Student Affairs

UNC Charlotte students Andrew Helms and Jake Whitaker recently won the 2015 Bassmaster College Classic, held on Lake Keowee in South Carolina.

Helms, a marketing major from Monroe, said, “There were only eight teams invited to this event, and we qualified by winning the national championship (2014 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship). Though the field was small, we were able to weigh in right before the pros on the biggest stage in bass fishing. This was huge for us, as there were thousands in attendance and also many more watching live online.”

 The Student Union Art Gallery will display “Umbra,” an on-site installation by Meredith Connelly through Sunday, March 8. A free reception with the artist will be at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 19; it will feature a performance by opera singer Kelly Hutchinson.

“Umbra” explores the pairing of light and sculpture with sound sensitivity. Though each sculpture is created specifically for the site, “Umbra” is a continuing series. The exhibit was first displayed at the Cornelius Arts Center last summer.

Contemporary dance company Step Afrika! will perform at 7 p.m., Monday,  Feb. 23, in the Student Union, Room 340 D-I. The event, sponsored by the Campus Activities Board (CAB), is free and open to the public.

Founded in 1994, the dance company is the first professional ensemble dedicated to the tradition of stepping. It now ranks as one of the top 10 African American dance companies in the United States.

Wake Forest University professor and MSNBC television host Melissa Harris-Perry will discuss “Mommy, Mammy and the Maid: Race, Class and Women’s Political Power” for UNC Charlotte’s ninth annual Women’s and Gender Studies Speaker Series at 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 1, in the Student Union, Room 340.

The Campus Accessibility Advisory Committee, a 15-member group appointed by the chancellor, recently recommended that students be able to use any gender restroom on campus to which they self-identify. In response, the Trans* Committee and the Office of Disability Services have partnered in a joint effort to establish accessible and gender-neutral restroom facilities in every academic building on campus.

The website Best College Values has ranked UNC Charlotte’s Student Union at number six on its list of “30 Most Amazing Student Unions.”

In determining its compilation, the website examined architecture and exterior appeal, facilities, interior appeal and tradition when ranking student unions across the country.

J. Scott Derrick, executive director of the Student Union and Cone University Center, is president-elect for the Association of College Unions International (ACUI); he will be installed formally in April at the organization’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas.

“I am both honored and humbled to have been elected by my fellow ACUI colleagues as president-elect,” said Derrick. “To be trusted with this responsibility is something that I take very seriously.”

The Charlotte-based LGBT arts, entertainment and news publication qnotes recently named Josh Burford, assistant director for sexual and gender diversity in the Multicultural Resource Center, as its “2014 Person of the Year.”

The recognition stemmed from Burford’s extensive campus and community involvement, and in particular, his outreach initiatives related to the establishment of a community LGBTQ historical archive in UNC Charlotte’s J. Murray Atkins Library Special Collections.

“Accumulations,” an exhibit featuring work by UNC Charlotte alumna Carmen Neely, will be displayed through Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Student Union Art Gallery. A free reception with the artist will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 16.

According to the artist,“Accumulations” is the result of a new, more formalist approach to exploration in painting. Her earlier works focused predominately on references to the figure and have stemmed from ideologies about sexuality; Neely’s current compositions focus more intently on qualities of line and organic shape.

At its recent planning meeting, the Division for Student Affairs staked its claim to community engagement as more than 264 staff members donated school supplies to Classroom Central, a nonprofit organization serving more than 100,000 students living in poverty in  200-plus schools in six local school districts.