UNC wants to bring back the old name of Rams Dining Hall

Carolina Dining Services wants to recreate the legacy of Rams Head Dining Hall by bringing back the name Chase Dining Hall.

The space where students eat — which is currently named Rams Head Dining Hall at Chase Hall — is inside a building called Chase Hall, named for former UNC President Harry Chase, who served from 1919 to 1930.

CDS wants the official name of the dining space to become Chase Dining Hall at Rams Head Plaza.

Scott Myers, interim director of Auxiliary Services at UNC, said he felt it is important to honor Chase’s legacy.

“We realized we needed to have Chase Hall in the name, because the building was constructed to honor President Chase,” he said. “So we had Chase Hall put on the outside of the building, but because we had already developed the Rams Head brand, we kept the dining hall name as Rams Head Dining Hall at Chase Hall. But that’s just a big mouthful, and so everybody always leaves off the ‘Chase Hall.’”

Myers said they didn’t feel like the current name honored President Chase the way it should.

“Looking back on it, we kind of realized that people were still calling it Rams, and so we decided to start figuring out a plan to basically change that,” he said. “We decided to call the building Chase Hall, and the dining operation Chase Dining Hall.”

But not everyone is quite ready to give up Rams Head Dining Hall.

“I’m not about it,” sophomore Gaston Sanders said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think Rams Head just makes it feel more homey. I don’t think there’s any reason not to call it Rams Head. It’s just messing with a habit that a lot of people have already developed and making life more difficult than it needs to be.”

Myers said they’ve anticipated this sort of reaction.

“People have it in their heads that it’s Rams,” Myers said. “When we tried calling it Rams Head Dining Hall at Chase Hall, it just didn’t stick. We’re in the process now of changing all the print materials and notifying other departments so that people can build it into their jargon and at least not get confused when we advertise Chase Hall.”

Junior Ashley King said she likes the new name.

“If you say Rams, sometimes people don’t know if you mean the dining hall, the gym or the apartments, so maybe it would actually help alleviate some of the confusion,” King said. “Just the other day I told my friend that one of our other friends was watching the Elite Eight game at Rams, and she thought I meant the dining hall instead of the apartment.”

Myers said he wants to use the renaming opportunity to present more information about Chase.

“This summer, we’ll be looking at ways to put some information out about President Chase and his tenure so that people can actually relate it to something,“ he said.

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