Entries

By melissa

16 Apr: Taylor Campus Health Services Building

Taylor Campus Health Services Building

The student infirmary is named for James A. Taylor (class of 1939), a member of the student health service staff beginning in 1949. When Taylor took over as director of student health in 1971, he began advocating for a new facility, as well as the expansion of student health services. Under Taylor's leadership, UNC—Chapel Hill established its first sports medicine program and greatly expanded women's health services. The new Campus Health Services Building was completed in 1980 and was named for Taylor in 1988.

« Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building

Taylor Hall »

By melissa

16 Apr: Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building

Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building

Opened in 1995 to house the School of Social Work, the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building is named for three different people. Jack Tate was an early supporter of the school and was effective in gaining state support for teaching social work at Carolina. John Turner had a long career in social work, was hired as Kenan Professor in 1974, and became the first African American dean at Carolina in 1981. And journalist Charles Kuralt, whose father was a social worker in Charlotte, was a longtime supporter of the school. The new building enabled the social work programs at UNC to operate in the same location for the first time since the founding of the school in 1920.

« Tarrson Hall

Taylor Campus Health Services Building »

By melissa

16 Apr: Tarrson Hall

Tarrson Hall

Adjacent to Brauer Hall, Tarrson opened in 2000 to serve as a teaching facility for the School of Dentistry. The building is named for E. B. "Bud" Tarrson, an executive in a Chicago company that sold dental hygiene products. Tarrson donated to dental schools around the country. Even though he did not attend Carolina, he gave $2 million to support dental education at the university.

« Tar Heels

Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building »

By melissa

16 Apr: Tar Heels

Tar Heels

UNC—Chapel Hill's unique "Tar Heels" nickname is also the nickname for a resident of the state, as well as for the state itself. The term traces back to the eighteenth century, when North Carolina, with its plentiful pine trees, was a major producer of tar and turpentine for the naval industry. "Tar Heel" emerged as a derogatory term for the enslaved people and other poor, barefoot North Carolinians who produced the products and thus had pine resin or tar stuck to the bottoms of their feet ("rosin heels" was an earlier version of the term). The nickname became popular after the Civil War to represent North Carolina people and products. When students started the university's first student newspaper, in 1893, they called it the Tar Heel.

It is not clear when Carolina athletic teams began officially using the Tar Heels nickname. Early newspaper coverage referred to the team as the "Tar Heels" only when they played teams from other states, suggesting that the formal nickname was not yet used. In fact, some newspaper articles referred to other college teams in the state as "Tar Heels" when they played teams outside of North Carolina. By the 1910s and 1920s the nickname was used more frequently in reference to the UNC teams, even when they played other teams from North Carolina. As the reputation of UNC's basketball and football teams grew through the twentieth century, the Tar Heels nickname became more firmly associated with the university. When UNC—Chapel Hill entered its first licensing agreement in the 1980s, "Tar Heels" was one of the phrases registered by the university, and it remains an official word mark of the university.

« Tar Babies

Tarrson Hall »

By melissa

16 Apr: Tar Babies

Tar Babies

Tar Babies was an unofficial nickname given to the freshman (or junior varsity) basketball and football teams. It was used primarily by journalists (including those at the Daily Tar Heel) roughly from the 1920s through the 1970s. Similar to the "White Phantoms" nickname used in newspaper coverage for the men's basketball team during the same era, "Tar Babies" does not appear to have been used in official university publications or announcements.

« Swim Test

Tar Heels »

By melissa

16 Apr: Swim Test

Swim Test

When the United States entered World War II, there was widespread concern that the physical fitness of young Americans was poor compared to their German counterparts. Schools and colleges across the country began more intensive physical education programs as a result. Inspired in part by the demanding fitness regime of the navy pre-flight trainees on campus during the war, the university, joining other colleges around the country, decided to institute a requirement that students learn how to swim before they graduated. The original swim test required students to demonstrate three different strokes over four laps in the pool. The test evolved to focus simply on survival: students had to swim one lap and then tread water for five minutes. Students were frequently reluctant to take the test, with many putting it off until just before graduation. The best-known procrastinator was future chancellor Michael Hooker (class of 1969), who waited until the last possible opportunity to take the test. He failed, was unable to graduate with the rest of his class, and had to enroll in a swimming class in summer school. Increasingly unpopular and seen as an outdated requirement, the swim test was finally eliminated in the fall of 2006.

