WILMINGTON (July 1, 2022) – As he becomes Chancellor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington today, Dr. Aswani K. Volety wants to keep the focus on students.
“It’s really continuing what UNCW already does so well,” Volety says in the accompanying video interview with Higher Ed Works.
UNCW has been the fastest-growing institution in the UNC System over the last 12 years.
“So I don’t want to forget the real reason why any one of us is here is the students – not the other way around,” Volety says.
At the same time, he recognizes that part of UNCW’s mission is to serve Southeastern North Carolina.
“It is to help this region grow, expand and thrive,” he says.
“We want to make sure that we are an institution that focuses on career-ready students, where employers are thrilled to take our students…. I want to make sure we are creating programs that this region needs, and this region is growing much faster than the rest of the state.”
He describes the region’s transition from an agricultural economy to a knowledge-based one that now includes biopharma, film, cybersecurity and a growing health-care sector, in addition to tourism and the long-standing military presence at Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg and other installations.
But to Volety, producing career-ready students doesn’t mean sacrificing the soft skills often associated with a liberal-arts education.
“We have to make sure that the curriculum is streamlined in meeting the needs of the growing economy or whatever is coming in front of us,” he says. “Which also means that we are creating students who can think critically, who can communicate, who can collaborate.”
Volety was a first-generation college student himself who started his education in India and came to the United States 32 years ago to complete it.
He spent five years at UNCW from 2014 to 2019, overlapping with his predecessor Jose “Zito” Sartarelli’s time as Chancellor.
A marine scientist, he directed UNCW’s Center for Marine Science and served as Dean of the UNCW College of Arts and Sciences. He spent the past three years as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Elon University.1
“I am very excited to come back to Wilmington. It’s great to be home,” he says. “This is a place I know. I know the faculty. I know the staff. I know the students. I know the community. I know the donors. I know the opportunities and challenges.
“So when the opportunity came about to give back to this great institution that taught me so much and gave me so much, it was a dream come true.”
1https://uncw.edu/news/2022/05/aswani-k.-volety-named-chancellor-elect-of-uncw.html; https://www.northcarolina.edu/news/dr-aswani-volety-elected-next-chancellor-of-unc-wilmington/.
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