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Local figure

Douglass Hunt

Douglass Hunt, a 1946 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina, was its Vice Chancellor for Administration from 1973 to 1980 and then Special Assistant to the Chancellor. He oversaw the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund, which supports Carolina Seminars, and the Douglass Hunt Lectures began in his honor in 1995.

Source: UNC Carolina Seminars: Douglass Hunt Lectures

1924–2011 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

4 works about Douglass Hunt are indexed here, as is one work by Hunt.

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Life and Orange County connections

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

StorylineWomen's complaints and affirmative action at UNC, 1970–19941970–1994 · 67 events · From 1970 UNC women challenged the University's limits on admitting women and its treatment of women employees, through Female Liberation's demands, a federal complaint by the Women's Equity Action League and later complaints by NOW and the Association of Women Students. The Faculty Council's 1973 report found gaps between men and women in hiring, pay and promotion. UNC's first affirmative action plan took effect in July 1973 but was rejected by HEW, and a revised plan followed in 1974; by that fall women made up 17.6 percent of the faculty. A federal agency upheld NOW's complaint in 1976, a religion professor lost her discrimination suit in 1978, and in 1981 Gillian Cell became UNC's first full-time affirmative action officer. In 1980 the Faculty Council's women's committee found no women hired as full professors since 1974, and in 1984 it reported that women in tenure-track posts had barely grown in a decade. Cell left the post in 1983 and in 1985 became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The University adopted a maternity leave policy in 1985, and in 1989 the women's committee reported that women held only 9 percent of full professorships. In 1990 and 1991 women in University housing maintenance and the School of Dentistry filed harassment grievances, and in 1992 the women's committee reported that all four full professorships awarded in 1990-91 went to men. In 1993 a state judge found sexual harassment in a Physical Plant grievance and the EEOC found sex discrimination in a tenure denial, and in 1994 the Faculty Council set goals for hiring women. StorylineBlack admissions at UNC: Bakke, Dean Renwick and the university affairs office, 1977–19831977–1983 · 26 events · In 1977 Chancellor Ferebee Taylor made Dean Hayden Renwick his adviser on raising minority enrollment. In 1978, as two white applicants sued the law school in a case likened to Bakke, Renwick charged that UNC was turning away qualified Black applicants. The University answered with its largest Black enrollment to date, and Taylor denied the charge before the Faculty Council. A faculty committee in 1979 found Black enrollment growth unsatisfactory but did not uphold most of the charges. In 1980 the Faculty Council asked for a minority affairs post reporting to the chancellor, and Chancellor Christopher Fordham created a vice chancellorship for university affairs, which Harold Wallace took up that December. Renwick sued two newspaper companies in 1981 over an editorial on his 1978 column; the suit was dismissed in 1982 and revived on appeal in 1983.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 27 dated events in the chronology →

