University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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
Carolina,
North Carolina,
UNC-CH, or simply
UNC, the university is the oldest public institution of
higher education in the
United States and is part of the
University of North Carolina System. Although not the first public university to be chartered, it was the first to open to students, and the only public university to graduate students in the eighteenth century. UNC is one of the original universities listed as one of the
Public Ivies.
The
University of North Carolina was chartered by the
North Carolina General Assembly in
1789. Franklin Street in downtown
Chapel Hill serves as the northern border of the University's campus.
The university opened in a single building, which came to be called
Old East. Still in use as a
residence hall, it is one of the oldest public university buildings in the United States. Its cornerstone was laid
October 12,
1793, near an
Anglican chapel in what therefore became "Chapel Hill, North Carolina." Today, the university celebrates University Day each year on October 12. The first student, Hinton James, arrived on foot from
Wilmington,
February 12,
1795; one of the largest residence halls on campus is correspondingly named after him. He was the only student for two weeks.
By charter, UNC is the second oldest state university but was the first to operate in the United States as a state university. The
University of Georgia was chartered first in
1785, but did not start classes until
1801. The
College of Charleston opened in
1770, and was chartered in
1785, but was a private school until
1836, when it became a municipal college; it did not join the
South Carolina state university system until
1970. The
College of William and Mary was founded in
1693, but was a private institution until it closed in
1882; it later re-opened as a public university in
1888.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered in
1766 and opened in
1771, but did not become the state university until
1956. Which of these schools should be called the oldest state university is a subject of debate; however, UNC 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.
|
The Old Well, UNC-CH's most recognized landmark. |
UNC's sprawling and well-forested campus is dominated by its two central
quads – large yards where it is easy to find a pick-up game of
Ultimate. One of the quads is named Polk Place, after President
James K. Polk, a native of
North Carolina and an alumnus of the university. Students mill about in a lowered brick area known as the Pit, often entertained by the
Pit Preacher. The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the hour. Recently, the
American Society of Landscape Architects selected the Carolina campus as one of the most beautifully landscaped spots in the country.
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. 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. There is a symbolic drinking fountain (providing city water) at the center of the rotunda so that one can "drink from the old well" as a token of good luck. It is tradition for entering freshmen to drink from the well, and the superstition is that if one does this, one will make all "As" that semester. Also in McCorkle Place is the
Davie Poplar tree under which sits a stone bench. It is said the person you kiss while sitting on the bench will be the one you eventually marry. The poplar itself is a university landmark, as supersition holds that as long as it flourishes, so will the university. Due to its questionable health from a lightning strike, the university has planted two genetic clones nearby to ensure the continued good fortune of the school. President
Bill Clinton was on hand to assist with the planting of the second clone in the mid-90s.
As a whole the campus is divided in north, middle, and south campuses. North Campus includes the two quads along with the Pit,
Frank Porter Graham Student Union,
Lenoir Dining Hall,
Student Stores, and the Davis, House, and Wilson
libraries. Almost all classrooms are located in North Campus along with the majority of upperclassmen dormitories. Middle Campus includes
Fetzer and
Woolen 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
Sonya 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 dormitories. South Campus includes the
Dean Smith Center for men's basketball,
Kenan-Flagler Business School, the
Ram's Village Apartment complex, Baity Hill and Odum Village family housing complexes, and the underclassman dormitories of Hinton James, Hinton James North, Ehringhaus, Ehringhaus West, Morrison, Morrison South, Craige and Craige North.
UNC offers 71
bachelor's, 110
master's and 77
doctoral degree programs. Carolina enrolls more than 26,800 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%.
UNC's library system has more than 5.6 million volumes and perennially ranks among the best research libraries in North America as judged by the
Association of Research Libraries. UNC's North Carolina Collection is the largest of its kind among state-oriented collections on campuses nationwide, 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 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.
Among graduate programs, the
School of Medicine, the
School of Law, the
School of Information and Library Science, the
School of Public Health, the
School of Pharmacy, the
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the
School of Dentistry, the
School of Nursing, the
School of Education, the
School of Government, and the
Kenan-Flagler Business School are all highly regarded. 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 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.
