Chancellor Installation Records

On July 1, 1965, Charlotte College became the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the fourth campus of the UNC System. A new board of trustees was appointed, which selected the first chancellor for the University. Bonnie E. Cone, who had been the president of Charlotte College, served as acting chancellor until Dean W. Colvard was installed as chancellor on April 1, 1966. He served until 1978, and E. K. Fretwell, Jr. became chancellor on April 6, 1979, filling the role for ten years. On April 21, 1990, James H. Woodward became the third chancellor of the university, followed by Philip L. Dubois on July 15, 2005.

UNC Charlotte’s Alma Mater is part of an “Academic Festival March” composed for UNC Charlotte by James Helme Sutcliffe, a Charlotte composer and music critic who lived in Germany at the time of the work's composition.

Dr. Loy Witherspoon, professor of religious studies, commissioned the March in 1965 when he learned that Charlotte College would become a campus of The University of North Carolina. The March was first performed in 1966 at the installation of Dean W. Colvard as UNC Charlotte’s first chancellor. Afterwards, it was performed as a recessional at every Commencement during Dean Colvard’s tenure as chancellor.

Upon hearing the March Bonnie Cone envisioned the final refrain as an alma mater and shared this thought with Dr. Robert Rieke, a professor of history. On a 1990 trip to Germany, Rieke picked up a recording of the March from Sutcliffe and began writing words to fit the final refrain. On Christmas Eve, 1991, he sent Bonnie Cone the words and music as a Christmas present to her and to the university, from which he had retired a year earlier. Chancellor James H. Woodward approved the composition as the university’s Alma Mater in April 1992. It was sung for the first time at Commencement the following May and has been performed at every Commencement since.