Dubois, Zeiss make the case for Connect NC bond

UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip L. Dubois continues to educate the greater Charlotte region on the benefits of the Connect NC bond. On Wednesday, he joined Tony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College, at a luncheon meeting of the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club.

The $2 billion Connect NC bond, which is on the March 15 ballot, would fund a number of projects across the state with almost half allocated to the UNC system. For UNC Charlotte, if the bond is approved, the University would receive $90 million to construct a new science building.

“Our existing science building just isn’t big enough or modern enough,” Dubois told Hood Hargett Breakfast Club members during the Wednesday luncheon, according to an article in the Charlotte Observer. “For an institution that’s going to grow to 35,000 students, we need to get that building replaced.”

Retiring CPCC President Tony Zeiss told the group that most of its allotment would buy a second energy plant on the central campus to help power recently built buildings. The college, he said, also needs a new truck pad for its new truck driving program.

“If we want to live well, we have to educate well,” Zeiss said. “People say the cost of education is high. Yes, but the cost of ignorance is worse.”

The Charlotte Observer story noted that the referendum, at the bottom on next week’s ballot, comes 15 years after North Carolina voters approved by a wide margin $3.1 billion for the UNC system and community colleges. The money launched 728 building projects across the state that added 12 million square feet of space, transforming campuses with new and renovated residence halls, cutting-edge classroom buildings, libraries and other buildings that catered to students.

Click here to read the entire Charlotte Observer article by David Perlmutt. Learn more about University groups and businesses that support the bond here.