University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 23 doctoral, 64 master's, and 140 bachelor's degree programs through nine colleges: the College of Arts + Architecture, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Belk College of Business, the College of Computing and Informatics, the Cato College of Education, the William States Lee College of Engineering, the College of Health and Human Services, the Honors College, and the University College.
It has three campuses: Charlotte Research Institute Campus, Center City Campus, and the main campus, located in University City. The main campus sits on 1,000 wooded acres with approximately 85 buildings about from Uptown Charlotte.
UNC Charlotte is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte region. The university has experienced rapid enrollment growth of 33% over the past 10 years, making it the fastest-growing institution in the UNC System and contributing to more than 50% of the system's growth since 2009.
History
The city of Charlotte had sought a public university since 1871 but was never able to sustain one. For years, the nearest state-supported university was away. The city submitted a bid in the late 1880s for what would become North Carolina State University, but lost to the city of Raleigh after a local farmer offered to donate land for the campus. In 1946, the city sought a state-run medical school; instead, the state expanded the existing two-year school at UNC-Chapel Hill.On September 23, 1946, the State of North Carolina opened the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina with an enrollment of 278 students. It was founded to serve the educational needs of returning World War II veterans. Like many of the United States' "post–World War II" universities, it owes its inception to the G.I. Bill and its effects on public education. In 1949, when the state began closing the centers, the Charlotte Center was taken over by the city school district and became Charlotte College, a two-year junior college. It was first funded by student tuition payments, then by local property taxes. Classes were held at Central High School near uptown Charlotte, but by 1957, enrollment increased to 492, and the school's leaders began searching for a permanent site for the campus. They decided on a 250-acre tract of land northeast of the city near the Cabarrus County border. The college became state-supported in 1958 upon joining the newly formed North Carolina Community College System and moved to its current location in 1961.
In 1963, Charlotte College became a four-year college. On July 1, 1965, it merged with the Consolidated University of North Carolina under its current name. In 1969, the university began offering programs leading to master's degrees. In 1992, it was authorized to offer programs leading to doctoral degrees.
Leaders of the university
Bonnie Ethel Cone, founder
, or Miss Bonnie as she was known to students, was chosen to as director of the Charlotte Center in 1946. From 1949 to 1965, she served as president of Charlotte College. When Charlotte College joined the UNC system in 1965, Cone served as acting chancellor until 1966.Chancellors
was appointed the first chancellor of the young university in 1966. A North Carolina native, Colvard had served as president of Mississippi State University. At MSU he was the first president to defy university policy of not playing against integrated teams when he ordered the men's basketball team to play Loyola University Chicago in 1963. At UNC Charlotte, Colvard took on the challenge of converting the school from a small college to a four-year member of the UNC system. Indeed, he had been chosen specifically because UNC system officials believed the newly-minted UNC Charlotte needed a leader with experience running a four-year university. Colvard oversaw accreditation of the university, development of University Research Park, constructed the first residence halls, created the first graduate programs, and grew the enrollment from about 1,700 to just over 8,000 students. He retired as chancellor in 1978, served as Chancellor Emeritus until his death. Colvard also received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. The Colvard building, completed on the main campus in 1979, is named in his honor and houses the Department of Psychology.E.K. Fretwell, the second chancellor of the university, was named in 1979. He came to the university from Buffalo State College where he was president. Under Fretwell, campus enrollment surged from 8,000 students to over 12,000. He oversaw the creation of the Graduate School, created more graduate degrees, integrated the library's card catalog into the Internet in 1983, created the groundwork for a major business incubator, helped to develop the university's surrounding neighborhood, and increased academic grants to over $6.1 million. Fretwell retired as chancellor in 1989. He served as interim president of the University of Massachusetts system from 1991–1992, and in 1998, he served as the interim president of the University of North Florida. In 1996 UNC Charlotte opened the Fretwell building, dedicated in honor of him and his wife Dorrie. The building headquarters the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
James H. Woodward succeeded Fretwell in 1989. Woodward came to UNC Charlotte from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he served as dean of engineering and senior vice president of academic affairs. Under Woodward, enrollment grew to over 19,000 students. Like his predecessors, he continued the growth of the Graduate School and added new doctoral programs. He oversaw the largest fundraising campaign in the school's history and its largest building boom; in the summer of 2005, no less than six buildings were actively under construction on the main campus. He also oversaw the creation of the CRI Campus. Woodward announced his retirement in 2004 and left the office of chancellor on June 30, 2005. Woodward Hall, which houses the College of Computing & Informatics, was dedicated in his honor on November 16, 2005. He is currently Chancellor Emeritus and teaches in the university's William States Lee College of Engineering.
