Letter From The CHancellor

Perhaps no topic in higher education today receives the volume of discussion, examination and focus than student success does. From campus to campus across the country, colleges and universities are preoccupied with ensuring that the talented students they admit and enroll are retained after their first year, persist throughout their lower- and upper-division work and graduate in a timely fashion, ready for success in the workplace.

At historically black colleges and universities, such as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, that focus takes on heightened meaning, as we seek to overcome the challenges of inequity from which so many of our undergraduates emerge. Even though they come from increasingly impressive scholastic backgrounds and enter our institution with glowing academic profiles, how we academically engage and prepare them for success in the classroom and in the workplace can make the difference between failure and success.

These challenges have been front and center for North Carolina A&T in recent years. We have poured significant thought and energy into initiatives aimed at moving the needles upward in the key measures of retention and graduation rates. As we have done so, parsing the data, examining obstacles and learning from both setback and progress, we have zeroed in on mathematics as an area of particular challenge for our students needs in this area and the ingredients necessary from successful mathematics instruction and performance has been a challenge that has required input of our faculty and academic administrators, careful examination of research and best practices and careful assessment of our efforts.

From all of that has emerged the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that follows this introductory message. Colleagues across our university have contributed significantly to this document, and I believe that the care and thought that each put forward is reflected fairly in this thoughtful plan. As North Carolina A&T continues to grow, with strategic aspirations to enroll 14,000 students by 2023, the opportunities for that work to affect the learning and education of an even greater number of individuals, looms large. That is where the value of this QEP squarely lies – in an enhanced education for the students of our future and a stronger university, better prepared to meet the educational needs of tomorrow through the careful examination of the challenges of today.

I thank our colleagues participating in the SACSCOC  accreditation reaffirmation process in advance for the attention and focus they will give to these efforts and for the many ways, both expected and unforeseen that your work will benefit North Carolina A&T for many  to come. 

Harold L. Martin Sr., Ph.D.
Chancellor