The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected North Carolina A&T State University for its 2015 Community Engagement Classification.

The honor reflects the university’s collaboration with local, state, national and global communities to work together to address critical societal issues and to improve teaching and learning, scholarship and research to produce graduates educated and engaged in democratic values and civic responsibility.

N.C. A&T conducts community-based programs in a variety of disciplines, including the statewide Cooperative Extension program, healthcare and wellness, educational outreach and economic development. Among these programs are the Center for Behavioral Health and Wellness; the Center for Outreach in Alzheimer’s, Aging and Community Health; and the Diabetes Education Center at the Greensboro Urban Ministry.

More information can be found on the A&T community engagement website.

“As a land-grant institution, North Carolina A&T has been closely engaged with our community, the state and the nation since 1891,” said Dr. Joe Whitehead, provost and chief academic officer at A&T.

“This honor recognizes the continuing efforts of students, faculty and staff members from every part of the university whose commitment and hard work are strengthening our communities and supporting a fundamental aspect of A&T’s mission.”

The foundation states explicitly that the classification is “not an award.”

“It is an evidence-based documentation of institutional practice to be used in a process of self-assessment and quality improvement,” the Carnegie website says.

In line with that expectation of improvement is the non-permanent nature of the honor. It’s effective for 10 years, at which point schools must reapply.

Unlike the Carnegie Foundation’s other higher education classifications, which rely on national data and don’t involve direct participation by schools, the Community Engagement Classification is elective. Institutions participate voluntarily by compiling an exhaustive report on their engagement with the community.

A&T’s report was an eight-month project headed by Dr. Craig Rhodes, special assistant to the provost. Members of the task force were David Arneke, Division of Research and Economic Development; Arneice H. Bowen, Office of Library Services; Dr. Vincent W. Childress, School of Technology; Denise Iverson-Payne, Division of Student Affairs; Dr. G. Scott Jenkins, Office of Academic Affairs; Dr. Muktha B. Jost, School of Education; Dr. Beryl McEwen, School of Business and Economics; Leotis Parrish, College of Engineering; Dr. Sanjiv Sarin, Graduate School; Dr. Claudette Smith, School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences; Dr. Wayne Szafranski, Division of Research and Economic Development; and Dr. Forrest D. Toms, School of Education. Former employees who served were Samantha Hargrove, Office of University Relations, and Kimberly Sowell, Division of Student Affairs.

A&T is one of 83 schools that were announced as first-time recipients of the classification on Wednesday. There are now 361 schools that hold the classification.

North Carolina A&T State University is one of 13 historically black colleges and universities—along with two national labs and a K-12 school district—that will participate in a cybersecurity education consortium for which the U.S. Department of Energy is providing a $25 million grant, the White House announced Jan. 15.

As cyber attacks become more powerful and frequent, N.C. A&T is again expanding its graduate level cybersecurity program.

A&T will receive a $1.6 million grant that will help its Department of Computer Science increase enrollment in its master’s and doctoral programs and help to grow the workforce of professionals, researchers and academics capable of leading the nation’s defense against cyber attacks. This opportunity comes just one year after the department admitted its first students at the Ph.D. level.

The project will be funded by the Cybersecurity Workforce Pipeline Consortium, a program designed to spark interest in cybersecurity in students from elementary school to graduate school. The $25 million, five-year program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration.

Graduates from the other participating colleges and universities will study and conduct research at A&T. The research will focus on cyber-identity protection and privacy in addition to cybersecurity in general. 

“The purpose of the research is to teach students the intricacies of cybersecurity,” said Dr. Kenneth A. Williams, principal investigator for the project and an associate professor of computer science. “This grant will help us teach more students.”

Williams says student interest in the field is growing. Job opportunities are abundant; the White House cites estimates of the demand for cybersecurity workers growing 12 times faster than the overall job market.

Attacks like the recent hacking of Sony Pictures illustrate how high the stakes are.

A&T’s $1.6 million from the consortium will go largely toward financial support for students in the form of fellowships and summer internships.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., and Sandia National Lab in Albuquerque, N.M., will host the interns. Both labs have a major stake in the subject: they’re responsible for maintaining the security of the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Both labs have hosted previous A&T computer science graduate students as interns.

