PRIORITIZING SAFETY

Economically Contributing to the Durham and Triangle Communities

The value of North Carolina Central University can be measured well beyond the power of the education delivered to students. The institution’s far reaching economic impact influences those who are part of the campus community and others who are part of the region. The university conducted an impact study in 2018 and the results illustrate NCCU’s more than half a billion-dollar impact in the six county service area inclusive of Alamance, Durham, Granville, Guilford, Orange and Wake counties.

$506 Million / 7,206 Jobs Supported

NCCU’s Total Annual Impact (As of 2018)

$1.8 Billion

Value of NCCU’s Social Benefits of NCCU, including $1.7 billion in added income through students’ increased lifetime earnings and increased business output and $109.2 million in social savings related to health, crime, and income assistance in North Carolina

$171.8 Million

Operations Spending Impact

$278.6 Million

Alumni Impact

$19.5 Million

Student Spending

$18.1 Million

Spent on Research Activities

$3.5 Million

Generated by Out-of-region Visitors

Service Uninterrupted: Community Service Program Marks 25th Anniversary in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everday life at North Carolina Central University—classes, labs, athletics, extracurricular activities, and social events among them. But not the tradition of ‘Truth and Service.’ NCCU’s community service program, begun in 1996 as the first of its kind in the UNC system and the first anywhere among HBCUs, hardly missed a beat. “Our students continued to serve,” says Calleen Herbert, director of NCCU’s Community Engagement and Service. “The requirement of 15 hours of service per semester remained in place. Our students were finding ways to serve.” That doesn’t mean it was easy. “Many of our community partners found it difficult to serve their clients,” Herbert says, “especially smaller organizations that provided direct service. Some of them shut down at the beginning of the pandemic. Plus, our students were initially sent home.” But the students, and the service program itself, adapted. “Our efforts shifted toward food security,” Herbert says. Many students performed service in food distribution at food banks locally and nationally. There were other direct needs. The American Red Cross, an NCCU partner for decades, had a shortfall in blood donations. “Our students stepped up to help fill that gap,”Herbert says. For many students, fulfilling their service requirement means choosing one specific organization or activity. Others, however, seek out more variety. Take, for example, Jessie Malit. Malit is a standout defensive lineman on the football team, and a standout volunteer in the service program. He has worked at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. He has volunteered at shelters for women leaving domestic violence situations in Charlotte and in Concord, N.C., his hometown. He organized a voter registration drive for student athletes in advance of the 2020 election. He collected and donated hundreds of books to his mother’s home village in Kenya (a campaign that was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in August 2021). And he serves as a leader of a program in which members of the football team visit and read to students at three Durham elementary schools. “The pandemic made it harder to do a lot of things,” Malit says, “because a lot of organizations didn’t want too many people coming in. And for me personally, it changed everything, because there was no football at all in 2020 and all classes were online or hybrid. It was hard to adjust to that schedule, and it was hard to get out and help in the community.” Malit received his bachelor’s degree in political science in December 2021 and is now working on a master’s degree in Public Administration. He has one year of football eligibility remaining and expects to play this fall. His service has been recognized with an NCCU Service Impact Award, a national Doris Robinson Scholar Athlete Award and a Newman Civic Fellowship. What aspect of community service has he found most fulfilling? “For me it was always going into the schools and interacting with the kids. I love working with them. Those kids are our next leaders, and if you play college football, they look up to you. So it’s a great opportunity to impress on them that it’s important to get a good education. It makes it possible for them to do anything they want.”

Prioritizing Safety

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.

Reinforce and Invest in Improved Security Measures to Enhance Campus Safety and Well-being

The health, safety and well-being of NCCU students, faculty, staff and visitors are paramount to any university community, and are especially important at NCCU. The university invested in additional safety enhancements to further protect the campus community. These new measures help establish an increased level of comfort for students and employees, while providing critical training and creating an environment that proactively responds to potential crimes and threats.

Safest College Campus in North Carolina

(SafeStreets 2021)

NCCU was named the safest college campus in the state of North Carolina by YourLocalSecurity. com, a partner of ADT-authorized provider SafeStreets.

Top 60th Percentile of Safest College Campuses

(Alarms.org, 2019)

NCCU was noted as one of the safest college campuses in the nation by Alarms.org, the official website for the National Council for Home Safety and Security. Out of the 500 campuses on “The Safest Colleges in America” list, NCCU ranked in the top 60th percentile of campuses receiving this accolade