UNC Charlotte

The magazine of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for Alumni and Friends • v15 n3 q3 • 2008

Virtual
Visions
uNC Charlotte
Researchers
Explore New Realities
UNC CHARLOTTE | c h a n c e l l o r ’s l e t te r
Research in Full Bloom at UNC Charlotte
When Miss Bonnie Cone founded what
would become UNC Charlotte, she had a
practical and compelling vision: establish in
Charlotte a university that would provide
a quality undergraduate education to the
young people of this region.
Her vision became reality under the
leadership of Dean Colvard and E.
K. Fretwell, the University’s first two
chancellors. Through the years, UNC
Charlotte has delivered a very enriching
undergraduate experience marked by great
teaching, a nurturing campus community,
and very talented and dedicated faculty and
staff. Chancellor Colvard also established
the first graduate programs, and both he
and Chancellor Fretwell understood the
educational value of research. Under our
third chancellor, Jim Woodward, UNC
Charlotte became a doctoral-granting
research institution and vastly expanded its
array of graduate programs.
My predecessors’ vision is in full bloom
Research may today at UNC Charlotte. Every day, our
involve scientific faculty and students engage in phenomenal
and practical learning through research.
inquiry, cultural This edition of UNC Charlotte magazine
peeks behind the scenes at some of the
and economic research emerging from our campus.
For example, in the College of
discovery or Computing and Informatics Future
Computing Lab, students and faculty
artistic creativity. work side-by-side to develop virtual reality
applications, including virtual environments
Yet the goal of and virtual humans. You have likely
interacted with a virtual human, either
all our research through a telephone “conversation” or on
the World Wide Web. Virtual humans
efforts is the same increase efficiency for private industry and
other organizations by performing tasks
— to make lives such as fielding common questions or
providing directions. Researchers at UNC
better. Charlotte are studying ways to improve
this technology and extend its application
to areas including education, nursing, and
community policing.
Already, virtual environments are
being used to improve medical care in the
treatment of burn patients. UNC Charlotte
psychology faculty and students have tested
this technology as a means to provide relief
to individuals suffering from chronic pain.
Read the feature “Virtual Visions: UNC
Charlotte researchers explore new realities”
to learn more about this exciting technology
and its many applications.
UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
Research is by no means a static pursuit –
sometimes we must meet challenges where
they live (or work), so to speak. Our newest
interdisciplinary Ph.D. program does just
that and is the first program of its kind
in the country to draw from the expertise
of faculty in organizational sociology,
management, industrial/organizational
psychology and organizational
communication.
Organizational scientists help organizations
address problems that can lead to a
dissatisfying work environment for
employees, as well as decreased efficiency
and productivity. The article “Doctoring
Organizations: Organizational science
Ph.D. program on the leading edge
nationally,” describes the mission of this
exciting program to “return functionality to
the dysfunctional.”
Despite these rather intensive research
programs, UNC Charlotte has not deviated
from its grounding in liberal studies and
the thoughtful, critical thinking that is
essential to our success. Sometimes inquiry
requires a quiet space, without scientific
equipment and away from intensive work
teams. That space exists on the 10th floor
of the Atkins Library, where a treasure trove
of historic documents, manuscripts, rare
books and memorabilia spanning several
centuries, is available to the community.
If you would like to conduct your own
historical investigation of the Civil Rights
movement in Charlotte or read early
editions of the works of some of the greatest
authors of our time, take this as a standing
invitation next time you visit campus. The
impressive breadth of our special collections
is highlighted in the article “A Room with a
View on History.”
Research may involve scientific inquiry,
cultural and economic discovery or artistic
creativity. Yet the goal of all our research
efforts is the same – to make lives better.
We will continue to celebrate these
efforts, which make every space on our
beautiful campus a laboratory of learning
and an incubator of ideas, on the pages of
this magazine.
Cordially,
Philip L. Dubois
Chancellor
 c o n t e n t s | UNC CHARLOTTE

3 you are seeing things

— a new University logo

columns
4 news briefs
14 49ers Notebook 16
38 alumni news
40 alumni notes features

6 Mutation Tips
alumni profiles Biochemistry to cause
12 Richard Hudson Alzheimer’s
26 Mark de Castrique
34 Sarah Batista 6
16 virtual visions
34 Danielle Trotta
UNC Charlotte researchers
explore new realities
giving
36 Remembering a special
teacher with a scholarship 20 A Room
with a view on History
39 Giving Report
UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library
Special Collection has grown
exponentially in the past
three decades

20
28 Doctoring
organizations
Organizational science Ph.D.
program on the leading edge
nationally

On the cover:
A student experiences how natural motion can be encouraged in a virtual
environment in the College of Computing and Informatics Future Computing Lab.
Photo by Wade Bruton, Photo illustration by SPARK Publications. 28

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 1

U N C C H A R LOT T E | e d i to r ’s d e s k

A New Look.
A Renewed Commitment.
What you hold before you is the new UNC Charlotte magazine.
It has been redesigned and slightly expanded. The redesign was long The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
overdue. The previous look, feel and organization of the magazine Volume 15, Number 3
had been largely the same since 1998. And beyond the way it looked,
the magazine has had a hard life in recent years, lapsing in some Philip L. Dubois
years from quarterly publication to three times per year. Why? To Chancellor
some extent, budget constraints affected our ability to publish four Ruth Shaw
editions. Perhaps even more so, changes in staffing in the Office of Chair of the Board of Trustees
Public Relations caused interruptions of continuity.
Vice Chancellor for University Relations
When I became editor of this magazine, one of my foremost and Community Affairs
priorities was to build this magazine into a more substantial publication that is David Dunn
attractive, entertaining and informative of the incredible activities of the UNC Editor
Charlotte family. Our team at UNC Charlotte magazine still has a long way to Director of Public Relations
go in building and maintaining a magazine that does justice to the energy and John D. Bland
achievements that pour forth from this University. But we are finally moving Creative Director
forward with this redesign. Here are some of the changes that we’re introducing Fabi Preslar
with this edition:
Contributing Writers
Notice that the masthead page and back cover are emblazoned with UNC Phillip Brown
Charlotte’s refreshed logo. You can read about the new logo and our forthcoming James Hathaway
Lisa Lambert
brand campaign on page 3. Fred Tannenbaum
This edition is heftier than the last several. We’re building page count in order to
bring you more news, stories and artwork. And with new staff resources, we expect to Class Notes
Katie Suggs
continue publishing approximately 44 pages through 2009, as compared to 28 pages
during the last several editions. Photographer
Wade Bruton
We’re digging a little deeper into the stories we develop. In some cases this will
mean longer features, yet we are trying to strike a balance of news briefs, quick Circulation Manager
profiles and more in-depth features to produce an easy and enjoyable read. Cathy Brown
We have added a new feature called Perspective. It will appear on the inside back Design & Production
cover and will showcase a faculty or staff member writing about a timely topic related SPARK Publications
to their expertise.
A refreshed design for your University magazine is long over due. We will continue UNC Charlotte is published four times a
to make adjustments to the inside layout and the cover, utilizing new types of year by The University of North Carolina
graphics and photographic treatments. We hope the new look – and the content as at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.,
well – appeals to you. I’d love to hear from you. Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
ISSN 10771913

Regards, Editorial offices:

Reese Building, 2nd floor
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
John D. Bland, Editor 704.687.4385; Fax: 704.687.6379
Director of Public Relations
The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte is open to people of all races and
is committed to equality of educational
We’re digging a little deeper into the stories opportunity and does not discriminate
against applicants, students or employees
we develop. In some cases this will mean longer based on race, color, national origin, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.
features, yet we are trying to strike a balance
of news briefs, quick profiles and more in-depth Printed on
recycled paper
features to produce an easy and enjoyable read.

