Why donate to CS at UNCA?

To support CS students, you must direct your UNCA gift to “Computer Science”. The easiest way to do that is to donate here.

CS students depend on the generous donations of our alumni and friends (individuals, families, and local companies) to supplement state funding. For example, the CS department cannot use state funds to buy food for our social events (and our students like pizza)! And while UNCA has some funding to send students to programming competitions and conferences, since we have so many students interested in these opportunities and the cost of CS conferences is relatively high, we rely on donations.

These events and opportunities really enhance the student experience and improve the sense of community in our department!

Where does my donation go?

Most donations (generally those from $1 up to about $10,000) go directly to our Student Success Fund, which is our discretionry fund that supports:

  • Professional development and CS social events, such as
    • Career panels
    • Tech talks
    • Our Fall Welcome Back social
    • Our Capstone Graduation social
  • Our ACM Student club events
  • Our programming competition teams (sponsoring, practice/qualifying events, event registration, travel)
  • Undergraduate research and sending students to conferences
    • We would love to send every interested student to the Grace Hopper Conference or TAPIA. And we would like to send research students to present at technical conferences.

Can I donate to a specific event/initiative?

  • Yes! While we prefer the flexibility to adapt as opportunities arise, we understand that you may be passionate about a specific initiative. In that case, please reach out to the CS department chair, Kevin Sanft, to direct your gift.
  • Also, see below for our wish list of bigger-ticket initiatives.

Additional CS Wish List

Beyond our Student Success Fund, we have many initiatives that we would love to pursue for those able to make larger donations:

  • A named fund (a fund with you or a family member’s or a company’s name attached to it) to support one or more initiatives such as:
    • a general discretionary fund
    • undergraduate research grants (approx. $7,000/student+$3,000/faculty mentor)
      • Current Undergraduate Research Program funding is not sufficient for CS students. We’re seeking about $7,000 per student ($20/hour*30 hours/week*10 weeks + $1,000 for conference travel) and $3,000 for the faculty mentor.
    • Supporting course buyouts to allow our faculty to teach a college CS course at Cherokee High School.
  • Establish an endowment to support ($25,000-$50,000+):
    • CS research (course buyouts for faculty member, summer support for faculty and student(s), funding for conference travel, publication fees, etc,)
    • CS System administration (support our department system administrator via course releases and/or stipends and support internship-type experiences for student assistants)
  • Renovate our Systems and Cybersecurity Computer Lab ($50,000+)
  • Endowed Professorship (approx. $2.5M)
  • New Computer Science Building (approx. $20M+)

Contact CS department chair, Kevin Sanft, to discuss these or other opportunities.