Today’s college students are expected to graduate from their respective institutions poised to meet challenges and create innovative solutions to complex problems in the global marketplace. To ensure graduates of North Carolina A&T State University are prepared, Provost Joe B. Whitehead and a pair of committees—one internal, one external—have drafted a plan to restructure the university’s academic enterprise.

Whitehead shared recommendations from the committees during the spring Chancellor’s Forum for Faculty and Administrators and said implementation is slated for fall 2016, provided the recommendations are adopted by the N.C. A&T Board of Trustees and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.

The first recommendation is to go to a uniform designation, which means all “schools,” e.g., the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, will become “colleges.” The only exception will be the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

The next recommendation includes the creation of three specialized colleges and moving the related majors that currently are spread across multiple schools/colleges. For example:

The College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences will include the departments of history, journalism and mass communication, political science and criminal justice, English, liberal studies and visual and performing arts

The College of Health and Human Sciences will include the departments of human performance and leisure studies, social work and sociology, psychology and the school of nursing

The College of Science and Technology will include the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, graphic design technology, energy and environment systems, computer systems technology, built environment and applied engineering technology

The committees also recommended a reorganization of the School (College) of Education to include:

Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) and licensure coordinators

Licensure programs that are currently concentrations under the secondary education bachelor’s degree to become concentrations under the content area bachelor’s degree, e.g., physics licensure would be a concentration under the physics bachelor’s degree

Departments in the college will be:

Counseling (will include the Ph.D. in rehabilitation counseling; M.S., school counseling; M.S., mental health counseling; M.S. with concentrations in clinical and rehabilitation counseling)

Administration and Instructional Services (will include the M.A.Ed. in reading education; M.S.A., school administration; M.S., instructional technology; B.S., speech with concentrations in speech communication and speech pathology)

Adult Education and Leadership Studies (will include the Ph.D. in leadership studies and the M.S. in adult education)

Educator Preparation (will include the B.S. in elementary education with a concentration in birth-kindergarten licensure; M.A.Ed., elementary education; M.A.T. with concentrations in public education, special education, English education, technology education, history education, business education, physics education, biology education, chemistry education, child development early education, mathematics education, elementary education, family and consumer sciences education and birth-kindergarten education)

The committees also recommend areas for opportunity in doctoral programming that include agriculture and environmental sciences, social work and bioengineering.

The final recommendation is for the ongoing programming analysis to be based on productivity, relevance and student demographics.

“We need to constantly analyze our programming to make sure they are still viable,” Whitehead said.

The provost’s presentation is available on the university’s SharePoint site.

The external committee included former and current higher education professionals with experiences as dean, provost and president. The internal committee was comprised of faculty members from the nine schools and colleges, Faculty Senate, Staff Senates, Student Government Association and Graduate Student Association.

When adverse weather strikes, the safety of North Carolina A&T State University’s students and employees is of utmost importance. The University of North Carolina System has revised the Adverse Weather and Emergency Policy, effective Jan. 1, 2016, to provide more clarity and differentiation between adverse weather and emergency events, establish a scale of operations and offer options for accounting for time worked.

The new policy has become known as the Adverse Weather ABCs.

In the case of adverse weather or an emergency event, the university will use the new policy and declare one of the following three categories by use of the coordinating letter (A, B, C) and/or condition (1, 2, 3). Each letter corresponds with a specific condition that indicates the level of employee operations as well as how missed work must be resolved.

Green Letter “A” refers to Condition 1 and indicates reduced operations. Condition 1 is appropriate when a weather event has significant potential to or is already negatively impacting local commuting, important campus services or the efficient functioning of campus buildings and grounds.

During Condition 1, the university will remain open with only certain mandatory staff required to report to work or remain at work. All other employees have the option to report late, leave early or not work at all. Accordingly, operations throughout the university may be reduced due to limited staff. Employees will be required to use leave time for any missed time, unless authorized to work off site or the Governor issues an order permitting leave with pay.

Yellow Letter “B” refers to Condition 2 and indicates suspended operations. Condition 2 is appropriate when safety risks or logistical challenges are more severe and there is a substantial interest to have a lower number of individuals travel to or remain at the university.

