University Summer School

In the chronology

1. Summers of 1877 and 1878 McIver heads mathematics at the university's summer normal schools Then principal of the Greensboro graded schools, McIver was chief of the mathematics department at the 1877 Summer Normal School in Chapel Hill and taught mathematics, English grammar and physiology at the 1878 session. People: Kemp Plummer Battle
2. Summer 1877 The university holds its first summer session, a state normal school for teachers In the summer of 1877 the university hosted a statewide Summer Normal School, set up by the General Assembly in March 1877 to train white teachers for the common schools. President Kemp Battle and the Board of Education admitted white women to its classes, though state money could not be spent on them.
3. summer 1878 Teachers at the Normal School form a State Teachers' Association Teachers attending the 1878 University Normal School organized a State Teachers' Association with Kemp P. Battle as president and began forming county associations. They also petitioned the legislature to continue the school. People: Kemp Plummer Battle
4. June 18 to July 26, 1878 Summer Normal School offers the state's first kindergarten training Emily M. Coe of New York taught a class of teachers the kindergarten method at the university's 1878 Summer Normal School, with 53 children drilled daily. Battle believed it the first normal kindergarten class in North Carolina; the session enrolled 402 teachers, 190 of them women. People: Kemp Plummer Battle
5. 1879 Legislature extends Normal School benefits to women The 1877 act limited state money for the Summer Normal School to men, though women attended by invitation. When the two-year act ran out it was renewed with the restriction as to sex removed.
6. June 17 to July 17, 1884 The University Summer Normal School holds its last session The eighth and last session enrolled 305 teachers, after which the legislature divided the $2,000 yearly appropriation among four normal schools chosen by the Board of Education. Battle counted 2,480 enrollments at Chapel Hill from 1877 through 1884. People: Kemp Plummer Battle
7. Summer 1894 Dixie Lee Bryant teaches at the summer school in Chapel Hill Bryant, head of science at the State Normal and Industrial School in Greensboro, was on the faculty of the 1894 Summer School for Teachers and Students in Chapel Hill, teaching physical geography and botany.
8. summer 1894 The university opens a Summer School for Teachers and Students to women and men The four-week school under Edwin A. Alderman admitted both sexes for a $5 fee and enrolled seventy-five, with academic and teaching departments staffed by university professors and teachers from the State Normal and city schools. It was one of four summer schools the university ran that year. People: Dixie Lee Bryant, Edwin Anderson Alderman
9. 1898 M. C. S. Noble joins the university as professor of pedagogy Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble, superintendent of the Wilmington schools, was invited to return to the University of North Carolina in 1898 as professor of pedagogy. He also directed the university's summer school.
10. June 12, 1900 The university opens its first summer term of regular courses For the first time the university offered a twelve-week summer term of regular courses that counted toward a degree, opening on June 12, 1900, alongside the four-week Summer School for Teachers. Tuition was twenty dollars. People: M. C. S. Noble, Francis Preston Venable
11. 1903-04 The university opens a summer course in library work By 1904 the university had begun a summer course of instruction in library work, meant to train librarians as workers with books rather than custodians. Louis Round Wilson taught library methods in the 1905 Summer School. People: Louis Round Wilson
12. March 26, 1904 Orange County teachers are offered the university summer school and pay tied to exam scores The board accepted Dr. Venable's offer to admit county teachers to the University Summer School and set pay by the July examination: $35 a month for an average of 95 and $40 for 98. People: Francis Preston Venable
13. 1907 N. W. Walker revives the UNC summer school Walker, professor of secondary education since 1905, revived the university's summer school in 1907 and directed it for twenty-seven years. In 1921 he became acting dean of the School of Education.
14. summer 1912 Summer School students perform the colonial play Esther Wake In the summer of 1912 the Summer School for Teachers presented Esther Wake, a play by instructor Adolf Vermont about colonial North Carolina, on the steps of Smith Hall.
15. Summer 1917 Dr. C. S. Mangum teaches a daily first aid class at the 1917 UNC Summer School Dr. C. S. Mangum taught first aid every day through the six weeks of the 1917 Summer School to a large class of Chapel Hill people and summer visitors, with two local Red Cross members helping with bandaging. The course closed with practical and written examinations sent from Washington.
16. July 4, 1918 Orange County holds a Fourth of July war rally on the UNC campus At the Governor's request the UNC Summer School invited the county to its July 4, 1918 celebration, and at least 3,000 people came for a parade, a flag raising and S. M. Gattis's address in Memorial Hall. The county Council of Defense met in Gerrard Hall, and Adolph Vermont's pageant on French-American friendship played in Battle's Park. People: M. C. S. Noble, Adolph Vermont, J. Cheshire Webb, Samuel Mallett Gattis
17. July 16, 1919 A thunderstorm halts Esther Wake at Cameron Park during the homecoming University Summer School students staged Adolph Vermont's play Esther Wake, on the early history of Hillsborough and Orange County, at Cameron Park for more than 5,000 people. A heavy thunderstorm stopped it in the second act. People: Adolph Vermont, Albert Coates, N. W. Walker
18. Early 1936 Former summer school and education dean N. W. Walker dies Walker had headed the university's summer school and its school of education until he retired with a heart ailment in the summer of 1934. After his death his house at 517 East Rosemary Street was sold to education professor Guy B. Phillips, and Albert and Gladys Coates stayed on in the cottage behind it.
19. 1941 The university hosts 108 South American students in its Winter-Summer School In 1941 the university received 108 students from seven South American countries for English courses and regular classes in a program Leavitt directed. The General Assembly met in special joint session in Chapel Hill in their honor. People: Frank Porter Graham

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