2Q, 2010 - UNC Charlotte Magazine

UNC Charlotte The magazine of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for Alumni and Friends • v17 n1 q2 • 2010

The Adventure Continues

Dubois marks five years as chancellor

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Moving Forward In Trying Times

At the same time as we struggle to protect core academic activities, we also don’t want the current budgetary circumstances to stop our forward momentum as an institution.

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As we approach a new fiscal year, Governor Perdue and the General Assembly are making important decisions about funding for higher education. Since last spring, the North Carolina economy has continued to struggle, resulting in lagging state revenues to support the University and other state agencies. As a consequence, UNC Charlotte was forced to reduce its permanent budget by about $12.7 million for the 2009-2010 academic year. For 2010-2011, it is possible that UNC Charlotte could face additional cuts in the range of $910 million.

As the General Assembly goes to work on a budget for next year, the economic situation in North Carolina remains a question mark.

But there can be no question that we are very concerned about taking on even deeper cuts than those we have already sustained.

These budget reductions affect all areas of the University, including admissions, student financial aid, student/faculty ratios, availability of courses to support students’ timely progress toward degree completion, academic and career advising, personal counseling, the provision of classroom/laboratory supplies and equipment, and support for the work of the faculty and staff. With advance planning we have been able to avoid widespread and permanently damaging personnel layoffs.

But the only way this has been accomplished is by our not filling more than 150 staff and faculty positions that were intended to support our growth in enrollment. We are no longer trimming at the edges, we are cutting dangerously close to the core.

At the same time as we struggle to protect core academic activities, we also don’t want the current budgetary circumstances to stop our forward momentum as an institution.

With advocacy on our behalf by UNC System President Erskine Bowles, former Vice Chancellor of University Relations and Community Affairs David Dunn, and the EPIC Advisory Board, the General Assembly provided $2 million last year in ongoing funding to support the hiring of faculty and staff for our Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC). We hope to secure the final installment of $3 million of requested funding in the 2010 legislative session. An educated workforce will play a critical role in the Charlotte region’s

ascendance as the nation’s “New Energy Capital,” and EPIC will provide the cuttingedge research facilities and professional personnel necessary to the region’s future economic development.

The UNC Charlotte football program is another initiative that will do a great deal for our University and for the region. Over the past year, the Board of Trustees and the UNC Board of Governors unanimously approved plans to move forward with a football program that will begin competition in the fall of 2013.

The proposal calls for the University to borrow $40.5 million to construct a permanent 15,000-seat stadium, field house, and adjacent practice fields. The Department of Athletics has raised more than $6 million through seat license sales and private contributions, both of which we expect to accelerate once the General Assembly has given the final “green light” for us to proceed. Fortunately, no state funds are required to be approved.

Finally, as best we can, we want to continue to remain accessible to students seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees. We expect to enroll over 25,000 students this coming fall.

How rapidly we grow toward our expected eventual enrollment of 35,000 students will depend on the availability of adequate financial and physical resources. We remain optimistic that the Governor and the General Assembly will eventually find a way to fund new construction required for our continued growth, including a new $120 million Science Building that remains unfunded at this time.

As always, you are invited to visit campus at any time. If you haven’t had a chance to see the steel frame of the EPIC building rising from the Charlotte Research Campus or the new Student Union, I can promise that you will be amazed at these remarkable new additions to the landscape of UNC Charlotte.

If you ever had any doubts, you’ll leave having realized that “it’s great to be a Niner!”

Cordially,

Philip L. Dubois Chancellor www.UNCC.edu

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contents

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12

features

departments

3

4

News Briefs

22

Center Stage

24

49ers Notebook

39

Class Notes

40

Building Blocks

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Meditation Helps Cognition Chancellor Dubois - The Adventure Continues

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Pushing It to the Limit Motorsports Engineering

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Doing Good Humanitarian Honored

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Making of the Modern Research Library

41 P

18

erspective

stake your claim profiles 10

Seth Avett

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Leigh Derby

34

Tracy Dodson

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Michael Marsicano

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On the cover: Chancellor Philip L. Dubois reflects on his first five years at the helm of North Carolina’s urban research university.

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U N C C H A R LOT T E

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Forward, forward!

“Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson reads, in part, “Forward, forward let us range. Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.” And thus it is at UNC Charlotte, where change truly is a constant and where even bittersweet changes haven’t dulled our trajectory.

In this edition you’ll read all about change. Our cover story tracks the first five years of Chancellor Philip L. Dubois’ tenure.

Could there be more change in such a short time? More than a dozen new academic buildings and other facilities have come on line or are moving fast toward completion. Enrollment has increased by more than 5,000. Twelve new academic programs have begun. GPAs and SAT scores for incoming freshmen have leapt significantly. A 12-story Center City building is rising fast. We’re starting a football team for goodness sake! These are all great changes for the university but just a sample of many, many enhancements.

Change. Read about our inaugural class of Levine Scholars. Read about the ingenious work going on to enhance the J. Murrey Atkins Library into a model 21st century resource for the campus and the community. These are great, great benefits for UNC Charlotte and the Charlotte region.

Change brings challenges of course. Read, for example, of the departure of Vice Chancellor David Dunn, a 1980 graduate. No one loves UNC Charlotte more, and he has proven that in his roles leading the division of University Relations & Community Affairs, and previously the Alumni Affairs department.

David also served for many years as UNC Charlotte’s government liaison (read lobbyist) in Raleigh. He was crucial to bringing to campus millions of dollars of appropriations. He’ll be a tough act to follow, but he’s moving on to a fresh challenge and that is a joyful thing.

At UNC Charlotte, change happens – and plenty of it. And by providence and hard work, that moves us forward, forward.

Regards,

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Volume 17, Number 2 Philip L. Dubois Chancellor Ruth Shaw Chair of the Board of Trustees Editor Director of Public Relations John D. Bland Creative Director Fabi Preslar Contributing Writers Phillip Brown James Hathaway Cliff Mehrtens Arthur Murray Paul Nowell Lisa A. Patterson Staff Photographer Wade Bruton Circulation Manager Cathy Brown Design & Production SPARK Publications

UNC Charlotte is published four times a year by The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 ISSN 10771913 Editorial offices: Reese Building, 2nd floor The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd.

Charlotte, NC 28223 704.687.5825; Fax: 704.687.6379

John D. Bland, Editor Director of Public Relations

Printed on recycled paper

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is open to people of all races and is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students or employees based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.

17,500 copies of this publication were printed at a cost of $.52 per piece, for a total cost of $9,210.

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Brief Meditative Exercise Helps Cognition

By James Hathaway Some of us need regular amounts of coffee or other stimulants to make us cognitively sharper. A newly published study suggests perhaps a brief bit of meditation would prepare us just as well.

While past research using neuro-imaging technology has shown that meditation techniques can promote significant changes in brain areas associated with concentration, it has always been assumed that extensive training was required to achieve this effect. Though many people would like to boost their cognitive abilities, the monk-like discipline required seems like a daunting time commitment and financial cost for this benefit.

Surprisingly, the benefits may be achievable even without all the work.

Though it sounds almost like an advertisement for a “miracle” weight-loss product, new research now suggests that the mind may be easier to cognitively train than we previously believed. Psychologists studying the effects of a meditation technique known as “mindfulness ” found that meditation-trained participants showed significant improvement in their critical cognitive skills (and performed significantly higher in cognitive tests than a control

group) after four days of training for only 20 minutes each day.

“In the behavioral test results, what we are seeing is something that is somewhat comparable to results that have been documented after far more extensive training,” said Fadel Zeidan, a post-doctoral researcher at Wake Forest University

School of Medicine. He’s a former doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where the research was conducted.

“Simply stated, the profound improvements that we found after just four days of Continued on p. 33

“The mind is, in fact, easily changeable and highly influenced by meditation.” www.UNCC.edu

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news briefs ZABLOTSKY NAMED LEVINE SCHOLARS DIRECTOR Sociology Professor Diane Zablotsky has been appointed director of the Levine Scholars Program at UNC Charlotte. In June, she will succeed interim director Al Maisto, who helped get the new merit scholarship program off the ground.

Zablotsky joined the UNC Charlotte faculty in 1992 Diane Zablotsky as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1999.

Along with her teaching duties, she currently serves as Associate Dean of Student Support Services in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also served as interim chair of the Sociology and Anthropology in the 2005-06 academic year.

In a letter accompanying her application for a faculty position, Zablotsky envisioned a learning community of students that would foster a broad understanding of international issues tied to an opportunity for service.

This vision was realized with the creation of the Sociology/Anthropology Learning Community, which is now the Global Village Learning Community. Students in that program are involved in an international service learning experiences.

Zablotsky has similar expectations for the Levine Scholars Program.

“My vision would be to create a premier experience for the scholars in ways that allow them to take the individual gifts they bring as entering freshmen and blossom into mature scholars, role models, and leaders when they leave the university four years later,” she wrote.

“The success of both the program and my leadership would be fulfilled when students from across the country are drawn to UNC Charlotte seeking this opportunity to fulfill their potential, and alumni of the program

SORENSEN ADDS INTERIM POST In May, Chancellor Dubois announced that Niles Sorensen will serve as interim vice chancellor for the division of University Relations and Community Affairs (URCA). Sorensen also will continue in his role as vice chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs.

Sorensen, who joined the University in 2006, will fill in for David Dunn, who recently stepped down as vice chancellor Niles Sorensen for URCA. “Niles has been a superb member of my Cabinet,” said Dubois. “I am grateful to him for taking on these additional responsibilities.”

URCA was formed in January 2006 to foster enhanced local, regional and statewide awareness of and support for the mission of UNC Charlotte. It comprises the offices of Broadcast Communications, Community Affairs, Events and Special Projects, Governmental Affairs, Marketing and Public Relations.

Sorensen will serve in his interim role until Dubois makes a final decision on the future of URCA structure and staffing, likely by the end of December, 2010. Dubois has indicated that he expects to make a decision by mid-summer as to whether to maintain the vice chancellor’s responsibilities for legislative relations or to create a separate position that will be solely responsible for UNC Charlotte’s state and local governmental relations.

To help in evaluating the current and future organizational, strategic and staffing needs of URCA, Dubois has hired former Wachovia Corp. executive Shannon W. McFayden for a parttime advisory role. She will start work on June 1.

McFayden served as senior executive vice president, head of human resources and corporate relations for Wachovia, where she had responsibility for human resources, corporate communications and community relations.

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have moved beyond the university to make their mark in the world.”

Provost Joan Lorden described Zablotsky as a highly respected faculty member and administrator.

“Her knowledge of UNC Charlotte and our community will be invaluable as we launch the Levine Scholars Program,” she said. “What distinguished Diane most in the large field of competitive candidates that we attracted for this position was the passion that she has for students, their personal and intellectual growth, and their success.”

Last month, the members of the inaugural class of 15 Levine Scholars were introduced as the new scholarship program was officially launched. The group includes 10 young leaders from North Carolina and five other states.

They will take their place among their peers on campus in the fall 2010 semester.

The scholarships were made possible by philanthropists Leon and Sandra Levine, who committed $9.3 million to UNC Charlotte for the scholarship program to develop community service leaders. Leon Levine is the founder and chairman emeritus of Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar Stores, Inc. The Levines are involved in a number of civic and charitable causes in the Charlotte region through The Leon Levine Foundation.

VICE CHANCELLOR DAVID DUNN MOVES ON TO COMPASS GROUP David Dunn, UNC Charlotte’s first vice chancellor for university relations and community affairs (URCA), stepped down May 15 to pursue a position in the private sector.

