General News

Tony Vo ’04 has a good thing brewing — his popular Waterbean Coffee chain is one of Charlotte’s best.

UNC Charlotte has been recognized among the best in the nation for its outstanding diversity and inclusion efforts. The University is a recipient of the 2022 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

Thomas Lawrence Mellichamp ’70, former director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, died Sept. 12.

A professor emeritus in the Biology Department, Mellichamp retired in 2014 after nearly four decades directing the development of the University’s Botanical Gardens. He completed a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University and went on to earn a doctorate in botany from the University of Michigan before returning to join the Charlotte faculty in 1976.

The Department of Languages and Culture Studies, in collaboration with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, D.C., is co-sponsoring a series of movie screenings, talks and discussions investigating Holocaust crimes through the lens of history, arts and ethics.

UNC Charlotte is the first American host for a stunning exhibition developed by the Museum of Contemporary Art in London.

A screening and discussion of “Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem” is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 20, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall. The film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression in the criminal justice system.

This event is part of the “Film Screen with a Dean” series and is sponsored by Atkins Library and the Levine Museum of the New South, as part of its “What Is It Going to Take?” series.

UNC Charlotte rose eight spots in the 2022-23 U.S. News & World Report rankings for undergraduate colleges and universities.

UNC Charlotte has been named to “America’s Best Employers by State” list by Forbes; the University ranked 44 out of the top 100 employers in North Carolina.

David Fillmore, a lighting designer for both theatre and dance, specializes in “large, environmental storytelling.” For example, he made fire-breathing dragons burn down a house for the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s production of “Dragons Love Tacos.”

While he loves “bringing imagination to life,” Fillmore knows how to make people look good — on a stage or a screen. “It’s something I do for a living,” he said.

Scott D. Vandervelde, Ph.D., has joined UNC Charlotte as director of the Turner School of Accountancy in the Belk College of Business.

Vandervelde, who was an academic coordinator and professor in the University of South Carolina’s Master of Accountancy Program for 20 years, began his duties July 1.