The time for class registration is approaching. Across campus, students anxiously plan and re-plan their schedules, meet with their academic advisors, and wildly hope they aren’t waitlisted for the one class they need to graduate. Registration has always been a stressful experience – for today’s students and for Seahawks of the past. 

Before UNC Wilmington adopted the convenient registration technology used today, students had to register for classes in-person, which entailed the most tedious step of registration: waiting in line. Records from the UNCW Registration Advisory Committee explain the process further. During registration day in the 1980s, students had to enter Trask Coliseum, where they received a form and blank schedule. Getting inside took hours. Many students went to great lengths to be the first in line at Trask, as a 1984 clip from the WWAY Television News Archive shows. From the fashion and hairstyles to the Michael Jackson reference, the video is quintessentially '80s:

Inside Trask Coliseum, students waited in more lines to snag their desired classes. The process was lengthy and often unrewarding. In the 1987 Fledgling yearbook, one student writer lamented: "At registration I stand in line for three hours to get three classes out of ten which have nothing to do with my major" (pg. 76). 

Even after enduring long lines and bustling crowds at Trask, students’ registration was not over. The Registration Advisory Committee outlined registration as a nine-step process that required students to trek to different locations and complete multiple forms. According to one committee document, a UNCW student in 1980 had to complete the following steps once they finished their schedule in Trask: 

• Go to Hoggard Hall to have their schedule checked for problems
• Walk to the data entry cluster to have their classes entered in the computer
• Pay tuition at Hinton James Hall
• The following day, pick up their printed class schedule at the Registrar’s Office

Class registration is anxiety-inducing for college students of any era. To learn more about how past Seahawks viewed registration and how registration processes and technology changed, visit the UNCW Library Digital Collections or view our University Archives finding aids.

Sources

• Registration Advisory Committee, 1980-1981, 1985-1987, Box: 13, Folder: 22. University of North Carolina Wilmington Committee and Administration Records, UA-RG-08. University Archives.

This semester, UNC Wilmington students are attending an assortment of classes. Some feature familiar topics like psychology and English, while others differ from the standard university curriculum: courses in Game Theory, Podcasting, and even Advanced Yoga Teaching are all available this year. The 2026 academic catalogue boasts a variety of topics; similarly, course selections in UNCW's past were far from limited. Class schedules in the 1940s and 1950s featured subjects still taught today, including staples like biology, history, and economics. In addition to conventional classes, however, were courses that modern Seahawks may find unusual.   

During the 1940s and 1950s, students could register for a host of classes at Wilmington College (later named UNC Wilmington) through the school's Vocational and Technical Department. The department provided courses to "...supplement and broaden [students'] college preparation," according to a 1953 bulletin (pg. 54). These classes were not the first of their kind in Wilmington. Vocational and technical training had been available to the area's residents since 1940, educating skilled, sorely needed workers for the country during World War II. Wilmington College continued the trend into the 1950s with vocational class offerings like Aircraft and Engines, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Bricklaying, Machine Shop, Sheet Metal, Radio and Appliance Servicing, Mechanical Drawing, and more (Bulletin 1953, pg. 53-54).

Wilmington College, which was a two-year school before 1961, emphasized the importance of meeting the needs of southeastern North Carolina. The college's bulletin stated that courses prepared students for "...all phases of community life," and would satisfy the demand for both academic and vocational programs (pg. 11). The Vocational and Technical Department allowed students to pursue their academic interests while building practical skills. In the Aircraft and Engines class, for example, student learned about engine theory, aerodynamics, welding, and even woodworking (Bulletin 1953, pg. 54). A graduating exercises program from 1949 shows that one of Wilmington College's first graduates was, in fact, an Aircraft and Engines student (pg. 4).

To learn more about the Vocational and Technical Department, read over the Wilmington College bulletins and catalogues available online, or view more photographs of the school's vocational courses. 

October is coming to an end. As the UNC Wilmington community prepares to celebrate a long-awaited Halloween holiday, the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History is observing another occasion: American Archives Month. Every October, archivists share information about archives, historical records, and their value to the public. University Archives is celebrating both Halloween and American Archives Month by writing this week’s blog post about Apparition, a defunct UNCW creative magazine dedicated to all things horror, suspense, and Halloween. 

Many members of the UNCW community are familiar with Atlantis, the University’s student-led creative magazine. Since 1971, Atlantis’ team has carefully selected and published the prose, poetry, artwork, and photography of talented college students from across North Carolina. Apparition, a Halloween publication, was at different times sponsored by Atlantis and the UNCW English Club, though student organizational records do not clearly indicate which group created the magazine. An article from the October 5, 1977 Seahawk newspaper mentions both organizations in a campus-wide search for “suspense or horror short stories” for the Apparition, suggesting that the magazine was a joint effort between the two student groups. Although the circumstances surrounding Apparition's creation are uncertain, the publication clearly resembles Atlantis. Like Atlantis, it features short stories, poems, artwork, and captivating front covers.

There are few references to Apparition in student periodicals, but an article from the October 20, 1976, Seahawk speaks positively about the magazine. According to the article, the 1975 edition of the Apparition was so popular that every copy was gone within just two hours. Perhaps students were drawn to the magazine’s pumpkin-colored front covers and the intricate—although eerie—hand-drawn illustrations. Others might have been intrigued by the spooky poems and short stories that bore titles like “The Hunted,” “There were Footsteps,” and “Peering into the Darkness.”

Although the Apparition is no longer being published, you can still view this Halloween-themed magazine by visiting the CSENCAH Reading Room on the second floor of Discovery Hall during our open hours. Or, contact us to make an appointment.

Sources

• English Club, 1983-1988, undated, Box: 25, Folder: 10, University of North Carolina Wilmington Student Affairs Records UA-RG-11, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/136239.
• English Club Seeking Stories (1977 October 5). The Seahawk, page 13. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/2298/rec/4.
• Lance Smith: Working With A Growing Magazine (1976 October 20). The Seahawk, page 12.          https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/3192/rec/6.