Dunn, who was appointed by Chancellor Philip L. Dubois to head the new URCA division in December 2005, now serves as vice president of sales for higher education at the Americas Division of Compass Group. The London-based company is a world leader in foodservice management and support services.

Its Americas Division is based in Charlotte.

Dunn served as the university’s governmental liaison with the General Assembly in Raleigh.

He worked closely with legislators to secure key appropriations and to increase the overall amount of state funding for UNC Charlotte.

Dubois has initiated a search for Dunn’s successor. www.UNCC.edu

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Fifteen Named Levine Scholars Fifteen young leaders from high schools across the United States, including 10 from North Carolina, have been named the first group of Levine Scholars at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

It is the inaugural year for the prestigious merit scholarship program, which covers the cost of all tuition and fees, housing and meals, books, a laptop computer and summer experiences. Additional funding is provided to support community service work during the academic years.

The value of the scholarship is about $90,000 for each in-state student and $140,000 for each out-of-state student.

The 10 Levine Scholars from North Carolina are: Anna Bawtinhimer, Arendell Parrott Academy, Ayden, daughter of Stacey and Gary Bawtinhimer; Caroline Brewer, High Point Christian Academy, High Point, daughter of Cheri and George Brewer; Evan Danchenka, Hickory Ridge High School, Harrisburg, son of Janelle and Gary Danchenka; Mack Herman, Maiden High School, Newton, son of Terri and Anthony Herman; Jacob Huffman, Myers Park High School, Charlotte, son of Janice Sherian and Timothy Huffman.

Samuel McClenney, St. David’s School, Cary, son of Aleta and Walter McClenney; Christina Neitzey, Topsail High School, Hampstead, daughter of Dawn and Richard Neitzey; Laura Outlaw, North Carolina

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School of Science and Mathematics, Mount Olive, daughter of Julia and Remus Outlaw; Jasmine Patterson, South Stanly High School, Norwood, daughter of Merry and Robert Patterson; and Cassady Schulte, Independence High School, Charlotte, daughter of Cathy and Lee Schulte.

The other recipients come from five other states. They are: Vrushab Gowda, Manalapan High School, Manalapan, N.J., son of Amba and H.I. Gowda; Karen Gray, Oak Mountain High School, Birmingham, Ala., daughter of Deborah and John Gray; Celia Karp, Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda, Md., daughter of Andrea and Robert Karp; Caitlin Vaverek, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Plantation, Fla., daughter of Barbara and Kevin Vaverek; and Jonathan Wainwright, Allegany-Limestone High School, Allegany, N.Y., son of Leslie Pasternacki and Jeffrey Wainwright.

This year’s recipients were selected through a lengthy nomination and interview process. More than 1,000 high school seniors from 25 states were nominated by their schools.

From those nominees, the foundation and regional committees chose 43 finalists, including 31 from North Carolina. The out-of-state finalists were from as far away as New Jersey, Indiana, New Hampshire, Florida and Kansas.

“The response from top students from around the country was more than we could have envisioned,” said Chancellor Philip L. Dubois. “Their credentials are at the very highest echelon, which made the selection process very difficult because of the quality of the individuals and the group as a whole.”

Al Maisto, associate dean for the Honors College and Interim Director for the Levine Scholars Program, echoed those sentiments: “The young scholars who accepted the Levine Scholarship were by and large fiercely sought after by other institutions,” he said. “The fact that they choose to come here is significant and speaks to what UNC Charlotte has to offer to students of this caliber.”

The first group of Levine Scholars will take their place among their peers on campus in the fall 2010 semester. Throughout the school year, Levine Scholars will be expected to actively engage with established community organizations or develop their own resolution to key issues facing Charlotte.

To support their work in service to society, recipients also will have access to an $8,000 grant funded by The Leon Levine Foundation and distributed by the UNC Charlotte Foundation.

The scholarships were made possible by philanthropists Leon and Sandra Levine, who committed $9.3 million to UNC Charlotte for the merit scholarship program to develop community service leaders. Leon Levine is the founder and chairman emeritus of Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar Stores, Inc. The Levines are involved in a number of civic and charitable causes in the Charlotte region through The Leon Levine Foundation.

“This is truly an outstanding group of young people,” said Leon Levine. “We are looking forward to following their progress at UNC Charlotte and their involvement in our community.”

The program has been compared with the esteemed Morehead-Cain Scholars at UNC Chapel Hill, Park Scholars at North Carolina State University and Benjamin N. Duke Scholars at Duke University.

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news briefs INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN NIGERIAN PERFORMER TO SERVE AS ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE Internationally known Nigerian performer Tayo Aluko is the Africana Studies Department’s artist-in-residence. His visit is in collaboration with the College of Arts + Architecture and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture.

As a baritone, Aluko has performed as the guest soloist with numerous orchestras, choirs and brass bands in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and Nigeria. His signature production, “Call Mr. Robeson,” premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in August 2007. He has performed the play around the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, and he went on the win the coveted Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence, Best Male Performer Award and a nomination for the Best Show at the Brighton Festival Fringe in May 2008.

Aluko’s latest piece is “I Got a Home in Barack (From Africa to the White House: A Journey of Resistance, Triumph and Spirituals).”

The musically illustrated talk explores African pre-slavery history, Africans’ resistance to white domination over the centuries and the symbolic triumph resulting from the election and inauguration of Barack Obama. The performance features selected spirituals sung by UNC CHARLOTTE PART OF COLLABORATION TO SAVE LIVES Several organizations united to increase availability of portable defibrillators in Charlotte. UNC Charlotte partnered with several organizations to support Strive to Revive, an initiative that made available 20 Automated External Defibrillators to Charlotte-area places of worship.

The Strive to Revive initiative sought to increase the chance of survival of sudden cardiac arrest patients through training and bystander intervention. The program focused on places of worship, as consistently large gathering places, and was designed to help populations disproportionately impacted by heart disease, cardiac arrest and other health risk factors or disparities.

The program was developed after state Rep.

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Aluko. This sometimes controversial presentation also mentions notable freedom fighters including Paul Robeson, Frederick Douglass, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo and Queen Nanny of Jamaica. The presentation includes significant African philosophy and proverbs, too.

CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND PARTNERS WITH COLLEGE OF EDUCATION UNC Charlotte is staking its claim to assist at-risk children by serving as the host of a site for a 2010 Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools summer program. Mary Lynne Calhoun, dean of the College of Education, announced the initiative March 24.

“This was a natural chain of events due to longstanding relationships with Freedom School Partners and the rising need in the community,” said Sherell Fuller of the Department of Reading and Elementary Education, who has been named the program’s site coordinator.

The CDF Freedom Schools summer program will serve as a learning tool for UNC Charlotte student interns and summer school students who will work with the children. Fuller said, the location at UNC Charlotte is “an unbelievably valuable resource to give these children access to a college campus.”

The program will run from June 21 to July 30

involving 50 students from Nathaniel Alexander Elementary School and James Martin Middle School. CDF Freedom Schools programs feature a literacy-based learning curriculum that focus on empowering children to reach their full potential.

This addition to the Freedom School Partners was made possible in part by a grant from the Wachovia Wells Foundation. Freedom School Partners provides literacy-rich learning programs integrating reading, conflict resolution and social action in an activity-based curriculum that promotes social, cultural and historical awareness.

FSP is dedicated to serving at-risk students and families living in poverty in the Carolinas.

BUSINESS STUDENTS COMPETE IN NATIONAL INVESTMENT CHALLENGE A team of UNC Charlotte students recently represented North Carolina in a national investment research challenge in New York City.

Lee Bowles, Jarrod Green, Brian Schaffer, Suken Shah and Bruce Silverman qualified by having the top report and oral presentation in a state challenge in February. They competed against teams from Duke, Wake Forest and Appalachian State universities.

The national competition, the Americas Regional Investment Research Challenge, was sponsored by the CFA Institute, the global, notfor-profit association of investment professionals

Endowment is administering Becky Carney collapsed in her the distribution of the legislative office and went into machines and providing cardiac arrest on April 2, 2009. the essential training on Her life was saved because a proper usage. The Lucky portable defibrillator was available Hearts Campaign has been at the time of the incident.

“I am pleased a new program increasing the availability of will save lives by increasing the the devices in Mecklenburg number of portable defibrillators County since 2008. in Charlotte. I know how Additional partners Rep. Becky Carney important it is to have these include Bank of America, devices in public places. I am living proof Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North that a defibrillator will increase the chance of Carolina, Carolinas Healthcare System, survival to anyone that may experience cardiac Duke Energy Carolinas, Mecklenburg arrest in a public setting,” said Rep. Carney.

Medical Alliance and Endowment, The Lucky Hearts Campaign, a public Mecklenburg EMS Agency (Medic),the education collaborative spearheaded by N.C. Association of Electric Cooperatives, Mecklenburg EMS Agency (Medic) and Mecklenburg County Farm Bureau, Progress the Mecklenburg Medical Alliance and Energy and Reynolds American.

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that awards the CFA and CIPM designations.

The UNC Charlotte students are enrolled in the Belk College’s Student Managed Investment Fund, a year-long finance course established to give students hands-on experience in investing and financial analysis. Assets for the SMIF are provided by the UNC Charlotte Foundation.

Judson Russell, clinical associate professor of finance, is the SMIF adviser and served as coach for the student investment team.

“We are incredibly proud of the students for their performance in the state investment challenge and their representation of North Carolina in New York,” said Joe Mazzola, dean of the Belk College.

49ERS MAKE MAJOR HIRE In April the Charlotte 49ers named Alan Major, formerly an assistant coach at Ohio State, as head men’s basketball coach, following an extensive national search.

“Alan comes from a strong background that includes success at the highest level,” said Director of Athletics Judy Rose. But just as important as the impressive credentials of great players and teams he has been a part of is the great energy he exhibits and the genuine care he shows for his players. He wants to develop student-athletes not only in basketball but in life.”

Major spent the last six seasons as an assistant to Thad Matta at Ohio State. Prior to that, he served as an assistant to Matta at Xavier for three years. Major, who has an 18-year coaching background, has also had stints at Pacific, Southern Illinois and Cal Lutheran. A native of Indianapolis, Major graduated from Purdue in 1992. While at Purdue, Major served as a manager for Gene Keady’s Boilermakers. He received his master’s in education with an emphasis on physical education from Cal Lutheran in 1995.

Major has been at Ohio State for the last six seasons, helping the Buckeyes to a 156-54 record, four NCAA Tournament appearances, a school-record 35 wins in 2006-07, three outright Big Ten regular-season titles and two league tournament titles. This past year, Ohio State reached the NCAA Sweet Sixteen after winning both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. In 2007, the Buckeyes reached the NCAA National Championship game and in 2008, they won the National Invitation Tournament title.

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Lyman Johnson is flanked by Marc Horgan of First Citizens Bank (left), Johnson’s wife Sue and Chancellor Philip L. Dubois.

Johnson Receives 2010 First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal For his contributions to the knowledge and understanding of colonial Latin American history, Lyman L. Johnson is the 2010 recipient of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal. The prestigious award, presented by First Citizens Bank and UNC Charlotte, honors faculty scholarship and intellectual inquiry.

“Lyman Johnson is the kind of professor you’d always hoped you would have, the kind of colleague you are grateful to work with, and the kind of friend you cherish throughout your life,” a colleague wrote about Johnson, a history professor at the university since 1987.