2 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

Y ou are seeing
— a new university logo
things
By Richard McDevitt and Ashley oster
Take a look at the UNC Charlotte logo on this page. Nothing
out of the ordinary, right? Look again. Something has changed, but
what? More than meets the eye at first glance.
The University has introduced a refreshed, updated logo; the
changes are subtle but they symbolize some major distinctions. The
new logo is the University’s first step in rolling out an updated brand.
You may have been expecting greater change in the logo and
university mark. But you should know that an important rule of
marketing and brand identity is “don’t throw the baby out with the
bathwater!” Research showed us very clearly that there is substantial
brand equity and value in the crown mark.
But a brand is more than a logo or a tagline on an ad. A brand
is a promise – it is the feeling that people get when they encounter
UNC Charlotte, however they may encounter the University in
print or in person. The brand is what we stand for in the minds of
people the University serves or wishes to serve.
Take a look at the new logo as it appears in green. Then look at
the faint gray impression of the old logo.
The first thing you may notice is that UNC and Charlotte
have been separated and that the letters are all the same size. The
changes serve two purposes: First, your eye no longer sees UNCC
in the logo. The University wants to retire the use of UNCC in all
references because the consensus belief is that UNCC harkens back
to a time when the University was much less mature than it is today.
The UNCC era was a magical one in many ways – one need only
cite the 1977 Final Four basketball team that proudly wore UNCC
across their chests all the way to Atlanta. But the UNCC era was
also one in which the University offered no doctoral degrees and few
masters’. It had very little capability in applied research partnerships
with business. We are a different university now.
Second, the new logo gives equal emphasis to UNC and
Charlotte. That’s to emphasize two major brand influences of the
University: 1) the UNC system is one of the very highest regarded
public university systems in the nation – and the world; we must
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine
leverage that brand power when attracting faculty, researchers and
graduate students; 2) The City of Charlotte is a magnet for all sorts
of people from across the United States and throughout the world.
Charlotte is one of the most successful cities in the New South and
we are the flagship university of the Charlotte region.
We have grown tremendously in every way and should
acknowledge that in the identity we present to the public.
The new logo features a new customized font and, perhaps less
noticeably, a revised crown.
Who’s responsible for this new logo? A lot of people, actually. It
was developed based on the participation of a wide range of UNC
Charlotte staff and faculty, working with a national organization
doing research and a local design firm. This logo, and a few
intentionally familial sub-brands related to colleges and university
institutes, have been reviewed and approved at the highest level of
UNC Charlotte.
Last fall the Chancellor’s Letter focused on the University’s
branding initiative; rolling out the new logo is part of that initiative.
The next major branding move is development of a creative campaign
that will introduce the University’s “brand position,” and provide the
look, feel and content for brand advertising and marketing. The work
will begin rollout in the coming months. The evolving brand look
and feel will also be integrated into the University’s Web site.
Eventually, almost all advertising and marketing materials that
you may see from the University will bear a consistent, familial,
brand look and feel. Over time this consistent brand will improve
comprehension of UNC Charlotte as a university of discovery and
collaboration, driven by innovative people deeply immersed in the
community and actively working to improve our quality of life.
So, you are seeing things; a new logo, and eventually, a whole lot
more to be proud of.
Ashley Oster is UNC Charlotte’s director of community affairs.
Richard McDevitt is UNC Charlotte’s director of marketing.
3
UNC CHARLOTTE | n e w s briefs

news briefs
Can You Be Born a Couch Potato?
Mouse Model Studies Point to Genetic
Influence in Active and Sedentary Behavior
By James Hathaway
The key to good health is to be physically The question of whether genetic duration and distance achieved in running
active. The key to being active is… to be influences can significantly affect activity in than other strains, including one that was
born that way? humans has never been rigorously studied, labeled as “aggressively sedentary” because
The well-documented importance of Lightfoot notes, but experiments with mice of its consistent avoidance of activity.
exercise in maintaining fitness has created are indicating that the effect can be strong. At first, Lightfoot suspected that the
the idea that individuals can manage their “The problem with difference was due to genetic factors
health by increasing their activity. But what the human literature in affecting the way energy is used by muscle
if the inclination to engage in physical activity is that, up until tissue because early genetic studies of the
activity is itself significantly affected by recently, research has strains indicated that variation was present
factors that are predetermined? Two new ignored the possibility in genes known to affect metabolism.
studies suggest that the inclination to that activity is regulated However, studies the team conducted on
exercise may be strongly affected by biological as much muscle tissue in the different mice failed
by genetics. as by environmental Timothy Lightfoot to show a genetic effect that could cause a
Controlled experiments into the effects factors. What’s interesting difference in muscle performance.
of genetics on human activity have yet to is that there is a disconnect between the “We have done some gene chips
be attempted, but recent studies on mice animal and the human literature in this – on muscle tissue and we don’t see any
– the standard test species for mammalian researchers haven’t been paying attention to differential expression between high-active
genetics – have found genetic influences. the animal studies which, for example, have and low-active animals in peripheral
In a paper recently published in the shown that that hormones affect activity.” (muscle) tissue,” Lightfoot said. “So the
journal Physiological Genomics, a team Lightfoot’s interest in the issue drew suggestion that by over-expressing a glucose
of researchers led by University of North him to work with strains of mice that had transporter we can increase activity doesn’t
Carolina at Charlotte kinesiologist J. markedly different behaviors when given an seem to be the explanatory factor.”
Timothy Lightfoot announced that they had exercise wheel. A “high-active” strain scored Subsequent studies have led the team to
found six specific chromosomal locations notably higher than other strains in speed, suspect that genetic differences are having a
that significantly correlate to the inheritance
of a trait of high physical activity in mice,
indicating that at least six genetic locations
were affecting activity. Now, in a study
forthcoming in The Journal of Heredity, the
same team has identified 17 other genetic
locations that also appear to control the
level of physical activity in mice through
interaction with each other, a genetic effect
known as epistasis. Together, the located
genes account for approximately 84% of
the behavioral differences between mice
that exhibit low activity levels and mice that
show high activity traits.
“Can you be born a couch potato? In
exercise physiology, we didn’t used to think
so, but now I would say most definitely you
can,” said Lightfoot.

4 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu


profound affect on mouse activity levels by
causing significant differences in their brains.
“More and more what we are seeing is
differences in brain chemistry. We are really
convinced now that the difference is in the
brain,” Lightfoot said. “There is a drive to
be more active.”
The current studies interbred active and
inactive strains of mice to re-sort the genes.
The researchers tested the second generation
(f2) of offspring for activity using three
measurements – speed, endurance and
distance – and found a range of significant
differences among the new hybrid mice
in their overall activity levels. The team
then performed genetic tests on the mice
and found significant correlations between
differences in their genomes and the
behavioral variations.
The team identified six locations on the
mouse chromosome where differences had
a strong relationship to activity, indicating
at least six genes that individually can affect
activity. A second genetic study found
seventeen other genetic locations that were
also having an effect on activity levels by
interacting with each other.
While differences in activity could not
be exclusively connected to genetics, a
surprisingly large amount of the activity
difference in the hybrids – about half – had
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 5
n ew s b r i e f s | UNC CHARLOTTE
RuBiRu Returning to Campus
a strong relationship to the specific genetic
The second annual RuBiRu event, UNC
variations identified.
Charlotte’s run-bike-run athletic event for
“We don’t know yet what the genes
the community, will be held Saturday, Oct.
involved in activity are doing, but there is
25, on the University campus. All proceeds
some strong suggestion that many of them
will go to benefit local brain cancer research
may be involved in regulating dopamine,”
with event partner Brain Tumor Fund for
Lightfoot noted. “In one sense it is very similar
the Carolinas (BTFC).
to a model for genetic influences on ADD.”
 The inaugural RuRiRU event held last
Lightfoot is Professor in the department
fall was a rousing success with more than
of kinesiology in UNC Charlotte’s College
210 participants, and it raised more than
of Health and Human Services. Lightfoot’s
$70,000. All proceeds raised remain in the
co-authors for “An Epistatic Genetic
Charlotte region.
Basis for Physical Activity Traits in Mice,”
 RuBiRu is part of an effort to create a multi-
forthcoming in The Journal of Heredity,
million dollar, nationally competitive brain
are UNC Charlotte biologist Larry J.
cancer research program at UNC Charlotte
Leamy and geneticist Daniel Pomp from
that will partner with cancer physicians in the
the University of North Carolina at Chapel
region’s major healthcare systems.
Hill. The article is currently available
Presented by Hearst Service Center and
online at: http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org
co-hosted by BTFC and UNC Charlotte,
. Also cited in this release is “Quantitative
RuBiRu is a 20K event that consists of an
Trait Loci for Physical Activity Traits in
exhilarating 5K run, and 10K time trial
Mice,” which appeared in the February
bike ride around the perimeter loop of the
issue of Physiological Genomics and was
campus, followed by a 5K cross country
co-authored by Lightfoot, Leamy, Pomp,
trail run on the University’s wooded
M.J. Turner from UNC Charlotte, and S.R.
trails. For children, there will be a RuBiRu
Kleeberger from the National Institute of
Kid Zone sponsored by University YMCA.
Environmental Health Sciences. 
Family friendly activities and a fun
walk also will take place on the Irwin Belk
James Hathaway manages research
Track. Health screenings, food, beverages and
communications in UNC Charlotte’s
entertainment will be provided. Individuals
Academic Affairs division.
and teams of all ages are welcome. 
Lace up 10.25.2008 9am
RuBiRu is a unique race opportunity to participate in either a 5K
run/walk around the perimeter of UNC Charlotte’s campus or compete
in a duathlon consisting of a 5K run around campus followed by a 10K
bike loop and a 5K cross country trail run on UNC Charlotte’s wooded
trails. Please join us in supporting cancer research efforts taking place
right here in Charlotte. Register online today!
UNC CHARLOTTE | n ew s briefs
news briefs
Physicist’s Model
Shows How Mutation
Tips Biochemistry to
Cause Alzheimer’s
A UNC Charlotte physicist has found
a “design problem” in a common human
protein that may be a root cause of
Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s is a terrifying brain-destroying
disease whose causes have proven very
difficult to pin down. In recent years,
science has been closing in on solving the
puzzle, particularly regarding some of the
hereditary, “early onset” forms of the illness.
Unusual by-products of cell metabolism,
clumps of protein aggregates, have been
shown to have a toxic effect on brain
cells. Certain gene mutations seem to be
connected an increase in these toxic protein
6 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
products, but exactly how this happens has
remained hidden.
Now, using sophisticated computer
simulations, a team of physical chemists
have shown precisely how a minor,
seemingly inconsequential mutation results
in unexpected changes in a very delicate
chemical balance, causing a chain of events
that leads to brain disease.
The mutation, the substitution of a
single base among the 3 billion found in
human DNA, seems to have the greatest
effect on a fragment of a specific protein
that is abundantly present in living cells.
The difference causes a subtle change in the
shape of the fragment at a critical point,
which can slightly shift the odds towards
an inappropriate biochemical reaction that
sidetracks the metabolic path. The increase
in the reaction simply tips the balance of
chemical processes, causing the build-up of
a substance that kills brain cells, leading to
the early deterioration of mental capacity
and, eventually, death.
“It is a really tiny change but it has
tremendous consequences,”
said Andrij Baumketner,
lead author on the
study and a faculty
member in the department of physics and
optical science at the UNC Charlotte. The
finding, published in the April 7 issue of
the Publication of the National Academy
of Sciences (PNAS), was co-authored by
Mary Griffin Krone and Joan-Emma Shea,
both from the department of chemistry and
biochemistry at the University of California
at Santa Barbara.
The group studied the effects caused by
the Dutch Mutation, a mutation associated
with a specific,
hereditary form of
Alzheimer’s disease.
The mutation is small --
the simple substitution
of one letter of DNA
for another, resulting
in a slight modification
Andrij Baumketner
of only one amino acid
among hundreds that form a protein known
as the amyloid precursor protein (APP).
The greatest effect of the Dutch-type
mutation on APP seems to be not on the
protein itself, but on a fragment of it known
as “amyloid-beta peptide” that is created
when cells break down the protein. Studies
have shown that mutated forms of the
fragment have greater tendency to stick to
bond together and form protein clumps
or “aggregates.” Some specific forms of the
aggregates have been shown to be toxic to
brain cells.
Why the change in one amino acid
would cause this peptide to form clumps
more readily has, until now, been unclear.
Amyloid-beta peptide, unlike most other
proteins present in the cell, is largely lacking
in specific shape (“conformation”), the
characteristic that usually controls how
proteins interact with each other. However
the fragment does have two places in its
sequence of amino acids – a section known
as the “bend” and an area known as the
“central hydrophobic cluster” where the
polypeptide chain does conform to a more-
or-less fixed shape. These areas are the parts
of the fragments that are involved when
they bond together into clumps.
The researchers created complex
computer models of the two structured

