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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is the oldest public university in the United States. It is known to many as Carolina or simply UNC. It is consistently ranked amongst the top tier of American Universities, both in academics and student satisfaction. Carolina has developed an excellent reputation in many fields and has an outstanding basketball program.
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| Motto: Lux Libertas | |
| Chancellor | James Moeser |
| School type | Public |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Founded | 1789 |
| Location | Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Enrollment | 15,961 undergraduate 10,011 graduate and professional |
| Faculty | 2,601 |
| Endowment | Approximatly 1 Billion U.S. Dollars |
| Campus surroundings | Rural |
| Campus size | 729 acres (3 km²) |
| Sports teams | Tar Heels |
| Mascot | Rameses |
UNC’s sprawling and well forrested campus is dominated by its two central quads – large yards where it is easy to find a pick up game of frisbee golf. The most enduring symbol of the campus is the old well, located between the campus' oldest dorms, Old East and Old West. Students mill about in lowered, bricked in area known as the Pit, often entertained by the pit preacher. A bell tower located in the heart of campus notes the hour.
UNC is the flagship school in the University of North Carolina system of schools. It has 16 sister institutions.
UNC is considered one of the stronger state universities, consistently ranking in the top ten among state institutions in national surveys.
Among graduate programs, the School of Information and Library Science, the School of Public Health, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Kenan Flagler Business School are especially highly regarded.
For Undergraduates, the university offers one of the nation's most acclaimed Honors Programs in a public institution.
The university has for decades offered an undergraduate merit scholarship known as the Morehead Scholarship, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. The scholarship offers tuition, room, and board for four years.
Also offered is the Robertson Scholarship, an innovative scholarship granting recipients the opportunity to attend both UNC Chapel Hill and neighboring Duke University. Offered both at UNC and Duke, UNC recipients receive full tuition, room, and living stipends.
As one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States, UNC has developed a long series of traditions associted with its athletics and student organizations.
The school's sports teams are called the Tar Heels. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The women's soccer team has won eighteen national championships since 1981, and the men's basketball team has won national championships in 1957, 1982, and 1993. From 1961 to 1997 the team was coached by Dean Smith, who holds the record as of 2004 for the most victories by an NCAA Division I coach with 897 wins.
The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, Black Student Union, and the Campus YMCA, as well as over 400 other recognized clubs and 48 greek organizations contribute to a diverse and vibrant student life.
Founded in 1977, 89.3 WXYC - FM is UNC's award winning student radio station, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Though programming is left up the student DJs, WXYC typically plays little heard music from a wide range of genres and eras. On Novmber 7th, 1994 it became the first radio station in the world to rebroadcast its signal over the internet.
Every Halloween is marked by celebration by UNC students. In a recent year, an estimated 70,000 costumed students and onlookers packed into the mile long length of Franklin Street abutting campus.
The rivalry between UNC and its first opponent, the University of Virginia, has cooled somewhat in recent years. UVA is still referred to by some as "Mr. Jefferson's university to the north." This rivalry has been replaced by rivalries with North Carolina State University, a sister institution of similar size with a greater focus on technical sciences, and Duke University, whose basketball program has taken off in recent years. During March Madness, it is traditional to exchange pranks with North Carolina State, and to refer to Duke University as "Dook."
The University of North Carolina was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1789. The year of its foundation coincides with the beginning of the French Revolution. Accordingly, Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, which serves as the northern border of the University's campus, is named after the famous eighteenth-century Enlightenment figure Benjamin Franklin.
The university opened in a single building, which came to be called Old East, and which is still in use as a residence hall. Its cornerstone was laid October 12, 1793, near an Anglican chapel in what therefore became "Chapel Hill, North Carolina." Today, the University celebrates University Day each year on October 12. The first student, Hinton James, arrived on foot from Wilmington, February 12, 1795. He was the only student for two weeks.
UNC operated as a state university before any other in America. The University of Georgia was chartered in 1785, but did not open its doors until 1801. The College of Charleston opened in 1770, and was chartered in 1785, but was a private school until 1836, when it became a municipal college; it did not join the South Carolina state university system until 1970. The College of William and Mary was founded in 1693, but was a private institution until 1906. Which of those schools should be called the oldest state university is a subject of debate; however, UNC is the only public university in the United States that awarded degrees as a public institution in the eighteenth century.
The spot of the original well providing water for the school is marked by a small neoclassical rotunda known as the Old Well, which has become a symbol for the university. There is a symbolic drinking fountain (providing city water) at the center of the rotunda so that one can "drink from the old well" as a token of good luck. It is tradition for entering freshman to drink from the well, and the superstition is that if one does this, one will make straight A's for all four years. However, some UNC seniors pee on the well and so do some North Carolina State Students, so the tradition is widely considered to be a reason to laugh at freshmen.
In 1932 UNC became one of the three original campuses of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (since 1972 called the University of North Carolina System). In 1963 the Consolidated University was made fully coeducational. As a result, the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina was renamed the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of North Carolina itself became the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Famous graduates include Zebulon Baird Vance, James K. Polk, Sam Ervin, Andy Griffith, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, Thomas Wolfe, John Edwards, Paul Wellstone, and Charles Kuralt.
(Presidency vacant 1872-1874)
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