Johnson’s research on the lives of middle-and working-class men and women in late 18th- and early 19th-century Argentina has helped establish the Department of History as a highly active research department. He has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s preeminent historians of colonial Latin America, while helping to grow the department and attract talented scholars to UNC Charlotte.

While his fellow scholars and colleagues describe Johnson’s research contributions in different ways, all of them concur that his work has made an indelible impact on the field. In a field with little outside funding, Johnson has attracted more than $1 million in grant funding from prestigious sources Johnson also has been the recipient of two Fulbright awards and numerous other distinctions.

An imaginative and productive scholar, Johnson has authored and co-authored 40 articles and book chapters, and three books, including one of the most widely used single volume histories of colonial Latin America.

Musketeers went 78-23 with three NCAA appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2004. He coached for a total of five seasons at Pacific, and helped the Tigers to the 1997 NCAA Tournament. He coached for one season at Southern Illinois under current Illinois head

coach Bruce Weber. His career began at Cal Lutheran where he helped the Kingsmen to a 61-22 record in three seasons, including trips to the NCAA Div. III Tournament in 1993 and 1994.

Major replaces Bobby Lutz, who completed a 12-year stint as 49ers head coach in March.

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news briefs PROFESSORS EXCEL IN STEM CRUCIAL DISCIPLINES Four Lee College of Engineering faculty members who were awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in April are breaking the national trend of under-representation of women among tenured faculty in engineering and other sciences.

Gloria Elliott, Brigid (Brid) Mullany, Jiang (Linda) Xie and Terry Xu were awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor, along with their colleagues Ertunga Ozelkan and Qiuming Wei. David Brinkley was promoted to professor.

“The promotion of these faculty members recognizes their commitment to the excellence we seek here at UNC Charlotte in all faculty roles,” said Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.

“It also is significant that four of the six faculty members who were promoted to associate professor in the Lee College of Engineering were women,” Lorden said. “Attracting and retaining women faculty members in engineering and other science and mathematics disciplines is a well-documented national issue. The faculty and administrators of the Lee College of Engineering deserve credit for their efforts to address this national need by creating an environment in which the careers of these outstanding women can flourish.”

In its February 2010 report, “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,” the AAUW suggests creating a collegial environment, providing mentors and revising institutional policies make a difference. Lorden is primary investigator for an NSF grant that supports such work through the UNC Charlotte ADVANCE initiative. Three of these four engineering faculty have received Bonnie Cone Fellowships from ADVANCE, and all four have participated in programming.

STUDENTS WIN AWARDS FROM COLLEGE NEWS ORGANIZATION Students from the University Times Marketing Department recently won six awards at the College Newspapers Business and Advertising Managers conference.

The students picked up top honors for Best Printed Rate Card and Best Newspaper Marketing and Promotion Plan; second place awards for Best Display Ad in Color, Best Sales Incentive Program and Best Sales Increase for a Special Section (for the basketball preview); and third place for Best Orientation/Back to School Issue (for the Welcome Back edition).

The University Times, produced by the Office of Student Media, is a twice-weekly campus newspaper distributed in a number of on- and off-campus locations. Student media organizations are completely student-operated and foster education and growth for students interested in journalism and advertising. CNBAM is a professional organization for students and advisers working with business and advertising departments at collegiate newspapers across the nation.

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Gloria Elliott

Jiang Xie

Brigid Mullany

Terry Xu

In their research, Xu’s group is interested in synthesis, characterization and exploration of novel properties of onedimensional nanostructures. Currently, the research work is focused on boron-based nanomaterials for thermoelectric energy conversion application, which will play an important role in meeting the energy challenges of the future. Xu received the prestigious NSF CAREER award in 2008.

Xie’s research tackles problems in emerging wireless technologies and networks, such as wireless mesh networks, cognitive radio networks, wireless body area networks for e-health, vehicular networks, and the next-generation Internet. The research has the potential for societal as well as engineering impact. She won a NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award in 2010.

Mullany also received a prestigious NSF CAREER award in 2008. Her research focuses on precision surface generation and evaluation. Precision polishing dynamics has implications for process automation and for industries that include optical component and laser system manufacturers, semiconductor fabrication companies and the biomedical sector.

Elliott is working with colleagues to develop innovative techniques for environmental-friendly, sustainable transformation of waste paper products and plant biomass from agriculture and lumber mills into a marketable liquid fuel commodity. Her research includes a focus on heat and mass transfer, solidification phenomena, biological thermodynamics, biomaterials and biomedical engineering.

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Sandra and Leon Levine Awarded Honorary Degrees Sandra and Leon Levine epitomize the phrase, “Paying it Forward.”

UNC Charlotte honored Sandra and Leon Levine with honorary degrees at the university’s spring commencement May 15 for their philanthropic contributions in the Charlotte community and longstanding support for higher education.

The Levines were made honorary Doctors of Public Service for their numerous acts of public service and philanthropy. Most recently, their foundation established the Levine Scholars Program, a merit scholarship, which will enable UNC Charlotte to recruit exceptional student-leaders from around the United States.

Leon Levine is the founder of Matthews-based Family Dollar Stores Inc. He and his wife, Sandra, are involved in a number of civic and charitable causes in the Charlotte region through the Leon Levine Foundation.

“Sandra and Leon Levine epitomize the phrase, ‘Paying it Forward,’ ” Chancellor Philip L. Dubois said. “Their endeavors on behalf of our state, our region and our community are, frankly, much too numerous to list.”

The Leon Levine Foundation is funding the largest individual gift commitment, initially valued at $9.3 million, in UNC Charlotte’s history.

In February, 43 Levine Scholars Program finalists, selected from more than 1,000 applicants, visited the UNC Charlotte campus. They included nine students from the Charlotte region and others from as far away as Kansas and New Hampshire.

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Leon and Sandra Levine

“We were overwhelmed by the number of extraordinary students from around the country who applied for these scholarships,” Dubois said. “These students are also being recruited by other outstanding universities. Because of this new merit scholarship program, they are finding UNC Charlotte offers excellent opportunities in a wide variety of academic disciplines.”

The 15 recipients of the scholarships were announced in May. Al Maisto, associate dean for the Honors College and interim director for the Levine Scholars Program, said the idea to start the scholarship program derived from the Levine family’s ongoing efforts to give back to the Charlotte community.

“The goal is to cultivate new leaders,

selected from top students both statewide and across the nation, at UNC Charlotte,” he said. “We want them to use their academic prowess, leadership skills, dedication to community service and business talents right here in the Charlotte community.”

Leon Levine’s vision is to foster a commitment among the Levine Scholars to community service and a capacity for what he calls “ethical leadership.”

The program has been compared with the esteemed Morehead-Cain Scholars at UNC Chapel Hill, Park Scholars at N.C. State University and Benjamin N. Duke Scholars at Duke University. The value for in-state students will be about $90,000 and about $140,000 for out-ofstate students.

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Growing fame of Avett Brothers comes at the right time

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By Paul Nowell

It’s mid-morning when Seth Avett pulls his pickup truck into the shopping center parking lot off University City Boulevard.

Dented and missing some of its tannishbrown paint, the truck shows plenty of signs of use on his father’s farm, hauling firewood, hay and music equipment.

No one seems to take notice when Avett walks into the Java Jackson shop and orders a latte.

If the clerk, a young woman wearing a Georgia Southern sweatshirt, recognizes the celebrated musician, she is deserving of a job with the Secret Service or at least a role on the television show “24.” She takes his money and hands Avett his coffee and a few coins and goes about her business.

Avett, dressed in the dark attire he typically wears at an Avett Brothers performance and sporting his signature beard and shock of thick brown hair, ambles over to one of the cushy leather easy chairs in the back of the shop.

A couple of customers raise their eyes from their laptop screens for just a moment and glance over at him as he sits down to chat about the recent success of the Avett Brothers and his devotion to UNC Charlotte, his alma mater.

Suffice it to say it’s a rare moment of solitude for Avett, who with brother Scott and the rest of the band has been touring the United States and more recently, Europe and Australia, in support of the critically acclaimed release, “I and Love and You.” www.UNCC.edu

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He is the younger half of the Avett brothers, who are from Concord. The band is gaining more popularity as the months go by since the release of its album, which was produced by Rick Rubin, who also has worked with artists including Johnny Cash, the Dixie Chicks and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

While virtually impossible to pigeonhole, the Avett Brothers band is most often called a folk-rock group. Seth and Scott write the music and share vocals. While Scott is most associated with the banjo and Seth with the acoustic guitar, both are versatile enough to play piano, organ and even drums.

The band also features Bob Crawford on stand-up bass and cellist Joe Kwon.

Their vast repertoire combines elements of bluegrass, Americana, country, folk and a good measure of punk and rock ’n roll.

After only a few years, the band is touring with national acts such as the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Government Mule. It has played major music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Coachella. In May, the band was the

closing act at MerleFest, transforming the usual Sunday afternoon from a lineup of acoustic folk and gospel music into a raucous affair.

Even for Seth Avett, it’s hard to imagine that just a few short years ago you could catch the Avett Brothers in parking lots and wine shops for the price of a drink – or less. At the time, he skateboarded around the UNC Charlotte campus and attended soccer matches when he wasn’t studying or rehearsing.

Avett becomes nostalgic about seemingly unremarkable places near the campus, including the shopping center parking lot.

“This parking lot is actually very special to us because it is where Bob (Crawford) auditioned to join the band,” he said. “We used to hang out here all the time because there was a record shop in this shopping center. He drove up from Rock Hill, S.C., and auditioned for us right out there and we’ve been together ever since that night.”

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Chancellor Dubois reflects on his first five years

Adventure The

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“We have been so fortunate to have had visionary leaders take the steps necessary to get UNC Charlotte where it is today…”

Dubois and Provost Joan Lorden enjoy a Cabinet meeting.

The Center City Building is rising in Uptown Charlotte.

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On July 5, 2010, Philip L. Dubois will complete his first five years as UNC Charlotte’s fourth chancellor. He took time to reflect on some of the highlights and look briefly into the future.

If you had to pick out a couple of moments, what has been the most positive memory for you and which the most negative?

I’ve been fortunate to have had many positive moments since I returned here, including the day in the summer of 2006 when we learned that the Center City building would be funded, the opening of the Student Union, the funding of our Energy Production and Infrastructure (EPIC) project, and the announcement of the new Levine Scholars Program. But by far the highlight of my return was February 3, 2006, when I was installed as Chancellor, and shared the stage with my three predecessors—Dean Colvard,

E.K. Fretwell, and Jim Woodward. We have been so fortunate to have had such visionary leaders take the steps necessary to get UNC Charlotte where it is today and I thought it was very significant that all of the people ever to have served as Chancellor were standing by my side. The only thing that could have made that moment more memorable would have been to have Miss Bonnie standing there too.

The low point was on April 13, 2006, when we had the campus explosion and electrical fire that injured several members of our campus staff and eventually took the life of Ed Seamon from the Facilities Management Department. Most of us on campus have pretty simple jobs and don’t really have daily responsibilities that place us in a position of danger. We were fortunate in the sense that more people were not hurt or killed and we used the accident

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fe a t u re to re-focus our attention upon safety issues and emergency response procedures, but there was nothing we could do to save Ed. When we dedicated the bench in his memory over by the Friday Building some months after his death, I was reminded of the strength of his family and of the tough decisions that his wife, Brenda, had to make during his hospitalization at the N.C. Jaycees Burn Unit in the hospital at UNC Chapel Hill.

So far, what do you consider to be your most significant achievements?

