Entries

16 Apr: Alma Mater ("Hark the Sound")

Alma Mater ("Hark the Sound")

UNC—Chapel Hill's school song was performed for the first time by the campus Glee Club at the graduation ceremony on June 2, 1897. The lyrics, written by student Walter Starr Myers, were a little different from those we know today. The song began, "Hark the sound of loyal voices / ringing sweet and true, / Telling Carolina's glories / Singing NCU." After that initial concert, the song was apparently not performed for several years. When it was revived in the early 1900s, it had the familiar first line, "Hark the sound of Tar Heel voices / Ringing clear and true." When it was sung at the 1904 University Day celebration, the Tar Heel reported that the song "was never sung so well before." By that point the lyrics were fixed and the song was a part of Carolina tradition. While the lyrics are unique to UNC—Chapel Hill, the melody is not. It is based on the old Italian tune "Amici," which has been adapted by many schools for their alma maters. It is believed to have been used first by Cornell students and was soon picked up by others. Both the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia use the tune from "Amici" for their school songs. The Carolina alma mater is usually followed immediately by the song "Tar Heels Born and Tar Heels Bred," which appears to have been adopted around the same time. It was first reported sung at a baseball game in 1903. The full lyrics for both songs follow.

Hark the Sound
1. Hark the sound of Tar Heel voices
Ringing clear and True
Singing Carolina's praises
Shouting N.C.U.
Chorus
Hail to the brightest Star of all
Clear its radiance shine
Carolina priceless gem,
Receive all praises thine.
2. 'Neath the oaks the sons true hearted
Homage pay to thee
Time worn walls give back their echo
Hail to U.N.C.
3. Though the storms of life assail us
Still our hearts beat true
Naught can break the friendships formed at
Dear old N.C.U.

Tar Heels Born and Tar Heels Bred
I'm a Tar Heel born,
I'm a Tar Heel bred,
And when I die
I'm a Tar Heel dead.
So it's RAH, RAH, Car'lina 'lina
RAH, RAH, Car'lina 'lina
RAH, RAH, Car'lina
RAH! RAH! RAH!

All Carolina graduates know that the proper last line of the fight song is either "Go to Hell Duke!" or "Go to Hell State!," depending on which was the more heated rivalry when they were in school.

Date Established: 1897

Date Range: 1897 – Present

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16 Apr: Alexander Residence Hall

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.

 

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16 Apr: Alderman Residence Hall

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.

 

16 Apr: African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, Department of

African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, Department of

This department has its roots in the 1960s-era activism of African American students at predominantly white universities. Still within the first decade of integration, such institutions faced increasing criticism from students about admissions policies, campus life, and academic programs. In December 1968, UNC's Black Student Movement presented a list of twenty-three demands to the chancellor that included a call for a department of African and Afro-American studies. In 1969 the faculty council endorsed such a curriculum and approved a major in 1970. With tracks in African studies and Afro-American studies, the curriculum had codirectors for its first fourteen years. It was made a department in 1997, twenty-two years after it was first proposed, becoming the Department of African Studies and Afro-American Studies.

The department adopted its current name in 2013. The change better reflected the department's research and teaching focus. The department offers a bachelor of arts degree with a major in African, African American, and diaspora studies, and a concentration in either African studies or African American and diaspora studies. At first housed in Alumni Hall, the department now resides in Battle Hall.

Date Established: 1951

Date Range: 1951 – Present

16 Apr: Adams School of Dentistry

Adams School of Dentistry

The idea of dental education at UNC was discussed as early as 1921. Medical professionals around the state continued to advocate for a school of dentistry, successfully lobbying university administrators, who agreed to add the new program to the campus at Chapel Hill. In 1949 the North Carolina state legislature voted unanimously to establish and fund a school of dentistry at UNC. John Brauer, dean of the dental school at the University of Southern California, was hired to start the new program at Carolina. He worked quickly: hired in January, he developed a curriculum and hired faculty, and the School of Dentistry began admitting students by the fall 1950 term. The first classes were held in temporary Quonset huts on campus while a permanent home was being built (it would be completed in 1952).

Two early decisions have helped ensure the long-term success of UNC's dental school. Having faculty work as practicing dentists began early in the school's history. This decision was made in part to help attract talented practitioners to teach in the school but was also used to help supplement faculty salaries. The Dental Foundation of North Carolina was also established early in the history of the school. This privately supported endowment is used to fund scholarships, research, and faculty support.
The School of Dentistry grew rapidly, both in size and in reputation. It expanded with a research center in 1967 and dedicated a new building (now named Brauer Hall) in 1969. By 1973 one survey named the UNC—Chapel Hill School of Dentistry the top program in the country. The school added a Ph.D. program in 1995 and expanded facilities for research, teaching, and patient care, with the addition of Tarrson Hall in 2007 and the Koury Oral Health Sciences Building in 2002. In 2019, following a major gift from the estate of former Durham dentist Claude Adams III, the name of the school was formally changed to the Claude A. Adams Jr. and Grace Phillips Adams School of Dentistry in honor of Dr. Adams's parents.

One of the most tragic events in campus history occurred in 2015 when UNC—Chapel Hill dental students Deah Shaddy Barakat and Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha were murdered in their off-campus apartment. (North Carolina State University student Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha was also killed.) To celebrate the lives of these students and honor their commitment to service, students in the School of Dentistry organized an annual day of community service called DEAH (Directing Efforts and Honoring Deah and Yusor) Day.

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16 Apr: Activism

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.

 

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16 Apr: Ackland Art Museum

Ackland Art Museum

The Ackland Art Museum has one of the most complicated origin stories of any building on campus. When William Hayes Ackland, a lawyer and art collector from Tennessee, died in 1940, he left his estate to establish an art museum at a southern university. Ackland was an heir through his mother to the vast fortune of Isaac Franklin, a plantation owner and partner in Franklin and Armfield, the largest slave-trading operation in the United States. Ackland's mother inherited six Louisiana plantations, among other assets, that eventually became the site for the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola. Duke University was Ackland's first choice for the museum; Duke ultimately decided to decline the gift. Though not stated publicly, it was thought that Duke was reluctant to accept Ackland's condition that his body be placed in a sarcophagus in the museum in his name. This decision left the gift without a clear home and led to nine years of legal battles, culminating in a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1949 the estate (and Ackland's body) was awarded to UNC.

After several construction delays, the museum was finally dedicated in 1958.
UNC—Chapel Hill was in need of an art museum. The university's growing art collection was managed by the art department, and exhibits were often held in Person Hall. With the Ackland, the university had a professional museum staff and a teaching museum that could be used for the benefit of students as well as visitors to campus. The initial focus on the museum collection was European and American art; in the 1980s the collecting focus expanded to include more Asian art, which became a significant collecting area.

More information about Ackland Art Museum

Date Established: 1958

Date Range: 1958 – Present

Ackland Art Museum, ca. 1960s. UNC Photo Lab Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.

 

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16 Apr: Abernethy Hall

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.

 

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16 Apr: A Capella

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.

 

16 Apr: "Southern Part of Heaven"

"Southern Part of Heaven"

"Southern Part of Heaven" is often used as a nickname for Chapel Hill. The term comes from William Meade Prince's fond memoir of growing up in Chapel Hill, The Southern Part of Heaven, first published in 1950. In the book Prince recalls a local resident who, on his deathbed, asked the minister what he thought heaven was like. After a moment of reflection, the minister said, "I believe Heaven must be a lot like Chapel Hill in the spring."