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Local figure

Katherine Kennedy Carmichael

Carmichael was an English professor and the University of North Carolina's first dean of women at Chapel Hill, serving from 1946 to 1972 as the number of women students grew. The university named Carmichael Residence Hall, completed in 1986, for her.

Source: Carolina Story: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) and Carmichael Residence Hall

1912–1982 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 works about Katherine Kennedy Carmichael are indexed here, as is one work by Carmichael.

Search these 5 works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Katherine Carmichael, Yackety Yack, 1950
Katherine Carmichael, Yackety Yack, 1950

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineRoom for students: UNC's dormitory shortage and the new residence hall, 1965–19891965–1989 · 29 events · UNC sought money for residence halls in 1965 and in 1973 tripled hundreds of rooms. From 1980 the yearly lottery closed out more than a thousand students at a time, and the trustees put off student apartments on the Couch property. In 1981 they put a 500-bed hall in the budget, and after rent rises and protests over crowded rooms work began in 1983 on a hall on Stadium Drive beside Teague. A 486-bed hall completed in 1986 was dedicated in 1987 as Carmichael Residence Hall. Construction delays kept the hall from opening in 1985, when a record 300 freshmen were tripled. In 1989, over student leaders' objections, UNC exempted rising sophomores who kept their rooms from the housing lottery. StorylineWomen’s hours, visitation and coed housing at UNC, 1965–19741965–1974 · 31 events · Between 1965 and 1969 UNC's women students, and the men in the residence halls, pressed against the University's rules on closing hours and visits. Nursing students staged a lie-in in 1965, and in 1967 senior and older women won the right to live off campus. In January 1968 about 500 women marched to the Women's Residence Council over closing hours; Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson at first rejected self-limiting hours, but in November junior and senior women won them with their parents' consent. After a petition with 3,904 names and marches to Lenoir Hall and the chancellor's house, Sitterson allowed experimental open houses in December 1968, though President William Friday kept the open-door rule in 1969. From 1970 self-limiting hours reached all women students, Morrison became a permanent coed hall, and students pressed for each hall to set its own visitation, which the University turned down in 1971. Coed housing spread through 1973, but in 1974 the dean of student affairs ended room-by-room coed living in Winston, and the trustees upheld him.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Katherine Kennedy Carmichael succeeds Inez Koonce Stacy as dean of women Carmichael, who held a Vanderbilt doctorate in British literature, became dean of women at Chapel Hill in 1946, succeeding Inez Koonce Stacy, adviser to women from 1919 and dean of women from 1942. She also taught an introductory literature course for the English department. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Inez Koonce StacySearch the index · Carolina Story: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) and Carmichael Residence Hall · Also: UNC Libraries: Office of the Dean of Women Records, 1897-1981, finding aid
  2. The Women's Council refuses to enforce the apartment rule and Dean Carmichael vetoes it The student council said it would no longer enforce the rule barring a woman from a man's apartment unless another couple was there. Dean of Women Katherine Carmichael overruled it, and after a mediation committee the next handbook made the rule optional for upperclass women. Place: Women's Council, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Katherine CarmichaelSearch the index · Pamela Dean, Women on the Hill: A History of Women at the University of North Carolina (1987), scan p. 24
  3. UNC lets senior and older women students live off campus Dean of Women Katherine Kennedy Carmichael told the Women's Residence Council that from the spring 1968 semester undergraduate women over 21, and seniors under 21 with parental permission, could live off campus; until then unmarried undergraduate women under 23 had to live in University housing unless their parents lived in Chapel Hill Township. The change, endorsed by Dean C. O. Cathey and Chancellor Sitterson, followed a May referendum in which 1,469 women students voted. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: C. O. CatheySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 28, 1967, p. 1
  4. UNC extends self-limiting hours to sophomore women With the chancellor's approval, two new women's rules took effect: sophomore women gained the self-limiting hours that juniors and seniors had held for about a year, and the grade-point requirement for them was dropped. A third change sought by the Association of Women Students, letting freshmen have the privilege with a parent's permission, still awaited approval. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael Place: UNC women's residence halls, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 20, 1970, p. 6
  5. UNC abolishes the office of dean of women The university ended the dean of women's office in summer 1972, after twenty-six years under Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, when new Dean of Student Affairs Donald Boulton reorganized the Division of Student Affairs and also ended the office of dean of men. She stayed on as associate dean of students for supportive services. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Donald BoultonSearch the index · UNC English and Comparative Literature: 1946 - Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) Becomes Dean of Women · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, August 29, 1972, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, June 29, 1972, p. 1
  6. UNC gives all women students 18 and over self-limiting hours Under rules for 1972-73 drawn up by the Women's Forum, every woman student 18 or older living in University housing, Granville Towers or a sorority house had self-limiting hours and voluntary sign-out for the first time, beginning with fall orientation; younger women needed a parent's permission. Closing hours stayed at 1 a.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael Place: UNC women's residence halls, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Granville TowersThe Daily Tar Heel, August 29, 1972, p. 3
  7. Women students honor Dean Katherine Kennedy Carmichael on the anniversary of UNC's first woman graduate The Association of Women Students honored Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, dean of women for 27 years, at a reception in the Morehead Planetarium faculty lounge marking the 75th anniversary of the first woman's graduation from UNC in 1898. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael Place: Morehead Planetarium, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 23, 1973, p. 2
  8. Katherine Kennedy Carmichael retires from the university Carmichael retired in 1977, thirty-one years after she became dean of women. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC English and Comparative Literature: 1946 - Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) Becomes Dean of Women
  9. The Order of the Valkyries creates a teaching award for women faculty The Order of the Valkyries established the Katherine Kennedy Carmichael award to honor excellent teaching by women on the UNC faculty, named for the former English professor who was dean of women from 1946 to 1972. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 22, 1980, p. 4
  10. UNC trustees name the new Stadium Drive dormitory for Katherine Kennedy Carmichael The Board of Trustees voted to name the new six-story coed residence hall on Stadium Drive for Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, dean of women from 1946 to 1972, who died in 1982. The paper said the 497-bed hall would be the University's first air-conditioned dormitory; wet weather and construction delays later kept it from opening that fall. People: Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, Christopher C. Fordham III Place: Carmichael Residence Hall, Stadium Drive, University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Stadium DriveSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, August 1, 1985, p. 3
  11. Carmichael Residence Hall is dedicated The university dedicated a new six-storey residence hall for 486 students, completed in 1986 and named for Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, at the close of a three-day celebration of women at the university. Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · Names in Brick and Stone: Carmichael Residence Hall · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 6, 1987, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 9, 1987, p. 3

