Additional news coverage about the Gillings gift:

UNC donations top $2 billion
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A $50 million pledge from a Triangle businessman and his wife Wednesday pushed UNC-Chapel Hill over its fund-raising goal of $2 billion. ..."We didn't just break $2 billion,"Chancellor James Moeser told donors, fundraisers and students. "We broke it with a bang." 

$50-Million Pledge Will Create New Lab at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A former biostatistics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his wife have pledged $50-million to the institution’s School of Public Health, putting the  university over its $2-billion goal in a fund-raising campaign 10 months before its scheduled completion date. The campaign is among the largest in American higher  education, and the pledge is also among the largest.

University of North Carolina Beats $2 Billion Fund-Raising Goal
Bloomberg
The University of North Carolina today surpassed its $2 billion capital fund-raising goal with a $50 million pledge for the School of Public Health, the single largest commitment in the university's history.

Record gift hits Carolina First goal
The Daily Tar Heel
Thanks to the largest single donation in University history, the Carolina First fundraising campaign surged past its $2 billion fundraising goal 10 months ahead of schedule, officials announced Wednesday.

Quintiles Exec Donates $50 Million to UNC
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
The founder of pharmaceutical services company Quintiles Transnational Corp. have agreed to donate $50 million to the University of North Carolina. Dennis Gillings and his wife, Joan Gillings, have pledged the money to UNC's School of Public Health, Chancellor James Moeser announced Wednesday. The gift is the largest donation in UNC's history, and the university will rename the school the Dennis and Joan Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Carolina First Campaign reaches goal
WCHL-AM Chapel Hill
After countless phone calls and appeals to donors, UNC shattered the Carolina First Campaign’s two billion dollar goal.  Chancellor James Moeser was understandably proud.  Former UNC biostatistician Dennis Gillings gave the gift that surpassed the mark. 

Quintiles CEO gives UNC $50 million
WCHL-AM Chapel Hill
The Carolina First Campaign surged past its goal with a 50 million dollar gift from the CEO of the Pharmaceutical company Quintiles.

Colleges breaking $1 billion barrier
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When UNC-Chapel Hill leaders began to talk in the mid-1990s about a future fundraising campaign, they had so much respect for the B-word, they uttered it quietly. A "billion" dollars. It seemed audacious, almost arrogant. ..."There's just an enormous amount of wealth out there," said Paul Fulton, a UNC-CH trustee and co-chairman of the fund drive.