Philip L. Dubois is the fifth leader and fourth chancellor of the university. Dr. Dubois assumed his duties as chancellor on July 15, 2005. He returned to Charlotte after serving as the president of the University of Wyoming from 1997 through 2005. Previously, he was the Provost and Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at UNC Charlotte from 1991 until 1997. Dubois, along with his wife and children, is the first chancellor to occupy the Chancellor's Residence on the UNC Charlotte campus that was completed in the winter of 2005. He is expected to oversee the process of the university becoming the fourth research-extensive university in the state.
2019 shooting
On April 30, 2019, a shooting occurred in the Woodford A. Kennedy Building on campus, killing two and leaving four others injured.Campuses
Main Campus – University City
The university operates several campuses in Charlotte. The Main Campus is situated on just under 1,000 acres of rolling land between U.S. Route 29 and N.C. Highway 49, about 10 miles from Uptown Charlotte in the University City neighborhood. The campus is self-contained, meaning that no major roads run through the campus. The campus boasts several man-made lakes, and is heavily wooded. Near the center of campus are two gardens that attract over 300,000 visitors a year. The architecture of the original central campus, particularly the oldest buildings, are precast concrete and utilitarian-looking because they were built with limited state funds in the 1960s and 1970s. Starting in 2014, these buildings are being renovated to today's standards. Under the campus' third chancellor, James Woodward, the campus underwent major changes which continue today. The newest buildings, funded from state bonds, are being constructed in brick with neoclassical architecture. Concrete and asphalt sidewalks have largely been replaced by brick. The campus' road system is being upgraded to include landscaped medians and more trees.Charlotte Research Institute Campus
Attached to the main campus is a 100-acre campus, created in 2000, called the Charlotte Research Institute on a tract of land originally named the Millennial Campus. This research-oriented campus focuses on precision metrology and intelligent manufacturing; optoelectronics and optical communication; and software and information technology. This campus brings together faculty, students, and outside researchers to work together.The CRI Campus also houses the new, on-campus football stadium with 15,300 initial seats that can be expanded to more than 40,000.
Center City Campus
The third campus is in the first ward of Uptown Charlotte. This campus focuses on business and evening courses, thus catering to center city workers. Formerly located in the Mint Museum of Craft+Design, the Uptown campus moved into the $50.4 million Center City building at 320 East Ninth Street, at the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester. It is next to the 9th Street Station of the LYNX Blue Line Extension and First Ward Park, and houses the nationally ranked Master of Business Administration, Master of Urban Design, Master of Public Administration, and other graduate programs. The facility contains an art gallery, a 300-seat auditorium, and a 110-seat lecture hall. The 12-story, 143,000 square foot Center City building was designed by world-renowned architectural firm KieranTimberlake. The building features exterior glass walls individually tailored to the amount of sunlight, and cantilevered multi-story blocks which provide shade and give the building a distinctive look resembling a stack of books.Students
Approximately 28,721 students were enrolled in the university in the fall of 2016, 47 percent are male and 53 percent are female. Students hail from 97 of North Carolina's 100 counties, 45 states, and 103 countries.Academics
UNC Charlotte is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity." In 2014, UNC Charlotte was ranked the 38th top college in the United States by the Social Mobility Index college rankings. The 2013 edition of the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges ranked the university's undergraduate program 199th overall among national universities, however by 2020 it had dropped to 228 Forbes has ranked the university at 485th Nationally. In 2015, American City Business Journals evaluated and ranked the top 484 public colleges and universities in the United States based on selectivity, advancement, prestige, costs, diversity, and community. In the publication, UNC Charlotte was ranked at #137, landing in the top 30% of public universities.Colleges and programs
The university offers 75 baccalaureate programs, 65 master's degree programs, and 24 doctoral programs. Fifteen degree and certificate programs are offered via distance education, from 25% to 100% online.The university is divided into nine colleges:
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences - academic disciplines including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics
- College of Arts + Architecture - fine and performing arts, as well as the School of Architecture, which is housed within the college
- Cato College of Education - the school of education
- College of Health and Human Services - social work Kinesiology, and athletic training; also contains the School of Nursing and programs like public health and health administration.
