Building Carolina's Future
Posted on May 5, 2001The minutes of The University of North Carolina’s Board of Trustees for Dec. 12, 1793, record that “on the 10th day of August … proceeded to lay off the ground to erect the buildings on; the particular sites … avenues, and ornamental grounds…. They next proceeded to layoff a town adjacent.” Unlike the other 15 campuses of the UNC System, our campus was sited and operating before there was an established local community. And when Carolina began the 20th century, there was little of the campus south of South Building.
As we begin the 21st century, the trustees have unanimously approved a new master plan that affirms the main campus boundaries and, more importantly, provides for the much needed facilities essential for Carolina to provide a world-class, competitive institution to serve all North Carolinians.
In the current “From the Hill” section, you can read of the significant growth in Carolina’s research funding. This growth is even more remarkable when we understand that our prolific faculty are limited by inadequate research space.
In developing the new master plan, the Baltimore firm of Ayr Saint Gross worked closely with community, town and University. The late Chancellor Michael Hooker ’69 initiated this plan in recognition that his alma mater could achieve our vision for Carolina — to be the best — only if we thoughtfully planned for the future.
Adam Gross and his colleagues spent considerable time researching to understand the history of our campus’s development. They recognized the special beauty of our campus and the adjoining town. They confronted the widely shared view that the campus south of the Bell Tower is not as beautiful as the campus to the north.
Over the next 50 years, this plan will transfer many of the features on the old campus to South Campus.The intent is that eventually we can walk from the Bell Tower to the Smith Center with the same joy as if we had headed north through Polk and McCorkle places to Franklin Street.
The plan will excite not only students, faculty and staff but also those who live in and visit Chapel Hill. There will be a new Arts Corridor along Columbia Street with an expanded Ackland Art Museum, a renovated and expanded Hill Hall for music and a renovated and expanded Memorial Hall. A new Sciences Complex will ensure that those disciplines on which so much of Carolina’s research and future depends will be appropriately housed. Ten acres of asphalt will be replaced by green space, and the long capped natural campus streams will be exposed to daylight. One of the plans’ first projects will be the Ramshead Project. A three-level parking deck will be built on the existing lot; on top will be a grass plaza, a new dining hall (to replace Chase Cafeteria) and a recreation center. Together, this will create a South Campus version of the Pit.
There is no other investment North Carolinians make for which there is a greater economic return than our campus. It was enlightened self-interest for the General Assembly and taxpayers to approve last year’s capital expansion bonds. UNC Chancellor Janles Moeser has pledged that Carolina will triple the $500 million coming from the bond package with private gifts. This purposeful growth over the next 50 years will permit us to accommodate an enrollment increase of another 3,000 students. However, unlike the University of Texas with its 50,000 students or even the universities of Michigan with 35,000 or Georgia and N .C. State with 30,000, Carolina will remain under 30,000, for our vision is to become the “best,” not the “biggest.” It is a sign of Carolina’s vitality that we are building for our future.
But new buildings are not as important as what these new and renovated facilities will mean for our students, faculty and staff, for Chapel Hill and all North Carolinians. Where some may see inconvenience and noisy construction, many will see hope and expectation hope that these facilities will help Carolina attract and retain wold-class scholars, and expectation that research will result not only in economic development but also in discovering cures for diseases.
No, Chapel Hill and The University of North Carolina are not as they were when those earliest trustees set out the boundaries for our campus and the boundaries for Chapel Hill. Fortunately, those who have lead us over these many years and those who lead us today understand that much of what is special about Carolina is the beauty of our campus and Chapel Hill. Preserving and enhancing that beauty and providing needed facilities in which to teach and to conduct cutting-edge research should inspire us all. We are building for Carolina’s future.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
