The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (also known as
UNC,
UNC-Chapel Hill,
Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, or simply
Carolina) is a
publicA public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...
research university located in
Chapel HillChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
,
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, United States. First enrolling students in 1795, it is one of the multiple schools to claim the title of the
oldest public university in the United StatesThe title of oldest public university in the United States is claimed by three universities: the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the The College of William & Mary.- University of Georgia :...
.
All undergraduates receive a
liberal artsThe term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
education and have the option to pursue a major within the professional schools of the university or within the College of Arts and Sciences from the time they obtain junior status. In both teaching and research, UNC has been highly ranked by publications such as
BusinessWeekBloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
and
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
. The university forms one of the corners of the Research Triangle in addition to
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
in
DurhamDurham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
and
North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
in
RaleighRaleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
.
UNC has a strong history in athletics, most notably in
men's basketballThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is considered one of the most successful programs in NCAA history...
,
women's soccerThe North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I soccer...
and
men's lacrosseThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's lacrosse team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's lacrosse...
. The
North Carolina Tar HeelsThe North Carolina Tar Heels are the athletic teams for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State...
share rivalries with other
Tobacco RoadTobacco Road refers to the tobacco-producing area of North Carolina and is often used when referring to sports played among rival North Carolina universities...
schools and have provided many
olympians to
United States teamsThe United States of America has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted.The United States Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee for the United States....
. The student newspaper
The Daily Tar HeelThe Daily Tar Heel is the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded on February 23, 1893, and became a daily newspaper in 1929. The paper places a focus on university news and sports, but it also includes heavy coverage of Orange County and...
has won national awards for collegiate media, while the
student radioCampus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
station
WXYCWXYC is a radio station broadcasting a college radio format. Licensed to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, the station is run by students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The station is currently owned by Student Educational Broadcasting...
provided the world's first internet radio broadcast.
History
CharterA charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
ed by the
North Carolina General AssemblyThe North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The General Assembly drafts and legislates the state laws of North Carolina, also known as the General Statutes...
on December 11, 1789, the university's cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793, near the ruins of a chapel, chosen because of its central location within the state. Beginning instruction of undergraduates in 1795, UNC is one of the
oldest public universities in the United StatesThe title of oldest public university in the United States is claimed by three universities: the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the The College of William & Mary.- University of Georgia :...
and the only such institution to confer degrees in the eighteenth century.
During the
Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
,
North Carolina GovernorThe Governor of North Carolina is the chief executive of the State of North Carolina, one of the U.S. states. The current governor is Bev Perdue, North Carolina's first female governor.-Powers:...
David Lowry SwainDavid Lowry Swain was the 26th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835.-Biography:Swain was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina; his father, George Swain, was a farmer and a member of the North Carolina General Assembly...
persuaded
Confederate PresidentThe President of the Confederate States of America was the Head of State and Head of Government of the Confederate States of America, which was formed from the states which declared their secession from the United States, thus precipitating the American Civil War. The only person to hold the...
Jefferson DavisJefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
to exempt some students from the draft, so the university was one of the few in the
ConfederacyThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
that managed to stay open. However,
Chapel HillChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
suffered the loss of more of its population during the war than any village in the South, and when student numbers did not recover, the university was forced to close during Reconstruction from December 1, 1870 until September 6, 1875.
Despite initial skepticism from university President
Frank Porter GrahamFrank Porter Graham was a president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, for a brief period, United States Senator.-Early life:...
, on March 27, 1931, legislation was passed to group UNC with the
State College of Agriculture and EngineeringNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
and the
Women's CollegeThe University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
to form the Consolidated University of North Carolina. In 1963, the consolidated university was made fully coeducational, although most women still attended
UNCGThe University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
for their first two years, transferring to Chapel Hill as a junior, since freshmen were required to live on campus and there was only one women's dorm. As a result, the Women's College was renamed the "
University of North Carolina at GreensboroThe University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
", and the University of North Carolina became the "University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." In 1955, UNC officially desegregated its undergraduate divisions.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, UNC at Chapel Hill was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the
V-12 Navy College Training ProgramThe V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II...
which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
During the 1960s, the campus was the location of significant political protest. Prior to the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, protests about local
racial segregationRacial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
which began quietly in
Franklin StreetFranklin Street is a prominent thoroughfare in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Historic Franklin Street is considered the center of social life for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and it is home to numerous coffee shops, restaurants,...
restaurants led to mass demonstrations and disturbance. The climate of civil unrest prompted the 1963
Speaker Ban LawOn June 26, 1963, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, later known as the Speaker Ban Law. The law forbade anyone to speak on a University of North Carolina campus who was a known member of the Communist Party, or who was known to advocate overthrow of...
prohibiting speeches by
communistsCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
on state campuses in North Carolina. The law was immediately criticized by university Chancellor
William Brantley AycockWilliam Brantley Aycock is an American educator who served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1957 until 1964 and is the retired Kenan Professor of Law at the UNC School of Law....
and university President William Friday, but was not reviewed by the North Carolina General Assembly until 1965. Small amendments to allow "infrequent" visits failed to placate the student body, especially when the university's board of trustees overruled new Chancellor Paul Frederick Sharp's decision to allow speaking invitations to Marxist speaker
Herbert ApthekerHerbert Aptheker was an American Marxist historian and political activist. He authored over 50 volumes, mostly in the fields of African American history and general U.S. history, most notably, American Negro Slave Revolts , a classic in the field, and the 7-volume Documentary History of the Negro...
and civil liberties activist
Frank WilkinsonFrank Wilkinson was a civil liberties activist, Executive Director of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and Executive Director of the First Amendment Foundation....
