Confucius Institute, award recipients and TIAA Lecture topics of Chancellor's 'Fast Five' update

Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Chancellor’s “Fast Five” update provides the campus community a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of the projects and priorities that occupy the chancellor’s time and attention.

Greetings, Niner Nation! And welcome to a new installment of "What does the chancellor really do around here?" Since my last update ...

  1. We celebrated the opening of the Confucius Institute with two evening events last week. We had administrators and student performers from Shanxi University with us for the opening ceremony and it was spectacular. The performances were excellent, the costumes were beautiful, and our visitors very much enjoyed the warm welcome they received in Charlotte. I look forward to many more wonderful events and cultural exchange activities through this exciting new partnership.
  2. Last week, I was able to host a visiting higher education administrator who spent a week on our campus as part of a fellowship he is completing through the American Council on Education. He was very impressed with the quality of our people, programs, and facilities. I am appreciative for those who took time from their schedules to meet with him and to provide a glimpse into their respective areas. 
  3. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had the opportunity to honor two impressive faculty members. Dr. Heather Smith of Geography and Earth Sciences was honored last week with the Harshini de Silva Award for her outstanding work as a graduate student mentor. This week, we celebrate Dr. Robert Algozzine of the Department of Educational Leadership as the 2017 recipient of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal for outstanding scholarship, creativity, and research. Bob has had a tremendous impact at UNC Charlotte and also in the greater Charlotte community through his work with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System. 
  4. Later this week, I will be hosting the new president of Central Piedmont Community College, Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, along with a few of her colleagues, for lunch, a campus tour, and conversation with a group of our own administrators. We are excited to continue the strong partnership that UNC Charlotte enjoys with CPCC, and to find creative new ways to expand our work together in the years to come. UNC Charlotte is home to a greater number of transfer students than any other school in the UNC system, and CPCC is our single largest feeder institution, so this is a very important and mutually beneficial partnership for us and for the transfer students we serve.
  5. The annual TIAA Lecture, which will be held on April 12, will feature keynote speaker Dr. Roland Fryer. Dr. Fryer is an impressive and widely acclaimed economist and a professor of economics at Harvard University. He will be speaking to our students next Wednesday afternoon on the subject of the Economics of Race, and that evening he will deliver an address to a broader community group on the Economics of Opportunity.

I woke up this morning and saw my shadow, so this confirms we can expect six more weeks of the spring semester until commencement is upon us. We will look forward to congratulating our happy graduates and their families in our three ceremonies on May 12-13.  

Go Niners!

Philip L. Dubois, Chancellor