UNC's enrollment boom, 1965–1973

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

September 1965 UNC's Chapel Hill enrollment passes 12,000 More than 4,000 freshmen and transfer students arrived for orientation in September 1965, bringing enrollment at Chapel Hill to more than 12,000; the athletic association counted 12,400 students and 1,000 student wives in planning football seating. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 16, 1965, p. 1

September 1966 UNC opens the fall term with a record 13,250 students The University began the 1966-67 year with a record 13,250 students, about 3,000 of them women, a freshman class of about 2,300 and 75 to 100 new faculty members, the most it had ever added in one year. Classes began on September 15. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 13, 1966, p. 1

by September 12, 1967 UNC opens the fall term with a record 14,595 students A record 14,595 students enrolled for fall classes beginning September 14, the largest student body in the University's history, including 3,714 freshmen and transfers; the 2,576 freshmen included 523 women, and 191 new full-time faculty joined. Trustee rules held out-of-state freshmen to 15 per cent of the class. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 12, 1967, p. 1

September 1968 UNC opens the fall term with a record enrollment The University expected about 15,500 students on campus, among them some 3,000 new students (about 2,100 freshmen and 900 transfers), and close to 16,000 counting evening classes and extension, which the Daily Tar Heel called the largest ever. About 150 new faculty joined a teaching force of about 1,200, and it was the fourth year women were admitted for four years of undergraduate study. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 17, 1968, p. 1

October 9, 1969 UNC reports a record fall enrollment of 16,430 The Office of Records and Registration reported 16,430 students at Chapel Hill, 197 more than the year before and an all-time high, with most of the growth among graduate and professional students in law, medicine and public health and in the evening college. Undergraduates numbered 11,142, and men outnumbered women. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 10, 1969, p. 6

September 1970 UNC enrolls more than 17,000 students and runs out of housing Fall enrollment passed 17,000, up 4.5 percent and about 350 more than planned, with some 4,050 new students; the housing office called it the worst crisis since World War II, bedded men in Stacy dormitory's basement lounge and turned singles into doubles, and by September 24 only three undergraduate men lacked rooms. Chancellor Sitterson told the Faculty Council on October 2 that enrollment had doubled from 8,592 in 1960. People: James E. (James Edgar) Wadsworth, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 15, 1970, p. 1

late August 1971 UNC opens the fall term overenrolled, crowding about 1,300 students into its dormitories The University began the 1971 fall semester about 450 students over its planned enrollment, leaving nearly 1,300 dormitory residents, most of them freshmen, three to a room built for two or in converted lounges, basements and study rooms at a 10 percent cut in rent. Hinton James got seven coed floors instead of five to house women, and the University had dropped its rule that sophomores and junior transfers live on campus only in May. Place: Residence halls, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, August 31, 1971, p. 1

by October 3, 1973 UNC counts 19,396 students in the fall, about 40 percent of them women Official fall 1973 figures put UNC-Chapel Hill's enrollment at 19,396 against 19,300 predicted, with 7,711 women, 13,468 undergraduates and 1,463 students in the professional schools, 207 of them women. Registrar Lillian Lehman said a freshman class of about 3,182, against 3,000 expected, strained housing, while full-time-equivalent enrollment stayed near the budgeted figure. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lillian LehmanSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1973, p. 1

Adam Lucas marks one hundred years of basketball at the University of North Carolina in this illustrated history, published by UNC Press in 2010 in association with the athletics department. Chapters follow the program from the game's arrival on campus and the 'White Phantoms' of the Southern Conference through the founding of the ACC, the 1957 season, Dean Smith's changes to the game and the title seasons of 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009, closing with a century of statistics. 289 pages.

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Chapel Hill Murder and Mayhem

Jackson, Rick · 2023

Rick Jackson's true crime history of Chapel Hill, published by The History Press in 2023, in 28 short chapters. Cases include the Efland bank robbery, the execution of John Henry Breeze, the unsolved murder of Suellen Evans, the killing at the Internationalist Bookstore and the death of Eve Carson.

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The Blue Divide: Duke, North Carolina, and the Battle on Tobacco Road

Moore, Johnny; Chansky, Art · 2014 · Triumph Books

The Duke and North Carolina basketball rivalry written together by Johnny Moore and Art Chansky, the latter a sports reporter who has followed it since his student days at UNC. The book opens with the 2014 season and moves through recruiting battles old and new, 'Black and Blue Sunday', 'Blood and Roses', and chapters on the rivalry's heroes, leaders and teachers, with a foreword by Jay Bilas and a photo gallery. Published by Triumph Books in 2014, 289 pages.

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Miss Mary's Money

Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

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The Chronicles of the Bicentennial Observance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tepper, Steven J. · 1998

Steven J. Tepper's chronicle of how the University of North Carolina marked its bicentennial in 1993 and 1994. An appendix reprints the University Day speeches of October 12, 1993, given by Paul Hardin, James B. Hunt Jr., C.D. Spangler, William C. Friday, Charles Kuralt and President Bill Clinton, plus bicentennial addresses by Li Lu, Francis S. Collins and Richard J. Richardson. Published by the university in Chapel Hill, 1998; 284 pages.

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Game Changers

Chansky, Art · 2016

Art Chansky's 2016 account of Dean Smith, Charlie Scott and the years that changed Chapel Hill as a Southern college town. Scott was the first Black scholarship player in the Carolina basketball program. Topics include civil rights, racism in sports and the university's twentieth-century history.

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William Friday

Link, William A. · 1995

Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.

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Light on the Hill

Snider, William D. · 1992

William D. Snider's history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1992. It runs 370 pages with illustrations, a bibliography and an index.

Reviewed in History of Education Quarterly (1993), The Journal of Southern History (1993).

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Chapel Hill in Plain Sight

Athas, Daphne · 2010 · Eno Publishers

Twelve essays by novelist Daphne Athas (1923-2020) on the Chapel Hill she knew across the twentieth century. Subjects include Carrboro as 'the Paris of the Piedmont', philosopher Horace Williams, Betty Smith writing in Chapel Hill, Junius Scales, Ab Abernethy and the Intimate Bookshop, Richard Wright's visit, and a set of Chapel Hill murders. Published 2010, 243 pages with illustrations.

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What it means to be a Tar Heel: Roy Williams and North Carolina's greatest players

Fowler, Scott · 2010 · Triumph Books

Scott Fowler gathers recollections from Carolina basketball players, decade by decade from the 1950s to the 2000s, organized around Roy Williams and the question in the title. Contributors include Lennie Rosenbluth, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Charlie Scott, Phil Ford, James Worthy, Brad Daugherty, Eric Montross, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Raymond Felton and Sean May, each entry giving position and playing years. Published 2010 by Triumph Books of Chicago, 270 pages, here as an e-book.

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The Campus of the First State University

Henderson, Archibald · 1949

Archibald Henderson's history of the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its buildings and grounds from the founding in the 1790s onward. Henderson, a professor of mathematics and a prolific historian of the university, wrote it in the years around the university's sesquicentennial. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 412 pages with illustrations and bibliographical footnotes.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1949), South Atlantic Quarterly (1950).

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The Woman Who Rang the Bell: The Story of Cornelia Spencer Phillips

Russell, Charles Phillips · 1949

Charles Phillips Russell's biography of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908), the Chapel Hill writer remembered for ringing the bell of South Building when the university reopened in 1875 after its closure during Reconstruction. It doubles as a history of Chapel Hill and the university. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 293 pages with illustrations.

Reviewed in Journal of American History (1949).

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