  1. North Carolina's first Boys State meets on the UNC campus The Institute ran the week-long civics program for the state American Legion, modeled on one begun in Illinois in 1935. About 135 high school boys spent up to three hours a day in class on government besides sports, heard Governor Hoey and other officials, and elected Douglass Hunt their governor. People: Albert Coates, Clyde Roark Hoey, Douglass Hunt Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 186 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 1, 1939, p. 6
  2. Douglass Hunt becomes UNC's Vice Chancellor for Administration Hunt took the post on July 1, 1973, overseeing personnel, the registrar and institutional research and serving as the university's first Affirmative Action Officer. He held it until July 1, 1980, when the position was eliminated. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries, University Archives: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration Records, 1945-1990 (#40301) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 13, 1973, p. 1
  3. Chancellor Taylor names Douglass Hunt affirmative action officer and an advisory committee On September 14, 1973, Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor confirmed Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt as UNC's affirmative action officer under the plan that took effect July 1, and named an advisory committee of nine men and nine women, seven of them Black, among them Barbara Schnorrenberg of University Women for Affirmative Action and James H. Brewer of Afro-American Studies. UWAA, which had sent federal officials a critique of the plan in August, said on September 16 that it was disappointed a white man was chosen and no students were named. People: N. Ferebee Taylor, Douglass Hunt Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Barbara Schnorrenberg, James H. BrewerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 15, 1973, p. 1
  4. HEW finds UNC's first affirmative action plan unacceptable The Department of Health, Education and Welfare told University Women for Affirmative Action in a September 21 letter that the plan UNC had sent it on July 1 was unacceptable, and a five-member HEW team met UWAA and University officials that week, faulting the lack of students on the advisory committee, missing data and Douglass Hunt's part-time role as affirmative action officer. Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor received HEW's formal letter of deficiencies on September 27 and on October 5 reactivated the Affirmative Action Working Committee under Susan E. McDonald to revise the plan by January 1974. People: N. Ferebee Taylor, Douglass Hunt Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Susan E. McDonaldSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 27, 1973, p. 1
  5. UNC's Affirmative Action Advisory Committee votes to add four students The committee recommended that four students, including at least one Black student and one woman, join it, and Chancellor Taylor agreed to choose them from a list prepared by student body president Ford Runge. When the list of eight came in with no white men and only one health affairs student, Taylor asked on Dec. 3 for more names, and student leaders agreed to add four. People: N. Ferebee Taylor, Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ford RungeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 7, 1973, p. 1
  6. The local NOW chapter files a federal sex discrimination complaint against UNC The Chapel Hill chapter of the National Organization for Women filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of all women faculty, staff and employed students, charging the University with discrimination in salaries, assignments and promotions and with nepotism and harassment, backed by ten signed affidavits and figures from the spring report on the role and status of women at UNC. Chapter president Miriam Slifkin said it followed dissatisfaction with affirmative action officer Douglass Hunt's progress. People: Miriam Slifkin, Douglass Hunt, N. Ferebee Taylor Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 16, 1973, p. 1
  7. The Campus Governing Council asks that Douglass Hunt be replaced by a full-time affirmative action officer The student council adopted by consent a resolution asking Chancellor Taylor to let Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt return full time to his administrative post and to appoint a full-time affirmative action officer, after the women students' newspaper SHE called for his resignation. People: Douglass Hunt, N. Ferebee Taylor Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 6, 1973, p. 1
  8. Greensboro attorney Marquis D. Street is named assistant to UNC's affirmative action officer Street, a Black lawyer and graduate of North Carolina A&T and the University of Iowa law school who had been a special assistant to A&T's president, was appointed to assist vice chancellor for administration and affirmative action officer Douglass Hunt. He joined Susan E. McDonald, named in August, and began work on residency status questions among other legal matters. People: Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Marquis D. Street, Susan E. McDonaldSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 4, 1974, p. 1
  9. UNC submits its expanded affirmative action plan to HEW and puts copies in the libraries The 200-page plan, rewritten after HEW returned the first one in September 1973, set out steps for equal employment with special attention to women and Black employees, created equal opportunity officers in each department, projected a three-year implementation period for faculty and staff exempt from the State Personnel Act, and provided for job openings to be posted every two weeks. Copies reached Wilson Library and the Health Sciences Library on February 11. People: Douglass Hunt, N. Ferebee Taylor Place: Wilson Library, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 12, 1974, p. 1
  10. BSM chairman Willie Mebane confronts an all-white panel on UNC's affirmative action plan At a panel on UNC's Affirmative Action Plan sponsored by University Women for Affirmative Action and the University's AAUP chapter, Black Student Movement chairman Willie Mebane rose to point out that the panelists were all white and nearly all men and accused affirmative action officer Douglass Hunt and others of being unresponsive to Black students. The exchange ended when moderator Paula Goldsmid persuaded him to yield the floor amid calls from the audience for quiet. People: Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Willie Mebane, Paula GoldsmidThe Daily Tar Heel, March 25, 1974, p. 1
  11. HEW approves the University system's desegregation plan The federal Office for Civil Rights approved the UNC Board of Governors' twice-rejected plan for ending the "racial duality" of the sixteen campuses and the 57 community colleges and technical institutes, so HEW would neither sue nor withhold federal money. The plan set a goal of raising UNC-Chapel Hill's Black enrollment from 5.1 percent in 1973 to 7.1 percent by 1977, and a Daily Tar Heel news analysis called it conservative and unspecific. People: William C. Friday, Douglass Hunt Place: General Administration, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, August 26, 1974, p. 1
  12. UNC trustees reject a full-time, independent affirmative action officer At its December meeting the UNC Board of Trustees voted 11 to 2 against a resolution from student body president Marcus Williams calling for a full-time affirmative action officer independent of other University offices. Williams and Walter Tucker of Charlotte, the board's only Black members, voted for it, and the duty stayed with Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt. People: Douglass Hunt Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Marcus Williams, Walter TuckerSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 9, 1975, p. 1
Show all 27 dated events
  1. Chancellor Taylor reports uneven progress under UNC's affirmative action plan Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor's annual affirmative action report showed Black faculty at 2.6 per cent of Academic Affairs faculty against a 1975 goal of 5.2 per cent, and women's share of the Health Affairs faculty down from 23.1 per cent in 1972 to 22.4 per cent. Goals were nearly met for State Personnel Act staff (26.7 per cent non-white, 62.1 per cent women) and met for women instructors in Academic Affairs (13.8 per cent). People: N. Ferebee Taylor, Douglass Hunt Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 21, 1975, p. 1
