The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public,
coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Also known as The University of
North Carolina, Carolina, North Carolina, or simply UNC, the
university is the oldest institution in the University of North Carolina
System. It was the first American public university to open its doors to students, and the only public university to
graduate students in the eighteenth century. UNC is one of the original eight Public
Ivys[4][5][6][7] and is the flagship institution of the University of North
Carolina System.[8][9][10]
History
Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly on December 11, 1789 and beginning instruction in 1795, the University of North
Carolina is known as the oldest public university in the nation[11]. A political leader in Revolutionary America, William
Davie led efforts to build legislative and financial support for the University.[12]
The university opened in a single building, which came to be called Old East. Still in use
as a residence hall, it is the oldest public university building in the United States.[13] Its cornerstone was laid October 12, 1793, near an abandoned Anglican chapel which lead to the naming of the town as Chapel
Hill.[14][15]. The spot was chosen due to its geographic centrality in the state.[14] The first student, Hinton James, arrived on foot from Wilmington on
February 12, 1795[16].
The University of North Carolina was the first to hold classes and to graduate students. The University of Georgia was chartered first in 1785 but did not start classes until 1801. The
University of North Carolina is the only university in the United States that awarded degrees as a public institution in the
eighteenth century. In 1932 UNC became one of the three original campuses of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (since
1972 called the University of North Carolina system). In 1963 the
Consolidated University was made fully coeducational. As a result, the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina was
renamed the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and
the University of North Carolina itself became the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Campus
The Old Well, Carolina's most recognized landmark.
UNC’s sprawling and well-landscaped campus is dominated by its two central quads. One of the quads is named Polk Place, after President James K. Polk, a native of North Carolina and an alumnus of the
university.[17] Students mill about in a sunken brick
courtyard known as the Pit, often engaging in debate with the Pit Preacher. The
Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the hour. In 1999, UNC was one
of 16 recipients of the American Society of Landscape Architects Medallion Awards and was identified as one of 50 college or
university 'works of art' by T.A. Gaines in his book 'The Campus as a Work of Art'.[1][18]
Graham Memorial in the fall
The most enduring symbol of the university is the Old Well, a small neoclassical rotunda
based on the Temple of Love in the Garden of Versailles, at the spot of the
original well that provided water for the school.[19] It stands at the south end of McCorkle Place, the northern quad, between two of the campus's oldest buildings, Old East and Old West. Also in McCorkle
Place is the Davie Poplar tree under which the university's founder, William Davie, supposedly selected the location for the university in 1792. Due to its
questionable health from damages caused by severe weather, such as Hurricane Fran in
1996, the university has planted two genetic clones, Davie Poplar Jr. and Davie Poplar III, nearby to ensure the continued
livelihood of this important university symbol. The second clone was planted in conjunction with the University's bicentennial
celebration in 1993.[20] Another University landmark is
Silent Sam, the statue commemorating the soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the
Confederacy. The statue has become a point of debate on Carolina's campus and within its classrooms, as some claim that it is a
monument to racism and slavery, while others take the view that it is simply a piece of the rich heritage of the South, and
should be viewed as such.[21]
Mangum and Ruffin residential halls on North Campus
As a whole the campus is divided into north, middle, and south campuses. North Campus includes the two quads along with the
Pit, Frank Porter Graham Student Union, Student Stores, and the Davis, House, and Wilson libraries. Almost all classrooms are located in North Campus
along with the majority of undergraduate residence halls. Middle Campus includes Fetzer and Woollen Gymnasiums along with the Student Recreation
Center, Kenan Stadium, the Irwin Belk
outdoor track, the Eddie Smith Field House and indoor track, the Cary C. Boshamer baseball field, Carmichael Auditorium for women's basketball, women's volleyball, women's gymnastics, and men's
wrestling, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black
Culture and History, the School of Government, the
School of Law, UNC Hospitals, the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, the Ram's Head complex with a dining hall, parking
garage, grocery store, and state of the art gymnasium; and the Carmichael, Parker, Teague, and Avery residence halls. South
Campus includes the Dean Smith Center for men's basketball, Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Ram Village and Odum Village Apartment complexes, Baity Hill
at Mason Farm Road student family housing complex, the undergraduate apartments of Ram Village, and the undergraduate residence
halls of Hinton James, George Moses Horton, Ehringhaus, Ehringhaus South, Morrison, Paul Hardin, Craige and Craige North.
A new satellite campus, Carolina North, has
recently been proposed and is now in the planning stages. This addition is planned to be primarily a research park with new
science facilities for the twenty-first century, but will also add residence halls, enabling the continued growth of the student
population.
