The announcement UNC-Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor for Development Michael Andreasen delivered to a room of university deans in December 2024 blindsided many of them.
Starting the following year, top fundraising staff would report to the central University Development Office, or UDO. Some fundraising staff would remain in and focus on various academic departments, but their bosses would report to the central office, rather than to their respective deans. The new structure, announced without consultation with most deans, was a significant departure from how fundraising had historically worked.
But after a record-setting capital campaign ended in 2022, donations had tumbled. An outside consulting agency had recommended restructuring so that individual schools and departments weren’t all courting the same donors, Andreasen explained…