Overall, the undergraduate program for 2006 is ranked 27th in the nation by
US News & World Report tied with
Wake Forest University and
Tufts University in Boston. Chapel Hill is 5th among public universities behind
UC Berkeley,
University of Virginia,
UCLA, and the
University of Michigan. UNC is 1st among public campuses and 10th 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. UNC is also 4th among public universities in "The Top American Research Universities," produced in December 2004 by the
Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance at the
University of Florida. Based on categories such as research, endowment assets, private giving, faculty, and advanced training, Chapel Hill is 1st among the 100 best public colleges combining great academics and affordable tuitions as ranked by
Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Carolina has been first four consecutive times. UNC also has the highest percentage of undergraduates studying abroad for any public institution. 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). [
1]
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, Dentistry, Information and Library Science, or Journalism and Mass Communication.
Carolina has for decades offered an undergraduate merit scholarship known as the
Morehead Scholarship, modeled after the
Rhodes Scholarship at
Oxford. Scholarship students receive tuition, room and board, and books for four years. 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 (39 since 1902) behind the
University of Virginia. Additionally, many students have won Truman, Goldwater, Mitchell, Churchill, and Mellon fellowships. [
2]
|
The Bell Tower of Chapel Hill |
Class Structure*Student-faculty ratio: 14:1
*Faculty with Ph.D's: 94%
*Classes with fewer than 30 students: 69%
*Classes with fewer than 20 students: 60%
Student Demographics for the 2006-2007 Academic Year*Female-male ratio: 60:40
*Caucasian: 72.2%
*African American: 9.9%
*Asian American: 5.9%
*Hispanic/Latino: 2.8%
*Native American: 0.9%
*Non-resident alien: 4.7%
*Other: 3.6%
Incoming Freshmen for 2006*Average composite SAT: 1321
*Average ACT: 29
*4.0 or higher weighted GPA: 85%
*Top 10% of class: 74%
*Top 10 in class: 38%
*Acceptance rate: 36%
*In-state students: 83.2%
*Out-of-state students: 16.8%
As one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States, UNC has developed a long series of traditions associated with its athletics and student organizations.
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 37 team national championships in five different sports, 9
th all-time, and 51 individual national championships. The women's soccer team has won eighteen
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 the last 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 made it to the Championship round of the
College World Series.
The men's basketball team was additionally awarded the national championship by the Helms Foundation in
1936 for the undefeated (26-0)
1924 season. The team defeated
Kansas 54-53 in triple overtime in 1957 to finish undefeated (32-0) as NCAA Champs. In 1982 they defeated
Georgetown 63-62 in the championship game to go 32-2 overall for the season. In 1993 the (33-4) NCAA Champs defeated
Michigan 77-71 to win the title. And in 2005 the Tar Heels finished (33-4) and were NCAA Champs defeating
Illinois 75-70.
From 1961 to 1997 the men's basketball team was coached by
Dean Smith, who holds the record (as of 2006) for the most victories by an NCAA Division I men's basketball coach with 879 wins. Coach Smith led the Tar Heels to NCAA championships in 1982 and 1993.
Roy Williams coached the championship team in 2005 and was named Coach of the Year by the
Associated Press in 2006.
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 graduates from the athletic programs include
Michael Jordan,
Mia Hamm,
Davis Love III,
Eddie Pope,
Roy Williams,
B.J. Surhoff, and
Marion Jones. Notable athletes that attended UNC but did not graduate include
Lawrence Taylor,
Julius Peppers, and
Dre Bly. Notable athletes from the men's basketball programs include
Michael Jordan,
Larry Brown,
Bill Cunningham,
Brad Daugherty,
Vince Carter,
Sean May,
Rashad McCants,
Raymond Felton,
Jerry Stackhouse,
Marvin Williams,
Antawn Jamison,
Brendan Haywood,
Joseph Forte,
Bob McAdoo,
Sam Perkins,
Jeff McInnis,
George Lynch,
Rick Fox,
Walter Davis,
Hubert Davis,
Kenny Smith,
James Worthy,
Phil Ford,
Ed Cota,
Shammond Williams and
Rasheed Wallace. Overall UNC has had 68 players go on to the
NBA, which is the most of any college.