Academics
Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower of Chapel Hill
Wilson Library, which houses the Rare Book and North Carolina Collections
Curriculum
UNC offers 71 bachelor's, 107 master's and
74 doctoral degree programs.[22] Carolina enrolls more than 27000 students from all 100 North Carolina counties, the other
49 states and 47 other countries. State law requires that the percentage of students from North Carolina in each freshman class
meet or exceed 82%.[23]
At the undergraduate level, students spend their first two years at UNC working to fulfill "perspective" requirements.
English, social science, history, foreign language, mathematics, and natural science courses are required of all students,
ensuring that students receive a broad liberal arts education. After their sophomore year, students move on to the College of
Arts and Sciences, or choose other degree programs in the Schools of Medicine, Business, Pharmacy, Information and Library
Science, Public Health, or Journalism and Mass Communication.
Libraries
UNC's library system has more than 5.8 million volumes.[22] UNC's North Carolina Collection is the largest of its kind among
state-oriented collections on campuses nationwide[24],
and the Southern and rare book collections housed in Wilson Library are among the country's finest. The university is home to
ibiblio, the third largest WWW Internet website in the world and one of the world's largest
collections of freely available information including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural
studies.
Reputation & Rankings
Medicine and law have been taught at the University since before the U.S. civil war. The School of Business' Executive Masters
of Business Administration program was ranked 5th in the world in the biannual rankings
published by Businessweek. Kenan-Flagler's MBA program as a whole is ranked 10th in the world by Forbes with the only international schools ranked higher being INSEAD of France and IMD of
Switzerland. Kenan-Flagler's Master of Accounting program was ranked 7th in the 2004 Public Accounting Report, and boasts 95% to 100%
employment for its graduates each year. Moreover, the School of Medicine is ranked second in the nation for primary care and 20th in the nation in research according to
US
News & World Report. For 2007 US News ranked the School of Information and Library Science first in the nation tied
with the University of Illinois for the eighth time in a row.
US
News ranked the School of Public Health second in the nation tied with Harvard. US News also ranked the School of Pharmacy as third in the nation. The School of
Education, School of Law, and School of Nursing were also
ranked in the top 30 nationally. The School of
Government's MPA Program has the distinction of
being the only MPA program in North Carolina nationally ranked: 6th nationally in city management and 10th nationally in Public
Affairs and Administration. UNC also offers graduate programs through the School of Social Work, continuously ranked among the top 5 in the Nation. Department of Statistics and Operations Research was also ranked 4th in the
Statistics specialty among Mathematical Sciences by US News in its 2007
edition of "America’s Best Graduate Schools", while Department of Chemistry was ranked 1st in the Analytical Chemistry specialty area.
Overall, the undergraduate program for 2006 is ranked 28th in the nation by US
News & World Report, tied with Tufts University in Boston.[25] UNC is consistently ranked 5th among public universities,
just behind UC Berkeley, University of Virginia, UCLA, and
the University of Michigan based on US News & World Report surveys. For the
sixth straight year, Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranked UNC as the number
1 best value public school for in-state students.[26] UNC is 1st among public universities and 9th overall in "Great Schools,
Great Prices," based on academic quality, net cost of attendance and average student debt according to US News & World Report in 2006.[27] UNC is also 4th among public universities
in "The Top American Research Universities," produced in December 2005 by the Center for Measuring University
Performance.[28] UNC also has the highest percentage of
undergraduates studying abroad for any public institution.[29] For undergraduates, the university offers one of the nation's most acclaimed Honors Programs in a
public institution with a 3-star rating (the highest given). [4]
Scholarships
Carolina has for decades offered an undergraduate merit scholarship known as the Morehead-Cain Scholarship. Recipients receive tuition, room and board, books and funds for
summer study for four years. Since the inception of the Morehead-Cain scholarship program, 23 alumni of the program have been
named Rhodes Scholars.[30] Also offered is the Robertson Scholarship, an innovative
scholarship granting recipients the opportunity to attend both UNC-Chapel Hill and neighboring Duke University.
Carolina has the second largest number of Rhodes Scholars among public
universities (41 since 1902) behind the University of Virginia.[31] Additionally, many students have won Truman, Goldwater,
Mitchell, Churchill, Fulbright, and Mellon fellowships. [5]
Athletics
-
The school's sports teams are called the Tar Heels, and the mascot is Rameses the ram. They
participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the
Atlantic Coast Conference.
The University of North Carolina has won 38 team national championships in five different sports, 9th all-time, and
51 individual national championships. The women's soccer team has won 19 national championships since 1981; the men's soccer team won the championship in 2001;
the women's basketball team in 1994; the men's basketball team in 1924, 1957, 1982, 1993, and 2005; the men's lacrosse team in
1982, 1986, and 1991; the women's field hockey team in 1985, 1995, 1996, and 1997; the women's team handball team won in 2004; and the men's team handball team has won three National Championships in
2004, 2005, and 2006. The men's crew team won the 2004 ECAC National Invitational Collegiate Regatta in the varsity eight category. The North Carolina Men's Baseball
team is also a perennial power, and in 2006 and 2007 made it to the finals of the College
World Series.