; however, the two speakers came to Chapel Hill anyway. Wilkinson spoke off campus, while more than 1,500 students viewed Aptheker's speech across a low campus wall at the edge of campus, christened "Dan Moore's Wall" by
The Daily Tar HeelThe Daily Tar Heel is the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded on February 23, 1893, and became a daily newspaper in 1929. The paper places a focus on university news and sports, but it also includes heavy coverage of Orange County and...
for Governor
Dan K. MooreDaniel Killian Moore was the 66th Governor of the state of North Carolina from 1965 to 1969. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Moore earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity...
. A group of UNC students, led by Student Body President Paul Dickson, filed a lawsuit in
U.S. federal courtThe United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
, and on February 20, 1968, the Speaker Ban Law was struck down.
From the late 1990s onward, UNC expanded rapidly with a 15% increase in total student population to more than 28,000 by 2007. This was accompanied by the construction of new facilities, funded in part by the "Carolina First" fundraising campaign and an
endowmentA financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
that increased fourfold to over $2 billion in just ten years. Professor
Oliver SmithiesOliver Smithies is a British-born American geneticist and Nobel laureate, credited with the invention of gel electrophoresis in 1955, and the simultaneous discovery, with Mario Capecchi and Martin Evans, of the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more...
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 for his work in
geneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
.
Notable
leaders of the universityLeaders of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were known as Presidents until the formation of the Consolidated University of North Carolina in 1932. Between 1934 and 1945, the title Dean of Administration was used, which in turn became Chancellor...
include the 26th Governor of North Carolina,
David Lowry SwainDavid Lowry Swain was the 26th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835.-Biography:Swain was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina; his father, George Swain, was a farmer and a member of the North Carolina General Assembly...
(president 1835–1868); and
Edwin Anderson AldermanEdwin Anderson Alderman served as the President of three universities. The University of Virginia's Alderman Library is named after him, as is in Wilmington and Alderman dorm at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill...
(1896–1900), who was also president of
Tulane UniversityTulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
and the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. The current chancellor is
Holden ThorpHerbert Holden Thorp is a chemist, inventor, musician, professor, and entrepreneur who is the tenth and current chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . He began in that position on July 1, 2008, succeeding James Moeser, and, at age 43, was noted at the time as being among...
, who earned a bachelor of science degree from UNC in 1986, a Ph.D. in chemistry from the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in 1989, and was a postdoctoral associate at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
from 1989 to 1990.
Campus
UNC's 729 acres (3 km²) campus is dominated by two central
quadsIn architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
: Polk Place and McCorkle Place. Polk Place is named after North Carolina native and university alumnus President
James K. PolkJames Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
, and McCorkle Place is named in honor of Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, the original author of the
billA bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
requesting the university's
charterA charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
. Adjacent to Polk Place is a sunken brick courtyard known as the Pit where students will gather, often engaging in lively debate with speakers such as the
Pit PreacherGary Eugene Birdsong, commonly known as Preacher Gary or simply Gary, is a travelling fundamentalist Christian preacher who frequents college campuses across the United States, particularly in North Carolina. He is known for his unorthodox interpretation of the Bible and his theatrical, accusatory...
. The Morehead–Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the quarter-hour. In 1999, UNC was one of sixteen recipients of the
American Society of Landscape ArchitectsThe American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association representing landscape architects, with more than 17,000 members in 48 chapters, representing all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world, plus 68 student chapters...
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.
The university's campus is informally divided into three regions, usually referred to as "north campus," "middle campus," and "south campus." North campus includes the two quads along with the Pit, Frank Porter Graham Student Union, and the Davis, House, and Wilson libraries. Almost all classrooms are located in north campus along with several undergraduate residence halls. Middle campus includes
Fetzer FieldFetzer Field is a 5,025-capacity stadium located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The stadium is home to the North Carolina Tar Heels men's and women's soccer teams as well as the men's lacrosse and track and field teams. It has also hosted the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship on several occasions...
and
Woollen GymnasiumWoollen Gymnasium was the home of the University of North Carolina's physical education classes from 1937 and the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball from early 1938. The Gymnasium was named after Charles T. Woollen, Class of 1905...
along with the Student Recreation Center, Kenan Memorial Stadium, Irwin Belk outdoor track,
Eddie Smith Field HouseEddie Smith Field House is the home of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the indoor track and field season, as well as an indoor training facility for Carolina football. The field house contains Dick Taylor Track, a six-lane, 200-meter Mondo track, and John Pope Practice Field. It opened in late...
