Today I took part in a "social media for faculty" workshop on campus, sponsored by the Charlotte Research Institute, Division for Academic Affairs and the Division for University Advancement. More than 50 folks showed up -- staff and faculty, many novices in blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking. Several were experienced, prolific users. All were interested -- and interesting.
On Twitter see #unccfsm11.
The subject at hand was if and how social media can be better utilized by university faculty (and staffers like me who work in communications). Some of the assertions by heavy users of social media who participated:
* Facebook may be jim dandy for fun and games, but Twitter and Blogging is the better vehicles for broadening personal knowledge, interacting with colleagues, engaging in debates on professional issues, promoting one's work product and opinions, finding support groups and staying connected with one's profession. (FB lovers, of which I am one: don't shoot the messenger!).
* Blogging is a writing laboratory for faculty and staff who publish regularly; blogging is good practice and opportunity for experimentation.
* All of social media is an intrusion into the pastoral pursuits of our already-harried professional and personal lives. Some folks just don't accept social media yet. But by sitting through four hours of workshop and engaging in debate, they showed that they recognize SM as a major force.
* For those who partake, social media should be engaged consistently, however periodic. Only by consistent use can you learn -- and actually gain insight into the people you engage with.
(Key word: engage?).
* Some people are threatened by social media, perhaps concerned about being washed to sea on the strong tide or worried to be left isolated on the beach.
One concerned participant approached me later and asserted that I should not have mentioned the amount of advertising dollars that are flowing into blogs. Seemed an innocent bit of data to me, but he received it as an ominous portent of ... corporate greed and potential pollution of faculty blogs. Hmm.
The workshop was a good thing. We shared. I learned.
# # #
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
An ever-safer campus
For 2010, UNC Charlotte recorded major decreases in campus crime. Reductions achieved by the University’s Police and Public Safety Department (PPS) were greater than those of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s University Division.
Robbery on campus declined 75 percent in 2010 versus 2009; larceny from auto was down 61 percent and auto theft dropped 78 percent. Within the CMPD University Division, the declines were 30, 10 and 26 percent, respectively.
“These statistics illustrate significant crime reductions, and the success that can be achieved through collaboration with CMPD and our campus partners – students, faculty and staff,” said Jeff Baker, UNC Charlotte’s interim police chief.
According to Baker, the ability to maintain a fully staffed department this past year contributed to the decline in crime on campus and within the surrounding neighborhoods.
“With full staffing, the department can perform more foot patrols in the academic areas, directed patrols in the parking decks and lots and provide quicker response to calls,” Baker stated.
The University’s PPS Department operates 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. In addition to the normal operations, the department provides a number of additional safety and security programs, such as RAD classes (Rape Aggression Defense), Operation ID and presentations related to identity theft, date rape, domestic violence and “club” drugs. Officers also participate in National Crime Victims Week, Take Back the Night and National Campus Safety Awareness Month.
A new initiative for its community policing program involves posting an officer at the Student Union. Officer Jerry Lecomte will be stationed at the building to provide information to students and address any concerns from the campus community.
# # #
Robbery on campus declined 75 percent in 2010 versus 2009; larceny from auto was down 61 percent and auto theft dropped 78 percent. Within the CMPD University Division, the declines were 30, 10 and 26 percent, respectively.
“These statistics illustrate significant crime reductions, and the success that can be achieved through collaboration with CMPD and our campus partners – students, faculty and staff,” said Jeff Baker, UNC Charlotte’s interim police chief.
According to Baker, the ability to maintain a fully staffed department this past year contributed to the decline in crime on campus and within the surrounding neighborhoods.
“With full staffing, the department can perform more foot patrols in the academic areas, directed patrols in the parking decks and lots and provide quicker response to calls,” Baker stated.
The University’s PPS Department operates 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. In addition to the normal operations, the department provides a number of additional safety and security programs, such as RAD classes (Rape Aggression Defense), Operation ID and presentations related to identity theft, date rape, domestic violence and “club” drugs. Officers also participate in National Crime Victims Week, Take Back the Night and National Campus Safety Awareness Month.
A new initiative for its community policing program involves posting an officer at the Student Union. Officer Jerry Lecomte will be stationed at the building to provide information to students and address any concerns from the campus community.
