The University of North Carolina

UNC System Office

President Peter Hans — President of the University
Mr. Jonathan Pruitt — Chief Operating Officer
Ms. Norma Houston — Chief of Staff
Ms. Kim van Noort — Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer
Mr. Matthew Brody — Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer|
Ms. Jennifer Haygood — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Andrew P. Kelly — Senior Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Mr. Tom Shanahan — Senior Vice President for Governance, Legal and Risk & General Counsel
Ms. Samantha Carney — Senior Associate Vice President for Strategy and Policy
Dr. David English – Vice President for Academic Programs, Faculty & Research
Dr. Jim Ptsazynski — Vice President for Digital Learning
Ms. Elizabeth Morra — Vice President for Federal Affairs
Mr. Drew Moretz — Vice President for State Government Relations
Mr. Timothy Minor — Vice President for University Advancement
Ms. Lynne Sanders — Vice President for Compliance and Audit
Mr. Keith Werner — Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Ms. Meredith Steadman —Assistant Vice President and Secretary of the University
Mr. Earl Whipple — Vice President for University Communications
Mr. Brent Herron — Associate Vice President for Safety & Emergency Operations
Mr. M. Lindsay Bierman — Executive Director and General Manager, UNC-TV

Board of Governors The University of North Carolina

Randall “Randy” Ramsey, Chair
Wendy Floyd Murphy, Vice Chair
Pearl Burris-Floyd, Secretary

Class of 2021

Class of 2023

Emeritus Members

W. Louis Bissette, Jr.

Ex-Officio Member

Isaiah Green

History

In North Carolina, all the public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees are part of the University of North Carolina. The University of North Carolina Wilmington is one of the 17 constituent institutions of the multi-campus state university. The University of North Carolina, chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1789, was the first public university in the United States to open its doors and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. The first class was admitted in Chapel Hill in 1795. For the next 136 years, the only campus of the University of North Carolina was at Chapel Hill.

In 1877 the N.C. General Assembly began sponsoring additional institutions of higher education, diverse in origin and purpose. Five were historically black institutions, and another was founded to educate American Indians. Several were created to prepare teachers for the public schools. Others had a technological emphasis. One is a training school for performing artists.

In 1931 the N.C. General Assembly redefined the University of North Carolina to include three state-supported institutions: the campus at Chapel Hill (now the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University at Raleigh), and Woman’s College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). The new multi-campus university operated with one board of trustees and one president. By 1969 three additional campuses had joined the university through legislative action: the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In 1971 the General Assembly passed legislation bringing into the University of North Carolina the state’s ten remaining public senior institutions, each of which had until then been legally separate: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Pembroke State University, Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University. This action created the current 16-campus university. In 1985 the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential high school for gifted students, was declared an affiliated school of the university; in July 2007 NCSSM by legislative action became a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. In 1996 Pembroke State University was renamed the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and in 2008, the North Carolina School of the Arts was renamed the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, both through legislative action.

The UNC Board of Governors is the policy-making body legally charged with “the general determination, control, supervision, management, and governance of all affairs of the constituent institutions.” It elects the president, who administers the university. The 32 voting members of the Board of Governors are elected by the General Assembly for four-year terms. Former board chairmen and board members who are former governors of North Carolina may continue to serve for limited periods as non-voting members emeriti. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, or that student’s designee, is also a non-voting member.

Each of the 17 constituent institutions is headed by a chancellor, who is chosen by the Board of Governors on the president’s nomination and is responsible to the president. Each institution has a board of trustees, consisting of eight members elected by the Board of Governors, four appointed by the governor, and the president of the student body, who serves ex-officio. (The University of North Carolina School of the Arts has two additional ex-officio members and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Board of Trustees has 27 members.) Each board of trustees holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its institution on delegation from the Board of Governors.