Lee Roberts pushes for a bigger, bolder UNC.

In May 2006, when George W. Bush was president and “Bad Day” was topping the pop music charts, UNC Chapel Hill trustees kicked off plans for a “world-class research and learning campus” two miles north of campus.

The Carolina North campus will provide a place for the university to grow and develop new models for research and education,” officials said in a follow-up report. The university then had about 27,700 students, including about 17,000 undergraduates.