UNC-Wilmington recently chose to shut down its track and field team for financial reasons — but the Save UNC-W Track group has stepped in to save the day.
Roy Love, a leader of the group, said UNC-W administrators said if the group can raise $250,000, it could compete next year. If the group raises $800,000, the university said the team would be sustained beyond 2016.
“This is an outreach project to all folks who support active lifestyles and support track and really look at how important it is to exercise,” Love said.
Civic Engagement center closes
N.C. Central University’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change was one of the three centers shut down by the UNC Board of Governors on Friday. Hall, director of the institute, said the mission of the center was to build civic engagement. He said their work was effective, with student voter turnout and student engagement increasing. The center was also helping develop a new curriculum for the university’s political science department.
He said his reaction was one of disappointment and bewilderment, especially since it is still not clear to him why the institute was closed.
“Based on the reasons that they said, I don’t see how they apply to our particular institute,” Hall said. “It may be that they are concerned for the kinds of issues that we raise, but these are not issues that should be controversial and that people should be concerned with.”
UNC-C in system for 50 years
Fifty years ago, Charlotte College became the fourth institution to join the UNC system — today, UNCCharlotte is the fastest growing public university in the state.
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Bells were rung and celebrations were in order at the university on Monday. Chancellor Philip Dubois recognized several people who had a crucial role in its founding, according to a press release.
“I’m delighted to have two of those individuals here with us today: Mr. Irwin Belk and Dr. Loy Witherspoon,” he said. Belk was the state senator responsible for pushing the legislation through the N.C. General Assembly in 1965 that allowed the university to join the UNC system. Dubois said Witherspoon was “the university’s grounding force and moral compass,” serving as the Department of Religious Studies chairman and as the campus chaplain in its early years.
