General News

Employees can kick off the season with four free admission tickets to games as the Charlotte 49ers open the Mark Price era of men’s basketball. Games included in this deal are the men’s exhibition match at 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 9, and the Opening Day Doubleheader on Friday, Nov. 13, when the women face Ball State at 5:30 p.m. and the men take on Elon at 8:30 p.m. The first 2,500 fans in attendance on Opening Day will receive a commemorative Mark Price jersey T-shirt. 

As part of this year’s Homecoming festivities, the Staff Council teamed with the Student Government Association to sponsor a Homecoming Office Decorating Contest. Natalie Cornell, UNC Charlotte alumna Class of 2014 and a staff member in the Events and Special Projects Department of the Division for University Advancement, was named the winner.

My UNC Charlotte (my.charlotte.edu) successfully launched in early October and will replace 49er Express. On Nov. 12, at approximately 5:30 a.m., 49er Express will fully retire, and My UNC Charlotte will serve as the main portal. The original retire date, Nov. 16, was moved up as some functionalities are ending sooner than anticipated.

Social media has altered fundraising, and the UNC Charlotte Division of University Advancement is assisting members of the Niner Nation to take advantage of the trend to solicit small gifts for various campus ventures.

Crowdfund UNC Charlotte provides an online platform to students, faculty and staff to generate funding for ideas significant to them.

Sen. Richard Burr was one of the keynote speakers for this year’s Cyber Security Symposium; he discusses the role of academia in the field of cyber security.

Dorothy McMillan was known for her love of exotic flowers and her philanthropy, and the University benefited greatly from her largesse. A loyal backer of UNC Charlotte, McMillan donated her collection of 3,000 orchids to campus. This gift blossomed and led to the creation of a permanent campus facility that attracts thousands of visitors annually.

Four talks comprise the series “Food Production, Marketing and Consumption in the United States – Colonial Era to Present.” The first presentation, scheduled for 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Denny Building, Room 220, will feature Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

Velasquez, a recipient of a “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation, earned a bachelor’s degree from Bluffton College; he has dedicated his life to improving the working and living conditions for migrant laborers and their families.

Ellen McIntyre, dean of the College of Education, and Munro Richardson, executive director of Read Charlotte, will be guests on the Oct. 30 edition of “The Live Wire,” Inside UNC Charlotte’s streaming webcast. Starting at noon, they will discuss the multimillion dollar Read Charlotte Initiative and the strategy for reshaping the landscape of early literacy across the city. The initiative’s goal is to double Charlotte -Mecklenburg Schools third-graders’ reading proficiency by 2025.

Global Soap Project founder Derreck Kayongo will speak at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

Now a successful entrepreneur, Kayongo is a renowned expert in environmental sustainability and global health. At the age of 10, Kayongo and his family fled a civil war in Uganda and settled in the United States. CNN International praised Kayongo for his “transition from the tough life of a refugee to become a college graduate, a U.S. citizen and a field coordinator for CARE International, a private humanitarian aid organization.”

A free screening of the documentary “The Hunting Ground” will be at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 9, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

“The Hunting Ground” was created to educate audiences on the widespread issue of campus sexual assault. The title of the documentary was chosen to represent the ideal conditions college campuses offer serial rapists to commit violent acts and escape responsibility.