University of North Carolina at Wilmington University of North Carolina at Wilmington The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), sometimes referred to as UNC Wilmington or affectionately as The Dub, is a public university in Wilmington, North Carolina. UNCW enrolls 16,886 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students each year as part of the 17-campus University of North Carolina System. UNCW opened its doors on September 4, 1947 as Wilmington College. At the time the school operated as a junior college, offering freshman-level courses to 238 students during the first school year, 75% of whom were veterans returning from military service following World War II. Under the control
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Dean W. Colvard (1913–2007) was appointed the first chancellor of the young university in 1966. A North Carolina native, Colvard had served as president of Mississippi State University (MSU). At MSU he was the first president to defy university policy of not playing against integrated teams when he ordered the men's basketball team to play Loyola University Chicago in 1963. At UNC Charlotte, Colvard took on the challenge of converting the school from a small college to a four-year member of the UNC system. Indeed, he had been chosen specifically because UNC system officials believed the newly-minted UNC Charlotte needed