Long term, I think the decision to make the Center City building a top priority for legislative funding in my first year and to work with President Bowles and Vice Chancellor David Dunn to secure approval by the General Assembly will turn out to be the most important thing we’ve done.

For whatever reason, that decision—and our advocacy in the community for the construction of the northeast line of light rail with a stop on campus—may do as much to cement Charlotte’s “ownership” of this institution as anything else. Moving Left: Dubois and Lisa Lewis Dubois, UNC Charlotte’s first lady, were beaming on his installation day.

Below: The Chancellor’s cabinet includes (front row, left to right): Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Joan Lorden, Dubois, Athletics Director Judy Rose; (back row, left to right): Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services Jay Dominick, Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs Beth Hardin, Vice Chancellor for Research and Federal Relations Steve Mosier, General Counsel David Broome, Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs (and Interim Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Community Affairs) Niles Sorensen, and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Art Jackson.

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Left: The EPIC building is well along in construction and has tremendous support from local energy companies. But UNC Charlotte is working hard to ensure state appropriations to hire faculty and staff.

Below: Dickson Gate provides a proud new face to campus visitors.

ahead with starting an intercollegiate football program might be a close second, although that may depend more upon the success of future coaches and players than me or the members of my team! By the time football makes a difference, I’ll have been buried in the north end zone for some time. Although I didn’t do any of the “heavy lifting” to make it happen (that credit goes to Provost Joan Lorden and Dean Ken Lambla), I’m also proud of the decision to create the College of Arts and Architecture. We need a major presence in this community’s artistic and cultural life and the College positions us to further strengthen that aspect of our role as the state’s only urban university.

Have there been instances you view as lost opportunities or outright mistakes?

Oh, sure. I’m certainly guilty of seeing more projects, problems, and issues that need attention than are reasonable for our people to execute. Our faculty and staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help me achieve the major agenda items I identified at the time of my Installation.

In terms of missed opportunities, most of those have occurred because we are constrained by time, money, circumstances and, on occasion, politics. Had the economy not soured, we would be making a strong case to establish a public law school at UNC Charlotte. Long term, UNC Charlotte will need to be heavily invested in medical education, either with its own medical school or in partnership with Chapel Hill. We’ll have many more doctoral www.UNCC.edu

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programs in a wider range of disciplines.

Right now, the economy and our resource constraints serve as a significant drag on our ambitions. Still, when one reads the draft strategic plans in development by our deans and the faculties in the various colleges, we can see plenty of opportunities for innovation, experimentation, enhanced research, and service to the community.

UNC Charlotte will continue to be a place characterized by ongoing change.

You’ve talked a lot on campus and in the community about the goal of achieving a campus enrollment of 35,000 students by the year 2020. Are we prepared for that growth and will we stay on that timeline?

In many fundamental ways, we are very well prepared. We’ve completed our campus master plan which addresses critical uses of our land and our facilities.

Subordinate plans for student housing, transportation and planning, and sustainability are either already completed

or in preparation. We have important new buildings being planned or in construction, including EPIC and a new building known as PORTAL (Partnership, Outreach and Research for Accelerated Learning), to facilitate University-industry research partnerships. On the other hand, it is important for the campus and the community to know that we are not hell-bent on growing to 35,000 students without the resources or the facilities required to support that level of enrollment. In light of the current recession and the budget cuts we have suffered or expect in the next couple of years, we have already had to slow our enrollment growth at the freshmen level; 600 otherwise qualified young people were turned away for admission this past year alone. We desperately need our proposed new $120 million Science Building and funding to renovate older buildings, like Burson and Kennedy.

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People Transformed Leigh Derby helps others surmount disabilities

By Lisa A. Patterson

Above: Leigh Derby, ’72 and ’84, founded LifeSpan, an organization dedicated to transforming the lives of children and adults with significant developmental disabilities. Colorful artwork created by LifeSpan clients lines the walls of Derby’s Clanton Road office and is displayed at galleries in the North Davidson neighborhood.

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In 1973, many children and adults with significant developmental disabilities were relegated to lives in institutions. Some lived among family members but had little opportunity for enrichment, educational experiences or employment.

Enter Leigh Derby, ’72 and ’84.

Something about the young UNC Charlotte student caught the attention of professor Wade Williams. Williams suggested Derby become a volunteer with the Special Olympics.

“I was around people with disabilities for the first time, and it wasn’t long before I really started to enjoy being around them,” Derby said.

Williams soon recognized that Derby, a business major, had a genuine interest in volunteer work as well as an appetite for psychology classes. Williams prompted Derby to major in psychology.

Upon graduation, Derby first took a sales job before Williams steered him to a position at a fledgling nonprofit in Charlotte. Derby looks back on what he considered his “Peace Corps job” with affection.

“We [Staff members] worked with five severely disabled children in a program run out of the basement at St. Mark’s Church,” Derby said. “I wanted to make the community a better place, but I only

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intended to be there a couple of years.”

At the time, the idealistic alumnus did not foresee that the St. Mark’s opportunity would lead him to a meaningful career that would result in the transformation of thousands of lives.

Part of a very small staff charged with providing day care for the children, all of whom were excluded from public school because of their disabilities, Derby learned about life at a small nonprofit – in one week, he might serve as a van driver, janitor, cook, teacher and program director.

He also recognized what he considered the injustice of segregating a population of people based on their physical and cognitive disabilities and began formulating and implementing ideas to improve their lives.

That tiny program has since blossomed into LifeSpan, a highly regarded socialservice organization dedicated to helping children and adults with significant developmental disabilities lead full lives as integral members of their communities.

“LifeSpan started with an idea – a small group of people believed that children with significant disabilities could actually learn, a revolutionary idea at the time,” he said.

Even the pioneers in St. Mark’s basement weren’t sure exactly what the children could learn. Derby said the staff used common sense and trial-and-error to test ideas.

“We started with taking care of personal needs. Let’s teach children how to eat, how to use the toilet – the things that were barriers to getting them into public schools,” Derby said. “Nobody thought these kids could learn to walk, but we were able to teach them.”

Decades ago, and even now, the biggest barrier to individuals with significant disabilities is low expectations, Derby explained. He maintains that given a chance, and with the right support, these individuals can realize their potential, whether through creative pursuits, employment or other activities.

LifeSpan serves more than 1,300 developmentally disabled clients in 30 North Carolina counties. Derby, the organization’s CEO, leads a staff of more than 500 full- and part-time employees and contract workers.

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According to Derby, LifeSpan exists as a nonprofit with strong ties to the forprofit and government sectors. It receives 90 percent of its funding from the federal and state governments and 10 percent from private sources.

The recession has negatively impacted both lines of funding.

“In 2009, we lost $4.5 million in government funding. Consequently we’ve had to close programs. We’re significantly smaller than we were just several years ago,” Derby said. In addition, donations are down 30 to 40 percent.

To offset cuts in government funding, LifeSpan is investing in innovative and entrepreneurial ways of funding services.

LifeSpan owns a for-profit entity, LS Solutions LLC, to train and employ people with developmental disabilities. Revenue from the company’s products is then used to fund LifeSpan programs.

“When you see people transformed, literally… that makes it worthwhile.”

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That entrepreneurial spirit isn’t limited to manufacturing goods.

The LifeSpan creative-expressions program, which includes pottery-making classes, painting and horticulture, was designed to unlock the creative talents of seniors and those with disabilities that preclude them from traditional employment. LifeSpan clients have shown their artwork in galleries in and around Charlotte. The organization is renting space in the North Davidson community where artists with disabilities can study and showcase their work.

Providing a range of services for adults and children in more than 30 North Carolina counties, all of which have their own needs, requires sensitivity and flexibility; but not at the expense of high standards, Derby said.

From the beginning of his career, Derby has been adamant about the use of best practices.

He explained that providing evidence-based services requires a significant investment up front to achieve long-term gains.

Through partnerships with the UNC Charlotte College of Education and others, Derby and his staff have developed best practices and service models that are emulated throughout the country. As a result, he has been tapped to lead several professional associations and policydevelopment boards and task forces.

In the past decade, however, he’s encouraged his direct reports to hone their leadership skills – after all, Derby wants to ensure that LifeSpan’s work will continue seamlessly when he steps down as CEO. When that time comes, Derby is confident his staff will continue to improve upon what he started more than 35 years ago.

“When you see people transformed literally … when you see artists become artists, when you see people getting jobs at the airport, for example, that makes it worthwhile,” Derby said. “That’s what charges people up. We’re here to change lives and not make money.”

The naiveté of the 22-year-old Derby might be gone, but the idealism remains — and that has made all the difference.

Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer in the Office of Public Relations.

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Motorsports Engineering ďŹ nds applications on race track and roadway

By Arthur Murray

Pushing

LIMIT TO THE

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Below, left and right: The motorsports engineering team manages and drives its own racecar.

Left: N.C. Motorsports and Automotive Research Center Director Ahmed Soliman shared time with Gov. Bev Perdue at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway Next page: Motorsports engineering students get their hands dirty working on racecars.

It was November 2008. Brent Tedder had just become one of the early victims of the recession. He hadn’t seen it coming.

Three years earlier, he had gone to work in Hickory for Corning Cable Systems as a product-development engineer after receiving his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte. Now he was one of about 300 who had been laid off.

Tedder studied his options. For one thing, he could look for work. That didn’t seem promising. Tedder wanted – and he still does – to work in motor sports. But the www.UNCC.edu

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timing wasn’t right there. Even NASCAR was feeling the effects of the poor economy.

With the 2008 season completed, sponsors were reducing their commitments, and teams were consolidating. With Detroit’s troubles, the major manufacturers were pulling back. Tedder found the sport was bleeding jobs, not adding them. The same was true for other racing series.

He began to form another idea. “Rather than look for other work, I decided to get my master’s degree. It seemed like the time was right.”

That took him back to UNC Charlotte and its N.C. Motorsports and Automotive Research Center. “My original degree was in mechanical engineering with a motor sports emphasis. I wasn’t doing anything with it at Corning. I really wanted to do something with my degree.” The school, meanwhile, had beefed up its graduate and research programs in motorsports, having added four professors in the years since Tedder had graduated.

But even after that moment of clarity about his future, there was a problem.

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“Research partners include General Motors Europe, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Savannah River National Laboratory, focusing on diesel and hybrid engines, emissions and hydrogen fuel cells.”

The timing of the layoffs meant he had missed the deadlines for applying for the winter semester. He came to tour the center anyway, and Dr. Jerre Hill, senior lecturer in the Department of Motorsports Engineering, encouraged him to take the Graduate Records Examination and apply anyway.

Tedder did. He knew UNC Charlotte was where he wanted to be. “The motorsports program here is great, and the facilities we have are very nice.” But he still wasn’t sure whether it would work out because of the late start. “As it turned out, I didn’t get accepted until three days before the semester began,” he says.

Now he’s one of about 20 graduate students in the motorsports engineering program overseen by Dr. Ahmed Soliman.

The faculty specializes in power-train engines and transmissions, aerodynamics and fluid-vehicle dynamics, and the school is running one of the cutting-edge programs. “We started before the others, specifically Clemson” he says. “Clemson is not as focused as we are. They say they’re motorsports, but I don’t think they’re like we are.”

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formed an alliance with other colleges in the state to promote motorsports research, but it also is still just getting off the ground.

“There are few worldwide,” Soliman says. “There is one program at Cranfield University in England, but it’s only a graduate program.”