# # #
Friday, January 21, 2011
Industry commits big $ for Energy Center
By Lisa A. Patterson
In the midst of bleak economic news and in what is shaping up to be a frigid winter, the good news of an $8.8 million financial commitment from Duke Energy and Siemen’s Energy to UNC Charlotte’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) comes at the right time. The announcement was made today at the Charlotte Business Journal’s Energy Leadership Awards event.
EPIC represents the positive outcome that is possible when academia, industry and government cooperate to tackle a problem or seize an opportunity. The forward-thinking people behind EPIC, including University administrators, energy industry leaders, local and state government officials, understand that the future of energy production in the United States is a major economic and national security concern.
Some facts:
• By 2012, roughly half of the engineers and technicians in the energy industry today will be eligible to retire. These are the people running our current fleet of plants. This number does not account for any new facilities.
• A 2009 survey of energy and engineering firms done in the Carolinas showed that they will need in excess of 3,000 engineers in the next five years to meet the demands of their industry. Remember, these are just companies in the Carolinas.
• As the United States looks toward the development of renewable energy, the gulf widens between the level of need and the engineering talent available.
• The same kinds of expert mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering skills needed to produce fossil fuels and nuclear energy are at the core of alternative energy technologies as well.
• According to the American Association of Energy Engineers, more than 40% of energy professionals plan to retire in the next 10 years.
Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers and Siemens Energy Director of Operations for Charlotte Mark Pringle joined Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco to make the announcement. According to the press release, “the combined support from the two companies will provide engineering scholarships, advance research capabilities in Smart Grid and precision manufacturing, provide access to large-scale manufacturing equipment and enable recruiting of key faculty in power engineering disciplines.”
Rogers said EPIC will help transform Charlotte from an energy hub into the nation's energy capital.
The State of North Carolina will add to Duke Energy’s $4.5 million contribution with another $667,000. Siemens Energy is providing $4.3 million in support.
UNC Charlotte is uniquely positioned in the heart of a region that is rapidly becoming “The New Energy Capital” in America. As a region and as a University we are answering the call for energy engineering talent and research through EPIC. This generous financial commitment from Duke Energy and Siemens Energy will contribute to our students’s education, the economic health of the region and the energy needs of the country and potentially beyond.
Lisa Patterson is senior writer in the Office of Public Relations.
In the midst of bleak economic news and in what is shaping up to be a frigid winter, the good news of an $8.8 million financial commitment from Duke Energy and Siemen’s Energy to UNC Charlotte’s Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) comes at the right time. The announcement was made today at the Charlotte Business Journal’s Energy Leadership Awards event.
EPIC represents the positive outcome that is possible when academia, industry and government cooperate to tackle a problem or seize an opportunity. The forward-thinking people behind EPIC, including University administrators, energy industry leaders, local and state government officials, understand that the future of energy production in the United States is a major economic and national security concern.
Some facts:
• By 2012, roughly half of the engineers and technicians in the energy industry today will be eligible to retire. These are the people running our current fleet of plants. This number does not account for any new facilities.
• A 2009 survey of energy and engineering firms done in the Carolinas showed that they will need in excess of 3,000 engineers in the next five years to meet the demands of their industry. Remember, these are just companies in the Carolinas.
• As the United States looks toward the development of renewable energy, the gulf widens between the level of need and the engineering talent available.
• The same kinds of expert mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering skills needed to produce fossil fuels and nuclear energy are at the core of alternative energy technologies as well.
• According to the American Association of Energy Engineers, more than 40% of energy professionals plan to retire in the next 10 years.
Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers and Siemens Energy Director of Operations for Charlotte Mark Pringle joined Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco to make the announcement. According to the press release, “the combined support from the two companies will provide engineering scholarships, advance research capabilities in Smart Grid and precision manufacturing, provide access to large-scale manufacturing equipment and enable recruiting of key faculty in power engineering disciplines.”
Rogers said EPIC will help transform Charlotte from an energy hub into the nation's energy capital.
The State of North Carolina will add to Duke Energy’s $4.5 million contribution with another $667,000. Siemens Energy is providing $4.3 million in support.
UNC Charlotte is uniquely positioned in the heart of a region that is rapidly becoming “The New Energy Capital” in America. As a region and as a University we are answering the call for energy engineering talent and research through EPIC. This generous financial commitment from Duke Energy and Siemens Energy will contribute to our students’s education, the economic health of the region and the energy needs of the country and potentially beyond.