“An experiment
never gives you
atomic resolution
— you always
have to guess
what is actually
going on with the
molecules. But
with a computer
simulation you
start with atoms
and how they
interact and you
end with atoms,
so there is
no question
with missing
any details.”
areas of the fragment and found that
the single amino acid change caused
by the mutation had a subtle effect on
their properties. In order for fragments
to bond together, the structured areas
must first undergo a “conformational
change” (a change in structural shape)
from the conformations they normally
have as single, water-soluble amyloid-
beta peptides into a “transition state”
conformation that leads up to forming
clumps. The researchers found that
mutation increased the likelihood that
the structures would be in a form similar
to the transition state before the reaction
occurred. When the structured areas
were already in the required transition
state, bonding was encouraged because
less energy was required for the bonding
reaction to take place.
“We knew quite a bit about what
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 7
these peptides are from experimental
studies, but we didn’t know the
microscopic details,” noted Baumketner.
“An experiment never gives you atomic
resolution – you always have to guess what
is actually going on with the molecules.
But with a computer simulation you start
with atoms and how they interact and you
end with atoms, so there is no question
with missing any details.”
The detail of the simulations showed
that, because the mutation made the
protein fragments more likely to be in
a transition state for bonding, bonds
between fragments were more likely to be
formed than broken (which also happens
continuously in the reverse reaction), so
clumps of fragments accumulated. The
end result of the subtle, mutation-driven
change in the protein fragment’s shape
was the tipping the reaction’s balance
enough to allow clumps composed of
multiple fragments to occur and to
build up --with a disastrous effect on
brain tissue.
The ultimate problem responsible for
Alzheimer’s Disease, Baumketner notes, is
that the design of the protein affected is so
“close to the edge” in the reactions it must
undergo that extremely small changes
can cause problems, like the formation of
toxic by-products.
“It looks like whoever designed the
proteins in our bodies only made the
beta peptides to be right on the edge of
where they have to be for us to be alive,”
Baumketner said facetiously. “You make a
small push and you push it over the edge
and then there is no return. If you were
farther from the edge, that would be fine,
and you could tolerate one mutation.
“There is lots of discussion about
why this happens – is it the failure of
evolution? Maybe evolution never has
had a chance to optimize us against this.
Humans now live to be much older, but
evolution never has had a chance before to
detect and avoid these problems through
natural selection. When the lifespan was
35 years, you didn’t have a large problem
with Alzheimer’s. Now you do.”
n ew s b r i e f s | UNC CHARLOTTE
Charlotte Research
Institute to Host Clean Rail
Energy Event in 2009
Joining in the global effort to advance
the transition of the world’s railways from
diesel to hydrogen fuel cell power, the
Charlotte Research Institute is preparing
to host the Fifth International Hydrail
Conference in 2009.
CRI is the arm of UNC Charlotte that
fosters university-industry partnerships,
including both collaborative research
projects and commercialization of university
developed technologies. 
Hydrail is an emerging technology using
hydrogen fuel cells instead of traditional
diesel-electric generators to power rail
equipment traction motors.  The earliest
hydrail applications will be streetcars
and commuter rail equipment, although
Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the largest
railroad, recently announced it expects to
test a hydrail switch engine later this year. 
Japan now has two hydrail commuter trains
in on-track testing.
Railways suffer the same adverse
economic impact as airlines and automobile
users when oil prices rise. And just like cars
and planes, trains contribute to pollution
and carbon dioxide emissions.  For energy
security and to reduce environmental
impacts, the Hydrail Conferences foster
the international collaboration and shared
technical knowledge needed to speed the
diesel-to-hydrail transition.
The Fifth Annual International Hydrail
Conference at UNC Charlotte in 2009
will bring together representatives from
academics, government agencies and the
business sector to share news of technical
progress aimed at facilitating transition of
the world’s railways from diesel electric to
hydrogen fuel cell traction power.
CRI will co-host the Conference with
the Energy Center at Appalachian State
University (ASU) and the volunteer
Hydrogen Economy Advancement Team
(HEAT) organization at the Mooresville-
South Iredell Chamber of Commerce.
UNC CHARLOTTE | n ew s briefs

news briefs
CAMPUS
Campus Master Planning/
Includes University
Neighbors
The University is in the process of
creating a new campus master plan that will
incorporate all aspects of campus life in an
integrated approach to include research,
teaching, recreation, student housing,
student life and improved connectivity to
the surrounding community.
The completed master plan will entail:
parameters for future land use, buildings,
density, landscaping, space planning,
transportation, circulation, utilities, campus
design and sustainable development.
The facilities planning team at UNC
Charlotte has hosted Neighbors Open
Forums which were open to homeowners
and businesses adjacent to the University
as well as the campus community to
elicit input.
Find information about the planning
process at http://masterplan.uncc.edu/.
The master plan is scheduled to be
completed in 2009.
A New Name: College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences
UNC Charlotte’s largest and oldest
college, the College of Arts and Sciences
(COAS), changed its name to the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) effective
July 1. The name change — approved by
the University’s Board of Trustees June 5
—reflects the college’s new identity now
that the fine arts programs have moved to
the College of Arts and Architecture.
Earlier this year, the trustees approved
transferring the departments of art and art
history, music and dance and theatre to
create the College of Arts and Architecture,
which also was effective July 1.
Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences, discussed the
identity and name change with faculty,
students and friends of the college prior
to settling on the new moniker, which is
widely used across the country for colleges
that include the humanities, social and
behavioral sciences, the natural sciences
and mathematics.
“Our new identity is better reflected in
the name of the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences,” said Gutierrez. “Our faculty
are national and
international thought
leaders, and the
education and research
that has defined the
college during its
history will continue to
infuse all aspects of the Nancy Gutierrez
University’s life.”
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
serves approximately half the undergraduate
majors at UNC Charlotte offering eight
Ph.D. programs, 28 master’s programs
and graduate certificates, and nearly 30
undergraduate degrees.
Belk College of Business
Partnering with Global
Honor Society
The Belk College of Business is
partnering with the Golden Key
International Honour Society to offer
one $10,000 scholarship to a Golden Key
member who is accepted into the UNC
Charlotte MBA program.
The UNC Charlotte MBA program is
offered in two formats: a full-time, fast-track
cohort program with courses offered during

