The Business and Economics Building opened. In 1989, it was named for Joseph McKinley Bryan, Greensboro insurance executive and philanthropist.

Foust Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The men's basketball team, coached by Larry Hargett, won the Dixie Conference Championship and competed in the 1980 NCAA Division III Tournament.

Chancellor William E. Moran initiated the development of a long-range plan for the University.

Nearly 200 students joined the first social fraternities and sororities on campus.

For the first time in the University's history, enrollment exceeded 10,000 with 10,390 students enrolled for the 1980/81 school year.