Chronology

UNC School of Social Work launches its Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative

Josh Hinson launched the initiative at the UNC School of Social Work in 2013 to support resettled refugees, connecting refugee communities to interpreters, mental health screening and treatment.

William J. Barber II speaks at a rally at Silent Sam on its 100th anniversary

On the Confederate monument's 100th anniversary, William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, spoke at a rally at its foot organized by the Real Silent Sam Committee, saying the statue had never been silent.

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)

The Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy begins

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation funded a five-year chair at UNC honoring Lambeth's retirement, and three professors were named to it from July 1, 2013.

Dean Smith is named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

President Obama named Smith among sixteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing his 36 seasons as UNC's head basketball coach (1961-1997), two national championships, a 96 percent graduation rate among his players and his civil rights advocacy.

Carol Folt is installed as chancellor at Chapel Hill

Folt was installed as the eleventh chancellor of the university on University Day in Polk Place, the first woman to hold the post. Chief Justice Sarah Parker administered the oath, and system president Tom Ross presided and presented the chancellor's medallion.

Eric Van Loon presents his Carolina Story to the alumni association board

The General Alumni Association published Van Loon’s My Carolina Story, given as a member of its board of directors. In it he recounts chairing the Carolina Political Union and signing the Speaker Ban lawsuit as one of a dozen students who were plaintiffs.

Willie Scroggs retires as a senior associate athletic director at UNC

Scroggs retired at the end of June 2014 after decades overseeing athletics facilities at Carolina, including work at Carmichael Arena, Boshamer Stadium, Kenan Stadium, Woollen Gym and the Eddie Smith Field House.

Anne Firor Scott is awarded the 2013 National Humanities Medal

Scott, a Duke University historian, received the 2013 National Humanities Medal for pioneering the study of southern women. The citation credits her research with establishing women's history as vital to understanding the American South.

Frederick Brooks retires after 51 years at UNC

Brooks, who had supervised more than 40 doctoral students and taught into his 80s, retired from the computer science department after 51 years at the university.

UNC Refugee Wellness begins providing mental health care under a state refugee contract

In 2015 the UNC School of Social Work's Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative began contracting with the Refugee Office of the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide mental health services directly to refugees in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

About 2,000 people hold a vigil in UNC's Pit for Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha

The day after the three were killed, an estimated 2,000 people gathered at the Pit on the UNC campus. Speakers included Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke, Deah's brother Farris Barakat, Chancellors Carol L. Folt and Randy Woodson, and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.

People: Razan Abu-Salha · Yusor Abu-Salha · Deah Barakat · Carol L. Folt · Mark Kleinschmidt

The Chapel Hill Historic District grows, but the university asks to stay out

When the committee reviewed the boundary increase and added documentation for the Chapel Hill Historic District on February 12, 2015, a member asked why the campus portion was not enlarged. Staff explained that UNC's administration had specifically asked not to be included. The committee approved the nomination with eight others.

Subject: Chapel Hill Historic District

UNC, Self-Help, the Jackson Center and the town launch the Northside neighborhood initiative

UNC-Chapel Hill committed a $3 million, 10-year, no-interest loan to Self-Help to buy Northside homes as they came on the market and hold them in a land bank for affordable resale or rental. The Jackson Center and the Town of Chapel Hill were partners.

People: Mark Kleinschmidt · Carol L. Folt

Subject: Marian Cheek Jackson Center

UNC and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina set up the Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha Memorial Award

The university and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina established a memorial award in the names of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha, to be presented for the first time in the 2015-16 academic year.

People: Yusor Abu-Salha · Deah Barakat · Carol L. Folt

UNC dental students hold the first DEAH DAY of service

More than 350 students of the UNC School of Dentistry gave nearly 1,200 hours to 22 local organizations, from Habitat for Humanity in Efland to Table in Carrboro, in memory of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha. DEAH DAY stands for Directing Efforts And Honoring Deah And Yusor, and the school was still holding it in 2024.

