University Archives – Page 3

The “New Indentured Class”: William Friday on Rising Student Loans

President Bill Friday, 28 July 1977, From the NCC Photographic Archives. Black and White 120 Roll Film, 37875.

In 1982, UNC System President Bill Friday wrote suggestions to give before the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education. His suggestions were a response to President Reagan’s proposals to cut student financial aid. One of President Friday’s counterpoints to the proposed budget cuts follows.

“Transferring an increasing level of the cost of education from society to the current user of education services will create a new indentured class of individuals who may have borrowed more heavily for their education than their future earning power can accommodate.”

President Friday's defense of his address to the subcommittee. From folder 1846, Box 50 of the Records of the Office of the President: William Friday, Collection 40009. — President Friday’s defense of his address to the subcommittee. From folder 1846, Box 50 of the Records of the Office of the President: William Friday, Collection 40009.

For many students, President Friday’s prediction of an indentured servitude may be becoming a reality. The Condition of Education 2013 was recently released by the Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics. According to this report: “In 2010–11, the average student loan amount, in constant 2011–12 dollars, was $6,800, which was a 39 percent increase from 2000–01, when the average student loan amount was $4,900. Of the 4.1 million students who entered the repayment phase on their student loans in fiscal year (FY) 2010, some 375,000, or 9 percent, had defaulted before FY 2011.” See the full report here.

“A Dialogue Between Old and New” and “Knowledge Building(s)”

Two new exhibits featuring University Archives materials are on display in the North Carolina Collection Gallery and the Davis Library Gallery starting this week!

Continue reading ““A Dialogue Between Old and New” and “Knowledge Building(s)””

Library Rules, 1799

Silhouette of the Campus of the University of North Carolina 1814

Ever wonder what library rules were like in 1799, soon after the founding of the University of North Carolina library? In this gem of an entry from the General Faculty and Faculty Council Records, the Board of Trustees write the rules for the library. Notice that some things never change: reference books remain in the library for the most part, call slips go out with books, and fees are paid for “defaced” books.

The university acquired its first book in 1785: “The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God” by Father Thomas Wilson. Though it was still eight years before the founding of the first state university, the book was placed in the New Bern Academy for safekeeping until the university opened its doors

The building they are writing about in the 1799 rules is still standing, though it is no longer a library. The Philanthropic Society Library was housed in Old West, and was one of only a few university buildings. There is evidence, though, that aside from the well-stocked “society” libraries, the University Library remained in a 9 feet by 12 feet room in the President’s House until 1814!

The library was only open 2-3 hours per day as late as 1885, which put a damper on students camping out during finals. Librarians, of course, were not SILS educated, but instead members of the Philanthropic Society who volunteered their time as university librarian to watch over the collection, which numbered a few hundred books.

All students paid a fee of $1-2 per semester until the early 1800s, when the university allocated $250 per year to the library. The library endowment is now well into the millions, and student fees (though most of the fees are not for the library) are thousands of dollars.

Do you want to learn more about the history of the University library buildings? This is just a preview for the University Buildings exhibits, coming this spring to a library near you! The exhibit on the library buildings will be up in Davis Library March 1-May 31. See the full list of library rules after the jump!

Continue reading “Library Rules, 1799”

Selected Dialectic Society Records Digitized as Part of a Documenting the American South Project

As part of the digitization of the Joseph Lawrence Dusenbery’s journal for “Verses and Fragments: The James L. Dusenbery Journal (1841-1842)“, a few selected documents from the records of the Dialectic Society held in the University Archives have also been digitized.

These documents include an address to the Dialectic Society by his brother, Edwin Lafayette Dusenbery, in 1845, and the Dialectic Society Library Circulation Records of Joseph, and two other brothers, Henry Mcrorie and William Brevard.

Dusenbery’s journal is the “heart” of this online resource. Kept by him during his senior year, the journal is an amazing resource for those interested in student life at UNC in 1841 and 1842.

Electrifying the UNC Campus

Though electricity now seems to pump endlessly and uninterrupted through the university system and hospitals, the role that Energy Services at the University of North Carolina has played over the past forty years has changed significantly. From approximately 1895 to 1976, Energy Services at UNC was the sole provider of electricity to the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. In 1977 with the sale of their resources to Duke Power (now Duke Energy), the University’s Energy Services focused their attention on only the campus.

