Students, faculty, staff, alumni and the public are invited to attend the University Day ceremony.
Dr. Michael Hunt, the Everett H. Emerson professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be the keynote speaker at the 214th annual University Day celebration Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall.
Hunt writes and teaches international history in the College of Arts and Sciences, with special interests in U.S. foreign relations and the post-1945 world. He helped create the College’s department of Asian studies and his own department’s program in global history.
Faculty and staff will process from the Old Well to Memorial Hall before the 11 a.m. ceremony. Classes are cancelled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The FedEx Global Education Center will be formally dedicated at 4 p.m. the same day. The public is invited to attend the building dedication and to view the center’s “Women Empowered” photography exhibit.
University Day commemorates the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation’s first state university building, on Oct. 12, 1793. The university received its charter from the North Carolina legislature in 1789 and opened to students in 1795. The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees made the event a college holiday in 1877 and an all-day celebration in 1900.
University Day became a college holiday in 1877 and an all-day celebration in 1900. In 1906, Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, former university president, received an honorary degree, the first given on University Day. That practice evolved into the Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, first presented in 1971 to “alumni who had distinguished themselves in a manner that brought credit to the university.”
University Days have served as convocations for new chancellors; William B. Aycock in 1957, Paul F. Sharp in 1964, J. Carlyle Sitterson in 1965, N. Ferebee Taylor in 1972, Christopher C. Fordham III in 1980, Paul Hardin in 1988, Michael Hooker in 1995, and James Moeser in 2000.
This year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are: Clyde Ritchie Bell of Chapel Hill; Donald Benjamin Cameron of New York, N.Y.; Alan Stewart Murray of Greenwich, Conn.; Anne Ponder of Asheville; and Charles Thomas Scott of Norcross, Ga.
The FedEx Global Education Center supports the university’s international efforts, one of six priorities in Carolina’s Academic Plan. Funded by the 2000 N.C. Higher Education Bond Referendum and private gifts, including $5 million from FedEx Corp., the center brings together key international activities under one roof, including student and faculty services, academic instruction, research, study abroad and cultural exchange. The “Women Empowered” photography exhibit features women around the world who have worked to alleviate poverty in their communities.
University Day Web site: http://www.unc.edu/universityday
FedEx Global Education Center Web site: http://international.unc.edu/GEC.html
News Services contacts: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu; Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu