Here are statements and background information issued Tuesday related to the Matt Kupec travel controversy at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Kupec has issued a statement apologizing for his lack of judgment. Tami Hansbrough, his girlfriend while the travels took place, has said the audit report confirms she did nothing wrong. She wants an apology. The university calls $17,000 in travel they took "questionable personal charges."
The Dental Foundation of North Carolina declined Thursday to make public the report that details some of the travel spending that Tami Hansbrough did while working there.
The foundation's executive director, Paul Gardner, provided a synopsis of her time there that included details from the report. But he said the foundation did not have to produce the report because it is a nonprofit and not a governmental entity, and therefore not covered by the state's public records law.
The foundation raises money for UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Dentistry. Hansbrough worked for two years as a fundraiser for the foundation before being hired to raise money for UNC-CH's student affairs office.
She resigned Wednesday after we reported that Chancellor Holden Thorp had found questionable travel she and the vice chancellor for university advancement, Matt Kupec, took at university expense. She and Kupec were in a relationship. Kupec resigned Sunday.
The synopsis said Hansbrough, the divorced mother of former UNC-CH basketball star Tyler Hansbrough, was hired Dec. 8, 2008, just as her son was beginning his senior year and final season on the team, one that would bring the university a national championship. She won the job after a search that included 40 other applicants.
Hansbrough took fundraising trips to the ACC Tournament in Atlanta and the NCAA Tournament in Memphis in 2009. The synopsis only listed expenses related to the Memphis trip of roughly $1,100. There were no expenses listed for the ACC trip.
The synopsis said Hansbrough met with donors and prospective donors on both trips, and did not charge the foundation for game tickets. The information was shared with UNC-CH's athletic department.
The synopsis said Hansbrough raised nearly $5 million while with the dental foundation.
These are trying times for university fundraisers tasked with separating alums from their money.
In economic downturns, folks are less likely to give their money away; at UNC Chapel Hill, that reality is leading the university's advancement operation to tweak its strategies a bit. Private giving to the university is down 8 percent from last year.
In a report to campus trustees this morning, advancement chief Matt Kupec highlighted a few areas where his operation is shifting its focus.
Among them:
• Focusing efforts on getting alums who have already donated money to give again.
• Focus on "expendable" gifts, rather than endowments. This means looking for gifts the university can spend now, rather than gifts that create endowments intended to last for decades or more.
• Work harder on cultivating relationships with alums, the idea being that when the recession recovers, the university must pounce.
"When this thing does turn around, we want to be first in line," Kupec said. "It's going to pay off."
About a half-year ago, university officials were contemplating UNC-CH's next massive fundraising campaign. Then, the bottom fell out of the nation's economy.
"Things have gotten worse," Kupec said. "Fundraising across America has gotten very difficult."
