The State of Higher Education in Charlotte

[KJHburg]

So proud of my Alma Mater and did not know that UNC Charlotte was once run by the City  of Charlotte school system and stayed a community college for a couple years.  Read the history of this fine institution that I went to post graduate, my brother undergrad, my nephew both undergrad and post graduate.   

https://issuu.com/unc_charlotte/docs/wtr_22_mag_digital_full/2?ff

Kudos to UNC Charlotte Alumni association for putting a new logo sticker inside the magazine for us alums! 

[JRCLT]

Go Niners!

[rancenc]

Not a Charlotte area campus, but quite a few graduates live in the Charlotte metro area!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/11/ncat-enrollment-hbcus/

 

[KJHburg]

4 hours ago, rancenc said:

Not a Charlotte area campus, but quite a few graduates live in the Charlotte metro area!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/11/ncat-enrollment-hbcus/

 

A & T is a great university I have a friend who is a graduate. 

[rancenc]

Another HBC but in the Greater Charlotte area opens a new building on it's campus!

https://www.salisburypost.com/2022/02/11/quantum-leap-forward-livingstone-marks-start-of-science-focused-future-with-shipman-annex-opening/

Edited February 13, 2022 by rancenc

[KJHburg]

this is good for UNC Charlotte offering new online graduate degrees.  A friend of mine was just accepted in the MA Digital Marketing program at Wake Forest and she told me those classes are based out of Charlotte (all online mostly).

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/02/23/unc-charlotte-to-offer-fully-online-mba/

[KJHburg]

many do not know that NC is home of the largest HBCU with NC A&T up in Greensboro.  Here is a recent article talking about their growth.   

North Carolina A&T, the largest HBCU, is growing, still - The Washington Post    (and notice how many of the largest schools are in NC) 

The State of North Carolina’s HBCUs | Our State

they are growing in Greensboro.  I know of grad of NCA&T    NC has the most students in HBCUs than any other state I think Alabama has one more college than NC but we have the most students.  

Home | North Carolina A&T State University (ncat.edu)

Edited February 27, 2022 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

this is great news for UNC Charlotte and since Amazon has more employees in the Charlotte metro than any other area in the state.  

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/03/03/unc-charlotte-tuition-soon-free-for-amazon-employees-in-nc/

this is a great recruitment tool for Amazon too and provides upward mobility.  

My top of the head count of local Amazon facilities are as follows: Mecklenburg County 7  Cabarrus County 3 Gaston County new one.  Plus Prime Air which has a local base at CLT. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by KJHburg

[csweet]

13 hours ago, KJHburg said:

this is great news for UNC Charlotte and since Amazon has more employees in the Charlotte metro than any other area in the state.  

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/03/03/unc-charlotte-tuition-soon-free-for-amazon-employees-in-nc/

this is a great recruitment tool for Amazon too and provides upward mobility.  

My top of the head count of local Amazon facilities are as follows: Mecklenburg County 7  Cabarrus County 3 Gaston County new one.  Plus Prime Air which has a local base at CLT. 

Could we expect the Prime Air base to grow at CLT? Given its proximity to the facility across the street from the airport, I feel like they could expand.

[deleted account]

20 hours ago, KJHburg said:

this is great news for UNC Charlotte and since Amazon has more employees in the Charlotte metro than any other area in the state.  

https://wraltechwire.com/2022/03/03/unc-charlotte-tuition-soon-free-for-amazon-employees-in-nc/

this is a great recruitment tool for Amazon too and provides upward mobility.  

My top of the head count of local Amazon facilities are as follows: Mecklenburg County 7  Cabarrus County 3 Gaston County new one.  Plus Prime Air which has a local base at CLT. 

This is a good thing but...tons of employers pay for college and get a lot less press for it. My employer has been doing it since I was hired 35 years ago (and I assume banks pay for graduate degrees,  but don't know for sure). Perhaps it's rare for warehouse employees to get this perk but Amazon is obviously unique in that the owner is among the richest people in human history. Bigger question (I didn't read the article), will they allow paid time off for employees to actually attend class?  Again, this is a good thing overall but Bezos does NOTHING that is not beneficial to Bezos.

[kermit]

15 hours ago, JBS said:

This is a good thing but...tons of employers pay for college and get a lot less press for it.

Yup, in my experience, for masters degrees anyway, this group has included:

• Family dollar (back when they existed)
• City of Charlotte
• CharMeck Untilities
• Duke Energy
• Bank of America
• Wells
• quite a few other local companies that I can't remember at this point

Edited March 5, 2022 by kermit

[KJHburg]

UNC Charlotte campus from the Toby Green Greenway today.  The campus has never looked better.  Like the alumni shelter I am assuming for tailgating.   Crane up at new high rise residence hall. 