People: Deah Barakat · Yusor Abu-Salha

Aziz Sancar wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Sancar, Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. The academy listed Sancar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Smithies and Sancar give replica Nobel medals to UNC

At a Davis Library gathering, Oliver Smithies and Aziz Sancar presented gold-plated bronze replicas of their Nobel Prize medals to the university. Chancellor Carol Folt recounted that Sancar had led the search committee that brought Nobuyo Maeda and Smithies to UNC.

People: Oliver Smithies · Carol L. Folt

Subject: UNC Libraries

UNC names scholarships for its first Black undergraduates and other "firsts"

At University Day, UNC named existing grants and fellowships for 21 people who were firsts in its history, among them John L. Brandon, Ralph K. Frasier and LeRoy B. Frasier Jr., its first Black undergraduates.

People: John Lewis Brandon · Ralph Frasier · Carol L. Folt

UNC puts Oliver Smithies's research notebooks online

UNC released digitized copies of the research notebooks Smithies had kept since his graduate student days, while he was still working in his lab at 91.

William J. Barber II gives the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship

William J. Barber II delivered UNC's 2017 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship in Moeser Auditorium, Hill Hall, speaking on the morality of citizenship.

Subject: Hill Hall

Michael Jordan expands the Jordan Brand partnership with UNC athletics

Jordan announced an expansion of his Jordan Brand partnership with North Carolina Tar Heels athletics in March 2017, saying that it is always great to come home.

UNC's Noteworthy Firsts program honors Karen Parker

At a reception in Kenan Stadium, UNC honored Parker among 21 people whose names were given to need-based undergraduate awards and graduate fellowships in its Noteworthy Firsts initiative, begun by Chancellor Carol Folt in 2016.

People: Carol L. Folt

Subject: Kenan Stadium

John Blackfeather Jeffries gives his Occaneechi collection to UNC's Southern Historical Collection

Jeffries gave the Wilson Library about 5,000 items, including photographs of Occaneechi powwows and of the replica village's construction in Hillsborough, recordings of Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo songs, and the band's petition for state acknowledgment of tribal status.

Subject: UNC Libraries

University Archives publishes the names of 119 enslaved people who built and worked at the university

Drawing on research by archivists, historians and students in Jim Leloudis's fall 2017 History 398 class, the archives listed 119 enslaved people who built and labored at the university from 1795 to 1865, including November Caldwell and David Barham.

The Smith Center floor is dedicated as Roy Williams Court

UNC announced on August 2, 2018 that it would name the Dean E. Smith Center playing floor for Williams, and the floor was dedicated on August 24.

People: Carol L. Folt

The UNC Board of Governors gives Chapel Hill until November 15 to propose a 'lawful and lasting' plan for the monument

Eight days after the toppling, the Board of Governors met for nearly two hours in closed session and adopted a resolution directing Chancellor Folt and the trustees to present by November 15 a plan offering 'a lawful and lasting path that protects public safety, preserves the monument and its history'. Thom Goolsby cast the lone no vote, and the board ordered an outside review of the University's handling of the August 20 protest. The trustees met the same day.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)

Ground is broken for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center

Aziz and Gwen Sancar broke ground at 1609 East Franklin Street on a 1.7-acre center with a 9,700-square-foot community hall and a two-story guesthouse for Turkish students and scholars.

UNC names its new field hockey stadium for Karen Shelton

The university announced that its field hockey facility would be called Karen Shelton Stadium, the first UNC playing field named in honor of a woman. The team had moved in at the start of preseason that August, and the stadium holds about 1,000 spectators.

People: Carol L. Folt

William J. Barber II is named a MacArthur Fellow

The MacArthur Foundation named William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.

UNC moves Kenan Stadium's honor from William R. Kenan Sr. to his son

Chancellor Carol Folt announced that, after talking with the family, the university would change the stadium plaques to remove the honor to William R. Kenan Sr., who led a white supremacist unit in the 1898 Wilmington massacre, and focus instead on the donor, William R. Kenan Jr.

