Student opposition to North Carolina’s 1963 Speaker Ban Law will be the subject of the annual Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture Thursday, April 11, at the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Former UNC student body president Robert Spearman (’65) will discuss the controversial law that barred certain individuals from speaking on campus. Known members of the Communist Party, those who advocated the overthrow of the federal or state government, and those who pleaded the Fifth Amendment when questioned about communist or subversive activities were all prohibited from speaking at state-supported campuses.

The 5:30 p.m. lecture, sponsored by the North Carolina Collection and University Archives and Records Management Services, is free and open to the public.

The passage of the Speaker Ban Law fifty years ago drew almost immediate reaction from students and faculty, who protested that the law infringed on their rights to free speech. Students invited banned speakers to address their classmates from the sidewalk on Franklin Street and eventually initiated a lawsuit in federal court.

Spearman, now an attorney for a Raleigh law firm, testified before a state commission tasked with revising the law, which was eventually overturned in 1968.

Prior to the lecture, attendees can view the North Carolina Collection Gallery exhibition A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC beginning at 5 p.m.

The exhibition uses original letters, documents, and photographs to examine the University’s long history of free speech controversies from the nineteenth century to the present.

The exhibition runs through June 2, 2013.

National Public Radio newscaster and radio personality Carl Kasell will be part of a free public program on April 16.

“An Evening with Carl Kasell” will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Genome Sciences Building, Room GS 200. Joining Kasell in conversation will be WUNC radio host Eric Hodge and UNC journalism student Mike Rodriguez. The discussion will cover Kasell’s career, his involvement with the early days of WUNC radio, and his experience breaking such news stories as the space shuttle Challenger explosion and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Kasell is a 1956 graduate of UNC. He and fellow UNC broadcast great Charles Kuralt helped to establish WUNC as a student-run FM station in 1953.

Starting at 5 p.m., attendees can enjoy a reception and view items from UNC’s University Archives related to Kasell’s time at UNC, his involvement with the university radio station, and his career at NPR.

The Genome Sciences Building is located at 250 Bell Tower Road, and is adjacent to the Bell Tower. The Ram’s Head Parking Deck provides convenient visitor parking.

Kasell, a Goldsboro, N.C., native first joined National Public Radio in 1975 as a news announcer for Weekend All Things Considered. From 1979 until his retirement in 2009, he was the daily news announcer for NPR’s Morning Edition.

He has since found new fame as the official judge and scorekeeper for the NPR weekly quiz show Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Lucky winners receive Kasell’s familiar voice recording a greeting on their home voice mail.

Kasell is a 2010 inductee to the National Radio Hall of Fame. Other honors include the Leo C. Lee Friend of Public Radio News Award for lasting commitment to public radio journalism (1996) and induction to the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame (2004).

UNC Friends of the Library, the University Archives and Records Management Services, WUNC, and the UNC School of Journalism are the sponsors of this event.

“When I Was at UNC”: Preserving the Work and Legacy of Student Organizations through Documentation

Student organizations have long been integral to the UNC experience, with more than 600 clubs, societies, and other groups in existence today.

On Tuesday, March 26, the University Archives will host “‘When I Was at UNC’: Preserving the Work and Legacy of Student Organizations through Documentation” at 5:30 p.m. in the UNC Student Union Room 3201.

The program will describe how student organizations can make their mark on Carolina permanent and ensure that their accomplishments are remembered by future generations.

It will also feature a display of manuscripts and photographs on the history of student organizations at UNC, scrapbooks from early fraternities, the original charter of the Campus YMCA, and old Yackety Yack yearbooks.

The event, sponsored by University Archives and Records Management Services and the Office of Student Activities and Organizations, will be presented by graduate students Carla Davis-Castro and Morgan Jones.

Students who have or know of materials relating to student organizations at UNC can also contact UNC Archivist Jay Gaidmore at (919) 962-6402 or gaidmore@email.unc.edu.

Related links:

• Why Donate Your Organization’s Records (Information from University Archives and Records Management Services)
• Student organizations virtual exhibit from the Virtual Museum of University History

Download exhibit poster (pdf)

A new exhibition in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library explores the long history of free speech controversies at UNC.

A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC will use original letters, documents and photographs to examine some of the University’s most contentious moments from the nineteenth century to the present.

It marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Speaker Ban. The controversial 1963 law forbade known members of the Communist party or those who advocated the overthrow of the federal or state government from speaking on campus. The Ban was overturned in 1968.

Visitors to the exhibit will see original materials from the Library’s North Carolina Collection, Southern Historical Collection, and University Archives and Records Management Services. Highlights include:

• A page from the early 19^th century “Laws of the University of North Carolina” barring students from delivering “indecent, profane, or immoral” speeches.

• The November 1939 “Sex Issue” of the Buccaneer. The student council ordered this issue of the student humor magazine burned. The Buccaneer had frequent run-ins with campus authorities and was banned from campus at one point.

• Video of UNC police chief Arthur Beaumont ordering Herbert Aptheker, a member of the Communist Party, off the campus in March 1966 during the Speaker Ban.

• A letter from David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to the Daily Tar Heel. Students shouted down Duke when he attempted to speak on campus in January 1975. He criticized the protesting students for “suppressing” his right to speak and for limiting their classmates’ right to hear.

• Postcards sent to Chancellor James Moeser as part of the Family Policy Council’s organized protest of the University’s summer reading selection for 2002, Approaching the Qu’ran: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells.