« Swain Hall

Tar Babies »

By melissa

16 Apr: Swain Hall

Swain Hall

Swain Hall was opened in 1914 for use as a cafeteria. Built on the former site of the university president's house, Swain provided a much-needed expansion of dining space for the campus, which had long outgrown the limited seating capacity in Commons Hall. The novelty of the new space appeared to wear off quickly, for only a few years after it opened students were routinely referring to it as "Swine Hall," in reference to the quality of food served there.

The building is named for David Lowry Swain, university president from 1835 to 1868. A native of Buncombe County, Swain was a lawyer and politician, serving as governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835. After leaving office he was selected to replace Joseph Caldwell as president of the university. Swain presided over the university during a period of expanding enrollment followed by a struggle to keep the campus open during the Civil War as the student population dwindled. Swain also had a strong interest in state history and helped found the North Carolina Historical Society at the university, a predecessor to the North Carolina Collection and Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library.

Swain was one of the wealthiest men in Chapel Hill, profiting from the work of a large number of laborers he had enslaved. He supplemented his income by leasing enslaved servants to the university. One of these people was Wilson Caldwell, who would later serve in local government and help found and operate schools following the Civil War.

Swain is often credited with his role in negotiating the surrender of Chapel Hill and the university at the end of the Civil War in 1865, helping save the town and campus from destruction. His household was at the center of a local scandal when Swain's daughter became engaged to marry a Union officer from Illinois who was stationed in Chapel Hill at the end of the war. At odds with the newly elected state government in 1868, Swain left the university presidency and died shortly thereafter.

Date Established: 1913

Date Range: 1913 – Present

« Sutton's Drug Store

Swim Test »

By melissa

16 Apr: Sutton's Drug Store

Sutton's Drug Store

Sutton's Drug Store opened on Franklin Street in 1923 and quickly became a vital part of student life. It is now one of the few remaining links to the past in the rapidly changing downtown. In its early days, when the store was known as Sutton and Alderman's, students went to the drugstore to buy a wide variety of goods and services beyond the traditional medicines and soda fountain drinks: clothing, concert tickets, record players —students could even get their yearbook photos taken there. Pharmacist John Woodward purchased the store in 1977 and began a new tradition a few years later when he began photographing customers. These photos now lining the wall show generations of students and community members eating at Sutton's, with a large number of Tar Heel athletes represented. Facing increased competition from national chain drugstores in the 2010s, Sutton's shut down its prescription service in 2014. The store was sold at that time to longtime grill manager Don Pinney, who ensured that the lunch counter remained, continuing to draw crowds for the store's well-known grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, and milkshakes.

« Summer School

Swain Hall »

By melissa

16 Apr: Summer School

Summer School

In 1877 UNC began offering classes during the summer. The Summer Normal School was not an extension of the regular curriculum but a new program to provide education for teachers in North Carolina. The courses were designed for primary school teachers in North Carolina and were immediately popular, drawing close to 2,500 students in its first eight years. However, the program struggled to maintain support and was suspended twice before being revived in 1907. These early summer school programs were among the first at the university that women were able to attend. Women made up nearly half of the class at the first summer school, and in 1878 Emily Coe became the first woman to teach on campus when she joined the summer school faculty. The success of the program and the demand for teacher education led the university to establish the Department of Normal Instruction in 1885 and a graduate program in education in 1896. By 1916 the university began offering regular courses during the summer.

« Summer Reading Program

Sutton's Drug Store »

By melissa

16 Apr: Summer Reading Program

Summer Reading Program

This annual project, directed by the New Student and Family Programs office, introduces incoming students to intellectual life at Carolina. On the day before the fall semester begins, new students join small-group discussions on a selected book that they read during the summer. The late chancellor Michael Hooker introduced the Summer Reading Program in 1999 to add more intellectual content to orientation. It has proved to be a popular and sometimes controversial addition.

In 2002 the book selection committee chose Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations, by Michael Sells, inspired by what they saw as the need for Americans to better understand Islam after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Conservative journalists publicized the selection and helped encourage public criticism of Carolina for its choice. The Family Policy Network (FPN) filed suit against the university (Yacovelli v. Moeser) on behalf of several students, claiming that the requirement violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. FPN lost in court and on appeal, while the university offered students who did not wish to take part in discussions the option of writing a paper instead.

« Study abroad

Summer School »

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