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Editor's note: The following piece takes a look back at 2001, a year that will forever be defined by Sept. 11 but one that included other significant news for the Carolina community as well.
January
* The January issue of Black Enterprise magazine placed Carolina 14th in
its "Black Enterprise-DayStar Top 50 Colleges and Universities for African
Americans" list, up from 19th the year before and the highest ranking among
major public universities.
February
* At a Feb. 22 ceremony, Chancellor James Moeser announced a $245
million public-private investment in a campuswide genome sciences initiative.
Included in that investment were a $25 million anonymous gift and a $2.25
million federal appropriation, also announced that day.
The $25 million gift to the School of Medicine will support the Michael Hooker
Center for Proteomics. Proteomics is an area of specialization in genetics that
catalogs the proteins expressed in cells. Proteins are instrumental in the
processes that keep the body healthy or, when they go wrong, can lead to
diseases such as cancer.
March
* University trustees approved the final master plan on March 22, ending a
three-year process that involved hundreds of people from the campus and town.
The plan will guide growth on campus over the next half century, including
construction funded by some $500 million in higher education bonds approved in
November of 2000.
* Officials reported that fiscal 2000 overall research funding at Carolina
topped the $375 million mark for contracts and grants awarded for research,
teaching and public service -- an increase of nine percent over the previous
fiscal year.
Included in that was a jump of more than 20 percent in National Institutes of
Health (NIH) funding. University faculty received $207 million in NIH funding
-- up from $171.3 million in 1999 -- ranking 13th overall among private and
public universities nationwide, and up from 14th the year before. Carolina is
the top public university in the South and one of only five Southern
universities, public or private, cited in the NIH's top 20.
And two Carolina professors made NIH's top 10. Richard Boucher, Kenan professor
of medicine and division head of pulmonary and critical care medicine at
Carolina, placed seventh in the list of top-funded basic research principal
investigators. J. Richard Udry, Kenan professor of sociology and professor of
maternal and child health at the School of Public Health, ranked second in the
list of top-funded clinical, social science principal investigators
(investigator-initiated grants and centers only).
April
* A groundbreaking ceremony was held April 26 for the Sonja Haynes Stone
Black Cultural Center, capping more than a decade of efforts by students,
faculty, administrators and others.
Harry Amana, then the center's interim director and an associate professor of
journalism and mass communication, said the day was particularly meaningful to
him because the center's namesake, Sonja Haynes Stone, had recruited him to
Carolina. Stone, who died in 1991, came to Carolina in 1974 and served as
director of the Curriculum in African-American Studies until 1979.
"It's a center that will celebrate black culture and invite everyone to
participate in that celebration," Amana said.
May
* University trustees revealed an interest in a proposal to set up an
undergraduate business program in Doha, the capital of Qatar, a Middle Eastern
country smaller than Connecticut but rich in oil and natural gas.
The offer, made by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community
Development, triggered months of internal debate on campus about its inherent
merits and dangers.
July
* On July 2, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a new zoning classification
for the 550-acre central campus. The rezoning eliminated a cap that had limited
the amount of square footage that could be built on the main campus and would
have blocked the University's ability to proceed fully with some $1 billion of
planned construction over the next decade.
The newly created zoning district tied the town's control over campus growth to
a 10-year development plan that the council would later vote to approve.
August
* The first group of students in the Robertson Scholars Program began
classes.
A collaborative academic program between Carolina and Duke University, the
program has 30 first-year undergraduate students -- 15 who will matriculate at
Carolina and an equal number will matriculate at Duke -- with scholars taking
classes at both campuses and spending a semester living on the other campus.
The program was created through a $24 million gift to the two universities by
New York investment manager Julian H. Robertson Jr. and his wife, Josie. It
provides full tuition, room and living stipends here and full tuition at Duke,
as well as other benefits.
* University officials announced that Carolina would join Chapel Hill Transit
to offer fare-free bus service beginning in January 2002. Carolina helps to
fund the new service.
September
* On Sept. 3, WUNC-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate serving
nearly 195,000 weekly listeners across central and eastern North Carolina,
launched a major format change to provide more local, national and
international news and information programs.