[JRCLT]

The Shelter is used for several events don’t know about tailgating as that’s mostly done at the parking lot near the stadium for most sports.

[KJHburg]

Just up the road from the Charlotte area High Point University got 3 gifts totally $100 MILLION  for the university.

https://businessnc.com/3-families-pledge-100m-to-high-point-university/

HPU will open a law school.  Now Charlotte is one the largest cities in the country without a law school!   Every one of our peer cities has a law school.  I sure wish Wake Forest would open a branch of their law school here.   Everytime I turn around I am running into a WFU law grad.  Will see 2 tomorrow! 

Raleigh has the law school of Campbell University.  Duke and NCCU in Durham.  UNC in Chapel Hill.  HPU in High Point.  Wake in Winston.  Elon University Law school in Greensboro.    Charlotte has ____?

Mecklenburg County has the 2nd highest number of attorneys in the state after only Wake County. 

 

[rancenc]

Great news for the state's HBU campuses including several in the Greater Charlotte area.

https://www.ncconstructionnews.com/307-million-to-go-to-enhance-and-grow-10-nc-black-colleges-and-universities/

[KJHburg]

Prestigious Davidson College is easy to forget about in this region with such bigger schools around.  Drive by their campus today and it looks gorgeous as usual with a few newer buildings.  And a few shots of downtown Davidson. 

 

[Reverie39]

The Research Triangle schools dominate the national impression of NC higher education, for good reason. But that along with small size means Davidson is sometimes forgotten, when it shouldn't be. Only a 20% acceptance rate - that's actually lower than UNC Chapel Hill. 

[rancenc]

The community college system is a substantial generator of economic growth both in the Charlotte metro area and the state as a whole!
https://www.reflector.com/news/local/analysis-n-c-community-colleges-have-19b-economic-impact/article_a9149d7d-6620-5bfb-b4fb-9e7e78ad437a.html

[KJHburg]

Shout out to my alma mater #2 and the Belk School of Business at UNC Charlotte

https://belkcollege.charlotte.edu/news/2022-04-07/belk-college-and-turner-school-earn-aacsb-reaccreditation

 

[QCxpat]

Today's CBJ "Charlotte 49ers to double Jerry Richardson Stadium capacity as part of $100 Million Athletics growth plan" by Erik Spanberg

Excerpt:  "The Charlotte 49ers plan to double the seating capacity at the school’s on-campus football stadium as part of a long-term facilities plan released Tuesday afternoon.  The initial phase, including expansion of Jerry Richardson Stadium and building a combination soccer-lacrosse stadium, will cost $102 million and depend entirely on private fundraising to pay for the projects.  UNC Charlotte shared details today on proposed athletics facilities upgrades and expansions, along with some new venues, as part of what is billed as the EverGreen Athletics Facilities Master Vision.  Kansas City sports design firm HOK and locally based Jenkins Peer Architects assembled the long-term blueprint for the school. The target for completing the multi-phase plan is 12 to 15 years."

"Plans call for:

"•Expanding the football stadium — current capacity: 15,300 — to more than 30,000 seats as part of a two-stage process. The first stage will add a tower on the site of the existing press box that includes 2,062 general admission seats, and 1,050 premium seats in a combinations of loge boxes, suites, and club seats as well as an outdoor terrace and mezzanine club. At or around the same time, 2,754 general admission seats will be added on the opposite side. That will push total capacity to 21,180. The next step will add 9,500 general admission seats, extending the second level of seating and increasing capacity to 30,680. Cost: $81.3 million."

"•Adding a new baseball clubhouse with locker rooms, coaches’ offices, training areas, and a direct connection to the baseball stadium home dugout. It will include a roof-top terrace for fans to watch games. It will be built on the right-field line between the grandstand and indoor baseball facility. The existing fieldhouse will become home to the new women's lacrosse team which begins play in 2024-25. Cost: $6.975 million."

"•Building a 2,000-capacity stadium to house the men’s and women’s soccer teams as well as the women’s lacrosse team. The soccer teams now play at the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center, where the running track encircling the soccer field distances fans from the action. Until the soccer-lacrosse stadium is completed, the lacrosse team will play home games at the football stadium. Cost: $6.825 million."

"•Constructing a softball clubhouse with locker rooms, team meeting space, coaches’ offices, and a training room. The existing softball fieldhouse will be used to house future expansion of women’s sports. Cost: $3.25 million."

"•Replacing the men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms at Halton Arena with player lounges and meeting space. Cost: $2.6 million."

"The UNC Charlotte expansion of Jerry Richardson Stadium will be done in two phases. The finished project will take seating capacity to 30,680 at a total cost of $81.3 million."

JENKINS PEER/HOK

Link:  https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/05/24/unc-charlotte-charlotte-49ers-hok-jenkins-peer.html

Edited May 24, 2022 by QCxpat

[KJHburg]

This is an example of how important is to this region and retaining and attracting people.  