SPORTS

Decision on
Football May
Come in September
Chancellor Philip L. Dubois briefed
the Board of Trustees in June on the issue
of whether the University should play
football. In his second of three briefings
to the board, Dubois offered no personal
recommendation.
The board is expected to vote on the
football question in September, after
Dubois makes his own proposal.
Speaking for more than an hour with the
help of detailed slides, Dubois outlined what
he considered to be the chief pros and cons of
a football program. On the plus side, he said,
many members of the campus community

8 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 n ew s b r i e f s | UNC CHARLOTTE

the day and a flexible program with evening

courses in which students may attend full or
part time. The Golden Key scholarship will
be available for students enrolling in either
MBA program.
Golden Key International Honour
Society was founded in 1977 in Atlanta,
Georgia. The global nonprofit organization
provides not only academic recognition
to students in the top 15 percent of their
class, but also leadership opportunities,
community service, career networking and
scholarships. The society has more than
360 chapters at colleges and universities in AWARDS
Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand,
South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Army ROTC 49er Battalion
the United States. Membership into the Wins National Award
society is by invitation only to students in The U.S. Army Cadet Command recently announced that UNC Charlotte’s Army
all fields of study. ROTC is the Fourth Brigade’s most improved battalion among all 19 colleges and
universities with Army ROTC programs in North Carolina and Virginia.
Cadet Command recognized the top and most improved battalion in each brigade
nationally. The University of Virginia received the best medium battalion award and the
University of Richmond won for the best large battalion.
Each brigade received an incentive award of $2,500 for the honor.
There are 270 colleges in the United States with Army ROTC programs. UNC
Charlotte’s 49er Battalion was one of only 14 battalions in the United States that
received a most improved award.
UNC Charlotte’s ROTC programs provide approximately $2 million for scholarships.

agree football can enrich the student experience and enhance the
school’s image.
The biggest challenges are financial, said Dubois, who has been
studying the issue in great detail for several months. He concluded
most of the costs would be borne by students and private donors.
In February, the Football Feasibility Committee recommended
the University should begin playing football in 2012 on the
Division I-AA level before moving up to Division 1-A  in 2016.
On Thursday, the chancellor said he wanted the board to
understand both the benefits and the costs of adding big-time
football. On the latter, he said it was vital that everyone knows the
funding can only come from certain sources.
Student fees and private donations would finance the bulk of
a football program because state law prohibits the use of public
money for building athletic facilities.
The trustees are not obligated to follow the chancellor’s
recommendation, which is expected to come during the board’s
September meeting. Trustees can endorse his recommendation,
modify it or seek more data, or reject it.
In its report, the Football Feasibility Committee estimated the
annual costs of a lower-tier program in 2012 at $7.7 million. That
would increase to $11.5 million when the school moves into the
top college division. Most of the funds would come from higher
student fees, which would increase $60 each year, beginning in
2009. Students would each pay $300 toward football by the time
play began in 2012.
Those costs don’t include the costs of building training and
practice facilities and either renovating the University’s track and
field complex or building a new stadium.
Dubois told the trustees that estimates to renovate the existing
track and field facility for football ranged from $40 million to refit
the complex to seat 12,000 fans to $52 million for a 20,000-seat
stadium.
The latest estimates on a new on-campus stadium with 30,000
seats were between $60 million and $75 million.
During a question-and-answer session, Dubois said one alternative
is to wait until UNC Charlotte’s enrollment reaches 30,000 to
35,000 students, projected to occur by 2020. That would reduce the
per capita student funding commitment, he said.
Dubois acknowledged the decision will not be an easy one for
board members to make because of the compelling arguments for
and against football at UNC Charlotte.
“This is a new challenge and we need to be very thoughtful
about it,” he said.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 9

UNC CHARLOTTE | n ew s briefs
news briefs
WBTV Archives Housed
at Atkins Library
The J. Murrey Atkins Library’s Special
Collections houses the radio and television
news archives of WBT radio and WBTV
television, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte.
WBTV is the oldest broadcasting station
in the Carolinas and one of the oldest in
the South.
Special Collections has a large assortment
of television news film from WBTV, dating
from 1959 to 1981. The content includes
all of the news-worthy issues WBTV
reported during that time-span, including
the Civil Rights movement, school
desegregation and the growth of NASCAR.
Special Collections was recently awarded
a National Endowment for the Humanities
preservation grant to help plan for the
future use and digitization of this important
archive. The archived records complement
the film collection and provide a valuable
resource for research on the historical,
commercial, social and technological aspects
of radio and television broadcasting.
UNC Charlotte alumnus David Miller sifts
through the WBTV archives.
10 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
NEW FACES
McDevitt Hired to Direct Marketing Services
Marketing Services Director Richard McDevitt joined the
University May 26. He reports directly to Vice Chancellor David
Dunn. McDevitt has more than 20 years of experience in the
marketing field. He has worked in the corporate setting with
Bank of America, in the field of education with Central Piedmont
Community College, and he has managed his own agency. He will
design, coordinate and evaluate the effectiveness of university-wide
Richard McDevitt
marketing initiatives to expand and enhance UNC Charlotte’s
awareness and reputation.
McDevitt will work closely with the public relations, community affairs and materials
management departments to oversee relationships with printing and production vendors
and also connect with other external partners to carry out marketing assignments. He
completed a bachelor’s degree in communications from Appalachian State University and
has taken post-baccalaureate classes at UNC Charlotte.
Raja Named Senior Associate Provost
Jayaraman “Jay” Raja, chair of the Department of Mechanical
Engineering and Engineering Science, has been named senior
associate provost in the UNC Charlotte Office of Academic
Affairs. He succeeded Wayne Walcott who retired after 38 years of
service to the University (Spring 2008 edition, page 18).
Raja joined the University in 1989 as an associate professor
in the William States Lee College of Engineering and advanced
through the ranks to become department chair in 2000. He earned
Jay Raja
a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Madras.
Raja is an international expert in the area of surface and form metrology with
applications to manufacturing process control and functional performance of
engineering components. His work on surface and form metrology has been used in
the automotive, film and microelectronics industry. Government agencies, such as the
National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
and companies, such as Cummins, Caterpillar, Ford, Kodak, Vecco and Mhar-Federal,
have funded his research programs.
He officially assumed his new duties July 1.
Bust of Chancellor
Colvard unveiled
A bust of UNC Charlotte’s first chancellor,
the late Dean Colvard, was unveiled Friday,
June 6. The sculpture, commissioned by
University benefactor Irwin Belk, is on
permanent display in the lobby of Atkins
Library. Belk also has commissioned busts of
the University’s other three chancellors.
Members of the Colvard family, along
with Chancellor Emeriti E.K. Fretwell and
Jim Woodward and their wives as well as
bust sculptor John Hebenstreit, attended
the event.

Construction Projects
Support Growing Campus
Population
UNC Charlotte, with a student
population of more than 22,300 and
growing, continues to make the need for
additional facilities and infrastructure a
priority. To try to keep pace with space
needs, there are a variety of facilities that have
been completed or are under construction.
Dickson Gate, the new front entrance
to UNC Charlotte, is finished. With the
University’s tremendous growth, safe traffic
flow and pedestrian safety became a priority.
The former entrance is closed, and a new
traffic light was installed 750 feet south
of the University’s stately new ingress. An
attractive, landscaped two-lane divided road
with bicycle lanes leads to a traffic circle
on Broadrick Boulevard. Eight 20-foot tall
brick pylons were installed along Highway
49 to mark visitors’ arrival to UNC
Charlotte. The first phase of the project
was funded in part by a generous donation
from the Dickson Foundation Inc. and
Harris Teeter.
Brick work has started on the exterior
of the $65 million, 200,000-square-foot
Student Union under construction. The new
union will include dining hall services, the
campus bookstore, a movie theatre, ballroom
and other student–friendly amenities. Two
hundred and fifty student organizations will
occupy the facility, which is still on schedule
to open in the summer of 2009.
A new 400-bed residence hall is planned
for the area adjacent to Laurel and Lynch
halls along Cameron Boulevard near the
Bioinformatics
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 11
Student Union
new Student Union. The hall is scheduled
to be open for the 2011 fall semester. A
1,000-space parking deck is slated to open
at the same time as the new residence.
Across campus there are a number of
new academic facilities in various stages of
completion.
Near the Duke Centennial and William
H. Grigg buildings, the new $35 million
Bioinformatics Building is being built on
the Charlotte Research Institute (CRI)
campus, which is adjacent to Highway 29.
Completion of this building is expected in
summer 2009.
Planning has commenced for the fifth
major building at CRI. The Partnership,
Outreach and Research for Accelerated
Learning (PORTAL) Building will support
research, technology transfer and economic
development initiatives. The Ben Craig
Center, the University’s business incubator,
will relocate from University Research Park
to PORTAL.
A second motorsports building also is
in the planning process; it will be built
Dickson Gate
n ew s b r i e f s | UNC CHARLOTTE
adjacent to Duke Centennial Hall. The
motorsports program continues to grow
rapidly with increasing interest from
growing numbers of prospective students.
Six additional faculty members are in the
process of being hired to accommodate
the demand of motorsports – an area that
contributes $6 billion annually to the North
Carolina economy.
The Center City Classroom Building
that will give the University an uptown
Charlotte presence is currently in the design
process. Gantt Huberman, a Charlotte-
based firm, and Kieran-Timberlake of
Philadelphia are the design developers.
Rodgers Builders of Charlotte will be the
construction manager. Construction is
anticipated to begin in November 2009 on
the facility, which will be located at Ninth
Street and Brevard.
These current construction projects will
enable the University to serve the growing
population of students. UNC Charlotte is
projected to have an enrollment of 35,000
students by the year 2020.
UNC CHARLOTTE | a l u m n i p ro f i l e s