In fact, the UNC Charlotte program is collaborating with Cranfield, sending a student there to work on regenerative braking on hybrid vehicles. But that’s just one of the research projects under way at the center, a 6,800-square-foot laboratory that

has the feel of a NASCAR shop. Inside the building, students are building a stock car from the ground up. At about two-thirds the size of the cars used in NASCAR’s top level, the Sprint Cup, the vehicle donated by Red Bull is for the Pro Challenge series.

Near it is a water tunnel, which Soliman says is one of the largest in the country.

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projects under way at the center are research on drafting – how cars are affected when they’re close together on a race track – and on the yaw, the rotation around the vertical axis of a vehicle when it goes airborne.

Other equipment includes a dynamometer, used to measure an engine’s power.

Some of the research is for specific teams, which Soliman says he’s not at liberty to disclose. Other projects are to benefit the sport in general.

Among the research partners he can identify is General Motors Europe, which is interested in advanced diesel and hybrid engines for consumer vehicles. The center also works with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on emissions research, and with Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, S.C., on hydrogen for fuel-cell applications.

At the forefront is Soliman, a native of Egypt who grew up racing motorcycles and cars in the streets of Cairo beginning at age 13. He dons a brown fedora as he moves from his office to the laboratory and warmly greets other faculty and students as they file in to resume work on various projects. He got his bachelor’s and master’s in mechanical engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo, and then got his doctorate at The Ohio State University. He has published papers on chassis and steering systems, aerodynamics testing and engine air-intake systems He followed Formula 1 racing initially, then became a NASCAR fan once being exposed to it after moving to the Unites States in 1988. Now, he says, “I’m in front of the TV every weekend. I follow Formula 1, NASCAR, motorcycle racing, even the Kentucky Derby.”

Despite his interest in racing, Soliman believes the research done at the center has uses outside the sport. “In racing, everything is pushed to the limit. What we’re doing will transmit just as well to the cars we drive today, making them more efficient and helping them to perform better on the highway.

The future of the program is bright.

University officials plan a major expansion of the center that will help the program keep advancing (see accompanying article).

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wind tunnel. And we hope to have a calorimeter, which is used to look at heating and cooling.”

Graduate student Tedder also counts on a bright future.

For his graduate studies, Tedder is working on the diesel-engine project. “I’m most excited about working on engines in general,” he says. “This one is more about how to tune the engine for efficiency rather than for motorsports. But efficiency and power go hand in hand. The more efficient an engine is, the more power it generates.”

The project plays into his ultimate goal.

He will finish up his master’s degree in December, and he wants to work in engine design in a racing series. “What we’re doing with that engine is something that not much research has been done in that area.

We’re also working with biodiesel.”

Aside from motorsports, the research has applications in the consumer market.

“The way in which the engine would run could be used to charge a hybrid battery,” Tedder said.

Tedder went back to school because of the poor economy, and he has enjoyed the

experience. “The classes I’m taking, I’m learning a lot. In undergraduate studies, you learn what technology is being used today. In the master’s level work, you’re learning how you can further what we have today, now to push it to the next level.”

Unlike many of his peers, he’s not necessarily pushing for a NASCAR job. “I enjoy NASCAR, and I wouldn’t turn down a job in it, but my ultimate goal, regardless of whether I start in NASCAR, would be working for a team that does road-course racing. That interests me more, that type of engine, than what’s going on in NASCAR.” There also is another possibility: more education. “I’m not an economist, but my gut feeling tells me the market in December isn’t going to be much better. Since I came to graduate school, my professor has been trying to talk me into getting my doctorate.

For my end goal, I don’t think that it would benefit me greatly. But you never know. I might change my mind again.”

Arthur Murray is a Charlotte-based writer.

The next big step for the Motorsports Engineering Program at UNC Charlotte will come next year, with the opening of a much larger facility on campus by fall. How much larger? The existing center is about 6,800 square feet. The new facility will be 15,000 square feet, which will accommodate more faculty, students and research and laboratory space for the program.

Officials hope to break ground by the end of the year. Construction of the center is funded in part by a $1.9 million gift from the family of the late NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki. In conjunction with the gift, the university has renamed its research center the Alan D. Kulwicki Motorsports Laboratory.

The Kulwicki family’s involvement with education is a natural step.

The driver, who died in a plane crash in April 1993, several months after completing one of the most exciting championship seasons in NASCAR history, was the first NASCAR champion with a college degree. He earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 1977.

The undergraduate program will remain in the existing building, while graduate work will move to the new center. “It will help us recruit additional faculty,” says Dr. Ahmed Soliman, director of the N.C. Motorsports and Automotive Research Center. “It will double our capacity for faculty, graduate students and research.”

ARTHUR MURRAY

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Share the Love The Charlotte 49ers softball team (3513) wrapped up their 2010 home season with a 9-2 victory over UNC Greensboro on April 27. Besides a super won-loss record, the 49ers had plenty of reasons for high 5s. Serena Smith broke the team’s all-time RBI record; she has a three-year total of 117 runs batted in.

Charlotte Jeffery also broke the team’s career strike-out record with more than 590. The 49ers offer several softball camps beginning in June. Contact the Athletics department for details. At press time the 49ers were wrapping up their final few games and preparing for the A-10 tournament.

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From Clean Slate to Full Plate New basketball coach in a whirlwind

By Cliff Mehrtens

Alan Major, UNC Charlotte’s new men’s basketball coach, approached his team with what he called a “clean slate.”

What began clean quickly became full.

Major, 41, was hired April 9 and announced three days later to an overflow crowd of fans, staff and media at the James H. Barnhardt Student Activity Center. The whirlwind continues as Major, an assistant coach at Ohio State University the past six years, deals with the myriad details of taking over.

He sipped coffee in his new office in the Miltimore-Wallis Athletics Training and Academic Center. Over his shoulder was a full day of meetings and duties etched on a whiteboard, beginning with “7:30 (a.m.) film.”

“You have to prioritize,” said Major, an Indianapolis native who has coached 18 years. “I’ve tried to have almost a first 30 days mindset. The first 10 would be focused around the players, absolutely A-No. 1, then getting somewhat of a feel for campus and meeting as many key campus people as I can.”

That will be followed by recruiting, and reaching out to UNC Charlotte students, as Major said “to see how we can make them feel that you really need them, and hopefully spice up the home environment.”

Major, beginning his first stint as a head coach, replaced Bobby Lutz, the longestserving (12 seasons) and winningest coach (218-158) in school history.

Major was a key part of Ohio State teams, during his six seasons, compiled a 156-54 record, made four NCAA Tournament appearances and won a schoolrecord 35 games in 2006-07, when the Buckeyes reached the NCAA title game.

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Rose. After interviews, Rose said only Major was offered the job.

“Alan comes from a strong background that includes success at the highest level,” Rose said. “But just as important as the impressive credentials of great players and teams he has been a part of is the great energy he exhibits and the genuine care he shows for his players. … He is a people person and a basketball junkie.”

Major, in the rare moments when he’s not immersed in basketball, enjoys reading (“anything about people who’ve done something really special”), listening to jazz and working out.

Coaching demands often mean less time to visit family, which is high on Major’s list of important things. He joked during his introductory press conference that he wasn’t going to glance at several family members

“There are about 19 other emotions I’m feeling, too. Humbled. Fortunate. Lucky.

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Left: Alan Major answers questions from the media after he was introduced as the new men’s basketball coach at UNC Charlotte in April.

Below: Members of the men’s basketball team fill up most of the front row at a packed news conference to introduce Major.

Opposite Page: Major addresses an overflow crowd of students, staff and media at the James H. Barnhardt Student Activity Center.

— including his mother, Mary — beaming proudly in the front row for fear of losing composure.

“Having them here makes you feel like a million bucks,” Major said. “It helps keep you grounded with everything going on.

You have to have something that keeps you grounded, and for me that’s been family and friends. To them, I’m not ‘Coach,’ I’m Alan.

My mother has been a rock, and for them to be there and share it was special.”

Seated not far away during the same press conference were several 49ers players Major inherited — and vice versa.

Early reviews were positive – in both directions – for a program that hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance the past five seasons.

“When Coach Lutz left, we were all shocked,” said Shamari Spears, a junior forward from Salisbury. “I think we’re feeling a lot better now that we’ve had a chance to talk with Coach Major.”

Major’s coaching began long before he donned a tie and jacket on a college bench — even before he realized it was indeed coaching. As a youngster on a backyard court, he’d instruct younger players “to help make them better,” Major said.

“I learned how to play from older guys, and that’s what they did for me,” he said.

“They’d help me out. As I got older, I’d sometimes play with younger guys, and www.UNCC.edu

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I’d find myself helping them out. To me, that’s the purest part – when you’re in the gym and you’re on the floor (with players).

That allows everybody to speak the same language. That’s the best part.”

Major has been instrumental in developing four Ohio State players that were NBA first-round draft choices – Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Daequan Cook and Kosta Koufos.

Current Buckeyes guard Evan Turner has swept national player of the year honors.

“Alan Major is an outstanding young coaching prospect, and he will do a terrific job at Charlotte,” said Jay Bilas, an ESPN basketball analyst. “Alan is a hard worker, a good recruiter, an excellent teacher, and he has a great feel for the game and for the players. He has put his time in, and he is

fully prepared for the challenge of becoming a head coach. Charlotte has landed a very good coach – and a really good person – in Alan Major.”

Major said it’s too early to predict what type of team his initial 49ers squad will be.

But he promises staples like playing defense “extremely hard,” playing together and playing smart.

Excitement is high for Major and for Niner Nation.

“There are about 19 other emotions I’m feeling, too,” Major said with a laugh.

“Humbled. Fortunate. Lucky. Blessed.

You can throw them all in there.”

Cliff Mehrtens is a Charlotte-based writer with a background covering sports.

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GOLFER NAGY TO PLAY IN PRESTIGIOUS PALMER CUP Charlotte 49ers senior golf standout Corey Nagy (Charlotte, N.C./Vance H.S.) has added yet another feather to his muchdecorated hat. The three-time all-America and defending Atlantic 10 individual champion, has been named to the 2010 U.S. Palmer Cup team. He is the second 49er in three years to earn a spot in the prestigious event.

DARIUS LAW NAMED A-10 INDOOR MEN’S STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR For the second year in a row, Charlotte’s Darius Law was named the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Indoor Men’s Student-Athlete of the Year. Law has won the award three times as he was named to the same honor last season for the indoor and outdoor season.

The Raleigh, N.C., native owns a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in Business Management, currently serves as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President and is the first Charlotte athlete to be selected as the A-10 representative for the National SAAC.

Corey Nagy

“It’s extremely exciting,” Nagy said.

“Obviously, any time you can represent your country it’s a tremendous honor. This is unique in the sense that only a handful of guys get to go. To be invited is pretty special. It certainly ranks up there in things I’ve accomplished at Charlotte. I feel very honored to be a part of the team.”

Nagy is one of eight players selected to the U.S. team. The 2010 Palmer Cup will be held June 24-26 at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. The Palmer Cup is a Ryder Cup-style event that pits the top collegiate players from America against their counterparts from Europe.

“This is a tremendous honor for Corey,” said 49ers head coach Adam Pry. “Being selected to represent your country is extremely special and will certainly be an experience he will remember for the rest of his life. Corey will have to delay turning

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professional for another month to play in the Palmer Cup but it will provide a fitting end to a very successful amateur and college career.”

Nagy, who has earned all-America honors in each of his three seasons with the 49ers and has boasted six top-five finishes this season, including victories at the VCU Shootout and the Irish Creek Collegiate, won the 2009 A-10 Championship. The 2009 A-10 Men’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year, Nagy has won four individual titles in his career.