Lisa Patterson is senior writer in the Office of Public Relations.
Monday, December 20, 2010
A University with a Plan
By Chancellor Philip L. Dubois
(This column is reprinted from the Q4 2010 edition of UNC Charlotte magazine,published in December 2010)
North Carolina’s looming fiscal crisis is old news to anyone who followed the recent elections or read the headlines in the newspapers in the past few weeks. A projected $3.7 billion deficit in FY12 against a total state budget of approximately $19 billion is sobering and, most assuredly, will have an impact on us at the University.
Notwithstanding what we expect will be tougher times ahead, we’ve enjoyed terrific progress in the past few years toward establishing UNC Charlotte as North Carolina’s urban research university. Total enrollment crossed the 25,000 mark, we awarded a record number of 95 doctoral degrees last year and, in just two-and-a-half years, we will play the first intercollegiate football game in our history.
These are great times to be a Niner. We cannot afford to allow the State’s fiscal issues to slow our momentum.
Since July 1, 2008, the permanent reductions to our State appropriations have totaled over $15 million and undoubtedly, further cuts are looming. Clearly defined campus-wide priorities and objectives will help us make the difficult decisions over the next few months to ensure our progress as a university in this era of fiscal constraint. For that reason, we are mid-way through a 12-month planning cycle aimed at producing an institutional plan that will guide the University through 2016.
We’ll use this planning process to restate our institutional goals so they more clearly reinforce our revised Mission Statement, identify key strategies to pursue over the next five years in a constrained economic environment, and revise assumptions about our overall planning process. We expect the final plan to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees by early summer, 2011.
Two other external factors make the development of this plan especially timely. “UNC Tomorrow,” the ambitious effort by President Erskine Bowles and the system Board of Governors to aggregate and focus local campus planning to meet the needs of the State, will be continued through the transition from the Bowles administration to that of President Tom Ross. Second, UNC Charlotte’s reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is scheduled for 2013. Our plans for the future will form an important element of that examination.
The University has already launched a revision of the campus Academic Plan, the college academic plans, and the plans of academic support units. My Cabinet will similarly assess each administrative division within the University. Several goals and major implementation strategies have already been approved for discussion with faculty, staff, students, and off-campus constituents, including alumni.
A draft of our planning assumptions as well as our draft institutional goals and strategies are available in the Chancellor’s Outbox at http://administration.uncc.edu/chancellor/outbox.html.
Resolutions are useful. As we begin a New Year at UNC Charlotte — one that will surely be full of unknown challenges and opportunities — we will do so with a new plan for the future and the resolve to fulfill goals established collaboratively with our growing community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends.
# # #
(This column is reprinted from the Q4 2010 edition of UNC Charlotte magazine,published in December 2010)
North Carolina’s looming fiscal crisis is old news to anyone who followed the recent elections or read the headlines in the newspapers in the past few weeks. A projected $3.7 billion deficit in FY12 against a total state budget of approximately $19 billion is sobering and, most assuredly, will have an impact on us at the University.
Notwithstanding what we expect will be tougher times ahead, we’ve enjoyed terrific progress in the past few years toward establishing UNC Charlotte as North Carolina’s urban research university. Total enrollment crossed the 25,000 mark, we awarded a record number of 95 doctoral degrees last year and, in just two-and-a-half years, we will play the first intercollegiate football game in our history.
These are great times to be a Niner. We cannot afford to allow the State’s fiscal issues to slow our momentum.
Since July 1, 2008, the permanent reductions to our State appropriations have totaled over $15 million and undoubtedly, further cuts are looming. Clearly defined campus-wide priorities and objectives will help us make the difficult decisions over the next few months to ensure our progress as a university in this era of fiscal constraint. For that reason, we are mid-way through a 12-month planning cycle aimed at producing an institutional plan that will guide the University through 2016.
We’ll use this planning process to restate our institutional goals so they more clearly reinforce our revised Mission Statement, identify key strategies to pursue over the next five years in a constrained economic environment, and revise assumptions about our overall planning process. We expect the final plan to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees by early summer, 2011.