,
Boshamer StadiumBryson Field at Boshamer Stadium is a baseball stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is the home of the North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team.- History :...
,
Carmichael AuditoriumWilliam Donald Carmichael, Jr. Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is home to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels women's basketball team.The arena opened in 1965 as Carmichael Auditorium...
, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, School of Government,
School of LawThe University of North Carolina School of Law is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, Carolina Law is among the oldest law schools in the nation and is the oldest law school in North Carolina. It is consistently ranked in the top-tier...
, George Watts Hill Alumni Center, Ram's Head complex (with a dining hall, parking garage, grocery store, and gymnasium), and various residence halls. South campus includes the
Dean Smith CenterThe Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, usually called simply the Smith Center and popularly referred to as the Dean Dome is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The arena is home to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels men's basketball team, and temporary...
for men's basketball,
School of MedicineThe University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health degrees.It is one...
, UNC Hospitals, Kenan–Flagler Business School, and the newest student residence halls.
A new
satellite campusA satellite campus or branch campus is a campus of a college or university that is physically detached from the main university or college area, and is often smaller than the main campus of an institution....
, Carolina North, to be built on the site of
Horace Williams AirportHorace Williams Airport is a public use airport located one nautical mile north of the central business district of Chapel Hill, a city in Orange County, North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although most U.S...
was approved in 2007. This is planned to be primarily a
research parkA research park, science park, or science and technology park is an area with a collection of buildings dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. There are many approximate synonyms for "science park", including research park, technology park, technopolis and biomedical park...
with expanded science facilities, but will also add classrooms and residence halls to cope with future increases in student population.
Sustainability
The principles of sustainability have been integrated throughout much of UNC-Chapel Hill. In the area of green building, the university requires that all new projects meet the requirements for
LEEDLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
Silver certification and is in the process of building the first building in North Carolina to receive LEED Platinum status.
UNC’s award-winning co-generation facility produces one-fourth of the electricity and all of the steam used on campus.
In 2006, the university and the
Town of Chapel HillChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
jointly agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2050, becoming the first town-gown partnership in the country to do so.
Through these efforts, the university achieved a “A−” grade on the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s College Sustainability Report Card 2010.
Only 14 out of 300 universities received a higher score than this.
Old Well and McCorkle Place
The most enduring symbol of the university is the
Old WellThe Old Well is a small, neoclassical rotunda located on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus at the southern end of McCorkle Place. The current decorative form of the Old Well was modeled after the Temple of Love in the Gardens of Versailles and was completed in 1897...
, a small neoclassical
rotundaA rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
based on the Temple of Love in the
Gardens of VersaillesThe Gardens of Versailles occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal de Versailles, the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French Garden style perfected here by...
, in the same location as the original well that provided water for the school. The well stands at the south end of McCorkle Place, the northern quad, between two of the campus's oldest buildings,
Old EastOld East is a dormitory building located at the north part of campus in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When it was built in 1793, it became the first state university building in the United States...
, and Old West. Also located in McCorkle Place is the
Davie PoplarDavie Poplar is a large tulip poplar tree, approximately 300-375 years old, located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, named in honor of Revolutionary War general and founder of the University William Richardson Davie....
tree under which the university's founder,
William Richardson DavieWilliam Richardson Davie was a military officer and the tenth Governor of North Carolina from 1798 to 1799, as well as one of the most important men involved in the founding of the University of North Carolina...
, supposedly selected the location for the university. The legend of the Davie Poplar says that if the tree falls, so will UNC. Because of the tree's questionable health from damage caused by severe weather such as
Hurricane FranHurricane Fran was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season that made landfall near Cape Fear in North Carolina at Category 3 strength. Throughout the eastern United States, early statistics on Fran reported 27 deaths and $3.2 billion in damage...
in 1996, the university has planted two genetic clones nearby called Davie Poplar Jr. and Davie Poplar III. The second clone, Davie Poplar III, was planted in conjunction with the university's bicentennial celebration in 1993 by
PresidentThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. Another university landmark is the Confederate monument, known to students as
Silent SamSilent Sam is a statue of a Confederate soldier on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is located on McCorkle Place, the university's upper quad; facing Franklin Street on the northern edge of campus....
, erected to commemorate UNC students who died fighting for the
ConfederacyThe Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
. The statue has at times been dogged by controversy, some critics claiming that the monument invokes memories of racism and slavery, while others counter that "Silent Sam" is simply historical and a part of the rich heritage of the
SouthThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. The statue depicts a soldier armed with a rifle, but lacking a cartridge box. Thus, Silent Sam does not carry any ammunition and is a "benign" soldier. The statue was erected in 1913 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor the school's Confederate heroes. The student members of the university's Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies are not allowed to walk on the grass of McCorkle Place out of respect for the unknown resting place of
Joseph CaldwellJoseph Caldwell was a U.S. educator, Presbyterian minister, and mathematician. He was the first president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, holding the office from 1804 until 1812, and from 1816 until his death in 1835...
, the university's first president.
