The NCAA refers to UNC-Chapel Hill as the "University of North Carolina" for athletics.[9] As of Fall 2011, the university had won 40 NCAA team championships in six different sports, eighth all-time.[163] These include twenty one NCAA championships in women's soccer, six in women's field hockey, four in men's lacrosse, six in men's basketball, one in women's basketball, and two in men's soccer.[164] The Men's basketball team won its 6th NCAA basketball championship in 2017, the third for Coach Roy Williams since he took the job as head coach. UNC was also retroactively given the title of National Champion for the 1924 championship, but is typically not included in the official tally. Other recent successes include the 2011 College Cup in men's soccer, and four consecutive College World Series appearances by the baseball team from 2006 to 2009.[165] In 1994, the university's athletic programs won the Sears Directors Cup "all-sports national championship" awarded for cumulative performance in NCAA competition.[166] Consensus collegiate national athletes of the year from North Carolina include Rachel Dawson in field hockey; Phil Ford, Tyler Hansbrough, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, James Worthy and Michael Jordan in men's basketball; and Mia Hamm (twice), Shannon Higgins, Kristine Lilly, and Tisha Venturini in women's soccer.[167]
From the late 1990s and onward, UNC-Chapel Hill expanded rapidly with a 15% increase in total student population to more than 28,000 by 2007. This is accompanied by the construction of new facilities, funded in part by the "Carolina First" fundraising campaign and an endowment that increased fourfold to more than $2 billion within ten years.[45][46] Professor Oliver Smithies was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 for his work in genetics.[47] Additionally, Professor Aziz Sancar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 for his work in understanding the molecular repair mechanisms of DNA.[48]
UNC basketball was front and center for its top 2023 recruiting target last Thursday. And yes, 5-star point guard Robert Dillingham was quite aware. "I definitely notice who’s here on Day One," Dillingham, the No. 11 recruit in the class of 2023 said. "It’s not something I hold against a school if they don’t come. But yeah, I notice who came out Day One." (Fayetteville Observer)
The first public institution of higher education in North Carolina, the school opened its doors to students on February 12, 1795. North Carolina became coeducational under the leadership of President Kemp Plummer Battle in 1877 and began the process of desegregation under Chancellor Robert Burton House when African-American graduate students were admitted in 1951.[13][14] In 1952, North Carolina opened its own hospital, UNC Health Care, for research and treatment, and has since specialized in cancer care through UNC's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center which is one of only 51 national NCI designated comprehensive centers.[15]
The university's teams are nicknamed the "Tar Heels," in reference to the state's eighteenth century prominence as a tar and pitch producer.[168] The nickname's cultural relevance, however, has a complex history that includes anecdotal tales from both the American Civil War and the American Revolution.[168] The mascot is a live Dorset ram named Rameses, a tradition that dates back to 1924, when the team manager brought a ram to the annual game against Virginia Military Institute, inspired by the play of former football player Jack "The Battering Ram" Merrit. The kicker rubbed his head for good luck before a game-winning field goal, and the ram stayed.[169] There is also an anthropomorphic ram mascot who appears at games.[170] The modern Rameses is depicted in a sailor's hat, a reference to a United States Navy flight training program that was attached to the university during World War II.[171]
Despite initial skepticism from university President Frank Porter Graham, on March 27, 1931, legislation was passed to group the University of North Carolina with the State College of Agriculture and Engineering and Woman's College of the University of North Carolina to form the Consolidated University of North Carolina.[34] In 1963, the consolidated university was made fully coeducational, although most women still attended Woman's College for their first two years, transferring to Chapel Hill as juniors, since freshmen were required to live on campus and there was only one women's residence hall. As a result, Woman's College was renamed the "University of North Carolina at Greensboro", and the University of North Carolina became the "University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."[35][36][37] In 1955, UNC officially desegregated its undergraduate divisions.[38]
While students previously held "Beat Duke" parades on Franklin Street before sporting events,[185] today students and sports fans have been known to spill out of bars and residence halls upon the victory of one of Carolina's sports teams.[186] In most cases, a Franklin Street "bonfire" celebration is due to a victory by the men's basketball team,[187][188] although other Franklin Street celebrations have stemmed from wins by the women's basketball team and women's soccer team. The first known student celebration on Franklin Street came after the 1957 men's basketball team capped their perfect season with a national championship victory over the Kansas Jayhawks.[189] From then on, students have flooded the street after important victories.[189] After a Final Four victory in 1981 and the men's basketball team won the 1982 NCAA Championship, Franklin Street was painted blue by the fans who had rushed the street.[189] This event has led local vendors to stop selling Carolina blue paint as the Tar Heels near the national championship.
The university was named a Public Ivy by Richard Moll in his 1985 book The Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, and in later guides by Howard and Matthew Greene.[134][135] Many of UNC-Chapel Hill's professional schools have achieved high rankings in publications such as Forbes magazine, as well as annual U.S. News & World Report surveys.[136][137] In 2020, US News & World Report ranked the School of Medicine #1 in primary care and #23 in research.[138] In 2016, U.S. News & World Report ranked UNC-Chapel Hill business school's MBA program as the 16th best in the nation. In the 2019 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health as the second best school of public health in the United States (behind Johns Hopkins and tied with Harvard).[139] The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy was ranked #1 among pharmacy schools in the United States in 2020 by U.S. News & World Report.[140] In 2005, Business Week ranked UNC-Chapel Hill business school's Executive MBA program as the 5th best in the United States.[141] UNC also offers an online MBA program, MBA@UNC,[142] that is ranked #1 in the country in 2019 for Best Online MBA Programs (tied with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University).[143] Other highly ranked schools include journalism and mass communication, law, library and information science, medicine, dentistry, and city and regional planning.[144][145][146][147][148] Nationally, UNC-Chapel Hill is in the top ten public universities for research.[149] Internationally, the 2016 QS World University Rankings ranked North Carolina 78th in the world (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings).[150]
Former University of North Carolina basketball player Andrew Platek has enrolled at Siena College, and can now be found in the student directory of the school’s online database. He’s not currently listed as a member of the school’s basketball program, but we’re expecting that to change in the near future. Attempts by the Daily Gazette to reach Siena head basketball coach Carmen Maciariello for comment on the matter were unsuccessful.
Carolina is a university built for the people, and public service is at the core of its mission. Students, faculty, and staff dedicate thousands of hours each year to helping communities across NC by performing public service projects and participating in outreach programs. Members of the Carolina community also make life-changing discoveries through their world-class research in labs and in the field, creating a better future for all North Carolinians.
UNC-Chapel Hill's 729-acre (3.0 km2) campus is dominated by two central quads: Polk Place and McCorkle Place.[69] Polk Place is named after North Carolina native and university alumnus President James K. Polk,[70] and McCorkle Place is named in honor of Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, the original author of the bill requesting the university's charter.[71] Adjacent to Polk Place is a sunken brick courtyard known as the Pit where students will gather, often engaging in lively debate with speakers such as the Pit Preacher. The Morehead–Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the quarter-hour. In 1999, UNC-Chapel Hill was one of sixteen recipients of the American Society of Landscape Architects Medallion Awards and was identified as one of 50 college or university "works of art" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art.[69][72]
The most enduring symbol of the university is the Old Well, a small neoclassical rotunda based on the Temple of Love in the Gardens of Versailles, in the same location as the original well that provided water for the school.[83] The well stands at the south end of McCorkle Place, the northern quad, between two of the campus's oldest buildings, Old East, and Old West.