People: Carol L. Folt

Subject: Kenan Stadium

UNC trustees vote to house the monument in a new $5.3 million University History and Education Center

At a special meeting the Board of Trustees approved a four-part plan for the Board of Governors: relocate the statue and tablets into a new free-standing building at the former Odum Village site on south campus, add a McCorkle Place gateway with plaques, and continue contextualizing campus history. The center was priced at $5.3 million with $800,000 a year to operate; Folt said police advised that the statue could not safely return to McCorkle Place.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

The Board of Governors rejects the history center and appoints a task force with a March 15 deadline

After a nearly three-hour closed session the Board of Governors declined the trustees' $5.3 million history center, citing cost and public safety, and named five of its members to work with Folt and the trustees on a new proposal by March 15, 2019. Folt said the plan 'hasn't satisfied anyone' and that the campus would now look at off-campus options.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

People: Margaret Spellings

Folt orders the Silent Sam pedestal removed and announces she will step down

Folt ordered the removal on the Monday and announced in a campuswide email that she would resign, saying the remaining parts of the monument threatened the safety of the community. The university said at 1 a.m. on Tuesday that removal had begun, and by 2:40 a.m. a crew had taken the last of the base from the quad.

Part of Toppling of Silent Sam, 2018

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

UNC dedicates Dorrance Field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium

The university dedicated the field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium to Dorrance before the women's game against Notre Dame, in his 43rd year of coaching at Carolina.

The UNC System gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans with a $2.5 million trust in a same-day consent judgment

The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System and Board of Governors over the monument and a consent judgment was entered the same day in Orange County Superior Court. The System handed over the statue, to be kept outside the fourteen counties with a System campus, and endowed a $2.5 million charitable trust from non-state funds for its care and display. Board chair Randy Ramsey said the deal let the University 'move forward'.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)

Kevin M. Guskiewicz is named UNC-Chapel Hill's twelfth chancellor

The UNC System Board of Governors voted to make Guskiewicz chancellor, effective that day. He had been interim chancellor since February 6, 2019, was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from January 2016 and had taught at Chapel Hill since 1995. He marked the start with a $5 million investment for the university to study its past.

Renaming of Hamilton Hall is recommended

After a reevaluation of Hamilton's career, the building housing UNC's History Department was recommended for a name change. Critics pointed to his white supremacist Reconstruction scholarship and to a manuscript collection gathered from white families.

Tressie McMillan Cottom joins the faculty of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science

Sociologist and author Tressie McMillan Cottom joined the UNC School of Information and Library Science as an associate professor and became a senior faculty researcher in the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.

Judge Allen Baddour voids the Silent Sam settlement in Hillsborough for lack of standing

At a hearing in Hillsborough, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had no standing to bring the suit and set aside the consent judgment and the $2.5 million trust. Five UNC students and a faculty member represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had sought to intervene; their motion was denied but the judge took up the standing question they raised.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)

David Zucchino discusses Wilmington's Lie in UNC's Nelson Benton Lecture

David Zucchino, a UNC journalism alumnus and former lecturer at the school, spoke about his book Wilmington's Lie, on the 1898 Wilmington coup, in the Carroll Hall auditorium.

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz formally charges the Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward

The commission, formed in 2019 and co-chaired by Jim Leloudis and Patricia Parker, was charged with researching the university's history with race and recommending how to reckon with it.

People: Kevin M. Guskiewicz

Exhibit honoring housekeeping and facilities staff opens in the renovated Cheek-Clark Building

A lobby exhibit in the renovated Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark Building presents the lives of Cheek, Clark and groundskeeper William Hubbard with a timeline of the university's housekeeping and facilities work.

People: Rebecca Clark · Kennon Cheek

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools launches Food for Students meal distribution

CHCCS, the Town of Chapel Hill, PORCH and volunteers began handing out free meals to students as schools closed, starting from about 20 sites. By December 21, 2020 the program had distributed more than 900,000 meals from 37 sites.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declare a COVID-19 state of emergency

Orange County government and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency to prepare for COVID-19, allowing emergency procedures and funding. The county declaration, extended more than a dozen times, stayed in force until May 1, 2022.

People: Penny Rich · Lydia Lavelle

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools close under a statewide order

Governor Roy Cooper closed all North Carolina public schools for at least two weeks from Monday, March 16, 2020, shutting both Orange County districts. CHCCS then began online classes for grades 6-12 and sent learning packets home for grades K-5 at the end of March while serving meals to students.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelf

With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Orange County Health Department identifies the county's first COVID-19 cases

The health department announced that Orange County residents had tested positive for COVID-19 at the State Laboratory of Public Health and were isolating at home. Health Director Quintana Stewart said the response was shifting from containment to mitigation.

