Column: Define for yourself why you think UNC is great

In lieu of something more maudlin, I would like to use my farewell to both UNC and the Daily Tar Heel to shout out my soon to be fellow UNC alum Adam Reed, creator of the FX television show Archer.

When we first arrive at UNC, we are normally inundated with various accolades that are meant to inspire pride in going here.

For example, we go to the first public university in the United States, which is consistently ranked the best value public university, has five — well, now, six — basketball national championships, and is located in the “Southern Part of Heaven.”

The fact that we are so often bombarded with these details is not necessarily bad; school pride in and of itself is not pernicious and can in fact be a good thing.

But it does, at the very least, engender a propensity to hold these metrics on a pedestal.

It seems, though to be fair it may just be my cynicism at play, that this phenomenon has only increased in frequency since the athletic-academic scandal.

However, one of the things the athletic-academic scandal has laid bare is the fact that we should be wary of ascribing any serious value to these rankings.

Instead, I personally would recommend defining for yourself what makes you proud to go to UNC.

Which, for me at least, is where Mr. Reed comes in.

I began watching Archer my first year of college, per my roommate’s recommendation, and have been a devout viewer ever since.

It was only a couple of years later that I found out that the show’s creator had also gone to UNC.

But when I did it led to a genuine moment of pride in my university that had not been spoon fed to me.

Here was a guy who had graduated from the same university as me and consistently cranks out Emmy Award-winning content that also reaches millions of viewers.

And whenever I was in need of material to procrastinate working on class assignments or editorials that I did not pitch, Archer was always there.

So thank you, Adam. I know there are numerous reasons that motivate you to make such quality content, but your show is a prime reason that anyone who loves film and television — and comedy, for that matter — should be proud to go to UNC.