Richard Hudson
Uses D.C. Experience
to Run McCrory Campaign
By Paul Nowell

During the 12 years since his graduation, right choice instead of going to school in Richard Vinroot’s gubernatorial bid and
UNC Charlotte alumnus Richard Hudson Raleigh or Chapel Hill. came back to finish his degree.
managed several high-profile political “There were distinct advantages to going After getting a taste of statewide political
campaigns and worked for some of the to college in Charlotte,” he said. “If I had campaigns, he kept working for Republican
nation’s top Congressional leaders. gone to school in Raleigh I would have been candidates in a state where Democrats
Now he’s returned home to North closer to the state capitol, but I think it traditionally have had a lot of control over
Carolina to take on what could be the biggest would have been harder for me to catch the state government.
challenge of his career. right peoples’ attention.” “I entered school with the intention of
Hudson, who graduated from UNC While at UNC Charlotte, he got the preparing to go to law school and become
Charlotte in 1996 with a double major in chance to rub elbows with some of the city’s an attorney,” he said. “I found out quickly
political science and history, is managing the top political leaders. “Charlotte is a dynamic that I did not enjoy going to class that much
campaign of Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, place and it never stops growing,” he said. and I knew law school would have been a
who is vying to become North Carolina’s first “There are many advantages to working here.” lot of work.”
Republican governor since 1993. Hudson left school early to work for Hudson’s self-deprecating humor might
Before Jim Martin was elected to two
terms in 1985-93, the only Republican
nominee to capture the governor’s job in
the Tar Heel State was James E. Holhouser
in 1973. Before that, one needs to go back
1897, when Republican Daniel Lindsay
Russell was elected governor.
While those odds are steep enough,
another daunting challenge is McCrory’s
Charlotte connection, which historically has
been more of a liability than an advantage in
the North Carolina governor’s race.
Hudson recently returned home from
Washington D.C., where he was chief of staff
to U.S. Rep. John Carter of Texas. Carter
is secretary of the Republican Conference,
which is the primary forum
for communicating the party’s message to
GOP House members.
Hudson said his time at UNC Charlotte
helped prepare him for his current career in
politics. He believes UNC Charlotte was the

Richard Hudson with a familiar

backdrop in Washington, D.C.

12 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 a l u m n i p ro f i l e s | UNC CHARLOTTE

suggest he was not serious about his studies,

but his record proves otherwise. He was
Student Government Association President
in 1993 and later served as president of
his senior class. He also was captain of the
rugby team and was active in other student
organizations.
“I still maintain a close relationship with
a lot of people I met for the first time while
I was still in college,” he said. He also had
some inspirational professors, notably former
Political Science Professor Mark Stier.
“Mark was probably my favorite
professor while I was at UNC Charlotte,”
he said. “I learned a lot from him and he
was a very cerebral guy. I remember really
enjoying his Politics and Film class.”
“While my classes were very important
and educational, perhaps the best things
were the internships I was able to get and
all the contacts I made,” Hudson said. “I
know UNC Charlotte always encouraged
students to pursue internships and it is still
that way.”
Hudson was able to gain some real-world
political experience when he testified before
a statehouse committee that was looking
at the issue of using higher student fees to
erect a new Student Activity Center.
Hudson served as communications
director of the state Republican Party in the
late 1990s, before moving on to manage the
campaigns and serve on the congressional
staff of U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes.
Jack Hawke, McCrory’s chief political
consultant, recently described Hudson as
“someone who had campaign experience —
someone who has statewide knowledge and
who can manage the day-to-day campaign.”

Hudson credits all his experience with top: Hudson duck hunting with his former boss
“I wanted to preparing him for the rough-and-tumble U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C.
world of election campaigns in an age of
come back home blogs and YouTube. And getting the chance
bottom: Hudson quail hunting with U.S. Rep.
John Carter, R-Texas.
to work for McCrory’s election campaign
because it was was simply too enticing to pass up.
an opportunity to “I wanted to come back home because
it was an opportunity to do something be plenty of opportunities to gain valuable
do something to to improve the lives of 8 million North
Carolinians,” he said. “I’ve known Pat for 12
experience by volunteering for candidates
from the greater Charlotte region.
improve the lives years and truly feel he’s the right candidate Not surprisingly, his top suggestions are
at the right time in the right place.” all Republicans.
of 8 million North Hudson advises UNC Charlotte students
who are interested in politics to pay close Paul Nowell is UNC Charlotte’s
Carolinians.” attention to current events, saying there will media relations manager.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 13

UNC CHARLOTTE | 49 e rs n o te b o o k
“Let Me Play”
Event Focuses on Women’s Athletics
Five years ago, Charlotte
49ers Director of Athletics
Judy Rose had a brainstorm.
A product of the opportunities
that became available to women
in athletics in the 1970s, Rose
wanted to extend that support with the
49ers. With a wide array of influential
female community and business leaders
from which to pull, Rose sought a
means to mobilize that talent in support
of women’s athletics and at the same
time begin sharing the 49ers’ many
success stories.
Intent on bringing people together
for personal, first-hand interaction, Rose
created the “Let Me Play” Luncheon,
an annual fundraiser held in downtown
Charlotte that today attracts more than
400 of the most powerful women in the
Charlotte area. The 5th Annual “Let Me
Play” Luncheon will be held Nov. 12 at
The Westin in uptown Charlotte.
The attendees have included the late
Mariam Cannon Hayes, Dale Halton, Pat
Rodgers, Lisa Lewis Dubois and Martha
Woodward. Event chairs have included
Halton, Rodgers, Mary Lou Babb and
Betty Chafin Rash. The luncheon has
regularly featured former 49ers’ student-
athletes as featured speakers.
In 2006, former women’s basketball
player Karen Shugart (Class of ‘83), an
Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge
of Presidential Protection Division of the
U.S. Secret Service, spoke via video. Last
year, it was former volleyball star Krista
Long (Class of ‘90), Vice President of
Sales & Marketing for Ryland Homes. In
2005, women’s basketball’s Karen Popp
(Class of ‘80), partner in the Washington
D.C. firm of Sidley Austin Brown &
Wood LLP addressed the audience.
Surprisingly, the basis of Shugart’s
speech was not on her experiences in
leading the detail that protects the First
Lady. Long did not speak at length about
her rapid rise up the corporate ladder
14 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
49er Notes:
MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDuLE
INCLuDES 12 PoST-SEASoN TEAMS
Although all dates for the Atlantic 10
schedule were not finalized at press time,
the 49ers men’s basketball schedule is
stocked with post-season opponents, in and
and Popp did not recount her out of conference play. With four returning
experiences working alongside starters, including seniors Lamont Mack
Attorney General Janet Reno. and Charlie Coley, Charlotte will face a
Instead, the keynotes spoke of competitive slate that will put it in position
their school and their collegiate for an NCAA Tournament bid.
experience. They spoke of the fun they The schedule is highlighted by seven
had and the long-standing relationships contests with 2008 NCAA Tournament
born as 49ers’ student-athletes. And they teams and an appearance in ESPN’s
spoke of the tools that participation in Anaheim Classic, which includes three
athletics provides: time management, NCAA and two NIT teams among its
teamwork, dedication, perseverance, self- eight-team field. In all, the 49ers slate
confidence, determination — tools that will include at least 12 games against 2008
played a key role in both charting and post-season teams — six of which will be
powering their futures. played at Halton Arena.
The luncheon also includes comments Charlotte advanced to the 2008 NIT,
from current 49er student-athletes such the eighth post-season trip in head coach
as track and field athletic and academic Bobby Lutz’s 10 seasons. The 49ers finished
all-America Sharonda Johnson, who tied for fourth in the Atlantic 10 and reached
recently received a National Science the A-10 semifinals, while posting a 20-14
Foundation Fellowship for her work
with nanoparticles; academic all-America
distance runner Cassie Ficken; and
two-time Athletic Director’s Association
Scholar-Athlete women’s basketball team
selection Sabrina Gregory. The current
athletes tend to speak with gratitude of
the opportunities athletics has afforded
them and how they, out of respect,
work to take full advantage of those
opportunities.
The 49ers have raised nearly $350,000
in the first four years of the event, with a
record single-day total of over $101,000
in 2007. Just as important, however, is
that current student-athletes are exposed
to high-level professional women and, in
turn, that high-level professional women
are exposed to the type of bright, skilled,
young women that are produced, in part,
by participation in the Charlotte 49ers
athletic program.
For more information about this year’s
event, please contact the Charlotte 49ers
Athletic Foundation at (704) 687-6024.
Registrations can be made online at
www.letmeplaycharlotte.com. There is no
cost to attend this fundraising event but a
donation is greatly appreciated.

