UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, founded in 1789 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the nation’s oldest public university with a history of more than two centuries. And, 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the university
Let’s talk to you about the history of the school the Kenan and Flagler families and how we have grown to be one of the leading business schools in the world. This building, old East, was the tangible beginning of the University. James Kenan was one of the original trustees of the University of North Carolina. He was a general in the Revolutionary War and an early senator of North Carolina.
The University of North Carolina had just over 1,000 students enrolled as undergraduates in the fall of 1917. Some 60% of UNC graduates were moving into some kind of business upon leaving Chapel Hill, and University President Edward Graham sought to implement a four-year program that would teach sound business principles. In 1919, the president asked an economics professor named Dudley Carroll to organize the Department of Commerce, and that new venture was headquartered in the Attic here in Alumni Hall.
First offering a doctoral degree in 1928, here in Saunders Hall now Carolina Hall, the School’s PhD program today contributes to research on business topics and prepares young people for faculty careers.
The Early Curriculum:
The early curriculum included classes in accounting, insurance, finance, labor issues, and foreign trade. Some lectures were given by key business executives from the state and across the south.
Students between their junior and senior years spent their summers working as interns in businesses they might be interested in pursuing for their careers a practice that continues today. By 1920, the school had grown from 125 to 140 upperclassmen and 30% of the incoming freshman class declared a commerce major.
By then, it was the second largest major so they moved to Saunders Hall and then here to Bingham Hall by 1929. Thus, business education at Carolina was up and running In 1950, the school was renamed the School of Business Administration and by 1953 we moved here to Carroll Hall and stayed here until 1997.
MBA Program:
During this time some wonderful things happened. In 1952, we launched an MBA program. Then in 1985, we established the Master of Accounting Program. today, both of these programs are available online providing elite business education to students anywhere in the world.
EXECUTIVE PROGRAM:
In 1954, we created the Executive program. This was our first venture in educating working professionals. Then, in 1986, the Evening Executive MBA Program began. It was so successful that Weekend and Global Executive MBA programs were soon added.
The living proof of our success in educating executives is the newly expanded Paul J. Rizzo Center at Meadow Mont. It is here that our corporate relationships are furthered between the school’s faculty and business executives worldwide. So, by now you must be wondering.
Who exactly is Kenan and Flagler:
Who exactly is Kenan & Flagler, and how did the Business School acquire its name? Well, in 1991, the School took on the names of Kenan and Flagler to honor two families that were giants in business and industry in the 1800s and early 1900s. Together, they have provided generous funding to the University in Chapel Hill to further education in general but business education in particular.
William Rand Kenan Jr. was an 1894 Carolina graduate in chemistry whose scientific acumen helped him become a key player in the early worldwide expansion of the Union Carbide Company.
In 1899, Kenan made the acquaintance of Henry Morrison Flagler who had made a fortune with his partner John D Rockefeller in the formation of Standard Oil Company. They became friends and partners and were linked further when Flagler married Kenan’s sister, Mary Lily. Mary Kenan-Flagler passed away in 1917 and her estate established the Kenan Professorship Endowment which was a very important resource for the University during the Great Depression and continues today. William R. Kenan would later provide funds to the University to build Kenan Memorial Stadium in the 1920s. Upon his death in 1965, his estate created the William R Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust.
Frank Kenan, a cousin of William R. Kenan, a 1935 business graduate of Carolina, created a successful business career in Durham and Chapel Hill over the mid-1900s. And under Frank Kenan Stewardship, the Kenan and Flagler names remain dedicated to the leadership and support of the business world.
The Frank Hawkins
Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise was founded in 1985 to bring business, academics, and government together to explore problems of mutual interest and to promote better understanding.
Then, in 1987, the Kenan Center opened here to house this worthy enterprise. It was the first building built on what was to become the Business School campus and it gave the school national prominence. UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School moved into its new home on the south campus in 1997. The main structure was named for Hugh McColl, a 1957 Business School graduate. By the time of his retirement in 2001, McColl had led a small bank named NCNB into a national banking force now known as Bank of America. Building on our core values: excellence, leadership, integrity, community and teamwork, UNC Kenan-Flagler has evolved into one of the world’s most prominent business schools. Now on the cusp of its 100th birthday, UNC Kenan-Flagler is highly sought by Undergraduates, Masters candidates, PhD candidates, and executives. We aspire to build UNC Kenan-Flagler into the best Business School in the world, a worthy mission for the dawn of the school’s second century.