Two other external factors make the development of this plan especially timely. “UNC Tomorrow,” the ambitious effort by President Erskine Bowles and the system Board of Governors to aggregate and focus local campus planning to meet the needs of the State, will be continued through the transition from the Bowles administration to that of President Tom Ross. Second, UNC Charlotte’s reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is scheduled for 2013. Our plans for the future will form an important element of that examination.
The University has already launched a revision of the campus Academic Plan, the college academic plans, and the plans of academic support units. My Cabinet will similarly assess each administrative division within the University. Several goals and major implementation strategies have already been approved for discussion with faculty, staff, students, and off-campus constituents, including alumni.
A draft of our planning assumptions as well as our draft institutional goals and strategies are available in the Chancellor’s Outbox at http://administration.uncc.edu/chancellor/outbox.html.
Resolutions are useful. As we begin a New Year at UNC Charlotte — one that will surely be full of unknown challenges and opportunities — we will do so with a new plan for the future and the resolve to fulfill goals established collaboratively with our growing community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends.
# # #
A Giving Institution
By John D. Bland
UNC Charlotte is North Carolina’s urban research university. It leverages its location in the state’s largest city to offer internationally competitive programs of research and creative activity, exemplary undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and a focused set of community engagement initiatives. UNC Charlotte maintains a particular commitment to addressing the cultural, economic, educational, environmental, health, and social needs of the greater Charlotte region.
What you have just read is the mission statement of UNC Charlotte. What it promises is that our University is committed to making the Charlotte region a better place. Ours is a public university and thus it is must give back to the public value that validates the public’s investment in UNC Charlotte. (This past Saturday, we delivered unto the community almost 3,000 new graduates during our cmmenecement ceremonies; may the job market provide them with the opportunities they are seeking.)
In challenging economic times such as these, with new leadership taking the helm in our state and a reorganization of state government in the offing, it’s important to remember that the University adds incredible value to our community; it is a giving institution.
In the edition of the UNC Charlotte magazine, available digitally at the URL below, you’ll see prime examples of how the people of UNC Charlotte are addressing the needs of the Charlotte community. Ross Meentemeyer and his associates are studying how a fast-growing metropolis like Charlotte still retains some of the pastoral spaces of bygone days – and what that means for future development. You’ll read a moving account of how a husband-wife team of researchers are making breakthroughs locally in the fight against a heartbreaking disease – Alzheimers. Also in those pages are articles about UNC Charlotte’s Freedom School and our work in presenting the Women’s Summit.
The Freedom Schools program provides summer and after-school enrichment that helps budding CMS scholars fall in love with reading, increases their self-esteem, and generates more positive attitudes toward learning. The Women’s Summit provides a forum and concerted effort for local women to help solve the region’s challenges and ensure that women leaders stay engaged in leading our community.
There’s much more in this edition that shows how invaluable UNC Charlotte is to the Charlotte region. Take a look and find out. Thanks for your investment in UNC Charlotte and your continuing support. And never hesitate to stake your claim to your share of a great urban research university.
# # #
http://www.publicrelations.uncc.edu/default.asp?id=41
UNC Charlotte is North Carolina’s urban research university. It leverages its location in the state’s largest city to offer internationally competitive programs of research and creative activity, exemplary undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and a focused set of community engagement initiatives. UNC Charlotte maintains a particular commitment to addressing the cultural, economic, educational, environmental, health, and social needs of the greater Charlotte region.
What you have just read is the mission statement of UNC Charlotte. What it promises is that our University is committed to making the Charlotte region a better place. Ours is a public university and thus it is must give back to the public value that validates the public’s investment in UNC Charlotte. (This past Saturday, we delivered unto the community almost 3,000 new graduates during our cmmenecement ceremonies; may the job market provide them with the opportunities they are seeking.)
In challenging economic times such as these, with new leadership taking the helm in our state and a reorganization of state government in the offing, it’s important to remember that the University adds incredible value to our community; it is a giving institution.
In the edition of the UNC Charlotte magazine, available digitally at the URL below, you’ll see prime examples of how the people of UNC Charlotte are addressing the needs of the Charlotte community. Ross Meentemeyer and his associates are studying how a fast-growing metropolis like Charlotte still retains some of the pastoral spaces of bygone days – and what that means for future development. You’ll read a moving account of how a husband-wife team of researchers are making breakthroughs locally in the fight against a heartbreaking disease – Alzheimers. Also in those pages are articles about UNC Charlotte’s Freedom School and our work in presenting the Women’s Summit.