record — the fifth 20-win season under Lutz.
“We have assembled another challenging
schedule for 08-09,” said Lutz. “Our non-
conference schedule is rigorous both at
home, on the road and at the ESPN Classic
in Anaheim.”
Charlotte’s home slate includes six games
against 2008 post-season opponents: three
games against NCAA Tournament teams:
Clemson, Winthrop and Xavier and three
more against 2008 NIT teams: Dayton,
2008 NIT Finalist Massachusetts and
Rhode Island.
“The non-conference home schedule is
highlighted by (NCAA teams) Clemson and
Winthrop, but also includes Tulsa, UNC
Greensboro and Old Dominion. Playing at
Davidson, Maryland, Southern Illinois and
Appalachian State speaks for itself and will
undoubtedly prepare us for league play.”
Charlotte’s non-conference road schedule
includes Davidson, which advanced to the
2008 NCAA Elite Eight and both Maryland
and Southern Illinois, who made the NIT
field. The 49ers have three Atlantic 10 road
games against 2008 NCAA participants:
Saint Joseph’s, Temple and Xavier.
For updated schedule information, log on to
charlotte49ers.com and to secure your tickets
for the upcoming season, call 704/687-4949
or log on to charlotte49ers.com
Charlotte 49ers
All Access Video
Niner Network All-Access, the Charlotte
49ers internet multimedia platform featuring
live game broadcasts, player and coach
interviews, exclusive behind-the-scenes video,
“Classic” game broadcasts, highlights and
additional original programming, will offer
three levels of content packages so 49ers fans
can keep up with all the action on-line.
The Niner Network All-Access will provide
live video coverage of nine of the 49ers men’s
and women’s sports with highlight and feature
content from all 16 sports.
Fans can purchase a monthly subscription
for $9.95, an Annual package for $79.95
or the CBS College Sports Network XXL
Annual package for 119.95. The Annual
package includes all the great audio and
video content from the Monthly package as
well as streaming video of select CBS College
Sports broadcasts of Charlotte 49ers athletic
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 15
49 e r s n o te b o o k | UNC CHARLOTTE
events. Monthly subscribers can only receive pay-per-view game (49ers and otherwise)
those games on a pay-per-view basis. The that the CBS College Sports Network offers.
XXL Annual package includes all of the To subscribe to Niner Network
49ers audio and video content plus every All-Access, log on to Charlotte49ers.com.
The 49ers Insider TV Show, Available On-Line
Did you know that there is a television show dedicated to Charlotte 49ers
Athletics? “The 49ers Insider” airs every Thursday-Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and
7:30 p.m. on Time Warner Cable’s Channel 22 in Mecklenburg, Iredell and parts
of Union County. The show, hosted by 49ers’ student-athletes and produced by
Mark Nunn of the university’s Broadcast Communications Department, includes
highlights, coaches’ interviews and player features. For those outside of broadcast
area, an on-line version of the show can be accessed at Charlotte49ers.com.
Academic Excellence
The Charlotte 49ers Athletic Academic Center announced that the 49ers
cumulative GPA for the 2007-08 academic year was 3.043, the second straight
year the 49ers athletic department has produced a cumulative GPA of over 3.0.
In addition, with a spring semester GPA of 3.052, the athletic department’s GPA
eclipsed that of the overall student body for the 24th consecutive semester.
In 2007-08, the 49ers also boasted three ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic
all-Americans, the Atlantic 10 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a league-best
five Atlantic 10 sport specific Student-Athletes of the Year. Women’s soccer star
Lindsey Ozimek, who graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was the A-10’s Midfielder of
the Year, was named the A-10’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year giving the 49ers
one of the two Male or Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards in each of the
49ers three years in the A-10. In addition, in each of their three years in the A-10,
the 49ers have produced more sport specific Student-Athletes of the Year than any
other A-10 institution. The 49ers had five A-10 Student-Athletes of the Year in
2006-07 and four in 2005-06.
2007-08 Academic 2007-08 A-10
All-Americans Scholar-Athlete of the Year
 amarra Currie, women’s
L  emale: Lindsey Ozimek
F
track and field (1st team) (women’s soccer)
Jonas Enander Hedin, golf
(2nd team, at-large)
Lindsey Ozimek, women’s soccer 2007-08 A-10 Sport
(1st team) Student-Athletes of the Year
 lma Arroyo, volleyball
A
2007-08 I-AAA Lamarra Currie, women’s
Athletic Director’s outdoor track and field
Association Scholar- Jonas Enander Hedin, golf
Athlete Team Ryan Jank, men’s indoor track and field
Sabrina Gregory, women’s basketball Lindsey Ozimek, women’s soccer
UNC CHARLOTTE | t i t l e

16 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE

Virtual
Visions
uNC Charlotte researchers explore new realities
by Lisa A. Lambert

Mom lounges on the beach, sun beating down, sound of the

surf crashing on the sand; daughter sits in a French café; son hikes
Not just fun and games
Though VR hasn’t quite come through for those of us looking
through a South American jungle; and dad gleefully swings his clubs
for a new, totally immersive leisure time activity, it has been serving
on a verdant golf course in Scotland. But they are all in the same
a multitude of practical purposes for decades. Perhaps the most
room, enjoying their respective vacations.
well-known, sophisticated application of the technology is flight
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when virtual reality
simulation. In a flight simulator, the pilot is subjected to situations
(VR) was heralded as the wave of the future. The entertainment
that would become harrowing for pilot and passengers if faced in
industry jumped on the bandwagon, exploiting our deepest fantasies
reality. Only after extensive simulator training are pilots considered
with the prospect of using VR to loose the shackles of reality.
ready to take their first flights.
Television shows and movies incorporated VR into their plotlines,
Likewise, the benefits of VR have been recognized and studied
prompting some of us to dream of escape into a netherworld of
endless possibility.
But the reality of commercially available VR hardware has been,
well, unrealistic for the average consumer. It’s cost-prohibitive,
unless you are willing to invest thousands of dollars, and it’s pretty
clunky – the most widely available VR systems include massive
goggles and an enormous glove that you use to control the virtual
world. These systems don’t provide for what most would consider an
immersive experience (envision sitting in a chair, looking stylish in
your goggles, while waving your arm around…).
Wait a minute – are these truisms still true? It is the 21st Century,
after all.

Reality check
UNC Charlotte doctoral student Evan Suma concedes that VR
has been slow to find its footing. “For a while, VR was considered UNC Charlotte faculty and students are taking an inter-disciplinary
to be a complete flop because there was a societal expectation that it approach to experimenting with virtual reality, by creating virtual
would be in every home,” Suma said. In fact, the techie vernacular environments and even virtual humans to address needs ranging from
pain distraction to teaching computer literacy.
has even been altered in recent years to substitute the phrase “virtual
reality” with “virtual environment,” because the former has taken on
a negative connotation.
However, Suma said, a technology that historically has slowly
marched from concept to reality has hit its stride.
“The technology has advanced largely due to progress with
video game technology. The leaps and bounds with which that
field has improved have spilled over into VR,” Suma said. While
Suma acknowledges that the technology remains expensive (every
head-mounted display used in Suma’s research is custom ordered
and produced), he is optimistic about the future, thanks to
advancements such as Nintendo’s Wii, which has renewed interest in
interactive gaming.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 17

UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re
by the medical community. For instance, the treatment for a burn
can cause far more pain than the actual injury – nurses have utilized
VR therapy to distract young burn victims while they change their
bandages. Before the treatments begin, the children don a virtual
reality helmet and are immersed in a computer-generated
virtual world.
So how does it work? The anxiety the patient feels correlates
directly to the amount of pain they experience. As the patient
enters the virtual world, the attentional resources of the brain are
distracted and the patient’s anxiety level decreases to the point where
they experience far less pain than they would if their attention was
focused on the procedure.
Because human beings have a limited conscious attention span,
it is possible to lure attention away from pain signals toward the
virtual environment. Gate Theory purports that pain manifests itself
through co-mingled psychological/physiological processes; simply
put, because of the nature of pain, we are able to use thought to
influence the amount of pain allowed to enter our brains. For this
reason, virtual reality has been used successfully to treat phobias and
post-traumatic stress disorder, lending credence to the maxim
mind over matter.
In order to better understand the effect of VR on pain,
particularly chronic pain, researchers at UNC Charlotte launched a
study to compare the results of VR pain distraction with traditional
distraction techniques.
“Pain is a subjective experience,” said Dr. Nakia Gordon,
assistant professor of psychology and lead investigator. “We were
interested in understanding the degrees to which different cognitive
manipulation techniques influence the experience of pain.”
The study measured the effects of cognitive manipulations,
18 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
including mindfulness meditation, a virtual reality game, math
distraction tasks (count backwards by 3 from 2,000), and
emotional induction (think about a time in your life when you
were really happy). The 55 participants received electrical stimuli
intermittently, which they rated on a scale from 0 – 6 (unpleasant to
painful) while they engaged in the various distraction activities.
None of the participants had ever meditated before and all
attended three 20-minute meditation training sessions prior to the
experiment. The VR portion of the experiment required no training
– participants were immersed in a 3-D aquatic environment and
were tasked to maneuver through the environment, eating worms
and attempting to avoid being eaten by sharks.
While mindful meditation proved to be the most effective
technique, VR also worked as a means of dampening the pain
signal. Gordon said the findings are exciting because the researchers
identified multiple effective methods of distraction that might work
on diverse types of patients (children vs. adults, for example).
I’m only human…or am I
Avari looks at me as if she wants to ask a question. Smoky black
liner emphasizes her blue eyes, which stand out on her lightly
freckled face. Her hair is styled in a smooth shoulder length bob.
She politely attempts to start a conversation, but I’m not ready
to interview her just yet. Avari doesn’t take offense at my lack of
attention – she is a virtual human.
Virtual humans look like, act like and interact with humans
but exist in virtual environments. Through the use of software,
they can be programmed to recognize your voice, hold conversations
and more.
Morris LeBlanc, a UNC Charlotte doctoral student in computer
There are a cadre of
researchers looking into
ways to make the virtual
reality experience as
immersive as possible.
Students are researching
how natural motion
can be encouraged in a
virtual environment in
the College of Computing
and Informatics Future
Computing Lab.

CHESTR the game show host
science, helped create Avari and currently is working on voice
recognition applications for virtual humans along with his advisor,
Dr. Dale Marie Wilson, assistant professor of computer science.
Avari’s face appears on a flat panel computer monitor; students
have given her a smartly dressed torso to make her look like the
quintessential college co-ed. LeBlanc explained her function – she
is a virtual receptionist and can answer questions about computer
science faculty.
“Infusing personality is important; we
consult sociology and psychology to map
how people depict certain emotions.”
I ask Avari a question into the microphone by her monitor – she
doesn’t quite understand my question, but that is because I’ve failed
to follow directions. In the top left-hand corner of the monitor, the
prompt “Listen” flashes – I realize I’m talking out of turn. Once
I get the hang of it, I’m able to ask her about specific professors
on topics including their hobbies and interests, background and
birthplace, and how they would describe their ideal student.
“These are questions perhaps a secretary would be too busy to
answer, so Avari can alleviate some of that issue,” LeBlanc said. Avari
also serves a greater purpose; she is being used to assess the nature of
human/virtual human interaction.
While virtual humans at one time seemed the stuff of science
fiction, they have become a fairly common presence on the World
Wide Web. One notable example is the U.S. Army’s Sgt. Star. Star
(Strong, Trained And Ready), an artificial intelligence agent that
provides visitors to the Web site information about Army life. Star
can process natural language and was designed to dialogue with his
intended audience – teenage boys.
When you call for technical support for your personal computer,
the “person” on the other end of the line might just be a virtual
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 19
fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE
Avari is a virtual receptionist who can
answer questions about the computer
science department faculty.
human, said Wilson. “They also are being used with advanced
learning technology,” she explained.
Wilson is working with undergraduate and graduate students to
create a virtual game show host named CHESTR. The game show
is designed to help reinforce the material students learn in a basic
computer science course.
CHESTR’s appearance and mannerisms are one part Alex Trebec,
one part George Hamilton and two parts sheer originality. The
sun-tanned, tailored-suit-wearing CHESTR points six-shooter style
and winks at you through the screen – his arrogance is endearing.
“Infusing personality is important,” Wilson said. “We
consult sociology and psychology to map how people depict
certain emotions.”
Increasingly, virtual humans are being employed in sensitive
situations. At UNC Charlotte, researchers have developed a
virtual police officer to help victims of or witnesses to crimes
identify perpetrators in a police line-up. The virtual officer cannot
ask leading questions, which improves the probability that the
identification will be accurate.
These human-like agents also are ideal for teaching social skills.
For instance, Wilson and faculty in the School of Nursing are
seeking funding to develop a virtual human to improve cultural
competency among nursing students. The virtual human would
be programmed to have characteristics of a person of a particular
ethnicity or age, thereby exposing students to a variety of potential
patient behaviors.
Whatever their application, virtual humans are more than a trend
– as our technology becomes more complex, we will need them to
facilitate our interaction with new technologies as well as to fill in
gaps caused by scarcity of human resources. Researchers at UNC
Charlotte will continue to explore the enormous potential of virtual
worlds and their inhabitants so that we may improve our world.
Lisa Lambert is senior writer in
UNC Charlotte’s public relations department.
UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re

20 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE

A Room with
a View on History
By Lisa A. Lambert

When we turn over the past in our hands, breathe it in, feast
The Wasteland
on it with our eyes, we develop a better understanding of the APRIL IS THE CRuELEST MoNTH…
So begins T.S. Eliot’s infamous
present, and quite possibly, a more profound appreciation for poem, “The Waste Land.” Published
in 1922, the poem set off a critical
the forces that shape our future. There are places where we firestorm in the literary world. Though
traditional in form, the content
can touch documents and artifacts that clue us in to how our mixes seemingly unrelated and
often obscure references to religion,
communities have evolved socially, culturally, and economically mythology, history and music, and
intermingles verse written in English
– university library special collections departments. and foreign languages, including
Hindu. The 433-line poem (the
UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library Special Collection has grown original ran 800 lines in length) is
considered one of the most influential
exponentially in the past three decades, from holdings works of modernist literature.

including Miss Bonnie Cone’s offi cial fi les, a few manuscript

collections, and a rare book collection of about 500 volumes
(featuring around 100 books known euphemistically on campus
as the “erotica collection”) to more than 5 million items as of
2008. All of the materials donated to special collections are
carefully documented, preserved, and cataloged.

Curious about what exactly you might fi nd should you dare to

venture away from your computer screen and up to the 10th
fl oor of the Atkins Library, aside from an unadulterated view of
campus? Then read on. Professor Emeritus Julian Mason and his wife,
Elsie, donated a rare edition of T.S. Eliot’s
“The Waste Land” to the Atkins Library. Their
donation marks the library’s millionth volume.
The Special Collections Department preserves and makes available to the public and scholars
original research material in categories such as rare books, manuscripts, university archives, Most recently, the library’s impressive body of
oral history, and local documents. More information about the various holdings is available on literature has grown to include the generous
the department’s Web site, along with transcripts of oral history interviews and other interesting donation of 100 rare books by Charlotte
tid-bits: http://dlib.uncc.edu/special_collections/ resident Ellen Chason.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 21

