Wednesday marked an annual tradition on UNC’s campus: the celebration of University Day.
The school holiday is held each October 12, as the date commemorates when the cornerstone was laid for the university’s first building: Old East. The traditional recognition began 84 years later and today includes fewer afternoon classes for students, a procession down Cameron Avenue in front of the Old Well and a ceremony in Memorial Hall.
With this year’s University Day falling during Carolina’s University Research Week, the event had a distinct focus on celebrating the school’s achievements.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz described research as “curiosity’s purest expression,” having been a researcher on concussions and brain injuries at UNC for decades before becoming chancellor. He said the university has doubled its research enterprise in the last 15 years, now bringing in $1.2 billion each year in research funding for the state.
But Guskiewicz was quick to say while the numbers are impressive, the impact of such research across North Carolina and the world is the real legacy. In 2021 alone, the university reported more than 900 of its research projects helped address the health, education or well-being of North Carolinians.
“Our history gives me reasons to hope for the future,” Guskiewicz said. “When we think about the issues in our world today, it’s easy to be discouraged. But I have hope because I’ve seen what our researchers have accomplished in 229 years. What more they will do in the next 229.”
UNC System President Peter Hans also spoke at the ceremony, commemorating the flagship campus on its leadership and efforts while also celebrating the other 15 sister campuses across the state.
To best continue the university’s leadership and research prowess, some changes are necessary. UNC has dozens of outstanding capital needs projects that are currently underfunded or not prioritized. But Chair of the UNC Board of Trustees Dave Boliek said to the crowd that the appointed leadership is focused on turning that around.
“We can’t expect a university that’s been around since the time of George Washington to not need substantial maintenance,” he said. “We have hundreds of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance and repairs needed on our campus. I can tell you today that the BOT and Chancellor and administration are committed to finding creative ways to maintain and revitalizing our campus. Now is the time.”
Boliek also made comments about how the university’s multi-century history is not unblemished. Discussed in prior University Day ceremonies, the school continues to grapple with contextualizing its history and prominent figures that also had roots in the disenfranchisement or suppression of minorities.
The trustee said, however, that he still believes in embracing that history as UNC’s and celebrating how today, the campus thrives as a leader in the “great experiment that is public higher education.”
Student Body President Taliajah Vann spoke to this as well, saying she believes the university should honor the legacy of Tar Heels who have pushed the school forward throughout its “dynamic history.”
“As only the third Black woman elected student body president,” said Vann, “and first Black Student Movement president to ever hold this office, I have an unrelenting appreciation for the history of changemakers at Carolina: alumni, current students, faculty staff and administrators alike.”
Part of the University Day ceremony was spent honoring one of those trailblazers. Karen Parker, who graduated in the Class of 1965 after being the first Black woman to enroll as an undergraduate at UNC, was in attendance. Guskiewicz and the university gave Parker a distinguished alumni award for her work in journalism throughout her professional career, as well as bravery and activism while a student. Several other alumni were given distinguished awards, including some who have gone on to be part of leading research teams.
The audience also heard from a pair of current research teams at Carolina: one studying the effects of natural disasters on human relationships, and another testing processes and technology for water purification.
Junior Christian Chung was part of the latter, speaking about the work studying forever chemicals in water samples. He said as a biology and public policy major, research at Carolina has deeply affected his approach to education and life.
“Without pursuing undergraduate research, my detail-oriented, inter-personal and analytical problem-solving skills would not be as finetuned,” said Chung.
Some of those in attendance for Wednesday’s University Day ceremony will see even more impacts UNC has on North Carolina next week. Guskiewicz announced the Tar Heel Bus Tour is set to roll out of Chapel Hill in the coming days, taking faculty, administrators and more to different parts of the state to learn about various university partnerships.
You can watch the full 2022 University Day ceremony by visiting UNC’s website.
Photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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