2024 Chancellor’s Report

By just about every measure, NC State is setting new standards of excellence.

Incoming student GPAs, first-year retention rates and graduation rates are all up. Our research enterprise continues to grow, attracting more externally sponsored funding and resulting in more patents being issued. Our outreach and partnership efforts are forging more collaborations that are tackling the grand challenges of today and will create the innovations of tomorrow. And overall, our rankings are the highest they’ve ever been.

Yet the thing we’re proudest of can’t be measured in rankings, dollars or any other number. NC State’s most valuable asset is the spirit of community that energizes the campus and all its statewide locations.

In the 15 years I’ve been a part of NC State, I’ve never been prouder of this university than I am today.

Randy Woodson

Chancellor

Below, you’ll meet amazing people who’ve accomplished incredible things and you’ll learn what makes NC State one of the top universities in the world.

Get ready to take a run with the Wolfpack.

Helping the Whole Student Succeed

A university’s most important job is helping students succeed — academically, personally and professionally — both while they’re in school and after they leave. At NC State, we know that to truly support a student, you have to support the whole person.

• In 2012, we were one of the first universities in the nation to house our academic affairs and student affairs units in a single Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA).
• Since then we’ve launched more direct support services, like DASA’s Pack Essentials program, which helps students facing challenges with food, housing or financial security.
• Our new Office of Student Life and Advocacy centralizes student resources, including student leadership and engagement, resiliency and community support, and Greek life.
• Last year, our Counseling Center completed nearly 32,000 clinical appointments with more than 4,500 students and kept wait times below the national average for schools of our size.
• These initiatives and others like them have paid off handsomely: Applications are up, GPAs are on the rise, and retention and graduation rates have jumped.

In 2024 five of our students received scholarships from the Fulbright U.S. Student program, and NC State was once again named a top producer of Fulbright participants. In addition, 17 students received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and chemical engineering student Katherine Traynelis won the prestigious Astronaut Scholarship.

Faculty and Staff Who Redefine Excellence

Our people are the engine that drives everything we accomplish, and they’re exceptional at what they do. The UNC System and the state of North Carolina have recognized our faculty and staff as being among the best in the state — and our people are winning national and international recognition too.

• In the past year, six faculty members were elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, seven received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award, and eight were named Fulbright Scholars.
• Meg Day, assistant professor of English, was named the Guggenheim Museum’s 2024 Poet-in-Residence. 
• Belle Boggs and Susanna Lee, from the departments of English and history, were selected as National Humanities Center Fellows. 
• Kenneth Adler, professor of cell biology and toxicology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Craig Yencho, the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, both became fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. 
• Craig Yencho also received the 2024 O. Max Gardner Award, which recognizes faculty from across the UNC System who have made “the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.” 
• Jay Baliga, the Progress Energy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has become NC State’s first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize, the most prestigious international award for technological innovation. 

Simply put, you can’t have an exceptional university without exceptional faculty and staff. Fortunately, NC State has the very best as part of the Wolfpack.

A Research Powerhouse Fuels Innovation

For a STEM-focused school like NC State, research stands at the center of what we do. The teaching we provide for our students, the solutions we create in collaboration with our partners, the evidence-based assistance we provide throughout the state, the economic impact we create through our startups and spinoffs — our research informs it all.

Highlights from the past year include these achievements: 

• Entrepreneurs launched 15 startups based on NC State intellectual property, and university-based inventors negotiated 144 commercialization agreements.
• Our overall research expenditures were the highest on record: $633 million.
• The Bezos Earth Fund chose NC State to lead a $30 million hub to develop sustainable proteins. 
• The Department of Defense awarded us $39 million to lead a regional innovation hub in wide bandgap semiconductors, which are essential to our energy future. 
• NC State will serve as a core partner in the North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine, a National Science Foundation project backed by up to $160 million over the next 10 years.

When it comes to doing research that extends the boundaries of knowledge, solves tough problems and makes the world a better place, nobody can beat NC State.

The Strength of the Wolf Is the Pack

The NC State Wolfpack is a community of people who take care of each other in ways large and small — and it always has been. Each day, our donors prove the truth of the old adage: The strength of the wolf is the Pack.

• Since 2010, the university’s endowment has more than quadrupled, ensuring long-term financial stability that can weather the ups and downs of a volatile economy.
• Private support has enabled us to triple the number of scholarships available.
• Last year our donors made total gifts and commitments of $241 million, making it the second-highest fundraising year in university history.
• On the sixth annual NC State Day of Giving, donors from around the world gave 21,920 gifts — setting a record for number of gifts given for the second year in a row. 
• Feed the Pack, NC State’s student-led food pantry, expanded to a bigger space in the Pack Essentials Hub on Hillsborough Street. Since 2012, the group has served nearly 50,000 visits to the pantry and given out over 650,000 pounds of food. 
• We secured another victory in the fourth annual Pantry Bowl. NC State gave 1,520 gifts compared to UNC-Chapel Hill’s 847, and the friendly competition raised $179,744.82 to benefit both campus communities’ food pantries.

