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Upendo Lounge

In 1972 the Black Student Movement (BSM) was allocated a meeting and event space on the first floor of Chase Hall. They named it the Upendo Lounge, after the Swahili word for love. Upendo quickly became a hub for African American students on campus. It was used for meetings, practices, lectures, and church services and as a general gathering space and community center. It was the first space on the campus dedicated to and controlled by African American students. The location and use of Upendo were often a source of contention. When the space was taken over by dining services in 1976, Upendo was moved upstairs. In 1983 the space was unavailable during renovation and was again relocated. The BSM often clashed with university administrators who repeatedly challenged the group's control of the space and discussed making it available to other student groups. Even after the opening of the Black Cultural Center in the student union in 1988 and the Stone Center in 2004, Upendo remained the center of BSM activities and an important part of student life. After Chase was torn down in 2005, space was allocated for a new Upendo in the Student and Academic Services Building North. The new Upendo was renovated in 2016, and the university confirmed that the BSM would have priority use of the space.

University Day

University Day, celebrated annually on October 12, commemorates the laying of the cornerstone of Old East on that date in 1793. University Day was first held in 1877 and featured a Glee Club performance and a lecture from university president Kemp Plummer Battle on the charter and establishment of the university. Music and speeches have been a part of the ceremonies ever since. In 1906 the university first awarded honorary degrees during the ceremony, and in 1907 it began the tradition of a procession through campus to Memorial Hall. Two U.S. presidents have spoken at University Day celebrations, both held in Kenan Stadium: John F. Kennedy, in 1961, and Bill Clinton, as part of the UNC bicentennial celebration in 1993.

UNC-TV

The University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, established by the UNC System Board of Governors in 1979, began as a single station that began broadcasting from the Chapel Hill campus in 1955. This early foray into educational television was promoted by successive university leaders, the state legislature, individual donors, and thousands of volunteers. Their efforts eventually placed North Carolina in the forefront of public television. WUNC-TV was the tenth educational television station in the country, and the first south of Washington, D.C. The studio at Carolina was in Swain Hall, with additional studios at UNC-Greensboro (then Woman's College) and North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering in Raleigh. The station, which is now a statewide public media system with four channels, operates from the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Communications Center in Research Triangle Park, which opened in 1989.

Both UNC-TV and WUNC radio originated in the early 1940s at Carolina from courses developed by Earl Wynn (1911—1986), professor of drama and radio. Wynn coordinated the interests of a number of faculty and staff interested in broadcasting to establish the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures (RTVMP) and an allied Communication Center in Swain Hall to house equipment, studio, and broadcasting facilities.

UNC System presidents

UNC—Chapel Hill is part of the University of North Carolina System, along with sixteen other institutions. The leader of the UNC System is a president, a title that has been in place since the first consolidation of three universities (UNC, UNC-Greensboro, and North Carolina State University) took place in 1932, and continued when the current system was created in 1971. There have been eight system presidents since then. The longest serving UNC president thus far, William C. Friday. Friday's thirty-year tenure spanned great social change, including racial desegregation and the evolution of UNC into the system it is today.

UNC System Presidents
Frank Porter Graham: 1930—49
Gordon Gray: 1950—55
William C. Friday: 1956—86
C. D. Spangler: 1986—97
Molly Corbett Broad: 1997—2006
Erskine Bowles: 2006—11
Thomas W. Ross: 2011—16
Margaret Spellings: 2016—19
William Roper (interim): 2019—

Trademarks and licensing

UNC—Chapel Hill signed its first trademark licensing agreement in 1982, not long after the men's basketball team won the NCAA championship. The licensing agreement enables the university to control the use of the school name, logos, and symbols in merchandise and to collect royalties from authorized uses. The original trademarks included the university seal, the Old Well, the tar heel foot, Rameses, and the interlocking NC design. Licensing has become a lucrative operation for the university: in the 2012—13 academic year the school earned close to $4 million from licensing, money that would be used for student aid and scholarships.