The Morehead–Patterson bell tower was commissioned by
John Motley Morehead IIIJohn Motley Morehead III was a chemist whose work provided much of the foundation for the business of Union Carbide Corporation. He was a noted philanthropist who made major gifts to his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also served as mayor of Rye, New York and...
, the benefactor of the prestigious Morehead Scholarship. The hedge and surrounding landscape was designed by
William C. CokerWilliam Chambers Coker was an American botanist-Biography:He was born at Hartsville, South Carolina on October 24, 1872. He graduated from South Carolina College in 1894 and took postgraduate courses at Johns Hopkins University and in Germany...
, botany professor and creator of the
campus arboretumCoker Arboretum is an arboretum within the North Carolina Botanical Garden on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is open daily without charge.The arboretum was established in 1903 by Dr...
. Traditionally, seniors have the opportunity to climb the tower a few days prior to May commencement.
The historic
Playmakers TheatrePlaymakers Theatre, also known as Smith Hall, is a Greek Revival temple built in 1850, that was originally designed by New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis as Smith Hall, a combined library and ballroom. After also being used as a laboratory, bath house, and law school, it became a theater...
is located on Cameron Avenue between McCorkle Place and Polk Place. It was designed by
Alexander Jackson DavisAlexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis , was one of the most successful and influential American architects of his generation, in particular his association with the Gothic Revival style....
, the same architect who renovated the northern façade of
Old EastOld East is a dormitory building located at the north part of campus in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When it was built in 1793, it became the first state university building in the United States...
in 1844. The east-facing building was completed in 1851 and initially served as a library and as a ballroom. It was originally named Smith Hall after North Carolina Governor General Benjamin Smith, who was a special aide to
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
during the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and was an early benefactor to the university. When the library moved to Hill Hall in 1907, the School of Law occupied Smith Hall until 1923. In 1925, the structure was renovated and used as a stage by the university theater group, the Carolina Playmakers. It has remained a theater to the present day.
Louis Round WilsonLouis Round Wilson is an important figure to the field of library science, and is listed in “100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century,” an article in the December 1999 issue of American Libraries...
wrote in 1957 that Playmakers Theatre is the "architectural gem of the campus." Playmakers Theatre was declared a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1973. Today, the building is a venue for student drama productions, concerts, and events sponsored by academic departments. In 2006, the university began a renovation of Playmakers Theatre, which has included an exterior paint job and interior remodeling. The renovation is expected to be complete by the end of 2010.
Academics
Curriculum
UNC offers 71
bachelor'sA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
, 107
master'sA master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
and 74
doctoral degreeA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
programs. The university enrolls more than 28,000 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
freshmanA freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
class meet or exceed 82%. The student body consists of 17,981 undergraduate students and 10,935 graduate and professional students (as of Fall 2009). Minorities comprise 30.8% of UNC's undergraduate population and applications from international students have more than doubled in the last five years (from 702 in 2004 to 1,629 in 2009). Eighty-nine percent of enrolling first year students in 2009 reported a GPA of 4.0 or higher on a weighted 4.0 scale. UNC students are strong competitors for national and international scholarships. In 2009, two UNC seniors won
Rhodes ScholarshipThe Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
s. The most popular majors at UNC are Biology, Business Administration, Psychology, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Political Science. UNC also offers 300 study abroad programs in 70 countries.
At the undergraduate level, all students must fulfill a number of general education requirements as part of the Making Connections curriculum, which was introduced in 2006. English, social science, history, foreign language, mathematics, and natural science courses are required of all students, ensuring that they receive a broad
liberal artsThe term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
education. The university also offers a wide range of first year seminars for incoming freshmen. After their
sophomoreSophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
year, students move on to the College of Arts and Sciences, or choose an undergraduate professional school program within the schools of medicine, nursing, business, education, pharmacy, information and library science, public health, or journalism and mass communication. Undergraduates are held to an eight-semester limit of study.
Honor Code
The university has a longstanding
Honor CodeAn honour code or honour system is a set of rules or principles governing a community based on a set of rules or ideals that define what constitutes honorable behavior within that community. The use of an honor code depends on the idea that people can be trusted to act honorably...
known as the "Instrument of Student Judicial Governance," supplemented by an entirely student-run Honor System to resolve issues with students accused of academic and conduct offenses against the university community. The Honor System is divided into three branches: the Student Attorney General Staff, the Honor Court, and the Honor System Outreach. The Student Attorney General is appointed by the Student Body President to investigate all reports of Honor Code violations and determine whether or not to bring charges against the student as detailed in the "Instrument." The Attorney General is supported by a select staff of around 40 students. The Honor Court is led by the Chair, who is appointed by the Student Body President, and supported by Vice Chairs who adjudicate all students' hearings. The Honor Court as a whole is made up of some 80 selected students. The Honor System Outreach is a branch of the System solely devoted to promoting honor and integrity in the University community. UNC is the only public university, with the exception of the military academies, that has a
completely student-run system from the beginning to the end of the process.