From 1961 to 1997 the men's basketball team was coached by Dean Smith, who is second for
most wins in NCAA Division I Men's Basketball with 879 wins. Coach Smith led the Tar Heels to NCAA championships in 1982 and
1993.[32] In only his second year at UNC,
Roy Williams coached his team to a national championship in 2005 and was named
Coach of the Year by the Associated Press in 2006.[33] Also, on April 2, 2007, Coach Williams was elected to the Hall of Fame.[34] Its first NCAA men's title was in 1957 under
coach Frank McGuire, who coached the Tar Heels to a triple overtime victory in the title game over a Kansas team featuring Wilt
Chamberlain, after beating Michigan State in the semi-final game also in triple overtime.
In 1994, the University's athletic programs won the Sears Directors Cup
'all-sports national championship' which is awarded for cumulative performance in NCAA competition.
Notable alumni from the varsity athletic programs include Michael Jordan,
Mia Hamm, Davis Love III, Eddie Pope, Roy Williams, B.J.
Surhoff, Kristine Lilly, Jeff
Reed, Andrew Miller, Daniel Bard,
Marion Jones, Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers, Alge Crumpler, Willie Parker , Brian Simmons, Vince
Carter, Antwan Jamison and Dré Bly.
Student organizations
General student organizations (excluding most Greek organizations, club sports, and the independent student newspaper, The
Daily Tar Heel) at UNC are officially recognized and provided with assistance (meeting space, equipment, and eligibility for
funding from the Student Government Student Activity Fee) by the Carolina Union, an administrative unit of the University.
Funding for student organizations is derived from the 'Student Government Student Activity Fee', which are monies collected to be
spent at the discretion of Student Government's Student Congress.
Student Government is composed of the Executive
Branch, headed by the Student Body President, a 41-member Student Congress, an entirely student-run honor
system as well as a Student Supreme Court, Elections Board, and loosely-affiliated Carolina Athletic Association and Senior
Class. Student Government authority derives from the Student Code, a document written and adopted in 1946 at the suggestion of Douglass Hunt. Prior
to that time, the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies as
well as other organizations rallied behind student concerns.
A history of student government at UNC has been compiled by Albert and Gladys Hall Coates and is available under the title
The Story of Student Government in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies [6], Black Student Movement, UNC Young Democrats, College
Republicans, Campus Y, Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Straight Alliance, Bounce Magazine, the Loreleis, Carolina Student Biotechnology Network, and over 600 other recognized clubs and 48 Greek organizations contribute to
a diverse and vibrant student life.
The school's student run newspaper The Daily Tar Heel is ranked as the best
school newspaper in the nation by the Princeton Review, and has received other awards such as the Pacemaker award from the Associated Collegiate
Press[35]. The DTH, as it is known on campus, also
offered its newspaper online as early as 1995.[36] The
first campus newspaper to be offered online was The Orion, the campus newspaper of California State University, Chico, in
1994.[37]
The largest student fundraiser, the UNC Dance
Marathon, involves thousands of students, faculty and community members in raising funds for the NC Children's Hospital. The
organization conducts fundraising and volunteer activities throughout the year and has donated $1m to date since its inception in
1999.
At the University of North Carolina, two all-male "secret societies" exist. The The Order
of Gimghoul and The Order of the Gorgon's Head, both of which select
several rising juniors each year. Information about both societies can be retrieved from the University's Southern Historical
Collection at Wilson Library. Many honor societies, such as the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of the Grail-Valkyries, and
the Order of the Old Well, round out the student body. The membership of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Order of the
Grail-Valkyries is public, but the activities remain secret.
Founded in 1977, WXYC 89.3 FM is UNC's award winning student radio station, broadcasting 24
hours a day, 365 days a year. Though programming is left up to student DJs, WXYC typically plays little heard music from a wide
range of genres and eras. On November 7th, 1994 it became the first radio station in the world to broadcast its signal over the
internet.[38][39] There is also a student-run television station, STV.
Between Resident Advisors (RAs) and the Residence Hall Association (RHA), organization within UNC residence halls is largely
student-led. Both groups provide social and educational programs for the benefit of on-campus students, as well as communication
with university officials and arbitration in student conflicts.
There are numerous fraternities and sororities on campus, belonging to the Panhellenic Council (PHC), Interfraternity Council
(IFC), Greek Alliance Council (GAC), and National Panhellenic Council (NPHC), but only 14.4% of undergraduates are Greek. UNC
offers many professional and service fraternities, many of which fall under the Carolina Union, that do not have houses but are
still recognized by the school. Although no GAC or NPHC fraternities and sororities have houses, the organizations remain quite
prestigious and are recognized nationwide.
