Entries

By melissa

16 Apr: Town Girls Association

Town Girls Association

For many years women at the university were required to live on campus. The only exceptions made were for students who were from Chapel Hill or the surrounding area who could live at home. These students were known informally as "town girls." In an era when social activity and intramural sports were often concentrated around dorms, the Chapel Hill students started the Town Girls Association. Active from the 1930s through the early 1960s, the group met regularly, fielded intramural sports teams, and sponsored dances and other events.

« Title IX

Trademarks and licensing »

By melissa

16 Apr: Toronto Exchange

Toronto Exchange

One of the university's earliest exchange programs, the Toronto Exchange ran for more than thirty years. In the program, a group of Carolina students spent a week at the University of Toronto, and the Toronto students paid a return visit. The program began in 1959 and was organized and sponsored by the student governments at the two universities. By the 1980s as many as forty students from each school participated. As more study abroad programs became available, there was less interest in the Toronto Exchange. Funding for the program was cut by the student government in 1992.

« Title IX

Trademarks and licensing »

By melissa

16 Apr: Title IX

Title IX

In 1972 the U.S. government passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act —laws that govern various educational policies —to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. Its enactment struck down the last of UNC's rules that restricted the admission of women. Even though UNC had begun accepting white women in the 1890s, the university always controlled their numbers through various policies. At first women could enroll only as upper-class or graduate students. By the 1940s women could enroll as freshmen or sophomores only if they lived in Chapel Hill with family members. The trustees removed these restrictions in 1963, but scarce housing continued to limit the number of women who were able to enroll. The passage of Title IX also led to the hiring of more women faculty and the creation of the Association for Women Faculty and Professionals, founded in 1978 to help advance the status of women on campus. Five years after the passage of Title IX, women outnumbered men in the student body. Progress toward equity for women students and faculty members was slow at best, and they sometimes used Title IX as the basis for a suit against the university.

Title IX also brought dramatic changes to athletics. Carolina women set up the Women's Athletic Association in 1934 to support intramural teams and provide athletic opportunities. Carolina women athletes were instrumental in founding the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1970, which hosted national championships until it merged with the NCAA in the 1980s. The university consolidated the administration of women's and men's teams then, and women received their first athletic scholarships. The 1981 soccer team won Carolina's first NCAA championship in a women's team sport.

Date Established: 1972

Date Range: 1972 – Present

« Thurston-Bowles Building

Toronto Exchange »

By melissa

16 Apr: Tin Can

Tin Can

As Carolina expanded in the 1920s, and as interest picked up in college sports, including the still relatively new basketball team, the campus needed a new indoor athletic facility (basketball games were previously held in the small gym in Bynum Hall). The new building was completed in 1923. It was big enough for multiple basketball courts and an indoor track and had enough seats to hold 4,000 spectators. Before the university had a chance to give the structure a proper name, students took to calling it the "Tin Can" after the galvanized tin covering the walls and roof. The Tin Can was at the heart of Carolina life for decades. In addition to basketball games (played in the Tin Can until Woollen Gym opened in 1938) and intramural sports, the building hosted concerts and dances. In the 1940s and 1950s some of the biggest names in jazz played in the Tin Can, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. When enrollment swelled after World War II, nearly 200 students were forced to make the Tin Can their temporary home. The building was torn down in 1977 to make way for Fetzer Gym.

« Thurston-Bowles Building

Toronto Exchange »

By melissa

16 Apr: Thurston-Bowles Building

Thurston-Bowles Building

Opened in 1995, these two adjoining buildings house research centers at the School of Medicine. They are named in recognition of D. Jones "Doc" Thurston Jr. and Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles Jr. Thurston was a graduate of UNC's School of Engineering in the 1930s (before the program closed) and built a successful trucking company. He donated funds in support of arthritis research at Carolina. "Skipper" Bowles was a prominent business leader and politician and was the father of UNC System president Erskine Bowles. Skipper Bowles was a leading fund-raiser for the university, helping secure private donations toward the Dean Smith Center and funding research on alcoholism.