“We’re already heavily involved in cybersecurity,” Williams said.

In addition to the graduate programs, the department offers an undergraduate concentration in information assurance. It also includes cybersecurity modules at all levels of undergraduate study. The department conducts a high level of research in the field as well.

“We have the Center for Cyber Defense, which has been here for several years,” Williams said. “And we have the Center for Advanced Studies in Identity Sciences, which conducts biometric research.”

The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated the Center for Cyber Defense as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

In addition, the department has a research partnership with GTCC’s Cyber Crime Technology program. The collaboration allows GTCC students in that program and others to conduct independent and joint research in cybersecurity at the two A&T research centers. The schools established the partnership in 2013 to involve GTCC students in research early in their academic careers.

Williams will be working on the new graduate-level expansion with Dr. Anna Yu, professor of computer science and director of the department’s graduate programs.

The lead institution in the consortium is Norfolk State University. A&T is the only North Carolina university involved and is one of only two historically black universities with a doctoral program in computer science.

Dr. Gerry Dozier is chairman of the Department of Computer Science at A&T. For more information, visit http://casis.ncat.edu.

Three North Carolina A&T State University online programs have been ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 Best Online Programs Rankings.

The online bachelor’s degree program has been ranked No. 119 out of 297 colleges and universities, while graduate programs in computer information technology and education were ranked No. 16 out of 42 and 125 out of 252, respectively.

“It is encouraging to see that N.C. A&T’s online programs provide the technologically enhanced learning experiences that meet the needs of our students,” said Provost Joe B. Whitehead. “We are striving to create learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom setting that appeal to our students in the digital generation as well as provide the necessary flexibility for our students who are unable to participate in a traditional environment.”

U.S. News & World Report assessed more than 1,200 online degree programs to compile the lists for undergraduate degree programs as well as graduate programs in business, education, engineering, nursing, computer information technology, criminal justice and masters of business administration across the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

A&T offers six online undergraduate degrees in the schools of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Business and Economics, and Technology. The university also offers four online graduate degrees – three masters and one doctorate.

For additional information about A&T’s options for online education, visit the Distance Learning website.

Poet, educator and activist Dr. Sonia Sanchez will deliver the keynote address at the 2015 MLK celebration sponsored jointly by N.C. A&T and UNCG. This year’s celebration is “Arts and the Civil Rights Movement: An Evening with Sonia Sanchez.”

Sanchez will speak beginning at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 21, in Aycock Auditorium on the UNCG campus. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public.

A moderated Q&A session with Sanchez will follow her speech at 8:15 p.m. A meet and greet and book signing are scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

The celebration marks the third year of collaboration between A&T and UNCG for the King remembrance. Both institutions will present MLK awards before the Sanchez address.

One of the most prominent writers of the black arts movement, Sanchez speaks internationally on black culture and literature, women’s liberation, peace, and racial justice. Finding her voice in poetry, Sanchez evolved from a shy child with a stutter into a force of the Black Power movement of the 1960s. She was also in the forefront of the Black Studies movement and taught the first course in the country on black women.

A prolific author, Sanchez has written more than 16 books, including “Morning Haiku”; “Homegirls and Handgrenades,” for which she won the American Book Award; “Shake Loose My Skin”; “Like the Singing Coming off the Drums”; “Does Your House Have Lions?”; and “Wounded in the House of a Friend”. She has also published numerous plays, including “Black Cats and Uneasy Landings” and “I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t.”

Sanchez is one of 20 African American women featured in “Freedom’s Sisters,” an interactive, traveling museum exhibition that brings to life African American women who have fought for equality for all Americans. She is also a sponsor of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and serves on the board of MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization that uses human rights to advance social justice.

Some of her other honors include the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Community Service Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, a PEW Fellowship in the Arts, and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award.

The first presidential fellow at Temple University, Sanchez held the Laura Carnell Chair in English at Temple from 1977-1999. She has traveled extensively, reading her poetry at campuses across the globe.

For more information, contact the UNCG Office of Multicultural Affairs
at 336-334-5090.