The rapid growth of the North Carolina A&T research enterprise over the past five years has been a welcome and strategic development for our university. External research and sponsored program awards grew to $147.4 million in FY2023, raising to $85 million the growth in such funding since FY2020.

Such growth, of course, is no accident. To drive expansion and prepare for greater emphasis and impact of our doctoral research university mission, we created a taskforce in 2021 to undertake a capacity-building analysis that would help the university scale its research programs to a higher and more competitive new level.

The effort was co-chaired by Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Eric Muth and Dean Sherine Obare of our Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. The taskforce identified challenges within four areas that, if addressed properly, could unleash significant new potential:

• Financial investments
• New academic programs and centers
• Recruitment/hiring and
• Process improvements.

The group’s findings and learnings were extensive and detailed, supporting a lengthy list of recommendations to improve our research infrastructure and set us on a sustainable path toward new and greater success. Highlights include:

• Financial actions totaling $34.7 million that will fund new research support positions in A&T’s eight colleges, make significant investments in the university’s growing number of doctoral programs, enhance start-up packages and faculty retention efforts and more.
• Support for the university’s graduate programs, which expanded by two this fall and are
• expected to grow by four in the spring semester. Those new programs include a doctorate in Nursing Practice and Ph.D. programs in Sociology, Applied Psychology and Criminal Justice.
• An extensive series of recommendations on process improvements for business operations and organizational structures and for numerous enhancements to information technology systems. Streamlining organizational systems may not be the most exciting initiative, but meeting this need is making us more efficient, more productive and less frustrated by bothersome process anomalies.

Our university is indebted to the leadership of the taskforce members for creating a road map toward greater research success and impact. As we continue implementation of their recommendations, I look forward to seeing the difference each makes in the new year.

- Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr.

President Biden speaks with faculty and student researchers during a 2022 campus visit at the Martin Engineering Research and Innovation Complex.

A new initiative in the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at North Carolina A&T will play a critical role in helping Black landowners retain possession of farmland that may have been in their families for generations, but without formal deeds or titles – a multi-billion dollar issue in North Carolina.

Those holdings, known as “heirs property,” refers to land that has been owned and passed down over generations to descendants of the original property owner, often without wills or probate court rulings. Because laws in the South and Jim Crow discrimination often made it difficult for Black landowners to document their property, those descendants may not have proper titles. That makes it difficult to sell the property, borrow against it or even qualify for federal farm loans of disaster relief.

Heirs property in North Carolina is valued at an estimated $1.9 billion. Legal complications often result in the owners losing ownership of their property. The U.S. Department of Agriculture refers to this as the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss nationwide.

Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the university’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and agriculture and a natural resource specialist with Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T, has launched a project titled “Understanding Heirs’ Property at the Community Level in North Carolina” in conjunction with colleagues at North Carolina State University. The project aims to identify and educate heirs property owners across the state.

The project will offer full-day summits in communities across the state that will cover the history of heirs property, inform participants about estate planning and discuss legal strategies to secure their land. The summits also will feature panel discussions among landowners who have personal experience with heirs property.

“Too many people are not aware they have heirs property issues,” said Dari. “They do not know there are legal pathways and useful resources available to secure their property. This project will bring these resources to those who need them.”

The North Carolina A&T Blue and Gold Marching Machine (BGMM) is legendary in the glittering, high-stepping history of HBCU marching bands. Some say BGMM and its Cold Steel Drumline served as inspiration for the 2002 hit film “Drumline” starring Nick Cannon. It has won acclaim in numerous national competitions and most recently spent much of 2023 in the no. 1 ranking among all HBCU Division I bands.

At the Cricket Celebration Bowl in Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium in December, BGMM took full advantage of the chance to show the nation just how good it is, coming away with ESPN’s inaugural HBCU Division I Band of the Year crown. Portions of the competition and the announcement of A&T’s selection were aired nationally during the Celebration Bowl on the ABC television network. The very next day, BGMM was back in state, performing for the second time in as many days on national television at the Charlotte Panthers-Atlanta Falcons NFL game.

Two weeks later, BGMM was back in the limelight on an even bigger stage: The 2024 New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade at the Rose Bowl, one of college football’s best-known post-season games. TV hosts raved over the band as it performed on a beautiful sunny morning for an estimated crowd of 700,000 along the 5½-mile parade route.

BGMM’s profile has grown sharply in recent years. It has participated seven times since 2009 in the Honda Battle of the Bands invitational showcase. In ESPN’s new competition, the band consistently ranked among the top three Division 1 schools throughout the fall, finishing football season in first place. That earned the BGMM its trip to Atlanta to square off against second-ranked Jackson State University and ultimately to secure its new championship.

Marching bands have long been a major source of pride for America’s 100+ HBCUs. In the World War II era, a distinctive performance style featuring the showmanship of drum majors, intricate marching patterns and exciting musicianship emerged on multiple campuses. Football halftime shows became as highly anticipated as the games themselves, and “band battle” competitions became high-profile affairs.

N.C. A&T band members undergo rigorous preparation for the performance-heavy fall semester, reporting to campus in the summer for two-a-day practices that often stretch into evenings. Once school begins, each band member must balance rigorous academics with demanding practices and performances throughout the year.

Graduate education is an area of major focus for North Carolina A&T, as the university works aggressively to meet workplace demands for highly educated employees and continues to build out a research enterprise in which doctoral and masters students will be more involved than ever before.

A&T currently has 13 doctoral programs and 36 master’s programs -- up four doctoral and seven master’s programs over the past five years -- largely in science and engineering disciplines. The newest such program is the Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP), approved by the UNC System Board of Governors at its Feb. 29 meeting. Two more Ph.D. programs will be reviewed for BOG approval this spring.

Within this dynamic area of growth, development in three areas stands out in particular:

• Health. Last academic year, A&T received approval to launch a master’s in Physician Assistant Studies. With approval of the DNP, proposals for Ph.Ds. in Sociology and in Applied Psychology will be considered for approval this spring. The programs will fuel significant further growth for the John R. and Kathy R. Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences, A&T’s largest college.
  
  
• Liberal Arts, Social Sciences. Within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – one of America’s top two producers of African American bachelor’s degree grads in Journalism/Communication and Liberal Arts – a new master’s degree and Ph.D. in Criminal Justice were both approved last fall. The doctoral program is not only the first Ph.D. in Criminal Justice offered in North Carolina, but the first doctoral program for this college.
  
  
• Business. Already ranked no. 63 among America’s national universities in Graduate Business Programs, the Willie A. Deese College of Business and economics is ramping up to meet the business world’s ever-more-complex data analysis needs. The Deese College’s new master’s degree in Business Analytics launched last fall, along with a bachelor’s degree in the same discipline.

In the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, its similarly named Ph.D. program launched in Fall 2022 and already has 28 students. It will play a key role over the next five years in increasing A&T’s graduation of doctoral students, which totaled 68 in 2022-23.

In addition to graduate degree programs, A&T graduate certificate programs are also experiencing significant growth. The university now offers 41 such programs, giving certificate earners a chance to move ahead in the workplace and expand their skillsets.