It’s been a busy week at UNC Greensboro. The campus celebrated Founders Day, renamed a street, and hosted Chancellor Gilliam’s annual State of the Campus address. The week’s events reflected the progress the University has seen since it opened its doors to students 133 years ago while underscoring the unwavering purpose that guides UNCG.
As the Chancellor shared in his address on Tuesday, “Our North Star still remains unchanged: helping students achieve a higher standard of living and personal success and strengthening the state’s communities.”
A History of Access
On Oct. 5, 2025, the UNC Greensboro community observed Founders Day. The date commemorates the first day of classes in 1892 at the State Normal and Industrial School, the institution that would eventually become UNCG.
State Normal was the first public higher-education institution for women in North Carolina, giving 198 female students the opportunity for an affordable education after high school. According to archived charter documents, the school was founded to train female teachers and instruct them in “drawing, telegraphy, type-writing, stenography, and such other industrial arts as may be suitable to their sex and conducive to their support and usefulness.”
The inaugural president of the college, Charles Duncan McIver, led the staff and faculty. All students took classes in algebra, English, general and English history, Latin, physical geography and botany, drawing, vocal music, and physical culture, before continuing their education with majors in teaching (normal), business, or domestic science.
To honor the milestone that McIver and State Normal’s faculty played in women’s education, early Founders Day celebrations included placing a wreath on McIver’s grave at Green Hill Cemetery in Greensboro. To this day, a wreath adorns his statue outside Jackson Library, as well as his statue on the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh, each Founders Day.
Avenues for Progress
Since 1892, the University has evolved, as has its name. State Normal became The North Carolina College for Women in 1919 before settling in as the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina from 1932 to 1963. Black women were first admitted in 1956, before the latest name change to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1963. A year later, the University became coeducational when male students were officially admitted for the first time.
This week at a Founders Day tea in the Alumni House, the University announced that it would honor the Woman’s College years by renaming Administration Drive to Woman’s College Way. Several Woman’s College distinguished alumnae were in attendance for the “WC Way” announcement, pleased that a main avenue on UNCG’s historic campus now honors those early years of educational access for women.
Ready to Tackle New Challenges
Access continues to be a driving force for UNCG even today, as noted in the State of the Campus address on Oct. 7 where Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. encouraged faculty and staff to strive to do what’s best for the University despite challenges in the higher education landscape. If you missed it, view the recording here.
Gilliam praised the University’s work to boost enrollment growth, establish research initiatives like iCommand, the Bright Institute, and the Chancellor’s Initiative for Transformative Research, and drive workforce readiness programs like Humanities at Work and The Washington Center’s Career Readiness Bootcamp. But he also acknowledged the headwinds UNCG faces. Declining trust in higher education, funding uncertainty, and shifting workforce needs require creative solutions rather than approaching problems in the “same way we’ve always done it,” he said.
Using a sports analogy, Gilliam invited a member of the audience to join him on the stage to demonstrate an athletic stance. Jordan Farmer of the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement stepped up as a former football player who was very familiar with the crouched and ready-for-the-next-play position.
He explained that because defenders never know which way the receiver may go, they need to be ready to move in any direction. Comparing challenges to higher education to a receiver needing coverage, Gilliam joked “our receiver is doing all kinds of crazy stuff these days!”
“As an institution, we need to be ready to react, nimble, and quick,” he continued, before evoking other sports like tennis and softball. “The ball won’t hit us in the glove every time if we’re not ready to move.”
The Chancellor closed by reminding the packed house in Elliott University Center Auditorium that our founders persevered back in the late 1800s, despite public opinion that questioned why women should be educated at all.
“Here’s what I do know,” he concluded. “UNCG has always faced changes. We’re in this together and we’ll strive to do what’s best for the University.” It was an appropriate message for this Founders Day week of reflection, progress, and preparation.
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications.