It seems strange to think of the University functioning without electricity, but it did for over one hundred years, until a Physics professor named Joshua Gore took steps to electrifying the town for what he claimed were safety reasons. Here in the University Archives, we just processed the records of the Department of Energy Services. The records primarily focus on 1977 to 2000, but one can also find maps and drawings dating from the 1930s and 1940s. The records detail some incredibly interesting pieces of information—how did the university modernize for the year 2000? How did energy services check for PCBs after the controversies of the 1980s? What really happens behind the scenes every time you turn on a light switch on campus?

Continue reading “Electrifying the UNC Campus”

Di-Phi Bicentennial Debate

To celebrate the rich history of their organizations, each year the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies delve into the University Archives to find a topic that was debated 200 years ago. The topic may be something still very applicable to today, or it may be debated in an “old-style” fashion, as if reliving history.

Dialectic Society Pin (from the collections of the North Carolina Collection Gallery)

On Monday, November 21 at 7:30pm, in the Dialectic Society chambers of New West, the Di-Phi will hold its annual bicentennial debate. The topic is a debate from March 3, 1824, “Is an alliance between Great Britain and the United State to be desired by the latter.”

The University Archives holds the records of both the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies from their founding in 1795, including minute books, addresses, debates, and photographs.

For more information about these Societies and their records, please see the following finding aids:

Records of the Dialectic Society
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40152.html

Records of the Philanthropic Society
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40166.html

Records of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Joint Senate
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40153.html

University of North Carolina System celebrates its 40th anniversary

In 1971, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that created the University of North Carolina System, encompassing all of the state-supported institutions of higher learning in North Carolina.

Today, the UNC System includes Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, North Carolina State University, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Pembroke, UNC School of the Arts, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University.

The UNC System can trace its origins to the Great Depression. Looking for cost savings, the North Carolina General Assembly created the Consolidated University of North Carolina in 1931, consisting of the campus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now North Carolina State University), and the North Carolina College for Women (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro), under the leadership of one board and one president. Frank Porter Graham served as the first president of the Consolidated University. In 1969, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, and UNC-Wilmington were added.

In 1956, William C. Friday became the president of the Consolidated University, later the UNC System, serving until 1986. Subsequent presidents of the UNC System have been C. D. Spangler, Jr. (1986-1997), Molly C. Broad (1997-2006), Erskine Bowles (2006-2011), and, currently, Thomas W. Ross (2011- ).

On November 9, 2011, these five presidents participated on a panel, “Evening with Five Presidents” to discuss the history of the UNC System. The event was held to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the UNC System. The Daily Tar Heel published an article on the event on November 10, 2011: http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/11/unc_sr ystem_bday

The University Archives and Records Management Services serves as the official archival repository and provides records management support for the major administrative offices of the UNC System. The records from the tenures of Presidents Friday, Spangler, and Broad are available for research in Wilson Library as are the records of other administrators and units of the UNC system.

Here are links to the finding aids of the:

William C. Friday records: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40009.html

C. D. Spangler, Jr., records: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40010.html

For more information about the history of the UNC System over the last forty years, please see:

King, Arnold K., The Multicampus University of North Carolina Comes of Age, 1956-1986. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.

Link, William A. William Friday: Power, Purpose and Higher Education, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Collecting the Student Experience

What are your fondest memories of college? Were they formed outside the classroom, hanging out with your friends? Did you warmly remember hours spent singing with the chorus, helping your friend run in student elections, or building sets for an upcoming play?

For participants, these activities rounded out their student experiences. Sadly, the events and memories are too fleeting; little pieces are lost with each graduating class until they are all but forgotten. Last fall, The Daily Tar Heel highlighted this lack of student organizational history in an article focusing on Company Carolina. The article incurred the wrath of many Company Carolina alumni, who believed they had left the group with plenty of unforgettable history!