The Freedom Schools program provides summer and after-school enrichment that helps budding CMS scholars fall in love with reading, increases their self-esteem, and generates more positive attitudes toward learning. The Women’s Summit provides a forum and concerted effort for local women to help solve the region’s challenges and ensure that women leaders stay engaged in leading our community.
There’s much more in this edition that shows how invaluable UNC Charlotte is to the Charlotte region. Take a look and find out. Thanks for your investment in UNC Charlotte and your continuing support. And never hesitate to stake your claim to your share of a great urban research university.
# # #
http://www.publicrelations.uncc.edu/default.asp?id=41
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Despite cold and rain, campus open for final exams
UNC Charlotte will be open on a normal schedule and exam schedules remain in place for Thursday, December 16. Come Saturday, the campus will host commencement ceremonies in Halton Areana at 10 am and 3 pm. Almost 3,000 will graduate.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Support the State Employees Combined Campaign
I read an article last week – an obituary of sorts – in which the subject was described as a person who always declined financial assistance because, he said, “There’s always someone who needs it more than me.” A few days later the State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC) kicked off at Robinson Hall. It’s the annual drive to raise money for charitable organizations that many of us contribute to each year.
My first feeling about the request to give centered on the fact that this awful recession continues to linger and that we haven’t had raises in two years and won’t again next year, and that, frankly, a call to give was becoming tiresome. But I quickly remembered the quote above and that straightened out my thinking.
I don’t know who is reading this, so I can’t pretend to know about your life and how you’re weathering the Great Recession. Perhaps your spouse or adult child is unemployed or underemployed. Maybe, God forbid, your mortgage is teetering on default. Or maybe like me, you’ve been blessed by maintaining a stable financial situation. What I do know is that you are employed. Not just anywhere but at an institution that is very well managed by smart, thoughtful people of integrity. As such, I can’t deny that there’s always someone with less than me, and I need to be thoughtful and generous in supporting organizations that do good for those who need help.
Someone very successful and very spiritually rich once told me that the more one gives to others, the more one gets in return. Even if we aren’t seeking something in return for our giving, we will benefit. Whether you call it God, or the Universe or karma, doing good begets good. And to share when it’s hard to share is even better.
None of this is news to you, and I’m not here to lecture anyone. I’m just sharing how I feel about my responsibility to give – through SECC and other channels. Some of you may be big givers to SECC. But if you’re ambivalent about how much to give, I recommend giving at least enough to qualify for payroll deduction -- $60 spaced out with deductions throughout the next year.
There’s always someone who has less than us; someone who just needs a little help. By supporting SECC, we help people. And that’s good for them and us.
My first feeling about the request to give centered on the fact that this awful recession continues to linger and that we haven’t had raises in two years and won’t again next year, and that, frankly, a call to give was becoming tiresome. But I quickly remembered the quote above and that straightened out my thinking.
I don’t know who is reading this, so I can’t pretend to know about your life and how you’re weathering the Great Recession. Perhaps your spouse or adult child is unemployed or underemployed. Maybe, God forbid, your mortgage is teetering on default. Or maybe like me, you’ve been blessed by maintaining a stable financial situation. What I do know is that you are employed. Not just anywhere but at an institution that is very well managed by smart, thoughtful people of integrity. As such, I can’t deny that there’s always someone with less than me, and I need to be thoughtful and generous in supporting organizations that do good for those who need help.
Someone very successful and very spiritually rich once told me that the more one gives to others, the more one gets in return. Even if we aren’t seeking something in return for our giving, we will benefit. Whether you call it God, or the Universe or karma, doing good begets good. And to share when it’s hard to share is even better.
None of this is news to you, and I’m not here to lecture anyone. I’m just sharing how I feel about my responsibility to give – through SECC and other channels. Some of you may be big givers to SECC. But if you’re ambivalent about how much to give, I recommend giving at least enough to qualify for payroll deduction -- $60 spaced out with deductions throughout the next year.
There’s always someone who has less than us; someone who just needs a little help. By supporting SECC, we help people. And that’s good for them and us.
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