Sanders, John L.

John L. Sanders (1927- ) taught at and/or directed The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute of Government from 1956 to 1994, with interruptions. The IOG provides training, research, publishing, and consulting for North Carolina's state and local governments. Sanders was also directly involved in state and local government, working on the creation of a statewide community college system and on state constitutional and reapportionment issues. He helped design a plan for desegregating The University of North Carolina and, as Vice President for Planning for the University, 1973-1978, helped complete the its first long-range plan. He was active on The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Buildings and Grounds Committee and in The University of North Carolina Faculty Assembly. .

John L. Sanders was born in Four Oaks, N.C., on 30 June 1927. He attended North Carolina State College in 1944-1945 and again in 1947 after serving on active duty in the United States Naval Reserve in 1945-1946. He then transferred to The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he was elected student body president and earned his A.B. in history in 1950. After pursuing a year of graduate study in history at The University of North Carolina, Sanders entered The University of North Carolina law school in 1951. He served as associate editor of the North Carolina Law Review . He received his J.D. in 1954. Sanders spent the next year as a law clerk to Chief Judge John J. Parker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and in 1955 he became an associate at Manning & Fulton, a Raleigh law firm.

In 1956, Sanders returned to The University of North Carolina as an instructor and assistant director of the Institute of Government, the largest university-based state and local government training and research organization in the United States. The Institute of Government was founded in 1931 to provide training, consulting, and research activities for North Carolina's state and local governments. Through his affiliation with the Institute, Sanders became heavily involved in research and advisory roles to government. From 1957 to 1960, he was in charge of research for the Reorganization of State Government Commission. In 1961-1962, Sanders was on leave from the Institute of Government in order to serve as full-time secretary to Governor Terry Sanford's Commission on Education Beyond the High School, whose recommendations led to the creation of a statewide system of community colleges and the development of schools which later became part of The University of North Carolina. He also assisted North Carolina Constitutional Commission and the North Carolina State Constitution Study Commission. In 1965-1966, Sanders was advisor to the General Assembly which reapportioned itself and redrew congressional districts.

Sanders help found the State Capitol Foundation, an organization devoted to restoring the North Carolina capitol building, and served as its president between 1976 and 1991. His love of architecture dated from his youth; Sanders had planned to study architecture while at North Carolina State.

As his involvement in state government deepened, Sanders's academic career also advanced. Sanders was named assistant professor of public law and government in 1957 and full professor in 1965. Sanders became the director of the Institute of Government in 1962 and he continued in that position until 1973, when he was appointed vice president for planning for The University of North Carolina. In that position, he helped to draft the University's first long-range plan. Sanders resumed the directorship of the Institute of Government in 1979 and held it until 1992. Among other activities during his university career, Sanders served as chairman of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Buildings and Grounds Committee (1984-1994), president of the Faculty Assembly, member of The University of North Carolina Bicentennial Observance Planning Committee, and member of The University of North Carolina Press Board of Governors. He retired from the faculty in 1994.