Under Condition 2, the university will remain open on a limited basis with only certain mandatory staff required to report to work or remain at work. All other employees may not report to work or must leave the workplace. Employees will be required to use leave time for any missed time, unless authorized to work off site or the Governor issues an order permitting leave with pay.

Red Letter “C” refers to Condition 3 and indicates a complete closure of the university. Condition 3 is appropriate for events that pose the most severe risks to health and safety or present the most difficult logistical challenges that will severely impede the efficient and effective functioning of the university. University facilities will be closed; however, a designation of Condition 3 or closure can apply to the entire university or only specific buildings.

Very limited mandatory employees will remain on campus under Condition 3. All other employees may not report to work. Employees will not be required to use leave time unless directed by the Governor.  

A designation of “mandatory operations” is determined by the university chancellor and may vary depending on the event.

To make sound decisions, the university relies on information from the facilities office, law enforcement agencies, the National Weather Service and other sources. Additionally, the university may declare classes canceled or delayed separate from the decision made for faculty, staff and employees. Every effort will be made to disseminate decisions and announcements in a timely fashion via AggieAlert!, university website, infoline, listserv, social media and broadcast media such as television and radio stations.

A diagram of the university adverse and emergency event policy is available online.

Every 10 years, the university must go through the process of reaffirmation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

North Carolina A&T State University was reaffirmed in 2010, and its fifth-year interim report is due in March. The report includes an institutional summary, compliance certification and the impact report on the Quality Enhancement Plan.

“The compliance certification is compiled by committees that are part of the Institutional Effectiveness Council, and include two core requirements, five comprehensive standards and nine federal requirements,” said Dr. Muktha Jost, interim vice provost for strategic planning and institutional effectiveness, at the spring Chancellor’s Forum for Faculty and Administrators.

Jost shared that the majority of the report has been completed but it was still in progress. Though reaffirmation only comes once per decade, the interim report provides information for the accrediting body and is also helpful to the university.

“Accreditation is truth-telling about ourselves and looking for areas where we can improve,” said Jost. “Accreditation requires the institution to demonstrate accomplishment of its mission through a systematic process, documentation of efforts towards mission, and use of findings to make continuous improvements.”

N.C. A&T has been accredited by SACSCOC since 1936. SACSCOC accredits schools, colleges and universities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and lists its mission as “to assure the educational quality and improve the effectiveness of its member institutions.”

For the fourth consecutive year, students from the constituent institutions of the University of North Carolina will convene at North Carolina A&T State University for the Social Entrepreneurship Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the Alumni-Foundation Event Center.

The conference features Colleen Briggs, vice president of financial capability and consumer initiatives within global philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, as a keynote speaker and a business plan competition for teams from the UNC System institutions.

“The competition is an opportunity for students to apply the knowledge and skills from their entrepreneurship classes to solving real social and environmental problems in the community,” said Dr. Thaddeus McEwen, conference coordinator, professor in the department of management in the School of Business and Economics and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

For this year’s event, teams will present 46 business plans—a conference record. There are three categories: the open category for undergraduate teams and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the open category for the graduate student teams and the new category of financial literacy that is open to undergraduate, graduate and mixed-level teams.

In the undergraduate and graduate categories, the teams have been challenged to submit innovative ideas that solve or address compelling, community and social challenges of any sort. Prizes for the undergraduate category are $3,000 for the winning team, $2,000 for the first runner up and $1,000 for the second runner up. In the graduate category, the winning team will receive $5,000, the first runner up will receive $3,000 and the second runner up will receive $1,000.

The financial literacy category—open to undergraduate, graduate or mixed-level teams—challenges teams to submit innovative ideas to improve financial literacy in their own communities. The financial literacy category will give a single prize of $5,000.

This year’s conference is sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Queen City Forward, the Small Business and Technology Development Center, Lincoln Financial Foundation and Weaver Foundation.

Registration and check-in begins at 9 a.m. For additional information about the conference, visit the UNC System website.