University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is the oldest public university in the United States. It is the charter member of the University of North Carolina System. The school was founded in 1789, and the first class was admitted in 1795. The cornerstone of its first building, Old East was laid on 12 October 1793 near an Anglican chapel in what therefore became "Chapel Hill, North Carolina." Today, the University celebrates University Day each year on October 12.
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It is considered one of the stronger state universities, frequently ranking in the top ten among state institutions in national surveys. Among graduate programs, the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Public Health are especially highly regarded.
For undergraduates, the university has for decades offered a merit scholarship known as the Morehead, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. The scholarship offers tuition, room, and board for four years.
Famous graduates include James K. Polk, Andy Griffith, Michael Jordan, Thomas Wolfe, and Charles Kuralt.
The school's sports teams are called the Tar Heels. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The women's soccer team has won fifteen national championships since 1981, and the men's basketball team has won national championships in 1957, 1982, and 1993.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was founded, oddly, in the same year as the beginning of the French Revolution by a group of North Carolina philosophes. Accordingly, Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, which serves as the northern border of the University's campus, is named after the famous eighteenth-century Enlightenment figure Benjamin Franklin.
UNC operated as a state university before any other in America. The University of Georgia was chartered earlier than UNC, but did not open its doors until after UNC did. William and Mary was founded earlier, but as a private institution. Which of those three should be called the oldest state university is a matter of definitions. UNC is, however, the only public university in the United States that awarded degrees in the eighteenth century.
The university opened in a single building, which came to be called Old East and is still in use as a residence hall. The spot of the original well providing water for the school is marked by a small neoclassical rotunda known as the Old Well, which has become a symbol for the university. There is a symbolic drinking fountain (providing city water) at the center of the rotunda so that one can "drink from the old well" as a token of good luck.
Academic Programs
Athletics
History
External Link