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Darius Law

Law won the 200m dash (21.97), 400m dash (47.62) and ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x400m relay team (3:17.07) for the Niners at the 2010 Atlantic 10 Indoor

Track & Field Championship to give Charlotte its third straight A-10 indoor title. A 13-time league champion in seven different events, Law has twice been named the Atlantic 10 Performer of the Year as well as the 2008 A-10 Rookie of the Year for the Indoor and Outdoor season during his freshman season.

To go along with his success in the Atlantic 10, Law recently became Charlotte’s seventh NCAA Indoor All-American as the junior took 12th place in the 200m in Fayetteville, Ark. His performance was the first Niner male athlete to achieve allAmerican status since 2005.

TIME FOR SPORTS CAMPS The Charlotte 49ers offer a variety of summer sports camps for young children.

The camps are professionally staffed by 49ers coaches, players and former players to offer your child the best instruction possible. Affordable and fun, the 49ers Sports Camps will provide an experience that your child will remember for years to come. For more information, including specific camp dates and registration information, log on to www.charlotte49ers. com or call the 49ers athletic offices at 704/687-6245.

GREAT GOLD RUSH AUCTION COMING JUNE 5 Enjoy an exciting night while bidding on over 1,400 items, ranging from electronics, getaway vacations, date night dinners, to sports equipment and memorabilia, artwork and one-of-kind experiences. The Charlotte 49ers Athletic Foundation’s 27th Annual Great Gold Rush Auction will be held on Saturday, June 5, in Halton Arena, which is located inside the Barnhardt Student Activity Center at UNC Charlotte. The silent auction begins at 5 p.m. and will be followed by the live auction program at approximately 8:30 p.m. A food extravaganza will be available throughout the evening. Proceeds from the event benefit the Charlotte 49ers athletic scholarship fund. For more information about the event log on to www.greatgoldrushauction.com or call the 49ers Athletic Foundation at 704/687-4950.

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IVY LEAGUE

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TALENT

FROM A

MAGNOLIA

TOWN.

To find world-class talent, you don’t have to look any farther than UNC UN NC Charlotte. vers and leaders.

Whether it’s academics, athletics, or the arts, we’re home to top achievers winning faculty, 24,700 students strong and growing, UNC Charlotte boasts an award-winning m to a university notable alumni, and an outstanding student body. Stake your claim that’s home to academic achievement.

Kenechukwu Onwugbolu Marketing, Honors Program, Class of 2011

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Mona Abbasi, Biolog l y/Pre-Med, Honors Program, Class of 2011

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Helping Others Grow William Dalen Rice is 2010 Jamgotch Award recipient

By Paul Nowell

William Dalen Rice had to convince his parents to allow him to go on his first mission trip to Haiti.

“I assured them that this wouldn’t prevent me from completing my engineering education,” he said. “In my head this was a large fork in the road. I have friends who went down the normal “American” path.

They now own homes and mortgages, have wives and kids, and careers with salaries.

“I took the path that Robert Frost suggested and I have no regrets.”

For Rice, that poetic trail took him to places where he experienced firsthand the generosity of people who have “less than nothing” and that inspired him to give more of himself. In honor of the exceptional ways in which Rice gives more of himself to serve others, he has been selected as the recipient of the 2009-2010 Nish Jamgotch Jr. Humanitarian Student Award.

Rice, a graduate student in geography and earth science, will receive a $10,000 award.

Political science professor emeritus Nish Jamgotch Jr., who taught at UNC Charlotte from 1966-1993, established the award to recognize a student who demonstrates achievement and notable work in the humanitarian field.

Rice began his humanitarian efforts after his sophomore year when he took a mission trip to Haiti. His activities in UNC Charlotte’s Venture outdoor recreational program had prepared him for rustic outdoor experiences and in Haiti he found even greater challenges, doing “grunt labor” to help poverty-stricken people with physical needs.

For some humanitarians, that might be enough. Not for him.

Rice subsequently spent summers counseling children at camps and traveled to Mexico and Montana on missions with the United Christian Fellowship. He worked in 28 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine

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fe a t u re Montana with the Blackfeet tribe of Native Americans and in Mexico on HIV prevention in community clinics. He worked on another project in Mexico to improve medical and dental care for those in need.

“Dalen is the gold standard of an inspiring young public servant,” said Ryan Lewis, operations manager with AmeriCorps*NCCC, in nominating Rice for the award. He worked with Rice throughout the southeast tutoring students, building homes and helping with disaster relief.

“I came to rely on Dalen’s steady presence and work ethic,” Lewis said. Another

nominator praised Rice for his “matchless leadership skills,” which he honed through years of volunteer service.

“We experienced the suffering and hardship that exists in our society, on domestic soil (and beyond),” said Rice.

“And then we put shovels to the ground and hammers to nails to try to make things right.”

For Rice, he said the experience had a profound impact.

“As those days drew to a close, we all were sent off with the belief that we could do anything and the compulsion that we

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should take that ability to solve problems in our communities,” he said. “These thoughts and feelings cemented my position as a community servant, something I don’t ever see myself not doing.”

The selection committee is chaired

by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Art Jackson. Members of the committee were Anita Blowers, criminal justice and criminology; Lawrence Calhoun, psychology; Gary Kohut, management; Al Maisto, Honors College; Tyrel Moore, geography and earth science; and community member Barbara Jefferson.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? STILL DOING GOOD Laura Mesec The 2008 award winner, Laura Mesec lives in Greensboro with her fiance, Jonathan, where she teaches high-school English. “Receiving the Jamgotch Award was a huge honor.

To have been picked out of the entire UNC Charlotte student body is humbling. I have continued to stay involved with volunteer organizations, Laura Mesec specifically Habitat for Humanity. I have helped out with a few builds through the school I teach at and hope to continue to do so. I also hope to join a mission team as soon as possible through my church. The fact that I won the Jamgotch Award is always in the back of mind, and that often helps to remind me to give back to others and use the gifts that God has given me to help others.”

Brett Tempest In May, Brett Tempest, who won in 2007, was about a month away from finishing work for his Ph.D. in infrastructure and environmental systems in UNC Charlotte’s civilengineering department. “I’m looking for an academic job. I’d like to be a professor in a civil-engineering department. I do research on concrete Brett Tempest materials, and I like the instructional role, too. Getting the award is the only thing that made it possible for me to remain in school. Even if I hadn’t gotten the award, I’d have still remained involved in the community, but certainly getting it encourages that kind of thing and continues to inspire me.” Tempest and about 20 other volunteers recently planted Irwin Creek Community Garden on a 1.4-acre county-owned flood plain.

Charles A. “Chip” Howell 2006 winner Chip Howell lives in Los Angeles, where he is a junior designer at Marmol Radziner and

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Associates architectural firm. His focus there is on environmentally friendly projects. “Right now I’m completing my professional experience as an architect so I’ll have the freedom to pick and choose community work.” He used his Jamgotch Award to go to Nicarauga, where he helped design and build a community center. “It Charles A. Howell resonates within me. It’s a beacon, and a guilding light for the experience I’m gaining right now.”

LaKeisha Rainey In 2005, LaKeisha Rainey was recognized with the Jamgotch Humanitarian Student Award.

At UNC Charlotte, Rainey cochartered the American Medical Student Association, the first premedical organization at the university. As president, she helped plan events that better prepared LaKeisha Rainey students for graduate work. For three years, Rainey was a resident advisor on campus and volunteered at the Charlotte Rescue Mission; the H.E.L.P Store, which provides packages of food and clothes to needy families; and Meals on Wheels of Charlotte.

Additionally, Rainey lobbied to improve pharmaceutical drug coverage for seniors and worked with the Breast Cancer Resource Center in Fayetteville to which she donated some of her award money.

Andrew Clark Andrew Clark, who won in 2004, is an international-project specialist with the International Technical Assistance Program of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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Beyond the Stacks On becoming a modern research library

By Lisa A. Patterson

A threat can become an opportunity.

Perhaps the greatest threat to the university research library is perception. To hear some talk, the library will soon go the way of the Pet Rock. That’s why University Librarian Stanley Wilder has made it his mission to change perceptions of UNC Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library.

Wilder, a vocal and visible champion of the library since coming to UNC Charlotte in 2009, has taken a show and tell approach to educating would-be library users.

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“A lot of what drives me philosophically, and the library’s direction, is the process to show the University what they can expect out of a 21st-century research library.”

Wilder said. “We really hope that over the course of the next few years we manage to demonstrate to people that we can make contributions to the quality and quantity of their work that they would never have thought possible.”

While the nature of information continues to change rapidly, spurring discussions about whether the traditional book will soon become an artifact, Wilder explained that that question is irrelevant.

In fact, the library has always been about information in its evolving forms and the people who use it, and the book is just one form of information.

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fe a t u re Wilder contends the digital environment gives the library an ocean of new tools for doing the things libraries have always done, such as managing and preserving scholarship, making it accessible and helping students and faculty interact with it in meaningful ways.

Wilder looked to companies such as Xerox and Google for inspiration when determining how to achieve these goals. For example, Xerox uses qualitative research to learn about customers.

“I have a bedrock belief in the value of qualitative research for understanding academic communities. You can think of faculty and students as members of a village.

The appropriate way to understand their behavior is to use this tool that is established for just this purpose. Anthropologists have a set of tools they use for understanding how people do their work,” Wilder said.

Last fall, he hired Donna Lanclos, associate professor for anthropological research, to help implement his vision.

According to Lanclos, one of the basic assumptions underlying anthropological research is as follows: Behavior is comprehensible — there is a logic behind

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even the most (to an outsider) illogical act.

“We are capable, through careful interviewing, observation and other research techniques, of tapping into that logic, so it is comprehensible to insiders and outsiders alike. We aim to make the ‘exotic familiar, and the familiar exotic,’” Lanclos said.

Through open-ended interview and observation processes, anthropologists leave room for the element of surprise; whereas with means of gathering information such as surveys, the parameters of response are limited by the questions.

“On the one hand, the basic nature of academic work hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. There’s always this process of learning what’s known about something, creating something new, and the new knowledge goes back into this wonderful cycle,” Wilder said. “You use anthropology to keep current of how people are doing that work — the tools we use, the way we communicate with one another, how communication works in terms of peer review, systems of academic prestige … it’s a constantly changing scenario out there.”

Through qualitative research, Lanclos and Wilder have identified several priorities,

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including 1) An overwhelming need for the library to provide 24-hour service; 2) The creation of spaces within the library that meet the needs of students; 3) An overhaul of the library’s Web site; and 4) Patron education about the vast array of services that are available, including the services of research librarians.

Wilder’s staff has worked to open lines of communication with patrons in order to find out what they want and need. For example, the library Web site will soon be revamped incorporating feedback from student forums and several rounds of usability testing.

Lanclos works closely with the library’s usability task force. Utilizing software acquired with the help of the College of Computing and Informatics, patrons were asked to complete a set of tasks on the library Web site. Each task is timed, and every movement of the mouse is recorded, creating a record that clearly indicates to Lanclos and colleagues where Web site improvements should be made.

“Given that the Web is the library for a huge portion of the community, there’s so much more we can do to make it simple

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and powerful in the sense of giving people the best quality resources possible,” Wilder said. “Google gives you everything that’s free, and the fact of the matter is if it’s free, it’s probably not appropriate for the vast majority of academic uses. Academic materials cost money, and Google can’t get you there.”

