General News

It’s lunchtime on a Tuesday and 220 North Carolina science and math teachers are listening to a man talk about shoveling lemur poop.

Though this portion of National Geographic conservation scientist Luke Dollar’s keynote presentation may not have been the most appetizing of mealtime conversations, his larger message was lockstep with the Center for STEM Education’s mission to reshape how teachers teach and students learn those subjects.

UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff again will have the chance to team with the American Red Cross in a campus-wide effort to save lives. This year’s 49ers4Life blood drive, set for 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 26, in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center, has a collection goal of 1,000 pints.

Pinku Mukherjee, the Belk Endowed Professor of Cancer Research, was profiled recently in the Charlotte Observer. The story highlights a faculty researcher who is staking her claim at UNC Charlotte and making an exponential impact in the field of cancer research. Mukherjee is the 2015 recipient of the O. Max Gardner Award, the UNC system’s highest faculty honor.

The American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Bus and Paratransit Conference will be held in Charlotte in May.

In advance of the conference, the APTA is seeking transit-related ideas from students and professionals age 25 or younger for a “pitch session” on Wednesday, May 18. Ideas can involve technology, service delivery or any other area of transit, as long as it is innovative.

Brian Arreola, associate professor of voice and director of Opera Workshop, will sing the role of Tybalt in Opera Carolina’s production of Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The performances will be Jan. 24, 28 and 30 in the Belk Theater of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

Gounod’s treatment of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy was composed in 1867. The character of Tybalt, for tenor, is Juliet’s cousin who is slain by Romeo after killing Romeo’s friend, Mercutio.

Nurses from across Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently attended a UNC Charlotte workshop on diagnosing and dealing with child maltreatment.

School of Nursing clinical professor Kathy Jordan led the half-day event, which provided a comprehensive overview of child maltreatment, focusing on prevention, early recognition, intervention and treatment. More than 150 area nurses attended.

Jordan, a certified emergency nurse practitioner who researches and presents nationally on the issue, describes child maltreatment as a deeply troubling public health problem.

A team of UNC Charlotte engineering technology and construction management students won the 2015 Concrete Construction Competition sponsored by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC).

Betty Doster, special assistant to the chancellor for constituent relations, was included on the Charlotte Business Journal’s list of behind-the-scenes newsmakers of 2015.

According to the CBJ, victories in the General Assembly for colleges and for larger cities such as Charlotte have been rare since a Republican majority shifted the state’s emphasis toward cutting taxes and tightening budgets. Among the notable exceptions: UNC Charlotte, which Gov. Pat McCrory included in his $2 billion bond proposal that goes before voters on March 15.

Henry Dumas was considered a pivotal figure in African American literature of the 1960s. At the age of 33, he was killed by a white transit policeman in 1968 on a Harlem subway platform, and the circumstances of his death were never fully explained.  

Most of the writer’s fiction and poetry was published posthumously through the efforts of former Random House editor and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison.

Bernadette Donovan-Merkert, chair of the Chemistry Department, discusses the need for increased lab space for the sciences; the Connect NC bond would provide funding for a new science building at UNC Charlotte.