Outstanding Outreach, Productive Partnerships

NC State has always been an exemplar of the land-grant tradition of outreach and partnership, whether through providing direct assistance to North Carolinians or collaborating with businesses to drive innovation and boost local economies. 

• NC State Extension provides evidence-based assistance to people in all 100 North Carolina counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
• Industry Expansion Solutions serves hundreds of clients in dozens of business sectors across the state by providing consultations, education and assessment.
• The Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research performs educational outreach to community college leaders statewide by providing them with actionable research, professional education and coaching.
• Our award-winning research park, Centennial Campus, unites NC State academic units with 70-plus corporate, government and nonprofit partners, including LexisNexis, IBM and the National Weather Service.
• Our Office of Research and Innovation facilitates productive research partnerships with industry leaders like Eastman Chemical, Under Armour and ABB. 
• Last year the university’s Economic Development Partnership office worked with statewide partners on nearly 50 projects to bring business to our state. That work helped secure several new industry announcements, resulting in capital investments of $3.5 billion and the creation of 2,296 new jobs across North Carolina. 

By providing advice to farmers and gardeners, training collegiate leaders and working with government and business to promote economic growth, NC State creates economic, societal and intellectual prosperity for all.

Moving the Needle, Higher Than Ever

We often say that our work isn’t driven by the rankings. But every time a great ranking comes in, it’s another opportunity for the rest of the world to find out what we already know: NC State is North Carolina’s flagship STEM university and a preeminent research enterprise that attracts high-performing students and world-leading faculty. 

• We’ve come a long way in recent years. In 2011, NC State was ranked No. 111 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Today we’ve jumped to No. 58 — and No. 26 among public universities nationwide.
• We’re home to scores of top-25 programs, including biological and agricultural engineering, software engineering, analytics, statistics, online bachelor’s, the College of Veterinary Medicine — the list goes on. 
• Year after year, we’re recognized as one of the best values in higher education. Our graduates hit the job market with prestigious, valuable degrees — and below-average debt. 

We don’t do it for the rankings; we do it for the results. That’s what our motto of Think and Do is all about.

The Red and White From State, Winning Across the Board

When you look at NC State’s athletics program as a whole, you’ll see that it’s one of the best in the nation. In fact, our 2023-24 season was one of the most successful in the past 50 years.

• This past year NC State was the only Division I school in the nation to have football, baseball, and men’s and women’s basketball finish in the top 25 of their respective sports. Seven more of our teams also finished in the top 25.
• We became the third school ever to make the Final Four in both men’s and women’s basketball and to reach the men’s College World Series all in the same season. 
• We won five Atlantic Coast Conference championships: men’s basketball, women’s cross-country, gymnastics, wrestling and men’s swimming. Women’s cross-country also won its third straight national title, and swimmer Katharine Berkoff won an individual national championship in the 100-yard backstroke — the third of her career.
• Outside collegiate athletics, a record 13 current or former NC State students competed in the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024. Diana Shnaider claimed silver for women’s tennis, and Katharine Berkoff won gold in women’s swimming and diving. 

Whenever our football team gets tapped to play in a bowl game or our basketball teams advance to the Final Four, the nation sits up and takes notice. But the truth is that our 500-plus student-athletes are competing at the highest levels across all 22 of our Division I varsity programs. That’s why our fans are so proud to be part of the Wolfpack.

From the Chancellor, One Last Time

Ahead of his retirement, Chancellor Randy Woodson shares a farewell message:

This is a particularly special Chancellor’s Report for me, because it will be my final one as part of the Wolfpack. I’ve notified NC State’s Board of Trustees that I plan to retire at the end of my current contract in June 2025. After everything we’ve been through together in my time at NC State — a pandemic, a recession and a few hurricanes among them — and all we’ve accomplished despite these challenges, I can honestly say that serving as chancellor of this world-class university has been the greatest honor of my professional life.

This letter is just the latest in my series of “lasts”: my last Packapalooza, my last fall address, my last homecoming game, and so on. Eventually my last day as chancellor will come, and that’ll be that. I’ll be sad to leave, of course, but only for myself. I won’t be sad for NC State because I know this great university is poised to accomplish even greater things after I’m gone. 

NC State has students who are academic superstars, research innovators and community leaders. The university’s faculty provide some of the best teaching, research and scholarship in higher education. NC State’s staff are also among the best, not only in North Carolina but anywhere in the collegiate world. The university’s 260,000 living alumni are committed, engaged fans, both of NC State itself and of Wolfpack athletics, which will only continue to excel. The university’s donors, friends and supporters are deeply committed to NC State’s success. 

All of these people are laying down a solid foundation for an expansive, exciting future. That’s why I feel so good about NC State’s path forward. This university has all the right people on its side. That’s why we call it a Wolfpack.

So let’s say it loud and clear, one last time: Go Pack!  

Serving as chancellor of this world-class university has been the greatest honor of my professional life.

Randy Woodson

Chancellor