In addition to the usability testing, Lanclos has been engaged in more traditional anthropological research. Her observations have led to the conclusion that the first floor of the library is a loud, confusing place, full of furniture designed for quiet study space. She also noted that while faculty are assigning more and more group work to students, the library is short on space to accommodate groups.

The library is addressing these issues by reconfiguring furniture and providing more places for students to work that allow for collaboration and use of portable technology.

The forthcoming provision of 24-hour service represents another profound shift in perception. Wilder explained that 24-hour service is among the next logical steps in UNC Charlotte’s progression as a modern research university. While 24-hour service is not cost-prohibitive, the campus infrastructure must be in place to support it.

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“The new world we’re entering will require a different kind of attributes. The same thing applies to the library – we’ll never be Harvard’s library with its millions of volumes, but we can still become a great research library with these things that don’t even cost money.”

The library administration is working with Campus Police, the Dean of Students Office and SafeRide to get this done.

“The library doing this 24-hour thing is going to be essentially the first step this campus has made to 24-hour operation, and that’s significant,” Wilder said. “It’s going to take everybody stepping up to some degree so we can be safe, using these services and facilities appropriately. The whole community understands it’s time for us to do this.”

Where some might see an uphill climb, Wilder sees opportunity and possibility unfettered by tradition. In fact, the library is well on its way to bolstering UNC Charlotte’s position as the state’s urban research university.

“The new world we’re entering will require a different kind of attributes. The same thing applies to the library — we’ll never be Harvard’s library with its millions of volumes, but we can still become a great research library with these things that don’t even cost money,” Wilder said. “We are free here — we’re not going to look like Princeton; we’re going look like UNC Charlotte, and we have all of the tools to do that.”

Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer in the Office of Public Relations. www.UNCC.edu

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Continued from p. 3

meditation training are really surprising,” Zeidan noted. “It goes to show that the mind is, in fact, easily changeable and highly influenced, especially by meditation.”

The study appears in the April 2 issue of Consciousness and Cognition. Zeidan’s co-authors are Susan K. Johnson, Zhanna David and Paula Goolkasian from the Department of Psychology at UNC Charlotte, and Bruce J. Diamond from William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J. The research was also part of Zeidan’s doctoral dissertation. The research also was presented in April at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s annual meeting in Montreal.

The experiment involved 63 student volunteers, 49 of whom completed the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned in approximately equivalent numbers to one of two groups, one of which received the meditation training while the other group listened for equivalent periods of time to a book (J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit) being read aloud.

Prior to and following the meditation and reading sessions, the participants were subjected to a broad battery of behavioral tests assessing mood, memory, visual attention, attention processing and vigilance.

Both groups performed equally on all measures at the beginning of the experiment. Both groups also improved following the meditation and reading experiences in measures of mood, but only the group that received meditation training improved significantly in cognitive measures. The meditation group scored consistently higher averages than the reading/listening group on all the cognitive tests and as much as 10 times better on one challenging test that involved sustaining the ability to focus while holding other information in mind.

“The meditation group did especially better on all the cognitive tests that were timed,” Zeidan noted. “In tasks where participants had to process information under time constraints causing stress, the group briefly trained in mindfulness performed significantly better.”

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“The simple process of focusing on the breath in a relaxed manner, in a way that teaches you to regulate your emotions by raising one’s awareness of mental processes as they’re happening, is like working out a bicep, but you are doing it to your brain.”

Fadel Zeidan results on a “computer adaptive n-back task,” where participants would have to correctly remember if a stimulus had been shown two steps earlier in a sequence.

If the participant got the answer right, the computer would react by increasing the speed of the subsequent stimulus, further increasing the difficulty of the task.

The meditation-trained group averaged approximately 10 consecutive correct answers, while the listening group averaged approximately one.

“Findings like these suggest that meditation’s benefits may not require extensive training to be realized, and that meditation’s first benefits may be associated with increasing the ability to sustain attention,” Zeidan said.

“Further study is warranted,” he stressed, noting that brain imaging studies would be helpful in confirming the brain changes that the behavioral tests seem to indicate, “but this seems to be strong evidence for the idea that we may be able to modify our own minds to improve our cognitive processing – most importantly in the ability to sustain attention and vigilance – within a week’s time.”

The meditation training involved in the study was an abbreviated “mindfulness” training regime modeled on basic “Shamatha skills” from a Buddhist meditation tradition, conducted by a trained facilitator. As described in the paper, “participants were instructed to relax, with their eyes closed, and to simply focus on the flow of their breath occurring at the tip of their nose. If a random thought arose, they were told to passively notice and acknowledge the thought and to simply let ‘it’ go, by bringing the attention back to the sensations of the breath.” Subsequent training built on this basic model, teaching physical awareness, focus and mindfulness with regard to distraction.

Zeidan likens the brief training the participants received to a kind of mental calisthenics that prepared their minds for cognitive activity.

“The simple process of focusing on the breath in a relaxed manner, in a way that teaches you to regulate your emotions by raising one’s awareness of mental processes as they’re happening, is like working out a bicep, but you are doing it to your brain.

Mindfulness meditation teaches you to release sensory events that would easily distract, whether it is your own thoughts or an external noise, in an emotionregulating fashion. This can lead to better, more efficient performance on the intended task.”

“This kind of training seems to prepare the mind for activity, but it’s not necessarily permanent,” Zeidan cautions. “This doesn’t mean that you meditate for four days and you’re done – you need to keep practicing.”

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Development of an Urban Designer Tracy Dodson is a champion for Charlotte

By Buffie Stephens

“Now I can be a champion for selling Charlotte.”

Tracy Finch Dodson swore she would never return to North Carolina after completing graduate studies at Harvard University. In fact, while interviewing for a transportation manager’s position at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. in New York City, Dodson decided she didn’t even want to work on the East Coast. She dreamed big and the West Coast was calling so she followed her instinct and wandered.

Dodson, a 1998 graduate of UNC Charlotte, searched for job opportunities in California and Washington. While in Berkeley, she was offered a position with Peter Calthorpe Associates; Calthorpe is considered a guru of sustainable development and urban design. But on the brink of fulfilling her goal, she realized her heart belonged to Charlotte and turned down the offer.

A native of Apex, Dodson knew in high school that she wanted to study architecture. “I had two choices,” Dodson said, “UNC Charlotte or North Carolina State University, and I needed a change from the Raleigh area. I wanted to move away from home.” She visited Charlotte and “fell in love with the university and the School of Architecture.”

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“I love UNC Charlotte, and I’m anxious to see football and the transit line become a part of the University.”

After spending her first year as a “normal” student, she committed to the five-year architectural program focusing on urban design. “Between the classes and studio work, architecture is time-consuming. I lived vicariously through my roommates after that,” she said with a laugh.

While doing her thesis work, Dodson went to work in Charlotte for Shook Design Group (now Shook Kelley Inc.). Her thesis involved examining the redevelopment of the city’s South End community adjacent to Dilworth. “The trolley was popular, the redevelopment of South End was moving forward, mixed-use projects were coming on line in Charlotte, and Shook Design was heavily involved in all those endeavors.”

Eventually, Dodson realized she wanted to concentrate on building communities.

“My focus shifted and I began thinking more about building a city than a specific building.”

She left Shook Design to work for Charlotte’s Planning Department, where she focused on the South Corridor, transit and urban design issues. “The city was a great landing ground for me. I could focus on development.” She began contemplating a career as a real estate developer but knew she needed more business expertise.

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professors worked on projects in major cities across the country. Dodson took the business and real estate courses she needed to enhance her skills.

She finished at Harvard with a Master of Design Studies with a concentration in real estate and urban development. One of the most memorable projects she worked on was planning the redevelopment of Ground Zero in New York City.

Upon leaving Harvard, the wanderlust began, and so did the fascination with working on the West Coast. But as she interviewed and traveled, Dodson began to realize that Charlotte was a great place to conduct business. “Other large, established cities take so much longer to execute projects because of their politics. I felt I could come back to Charlotte and be effective in helping grow the city.” In 2003, she returned, committed and determined to make a significant contribution to the city’s growth.

In the time since, Dodson has consulted for the City of Charlotte and other groups.

She’s also worked for Charlotte’s Economic Development Office as its transit station development coordinator and at Harris Development Group. Focused on transitoriented development in the urban in-field, “I was able to put all the pieces together by incorporating design and smart growth principles with a focus on transit.”

But as the economy soured in 2008, development ground to a halt. Dodson

realized her company might not be able to sustain all four project managers.

When Charlotte Center City Partners approached her for ideas about a new position that would focus on selling Charlotte’s Center City and South End, Dodson decided that she wanted to be a part of the initiative. She joined CCCP as director of economic development in July 2009. “Now I can be a champion for selling Charlotte. Nationally, we’re known as a good city to live in, and we attract young talent, in spite of the banks contracting.

Charlotte also has a depth of talent already here and we’re diversifying with careers in health care and energy.”

“Tracy understands the needs of the office brokers and the unique role Charlotte Center City Partners can play as a facilitator to grow jobs and recruit new companies to Uptown and South End,” said Michael Smith, president and CEO of CCCP. Dodson remains thoroughly engaged with UNC Charlotte, returning to lecture at the request of School of Architecture professors Deborah Ryan and David Walters and visiting lecturer James Bartl. She also lectures in geography classes that focus on transit-oriented development.

“I love UNC Charlotte, and I’m anxious to see football and the transit line become a part of the University.”

Buffie Stephens is media relations manager in the Office of Public Relations.

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Marsicano is an accomplished musician, particularly the oboe. Marsicano also finds joy in raising tulips, and entertains each spring to share the beauty of his flowers with others.

By Phillip Brown

Success at Bringing People Together Michael Marsicano gets Distinguished Service Award Michael Marsicano has been a driving force in the Charlotte region for more than two decades. As Charlotte has emerged as a leading city of the New South, Marsicano helped that ascension by building relationships that stressed the importance of cultural arts to the community.

“Michael has great vision, which is something Charlotte has needed,” said Leon 36 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine

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Levine, founder of Family Dollar Stores and the Leon Levine Foundation. “He’s done a tremendous amount for the cultural community of Charlotte; we’re ranked near the top and Mike deserves the credit.”

As president of the Foundation For The Carolinas (FFTC), Marsicano now heads a community enterprise with assets totaling more than $775 million. The foundation

supports a significant number of charities and non-profit organizations in the greater Charlotte metropolitan region. Before that, he served as president of the Arts & Science Council.

The arts are vital to a community, according to Marsicano. “If you define the soul of a community, you can’t define it without the arts. It is the expression of www.UNCC.edu

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s t a ke yo u r c l a i m p ro f i l e civilization and who we are and what we believe in.”

Consistently named as one of the city’s most influential people, Marsicano demonstrates “success at bringing people together.” Marsicano has tripled the assets of the FFTC and has transformed the foundation into an organization that takes leadership roles on a number of civic initiatives. The foundation is currently addressing several pressing community needs, including providing city-wide affordable housing options to avoid concentrating poverty in any one area; completing the greenway system linking the region’s 15 counties; administering a critical need fund focused on providing shelter, food and warmth to the community’s neediest citizens; and running programs focused on strengthening and restructuring our nonprofit community.

In addition to K-12 educational concerns, Marsicano has been a strong supporter of higher education, especially UNC Charlotte.

Ruth Shaw, chair of the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees, stated that Marsicano has been a valuable asset to the University. “He was a significant member of the task force that recommended the creation of the College of Arts + Architecture. His deep knowledge of

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the Charlotte and cultural communities led him to see the obvious benefits.”

