General News

5 Cool Things: Most Admired CEO, Amazon’s Hot List, a $2.5M gift and more.

Theater and Film Professor Jay Morong helps open The Independent Picture House in NoDa.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, UNC Charlotte has performed wastewater testing of campus buildings (now grouped into neighborhoods) to proactively mitigate the spread of the virus and to determine if infections are increasing or decreasing. The reporting structure of this testing has taken different forms, but the testing itself has continued since its implementation. As the virus and its variants continue to be present, here are a few things to remember:

Former Charlotte 49ers star Brandt Bronico ’17 is making his mark as part of the starting lineup for Charlotte FC’s inaugural season.

Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones will join 25 higher education faculty in Chicago this month for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: Making Modernism: Literature, Dance, and Visual Culture in Chicago, 1893-1955. Funded by the NEH and running from July 18 to Aug. 5, the summer institute will explore creative expression in Chicago from the turn of the 20th century through the aftermath of the Second World War.

Thanks to the strong support of Niner Nation, the Charlotte 49ers Athletic Foundation raised a record $2.257 million toward its annual fund, an increase of more than $600,000 from the 2020-21 campaign and approximately $235,000 over its goal of $2.022 million.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Athletic Foundation has reported an increase in annual fund dollars. In addition, the 49er Club membership exceeded 2,200 individuals, a leap of more than 600 new members from 2021.

Derrick Magee has been appointed associate vice chancellor of campus enterprises at N.C. Central University. Magee, a doctoral candidate in the Belk College of Business, will defend his dissertation in fall 2022.

North Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore recently appointed John Anderson Bailey ’94 to the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees; he will fill an unexpired one-year term, effective July 1.

A restaurateur and home builder, Bailey owns Sammy’s Neighborhood Pub, an iconic mainstay in downtown Belmont, and runs Homes by John Bailey. Previously, he served as vice president of William Trotter Company in Charlotte. 

Charlotte’s undergraduate elementary teacher preparation program has been named among the best in the nation when it comes to ensuring future elementary teachers have the essential content knowledge and skills they need to teach mathematics.

A few weeks ago, I had the unique pleasure of sitting down with Deon Ritchie, facilities and operations specialist for Belk College of Business for over 25 years. What I thought was going to be a typical interview ended up being so much more. I walked away with a sense of awe of her humility, servanthood and perspective on life.