'To emphasize that unity, that love': UNC celebrates its 230th anniversary

UNC celebrated this year's University Day, which marks the laying of the first cornerstone at Old East Residence Hall, on Oct. 12. 

Community members gathered alongside faculty, staff, students and alumni at the Old Well for a ceremony that recognized UNC’s 230th anniversary as the nation’s first public university. 

The ceremony began with a 10:30 a.m. procession where senior marshalls carried banners representing all 14 of the University’s schools. Attendees were led by the marshalls to Memorial Hall for an address from Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. 

Guskiewicz highlighted this year’s University Day theme of “service to our state,” in a speech he gave at the ceremony. He said the University is present in the lives of North Carolinians from the mountains to the coast and from the cities to the farms.

“We are not an ivory tower. We are not a city on a hill,” Guskiewicz said. “We are built into the bones and the heart of our state.”

Each year, five alumni are presented with Distinguished Alumnus(a) Awards for “outstanding contribution to mankind,” according to the Faculty Council. This year, Jennifer Han, award-winning author of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before," was one of the award recipients. 

Awards were also presented to outstanding faculty members — like Robin Lee for her role in advocating for salary concerns from housekeepers across UNC's campus.

The awards were followed by a panel led by Student Body President Christopher Everett, who spoke with UNC Alumni Elizabeth Biser, Pablo Friedmann and Alex Lassiter.

University Day is followed by a state-wide bus tour called the Tar Heel Bus Tour. 

Faculty and staff will travel across the state on the tour, which begins on Oct. 18. 

They will stop to hear from researchers and practitioners from UNC who are involved in community activities in different parts of the state, faculty member John Staley said.  

“As we started prep to get ready to go on the tour, [Guskiewicz] was like, you know we’re called the University of North Carolina, but he really likes the vision of we’re the University for North Carolina,” Staley said. 

 Staley said University Day and the surrounding events are an opportunity to highlight how UNC is good at “leveling the playing field” for students, staff and people across the Southeast.

For UNC junior Brandon Loor-Intriago, University Day started as something to do with his morning, but became an event that “pulled at his heartstrings.” 

He said he was impacted by a video that played during Guskiewicz’s address about the impact UNC is having on children’s lives at public schools across the state. 

First-year Danping Yan decided to join in the celebrations because they were happening near her next class. 

Yan said that she felt the ceremony showed the student body “what becomes of us and what we will carry on in the future.”

This year, University Day comes on the heels of recent events on campus — including a rally of Students for Justice in Palestine that was met with counterprotesters and the Aug. 28 fatal shooting of associate professor Zijie Yan.

At the Oct. 12 ceremony, Guskiewicz addressed recent efforts made by him and his leadership team to connect with students and staff impacted by the protest. 

A musical number was also played by faculty members Nicholas DiEugenio and Brent Wissick — the same musical number performed at the vigil held on Aug. 30 to commemorate Yan.

“I think that this year we had to go through something unfortunately very, very traumatizing,” Everett said. “So I’m looking at this University Day as an opportunity to emphasize that togetherness, to emphasize that unity, that love.”

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