On April 11, former UNC student body president Robert Spearman (’65) will deliver the annual Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture in conjunction with the exhibition.

Spearman—now an attorney in Raleigh—will recall student efforts to repeal the Speaker Ban, including his own testimony before a state commission tasked with revising the law.

Meg Tuomala

Meg Tuomala, Electronic Records Archivist

Meg began Dec. 1, 2012, as Electronic Records Archivist in the University Archives and Records Management Services.

Meg will lead efforts within the Archives to manage and preserve born-digital materials, and will assist other special collections units at UNC in doing so. She will also support UNC faculty, students, and staff in depositing digital materials into the Carolina Digital Repository (CDR), and will work with other library staff to define and implement repository policies, workflows, and capabilities.

Meg was most recently Digital Archivist at the University Archives of Washington University in St. Louis. She worked previously at UNC as the Records Service Archivist.

She holds an M.S.L.S. and a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Romance Languages from UNC.

Contact Meg: (919) 962-6402 or mtuomala@email.unc.edu.

Kirill Tolpygo

Kirill Tolpygo, Librarian for Slavic and East European Resources

Kirill began Jan. 1 as Librarian for Slavic and East European Resources.

He will build collections of Slavic and East European resources and will develop and deliver reference, outreach, and instructional services to faculty and students. He will also serve as Curator of the André Savine Collection.

Kirill most recently held this position in an interim capacity, before which he was a cataloger for the Savine Collection.

He holds an M.L.S. and a M.A. in linguistics from the University at Buffalo and a B.A. in linguistics from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Contact Kirill: (919) 962-3740 or ktolpygo@email.unc.edu.

Danianne Mizzy

Danianne Mizzy, Head of Kenan Science Information Services

Danianne began Jan. 7 as the Library’s first head of Kenan Science Information Services.

Leading a team of librarians, she will provide coordination of information services for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in the sciences and vision for the development of innovative approaches to e-science and data management. She will also collaborate with staff at the UNC Health Sciences Library to build strong interdisciplinary science collections and services.

Danianne’s prior positions include Engineering Librarian at the Monell Engineering Library at Columbia University and  Director of the Ewell Sale Stewart Library and Archives at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

She holds an M.L.I.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.F.A. in design from the Yale School of Drama, and an A.B. in International Relations from Brown University.

Contact Danianne: (919) 962-1188 or mizzy@email.unc.edu.

Download flier (pdf)

Silent Sam in History and Memory
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013
Free and open to the public
Wilson Special Collections Library
5 p.m. Display viewing | 5:30 p.m. Program
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

The early history of UNC’s controversial “Silent Sam” statue will be the topic of a free public lecture Jan. 22 at the Wilson Special Collections Library. “Silent Sam in History and Memory” marks the centennial of the Confederate memorial.

The program will consist of the following:

• Silent Sam exhibit from the Wilson Library special collections – 5 p.m.

View photographs and postcards; the address that Julian Shakespeare Carr delivered at the monument’s dedication on June 2, 1913; letters about UNC’s involvement in construction of the monument; and materials documenting protests against the monument.

• Original poetry reading – 5:30 p.m.

Will McInerney and C.J. Suitt, Chapel Hill community activists, will perform an original poem about the history of racism in Chapel Hill. The two are members of the Real Silent Sam Coalition and the Sacrificial Poets.

• “Silent Sam in History and Memory” Lecture – 5:35 p.m.

Fitz Brundage, William B. Umstead Distinguished Professor of History at UNC, and doctoral student Adam Domby will discuss the original impulse behind the monument, the role of the University community in building it, and changing views of the statue over time.

The lecture will also mark the formal release of the Library website Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina. Brundage was scholarly advisor to the site, which documents the state’s history through its monuments, shrines, and public art.

Silent Sam is one of 200 current entries, each one described, geo-referenced, and linked to a database of thousands of digitized postcards, photographs, print publications, and manuscript materials. Brundage and his students continue to add to the site.

The lecture is sponsored by the University Archives and Records Management Services in Wilson Library, Friends of the Library, and the Chapel Hill Historical Society.

By North Carolina statute, University records are public. Even confidential records belong to the citizens of North Carolina and can only be destroyed by consent of the state Department of Cultural Resources. However, not all documents must be kept in perpetuity.

The University Archives and Records Management Services (UARMS) recently developed new records retention instructions, called a schedule, for the entire University and the UNC General Administration.

“Dealing with papers, emails, and electronic files is a headache for most people,” said Lawrence Giffin, records services archivist in UARMS. “We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for them to know what the right thing is to do with these public documents.”

The schedule gives precise guidelines for 18 categories such as administrative, personnel, student, and financial records. While some types of records need only be held for a year, others must remain on file for several years. Still others must go to the University Archives in Wilson Library as part of the permanent historical record of the University and the state.

To make decisions easier, UARMS has created a FAQ and several quick reference guidelines for common topics such as managing faculty records and managing email.

Discarding personal, junk, and general emails is usually fine, said Giffin. Beyond that? “Each employee has a responsibility to determine whether the email has enduring value according to the guidelines.”

The schedule update also accounts for new types of communications, such as Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts.

Finally, Giffin said that he and his colleagues are available to assist, and they will even make house calls. “We can help most departments set up a process that will make records archiving just a routine part of University work.”

Contact Giffin at lgiffin@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-6402.

Related Links

• General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule
• About Records Management Services at UNC (with links to FAQ and other resources)