Libraries
UNC's library system includes a number of individual libraries housed throughout the campus and holds more than 5.8 million volumes in total. UNC's North Carolina Collection (NCC) is the largest and most comprehensive collection of holdings about any single state nationwide. The unparalleled assemblage of literary, visual, and artifactual materials documents four centuries of North Carolina history and culture. The North Carolina Collection is housed in Wilson Library, named after
Louis Round WilsonLouis Round Wilson is an important figure to the field of library science, and is listed in “100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century,” an article in the December 1999 issue of American Libraries...
, along with the Rare Books Collection and the Southern Folklife Collection. The university is home to
ibiblioibiblio is a "collection of collections," and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source software, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies. As an "Internet librarianship," ibiblio is a digital library and archive...
, one of the world's largest collections of freely available information including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.
The Davis Library, situated near the Pit, is the main library and the largest academic facility and state-owned building in North Carolina. It was named after North Carolina philanthropist
Walter Royal DavisWalter Royal Davis was a Texas oil tycoon and philanthropist originally from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He was also an influential figure in state politics and higher education. Davis Library, the graduate library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since it opened in 1984, is...
and opened on February 6, 1984. The first book checked out of Davis Library was
George OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's
1984Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
. The R.B. House Undergraduate Library is located between the Pit area and Wilson Library. It is named after Robert B. House, the Chancellor of UNC from 1945 to 1957, and it opened in 1968. In 2001, the R.B. House Undergraduate Library underwent a $9.9 million renovation that modernized the furnishings, equipment, and infrastructure of the building. Prior to the construction of Davis, Wilson Library was the university's main library, but now Wilson hosts special events and houses special collections, rare books, and temporary exhibits.
Rankings and reputation
| University Rankings |
| Ranking |
# |
|
| Public University in the US (US) |
5 |
| Business administration (US) |
6 |
| Times Higher Education World University Rankings The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
(World) |
30 |
| US News & World Report (National) |
29 |
| US News Best value collge (National) |
12 |
| ARWU (World) |
38 |
| ARWU (National) |
31 |
| The Washington Monthly The Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C.The magazine's founder is Charles Peters, who started the magazine in 1969 and continues to write the "Tilting at Windmills" column in each issue. Paul Glastris, former...
(National) |
36 |
| QS QS is a code for:* Smart Wings IATA airline designator* Travel Service IATA airline designator* a term for sytemic flow in cardiology...
(World) |
55 |
In 2009, the
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranked UNC Chapel Hill 5th among the nation's top public colleges and universities.
The university was named a
Public IvyPublic Ivy is a term coined by Richard Moll in his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities to refer to universities which "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price." Public Ivies are considered, according to the...
by Richard Moll in his 1985 book
The Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, and in later guides by Howard and Matthew Greene. Many of UNC's professional schools have achieved high rankings in publications such as
Forbes Magazine, as well as annual
U.S. News & World Report surveys. In 2009,
U.S. News & World Report ranked UNC business school's MBA program as the 20th best in the United States. In the 2011 edition,
U.S. News & World Report ranked the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health as the top
public school of public health in the United States, and the second ranked school of public health in the nation (behind the top ranked school, Johns Hopkins and ahead of the third ranked school, Harvard). The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy was ranked second among pharmacy schools in the United States in 2008 by the U.S. News & World Report. In 2005,
Business Week ranked UNC business school's Executive MBA program as the 5th best in the United States. Other highly ranked schools include journalism and mass communication, law, library and information studies, medicine, dentistry, and city and regional planning. Nationally, UNC is in the top ten public universities for research.
Internationally, the 2011
QS World University RankingsThe QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
ranked North Carolina 55th overall in the world, moving up 23 places from its position of 78th in the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings (in 2010
Times Higher Education World University RankingsThe Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
and
QS World University RankingsThe QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
parted ways to produce separate rankings).
UNC's undergraduate program is ranked 28th in the United States by the U.S. News & World Report and is consistently ranked among the nation's top five public universities, just behind
UC BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
,
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, UCLA, and the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
.
Kiplinger's Personal FinanceKiplinger's Personal Finance is a magazine that has been continuously published, on a monthly basis, from 1947 to the present day. It was the nation's first personal finance magazine, and claims to deliver "sound, unbiased advice in clear, concise language"...
has also ranked UNC as the number one "best value" public school for in-state students. Similarly, the university is first among public universities and ninth overall in "Great Schools, Great Prices", on the basis of academic quality, net cost of attendance and average student debt. Along with one of the nation's most acclaimed undergraduate honors programs in a public institution, UNC also has the highest percentage of undergraduates studying abroad for any public institution.
Scholarships
For decades UNC has 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 scholarship program, 29 alumni of the program have been named
Rhodes ScholarsThe Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
. North Carolina also boasts the Robertson Scholars Program, a scholarship granting recipients the opportunity to attend both UNC and neighboring Duke University. Additionally, the university provides merit-based scholarships, including the Carolina and Pogue Scholars programs, which offer full scholarships for out-of-state students.
In 2003, Chancellor
James MoeserJames Charles Moeser was the ninth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a trained concert organist...
announced the Carolina Covenant, which provides a debt free education to low-income students who are academically qualified to attend the university. The program was the second in the nation (following
PrincetonPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
) and the first of its kind at a public university. Around 80 other universities have since followed suit.
North Carolina is tied for the largest number of Rhodes Scholars among public universities (47 since 1902) with the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. Additionally, many students have won
TrumanThe Harry S. Truman Scholarship is a highly competitive federal scholarship granted to U.S. college juniors for demonstrated leadership potential and a commitment to public service. The scholarship is in the amount of $30,000 toward a graduate education...
,
GoldwaterThe Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by the United States Congress in 1986 in honor of former United States Senator and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, a Republican from Arizona...
,
MitchellThe George J. Mitchell Scholarship is a scholarship given annually by the US-Ireland Alliance to twelve Americans aged 18-30 to fund one year of graduate study in Ireland. Unlike in the United Kingdom or in the United States, one year is usually enough to complete an Irish master's degree...
,
ChurchillThe Churchill Scholarship is awarded by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States to graduates of the more than one hundred colleges and universities participating in the Churchill Scholarship Program, to pursue research and study in engineering, mathematics, or other sciences for one...
,
FulbrightThe Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
,
MarshallThe Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...
, Udall, and Mellon scholarships.
Athletics
The school sports teams participate in the
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and
Atlantic Coast ConferenceThe Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
. The NCAA refers to UNC as the "University of North Carolina" for athletics. As of Fall 2009, the university had won 37 NCAA team championships in six different sports, eighth all-time. These include twenty NCAA championships in
women's soccerThe North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I soccer...
, six in
women's field hockeyThe North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I field hockey.- Home venues :...
, four in
men's lacrosseThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's lacrosse team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's lacrosse...
, five in
men's basketballThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is considered one of the most successful programs in NCAA history...
, one in
women's basketballThe North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I women's basketball.- Home Arenas :...
, and one in men's soccer. The Men's basketball team just won its 5th NCAA basketball championship in 2009, the second for Coach Roy Williams since he took the job as head coach. Other recent successes include four consecutive
College World SeriesThe College World Series or CWS is an annual baseball tournament held in Omaha, Nebraska that is the culmination of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, which determines the NCAA Division I college baseball champion. The eight teams are split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets,...
appearances by the
baseball teamThe North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in NCAA Division I college baseball. They participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division....
from 2006 to 2009. In 1994, the university's athletic programs won the
Sears Directors CupThe NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics...
"all-sports national championship" awarded for cumulative performance in NCAA competition. Consensus collegiate national athletes of the year from North Carolina include
Rachel DawsonRachel Dawson is a field hockey midfielder / back from the United States, who earned her first senior career cap vs Australia on June 5, 2005. Dawson was named to the U.S. field hockey team for the 2008 Summer Olympics.Dawson grew up in Berlin, New Jersey, and attended Eastern High School, where...
in field hockey; Phil Ford,
Tyler HansbroughAndrew Tyler Hansbrough is an American basketball player for the Indiana Pacers. Hansbrough completed a college basketball career with the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team in 2009, and was drafted into the NBA by the Indiana Pacers with the 13th pick of the 1st round of the 2009 NBA...
,
Antawn JamisonAntawn Cortez Jamison is an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association . He currently plays power forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers and was a member of the USA National Team for the 2006 FIBA World Championships...
,
Vince CarterVincent Lamar "Vince" Carter is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns. He is a shooting guard who can also play small forward....
,
James WorthyJames Ager Worthy is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion...
and
Michael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
in men's basketball; and
Mia HammMariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm is a retired American soccer player. Hamm played many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team and was a founding member of the Washington Freedom. Hamm has scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female,...
(twice),
Shannon HigginsShannon Higgins-Cirovski was a U.S. soccer midfielder who Higgins earned fifty-one caps with the United States between 1987 and 1991. She was a member of the U.S. team at the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.-High school and college:Higgins grew up...
,
Kristine LillyKristine Marie Lilly Heavey is a retired American soccer player who last played for Boston Breakers of Women's Professional Soccer and was a member of the United States women's national soccer team for 24 years...
, and
Tisha VenturiniTisha Venturini-Hoch is a former American soccer player and current National Spokesperson for Produce for Better Health.-Career:...
in women's soccer.
Mascot and nickname
The university's teams are nicknamed the "
Tar HeelTar Heel is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of North Carolina as well as the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans....
s," in reference to the state's eighteenth century prominence as a
tarTar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...
and
pitchPitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
producer. The nickname's cultural relevance, however, has a complex history that includes anecdotal tales from both the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. The mascot is a live
Dorset ramThe Dorset or Dorset Horned breed of sheep is known mostly for its prolific lambing. It has been known to produce two lambing seasons per year: bred in May for lambs finished by the holidays, and bred again immediately after the first lambing to produce again in March or April...
named Rameses, a tradition that dates back to 1924, when the team manager brought a ram to the annual game against
Virginia Military InstituteThe Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
, inspired by the play of former football player Jack "
The Battering RamA battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates...