* On Sept. 5, Moeser gave "The State of the University" address, a first. He
outlined the key challenges and opportunities facing the University, from
funding needs to expanding the University's research enterprise.
"The challenge today is not to become distracted by these short-term issues
from our long-term vision for Carolina. What is that vision? It is to do what
Carolina has always done best: to lead. The first public university in America
should today be first among America's public universities. That is our history;
that is our destiny."
* On the morning of Sept. 12, a day after the terrorist attacks in New York,
Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, an estimated 10,000 students, faculty
members and staff gathered for a memorial service in Polk Place.
"We are here to provide comfort to each other, to reach out to those in our own
University community who are suffering grief and loss -- either directly or
indirectly -- and also to reaffirm our basic and fundamental values, which we
all cherish as Americans," Moeser said. "Our ability to be tolerant is brought
to the greatest test when we ourselves are the subject of a vicious attack
involving unsuspecting victims such as this one. It rocks the very foundations
of our being as individuals and for all of us collectively as a society."
In the following months, the campus responded to the tragedy in ways ranging
from holding blood drives for the victims to hosting speakers who tried to shed
a deeper understanding on the event.
* On Sept. 16, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced that Carolina
professor Oliver Smithies was a recipient of the 2001 Albert Lasker Award for
Basic Medical Research, the nation's most distinguished honor for outstanding
contributions to basic medical research.
Smithies, excellence professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, shared the
award with two other scientists for their pioneering work using mouse embryonic
stem cells to create animals models of human disease.
The Lasker Awards have often been called "America's Nobels," and 63 researchers
who won Laskers went on to receive the Nobel Prize.
* On Sept. 21, the N.C. General Assembly approved a $14.4 billion budget that
called for a 2.8 percent reduction in SPA and EPA non-teaching positions
throughout the 16-member UNC system while offering a $625 raise for most
employees.
The budget also set aside $28.36 million for regular term enrollment growth
within the UNC system. The University's share amounted
to $12.44 million, including $3.05 million from state appropriations and $9.38
million from tuition increases.
October
* On Oct. 3, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a campus development
plan that will guide approximately $1 billion worth of construction through
2010, including a new Science Complex. The council also agreed to rescind the
buffer zone that was created to shield neighborhoods south of campus from the
Smith Center. The action will free the University to build student-family
housing on the north side of Mason Farm Road on land formerly in the buffer.
* On Oct. 12, Gov. Mike Easley spoke at the annual University Day ceremony,
where Moeser announced a $27 million challenge grant from the William R. Kenan
Jr. Charitable Trust. The challenge gift, if met by other donors, will result
in 10 $3 million professorships --- called Eminent Professorships -- the
largest endowed professorships in University history.
* On Oct. 15, the University and Nike Inc. signed a contract extension for
eight years. The $28 million deal will provide benefits to both athletic and
academic interests and also implemented consistent labor standards for team
uniforms and licensed merchandise. A key component of the new contract is an
annual $100,000 stipend to the athletic department for academic and athletic
excellence.
* Benita Burton, student services manager for the Division of Speech and
Hearing Sciences, won the Governor's Award for Excellence -- the highest honor
a state employee can receive.
Burton and four other winners were honored Oct. 22 at the governor's mansion in
Raleigh.
November
* On Nov. 15, University trustees asked Executive Vice Chancellor and
Provost Robert Shelton to lead a study group to explore the possibility of
tuition increases for next fall. The group is charged with having its
recommendations ready for trustees when they next meet in January.
* As of Nov. 19, 14 SPA staff employees had been notified that they would be
laid off as part of the University's efforts to absorb a permanent cut of 3
percent in state funding. The reduction in Carolina's budget amounts to more
than $10 million.
December
* On Dec. 5, the Employee Forum elected Thomas H. "Tommy" Griffin Jr. as
its chair for 2002. Griffin, a maintenance mechanic with Facilities Services,
said his top goal as chair will be to bring together faculty, staff and
students as a united front.
"We are one big family and we need to realize that and we need to stick
together," he said.
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