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Alexander Residence Hall

Completed in 1939, Alexander was one of three new dormitories for men built using Public Works Administration funds. The building is named for Eben Alexander, a faculty member who taught Greek at Carolina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He served for several years as U.S. ambassador to Greece, Serbia, and Romania under President Grover Cleveland. Alexander was in Greece for the revival of the modern Olympic games in 1896 and was instrumental in getting American athletes to participate.

Date Established: 1939

Date Range: 1939 – Present

Alexander Hall, ca. 1950s. UNC Image Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.

Alderman Residence Hall

Located on Raleigh Street behind the university president's house, Alderman was completed in 1937 as a dormitory for women, providing much-needed on-campus housing for the rapidly expanding population of female students. At first known simply as the Graduate Women's Dormitory, the dorm was named for former university president Edwin Anderson Alderman in 1941, probably in recognition of the role he played in arguing for the admission of the first women students at Carolina in 1897. A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, and lifelong advocate of public education, Alderman joined the university faculty as a history professor in 1893. He was elected president in 1896 but served in that role for only a few years before leaving in 1900 to become president of Tulane University. Alderman was named president of the University of Virginia in 1904 and remained in that role until his death in 1931.

Date Established: 1937

Date Range: 1937 – Present

Alderman Hall, ca. 1940s. UNC Image Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.

Activism

UNC—Chapel Hill students have often worked together to advocate for issues or push for change. Early in the university's history, students collectively petitioned the administration, for example, to complain about food on campus. In 1861 a group of students wrote to the university administration to ask that classes be canceled so that they could leave to join the Confederate army; the president and board denied their petition.

One of the earliest examples of students working together to protest national issues came in the 1930s, when students joined national antiwar efforts and held rallies in Memorial Hall, some attracting hundreds of people. Student activists engaged in a statewide debate in the early 1960s in protest of North Carolina's Speaker Ban Law. Their challenge to the law eventually led to its being overturned.

Student activism was at its peak in Chapel Hill, and around the country, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The founding of the Black Student Movement at UNC—Chapel Hill in 1967 led to increased advocacy for African American students and workers, including participation in strikes by cafeteria workers in 1969. However, the issue that galvanized students more than any other was opposition to the Vietnam War. Student activists held regular vigils on Franklin Street and joined other students across the country in teach-ins and walkouts. In 1970 an estimated 11,000 UNC—Chapel Hill students (well over half of the student body) left class as part of a nationwide effort to protest the war.

Although the numbers were not as great, UNC—Chapel Hill students remained politically active beyond the 1970s. In the 1980s students pushed the university to divest from companies in South Africa in protest of that country's apartheid government, in the 1990s students were instrumental in getting the university to agree to build a free-standing black cultural center (now the Stone Center), and in the 2010s student activists led the push to rename Saunders Hall and were at the forefront of efforts to remove the Confederate Monument from campus.

Date Established: 1790

Date Range: 1790 – Present

UNC—Chapel Hill students march past Wilson Library in 1987 in support of efforts to urge the university to divest from companies that did business in South Africa. Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.

Abernethy Hall

Located on South Columbia Street across from Fraternity Court, Abernethy Hall was originally built as a campus infirmary. Completed in 1907, the building was expanded in the 1930s to house additional beds and serve as a teaching facility for students in the medical school. Known for decades as the Infirmary, the name was changed to Abernethy Hall in 1945 in honor of alumnus Dr. Eric Abernethy, who served as the university physician from 1919 to 1933.

The campus infirmary moved to a new building in 1946, and Abernethy has since housed a variety of different departments and offices, including the Evening College, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, and the Playmakers Theatre ticket office. The Department of Public Policy later moved into the building. The American Indian Center was located in Abernethy Hall for many years. In 2019 Abernethy became the home for the newly established UNC Latinx Center.

Date Established: 1907

Date Range: 1907 – Present

Abernethy Hall, ca. 1960s. UNC Photo Lab Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.

A Capella

The tradition of campus groups singing without accompaniment goes back at least to the 1920s, when a group of students and local residents formed an a capella choir, which performed traditional songs. A new breed of a capella groups, inspired by barbershop quartet—style singing, began at UNC—Chapel Hill in 1978 with the founding of the Clef Hangers, an all-male vocal group that quickly became popular on campus. Many other groups followed, including the Loreleis, an all-women group formed in 1981, and Harmonyx, founded in 1995 as a subgroup of UNC's Black Student Movement.

By the 1980s a capella concerts were common on campus, and they have remained popular with students. The Clef Hangers' annual "Old Well Sing" performance on the last day of classes each spring has become a university tradition. In 2009 Clef Hangers member Anoop Desai received national attention when he appeared on the popular TV competition American Idol. In 2015 the Clef Hangers brought UNC—Chapel Hill a capella to the White House, performing a song for President Barack Obama.

Date Established: 1920

Date Range: 1920 – Present

Harmonyx, the a capella group of UNC’s Black Student Movement, performing at a concert in August 2018. Photo by Jon Gardiner, UNC-Chapel Hill.