The many athletic teams at the university are supported by the Marching Tar Heels, the University’s marching band.
This all-volunteer band supports the 28 Olympic sports programs, including basketball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, soccer,
volleyball and wrestling. The Marching Tar Heels, nicknamed the "Pride of the ACC," currently has approximately 275 members.
Traditions
Commencement ceremony in Kenan Football Stadium
Since the beginning of the athletics department, the school's colors have been Carolina Blue and White. The colors were chosen years before, with
the blue (a shade similar to sky blue or Columbia
blue) representing the Dialectic society and white representing the Philanthropic society. The school had required participation in one of the clubs; traditionally the "Di's"
were from west of the Chapel Hill area, and the "Phi's" were from the east. On public occasions, both groups were equally
represented, and eventually both colors were used by processional leaders to signify the unity of both groups as part of the
university.[40] In recent years, the teams have also used
navy blue as a third, "highlight" color. The team nickname is "Tar
Heels", a term that originally referenced the state's 18th century prominence as a tar and pitch producer. The nickname's
cultural relevance, however, has a complex history that includes anecdotal tales from both the American Civil War and the American Revolution. The
mascot is a live ram named Rameses, a tradition that dates back to 1924, when the team manager brought a ram to the annual game
against VMI, inspired by the play of former football player Jack "The
Battering Ram" Merrit. The kicker rubbed its head for good luck before a game-winning field goal, and the ram stayed. There is
also an anthropomorphic ram mascot who appears at all games. The modern Rameses is
depicted in a sailor's hat, a reference to a United States Navy flight training
program that was attached to the university during World War II.
Though the South's Oldest Rivalry between UNC and its first opponent, the
University of Virginia, has seen downplayed significance in recent years, it was
a major rivalry throughout the 1980s in basketball. The rivalry recently saw the 111th meeting in football between the two teams.
The bitterness of this rivalry has been recently replaced by somewhat less historical rivalries with Duke University, North Carolina State
University, a state institution of larger size with a greater focus on technical and agricultural sciences, and
Wake Forest University, a private university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is traditional to exchange pranks with North Carolina
State (See UNC-NCSU rivalry), including painting their "Free Expression
Tunnel" in UNC colors every year before big athletic competitions. In retaliation, North Carolina State University students
travel to Chapel Hill to play their fight song and occasionally dye fountains red. For years, Wake Forest men would steal UNC's
live animal mascot, Rameses the Ram, before athletic events.
North Carolina's rivalry with Duke is particularly intense, especially in the realm of college basketball. (See
UNC-Duke Rivalry) For several decades, each team has been a frequent contender for
the national championship, and, located just eight miles apart, the students and fans of the two schools are quite focused in
their enmity. The rivalry had led people to use their respective school colors to differentiate between the distinct shadings of
blue in daily occurrences, with people referring to the lighter, powder blue hue as "Carolina blue" and the darker blue as "Duke
blue."
UNC victory over Duke celebration on Franklin Street
After important basketball victories (vs. Duke, tournaments), it has become tradition to rush downtown to Franklin Street, which the police shut down. People converge at and around Franklin and Columbia
Streets, near campus, and light bonfires. On occasion, these celebrations have gotten out of hand. One incident, after an 85-83
victory, the celebration led to vandalism and an overturned car.
Every Halloween is marked by celebration on the UNC-Chapel Hill
campus. In recent years, an estimated 80,000 costumed students and onlookers have packed into a mile-long section of
Franklin Street abutting campus.[41] Students come from Appalachian State,
NC State, Duke,
Elon, and other schools in the University
of North Carolina system.
UNC has a longstanding honor code known as the Instrument of Student Judicial
Governance, supplemented by an Honor Court to resolve issues with students accused of academic and conduct offenses
against the university community. Faculty are forbidden to punish students caught cheating in any way (such as failing grades),
but instead are to report such cases to the Student Attorney General. Only if found guilty in the Honor Court, composed of
students, can a student be sanctioned.
Alumni
-
UNC has 243,000 alumni that live in all 50 states and 146 countries.
Leaders of the university
Presidents
Chancellors
- Robert B. House (1934-1945 as Dean of Administration; 1945-1957 as
Chancellor)
- William Brantley Aycock (1957-1964)
- Paul F. Sharp (1964-1966)
- J. Carlyle Sitterson (1966-1972)
- N. Ferebee Taylor (1972-1980)
- Christopher C. Fordham (1980-1988)
- Paul Hardin (1988-1995)
- Michael Hooker (1995-1999)
- William O. McCoy (acting and interim chancellor, 1999-2000)
- James Moeser (2000-2008) [42]
Notes
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