The UNC Visitors Center will soon welcome guests to its new home on Franklin Street, located between the Carolina Coffee Shop and Benny Cappella’s. The visitors center was pushed out of its previous location in Morehead Planetarium as the planetarium undergoes renovations.
The center has been relocated and revamped to give visitors a new way to explore the University and receive insights into “all things Carolina.”
In addition to taking a selfie with a life-size Rameses, the visitors center will offer guests several other interactive elements — including a media showcase where guests can read about notable Tar Heels, an all-inclusive touch-screen campus map that provides walking directions via text and a world map where visitors can find and mark their hometowns with a virtual pin.
Rhonda Beatty, director of the UNC Visitors Center, said the center’s move to Franklin Street allows them to have a greater exposure to the community and provide a better gateway from downtown Chapel Hill to campus.
“It’s exciting that people who are looking for Carolina, are looking for information will be able to find us and people who might not necessarily be in town for just UNC will be able to find us as well,” Beatty said. “That way we will be able to share the good news and talk about Carolina’s story with anyone who happens to come through the doors.”
Beatty said she hopes the visitors center’s interactive technology inspires guests to learn more about UNC’s history, as well as the students and staff that make up the community.
“Our hope is that when they come in here they will learn something about Carolina, they will learn about the important work that students and faculty and staff are doing in the community – across the nation – in North Carolina and across the world,” Beatty said. “Hopefully each of these elements will show them that rather than us having to tell them that.”
Aside from the virtual, interactive elements located inside, Beatty said the visitors center will conduct daily “Sense of Place” tours. These one-hour walking tours explore the history and traditions around campus.
“Every day they happen twice a day,” Beatty said. “So we direct guests to our website and they can register for those tours right now. They’re every day at eleven [a.m.] and three [p.m.].”
Annually, the UNC Visitors Center serves more than eight-thousand people, nearly half of which take part in tours across campus.
To learn more about the new visitors center or sign up for a tour, visit its website.
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