South Guilford News

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University issued the following announcement on Aug. 18.

As classes begin today for the 2021-22 school year, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University expects yet another year of record enrollment, pushing it to its eighth consecutive year as America’s largest historically Black campus.

“With the university having just closed the 2021 fiscal year with records in annual fundraising ($93.8 million) and research contracts and grants ($78.2 million), North Carolina A&T is poised for perhaps the most impactful year in its 130-year history,” Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. shared with members of the media today in a press conference to launch the fall term.

“As a land-grant university, a doctoral research institution and a nationally recognized HBCU, A&T is moving into a new space in its three-part identity, one that holds great promise for our students, the communities we serve and the state of North Carolina,” said Martin. “We are leveraging our strengths in these areas as never before to provide an exceptional education to our larger-than-ever student body, to make a difference in the extensive research in which we are invested and to provide deeper service to communities across this state.

“It’s an exciting place to be, and we look forward to what this year will bring."

Enrollment figures will not be final until early September, but already the school projects enrollment significantly over 13,000. A&T’s strategic plan calls for a headcount of 14,000 by 2023, and Martin pronounced A&T “well on track” to exceed that. A&T had a headcount of 12,753 in 2020-21.

The projected growth includes increases at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as in out-of-state students. The incoming class also promises to have the highest average GPA and SAT scores of any A&T entering class.

Those students, many of whom come from families and communities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, are being provided significant support to ensure they are not sidelined by expenses. That support includes free textbooks for all students, this year and next, free summer tuition for the terms that just concluded, grants, scholarships and other support for students in need and for academic high-achievers, expansion of campus work programs to make more part-time employment available and growth in a program that helps students who have dropped out return to campus to complete their degrees.  

Among other notable highlights of new changes coming in this school year:

• A&T begins competition in the Big South, having left the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference over the summer. The new, larger league promises strong competition in a more geographically focused region, lowering travel costs while also providing much more exposure via the Big South’s television contract with ESPN.
• The launch of two new degree programs – a Ph.D. in agriculture and environmental science and an M.S. in health psychology – as well as the start of seven new certificate programs in a range of academic areas.
• Formal openings for major new A&T facilities, including the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex and the Farm Pavilion at A&T’s nearly 500-acre university farm.

The university is also heavily focused on growing its economic impact, particularly in the Piedmont Triad region. The university has a $1.5-billion annual economic footprint, most of it focused in the Piedmont, but seeks to continue to partner with area businesses, development organizations and national high-tech companies to boost the economy of this area, particularly in East Greensboro.

“We are creating a bold new idea of what a 21st century HBCU can be,” said Martin. “That’s great for A&T, but it is also wonderful for the greater Greensboro area.”

Original source can be found here.