TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE
The dictionary's first definition of "libation," listed before the
better-known meaning of the word, is "an act of pouring a liquid as a sacrifice
(as to a deity)" -- a meaning originating in Greek tradition.
On March 31, a Carolina scholar well-versed in such classical practices
observed the rite, pouring liquid onto the site of the first new building in
more than 50 years on McCorkle Place.
Ruel Tyson, director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities,
toasted and poured in a ground-breaking ceremony for the institute's new home,
a two-story red-brick structure funded with $6 million in private donations.
For the record, his wine glass contained raspberry tea.
"The libation will be a ritual gesture in honor of the spirits of McCorkle
Place, first; secondly, of those who have given gifts to make this new
structure possible; and thirdly, a call to the good spirits who we hope will
preside over construction and completion of the building," Tyson, also a
religious studies professor, said before the ceremony.
Powerful spirits, indeed. The Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, for whom the scenic
quadrangle is named, helped draft the bill to establish the University, passed
in 1789 by the N.C. General Assembly. Then he served on the University's first
Board of Trustees.
William Richardson Davie, a Revolutionary War general, Constitutional
Congress delegate and state legislator, helped the 1789 bill succeed. In 1793,
he laid the cornerstone of Old East Residence Hall, the University's oldest
building, thereby creating the nation's first state university. The new
institute will be just yards from Old East and the historic Davie Poplar, named
for the University's founding father.
The last building completed on McCorkle was the Morehead Building in 1949.
The new institute, scheduled for completion in summer 2001, will be just south
of the Battle-Vance-Pettigrew Building off East Franklin Street. It will blend
with others bordering the scenic quadrangle and not disrupt its natural
environs, Tyson said. Like the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate
Excellence, dedicated last fall just across McCorkle in the renovated Graham
Memorial Building, the new institute is meant to enhance the campus
intellectual climate.
Since its founding in 1987, the institute has been based in West House, a
1,100 square-foot building constructed in 1935 to house five students. Funded
by private donations, the institute works to strengthen the University's best
faculty, encouraging collaboration, development and retention, Tyson said. The
institute has provided 195 fellowships for faculty in the arts, humanities and
social sciences.
"While the institute will continue to support the research and career
advancement of the faculty, the new building will also allow us to sponsor
collaborative projects in which some fellows of the IAH will join some alumni
from various occupations to work together on projects which are useful to the
University or the society at large," Tyson said.
"Other programs in the planning stage are a University-wide program to
support the teaching of ethics, an academic leadership development program --
already funded -- and various projects under the joint sponsorship of the
Johnston center and the IAH, and, we hope, various joint efforts with other
centers and institutes both on and off campus."
The new building will allow the institute to expand its faculty fellowship
program to all faculty, Tyson said.
With a footprint of 5,250 square feet, the new site and two-story building
will include gardens and an octagonal room with views of McCorkle Place. A
Faculty Fellows Room will host research collaboration, teaching improvement
projects and other creative endeavors. Interdisciplinary and cross-professional
studies will be centered in a University Room, which also will host lectures,
receptions, dinners and performances.
The institute's Public Fellows Program, now in its third year, pairs
faculty members with North Carolina citizens to work on projects of mutual
interest. Past fellows have included a retired dentist, also a civil rights
activist, studying how and why members of certain ethnic groups succeed or fail
in business, and a writer developing a novel on the aftermath of a murder in
her hometown.
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE