Traditions abound for University Day celebration
The Oct. 11 festivities will also mark the installation of Carolina’s 13th chancellor.
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Carolina will install Lee H. Roberts as its 13th chancellor Oct. 11, a day before the traditional University Day date of Oct. 12.
The first chancellor’s installation ceremony in 1957 set a precedent for all subsequent celebrations. William Brantley Aycock’s installation featured a ceremony for faculty, staff and students, a procession of faculty across campus and greetings from campus groups. Traditions grew over the years: ringing South Building’s bell after the ceremony, swearing the oath of office using North Carolina’s oldest family Bible and presenting the chancellor’s medallion.
Aycock, the first chancellor to be formally installed, was actually the second chancellor of the University. The first chancellor, Robert House, was dean of the University for 11 years before UNC System President Frank Porter Graham named him chancellor. House hoped to get a pay raise but was instead promoted to a new title for a position he already held, according to the Carolina Alumni Review.
A dozen years after House’s promotion, the University celebrated Aycock’s installation in Kenan Memorial Stadium. Classes were canceled to allow students to attend. A procession of faculty led the way to the stadium, where North Carolina Gov. Luther Hodges presided over the ceremony, and the state’s Supreme Court Chief Justice administered the oath of office. The president of the student body, president of the alumni association, a Board of Trustees member and a faculty representative all greeted Aycock, acknowledging him as the new chancellor. Notably, even in 1957, the installation was televised.
Traditions live on
Roberts will take his oath of office as chancellor with his hand on the Durant Bible, North Carolina’s oldest family Bible. Englishman George Durant carried the Bible, printed in 1599, with him when he immigrated to America in 1658 and settled in what became Perquimans County in eastern North Carolina. The Durant Bible was passed down through the family until it was obtained by Rev. Charles Deems for the North Carolina Historical Society sometime between 1844 to 1857. The Durant Bible found a permanent home at Carolina’s Louis Round Wilson Library in 1929, where it is part of the North Carolina Collection.
The leatherbound Bible was first used in a chancellor installation ceremony for Paul Hardin in 1988, but it has also been used to swear in North Carolina governors and UNC System presidents.
Though it looks like a historic relic, the chancellor’s medallion has only been an installation tradition since 1995. Donated to the University during Carolina’s 1993 bicentennial observance by John Sanders, professor emeritus and a former director of the Institute of Government, the medallion originally hung from a white ribbon. Years of wear necessitated its replacement, and in 2013 a sterling silver chain of rectangles was forged and engraved with the names and dates of service of all previous chancellors. The chain also contains links in the shape of the Old Well and leaves from the Davie Poplar. The medallion itself portrays the University seal and its motto, “Lux, Libertas,” meaning “Light and Liberty.” University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans will place the medallion upon Roberts.
A bell was first added to the cupola of South Building in the early 1800s and was rung by the building’s custodian to signal class changes every day. The bell was automated in the 1930s and is now only rung for special occasions, such as the installation of a new chancellor. It will ring 13 times to honor Roberts as Carolina’s 13th chancellor.