People: Penny Rich · Quintana Stewart

Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home order

Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.

People: Penny Rich · Quintana Stewart

Governor Cooper's statewide stay-at-home order takes effect

Executive Order 121, signed March 27, 2020, took effect at 5 p.m. on March 30 and ordered North Carolinians to stay home except for essential work and activities, capping gatherings at 10 people. Orange County's joint order had begun three days earlier.

Mutual Aid Carrboro opens a COVID-19 solidarity fund for workers

Mutual Aid Carrboro partnered with NC Piedmont DSA to raise money for workers sent home without pay, running a solidarity fund for emergencies such as evictions and utility shutoffs. Applications were offered in Spanish, English and Chinese, with interpreter lines for Karen, Burmese and Kinyarwanda speakers.

Orange County reports its first COVID-19 death

The health department reported that a resident in their 70s under hospice care at PruittHealth-Carolina Point, one of two long-term care facilities with outbreaks, had died of COVID-19 complications. The county then had 104 confirmed cases, and PruittHealth had at least 86 positive cases among residents and staff.

People: Quintana Stewart

Orange County and the towns launch a Housing Helpline for emergency rental aid

Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough opened a Housing Helpline in April 2020 to connect residents with emergency rent, utility and deposit assistance. The county's Emergency Housing Assistance program paid out $2.5 million to 1,005 residents in 2020, and an Eviction Diversion Program followed in July 2020.

Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 households

PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.

Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library

Orange County requires face coverings

Orange County and its towns extended the local state of emergency through August 31, 2020 and required face coverings from 5 p.m. on June 12 when people could not keep six feet apart.

Orange County Schools votes to open the school year online

The Orange County Schools board voted unanimously to begin the 2020-21 year with remote-only classes for at least the first four weeks, on the recommendation of Superintendent Monique Felder.

UNC trustees vote to remove Josephus Daniels’s name from the student stores building

On July 29, 2020 the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted 11 to 2 to remove four names from campus buildings, among them Josephus Daniels. The Daniels Building became UNC Student Stores, and the names of Charles Brantley Aycock, Julian Shakespeare Carr and Thomas Ruffin Sr. were removed at the same meeting.

People: Thomas Ruffin · Julian S. Carr · Charles B. Aycock

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools extends online-only classes into

The CHCCS board unanimously accepted interim Superintendent Jim Causby's recommendation to keep classes virtual through at least January 15, 2021. On December 18, 2020 the board kept remote learning in place through at least February.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Mike Fox retires as UNC head baseball coach

Fox retired after 22 seasons leading the Tar Heels, with a 948-406-1 record at UNC and seven College World Series trips. His longtime assistant Scott Forbes was named the program's 25th head coach.

Tressie McMillan Cottom wins a MacArthur Fellowship

The MacArthur Foundation named McMillan Cottom a 2020 fellow for her work as a sociologist, writer and public scholar on race, gender, education and digital technology, including her books Lower Ed and Thick. She was an associate professor at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

UNC School of Law dedicates a portrait of Charles E. Daye

The law school held a virtual dedication for a commissioned portrait of Professor Emeritus Charles E. Daye by the Durham artist William Paul Thomas, attended by close to 300 people. The portrait hangs on the fifth floor of Van Hecke-Wettach Hall.

Subject: UNC School of Law

African, African American, and Diaspora Studies faculty ask the university to take Battle's name off Battle Hall

Faculty of the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, whose offices are in Battle Hall, petitioned to remove Kemp Plummer Battle's name, citing his enslaving of people, his support for secession and his promotion of white supremacy. The university's Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward endorsed the request.

Family and community march to remember James Cates on the 50th anniversary

A candlelit march went from Hargraves Community Center to St. Joseph CME Church and down Franklin Street to Peace and Justice Plaza, where the Town of Chapel Hill invited residents to leave flowers and messages for the Cates family. Mayor Pam Hemminger pledged to work with the family and UNC to investigate the killing.

