One of the goals of the Carolina First campaign is to create 1,000 new undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships to ensure that outstanding students choose Carolina and that no student be denied the opportunity to study at Chapel Hill because of a lack of financial resources. As of March 17, 2003, we have created 315 new scholarship and fellowship funds. That number concerns me. We are half way through the campaign and we have created less than a third of the scholarships and fellowships we need.

We are engaged in an intense competition with our peer institutions to recruit the nation's top students-and future leaders. To convince them to come to Carolina requires more merit scholarships, which are at the heart of the Carolina First goal for student support.

Increasing the number of academic scholarships that Carolina can offer will keep some of our brightest North Carolinians at home, as well as bring top students into the state. Carolina's in-state competitors-Duke, Wake Forest, Davidson and N.C. State-are increasing their numbers of academic scholarships, enabling them to enroll many of these top recruits. Nationally, schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Virginia and Michigan are also vying for the best North Carolina students. The bottom line is that if we want to compete with these schools, we need to offer more merit-based scholarships.

One scholarship endowment you can contribute to is the Carolina Scholars Program-a comprehensive academic scholarship program designed to attract the most qualified students to the University. Carolina Scholars are among the most academically talented students on campus, are enrolled in a broad spectrum of subjects and are involved in many different areas of campus life. The program provides students with substantial financial support and special programming opportunities such as one-on-one faculty mentoring and leadership development. Carolina Scholars are automatically admitted into Carolina's nationally renowned Honors Program.

As the cost of higher education continues to rise, we must do everything we can to keep a Carolina education within the reach of all qualified students, regardless of their financial circumstances. Through Carolina First you can help us attract the nation's best students, and ensure that no student is denied the opportunity to study at Chapel Hill.

For more information on Carolina's scholarship programs, please contact Candace Clark at 919-962-3967 or candace_clark@unc.edu.