General News

On Saturday, Oct. 17, UNC Charlotte hosted a large crowd of visitors on campus for the 40th installment of its International Festival, and thousands more experienced the wonder of the festival via a live webcast.

This annual event featured the traditional offerings of art, costumes, games music, dance and food representing cultures from around the world. New for 2015, in recognition of the festival’s four decades, the Office of International Programs introduced a lively procession of nations and a celebratory fireworks presentation.

Lindsey Pollak, a national career expert, will speak at 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 29, in Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

UNC Charlotte philosopher Shannon Sullivan posits that well-meaning white liberals are more concerned with establishing anti-racist credentials than with confronting systematic racism and privilege in her work “Good White People: The Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism.”

A professor of philosophy and health psychology, Sullivan will discuss the award-winning book and why she decided to write it at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10, at UNC Charlotte Center City as part of the 2015-16 Personally Speaking series.

Alumnus Robert Niblock, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Lowe’s Companies Inc., is donating $2.5 million to UNC Charlotte’s Belk College of Business. His gift will support the Student Center for Professional Development in the Belk College, which will be named the Robert A. Niblock Student Center for Professional Development.

As office manager for the Department of Aerospace Studies, Cole Carter often is the initial point of contact for prospective cadets for the University’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 592.

Since joining the University and aerospace studies in 2000, Carter has worked for seven department chairs or commanders, along with numerous other officers and non-commissioned personnel who oversee the University’s Air Force ROTC program. Lt. Col. Richard Sanders is the current ROTC commander.

College of Education professor Sejal Foxx will represent UNC Charlotte at an upcoming event to strengthen school counseling and college advising; it is being convened by the White House.

She will join delegates from 35 states representing K-12 schools, nonprofit organizations, research interests, policymakers and other stakeholders in an effort to increase the number of traditionally underserved students succeeding in post-secondary education.

Jing Xiao, professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, is on the 2015 Robohub listing of “25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About.”

Xiao’s research spans robotics, haptics and intelligent systems. An IEEE Fellow, Xiao is site director of the U.S. National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Robots and Sensors for Human Wellbeing. During her academic career, she has authored more than 130 publications in journals, books and for major robotics conferences, and she holds one patent.

UNC Charlotte’s Master of Health Administration is ranked among the most affordable graduate degrees in health care administration by Healthcare Administration Degree Programs. 
Using the National Center for Education Statistics’ College Navigator database, more than 280 schools were identified as having qualifying degree programs. The 30 most affordable accredited programs were selected and ranked based on average annual cost, including tuition and fees. UNC Charlotte was ranked no. 17.

The Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is the 2015 recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology received the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising.  Also, José Gámez, associate professor of architecture, was presented the Provost’s Faculty Award for Community Engagement.

Plans are in the works to remove the Belk Tower, which UNC Charlotte personnel and outside consulting engineers have determined to have significant structural issues.

In an Oct. 17 statement to campus, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois wrote, “Although the tower is not an immediate risk to campus, it does pose a potential safety hazard, and it is prudent to take precautions. The deterioration of the tower is the natural result of age-related corrosion, water penetration and rust that have damaged the tower’s concrete, metal and electrical components.”