Common Hall

In 1885 students were eager to have a new ballroom to host dances. When the university was unable to provide one, a group of students formed a private association and had one built on campus on the current site of Phillips Hall. When it wasn't used for dances, the building was leased to the univ...

Davie Poplar

The legendary tulip poplar at the heart of the UNC—Chapel Hill campus is older than the university. The earliest known reference to it is in the reminiscences of a member of the class of 1818. In his recollections of campus, he talks about the "old poplar," which shows that even in the...

Odum Institute for Research in

The Institute for Social Sciences was established in 1924 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and encouragement from university president Harry Woodburn Chase. It was the first program of its kind in the country. Led by sociologist Howard Odum, the institute focused most of its research on ...

Carolina Political Union

Organized in 1936 by students in E. J. Woodhouse's political science class, the Carolina Political Union sought to share information and promote debate about current affairs. The group invited speakers to campus and succeeded in bringing many prominent politicians to Chapel Hill, including Presi...