ECU to celebrate founders day, March 8

East Carolina University will mark its 92nd anniversary when it celebrates Founders Day on Monday, March 8.

The formal Founders Day program begins at 11 a.m. in the theater at Mendenhall Student Center. It will include a processional of faculty, music by the ECU Symphony, and remarks by professors Henry Ferrell of the Department of History and Gene Lanier of the School of Education and former library director Kenneth Marks. The highlight of the afternoon will be the dedication of the renovated and expanded sections of Joyner Library.

The dedication will begin at 2 p.m. at the library’s entrance. Other events include an ice carving demonstration at 10 a.m. at the student center; the opening of the Queen Anne’s Revenge Exhibition in the North Carolina Collections area on the third floor of Joyner Library at 3 p.m., an Outstanding Alumni Day Reception at the School of Human Environmental Sciences at 2:30 p.m., a lecture by N.C. Teacher of the Year Rebecca Hoyle at 6:30 p.m. in Room 105 of the Fletcher Music Center, and a re-dedication of Cotten Residence Hall at 8 p.m. Celebration dinners will be served at Mendenhall Student Center and at Todd Dining Hall.

The public is invited to all of the Founders Day events. East Carolina was established under a bill passed in the state legislature on March 8, 1907. In the 1930s, the school observed its March 8, Founders Day on an annual basis. Two years ago, Chancellor Richard Eakin resumed the Founders Day tradition when ECU observed its 90th Anniversary.