. Kenan Jr. Fellows or William R. Kenan Jr. Scholars, respectively, in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Chancellor James Moeser announced the gift today (May 22) during his final report to the Board of Trustees as chancellor. He steps down June 30 after nearly eight years in office. Chancellor-Elect Holden Thorp, elected earlier this month by the UNC Board of Governors, begins July 1.
“This gift to the Honors Program reflects the desire of the Kenan Trust to pay tribute to Chancellor Moeser for the leadership he has provided to Carolina over the past eight years, and to his desire to double the number of participants in the Honors Program,” said Richard M. Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust. “We also want to signal our confidence in new Chancellor-Elect Thorp, who has been a tremendous champion for the Honors Program as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. These are two great leaders for the University, and we are proud that this gift honors them both.”
In his “State of the University” speech in 2002, Moeser first proposed a doubling of the Honors Program to help increase the University’s yield of high-ability students and, at the same time, adding faculty to high priority areas of the College of Arts and Sciences.
“This gift helps move the University significantly closer to achieving that goal,” Moeser said. “We are grateful to the Kenan Trust for helping extend the reach and scope of an Honors Program that has long been regarded as one of the best and most accessible of its kind in the country.”
The $6 million gift also matches private support from two recent major gifts to the program.
In September 2007, an anonymous donor gave $5 million to fund five new professorships named for alumni Peter Thacher Grauer and William Burwell Harrison. State matching funds will add $2.5 million, making this a $7.5 million endowment. In December 2007, the Morehead-Cain Foundation created the Mary H. Cain Distinguished Professorship in Art History, resulting in a $2 million endowment, including state match, that will add four honors courses in art history. When combined, private gifts and state matching grants from the three donors total $18.5 million in endowed support for the program.
Thorp sees the impact of the Kenan Trust gift from a unique perspective. He was admitted as a sophomore to the Honors Program as a Carolina undergraduate from 1982 to 1986, and taught honors courses as a chemistry professor after he joined the UNC faculty in 1993.
“As a student, I was challenged and inspired in honors classes in math and chemistry,” Thorp said. “As a faculty member, teaching honors courses was among the most rewarding experiences of my career, and, as chair of chemistry, I enjoyed watching my colleagues fight over the honors assignments.”
“The Kenan family, through its magnanimous gifts and academic vision, continues to transform the liberal arts experience at Carolina for our students and faculty,” he added. “I am honored to join with James in thanking the Kenan Trust for making the Honors Program the most recent beneficiary of its generosity.”
The Kenan Trust gift comes at a time when a deciding factor for students who choose Carolina over distinguished peer universities has been the nationally acclaimed Honors Program, said James Leloudis, associate dean for honors.
A limited capacity to serve all qualified students has caused the program to lose hundreds of talented applicants to other schools, he said.
“Of the 3,800 students in the Class of 2011, 200 first-year students were invited to join Carolina’s Honors Program. With the past year’s new gifts, and more available honors courses, nearly 10 percent of entering students in future classes will receive invitations,” said Leloudis. “This gift will greatly help our ability to recruit top undergraduates, as well as keep talented North Carolina students here at home.”
Any of the current 120 honors courses are open on a space-available basis to all students with a “B” average. Students who are not invited to join the program may apply during their first three semesters. Each year, more than 300 students in 51 departments and curricula complete senior honors theses under the supervision of college faculty.
The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust was created in 1965 from the estate of alumnus William R. Kenan Jr., class of 1894. During the Carolina First campaign, which ended Dec. 31, 2007, the trust and related Kenan entities and family members made commitments to UNC totaling nearly $70 million. More than half of that total was designated for the College of Arts and Sciences, the oldest and largest academic unit at Carolina.
The Kenan family’s ties to the University date to 1790 when James Kenan, a member of the University’s first Board of Trustees, contributed $50 to the construction of Old East, the first state University building in the nation. A member of the North Carolina General Assembly, James Kenan helped draft and pass the university’s charter.
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu