Garden's new Education Center will be dedicated

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For more information about University Day, see www.unc.edu/universityday.

UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Carolina officials will remember the university's past and celebrate its future during the 216th annual University Day Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall. Gov. Beverly Perdue will give the keynote speech at the celebration, which begins at 11 a.m. Classes will be canceled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Perdue, the 73rd governor of North Carolina, is the state's first woman governor. She previously served as lieutenant governor for eight years. That tenure followed two terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives and five terms in the state Senate, where she became the first woman to serve as a chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Before entering public service, Perdue, who holds a Ph.D. in education administration, worked as a public school teacher and as director of geriatric services at a community hospital in her hometown of New Bern.

University Day marks the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the institution's first building and the oldest state university building in the nation. The Carolina community first celebrated University Day in 1877.¬