  2. UNC issues the fifth revision of its affirmative action plan UNC released the fifth revision of its affirmative action plan with an annual report showing the shares of Black and women employees up in four of six job categories as of September 30, 1975, with 0.7 percent more Black workers and 0.9 percent more women overall. The federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare still had not formally approved any of the University's five plans but had told it to carry them out. People: Douglass Hunt Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 18, 1976, p. 1
  3. Federal EEOC upholds the women's sex discrimination charge against UNC In a letter dated September 22, the district office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission upheld the 1973 charge that the Chapel Hill chapter of the National Organization for Women filed for University Women for Affirmative Action, finding discrimination against women faculty and against women staff exempt from the State Personnel Act in hiring, promotion and salaries. It found that men's average faculty salaries in 1975 exceeded women's by $5,000 to $7,000, rejected the charges concerning women under the State Personnel Act, and called for a conciliation meeting; the University denied the findings. People: Miriam Slifkin, Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 19, 1976, p. 1
  4. The UNC Faculty Council rejects a faculty post to press the recruiting of Black professors After an hour's debate the Faculty Council voted 38 to 22 against endorsing release time for a faculty member to serve as secretary of its ad hoc Committee on the Recruitment of Black Faculty and visit departmental search committees. Supporters noted that Black faculty had grown only from 14 to 46 since 1973; Faculty Chairperson E. Maynard Adams opposed the precedent, and Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt said he would meet the search committees himself. People: Blyden Jackson, E. M (Elie Maynard) Adams, Douglass Hunt Place: Faculty Council, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 24, 1977, p. 1
  5. Chancellor Taylor declares UNC will not discriminate on the basis of handicap In a public notice under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor declared it University policy not to discriminate on the basis of handicap in admission, programs, treatment or employment. He named Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt to coordinate compliance and set grievance routes for students, staff and faculty. People: N. Ferebee Taylor, Douglass Hunt Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 2, 1977, p. 2
  6. A 13-member committee begins the search for Chancellor Taylor's successor The chancellor search committee appointed by trustees chairman Ralph Strayhorn, six trustees, five faculty members, the student body president and the alumni association president, held its organizational meeting in the Morehead Building, set a November 1 deadline for nominations and scheduled a public meeting for October 25. People: Douglass Hunt Place: Morehead Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ralph N. Strayhorn, Ralph StrayhornSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 10, 1979, p. 1
  7. Chancellor Fordham says UNC will appoint a full-time affirmative action officer Opening the year's last Faculty Council meeting, Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III accepted the recommendation of the council's Committee on the Status of Women and said he would name a search committee for a full-time affirmative action officer. The work had been done part time by Douglass Hunt, vice chancellor for administration, whom Fordham thanked. People: Christopher C. Fordham III, Douglass Hunt Place: Faculty Council meeting, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 21, 1980, p. 1
  8. Chapel Hill holds a memorial service for Allard K. Lowenstein in Memorial Hall Nearly 150 friends and colleagues gathered in Memorial Hall for Chapel Hill's official tribute to Allard K. Lowenstein, the UNC alumnus and civil rights and political activist fatally shot in his New York office in March. Nine speakers who had known him in Chapel Hill, among them Town Council member and former mayor James Wallace, Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt and Institute of Government director John Sanders, eulogized him, and Wallace led the audience in Amazing Grace. People: Allard K. Lowenstein, Douglass Hunt Place: Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: James Wallace, John Sanders · Also mentions: Institute of GovernmentSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 22, 1980, p. 1
  9. Chancellor Fordham names a search committee for UNC's first full-time affirmative action officer Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III appointed a search committee chaired by Slavic languages chairman Madeline Levine to find UNC's first full-time affirmative action officer, a post recommended by the Faculty Council's Committee on the Status of Women. The duties had been handled part time by Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt; two graduate students, including a former Black Student Movement president, were later added, and the committee held a public hearing in Dey Hall on July 1. People: Christopher C. Fordham III, Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Madeline Levine · Also mentions: Dey HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, June 12, 1980, p. 1
  10. Douglass Hunt becomes Special Assistant to the Chancellor As special assistant Hunt handled the university's government relations, compliance duties and the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund, and served as liaison for planning the Bicentennial Observance. After retiring in 1996 he stayed on part time as Advisor to the Chancellor for Governmental Affairs until 2002. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries, University Archives: Assistants to the Chancellor: Douglass Hunt Records, 1900-2002 (#40209) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, July 3, 1980, p. 1
  11. UNC creates a vice chancellorship for university affairs to strengthen the minority presence on campus Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III named an advisory committee, chaired by business dean Jack Evans, to help choose a new vice chancellor for university affairs, who would work to increase the presence of minority students and employees and oversee admissions, financial aid, records and the registrar. The post answered an April recommendation of a minority status committee chaired by law professor Charles Daye; in the same reorganization Vice Chancellor Douglass Hunt became special assistant to the chancellor. People: Christopher C. Fordham III, Douglass Hunt Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jack Evans, Charles DayeThe Daily Tar Heel, July 3, 1980, p. 1
  12. UNC installs infrared listening systems for the hard of hearing UNC installed infrared sound systems for hearing-impaired listeners in Memorial Hall in the fall of 1984, in Hill Hall in the spring of 1985 and in five large rooms of the School of Medicine, after a demonstration by Self-Help for the Hard of Hearing. People: Douglass Hunt Place: Memorial Hall and Hill Hall, UNC · Also mentions: Hill Hall, School of MedicineSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 10, 1986, p. 3
  13. Symposium marks the opening of Allard Lowenstein's papers at the Southern Historical Collection About 175 people attended a two-day symposium in the Carolina Union, held as the Southern Historical Collection finished processing the papers of Allard K. Lowenstein, the 1949 UNC graduate and civil rights and antiwar organizer. Historian Otis L. Graham Jr. gave the keynote, and panels with members of Congress and others discussed how one person could make a difference. People: Douglass Hunt Place: Carolina Union, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Otis L. Graham Jr., Allard K. Lowenstein · Also mentions: Southern Historical CollectionSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 1, 1985, p. 1
  14. Douglass Hunt receives a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award The university gave Hunt its Massey Award for service, citing him as a lawyer, historian and civil servant. He had worked with C. Knox Massey for several years to set up the Massey Awards and the Carolina Seminars program. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: C. Knox MasseySearch the index · UNC C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Awards: Douglass Hunt
  15. The first Douglass Hunt Lecture is given at UNC Carolina Seminars held its first Douglass Hunt Lecture on October 23, 1995, honoring Hunt's service to the university. Chancellor Paul Hardin spoke of him there. People: Paul Hardin III Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul HardinSearch the index · UNC Carolina Seminars: Douglass Hunt Lectures