My nephew just graduated from UNC Charlotte with both an undergraduate and now graduate degree MS in Data Analytics under the Belk Business school.   He has already lived around the world with my brother in Kazakstan, Republic of Georgia and China.  (But born in the USA)  He actually graduated from an international school in China about 40 miles outside of Hong Kong  (my brother and his wife both teachers)  He looked at a lot of schools, got into my most (wait listed by Georgia Tech and Cornell) but chose UNC Charlotte and was a Levine scholar.  

He met his wife from Durham also a data analytics undergrad and both will live in Charlotte and he will work at TIAA after working an internship there.  My brother his father was an UNCC undergrad and of course I was a UNCC MBA grad.  All of this could have been different if he went to Georgia Tech ( a great school) but I would have thought he would ended up in Atlanta. 

So whether you are a graduate or not of UNC Charlotte, UNCC, Charlotte etc this school is of the utmost importance to region in attracting knowledge workers.  And we need to continue to push for its growth and expansion.  

[kayman]

14 hours ago, KJHburg said:

This is an example of how important is to this region and retaining and attracting people.  

My nephew just graduated from UNC Charlotte with both an undergraduate and now graduate degree MS in Data Analytics under the Belk Business school.   He has already lived around the world with my brother in Kazakstan, Republic of Georgia and China.  (But born in the USA)  He actually graduated from an international school in China about 40 miles outside of Hong Kong  (my brother and his wife both teachers)  He looked at a lot of schools, got into my most (wait listed by Georgia Tech and Cornell) but chose UNC Charlotte and was a Levine scholar.  

He met his wife from Durham also a data analytics undergrad and both will live in Charlotte and he will work at TIAA after working an internship there.  My brother his father was an UNCC undergrad and of course I was a UNCC MBA grad.  All of this could have been different if he went to Georgia Tech ( a great school) but I would have thought he would ended up in Atlanta. 

So whether you are a graduate or not of UNC Charlotte, UNCC, Charlotte etc this school is of the utmost importance to region in attracting knowledge workers.  And we need to continue to push for its growth and expansion.  

UNCC is very similar to the history of D1 rival school (my undergraduate alma mater), UAB (The University of Alabama at Birmingham) . The only difference is UAB has the world renowned medical school  and research programs.  The UNCC research apparatus needs to ramp up even further so that it can become "R1 Very High Research Activity" institution.  Hopefully, one day soon UNCC will finally get its own well deserved medical school of its own as well after several attempts blocked by the UNC Board.

Because let's face it, Charlotte is a major city. It's large enough to support two 4-year distinct medical schools (Wake Forest and one tied to UNCC) along the multiple business schools (Wake Forest & USC satellite campus), and a full fledged law school these days. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by kayman

[CLT2014]

16 minutes ago, kayman said:

UNCC is very similar to the history of D1 rival school (my undergraduate alma mater), UAB (The University of Alabama at Birmingham) . The only difference is UAB has the world renowned medical school  and research programs.  The UNCC research apparatus needs to ramp up even further so that it can become "R1 Very High Research Activity" institution.  Hopefully, one day soon UNCC will finally get its own well deserved medical school of its own as well after several attempts blocked by the UNC Board.

Because let's face it, Charlotte is a major city. It's large enough to support two 4-year distinct medical schools (Wake Forest and one tied to UNCC) along the multiple business schools (Wake Forest & USC satellite campus), and a full fledged law school these days. 

UNCC would need a teaching hospital partner... Atrium has decided to partner with Wake Forest University... which complicates things for UNCC. The other main hospital system in the Charlotte area is Novant, who does not have any experience or locations as teaching hospitals currently and seems less ambitious on that front than Atrium. So in addition to getting the UNC Board to cooperate, they would need Novant to decide to meet the requirements of being a teaching hospital / make that investment. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by CLT2014

[kayman]

Just now, CLT2014 said:

UNCC would need a teaching hospital partner... Atrium has decided to partner with Wake Forest University... which complicates things for UNCC. The other main hospital system in the Charlotte area is Novant, who does not have any experience or locations as teaching hospitals currently. So in addition to getting the UNC Board to cooperate, they would need Novant to decide to meet the requirements of being a teaching hospital / make that investment. 

Novant Health is in process with the Presbyterian Medical Center campus in Midtown. There are approved rezoning site plans and a TDM plan filed with the COC for there will be a 2-year teaching program for 3rd & 4th year medical students on the site. The partnership would be btwn Novant and the UNC School of Medicine.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2021/07/09/novant-charlotte.html

This is likely a slow walk into expansion with time into a full-fledged 4-year medical school on-site. 

[rancenc]

Recent aerial view of UNCC's campus.