James Moeser was the ninth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A native of Texas and trained as a concert organist, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Texas at Austin and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. Formerly chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he began his work as chancellor at UNC on August 15, 2000. He established the Carolina Covenant and Carolina Performing Arts; led the $2.4 billion Carolina First campaign; oversaw a massive increase in research funding, including a major investment in genome research; and succeeded in increasing faculty salaries and greatly improving faculty retention. The physical campus was transformed by a $2.2 billion construction program that added six million net square feet of building space, while also adding twenty acres of green space.