People: Danita Mason-Hogans

Subject: Hargraves Community Center

James Cates Remembrance Coalition proposes naming Student Stores for Cates

A coalition of Cates's family, historian Danita Mason-Hogans and community members proposed renaming UNC's Student Stores building in his honor. The building had not been renamed as of 2024.

People: Nate Davis · Valerie Foushee · Danita Mason-Hogans

UNC-Chapel Hill awards William E. Leuchtenburg an honorary degree

UNC-Chapel Hill conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters on Leuchtenburg, its Kenan professor emeritus of history, in 2021.

UNC Health opens a large vaccination clinic at the Friday Center

UNC Health opened its largest appointment-only COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, starting with people 75 and older. Staff expected about 600 patients a day in the first week and up to 1,500 a day at full capacity.

Orange County Schools students return to classrooms

Kindergarten and first-grade students returned for hybrid in-person classes on January 25, 2021. Students in grades 2-12 followed in two rotating cohorts on March 8 and March 15, a month earlier than planned, after Senate Bill 37 required districts to offer in-person instruction.

Health department vaccinates its first recipients at drive-through clinics

By early January 2021 the Orange County Health Department had vaccinated about 1,000 Phase 1a personnel at drive-through clinics in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill and opened sign-ups for residents 75 and older, more than 4,200 of whom registered.

People: Quintana Stewart

Orange County Health Department launches a health equity website

The health department launched a health equity webpage to stay accountable to residents on racial equity, citing the county commissioners' June 16, 2020 declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis.

Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reported

Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove.

Subject: Hargraves Community Center

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students return for hybrid classes

The CHCCS board voted unanimously on March 4, 2021 to begin hybrid in-person instruction on March 22, nearly a month before the April 19 start it had approved in February. Students attended in cohorts two days a week, and roughly half could remain fully remote.

People: Joal Hall Broun

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Roy Williams announces his retirement at the Smith Center

Williams, 70, announced his retirement at a Smith Center news conference after 33 seasons as a college head coach, with 903 wins and three NCAA titles at UNC.

Pop-up vaccine clinic held at the Rogers Road Community Center

The Orange County Health Department held a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Rogers Road Community Center for Hispanic and Asian American residents, many of whom do not speak English, after local volunteers asked for one and printed flyers in several languages.

Subject: Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association

Jenny Levy is elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame

UNC announced that Levy had been chosen for the 2021 class of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in her 26th season at Carolina, with a record of 373 wins and 117 losses and two NCAA titles at that point.

David Zucchino wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

UNC alumnus David Zucchino won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. It was his second Pulitzer.

Orange County Public Library reopens its Main Library building

After more than a year of closure and appointment-only curbside pickup, the Main Library reopened with distancing measures under the county's plan to reopen facilities through July 2021. In Carrboro the branch at McDougle School closed on June 13 and the Cybrary opened for browsing on August 6.

Subject: Orange County Public Library · McDougle School

Orange County reinstates an indoor mask mandate

As the delta variant spread, Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough required masks inside buildings and businesses from 5 p.m. on August 11, 2021.

People: Lydia Lavelle · Quintana Stewart

The history and race commission holds a public webinar on the Unsung Founders Memorial

The Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward opened a two-part webinar series, Unsung Founders Memorial: Past and Present, with members of the Class of 2002 committee and statements from artist Do Ho Suh.

People: Do-Ho Suh

Chapel Hill Public Library webinar marks the 51st anniversary of the Cates killing

The Chapel Hill Public Library hosted a webinar in which family and friends, including state Senator Valerie Foushee, a first cousin of Cates, reflected on his life and on the failures that followed his death.

People: Valerie Foushee

Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library

UNC renames Aycock Residence Hall for Hortense McClinton

On the chancellor's recommendation the trustees voted to put McClinton's name on the residence hall that had carried Governor Charles B. Aycock's name until it was removed in July 2020. The Carr Building became the Henry Owl Building the same day.

People: Kevin M. Guskiewicz · Charles B. Aycock

Subject: Carr Building (Henry Owl Building)

UNC names its athletics media center for Woody Durham

UNC Athletics and the Rams Club named the media and communications center beside the Dean E. Smith Center the Woody Durham Media and Communications Center, with trustee approval, and recognized his family at halftime of the February 16 men's basketball game against Pittsburgh.

