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 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, diverse in origin and purpose. Five were historically
black institutions, and another was founded to educate Native Americans.
Several were created to prepare teachers for the public schools. Others
had a technological emphasis. One is a training school for performing
artists. The institution that became UNCG was chartered in 1891.
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 multicampus 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 ten 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; and in 1996, Pembroke
State University was renamed The University of North Carolina at Pembroke
through Legislative action.)
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 nonvoting 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 N.C. 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.