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Katherine Kennedy Carmichael. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Katherine Kennedy Carmichael

An informal history of the women's rules at the University of North Carolina, 1967-1972 : with prefatory remarks

Carmichael, Katherine Kennedy, 1912-1982 · 1977

A typescript address by Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) titled 'An informal history of the women's rules at the University of North Carolina, 1967-1972', fourteen unnumbered leaves in photocopy, in UNC's North Carolina Collection. The note says she gave it at the Guion Griffis Johnson House on the occasion of receiving the North Carolina Distinguished Service Award for Women. Topics include women students at Chapel Hill and university addresses.

UNC

About Katherine Kennedy Carmichael

Oral history interview with Margaret Anne O'Connor, July 1, 1987: interview L-0031, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

O'Connor, Margaret Anne · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Margaret Anne O'Connor, a professor of English at UNC, talks with Pamela Dean in July 1987 about her early years of teaching in Chapel Hill and how they drew her toward women's literature and feminism. She credits Katherine Carmichael and her own students with pushing for the first changes for women on campus, and she discusses the growth of the Women's Studies Program and its curriculum. About an hour and forty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Cardinal UNC

Karen L. Parker diary, letter, and clippings, 1963-1966.

Parker, Karen L. · 1963

Four items from Karen L. Parker, dated 1963 to 1966: a diary, a letter and newspaper clippings, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5275-z. Parker was an African American woman student at the university, and subjects include civil rights demonstrations in Chapel Hill, segregation in higher education and the Congress of Racial Equality.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carmichael, Katherine Kennedy, 1912-1982.

UNC

Selection Committee for the North Carolina Distinguished Service Award for Women records, 1953-1995.

Selection Committee for the North Carolina Distinguished Service Award for Women (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 1953

Committee records documenting the North Carolina Distinguished Service Award for Women, 1953 to 1995, approximately 600 items in 1.5 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40192. The selection committee was based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Subjects include Katherine Kennedy Carmichael and Douglass Hunt, the Epsilon Beta chapter of Chi Omega, and Greek letter societies in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carmichael, Katherine Kennedy, 1912-1982.

UNC

Francis Lavergne Johnson photographic collection, 1948-1971.

Johnson, Francis Lavergne, 1901-1971 · 1948

About 1,860 photographs made by Francis Lavergne Johnson (1901-1971) between 1948 and 1971, 1.8 linear feet in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Johnson photographed university faculty and employees, and subjects include William Aycock, Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, Albert Coates, Paul Green, Charlie Justice, Josephina Niggli and Louis Round Wilson among those who worked at Chapel Hill in those years.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carmichael, Katherine Kennedy, 1912-1982.

UNC

Records of the Office of the Dean of Women, 1897-1981.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Office of the Dean of Women · 1897

Dean of Women files at Chapel Hill covering 1897 to 1981, about 6,900 items in 9 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40125. Student regulations, discipline, student activities and student housing in Chapel Hill are among its subjects, along with the North Carolina Association of Deans of Women and the names Inez Koonce Stacy and Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, who both served in the office.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carmichael, Katherine Kennedy, 1912-1982.

UNC

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Picture: Katherine Carmichael, Yackety Yack, 1950. Public domain. Yackety Yack, 1950 (University of North Carolina yearbook); via the Internet Archive

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