A Message from Chancellor Volety
July 1, 2022
Dear UNCW Community,
Thank you for welcoming me back to Wilmington to serve as UNCW Chancellor. Since I previously held roles as Dean of UNCW’s renowned College of Arts & Sciences and the Executive Director of the Center for Marine Science, I already knew this is a place like no other. With your encouragement and support, I am quickly getting reacquainted with our great university. It feels good to be home!
I want to take a moment to acknowledge my former colleagues at Elon University, where I had the privilege of working alongside remarkable faculty, staff and campus leaders as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for the last three years. The Elon community’s commitment to embracing change and always reaching higher inspired me to accept the challenge of becoming UNCW’s seventh chancellor and tenth leader.
UNCW students, faculty and staff are deeply invested in our campus and in the communities our university serves. The university’s strong ties to the region go back to our very foundation 75 years ago, when area citizens created and supported Wilmington College – the institution that became UNCW. That type of innovative spirit guides us to this day, when we are widely recognized as a top 100 public national university. Alumni, donors and friends both near and far believe in UNCW and support our mission. I already know that I can count on this powerful network of Seahawks to help us keep soaring.
Southeastern North Carolina will generate an abundance of growth and opportunities in the future, and UNCW will continue to be a leading partner in those efforts for years to come. Our region’s coastal location, strong economic and educational opportunities and outstanding entrepreneurial ecosystem – among the best in the nation and globally – are contributing to new developments in the area’s high-tech industries and knowledge-based economy.
UNCW is well-positioned to create new degree combinations that combine essential and technical skills in exciting and meaningful ways. We also have opportunities to build on the university’s existing strengths in a variety of professional programs and to continue supporting our robust liberal arts and sciences core. The essence of who we are as an institution – our commitment to student-centered experiences grounded in high-quality teaching, mentoring, research and service – has served us well since 1947 and will continue to underpin our mission, vision and goals in the future.
I look forward to working with the UNCW community to build on our strengths and expand the university’s potential in important and meaningful ways. Let’s soar higher together, Seahawks!
Yours in excitement and gratitude,
Aswani K. Volety
Chancellor
