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—