Walter R. Mears dies in Chapel Hill

Walter R. Mears, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press political reporter, died at his Chapel Hill apartment on March 3, 2022. He had made his home in Chapel Hill after retiring in 2001 and had taught journalism at UNC for a time. A memorial service was held in Chapel Hill on March 24.

Orange County lifts its indoor mask mandate

Orange County and its three towns ended the indoor mask requirement on March 7, 2022. UNC-Chapel Hill lifted its campus mandate the same day, and Orange County Schools planned to make masks optional on March 10.

People: Quintana Stewart

Justice Department opens a cold-case investigation into the Cates killing

The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the killing under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and its cold-case initiative for racially motivated killings before 1980. Cates's cousins Nate Davis and Valerie Foushee welcomed the review.

People: Nate Davis · Valerie Foushee

Danita Mason-Hogans receives a national fellowship for a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and UNC

The Oral History Association named her one of eleven year-long fellows funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Her project is a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina.

Orange County's COVID-19 state of emergency expires

The county's COVID-19 emergency declaration, in force since March 13, 2020 and extended more than a dozen times, expired at 5 p.m. on May 1, 2022, making it the longest-running state of emergency in county history.

People: Quintana Stewart

Hortense McClinton Residence Hall is dedicated

UNC dedicated Hortense McClinton Residence Hall and the Henry Owl Building in a ceremony, and the School of Social Work held a dinner for McClinton, then 103, that launched a legacy scholarship in her name.

Subject: Carr Building (Henry Owl Building)

UNC announces a permanent memorial to James Cates in the Pit

Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz announced that a permanent memorial to Cates would be installed in the Pit later in 2022, developed with students, faculty, staff and the Cates family, approved by the Board of Trustees and supported by the Town of Chapel Hill.

People: Kevin M. Guskiewicz

UNC dedicates the James L. Cates Jr. Memorial in the Pit

On the 52nd anniversary of his death, UNC dedicated a black lectern-style marker near the spot where Cates was stabbed, with an inscription from the University and the Town of Chapel Hill. Speakers included Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Congresswoman-elect Valerie Foushee for the family, student body president Taliajah Vann and BSM president Julia Clark.

People: Valerie Foushee · Kevin M. Guskiewicz

Karen Shelton announces her retirement as UNC field hockey coach

Shelton retired after 42 seasons with a record of 745 wins, 172 losses and 9 ties and 10 NCAA championships, the last won by an unbeaten 2022 team. She is the winningest coach in the sport's history.

Daniel Wallace gives UNC's Winter Commencement address

Novelist and English professor Daniel Wallace was the speaker at UNC's Winter Commencement in the Dean E. Smith Center.

UNC raises housekeepers' pay by 90 cents an hour

Guskiewicz told the campus by email that housekeeping salaries would rise, with the amount set by position and experience and back pay to November 21, 2022. Housekeepers, who had asked for $20 an hour and an end to parking fees, called the raise a slap in the face and rallied outside South Building in February 2023.

Subject: South Building

David Zucchino teaches International Reporting at UNC as an adjunct instructor

Two-time Pulitzer winner David Zucchino returned to UNC as an adjunct instructor to teach a course in international reporting, run as a working newsroom.

Erin Matson succeeds Karen Shelton as UNC field hockey coach

UNC named Matson, who had graduated a month earlier after playing on four championship teams, the fifth head coach in program history and only the second since the early 1980s.

People: Erin Matson

Jenny Levy wins her 400th game at Dorrance Field

UNC beat Boston College 16 to 5 at Dorrance Field for Levy's 400th career victory, all of them at Carolina, in her 28th season. She was the sixth head coach in any division of the sport to reach 400 wins.

UNC awards Alexander Julian an honorary Doctor of Arts

At Spring Commencement, UNC-Chapel Hill gave Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native who entered with the Class of 1969 and designed the argyle basketball uniforms, an honorary Doctor of Arts, one of six honorary degrees that year.

