University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Honors Office..

The honors program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was established in 1954 within the College of Arts and Sciences to serve academically gifted freshmen. In 1958, the Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded the honors program with a five-year, $100,000 grant to expand its offerings. The position of assistant dean for honors was created in 1967 to increase recruitment efforts, and by the end of the decade, more than 100 freshmen were being admitted yearly to the program. In 1979, a faculty committee produced a report that evaluated the program and made recommendations for its future expansion. During the 1990s, Associate Dean for Honors Robert C. Allen oversaw the $5.7 million renovation of the Graham Memorial building and the creation of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence (JCUE). JCUE was housed in Graham Memorial and became the home of the Honors Office when the building opened to the university community in the fall of 1999.

The honors program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was established in 1954, within the College of Arts and Sciences, to serve academically gifted freshmen. Prior to the program's inception, gifted students were only recognized through the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma societies, or, beginning in 1917, through senior-level, departmental honors degrees. The honors program was initially known as the Superior Student Program and had an inaugural class of 26 during the 1954-1955 school year. The students completed courses in English, mathematics, social science and philosophy. The program was considered a success, and in 1956, sophomore courses were added. In 1958, the Committee on Superior Students, chaired by Professor of Mathematics E.A. Cameron, was successful in securing a five-year, $100,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Work began in 1959 to expand the honors program to include courses for upperclassmen and to establish a supervising Honors Council.

The position of assistant dean for honors was introduced in 1967 to centralize the program, increase the opportunities offered to honors students, and improve recruitment efforts. By the end of the 1960s, more than 100 freshmen were being admitted yearly to the program. In 1979, the Committee to Study the Honors Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, chaired by Professor of History Richard A. Soloway, produced a report, referred to as the Soloway Report, that evaluated the initial goals of the honors program, examined its current state, and made recommendations for its future expansion.

In the late 1980s, the idea of constructing an undergraduate honors center emerged under the assistant deanship of Robert C. Allen, professor of radio, television, and motion pictures. A number of proposals were considered, and Graham Memorial, which had not been renovated since it opened in 1931 as the university's first student union, was selected to become the new facility. In addition to housing the Honors Office, the renovated facility was intended to be the locus for all types of academic undergraduate involvement, under the umbrella of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence (JCUE). Associate Dean Robert C. Allen oversaw the development of this $5.7 million project. Architectural planning began in 1992 and construction lasted from 1998 until 1999. In the fall of 1999, the rededication of Graham Memorial marked the opening of JCUE to the university community.