Folt will assume the chancellorship on July 1 after stepping down from her position at Dartmouth on June 9. President-Elect Philip Hanlon will step in as president on June 10, according to a campus-wide email sent by Steve Mandel '78, the chair of the Board of Trustees, on Friday afternoon. Before the announcement, Hanlon was slated to become president on July 1.
During the meeting, Folt gave introductory remarks to the UNC Board of Governors, administrators and other attendees. She lauded the public education system and spoke about her experience working in higher education.
"I know how much public education can change lives because it certainly changed my life," she said. "When I landed my first internship in a laboratory at the University of California Santa Barbara, I was so excited, and it was there that I actually found out that I could create knowledge, not just learn it."
Drawing comparisons between UNC Chapel Hill and Dartmouth, Folt also praised the university for its community, long-standing traditions, alumni support and historical roots.
"I've also learned [UNC] is a place where students matter, where staff matter, and it's known as a place where community counts," she said.
The UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor is both the administrative and executive head of the university. The chancellor is subject to the direction of the president and is responsible for carrying out policies made by the Board.
Current chancellor Holden Thorp announced in September that he would step down from the position on June 31 due to widely publicized incidents of academic fraud, improper travel spending by fundraisers, special treatment for athletes and sexual assault that have come to light over last two years.
UNC-Chapel Hill currently faces two federal investigations regarding how the university handled sexual assault cases, which include allegations that the university did not accurately report campus crime statistics and did not properly respond and adjudicate the offenses, The Huffington Post reported.
Recent internal and external investigations into cheating by students, particularly student-athletes taking classes in the Afro-American studies department, uncovered 20 years of lax academic standards and wrongdoing within the department.
A group of 155 UNC-Chapel Hill alumni recently sent a signed letter to Thorp and UNC System President Thomas Ross about their concerns that these scandals were damaging their alma mater's reputation.
UNC-Chapel Hill formed a 21-member national search committee in late September that worked to narrow the pool of potential chancellor candidates to three finalists. Ross then recommended his choice to the Board of Governors.
The UNC-Chapel Hill search committee said it was looking for a successor to Thorp who would "embrace and build upon the university's 200-year commitment to excellence," Board of Governors chairman and search committee chair Wade Hargrove said in a release.
In an interview with the Herald Sun, Ross said the search committee identified a "deep pool" of qualified candidates. Hargrove told The Daily Sun he was pleased with the caliber of candidates in spite of recent troubles at the university.
Although Thorp could not officially confirm Folt's selection as the next chancellor prior to the UNC Board of Governors' vote, he told The Daily Tar Heel he is "really impressed" with the candidate's qualifications.
"It's somebody that I didn't know very well until the process," Thorp said. "They have a great reputation around the country."
Folt's history includes three decades at the College. She joined the Dartmouth faculty as one of its first female environmental biologists in 1983 and has served as dean of graduate studies, dean of the faculty and provost.
When she became interim president last July, Folt told the Board of Trustees that she would fill the role for a year, but not permanently. At the time, she said she intended return to her job as provost and help transition President-elect Philip Hanlon to his position at the College.
Folt has been active in communicating with Hanlon since he was selected as president in November, student body president Suril Kantaria '13. Kantaria said the College is "well prepared" for Folt's departure.
"From my conversations with President Hanlon, he is receiving pages and pages of material from across the institution," Kantaria said. "I think he will be able to hit the ground running."
Kantaria hopes Hanlon will be in charge of choosing the new provost, a process he said is common at other institutions. This would allow Hanlon to choose a provost with a leadership style and vision similar to his own, Kantaria said.
Kantaria said he expects the Board of Trustees was aware that Folt was a candidate for other universities' presidential and chancellor search processes, especially given her year-long experience as interim president.
UNC-Chapel Hill's search committee used public forums and online surveys to reach out to students, alumni and the public about the qualities they would like to see in a new chancellor.
The university was ranked 30th among national universities in the 2013 U.S. News and World Report. It has an endowment of $2.2 billion dollars.
Bill Funk, head of R. William Funk and Associates, a firm hired by the search committee to help it recruit potential candidates, said that UNC-Chapel Hill faced a challenging search process due to competition for chancellors and presidents among other major universities, according to a November press release. Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison also had open positions.
Dartmouth may also be facing vacancies in high-level administrative positions. Senior vice president and adviser to the president David Spalding '76 is currently among the final three candidates for a position as dean of Iowa State College of Business.
Also among President's Office leadership, Steven Kadish, former executive vice president and chief financial officer, left his post in September.
Mike Wagner has replaced him in an interim capacity, moving to the position from vice president of finance.
Dartmouth will soon begin the search for a new provost, which was Folt's position before stepping in as interim president, according to the email sent by Mandel.
Representatives from Dartmouth as well as UNC-Chapel Hill's search committee, public affairs office and student body also declined to comment.
Staff writer Blaze Joel contributed reporting to this article.
