University of North Carolina

Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was the first public university in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. Today, it is a multi-campus system composed of all 16 of North Carolina's public universities, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation's first public residential high school for gifted students. UNC campuses conferred 43,686 degrees for 2008–2009, the bulk of which were Bachelor's level with 31,055 degrees awarded. The University has a total enrollment of over 183,000 students and confers over 75% of all bachelor degrees in North Carolina in 2008.

History
Founded in 1789, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the oldest public university in the United States. In 1877, the State of North Carolina began sponsoring additional higher education institutions. Over time the state added a women's college, a land-grant university, five historically black institutions, and one to educate Native Americans. Others were created to prepare teachers for public education and to instruct performing artists.

During the Depression, the North Carolina General Assembly searched for cost savings within state government. Towards this effort in 1931, it redefined the University of North Carolina, which at the time referred exclusively to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the new Consolidated University of North Carolina was created to include the existing campuses of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The three campuses came under the leadership of just one board and one president. By 1969, three additional campuses had joined the Consolidated 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, North Carolina passed legislation bringing into the University of North Carolina all 16 public institutions that confer bachelor degrees. This round of consolidation granted each constituent institution a Chancellor and a Board of Trustees. 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 2007, the high school became a full member of the system.

Structure
Article IX of the North Carolina State Constitution provides authorization for the creation of the University of North Carolina. Under this authorization, Chapter 116 of the North Carolina General Statutes entrusts the University of North Carolina to its Board of Governors. The Board of Governors is the policy-making body 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. The current Chairwoman of the system's Board of Governors is Hannah Gage, who was preceded by Jim W. Phillips, Jr. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments (ASG) is also a non-voting member.

Each of the UNC campuses 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 university 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 UNC School of the Arts has two additional ex officio members; and the NC School of Science and Mathematics has a 27-member board as required by law.) Each board of trustees holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its campus on delegation from the Board of Governors.

Legal mandate
The legal authority and mandate for the University of North Carolina can be found in the North Carolina Constitution. Article 9 of the constitution deals with all forms of public education in the state. Sections 8 and 9 of that article stipulate the function and cost to students of the University of North Carolina. ''The General Assembly shall maintain a public system of higher education, comprising The University of North Carolina and such other institutions of higher education as the General Assembly may deem wise. The General Assembly shall provide for the selection of trustees of The University of North Carolina and of the other institutions of higher education, in whom shall be vested all the privileges, rights, franchises, and endowments heretofore granted to or conferred upon the trustees of these institutions. The General Assembly may enact laws necessary and expedient for the maintenance and management of The University of North Carolina and the other public institutions of higher education.'' The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.
 * Sec. 8. Higher education.
 * Sec. 9. Benefits of public institutions of higher education.

Institutions
Within its seventeen campuses, UNC houses two medical schools and one teaching hospital, ten nursing programs, a school of dentistry, and a school of pharmacy, as well as a veterinary school, two law schools, 15 schools of education, three schools of engineering, and a school for performing artists. The oldest university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first admitted students in 1795. The smallest and newest member is the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential two-year high school, founded in 1980 and a full member of the University since 2007. The largest university is North Carolina State University, with 33,819 students as of 2009 Fall.

While the official names of each campus are determined by the North Carolina General Assembly, abbreviations are determined by the individual school.

Presidents
An asterisk ( * ) denotes acting president.