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When Carolina celebrates its 206th birthday Oct. 12, it will turn to a teacher
who has championed excellence in undergraduate education and celebrate a new
high-touch, high-tech facility devoted to that cause.
Robert Allen, former associate dean for honors in the College of Arts and
Sciences and a professor with joint posts in American and communication studies
as well as history, will be the featured speaker at the annual University Day
convocation, set for 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall, announced Richard "Dick"
Richardson, provost and chair of the University Day Committee.
Allen will discuss "Why Can't Universities Be More Like Businesses?" Classes
will be suspended from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and faculty, staff and students
are encouraged to attend.
Allen was among key officials spearheading private fund raising totaling $7.4
million for the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, created
by renovating the Graham Memorial Building in McCorkle Place. The center will
be formally dedicated Oct. 12 in a public ceremony at 12:30 p.m.
University Day was created by the Board of Trustees to commemorate the laying
of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation's first state university building,
on Oct. 12, 1793. It is a day for the traditional convocation, as well as
ceremonies and other events.
"This University Day will help remind us all how important the approximately
15,000 undergraduates we teach and nurture each year are to the fabric of our
campus community," Richardson said. "Such attention is especially appropriate
at a time when Carolina is making bold changes in how undergraduates learn as
part of the overarching effort to enrich our intellectual climate.
"I look forward to Professor Allen's remarks and am delighted that he accepted
our committee's invitation to speak," the provost said. "Dedication of the
Johnston center, which will be an exciting focal point for undergraduate
intellectual life, will also mark a significant moment in the history of our
University."
University Day became a college holiday in 1877 and an all-day celebration in
1900. In 1906, Edwin A. Alderman, former school president, received an honorary
degree, the first given on University Day. That practice evolved into the
Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, first presented in 1971 to "alumni who
had distinguished themselves in a manner that brought credit to the
university." Five honorees, to be announced later, will receive those awards at
this year's convocation, which will feature music by the Chamber Singers.
Allen, who joined the University as a visiting assistant professor in 1979,
has written or edited six books and 30 scholarly articles and book chapters
about American popular entertainment in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was
co-author of Film History: Theory and Practice, a guide to historical film
research translated into four languages, and wrote Channels of Discourse, an
anthology of essays on television and contemporary criticism. As a fellow of
the National Humanities Center and American Council of Learned Societies, he
wrote Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture, which won the George
Freedley Memorial Award for best U.S. historical theatre book published in
1991.
The Gastonia native was named Dean E. Smith professor, created to recognize
outstanding achievement in teaching and scholarship, in 1991. Three years
later, he became the James Logan Godfrey professor of American studies, history
and communication studies.
As associate dean for honors from 1987 until last spring, Allen helped guide
the growth of a nationally known honors program. The number of honors students
rose to more than 600 from 250, course offerings doubled and senior honors
thesis research projects increased by 60 percent. Other innovations included a
semester abroad program and student seminars on the role of citizens.
In addition, Allen shepherded development of the privately supported Burch
Fellows Program, which allows undergraduates with exceptional abilities and
interests to design a potentially life-transforming experience. Fellows have
studied multicultural education in Los Angeles, pediatrics in Russia and opera
in New York.
The Burch Field Research Seminars also enable faculty to take small
undergraduate groups in the field. This semester's stops will focus on public
policy in Washington, D.C., new civil institutions in South Africa and
post-Cold War security issues in Vienna.
Alumni of the honors program led fund-raising efforts for the center. Key
gifts from more than 700 donors included $1.25 million from the James M.
Johnston Trust, a $600,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation of Troy,
Mich., $500,000 from the John Motley Morehead Foundation, $350,000 from the
Educational Foundation Inc. and $250,000 from the William R. Kenan Jr.
Charitable Trust. The center's name honors the late James M. Johnston, an
Orange County native who attended Carolina for two years before becoming a
World War I pilot, then an investment banker.
The Johnston center will be directed by James L. Leloudis, a history professor
who holds two Carolina degrees and recently succeeded Allen as associate dean
for honors. Leloudis emphasized that the center, which has been envisioned by
planners as a "democracy of learning," will be open for all Carolina students
to use.
The center will help house first-year seminars, one of several initiatives
aimed at strengthening the University's academic offerings to new students. The
seminars match small groups of no more than 20 freshmen with outstanding
faculty members those students might not otherwise meet until their junior or
senior years.
The center also will house a new Office of Undergraduate Research, part of an
effort to connect faculty members conducting research with students interested
in their projects, that is being led by Patricia Pukkila, associate professor
of biology.
The Johnston center has four seminar rooms, two high-tech classrooms and a
resource center with electronic access to off-campus databases. Other features
include a flexible commons room for lectures, performances and other events. A
living room and adjoining kitchen will encourage informal faculty-student
interaction, harking back to days when students often were invited into faculty
homes. Graham Memorial's oak-paneled Great Lounge, the heart of the
University's first student union, has been restored and will be furnished as a
place for reading, study and quiet conversation.
The building will house the honors program and Carolina Leadership
Development, an office overseeing student leadership and citizenship
enhancement programs. Honors and leadership development serve about 2,300
students annually. (Honors courses are open to all students with qualifying
grade-point averages.)
Graham Memorial is part of a north campus revival begun with private
fund-raising efforts by the College of Arts and Sciences. It will complement
the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, a faculty development facility to be
built near Pettigrew Hall.
Graham Memorial was built with alumni donations as a memorial to UNC President
Edward Kidder Graham, a victim of the 1918 flu epidemic. The building served as
Carolina's student union from 1932 to 1968 and most recently housed dramatic
art, which moved to the new Center for Dramatic Art.
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