" Merrit. The kicker rubbed his head for good luck before a game-winning field goal, and the ram stayed. There is also an anthropomorphic ram mascot who appears at games. The modern Rameses is depicted in a sailor's hat, a reference to a
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
flight training program that was attached to the university during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Rivalries
The South's Oldest Rivalry between North Carolina and its first opponent, the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, was prominent throughout much of the twentieth century. September 2008 saw the 117th meeting in
footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
between the two teams. Carolina has also been a rival with
North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
. Comments made by the football coaches of each college led to a revival in the rivalry, particularly in football, in late 2011. Traditionally, the students from each school exchange pranks before football games, such as painting North Carolina State's
Free Expression TunnelThe Free Expression Tunnel is the longest, widest, and most heavily used pedestrian tunnel under the railroad tracks at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina . The special aspect of the tunnel is that anyone is permitted to decorate its walls, ceiling, and floor...
blue in 2006. In retaliation, NC State students travel to
Chapel HillChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
to paint campus landmarks red and a play the NC State fight song and alma mater.
UNC-Duke Rivalry
The most important rivalry on campus is with Durham's
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. Located only eight miles from each other, the schools regularly compete in both athletics and academics. The Carolina-Duke rivalry is most intense, however, in
basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
. With a combined nine national championships in men's basketball, both teams have been frequent contenders for the national championship for decades. The rivalry has been the focus of several books, including Will Blythe's
To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever and was the focus of the HBO documentary
Battle for Tobacco Road: Duke vs Carolina.
Rushing Franklin
After important basketball victories, most notably after Duke games and NCAA championships, students traditionally rush downtown to
Franklin StreetFranklin Street is a prominent thoroughfare in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Historic Franklin Street is considered the center of social life for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and it is home to numerous coffee shops, restaurants,...
, which the police close to traffic. People converge at and around Franklin and Columbia Streets near campus and light bonfires. After the 2009 National Championship, 45,000 people rushed Franklin Street to celebrate the victory.
School colors
Since the beginning of intercollegiate athletics at UNC in the late nineteenth century, the school's colors have been
Carolina blueCarolina blue is the shade of blue used as one of the official school colors of the University of North Carolina. The name is derived from the popular usage of "Carolina" to refer to the university...
also known as "baby blue" and white. The colors were chosen years before by the Dialectic (blue) and Philanthropic (white) Societies, the oldest student organization at the university. The school had required participation in one of the clubs, and traditionally the "Di"s were from the western part of North Carolina while the "Phi"s were from the eastern part of the state.
Society members would wear a blue or white ribbon at university functions, and blue or white ribbons were attached to their diplomas at graduation. 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. When football became a popular collegiate sport in the 1880s, the
UNC footballThe North Carolina Tar Heels football team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in collegiate level football. In Carolina’s first 121 seasons of football competition, the Tar Heels have compiled a record of 646–488–54, a winning percentage of .566...
team adopted the light blue and white of the Di-Phi Societies as the school colors.
School songs
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as
commencementGraduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
,
convocationA Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.- University use :....
, and athletic games are the university
fight songA fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
s "I'm a Tar Heel Born" and "Here Comes Carolina". The fight songs are often played by the bell tower near the center of campus, as well as after major victories. "I’m a Tar Heel Born" originated in the late 1920s as a tag to the school's
alma materAlma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, "
Hark The Sound"Hark The Sound" is the alma mater of the University of North Carolina, written by William Starr Myers of the class of 1897. It is sung at the end of athletic events and other university gatherings, and is set to the music of "Annie Lisle"....
".
Student life
Organizations and activities
Most student organizations at UNC are officially recognized and provided with assistance by the Carolina Union, an administrative unit of the university. Funding is derived from the student government student activity fee, which is allocated at the discretion of the student congress.
The largest student fundraiser, the UNC Dance Marathon, involves thousands of students, faculty, and community members in raising funds for the North Carolina Children's Hospital. The organization conducts fundraising and volunteer activities throughout the year and, as of 2008, had donated $1.4 million since its inception in 1999.
The University is also noted for its
Campus Y, the social justice hub on campus that houses many service and internationally focused organizations. The Campus Y was founded in 1859, and is noted as a "leader in on-campus discussion and dialogue and off-campus service and activism". The Campus Y was at the center of many progressive movements within the university, including the racial integration of the student body, the effort to improve wages and working conditions for University employees,and the establishment of the Sonja Haynes Stones Center for Black Culture and History. The Y is a collection of many UNC specific and outside organizations, such as Big Buddies, Habitat for Humanity, and
Nourish International.
The student run newspaper
The Daily Tar HeelThe Daily Tar Heel is the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded on February 23, 1893, and became a daily newspaper in 1929. The paper places a focus on university news and sports, but it also includes heavy coverage of Orange County and...
is ranked highly by
The Princeton ReviewThe Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
, and received the 2004–5
National Pacemaker AwardThe National Pacemaker Awards are awards for excellence in American student journalism, given annually since 1927. The awards are generally considered to be the highest national honors in their field, and are unofficially known as the "Pulitzer Prizes of student journalism."The National Scholastic...
from the
Associated Collegiate PressThe Associated Collegiate Press is the largest and oldest national membership organization for college student media in the United States. The ACP is a division of the National Scholastic Press Association...
