GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — I’ve seen and heard a lot during my last 40-plus years as a broadcast journalist or what I like to call a “professional storyteller” at WGHP.
I’ve told many stories both good and bad. Many of those stories have been about transformations, including those involving local institutions of higher learning.
And when it comes to the many fine colleges and universities in our coverage area, three stand out. (And I need to mention I’m not including our fine area community colleges in this group. Some of them have had notable transformations as well. But I’ll save those for later.)
I’m talking about campuses that look significantly different (and much better) today than they looked when I started work here as a general assignment reporter in the fall of 1983.
They’re North Carolina A&T State University, Elon University and High Point University.
I could write documentaries about each of those campuses. Each deserves all the praise it can get.
But space and time are limited, and in this commentary, I’m focusing on the person who leads the first institution I mentioned. It’s because his time in that position is very much limited.
At the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr. will retire after spending 15 years as chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University.
To learn more about his background, including his growing up in nearby Winston-Salem and his giving me his version of the well-known “Aggie Pride” slogan, you can watch this piece I produced nearly eight years ago.
But a couple of weeks ago inside the new $100 million school of engineering building that carries his name, he and I spoke about his accomplishments. And what a legacy that is.
“The work we do here is not about naming buildings after you,” he told me. “It’s a calling. It’s a passion here for all the right reasons.”
But when he became chancellor in 2009, you could say he felt that “calling” or “passion” were not where they needed to be.
“We were under-realizing our potential at the time. We were coming out of a period of instability in the leadership for more than 10 years, and we were losing enrollment. More than seven years of enrollment decline,” he said. “And addressing those critical areas immediately were critical.”
But a little more than four years into Martin’s tenure as chancellor, North Carolina A&T State University became the largest historically black college or university in the United States.
Today, at nearly 14,000 students, enrollment’s up 3% from last year.
Compare that to many campuses across the country (and locally) that are taking heat for cutting programs, faculty and staff because of declining enrollment and/or interest.
“We disposed of some of the degree programs that were limited in appeal to students with low enrollment, low degree productivity,” he told me. “We have created another array of about 20 new degree programs, all in critical areas of need to our society and are appealing to outstanding students and their families, but equally as importantly, exciting to new young faculty.”
It was the type of change that upsets people. But I can’t recall our covering a campus protest at NC A&T State University because students or others were angry at decisions that cut degree programs.
That had to be the result of an eloquent and effective selling job by Martin and his team.
It included convincing students and faculty that since the area’s manufacturing base had shifted to become a fraction of what it was 50 years ago, and as science, technology engineering and math careers were changing, NC A&T State University had to change.
And now we’re seeing the results. I haven’t been able to keep up with the number of new buildings on the NC A&T State University campus. But it goes beyond the sprawling property off East Market Street in Greensboro.
I asked Martin if Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (which is building a 5,000-employee complex in the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite) or Boom Supersonic (which is building a 1,700-employee supersonic jet factory at the Piedmont-Triad International Airport) would be here if it were not for NC A&T State University.
“I would have to say ‘no,’” he said without hesitation. “They may have happened for North Carolina. They may not have happened for the Piedmont-Triad region of North Carolina. (We are at NC A&T State University) producing a highly competitive, diverse technical workforce and producing research and innovation that’s critical to each of those organizations.”
He also sees the research component as essential to NC A&T State University remaining competitive and relevant. It’s among the reasons the university’s research funding has more than doubled during his tenure.
“It’s innovation research that’s on the cutting edge of evolving focus on a critical societal initiative that’s really going to transform the way we travel,” he told me.
Although he’s leaving his current position, he’s launched another strategic plan he hopes will move the university from its current Carnegie Foundation classification of being an “R2 High Research Activity Campus” to an “R1 Very High Research Activity Campus.”
He believes that will help recruit the best future students and faculty.
But don’t expect Martin to go too far away.
He plans to come back and teach a class in the engineering school. He’s certainly qualified, having both undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering. He was even the dean of the NC A&T State University engineering school a few years back.
He just wants his predecessor to stay focused.
“Enhance what we’re doing to ensure our strategy moving forward,” he said.
That’s spoken like a true “chancellor of progress” and one who certainly stands out in my more than four decades of doing this.
To read more about Martin’s career and accomplishments, click here.