She also noted his long-time service as a member of the UNC Charlotte Foundation Board of Trustees as well as a founding member of the University’s Institute for Social Capital.

Whenever asked to serve, Marsicano “has quickly stepped forward to bring his insight, his passion and his intelligence to every task,” said Shaw. “It’s been a great privilege to work

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with Michael on a variety of projects over the past 20 years.”

UNC Charlotte’s continued growth and maturation is a prime focus for Marsicano.

“The realization of our North Carolina campus, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, to become the research institution that is on the drawing board,” Marsicano stated. “In today’s economic world, you cannot compete as a region without a major research university. That is the one accomplishment that all of us should put our energy, time and money behind for the future of our community.”

In recognition of his two decades of service to the Charlotte region and the University, Marsicano will receive the UNC Charlotte Distinguished Service Award at a formal reception in his honor in June. The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1987 by the Board of Trustees of UNC Charlotte and the Board of Directors of the University Foundation. It honors those who have provided outstanding leadership and exemplary service to the Charlotte community and to the advancement of UNC Charlotte.

Phillip Brown is internal communications manager in the Office of Public Relations.

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Continued from p. 11

venues and bars ooze with Avett Brothers vibes. And so do some UNC Charlotte campus buildings. Back when Seth Avett was studying printmaking in the Arts Department, the band would jam into the wee hours of the morning in the studios in Rowe Hall.

Seth said other UNC Charlotte students and faculty members who also worked late into the night were gracious enough never to complain about the strange noises that sometimes emanated from the studio.

“We had a lot of long nights in Rowe Hall,” he said. “Anybody who happened to be around was going to listen to a real mess going on in those rooms some nights.”

So Avett can be forgiven for shrugging off the lack of attention he gets from the patrons of the coffee shop. It reminds him of old times back in 2002, when the brothers would try out their latest songs for 12 people without regard to fame or fortune.

Later on, the Avett Brothers were playing at local venues like Puckett’s Farm Equipment, Fat City and the Wine Vault.

“To be truthful, we started out in an alcove outside the Wine Vault,” he said.

“We’d play three and a half hours and before too long the owner decided we can play inside. By the end of our run, we’d get 300 to 400 people there to see us.”

All the while, the band’s music catalogue continued to grow and its live performances became legendary. One of the biggest breaks came when the group was booked to play MerleFest. Thousands of fans got a taste of what was to come.

Some of the nonchalant coffee drinkers a few seats away could easily have been among the fans that jammed into concert halls across the United States or international stops such as Dublin, Paris, Oslo and Sydney to see the Avett Brothers put on one of the group’s legendary performances.

But on this day, Avett enjoys his obscurity when matched up against the hordes of crazed fans that push up against the stage at most shows, many singing every song note for note.

“I remember telling Scott one time that we should bring some extra microphones and give our voices a rest some nights,” he said, smiling at his own joke. “Sometimes you can’t hear us over the fans.”

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Having recently returned from an international tour, the band is keeping up its frenetic pace. “It’s been a journey for sure,” said the soft-spoken musician. “I rarely get the chance to sit and reflect on where we were and where we’ve come to. When I do, I think about the major steps we’ve taken.”

Avett is truly appreciative of the success he and the band have achieved, and he readily admits he’s fine with the fact that it took almost a decade for the Avett Brothers to make it.

“If we had received all this attention when I was 20, it could have been a disaster,” he said. “I would not have been prepared to see my picture on a magazine cover. Too much ill-advised ego comes when people are making too big a deal about it. Now I’m a grown man, with a wife. Scott and Bob (Crawford) are married and have kids. I feel we are in a much better place for receiving all this attention.

“The older you get, the more reasons there are for you to be humble,” he said, adding: “The older I get, the more ludicrous it is to think I’m the man.”

“You need to keep popularity in its place,” he said. “That’s why we try not to pay too much attention to the press we get.

I think of the reaction we get from the fans at the shows. “ He said right now the band is at a creative peak, and he and Scott are writing new songs all the time. And the band’s chemistry also is gelling like never before, so members are able to work through new ideas and melodies in the short breaks they have between tour dates.

“Scott and I can go into the studio and get as much done in three days as it once took us two weeks to get through,” he said.

“The time we have off is devoted to laying down some new ideas. We are getting much better at creating more efficiently.”

Avett laughs when asked if he is unique on the musical circuit because he has a college degree.

“A lot of the great musicians we see around the country were a lot like us when they were young and just out of high school,” he said. “Just like me, they were confused and lost and they knew college was a legitimate use of their time.”

As for Avett, he has fond memories of his years at UNC Charlotte. Scott graduated from East Carolina University, so they made friends with a lot of students at both universities.

“I have a lot of great friends I met at UNC Charlotte that I’m still close to,” he said. “I think that is true for a lot of folks because when you are in college you are a lot more like the person you are going to be for the rest of your life.”

He also is unabashedly proud of the connection.

“I really love this school,” he said. “I think it’s a great university with a lot of versatility that makes it worthwhile to a lot of people with different interests.”

“I studied printmaking at UNC Charlotte, and the artistic community was a whole separate world than I was used to being around,” he said. “I really warmed up to the vibrancy and motivation I got from this new world.”

He also learned quickly that college was demanding and that he needed to develop good work habits to keep up with his studies while also playing music. When he came back for a visit several years after being away, Avett felt a strong sense of nostalgia.

“It just came over me and I realized how much I loved and missed this place,” he said.

Like a lot of other graduates who hadn’t been back to the campus in awhile, he also was startled by the new buildings and other improvements.

“This school is growing in its legacy and its personality,” he said. “It’s amazing.”

Paul Nowell is media relations manager at UNC Charlotte. www.UNCC.edu

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class notes

1970s R.T. (Rodney) Smith, ’70, was recently named University Writer-in-Residence at Washington and Lee University. His most recent book of short stories, The Calaboose Epistles, will be released

by Iris Press in the fall. Last year he received the Library of Virginia Poetry Book of the Year Award and a Virginia Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Miley W. (Bucky) Glover, ‘76, CPA, of Monroe, has been appointed to a threeyear term as a member of the State Board of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examiners. The Board is an independent State agency that grants certificates of qualification as CPAs to those individuals who meet the legal requirements. Glover was licensed as a North Carolina CPA in 1978. A past president and treasurer of the North Carolina Association of CPAs (NCACPA), Glover served as a member of the NCACPA’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

“Rural Landscapes and Livelihoods,” introductory and advanced GIS classes as well as a population geography course. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and civic engagement.

Judson Gee ‘93, an independent financial advisor at JHG Financial in Charlotte was recognized as a top financial advisor and named to the LPL Financial Director’s Club. This distinction is based on an annual production ranking of all registered advisors supported by LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, and is awarded to less than 25 percent of the firm’s 12,027 advisors nationwide. Gee is affiliated with LPL Financial and provides conflict-free financial planning services, investment advice and asset management services to over 200 clients in Charlotte and the surrounding area.

2000s

1990s

Pamela Mims, ’09, is the 2010 recipient of the Student Research Award in the Single-Subject Design category presented by the Division of Research Council for Exceptional Children. Now a research associate in the Department of Special Education and Child Development, Mims trained a teacher and two paraprofessionals to implement a prompt hierarchy during shared stories with four students. The results indicated all four students increased the number of comprehension questions answered correctly during the three shared stories.

Macalester College has granted tenure status to Holly Barcus, ‘95 associate professor in the Geography Department.

Barcus received her B.A. and M.A. from UNC Charlotte and her Ph.D. from Kansas State University. She joined the Macalester faculty as an assistant professor in 2005. Barcus teaches

Mark A. Beers ‘03 has joined Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NYSE:ALEX) (A&B) as manager, corporate planning. Beers moves to A&B from the company’s Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) on Maui, where he served as assistant controller since 2005. He earned his MBA at UNC Charlotte. In his

Holly Barcus

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Mark A. Beers

new position, Beers will report to A&B Vice President, Controller and Assistant Treasurer Paul Ito, who will assume oversight responsibility for corporate planning. His key responsibilities will be to lead corporate planning activities, including the development of annual operating plans, periodic forecasts, capital plans, and special studies related to corporate development.

What are you doing?

It is time to share what you’ve been up to lately and let other alums help you toot your horn or spread the word on small or large achievements. We want to hear from you.

Visit the Alumni Affairs Web site at www.unccharlottealumni.org and tell us what you’ve been doing.

Or write Alumni Affairs, UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

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building blocks

RITES OF

SPRING

Could it be love? On a languid late springtime afternoon in 1971, on the front porch of the Kennedy building, two students steal a few moments to chat. What’s the topic? The Econ test that he just bombed and she just aced? The fact that “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones had just nudged “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night from the Billboard #1 spot on the pop music charts? The impending completion of the library’s Dalton Tower (background)? Whatever the topic, the vibrations were sure to be far out and groovy.

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p e rs p e c t i v e

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Education, Holistic Vision, Key to Creating Energy Solutions

By Steve Patterson Interim Director, Energy Production and Infrastructure Center Leaders in the energy industry converged on Charlotte recently for the Energy Inc. summit, highlighting the growing importance of the energy industry to the Charlotte region.

Now is a good time to reflect on Charlotte’s rise to prominence in a drive to become the nation’s “New Energy Capital,” as well as on how the nation should approach the development of energy solutions.

When we think about energy, we need to think about it holistically. The nation’s energy production and distribution system is both large and complex, and must be understood as such by politicians and private citizens alike. Oftentimes, however, decisions that impact the energy landscape are ruled by a combination of emotion and consideration of the parts apart from a view of the whole.

Educated leadership across the broad spectrum of government, business and supporting institutions is essential to create an energy climate that is both innovative and practical.

Perhaps most importantly, we need a well-educated populace in order to guide decision making in a democratic society.

Industry leaders are looking toward UNC Charlotte to help address critical shortages in the intellectual capital – workforce and research – that are

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necessary to modernize current energy production operations and facilitate the development of alternative energy sources.

Recognizing an opportunity for longterm collaboration that will benefit the community and industry, as well as reinforce Charlotte’s position as a global leader in energy production, UNC Charlotte has created the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC).

EPIC will certainly increase the region’s supply of trained engineers and provide vital expertise and research support.

But I contend that the University’s role should be more broadly defined — UNC Charlotte, through its various programs and community engagement initiatives helps advance the nation’s energy objectives

by educating students and the public to think clearly, and with some technical literacy, about important issues. Citizens have a direct impact on the nation’s energy outcomes, and a population that is more discerning and can think critically will help lawmakers achieve optimal outcomes.

Simply put, there’s a role for business and industry, the government and for the University, and our unique role is expressed both in our broad curriculum and more specifically in EPIC. Our mission is to examine carefully the technical issues around energy production, infrastructure and development, and our extraordinary faculty, who represent a variety of positions on energy related issues, do just that.

Undoubtedly, the country will benefit from a two-pronged approach to energy independence — we must enhance and modernize existing methods of energy production and develop new avenues to energy ingenuity. The Charlotte region will be at the forefront of identifying energy solutions and UNC Charlotte will be there as a partner contributing both directly through EPIC and by fulfilling its educational mission to create a more informed and thoughtful public.

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Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Charlotte, NC Permit No. 949

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University Blvd.

Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

THE SPIRIT, PHILOSOPHY AND ART OF THE ASIAN GARDENING TRADITION ARE ALIVE AND WELL ON CAMPUS IN UNC CHARLOTTE’S NEW ASIAN GARDEN.

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