Student organizations
General student organizations (excluding Greek life and athletics as well as The Daily Tar Heel) at UNC are officially recognized and provided with assistance by the Carolina Union, an administrative unit of the University. Funding for student organizations is primarily derived from the 'Student Activity Fees', which are monies collected to be spent at the discretion of Student Government.
Student government is composed of a 40 member
congress, an
executive committee headed by the student body president and a student-run
honor system. Student government authority derives from the
student constitution, 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
Carolina Student Biotechnology Network ,
Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies [
3],
Black Student Movement,
Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Straight Alliance, UNC Young Democrats, College Republicans,
Bounce Magazine,
Company Carolina, the
Achordants,
Carolina Undergraduate ACLU, and the
Campus Y, as well as over 400 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 3rd best school newspaper in the nation by the
Princeton Review behind
Howard University and
University of Arizona. It is ranked as the best by numerous other publications. The DTH, as it is known on campus, was also one of the first campus newspapers to be offered online.
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.
The Committee for a Queerer Carolina (CFQC), a subsidiary of the
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Straight Alliance (GLBTSA), is committed to creatively challenging heteronormativity and anti-queer oppression in all of its forms at UNC-Chapel Hill. Within two days of its formation, the CFQC created enough controversy to generate a full DTH editorial attack. [
4]
A "secret society" known as
The Order of Gimghoul exists at the university, which selects or "taps" ten men from the junior class each year and secretly meets at Gimghoul Castle in west Chapel Hill. This castle was constructed from 1924-1926 and is the only bona-fide castle in the state of North Carolina. 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.
Founded as a response to the national rush to war that occurred after the September 11th attacks, the Campaign to End the Cycle of Violence is comprised of students, faculty, staff and community members committed to ending terrorism in all of its forms by addressing and confronting terrorism's root causes and building a long-term movement that works toward global justice.
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. There is also a student-run television station,
STV.
Student Action with Workers (SAW), a joint worker-student organization, was formed in 2003 to mobilize student support for worker-led campaigns. SAW supports a living wage for all UNC employees and the right to collective bargaining.
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 but only 14.4% of undergraduates are Greek. UNC offers many business and service fraternities that do not have houses but are still recognized by the school. Although no black 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 basketball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball and wrestling programs. The Marching Tar Heels, nicknamed the "Pride of the ACC", currently has approximately 275 members.
Traditions
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.[
5] In recent years, the teams have also used
navy blue as a third, "highlight" color. The team nickname is "
Tar Heels", a reference to the state's volunteer soldiers who fought on the side of the
Confederate States of America during the Civil War, although one legend dates this name as far back as 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
South's Oldest Rivalry between UNC and its first opponent, the
University of Virginia, has cooled somewhat in recent years. UVA is still referred to by some as "Mr. Jefferson's university to the north," but the bitterness of this rivalry has been recently replaced by somewhat less historical rivalries with
North Carolina State University, a state institution of larger size with a greater focus on technical and agricultural sciences,
Duke University, a private university only eight miles away, and
Wake Forest University, a private university in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is traditional to exchange pranks with North Carolina State, 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. North Carolina's rivalry with Duke is especially intense in men's basketball, and the team is commonly referred to as "Dook." (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." For years Wake Forest men would steal UNC's live animal mascot, Rameses the Ram, before athletic events.
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.
Each semester, on the night before final exams are set to begin, the 'Midnight Exam Study Break' occurs. This traditionally involves students running naked through the Undergraduate Library.
Every
Halloween is marked by celebration on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. In recent years, an estimated 70,000 costumed students and onlookers have packed into a mile-long section of Franklin Street abutting campus. 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, supplemented by an Honor Court to resolve issues with students accused of academic and nonacademic 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 such a student be penalized.
UNC has 243,000 alumni that live in all 50 states and 146 countries.
*
List of alumni of University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChancellors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
* Robert House (1945-1957)
*
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 (2000-2006)
*
Coker Arboretum*
North Carolina Botanical GardenSchools*
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillPublications*
Daily Tar Heel*
Tar Heel MonthlyAthletics*
TarHeelBlue.com-Official Site*
Inside Carolina*
Carolina BlueOther*
UNC History Online Resources*
UGResearch.org An electronic library with UNC Theses
