University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Office of the Provost.

The Management Survey of 1953 recommended that instructional and research units in the university, exclusive of Health Affairs, be grouped in a division for administrative purposes with a chief officer responsible to the chancellor. Such an organization, headed by a Dean of the Faculty, was recommended by the chancellor and approved by the president in the spring of 1954. It was not possible at that time to secure budgetary support for the new deanship, and a chairman of the division was designated for the academic year 1954-1955. Support was later authorized, and Corydon P. Spruill became the first Dean of the Faculty on 1 September 1955. By action of the General Faculty, the office of Dean of the Faculty was incorporated into the Instrument of University Government, which also provided that the Dean should chair the Committee on Instructional Personnel. The title of the position has changed several times over the years: from Dean of the Faculty to Vice Chancellor of the University, 1965-1966; Provost, 1966-1988; Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, 1988-1996; Provost, 1996-2001; and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, 2001- .

At the time of its creation, the Division of Academic Affairs consisted of the College of Arts and Sciences (composed of the Divisions of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences, which brought together in functional groups the separately organized departments of instruction, curricula and programs); the General College; the Graduate School; the Schools of Business Administration, Education, Journalism, Law, Library Science, and Social Work; the Summer School; the Library; the Extension Division; the Institutes of Fisheries Research, Government, and Latin American Studies along with the Institute for Research in Social Science; the Research Laboratories of Anthropology; and the University of North Carolina Press. Eventually some of these units moved to other administrative divisions while new academic departments and research institutes became part of the Division of Academic Affairs. Among the latter were the Center for the Study of the American South, the Black Cultural Center, the University Center for International Studies, the Ackland Art Museum, the Morehead Planetarium; the North Carolina Botanical Garden, the Mathematics and Science Education Network, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Model Clinical Teaching Network, the Principals' Executive Program, and the Small Business and Technology Development Center. From 1985 to 1996, and again from 1998 to the present, the Office of Institutional Research also has reported to the Provost.

Among the units that formerly were part of the Division of Academic Affairs and have moved to other divisions are Administrative Data Processing, which moved to the Division of Business and Finance; the Highway Safety Research Center, now located in the Division of Health Affairs; the Institute for Research in Social Science, which began reporting to the Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research in 1992; the Materials Research Center, which ceased in 1979; the Media Center, which was disbanded in 1986; and the University of North Carolina Press, which is now responsible to the General Administration of the UNC System.

The Provost was the official liaison between the chancellor and all deans and directors in the Division of Academic Affairs. He recommended to the chancellor all new programs and all appointments, promotions, leaves of absence, removals, and salary increases for the faculty of the division. He administered and enforced all regulations applicable to the division and advised the chancellor on policies affecting it, and he was sometimes designated by the chancellor to represent the university at meetings of educational associations. He chaired the Committee on Instructional Personnel, composed of the deans of the schools and colleges in the division. This body advised him on matters of educational policy for the Division of Academic Affairs. The Provost was also the officer responsible to the chancellor for the preparation and administration of the budget in the Division of Academic Affairs. In addition, he was the budget officer for academic personnel in the Graduate School, the Division of Student Affairs and the Division of University Relations. He is designated by the chancellor as the administrator responsible for initiating and directing long-range planning for the areas within his budgetary jurisdiction.

In November 1988 Chancellor Paul Hardin created a new Office of the Provost with responsibility for consolidating oversight of all educational activities that served the entire university. Acting Provost Dennis O'Connor was appointed Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs while Garland Hershey, who had been Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs since 1983, was named Vice Provost and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs. In 1989, in accordance with this new, broader definition of the Provost's office, the offices of Undergraduate Admissions, Scholarships and Student Aid, and the University Registrar were placed administratively under it. In 1996, under Chancellor Michael Hooker, another administrative reorganization took place; and as a result, the above offices began reporting to the Executive Vice Chancellor, a position established by Hooker in 1995 and eliminated in 1998. Also as a result of this reorganization, Provost Richard J. Richardson assumed administrative oversight of the deans in the Division of Health Affairs in 1997 while continuing his oversight of Academic Affairs. In 1998 oversight of the offices of Undergraduate Admissions, Scholarships and Student Aid, and the University Registrar was again placed in the Provost's office.

• 1954 - 1955 : Corydon P. Spruill

• 1955 - 1957 : Corydon P. Spruill
• 1957 - 1965 : James L. Godfrey

• 1965 - 1966 : J. Carlyle Sitterson

• 1966 - 1968 : C. Hugh Holman
• 1968 - 1984 : John Charles Morrow, III
• 1984 - 1988 : Samuel R. Williamson, Jr.
• 1988 July - November 1988 : John Dennis O'Connor, Acting

• November 1988 - September 1991 : John Dennis O'Connor
• September 1991 - March 1992 : William F. Little, Acting
• 1992 April - May 1992 : H. Garland Hershey, Acting Provost
• 1992 April - May 1992 : William H. Graves, Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
• June 1992 - July 1995 : Richard L. McCormick
• July 1995 - April 1996 : Richard J. Richardson, Acting

• April 1996 - June 2000 : Richard J. Richardson
• July 2000 - January 2001 : Richard L. Edwards, Interim

• February 2001 - June 2006 : Robert Shelton
• July 2006 - July 2009 : Bernadette Gray-Little
• July 2009 - March 2010 : Bruce Carney, Interim
• March 2010 - : Bruce Carney

From the guide to the Office of the Provost of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1917-2003, (bulk 1954-2001), (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives.)