BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

THE EAGLE PROMISE IN ACTION

Protecting and Serving the Campus Community

NCCU’s Chief of Police and Public Safety Damon Williams has an underlying aim for his department. “The goal,” he says, “is to help students graduate.” And that goal governs the way the police department works to keep students safe and out of trouble. “We’re building relationships

within the campus community – and empowering our community to be part of our safety initiative,” he says.

At full strength, the department employs 33 sworn officers, serving roughly 8,000 students and about 1,500 employees. “Thirty-three people can’t keep the campus safe on their own,” Williams says, “but if I build relationships and empower the nearly 10,000 people here to help in the mission, that’s how we keep it safe.”

The chief makes a point of having lunch with students three times a week, and other officers make similar outreach efforts. “We learn one another’s names,” he says, “and with that, the students will call us and report things before they happen. That means we can often preempt trouble or jump on things before they escalate.”

The university has invested more than $3.03 million in recent years to improve safety, much of it involving technology.

An upgraded alert system now provides students with real-time information for any emergency – weather, crime, bomb threats – via email, texts and phone calls.

More than 1,690 cameras monitor activity, indoors and out. More than 82 blue-light emergency phones are scattered across the campus.

“And alarms installed at residence halls have solved the chronic security problem of exterior doors being propped open. “We now get alarms on all propped residence doors,” Williams says.“Props have declined more than 90 percent.”

Manuhe Abebe, a rising junior elected president of the NCCU Student Government Association for 2022-23, believes the emphasis on relationships rather than enforcement is working.

“Students feel comfortable in going to any campus officer with concerns about potential trouble,” he says. “The officers make an effort to engage the students and will listen.”

“I don’t think it’s surveillance in a negative way,” Abebe says. “I think the top priority is to keep the students safe.”

If student misbehavior occurs, Williams and his officers look for solutions. “We have a judicial system here on campus,” he notes. “If you can defer a matter of student misconduct to that system and keep it out of the criminal justice system, that benefits everyone. It can keep the student on track for graduation.” But he quickly adds: “Not everything! If you do something major, you’re going downtown.”

The police department also works closely with the City of Durham Police Department and Durham County Sheriff’s Department. An agreement extends NCCU’s jurisdiction in an effort to assist with crime prevention in the perimeter surrounding the campus.

Building for the Future

Improve and build new infrastructure to better accomodate the NCCU community as it grows and thrives.

Beginning in 2018, NCCU set out to redefine the campus, create new facilities, expand the brand and truly take flight in providing a state-of-the-art campus experience. This included initiatives such as accessing and updating the campus technology infrastructure to establishing a sustainable and actionable plan for future campus growth. Approvals were obtained from the UNC System to designate NCCU as a Millennial Campus—thus establishing NCCU as the first HBCU in the system to do so independent of a joint campus partnership. A series of community conversations and town hall meetings were held, strategic planning development began and partners were sought and hired to imagine and execute the future of NCCU’s footprint. Today, the university is successfully primed for more robust development in the years to come.

The NCCU Student Center was completed in late 2021.

Improve and Build New Infrastructure to Bettter Accomodate the NCCU Community as it Grows and Thrives

Beginning in 2018, NCCU set out to redefine the campus, create new facilities, expand the brand and truly take flight in providing a state-ofthe-art campus experience. This included initiatives such as accessing and updating the campus technology infrastructure to establishing a sustainable and actionable plan for future campus growth. Approvals were obtained from the UNC System to designate NCCU as a Millennial Campus—thus establishing NCCU as the first HBCU in the system to do so independent of a joint campus partnership. A series of community conversations and town hall meetings were held, strategic planning development began and partners were sought and hired to imagine and execute the future of NCCU’s footprint. Today, the university is successfully primed for more robust development in the years to come.

THE EAGLE PROMISE IN ACTION

On the Rise

The George Street Residential Complex was completed in late 2020.

A building boom has taken off at North Carolina Central University since 2018. Three new residence facilities are open. The new NCCU Student Center houses services that were previously in the Alfonso Elder Student Union. And School of Business building will be completed in 2023 at the corner of Alston Avenue and Lawson Street.

It has all happened in less than three years, thanks in large part to NCCU’s designation as a Millennial Campus by the UNC System. That designation gives universities regulatory latitude to finance projects and to collaborate with the private sector on a variety of ventures.

In NCCU’s case, it enabled the university to enter partnerships with private companies to build and operate the residences, and then collect the housing fees that would normally have gone to the university. And it meant NCCU would not be required to receive an appropriation from the N.C. Legislature or secure approval to finance construction with a bond. The new facilities – George Street Residential Complex, Alston Avenue Apartments and Lawson Street Residential Complex, built at a combined cost of just under $100 million – contain 1,274 beds, all in suites or apartments that dramatically depart from the old residential facility configuration: one room, two beds, bathrooms down the hall. And combined with the new NCCU Student Center, they are transforming campus life.

“During my earlier years here, students simply went home on weekends – there just wasn’t as much to do,” says Derrick C. Stanfield, a May 2022 graduate who served as 2021-22 Student Government Association president.