LIFE in Division I
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SPRING 2012 A Magazine for the Faculty, Alumni and Friends of North Carolina Central University A NEW DIRECTION FOR HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES STREAMLINING NCCU TEACHING THE TEACHERS OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED LIFE IN DIVISION I: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES contents FEATURES 10 A NEW DIRECTION FOR HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES Chancellor Charlie Nelms examines the new forces shaping higher education and maps a plan for the days ahead. 12 THE NEXT GENERATION OF NCCU LEADERS As baby boomers retire, identifying strong 32 leaders for the future is essential. 18 15 STREAMLINING NCCU With a focus on the university’s mission and an eye on financial realities, NCCU restructures its curriculum and realigns budgetary priorities. COVER STORY 18 LIFE IN DIVISION I: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES Athletics Director Ingrid Wicker-McCree discusses the benefits and challenges of competing at a higher level. 28 A HISTORY OF RIGOROUS SCHOLARSHIP 28 38 46 With its focus on research, NCCU’s Department of History has long been a launching pad for Ph.D.s. 32 TEACHING THE TEACHERS DEPARTMENTS 4 Letter From the Chancellor 6 Campus News 46 Sports 50 Class Notes OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED Professors Diane Wormsley and Beth Harris are the driving forces behind the only program of its kind in the state. SPRING 2012 A Magazine on the cover / for the Faculty, Alumni and Friends of North Carolina Central University Spencer Jones, a sophomore from Shelby, N.C., A NEW DIRECTION 38 FOR HISTORICALLY sizes up a putt. Golf is one of 14 sports — seven each for men and women BEVERLY McIVER: PAYING IT FORWARD BLACK COLLEGES STREAMLINING NCCU Artist, professor, film star — and her sister's keeper. TEACHING THE — in which NCCU is competing this year as a full member of the Division TEACHERS OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED 42 PROVIDING A FOUNDATION I Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. FOR FUTURE SUCCESS Under new leadership, the MBA program gets an overhaul. LIFE IN DIVISION I: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES 2 NCCU NOW SPRING 2012 SPRING 2012 NCCU NOW 3 FROM THE CHANCELLOR NCCU BOARD OF TRUSTEES: LYCEUM GOSPEL CONCERT HOMECOMING CHAIR Dr. Dwight D. Perry / VICE CHAIR Robert E. Dolan SECRETARY Avon L. Ruffin Dear Alumni and Friends: MEMBERS: John Barbee George Hamilton It’s time to report some good news! Charles J. Baron Paul R. Pope Jr. Harold T. Epps Carlton Thornton Nancy Wysenski Wendell McCain North Carolina Central University has Kim D. Saunders Reginald McCrimmon embarked on an EEEA — expectations, encouragement, empowerment and ac- ADMINISTRATION: CHANCELLOR countability — strategy in its support for Charlie Nelms the all-male Centennial Scholars and the PROVOST AND VICE CHANCELLOR OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS all-female Annie Day Shepard Scholars. Debbie Thomas VICE CHANCELLOR AND CHIEF OF STAFF While other universities are experiment- Susan Hester ing with single interventions, we are deploying intrusive advising, mentoring, VICE CHANCELLOR OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT service learning and learning communities to engage our students in multiple Lois Deloatch VICE CHANCELLOR OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION supportive relationships and experiences. Wendell Davis VICE CHANCELLOR OF RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT It appears to be working. So far, retention is more than 80 percent for both Hazell Reed groups. We began the women’s program in fall 2011. With one semester of VICE CHANCELLOR OF STUDENT AFFAIRS data, they have demonstrated a promising average GPA of 2.68 and a retention AND ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT Kevin Rome rate of 94 percent. The Centennial Scholars program was launched in the fall of 2010 and has had a 100 percent retention rate for the first cohort of 57 men CONTRIBUTORS: with an overall GPA of 3.1. For the second cohort of 150, retention is 83 percent EDITORS Ayana D. Hernandez, Rob Waters DESIGN AND LAYOUT Pandora Frazier with a GPA of 2.79, and the third cohort, after just one semester, has a retention PHOTOGRAPHY AND ILLUSTRATION: rate of 97 percent with a GPA of 2.45. Robert Lawson, Chioke D. Brown, Kompleks Creative We are working very hard to find the formula that will enhance institutional WRITERS: effectiveness, and particularly student success. It is a fact that nationwide, the Charlie Nelms Rob Waters graduation rate for African-American college students is 43 percent. However, Cynthia Fobert Myra Wooten Kyle Serba Anita B. Walton given the academic profile of the students we admit today, I believe that any- thing less than a six-year rate of 60 percent is not good enough. This means NCCU NOW magazine is published by North Carolina making significant changes, because it doesn’t take an Albert Einstein to figure Central University Office of Public Relations, out that we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect different 1801 Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC 27707. Phone: 919-530-6295 E-mail: [email protected] results. The EEEA strategy represents a new way forward. Please send address corrections to the Alumni Relations Office, 2223 Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC 27707. Sincerely, Persons or corporations interested in purchasing advertising space in the NCCU NOW magazine should contact Ayana D. Hernandez, director of Public Relations, [email protected]. Charlie Nelms At a cost of $1.16 each, 17,000 copies of this public docu- ment were printed for a total of $19,669.30 in Spring 2012. Chancellor NCCU is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master’s, education specialist, and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of NCCU. NCCU NOW SPRING 2012 PHOTO BY CHIOKE BROWN SPRING 2012 NCCU NOW 4 Copyright 2012, North Carolina Central University 5 CAMPUS n e NCCU APPOINTMENTS AYANA D. HERNANDEZ Lunch Counter from Sit-in Era Rededicated Director of Public Relations NCCU rededicaTED ITS WOOlwORTH’S lunch cake display stand. In front of the counter are two red swivel seats, Ayana D. Hernandez joins NCCU as director of public relations. counter on Feb. 5 with a ceremony and a panel discussion that both empty. combined a celebration of past victories with reminders that the These seats, Chancellor Charlie Nelms said at the ceremony, She comes to NCCU from the Raleigh office of Fleishman-Hillard struggle for civil rights was far from over. “serve as a constant reminder of how we got to where we are now.” International Communications, where she was vice president. In The section of the F.W. Wool- A portion of the counter was her four years with the agency, she created and executed strategic worth & Co. lunch counter donated to NCCU a dozen years communications plans, managed media relations campaigns at which sit-in protests took ago, after it was saved from sal- and secured placements with top-tier print, broadcast, radio and place in Durham in 1960 is now vage by John Friedrick, then online outlets. the centerpiece of a permanent executive director of the N.C. Hernandez is a graduate of Spelman College with a B.A. in civil rights exhibit in the lobby School of Science and Math. of the James E. Shepard Memo- To the panelists who spoke WYNETTA Y. LEE English. She also earned a Master of Arts in journalism and rial Library. during the discussion, part of Dean, H.M. Michaux Jr. mass communications from New York University. The anti-segregation sit-ins at NCCU’s Black History Month School of Education Woolworth’s and other stores in observances, the movement KENNETH W. CHANDLER downtown Durham began Feb. 8, wasn’t history. It was their lives. Wynetta Y. Lee has been named 1960, following by exactly a week “It was an economic battle,” Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement the similar protests in Greens- recalled Vivian McCoy, a civil dean of the H.M. Michaux Jr. boro. The Durham campaign was rights and community activist. School of Education. She most Kenneth W. Chandler has been named associate vice chancellor in organized by the NAACP chapter “We wanted to break down barri- recently served as dean of the the Division of Institutional Advancement. He comes to NCCU from at North Carolina College (now ers, but we wanted to break down College of Education at Grambling Winston-Salem State University, where he was director of corporate NCCU), led by students Lacy economic barriers. We wanted to State University in Louisiana. and foundation relations. He previously worked as a development Streeter, Callis Brown and Robert hit them in the pocketbook.” Lee previously held the posi- consultant with TCG Consulting. Kornegay. Virginia Williams, one of The exhibit includes two fac- three surviving participants in tion of associate vice president for Chandler received his Bachelor of Science at Guilford College, ing red plush banquettes, set with an even earlier sit-in at Durham’s academic planning, research and his Master of Government Administration at the University of Penn- white saucers and tall coffee cups. Royal Ice Cream parlor in 1957, graduate studies at California State sylvania and his Ph.D. at UNC – Greensboro’s School of Education. Nearby is the matching lunch said she decided early on “that if University, Monterey Bay, and as- counter, with an iced tea dispens- I ever get the chance, I’m going to sistant provost for curriculum and in brief er, a vertical dessert rack and a stand up for what I believe.” director of undergraduate research at Dillard University. Assuming NCCU DEVELOPS A STRATEGIC PLAN DASHBOARD the dean’s office at NCCU marks As academic departments and other units continue to complete metrics outlined in NCCU 2020, SEARCH UNDER WAY DR. ELWOOD L. ROBINSON, dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and a return to the Triangle for Lee, the university’s strategic plan, a task force has been assigned to develop a dashboard information longtime professor of psychology, has been named provost and executive vice presi- who was a member of the faculty system for monitoring progress toward the goals set forth in the plan.