Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s 75th governor, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s University Day on Oct. 12. The celebration marks Carolina’s 224th birthday and will be held at 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall.
University Day, which the campus first celebrated in 1877, marks the 1793 laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation’s first state university building, and the beginning of public higher education in the United States. Classes will be cancelled from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and all members of the Carolina community are invited to attend the festivities, which will include a traditional processional starting at the Old Well and moving into Memorial Hall for Cooper’s address.
“We are excited to have Gov. Cooper, a double Tar Heel, deliver the keynote address at the celebration of the 224th birthday of the nation’s first public university,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “University Day is when we celebrate our past while thinking about aspirations for Carolina’s future. It is particularly appropriate to have the governor, the son of a school teacher who knows the importance of a strong education, join us as we recognize the service of those who continue to advance the work of this great public university for the betterment of the people of North Carolina.”
Previous celebrations have featured speeches from distinguished members of the faculty and honored visitors. President John F. Kennedy spoke in 1961, as did Bill Clinton in 1993. North Carolina governors have made University Day a traditional stop during their first term of office – including Luther Hodges, Jim Hunt, Terry Sanford, Jim Martin, Mike Easley, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory.
Other University Day convocation highlights will include the presentation of Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, a practice begun by the faculty in 1971 to recognize Tar Heels who have made outstanding contributions to humanity.
This year’s recipients are:
- Amy Lansky, senior adviser for strategy in the Program Performance and Evaluation Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
- Berrien Moore III, who once served as the Chair of the Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee for NASA;
- Judith Phillips Stanton, who compiled and edited The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith (2004) and also taught at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Clemson University;
- Mike Wiley, whose plays have been seen in settings ranging from The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., to the official finale of the Freedom Riders 50th Reunion in Jackson, Mississippi; and
- Richard Stevens, an attorney with the Smith Anderson Law Firm in Raleigh.
For more information about University Day and the honorees, please visit the University Day website.
