After 34 years at UNC — and two years as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences — Terry Rhodes will retire in June, according to a campus email sent Tuesday.
Rhodes took over the position of dean in March 2020 after serving as interim dean for a year. June 2022 was Rhodes' intended retirement date since she assumed the interim dean role in 2019, according to the email.
As dean, Rhodes oversees over 17,000 undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students, and more than 70 academic departments, curricula, programs, centers and institutes.
Under Rhodes, the college launched several programs, including:
- the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, created from a merger of academic departments,
- the fall 2019 Reckoning: Race, Memory and Reimagining the Public University series of courses that aimed to facilitate classroom discussions about the role of race in UNC’s history,
- the launch of the Program for Public Discourse, which had controversial origins due to the presence of individuals outside of UNC's faculty on the initial advisory committee.
Rhodes assumed the position as interim dean in the wake of administrative changes after the toppling of the Confederate monument Silent Sam and ensuing controversy over the monument's fate. Rhodes replaced former College of Arts & Sciences dean Kevin Guskiewicz, who was named interim chancellor in February 2019 following the official resignation of Carol Folt.
Rhodes told The Daily Tar Heel in December 2020 — at the end of her first year as dean — that the best part of her role is interacting with students.
“I love hearing about their classes, the projects they are working on, the difference they are making in the world," Rhodes said in an email. "They are so inspiring. And I love sharing these stories with our Tar Heel alumni.”
Former UNC Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little will serve as chairperson of the search for a new dean.