UNC's Faculty Council adopts a resolution in memory of Zijie Yan

At its first meeting of the year the Faculty Council held a moment of silence for Zijie Yan and adopted Resolution 2023-5 in his memory by unanimous consent, after it was read aloud in English and in Mandarin. The resolution was sent to his family.

UNC Libraries endows the Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Fellowship

An endowment from John Powell created a UNC University Libraries fellowship in Hall's name for graduate students researching the American South, with preference for projects using oral history sources.

Subject: UNC Libraries

Guskiewicz leaves the Chapel Hill chancellorship

He announced on December 8, 2023 that he would step down after nearly five years leading the campus, and January 12, 2024 was his last day. He became president of Michigan State University on March 4, 2024.

The Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill is listed in the National Register

On February 7, 2024 the National Park Service listed the Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenway

The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal.

A $10 million gift creates the O.B. Hardison Scholarship at UNC

Stephen Israel, a 1966 graduate whose life was changed by Hardison's courses, gave $10 million for undergraduate humanities scholarships named for his former professor.

Interlibrary loan returns through UNC-Chapel Hill

Working with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Orange County Public Library restored interlibrary loan during the 2024–25 fiscal year at no cost to patrons. The county had charged $1 plus library costs, raised the fee to $3 in October 2013 and cut it from $4 back to $3 in 2018 before the service lapsed.

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Anson Dorrance announces his retirement as UNC women's soccer coach

Dorrance told his team he was retiring after 45 seasons with the women's program, days before the season opener; associate head coach Damon Nahas became interim head coach. His women's teams went 934-88-53 and won 21 NCAA titles.

Part of UNC women’s soccer national dynasty · 26 events

Student groups hold a memorial for James Cates in the Pit

The Southern Student Action Coalition, the Black Student Movement, the Community Justice, Abolition and Anti-Racism Collective and the UNC NAACP held a memorial at the Pit, where speakers criticized the wording and placement of the 2022 plaque.

People: Danita Mason-Hogans

Kathleen DuVal wins the Bancroft Prize

UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the Bancroft Prize for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America. She was the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor in UNC's history department.

William J. Barber II gives the Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture at UNC

William J. Barber II spoke on poverty and inequality at the UNC School of Social Work's Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building to nearly 300 people, with about 750 more online.

Chuck Stone receives a posthumous Pulitzer Prize special citation

The Pulitzer Prize Board gave Stone, the former Walter Spearman Professor of journalism at UNC, a special citation for his civil rights reporting, his work as the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News and his part in founding the National Association of Black Journalists.

Kathleen DuVal wins the Pulitzer Prize for History

UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, a history of Native American nations over a thousand years. She taught early American and American Indian history at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mia Hamm gives UNC's spring Commencement address in Kenan Stadium

Former Tar Heel soccer player Mia Hamm, class of 1994, delivered the 2025 Commencement address to 6,829 graduates in Kenan Stadium.

Subject: Kenan Stadium

A memorial garden and bench for Zijie Yan are dedicated at Caudill Labs

Two years after his death, UNC dedicated a memorial site in the Caudill Labs courtyard with a garden, a bench made from a 250-year-old campus post oak, and a plaque in English and Mandarin. His doctoral adviser Doug Chrisey gave the first memorial lecture in his honor the same afternoon.

State law removes Chapel Hill's zoning control over UNC projects

The Regulatory Reform Act of 2025 became law without the governor's signature, making UNC System projects in Orange County subject only to state rules and leaving the town a consultation role on utilities, stormwater, traffic and similar matters.

Students and residents mark 55 years since the killing of James Cates

The Carolina NAACP chapter and the Black Student Movement held a remembrance for Cates on campus, and student leaders again called the 2022 plaque's passive wording inadequate.

UNC announces a campus extension at Carolina North

The university announced plans for a mixed-use extension on about 230 acres around the former Horace Williams Airport, with student and workforce housing, research space and retail, calling it the largest expansion since 1793; groundbreaking is expected in summer 2027.

Subject: Horace Williams Airport

UNC says a new residence hall will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson

UNC-Chapel Hill announced that one of two new residence halls, to be built on the site of the former Jackson Hall that housed undergraduate admissions, will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson. The two halls will add about 730 beds.

People: Blyden Jackson