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Focusing on Advanced Student Performance, N.C. A&T Opens 2019-20 Academic Year

08/19/2019

Focusing on Advanced Student Performance, N.C. A&T Opens 2019-20 Academic Year

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 19, 2019) – With a fog machine filling the Harrison Auditorium stage, the sounds and panoramic video of a thunderous rocket blasting into space, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University officially kicked off the 2019-20 academic year at the annual Faculty Staff Institute on Aug. 16. Under the theme: Mission to S.P.A.C.E.: Creating a Student-Centered University (Students Performing in an Advanced Competitive Environment), attendees were energized, motivated and equipped for student success.

In his state of the campus address, Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. posed the question, “Do we want to be transformative?” a follow-up to the question he asked 10 years ago, “Do we want to win?” In contrast to a reserved response in 2009, this year’s reply was a resounding “YES!”

“If we want to be transformative, we must think outside the box, move strategically and raise dollars. I believe our best is in front of us,” said Martin.

As part of that out of the box thinking, Martin challenged faculty and staff to imagine the possibilities and think about how high “we want to rise.”

“Do we want to be an R1 university … Do we want to go FBS … Do we really want to be an economic driver,” he asked.

Keynote speaker Muktha Jost, vice provost, strategic planning and institutional effectiveness, and SACSCOC liaison, encouraged faculty and staff to find their path of connection to their students as well as the campus culture.

“Our job is to find a connection with students, because no matter what you know, if you can’t find a way to connect your curriculum with your students, it doesn’t matter,” she said.

View Martin’s and Jost’s presentation.