By Steve Gilliam, University Relations
Molly Corbett Broad.
Molly Corbett Broad, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system, will be the commencement speaker for UNCG.
UNCG’s 114th graduation exercises will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, May 12, in the Greensboro Coliseum. UNCG will recognize students who have completed degrees at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. Her address will be titled, "So This is the Globe You Are Inheriting."
Broad led the 16-campus UNC system from July 1997 to Dec. 31, 2005, when she retired as president and was succeeded by Erskine B. Bowles. She will join the faculty of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government as a professor of the practice later this year.
As the oldest public university system in America, UNC enrolls nearly 190,000 students and encompasses all of the state's public institutions that grant undergraduate degrees. It includes enterprises such as the UNC Center for Public Television, the UNC Health Care System and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics.
As UNC's chief executive, she was responsible for managing the university and representing it to the N.C. General Assembly, state officials, the federal government, and other constituencies.
During her tenure, system enrollment grew by almost 37,000 students. Minority student enrollment increased twice as fast as the overall student body. Many new academic degree programs were started across the system, including six new doctoral programs at UNCG.
She was instrumental in persuading voters to approve a $3.1 billion higher education bond issue that provided $2.5 billion in capital funding for the university system and $600 million for the state's community colleges. State appropriations through the N.C. General Assembly also increased during her term.
Broad launched efforts to provide need-based aid and expanded student access to a college education. The state's college-going rate, once well below the national average, now exceeds it.
She also worked to develop ties between higher universities and business institutions, promote biotechnology and other high-tech industries, and create jobs. She was instrumental in the recruiting of a new North Carolina Research Campus to Kannapolis, which may become the largest single economic-development project in state history.
An economist, Broad came to UNC from the California State University system. There she had served as senior vice chancellor for administration and finance from 1992 to 1993, and as executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer from 1993 until her election as UNC president.
Earlier in her career, she was chief executive officer for Arizona's three-campus university system (1985-92) and served in a succession of administrative posts at Syracuse University (1971-85), which included manager of the Office of Budget and Planning, director of institutional research, and vice president for government and corporate relations.
A native Pennsylvanian and the daughter of two public school teachers, Broad is a 1962 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in economics from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She holds a master's degree in economics from Ohio State University.
She has chaired the National Association of State Universities and Land-grant Colleges (NASULGC) board of directors and is a past president for the International Council for Distance Education.
She holds seats on the boards and executive committees of the Business-Higher Education Forum, the National Council on Competitiveness, the National Association of University System Heads, MCNC, and RTI International. She also serves on the boards of the N.C. Biotechnology Center and the N.C. Economic Development Board.
