North Carolina Central University


North Carolina Central University, a state-supported liberal arts institution, is a public, historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Dr. James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.
In 1969 the legislature designated this as a regional university and renamed it as North Carolina Central University. It has been part of the University of North Carolina system since 1972, and offers programs at the baccalaureate, master's, professional and doctoral levels. The university is a member-school of Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

History

North Carolina Central University was founded by Dr. James E. Shepard as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race in the Hayti District. Chautauqua was an educational movement that originated in the Northeast. The school was chartered in 1909 as a private institution and opened on July 5, 1910. Woodrow Wilson, the future U.S. president, contributed some private support for the school's founding.
The school was sold and reorganized in 1915, becoming the National Training School; it was supported by Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, a philanthropist of New York who was particularly concerned about education. The National Training School supported Black teacher development in the Jim Crow era, a time when Black education was underfunded by southern states at both the lower and upper levels.
Becoming a state-funded institution in 1923, this school was renamed as Durham State Normal School for Negroes; normal schools trained teachers for elementary grades. In 1925, reflecting the expansion of its programs to a four-year curriculum with a variety of majors, the General Assembly converted the institution into the North Carolina College for Negroes, dedicating it to the offering of liberal arts education and the preparation of teachers and principals of secondary schools. It was the nation's first state-supported liberal arts college for black students. To avoid the state Jim Crow system of segregated passenger cars on trains, Shepard insisted on traveling to Raleigh by car to lobby the legislature. The college's first four-year class graduated in 1929.
The college was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools as an "A" class institution in 1937 and was admitted to membership in that association in 1957. Graduate courses in the School of Arts and Sciences were added in 1939, in the School of Law in 1940, and in the School of Library Science in 1941. In 1947, the General Assembly changed the name of the institution to North Carolina College at Durham.
On October 6, 1947, Dr. Shepard, the founder and president, died. He was succeeded in 1948 by Dr. Alfonso Elder. At the time of Dr. Elder's election, he was serving as head of the Graduate Department of Education and had formerly been Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Elder retired September 1, 1963. Dr. Samuel P. Massie was appointed as the president on August 9, 1963, and resigned on February 1, 1966. On July 1, 1967, Dr. Albert N. Whiting assumed the presidency. He served as president and chancellor of the institution. Among the significant developments during his service was the creation of NCCU School of Business. Programs in public administration and criminal justice were also launched. Dr. Whiting retired June 30, 1983.
The 1969 General Assembly designated the institution as one of the State's regional universities, and the name was changed to North Carolina Central University. Since 1972, NCCU has been a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. On July 1, 1972, the state's four-year colleges and universities were joined to become The Consolidated University of North Carolina, with 16 individual campuses, headed by a single president and governed by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. However, each campus was led by a separate chancellor and a campus-specific Board of Trustees.
Whiting was succeeded by LeRoy T. Walker as chancellor, followed by Tyronza R. Richmond, Julius L. Chambers, James H. Ammons, Charlie Nelms, and Debra Saunders-White in 2013. Saunders-White was the first woman to hold the office on a permanent basis.

Campus

The campus is located about a mile south of downtown Durham, North Carolina and about three miles east of Duke University. Eleven buildings built before 1940 are included in a national historic district. All of the buildings, except for the three residences, are Georgian Revival-style buildings; they have contemporary fireproof construction with steel trusses and brick exterior walls. They include the Clyde R. Hoey Administration Building, Alexander Dunn Hall, Annie Day Shepard Hall, and five institutional buildings built in the late 1930s under the auspices of the Public Works Administration. The campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Organization

NCCU is a part of the UNC System. The campus is governed by a thirteen-member Board of Trustees: eight elected, four appointed, and the president of the Student Government Association also serves as an ex-officio member. The Board elects its officers annually and meets five times per year.
, NCCU had a total of 8,587 students, including 5396 full-time undergraduate and 1233 full-time graduate students. Sixty-four percent are women and 36 percent are men. Eighty-five percent are African-American, 6 percent are white, and 2 percent are Hispanic., NCCU had a student faculty ratio of 16:1.

Schools and colleges

NCCU in conjunction with the African American Jazz Caucus sponsors a Jazz Research Institute which conducts an annual Summer Jazz Festival and offers a program in Jazz Studies.

Student organizations

North Carolina Central University has 130 registered student organizations and 12 honor societies.

Student media

The students of North Carolina Central University publish the Campus Echo, a bi-weekly newspaper that has been in publication since the school's founding in 1910. The Campus Echo contains articles covering local events, arts and entertainment, and sports among other topics.

Gallery

Athletics

NCCU sponsors fourteen men's and women's sports teams that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I as a newly readmitted member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Athletic teams include football, softball, baseball, basketball, track and field, tennis, volleyball, bowling, and golf.

Rivals

  • North Carolina A&T State University
  • Winston-Salem State University
  • Duke University

    Notable alumni


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