The Graduate School Bulletin
University History and Officers
General Administration Council of The University of North Carolina
Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina
History of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The Vision and Mission Statement of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Board of Trustees of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Officers of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
In North Carolina, all the public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees are part of the University of North Carolina. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the 16 constituent institutions of the multi-campus state university.
The University of North Carolina, chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1789, was the first public university in the United States to open its doors and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. The first class was admitted in Chapel Hill in 1795. For the next 136 years, the only campus of the University of North Carolina was at Chapel Hill.
In 1877, the N.C. General Assembly began sponsoring additional institutions of higher education. Five were historically black institutions, and another was founded to educate American Indians. Several were created to prepare teachers for the public school. Others had a technological emphasis. One is a training school for performing artists.
In 1931, the N.C. General Assembly redefined the University of North Carolina to include three state-supported institutions—the campus at Chapel Hill (now the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University at Raleigh), and Woman's College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). The new multi-campus University operated with one board of trustees and one president. By 1969, three additional campuses had joined the University through legislative action: the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
In 1971, the General Assembly passed legislation bringing into the University of North Carolina the state's 10 remaining public senior institutions, each of which had until then been legally separate: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Pembroke State University, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University. This action created the current 16-campus University.
In 1985, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential high school for gifted students, was declared an affiliated school of the University; in 1996, Pembroke State University was renamed the University of North Carolina at Pembroke through legislative action; and in 2008, the North Carolina School of the Arts was renamed The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
The UNC Board of Governors is the policy-making body legally charged with “the general determination, control, supervision, management, and governance of all affairs of the constituent institutions.” It elects the president, who administers the University. The 32 voting members of the Board of Governors are elected by the General Assembly for four-year terms. Former board chairmen and board members who are former governors of North Carolina may continue to serve for limited periods as non-voting members emeriti. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, or that student's designee, is also a non-voting member.
Each of the 16 constituent institutions is headed by a chancellor, who is chosen by the Board of Governors on the president's nomination and is responsible to the president. Each institution has a board of trustees, consisting of eight members elected by the Board of Governors, four appointed by the governor, and the president of the student body who serves ex-officio. (The UNC School of the Arts has two additional ex-officio members.) Each board of trustees holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its institution on delegation from the Board of Governors.
In 2006, Erskine B. Bowles became the president of The University of North Carolina system. UNC campuses enroll more than 202,000 students and support a broad array of liberal-arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, one school of pharmacy with another planned for UNCG, 12 nursing programs, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and a specialized school for performing artists. Also under the University umbrella is the UNC Center for Public Television with its 11-station statewide broadcast network, and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation's first public residential high school for gifted students.
History of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The first state-supported school for the higher education of women in North Carolina was chartered in 1891 as the State Normal and Industrial School. It opened on October 5, 1892 to 223 students, a 15-member faculty, and classes in business, domestic science, and teaching. In 1896 its name was changed to the State Normal and Industrial College. Charles Duncan McIver, who crusaded for women's education, was the first president, serving from 1892 until his death in 1906.
In 1919, the school was renamed North Carolina College for Women, as it continued to educate women in the liberal arts with particular emphasis in the fields of teaching, home economics, music, and physical education.
The first graduate degree, the Master of Arts, was awarded in 1922.
The General Assembly of 1931 combined the North Carolina College for Women, The University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) and the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (at Raleigh) into a single Consolidated University. The campus at Greensboro thus became The Woman's College of the University of North Carolina.
The first doctoral degree was awarded in June 1963.
"W.C." became coeducational in July 1963 when laws were amended to authorize admission of both men and women at all levels of instruction on all University campuses. At this time, the Greensboro campus was again renamed as The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
In October 1971 the General Assembly adopted legislation which combined all 16 of the state-supported institutions of higher education into a single University of North Carolina, governed by a board of governors and administered by a president. Each constituent institution has a separate board of trustees and is administered by a chancellor.
In 1995, Dr. Patricia A. Sullivan became the ninth chancellor and the first woman chancellor of the University.
In August 2008, Dr. Linda P. Brady succeeded the retiring Dr. Sullivan and became the tenth chancellor of UNCG.
UNCG's fall 2009 resident headcount enrollment was 17,535 including 14,311undergraduates and 3,224 graduate students—with 1,060 full- and part-time instructional faculty. UNCG offers more than 100 undergraduate areas of study, master's degrees in a wide variety of concentrations, and 25 doctoral programs. The campus on Spring Garden Street, its original location, has grown to 204 acres and 81 buildings. The Gateway University Research Park extends the campus to 357 acres.