Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Guest columnist Joseph Oxendine, who is nearing the end of his ten-year tenure as chancellor of UNC-Pembroke, outlines a large and varied number of impressive achievements the university has made during the decade. They include:

• the change of the institution's name (in 1996) to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke; 
• reclassification (in 1994) by the Carnegie Foundation to Comprehensive I (the mid-level category for masters degree universities); 
• initiation of new degree programs, including (in 1992) a RN-BSN nursing program offered jointly with Fayetteville State, an MBA program, MA degrees in Agency Counseling and School Counseling, and bachelors degrees in Criminal Justice, Community Health Education, American Studies, Mass Communications, and Birth-Kindergarten; 
• two $500,000 endowed professorships, the Beach Chair in Art and the William C. Friday chair in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry;  
• the initiation (in 1994) of the Teaching Fellows program; 
• a dramatic increase in grant submissions and awards (in 1998 there were 73 submissions and total awards of $4,717,157, a 1,010 percent increase over 1992); 
• over 1800 hours contributed by faculty in service to the public schools, community agencies, and economic and financial development; 
• new, expanded, and renovated buildings, including Sampson-Livermore Library, Lumbee Hall (administration), and the Business Administration building; 
• an increase in student diversity (in 1998, 15.6% African American, 25% Native American, and 2% Hispanic; a U.S. News and World Report ranking of No. 2 in the South for diversity, and the largest percentage of Native American students in the magazine's survey); 
• creation of a new university logo and a new athletics mascot; 
• change from NAIA to NCAA II athletics conference; 
• excellent student satisfaction ratings on the UNC General Administration's Graduating Senior Survey and Sophomore Survey (the 1998 sophomore and graduating senior surveys showed UNC-Pembroke students were more satisfied than any others in a large number of categories).