University Archives would like to help students and alumni better preserve their collective memories. Towards that goal, we are actively seeking to assemble records produced by student organizations. These records might include items such as meeting minutes, rules of governance, production records, ephemera, photographs, and website content. This summer, as we test the best methods for collecting these records, we are focusing on two student theatre groups: the already-inspired Company Carolina and the long-running Lab! Theatre. Eventually, we hope to make contact with many other student groups.

Here’s where you can help! We encourage all current student groups to contact us so we can discuss transferring their records to the University Archives. We are also happy to offer groups advice on how they can preserve their own records. If you are a UNC alumnus with records from your own time working with a student group, we would also like to hear from you! Help us make the student experience part of Carolina’s permanent archival record.

crimes5 — Scene from Lab! Theatre's 2000 production of "Crimes of the Heart"

New Acquisition

Thanks to the generosity of Jennifer Manning (’89, ’91 MSLS), a founding member of UNITAS, a multicultural living and learning program at UNC, the University Archives now has material documenting the history of this organization, including a photograph of the charter members from 1987-1988 and a copy of the Daily Tar Heel insert, Omnibus, from September 17, 1987 that describes the purpose of UNITAS.

For more information on UNITAS, visit their website at: http://housing.unc.edu/residence-life/living-learning-communities/unitas.html

Jennifer read about our efforts to collect the records of student organizations in the Carolina Alumni Review (http://alumni.unc.edu/article.aspx?sid=8132). She has offered to contact her friends for additional material as well as pledged to make a monetary donation to the University Archives for every donation her and her friends make.

Thanks you Jennifer for supporting the University Archives and helping our efforts to document the history of student organizations at UNC.

Photograph of the UNITAS Charter Members, 1987-1988, taken in front of Carmichael Dormitory in the Fall of 1987

Front row, left to right:
Jewel Ward, Jennifer Manning, Barbara Ross, Shiho Koda, Jeff Shipman, Donna Leinwand, Chrystal Redding.

Second row, left to right:
Mona Sheth, Amy Shutz, Beth Yongue (hugginh “Chilly” Nguyen), Chinh “Chilly” Nguyen, Robert D’Arruda, “Bud” Thornton Long (in striped shirt), Tim Dore.

Third row, left to right:
Samir Amin (standing, in blue shirt), Traci Hopkins, Marvin Peguese, Leah Kim, Nick Ackerman (with arms crossed), Rachel Stiffler, Ann Bunge (standing, white shirt).

Also: Suresh “Jay” da Silva (in shorts, far right).
Next to him: Jovan Jones.
Behind them: Faculty advisor, Dr. Craig Calhoun (now at NYU in the Dept. of Sociology).
Next to Jovan Jones: Faculty advisor, Dr. Trudier Harris (now a visiting scholar-in-residence at the University of Alabama).
Above Nick Ackerman: Priti Shah and Rachel Stiffler.
Very back left: Laurie Winkler (in red sweater)
Waving hand in upper far right: James Benton

Do you know any others? If so, please contact us.

New and revised finding aids for University Archives and University history-related collections

Below is a list of new and revised finding aids for collections held in the University Archives and collections relating to University history. If you have any questions about these collections, please contact Wilson Special Collections Library at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

New:

Carolina Association for Medieval Studies (#40282): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40282.html

Carolina Center for Jewish Studies (#40283): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40283.html

Music Library (#40225): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40225.html

Retired Faculty Association (#40231): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40231.html

School of Journalism and Mass Communication (#40280): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40280.html

University of North Carolina Hospitals Volunteer Association (#40330): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40330.html

Revised:

Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition (#40122): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40122.html

Department of University Housing (#40129): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40129.html

Dialectic Society (#40152): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40152.html

Division of Extension and Continuing Education (#40137): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40137.html

News Service (#40139): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40139.html

Office of the Dean of the Graduate School (#40107): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40107.html

Office of the Registrar and Director of Institutional Research (#40138): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40138.html

Office of the Dean of Women (#40125): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40125.html

University Development Program (#40136): http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/uars/ead/40136.html

University history-related collections:

School of Public Health Photographic Collection (NCC Photographic Archives, P0059): http://library.unc.edu/wilson/ncc/pcoll/inv/P0059/P0059.html