People named in the same events

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Indexed works

Works about or by Douglass Hunt. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Douglass Hunt

A small price to pay : the pleasures of serendipity

Hunt, Douglass, 1924-2011 · 1988 · The author?

Text of the Kemp Plummer Battle Lecture that Douglass Hunt delivered to UNC's Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Societies on University Day, October 12, 1988. It runs 26 leaves and touches on the Mason family among other subjects.

UNC

About Douglass Hunt

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: Hunt, Douglass, 1924-2011.

UNC

Assistants to the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : Douglass Hunt, 1900-2002 ( bulk 1980-2002).

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Assistant to the Chancellor · 1900

Office files of Douglass Hunt (1924-2011), assistant to the chancellor at Chapel Hill, dated 1900 to 2002 with the bulk from 1980 onward, about 16,800 items in 21.5 linear feet, University Archives at UNC, collection 40209. Topics include Frank Porter Graham, Albert Coates and Allard Lowenstein, the C. Knox Massey awards, Carolina Seminars, student government, and state law and policy on higher education.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hunt, Douglass, 1924-2011.

UNC

Records of the Equal Opportunity/ADA Office, 1965-2006.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Equal Opportunity/ADA Office · 1965

Office records documenting equal opportunity and disability compliance work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1965 to 2006, about 48,000 items across 79.5 linear feet in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40029. Topics include affirmative action programs, discrimination in higher education, barrier free design, services for people with disabilities, and dealings with the federal Departments of Labor and of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hunt, Douglass, 1924-2011.

UNC

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration records, 1945-1990.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration · 1945

Administrative files covering 1945 to 1990 from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration at UNC, about 22,800 items in 28.5 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40301. Admissions and student recruiting in North Carolina, including the recruiting of minority college students, sit alongside scholarships, personnel management and university regulations, with the registrar's office and Douglass Hunt represented.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hunt, Douglass, 1924-2011.

UNC

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