UNC System History

University Archives serves as the repository for official records of all divisions of the University of North Carolina Wilmington as well as other items related to the history of the University. We collect, preserve, arrange, describe, and make available these materials in accordance with the Records Retention and Dispositions Schedule for Institutions of the University of North Carolina System.

This University Archives collection includes Board of Governors meeting minutes and records from the UNC System Office such as committee reports, legal records, newsletters, and photographs from the 1960s to the present.

Records include minutes and meeting files of the Board of Governors starting in 1972; minutes of its preliminary Planning Committee, January-June 1972; and files, including minutes, of its Committee on Personnel and Tenure, 1972-1998. For most of the period covered by these records, the Board had four standing committees: Committee on Budget and Finance; Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs; Committee on Personnel and Tenure; and Committee on University Governance. The Committee on Personnel and Tenure is the only standing committee whose minutes and meeting files are held by UNC-CH in this collection.

The General Assembly appointed a new Board of Trustees of one-hundred members, at least ten of whom were to be women, to serve as the governing body of the system beginning July 1, 1932. The records of the Board of Trustees of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (System) include minutes of meetings of the Board of Trustees and of its Executive Committee, 1932-1972, secretary records, and committee records.

The records of William C. Friday's administration cover the period from his election as Consolidated University President on October 26, 1956, until his retirement as President of the University of North Carolina System in March 1986.

This collections contains the legislative papers of North Carolina State Senator John J. Burney, Jr. Senator Burney represented New Hanover County from 1966-1972. The legislative papers consist primarily of correspondence, bills, publications, printed materials and newspaper clippings, covering a broad spectrum of social, economic and political issues during his time in office. Topics include taxation, environmentalism, transportation and infrastructure, Wilmington College (now UNCW), and water resources.