« The Cube

Tin Can »

By melissa

16 Apr: The Pit

The Pit

The beloved gathering space at the heart of the campus, the Pit was created, possibly unintentionally, during construction projects in 1967 and 1968. Formerly the site of Emerson Field, the area was cleared to make way for three new student services buildings: Graham Student Union, Student Stores building, and House Undergraduate Library. During the construction, crews left a large dirt depression in front of the new bookstore. The hole remained while work continued during the fall and winter of 1968—69, creating a major navigational headache for students, especially during the rainy spring. The Daily Tar Heel referred to it at various times as a "man-made mud crater" and "big, ugly mud hole." By late in the spring of 1969 the campus grounds crew announced plans to cover up the dirt with a "sunken brick patio surrounded by brick steps" and "two shade trees planted in the center." In the fall of 1969 students returned to find the newly improved area. The student handbook and Daily Tar Heel began to refer to the space as the Pit, and the name stuck.

« The Cube

Tin Can »

By melissa

16 Apr: The Cube

The Cube

The Cube, a large wooden display located between the Pit and the Graham Student Union, is used as a space for students to announce campus programs and events. The colorful, hand-painted box was first built in the early 1970s and became known as the graffiti cube. While it has grown and been rebuilt many times since it first appeared, the Cube has been a consistent part of the campus landscape ever since. The public display has occasionally been the site of controversy and debate. In 1979 an announcement by the Navy ROTC was defaced and covered with "Imperialists Off Campus."
In 1990 an announcement on the Cube for National Coming Out Day, posted by the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, was scratched out and covered with hate speech.

« Teague Residence Hall

The Pit »

By melissa

16 Apr: Teague Residence Hall

Teague Residence Hall

Teague Residence Hall opened on Stadium Drive as a men's dormitory in 1958, around the same time as nearby Parker and Avery dorms. In the 1970s and 1980s Teague was one of the most notorious dorms on campus. With a strong focus on fellowship and tradition, Teague was often compared to a fraternity. Teague residents were known for their rowdy behavior and for their emphasis on intramural sports (teams from Teague were frequent winners of intramural sports championships). In 1983 Teague residents entered a candidate for homecoming queen: Scott Latham, who ran under the name "Yure Nmomma" and won, becoming the first male homecoming queen at UNC. Latham's pseudonym was in reference to the phrase "Your Mamma Sleeps in Teague," which appeared on aerial banners flown over Kenan Stadium during football games in the early 1980s. In 1988, shortly after Teague residents were accused of sexual and racial harassment directed at a campus housing employee, university officials decided to turn Teague into a coed dorm.

The building is named for Claude Edward Teague, class of 1912, and a longtime educator. He served as UNC business manager from 1943 to 1957.

Date Established: 1958

Date Range: 1958 – Present

« Taylor Hall

The Cube »

By melissa

16 Apr: Taylor Residence Hall

Taylor Residence Hall

Opened in 2006, the new apartment-style dorm is part of the Ram Village Community on South Campus. The building is named for former chancellor Nelson Ferebee Taylor (class of 1942), who joined the School of Law faculty in 1968, soon moved into administration, and was named chancellor in 1972. It was a challenging era as UNC, along with many universities nationwide, was still reeling from widespread protests over the Vietnam War and struggling to adapt to an increasingly vocal and diverse student body. During Taylor's time as chancellor (1972—80), the diversity of the student body increased significantly, especially the number of women students at UNC. He was also a successful fund-raiser, most notably in his efforts to expand the university's library system. He was instrumental in securing approval and resources for a new main library, now the Walter Royal Davis Library, completed in 1984, as well as a major renovation of Wilson Library and expansion of the Health Sciences Library.

Date Established: 2004

Date Range: 2004 – Present

« Taylor Hall

The Cube »

By melissa

16 Apr: Taylor Hall

Taylor Hall

When it first opened in 1969, this building was known as Swing Building. It housed classrooms, a lecture hall, and labs for the School of Medicine. In 1989 the building was renamed for Isaac M. Taylor, an alumnus (class of 1942) who joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 1952 and served as dean from 1964 to 1971. In his brief tenure leading the school, Taylor oversaw a period of growth and expansion, spearheading the construction of several new buildings. He also brought a renewed emphasis on primary health care, helping establish teaching units in hospitals across the state and laying the foundation for the establishment of the Area Health Education Centers in 1972. Despite his long career on campus, Taylor may now be best known as the father of popular singer-songwriter James Taylor.

« Taylor Campus Health Services Building

Taylor Residence Hall »

1 … 3 4 5 … 38