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INTRODUCTION FROM CHANCELLOR JOHNSON O. AKINLEYE
Message from the Chancellor
Five years ago, on June 26, 2017, I had the honor of being appointed as the 12th chancellor of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. I took the leadership helm at a time when NCCU was in a period of high growth and innovation and primed for transformational change.
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Together with senior leadership, we identified and strategically mapped out six key priorities of focus that would take NCCU forward as a top-ranked regional institution and challenge us in the coming years. The Eagle Promise launched and showcased just how well we produce scholars who graduate in four years, become socially and globally engaged, gain experience in leadership skills and emerge as graduates who are job-ready or equally well qualified to proceed to graduate or professional school. The University of North Carolina’s Strategic Plan, Strategic Directions, was created to track all 17 constituent institutions’ metrics in nine key areas that include completion and graduation rates, degree efficiency and sponsored research dollars. In 2019, NCCU introduced our five-year strategic plan, “Charting a New Landscape for Student-Centered Success.”
Since leading this stellar academic enterprise, we have accumulated a number of accolades. Enrollment is healthy and growing. We created two new colleges as an outgrowth of an academic realignment. The university continues to climb in national rankings. Our research enterprise is thriving. We are logging record-setting private donations and philanthropic gifts. NCCU has won Mid-Eastern Athletics Conference (MEAC) championships. Durham and the Research Triangle are booming and attracting multinational technology companies.
With so much great progress underway, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, but did not derail us in boldly moving ahead.
With a swift shift in instructional modality and our students, faculty and staff quickly transitioning to online and hybrid learning, living and working, we proved that preparation truly does lead to a positive outcome. Visionary forethought ensured that our ability to teach and deliver high quality instruction online would only strengthen the standard of excellence we established in distance education. And while we are still optimistically and cautiously working in our ‘new normal’ environment, NCCU remains steadfast in focusing on our No. 1 priority—student success.
The report enclosed provides a detailed overview of NCCU’s successes under my leadership—from new, signature facilities, such as our five capital projects to partnerships with Fortune 500 corporations and North Carolina Community Colleges. NCCU is soaring, and we have even higher heights to reach.
In Truth and Service,
