Olympics

The university has several interesting connections to the Olympic games. Faculty member Eben Alexander was serving as ambassador to Greece in 1896 during the revival of the modern Olympics and was instrumental in recruiting American athletes to participate. UNC's first Olympian was Harry William...

University of North Carolina P

In 1922 a group of faculty established UNC Press, primarily with the goal of publishing faculty research, under the direction of university librarian Louis Round Wilson. The first title published, in 1923, was The Saprolegniaceae, with Notes on Other Water Molds, by William Chambers Coker. The UNC P...

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...

Lux Libertas

The university's motto is Lux Libertas, Latin for "light and liberty." It was adopted in 1897 at the same time as the new school seal, which included a crest with the words on it. In their minutes approving the new seal, the UNC Board of Trustees noted that the seal (and presumably the m...