- William States Lee College of Engineering - engineering college with undergraduate and graduate programs in the following: civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering science, electrical and computer engineering, systems engineering and engineering management, construction management, and engineering technology
- College of Computing and Informatics - computer science, computer programming, health informatics, and bioinformatics
- Belk College of Business - the business school, which offers undergraduate, graduate and executive education in five major departments: Accounting, Business Information Systems & Operations Management, Economics, Finance, Management, and Marketing. The college offers three undergraduate degrees ; five master's programs ; a Doctorate in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Business Administration concentrating in finance. The college was established in 1965, became the College of Business Administration in 1971, and was renamed the Belk College of Business in honor of the Belk family in 1990.
- University College - general education college for undergraduates who have not yet declared a major
- Honors College - an honors college that seeks to provide students with a liberal arts college experience
- Graduate School - graduate school; works with the undergraduate colleges to organize the master's and doctoral degree programs
Scholarships
In addition to the Levine Scholars, the university offers eleven other merit-based scholarship programs.
Library system
UNC Charlotte's J. Murrey Atkins Library, named for the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of Charlotte College, has over 3.3 million volumes, including 930,000 e-books, over 400 databases, and approximately 75,000 journals, the vast majority available electronically, as well as an area for special collections. The recently renovated library includes a ten-story tower that accentuates the library's place at the heart of UNC Charlotte's campus. In April 2007, Atkins received its one-millionth volume, a copy of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. A special collections section is housed on the tenth floor at the top of the library.Athletics
For athletics purposes, the school is known as simply Charlotte, a change made official by the athletic department on August 23, 2000. The athletic department sponsors sixteen varsity teams and competes in the NCAA's Division I. The university is a full member of Conference USA. On September 18, 2008, Chancellor Dubois recommended adding a Division I FCS football program to UNC Charlotte. On November 13, 2008, the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees voted 8–0 in favor of adding football to the university.The nickname of the athletic team is the 49ers, indicative of the fact that UNC Charlotte was saved from permanent closure in 1949. The mascot is "Norm the Niner," a gold miner. The school's colors are green and white; gold and black are both featured in the logo and frequently used in the uniforms of several sports.
Men's basketball
Men's basketball, coached by Ron Sanchez. The team has reached the NCAA Tournament eleven times, including a trip to the Final Four in 1977. NBA players that once suited up for the 49ers include Boston Celtics great Cedric Maxwell, DeMarco Johnson, 2001 NBA Draft lottery pick Rodney White, and Eddie Basden.Women's basketball
Women's basketball has seen a surge in popularity on campus over the past several years, with the 2003 team, led by coach Katie Meier, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time. The team has made the WNIT in every season since then. Meier was succeeded in 2005 by Amanda Butler, who left after two seasons to take over the same position at the University of Florida. Karen Aston took the reins for the 2007–08 season; Cara Consuegra served as head coach for the 2011 season.Baseball
Baseball has also experienced a resurgence at Charlotte, with the 2007 team posting a school-record 49 wins under coach Loren Hibbs and winning two games over N.C. State in the NCAA Tournament. Baseball alums with Major League experience include Chris Haney, John Maine, Jason Stanford. Fieldin Culbreth is an MLB umpire who worked the 2008 World Series. Other notable baseball alums include minor leaguers Adam Mills and Spencer Steedley. Mills was a finalist in 2007 for the Roger Clemens Award. He is currently in the Boston Red Sox system, while Steedley is in the Minnesota Twins system.Football
Charlotte's Division I FCS football team kicked off in 2013. It plays at Jerry Richardson Stadium, which holds approximately 15,000 people and can be expanded to hold up to 40,000 people. Its first game was a 52-7 victory against Campbell University on August 31, 2013.The football program moved up to Division I FBS in 2015 and play as members of Conference USA. The Charlotte 49ers first participated in their first bowl game in 2019 against the Buffalo Bulls in the Bahamas Bowl.
Charlotte has had 2 players selected in the NFL Draft; Larry Ogunjobi and Nate Davis