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University Day
October 12, 2017 @ 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Carolina will celebrate University Day—and its 224th birthday—on Oct. 12, and you are invited to join the celebration.
Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s 75th governor, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s event at 11 a.m. Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall.
University Day, which the campus first celebrated in 1877, marks the 1793 laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation’s first state university building, and the beginning of public higher education in the United States.
Classes on Oct. 12 will be canceled from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
We encourage faculty and staff to march with their colleagues in the procession. Those wishing to join should gather at the Old Well beginning at 10:30 a.m. Each school will be represented with a banner that faculty and staff will process behind. Academic regalia is not required.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
Another highlight of University Day will be the presentation of Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, a practice begun by the faculty in 1971 to recognize Tar Heels who have made outstanding contributions to humanity.
This year’s recipients are:
- Amy Lansky, senior adviser for strategy in the Program Performance and Evaluation Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Berrien Moore III, who once served as the chair of the Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee for NASA.
- Judith Phillips Stanton, who compiled and edited The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith (2004) and also taught at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Clemson University.
- Mike Wiley, whose plays have been seen in settings ranging from The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., to the official finale of the Freedom Riders 50th Reunion in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Richard Stevens, an attorney with the Smith Anderson Law Firm in Raleigh and member of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees, serving for the second time.
Additionally, the Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award, established by the Faculty Council in 2011 to recognize outstanding service by faculty members, will be presented to Nancy Albritton, Kenan Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.
For more information, visit the University Day webpage.