Resources for Learning About the History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fifty-nine years ago today, Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars wowed an audience at UNC’s Memorial Hall with this tune. Thanks to our friends at the State Archives for bringing this to our attention!
Fifty-nine years ago today, Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars wowed an audience at UNC’s Memorial Hall with this tune.
Thanks to our friends at the State Archives for bringing this to our attention!
Commencement visitors can step back in time during an open house at the Wilson Special Collections Library on Saturday, May 11. Continue reading
Commencement visitors can step back in time during an open house at the Wilson Special Collections Library on Saturday, May 11. Continue reading
Journalist and author James Reston, Jr. (’63) will reflect on his life as a writer and discuss two of his forthcoming books on Tuesday, May 7th at the Wilson Special Collections Library. Continue reading
Journalist and author James Reston, Jr. (’63) will reflect on his life as a writer and discuss two of his forthcoming books on Tuesday, May 7th at the Wilson Special Collections Library. Continue reading
In conjunction with the Wilson Library exhibit A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC, the University Gazette has published a quick quiz about the history of free speech at the University. Continue reading
In conjunction with the Wilson Library exhibit A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC, the University Gazette has published a quick quiz about the history of free speech at the University. Continue reading
The expected naming of Carol Folt as the next chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill will mark the first time in the university’s 224-year history that a woman has held the top post. But Folt follows on the heels (pardon the pun) of several other women who have held significant positions with the University. Katherine “Kitty” Carmichael, […]
Katherine Kennedy Carmichael served as Dean of Women from 1946-1972.
The expected naming of Carol Folt as the next chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill will mark the first time in the university’s 224-year history that a woman has held the top post. But Folt follows on the heels (pardon the pun) of several other women who have held significant positions with the University. Katherine “Kitty” Carmichael, pictured above, served as Dean of Women until her office was combined with Student Affairs in 1972. During Carmichael’s tenure the percentage of females in the student body increased from 16 percent to 37 percent. Author and UNC English professor recalled Carmichael’s strong example for women during the dedication of a dormitory named for the former women’s dean in 1987, noting that Carmichael was fond of saying “If God were satisfied with Adam, why did he make Eve so different?”
Women were first admitted to UNC as graduate students in 1897. In 1917, Clara S. Lingle was appointed Adviser to Women. She was succeeded in 1919 by Inez Koonce Stacy, who held the office until 1946 and during whose tenure (1942) the title of the office became Dean of Women. Stacy was married to Marvin Hendrix Stacy, who was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at UNC and served as interim president of the University upon the death of Edward Kidder Graham during the flu epidemic of 1918 (President Stacy, himself, died from the flu a year later). Inez Stacy led efforts to build the first housing for women. Spencer Dormitory opened in 1925. Three other dorms for women were built during Stacy’s tenure—Kenan, McIver and Alderman. Stacy’s job title was changed to Dean of Women in 1941, one year before her retirement.
Other female leaders at UNC have included Sallie B. Marks, appointed a professor of elementary education in 1927 and the first woman to join the regular faculty; Mary Turner Lane, who founded the Women’s Studies program; and Gillian T. Cell, the first woman to be appointed to a tenure-track position in the UNC history department and, later, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Historian Pamela Dean wrote about these women and more inWomen on the Hill, a pamphlet distributed at the dedication of Carmichael Dorm.
National Public Radio newscaster and radio personality Carl Kasell will be part of a free public program on April 16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Continue reading
National Public Radio newscaster and radio personality Carl Kasell will be part of a free public program on April 16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Continue reading
“When I Was at UNC”: Preserving the Work and Legacy of Student Organizations through Documentation Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:30 p.m. Program | UNC Student Union Room 3201 Free and open to the public Information: Jay Gaidmore, UNC Archivist, gaidmore@email.unc.edu, (919) 962-6402 Student organizations have long been integral to the UNC experience, with more than … Continue reading
“When I Was at UNC”: Preserving the Work and Legacy of Student Organizations through Documentation Tuesday, March 26, 2013 5:30 p.m. Program | UNC Student Union Room 3201 Free and open to the public Information: Jay Gaidmore, UNC Archivist, gaidmore@email.unc.edu, (919) 962-6402 Student organizations have long been integral to the UNC experience, with more than … Continue reading
Academics falls outside my usual hodgepodge of interests, but I couldn’t help noticing — hat tip, slate.com — the 2013 World Reputation Rankings published by Times Higher Education. According to the magazine, “The world’s largest invitation-only academic opinion survey [is intended] to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands…. […]
Academics falls outside my usual hodgepodge of interests, but I couldn’t help noticing — hat tip, slate.com — the 2013 World Reputation Rankings published by Times Higher Education.
According to the magazine, “The world’s largest invitation-only academic opinion survey [is intended] to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands…. The table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement — but it is the considered expert judgement of senior, published academics — the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities.”
In 2013, UNC Chapel Hill is included among those colleges clustered between Nos. 51 and 60 — a position most colleges can only envy, of course. In 2012, however, UNC ranked No. 46 and in 2011 No. 41.
Does anyone dispute that this decline in reputation is real?… Or that it is justified?
Last month we did what so many do this time of year: We devoted our attention to college basketball. This month we turn our focus to another group of athletic students who are equally agile but far too often unsung: cheerleaders. This month we bring you not just one but three artifacts, all of them […]
Last month we did what so many do this time of year: We devoted our attention to college basketball.
This month we turn our focus to another group of athletic students who are equally agile but far too often unsung: cheerleaders. This month we bring you not just one but three artifacts, all of them from a UNC cheerleader who graduated in 1968.
This sweater, a bit darker than the Carolina blue we see these days, features a very realistic-looking Rameses (the UNC mascot).
In this framed program from a UNC-Duke football game, two cheerleaders accompany the real live Rameses into the stadium. The cheerleader on the left is Jack Betts, the donor of these artifacts and the sweater’s former owner. Betts followed in the footsteps of his uncle Henry Betts, who had been a cheerleader at UNC in the early 1930s.
Our third artifact is this megaphone, which is about two-and-a-half feet long and, as the photo shows, in less-than-great shape. Betts explains that members of the squad would beat on their megaphones to generate noise during games — the reason for the wear and tear.
Jack Betts attended UNC from the fall of 1964 to the spring of 1968. He fondly recalls being a cheerleader during the time when the basketball team moved from the much-smaller Woollen Gymnasium to Carmichael Arena, which seated just over 8,000 people. The thrill of being right on the court, of watching the games from such a short distance, he says, was dizzying.
The staff of the NCC Gallery will never know the excitement of standing on the court during a nail-biting game. But as far as we’re concerned, the thrill of adding these great artifacts to our collection is excitement enough.
A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the history of free speech controversies at UNC. Continue reading
A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the history of free speech controversies at UNC. Continue reading