. Founded in 1977,
WXYCWXYC is a radio station broadcasting a college radio format. Licensed to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, the station is run by students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The station is currently owned by Student Educational Broadcasting...
89.3 FM is UNC's student radio station that broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Programming is left up to student DJs. WXYC typically plays little heard music from a wide range of genres and eras. On November 7, 1994, WXYC became the first radio station in the world to broadcast its signal over the internet. A student-run television station, STV, airs on the campus cable and throughout the Chapel Hill
Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
system.
The Residence Hall Association, the school's third-largest student-run organization, is dedicated to enhancing the experience of students living in residence halls. This includes putting on social, educational, and philanthropic programs for residents; recognizing outstanding residents and members; and helping residents develop into successful leaders. The organization is run by 8 student executive officers; 16 student governors that represent each residence hall community; and numerous community government members. RHA is the campus organization of NACURH, the largest student organization in the world. In 2010 the organization won the national RHA Building Block Award, which is awarded to the school with the most improved RHA organization.
The athletic teams at the university are supported by the Marching Tar Heels, the university's
marching bandMarching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
. The entire 275-member volunteer band is present at every home football game, and smaller
pep bandA pep band is an ensemble of instrumentalists who play at functions or events with the purpose of entertaining and "pepping" up a crowd. Often members of a pep band are a subset of people from a larger ensemble such as a marching band or a concert band. Pep bands are generally associated with...
s play at all home basketball games. Each member of the band is also required to play in at least one of five pep bands that play at athletic events of the 26 other sports. UNC has a
regional theaterRegional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...
company in residence, the Playmakers Repertory Company, and hosts regular dance, drama, and music performances on campus. The school has an outdoor stone amphitheatre known as Forest Theatre used for weddings and drama productions. Forest Theatre is dedicated to Professor Frederick Koch, the founder of the Carolina Playmakers and the father American folk drama.
Many
fraternities and sororitiesFraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
on campus belong to the
National Panhellenic ConferenceThe National Panhellenic Conference , founded in 1902, is an umbrella organization for 26 national women's sororities.Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumnae...
(NPC), Interfraternity Council (IFC), Greek Alliance Council, and
National Pan-Hellenic CouncilThe National Pan-Hellenic Council is a collaborative organization of nine historically African American, international Greek lettered fraternities and sororities. The nine NPHC organizations are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Divine Nine"...
(NPHC). As of spring 2010, eighteen percent of undergraduates were Greek (1146 men and 1693 women out of 17,160 total). The total number of community service hours completed for the 2010 spring semester by fraternities and sororities was 51,819 hours (average of 31 hours/person). UNC also offers professional and service fraternities that do not have houses but are still recognized by the school. Some of the campus honor societies include: the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of the Grail-Valkyries, the Order of the Old Well, the Order of the Bell Tower, and the Frank Porter Graham Honor Society.
Student government at Carolina is composed of an executive branch headed by the student body president, a legislative branch composed of a student-elected student congress, and a judicial branch which includes the honor court and student supreme court. The Judicial Reform Committee created the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, which outlined the current Honor Code and its means for enforcement in 1974. Currently, Carolina boasts one of the only student-run judicial systems in the nation. All academic and most conduct violations are handled by the student-run Honor System. Prior to that time, the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies along with other campus organizations supported student concerns.
Dining
Lenoir Dining Hall was completed in 1939 and opened for service to students when they returned from Christmas holidays in January 1940. The building was named for
General William LenoirWilliam Lenoir was an American Revolutionary War officer and prominent statesman in late 18th-century and early 19th-century North Carolina. Both the City of Lenoir, North Carolina and Lenoir County, North Carolina are named for him. Additionally, Lenoir City, Tennessee is jointly named for him...
, first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the university in 1790. The new Rams Head Dining Hall seats 1,300 people and has a capacity for serving 10,000 meals per day. It has one large dining area, two medium size dining areas, food service staff offices, kitchen, food preparation areas, storage and a Starbucks coffee shop.
Rams Head Dining Center was opened to the students in March 2005. It includes the Rams Head Dining Hall, Starbucks, and the Rams Head Market. It was opened to offer more food service options to the students living on south campus.
Housing
On campus, the thirty-three residence halls are grouped into thirteen "communities," varying from the Olde Campus Upper Quad Community which includes
Old EastOld East is a dormitory building located at the north part of campus in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When it was built in 1793, it became the first state university building in the United States...
, the oldest building of the university, to modern communities such as Manning West, completed in 2002. Along with themed housing focusing on foreign languages and substance-free living, there are also "living-learning communities" which have been formed for specific social, gender-related, or academic needs. An example is UNITAS, sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, where residents are assigned roommates on the basis of cultural or racial differences rather than similarities. Three apartment complexes offer housing for families, graduate students, and some upperclassmen. Along with the rest of campus, all residence halls, apartments, and their surrounding grounds are
smoke-freeSmoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
. As of 2008, 46% of all undergraduates live in university-provided housing.
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