Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. discussed university issues and operations, including Preeminence 2023, housing and parking at the recent campus forum.
Several prominent entities made announcements at the forum including Housing and Campus Enterprises.
Housing is planning to expand by next fall, acquiring over 1,200 beds through student apartments at Collegiate Commons (324 beds) and Sebastian Villages (840 beds).
Housing also announced a new step in the process of applying for campus housing. A Campus Housing Interest Form will be sent out and available from Nov. 18, 2019 until Jan. 31, 2020.
This will allow Housing to better gauge the demand prior to going into the application process. Current residents will be notified via email from their current residence hall director.
This is not an application, no fee will be required, and there will be no guarantee to housing based on this process. Housing will use the results as a tool to leverage the access schedule for the housing application.
After this process students can begin the application process, which will open Monday, Feb. 24, 2020 at 7am until Friday, March 6, 2020 at 11:59pm.
Only students who completed the interest form in step one will receive access to apply for housing and pay the non-refundable $175 application fee. Students will receive an email providing a date and time to access the system.
Students will be given access to the housing application based on their current housing assignment and completed credit hours plus current enrolled hours.
Based on the number of interest forms received, not all students will have an opportunity to apply for housing. Some students will be placed on a wait list.
Once the maximum number of allotted beds has been reached, all other students will be added to a waitlist and sent individual emails from the Housing Residence Life Office as spaces become available.
All students who participate in the application process in February will be eligible to participate in the room selection process beginning Wednesday, April 29, 2020- Tuesday, May 5, 2020.
Applications and room reservation times are prioritized by classification (completed credit hours) and ranked by Fall 2019 gpa. Students will receive their reservation date and time to log into the Aggie Housing Portal in 3-hours blocks beginning at 9am.
Approximately 250 students per three hour block of time will have access to the select their housing assignments.
Continuing students will reside in university apartments, new freshmen will reside on the main campus in traditional and suite-style halls. New transfers will reside suite-style and university apartments.
Campus enterprise also announced enhancements for resident dining and retail locations in William Dining Hall for Fall 2020,
Williams Dining Hall is expected to begin a takeout option. A late night dining option and a national brand specializing in “build your own menus” will be added.
Chancellor Martin also discussed the ins and outs of Preeminence 2023, as well as addressing students’ concerns with the recent UNC-TV hour-long segment, “Focus on the Future: North Carolina’s Historically Minority-Serving Institutions.”
“This is the beginning of my 11th year, 2009 when I arrived we were an institution whose enrollment had been in decline for about seven years, our university hadn’t won much of anything in sports, we were cutting our budgets in significant ways,” Martin said.
Inspired by N.C. A&T’s lack of growth in 2009, Preeminence 2020 was successful in gaining an extension to Preeminence 2023, which was created to make the university more competitive in all areas.
“Preeminence 2023 is the name of our strategic plan that we are implementing as part of our strategy to direct our university and define its future,” Martin said.
The University has seen growth in student population, athletics and academics following the implementation of Preeminence 2020.