U N C C H A R LOT T E | fe a t u re
Hornbook
PoRTABLE PADDLE, WIDESPREAD LITERACy
At a time when compulsory education and easy access
to literature did not exist, when paper was a commodity
for the wealthy, a simple yet effective method to teach
literacy was introduced in the form of the “hornbook.”
With origins in the 15th Century, the hornbook, a small
wooden paddle (and it doubled as precisely that at times)
bore a piece of paper with letters and sayings on it. The
artifact got its name from the thin layer of material made
from a cow’s horn that was stretched over the paper to
protect it from the elements. Children wore the portable
paddles around their necks, consulting them as they
endeavored to learn to read. In the late 1700s and early
1800s, when paper was more affordable, the hornbook was
replaced by the battledoor, an early reading primer printed
on thin cardboard. The next iteration of the device was the
New England Primer, brought to America by the Puritans.
In the year of America’s independence from Britain, the
primer was altered so the letters K and Q were no longer
accompanied by illustrations of the King and Queen of
England.
Once children learned to read, using hornbooks (pictured here) and later
primers, a substantial variety of high quality literature was available to
them through children’s magazines. Some of the most influential authors
of the 19th Century published their work in serial form in the children’s
magazines of the time. UNC Charlotte’s Special Collections houses
among the nation’s best collections of 19th Century children’s magazines,
including complete runs of the influential “St. Nicholas.”
38th Evac unit
SAvING LIvES IN HARRoWING CIRCuMSTANCES
A group of Charlotte-area doctors, nurses and
businessmen with no medical training banded together
more than a year before the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor to form the U.S. Army 38th Evacuation Hospital.
The medical unit, activated in 1942, supported front line
aid stations and mobile surgical units, treated disease, and
transferred patients to general hospitals in England, North
Africa and Italy from August 1942 to July 1945. Hailed as
the original MASH unit, the 38th Evac was featured in Time
22 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
and Life magazines, as well as in wire service stories. The
unit grew to include more than 600 personnel and 750
beds, but it maintained a reputation for excellence.
“I watched the doctors and nurses and staff work
tirelessly sometimes for two or three days nonstop
performing operations under the most adverse conditions.
I continue to be amazed at the talent, dedication and
ingenuity of these young men and women struggling to
repair unbelievably damaged bodies under circumstances
never dreamed of in the halls of their medical schools,”
wrote Clarence Kuester, a sergeant with the 38th Evac.
Members of the U.S. Army 38th Evacuation Hospital provided medical
care to front line troops during WWII in North Africa and Europe. The
38th Evac collection contains official reports, a unit history, photographs,
correspondence from members to their families, and maps of
encampments.
Robert Scoggin
INSIGHT oN THE INNER-SANCTuM
“We had an old lady singing ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ that
could not sing, it sound like a cat in a bag. It was horrible.
A lot of music. They had their little concession stand going
on with hotdogs and hamburgers…”
Sounds like a description of a religious revival, or
community picnic, but Peggy Scoggin Holland is describing
a Ku Klux Klan rally. Holland’s father, Robert E. Scoggin,
served as Grand Dragon of the South Carolina Klan during
one of the most turbulent decades in United States history.
After Scoggin died, his children donated his papers to UNC
Charlotte. The papers were collected from a large room
on the second floor of Scoggins’ home. In the room was
a portable, lighted cross; a printing press; several signs
conveying the Klan’s position on integration; and a couple
of filing cabinets containing publications, letters, and
memorabilia; this was the room where the Klan’s executive
committee met and the table in the middle of the room
had been used as their altar.
What was life like for the only daughter of
a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan? Peggy
Scoggin Holland’s oral history interview
is available on the library’s “New South
Voices” Web site, http://newsouthvoices.
uncc.edu. The library’s extensive oral history
collection documents the past and deals
with contemporary issues.
Pictured here: A Klan hymnal.
 fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE

Harry Golden
GoLDEN Boy: NEWSPAPERMAN, HuMoRIST,
ACTIvIST, PRoPHET
“In present-day America it’s very difficult,
when commenting on events of the day, to invent
something so bizarre that it might not actually
come to pass while your piece is still on the
presses.”
— The Harry Golden Rule, coined by journalist
Calvin Trillin

Best-selling author, newspaper publisher and

all-round colorful character Harry Golden made
Charlotte his home in 1941. A New York native Harry Golden, pictured here with Senator Robert Kennedy, was an influential figure
and former stock broker, Golden settled in North in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. A collection of his newspaper, the Carolina
Carolina after a four-year stint in jail for mail Israelite, as well as his letters and other memorabilia can be found in the UNC
fraud; he quickly became known as an outspoken Charlotte Atkins Library Special Collections. The inscription on the above photo
reads: To Harry Golden, Who was a friend when I needed one. —Bob Kennedy
opponent of racial segregation and Jim Crow
laws. Golden shared his political views and
reminiscences of his boyhood in his publication,
the Carolina Israelite. Golden rubbed shoulders
with some of the most influential people in
American life and is credited with using keen
observation and wry wit to give voice to some of
the most divisive social issues of the time. In his
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther
King Jr. cited Golden as being one of four white
people who had “written about our struggle in
eloquent, prophetic, and understanding terms.”

Fred Alexander Sr.

BREAKING RACIAL
BARRIERS IN
THE SEGREGATED SouTH

A trip to Africa inspired

Charlotte-born Frederick Douglas
Alexander Sr. to become a
trail-blazer in American politics.
The journey led Alexander to
believe that if he could affect
change a continent away, he
could affect change at home. In The Charlotte region became a hot-bed
1965, Alexander became the first African American elected to the Charlotte of activity at the height of the Civil Rights
movement. The Library’s Special Collections
City Council and the first to hold elected public office in Mecklenburg County
contain not only the Fred Alexander Sr. papers,
since the 1890s. He served for nine years. but also the Reginald Hawkins collection and
“Constantly working for increased political awareness of blacks, Alexander other documents and memorabilia chronicling
lobbied for the appointment of black police officers and mail carriers, for the progression of the national movement to
business courses in the black high schools, and for improved health care,” abolish Jim Crow laws and extend civil rights to
African Americans.
writes historian Randy Penninger.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 23

UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re

Martin Luther King Jr. Telegram

A TWIST oF FATE
On April 2, 1968, Dr. Reginald Hawkins
received a Western Union telegram that
would from that day forward prompt
those who read it to wonder whether a
different outcome to a painful chapter
in American history was possible. The
telegram announced that Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. would be postponing
his tour of the Charlotte region and
would remain in Memphis, Tenn., to lend
support to striking sanitation workers.
On April 4, the day after he delivered
the speech titled, “I’ve been to the
mountaintop,” King was assassinated
by a sniper while standing on his hotel
room balcony.

The infamous telegram announcing Martin Luther King

Jr.’s plans to remain in Tennessee rather than travel
to Charlotte just days before he was assassinated is
pictured here. The telegram is part of the Reginald
A. Hawkins collection, which documents Hawkins’
professional, political, and civil rights activities, and is
on display at the Levine Museum of the New South.

NASCAR
A GooD SPoRT
One of the most recent additions to the Library’s Special
Collections comes from Mr. T. Taylor Warren, who has
been involved in motor sports for more than 50 years as
a photographer. Warren hoped to ensure that all of the
memorabilia he’d collected, as well as his photographs, would
be preserved and made available for people to access with
ease. It seemed only fitting that the collection should find a
home at UNC Charlotte, in complement to the university’s
motor sports engineering program and master’s program in
sports management. Thus far, Warren has delivered in excess
of 100 boxes of stock car racing and NASCAR memorabilia,
dating back to the 1950s.

The Charlotte region has become known as the racing capital of the United
States. The Warren collection chronicles the evolution of the sport through
memorabilia and documents dating back several decades. The collection was
donated by Mr. T. Taylor Warren, photographer and avid racing fan.

24 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 events | UNC CHARLOTTE

International Festival 2008: Year 33

In 1975, UNC Charlotte’s Office of International Programs created an
event to emphasize international education and enhance global awareness.
The International Festival tradition has continued every year since. The 33rd
International Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 27 with more than 10,000
people expected to attend.
The festival is a celebration of international culture and is committed to be
free of politics.
IFest 2008 kicks off at 10 a.m. in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center’s
Dale F. Halton Arena. The festival continues until 6 p.m. featuring open-air
marketplaces from around the world, adults and children in traditional dress,
international food samplings for sale, ethnic and traditional music and dance
performances on stages and strolling, cultural crafts, face painting for children
and the spectacular Earth Balloon - 22 feet in diameter.
International guides will be on hand to facilitate tours through the Earth
Balloon where visitors enter through the Pacific Ocean and learn about rain
forests, the “ring of fire,” time zones, population clusters, migration and man’s
impact on earth.
IFest officials will visit two Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools with the
Earth Balloon prior to the festival. The schools will be announced at the
end of August.
Performances are still being finalized. Several returning popular
performances include The Loch Norman Pipe Band, African storytelling
by Obakunle Akinlana and Bill Wilusz, the traveling accordion player.
The Parade of Nations begins at 2 p.m. with a variety of ethnic costumes
representing more than 50 nationalities.
IFest is a fun and educational family event and a great reason to come
to campus. Admission and parking are free.
For more information, visit http://ifest.uncc.edu/.

Speaker series to bring leading minds to campus

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Tim Weiner will be the
inaugural speaker for UNC Charlotte’s new International Affairs
Speaker Series. His talk is Tuesday, Sept. 30.
For this new series, the Office of International Programs and
the World Affairs Council of Charlotte, in conjunction with
the International Studies Program, are collaborating to bring
internationally known authors and speakers to campus.
Weiner, a New York Times reporter, also is the author of
“Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.” He has covered the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the past 20 years, reporting
from 18 nations. He won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for national
reporting for articles that exposed the secret spending of the
Pentagon and the CIA.
Throughout the 2008-09 academic year, the International
Affairs Speaker Series will offer a variety of presentations. Other
speakers include:
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) who visits the University
Thursday, Oct. 30. Hagel serves on four Senate committees
including the Foreign Relations Committee and is the author of
“America: Our Next Chapter.”
Internationally recognized authority on Russian history, politics
and economics, Marshall Goldman will speak Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Goldman served as an adviser to two presidents and is the author
of “Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia.”
Sergei Khrushchev, son of former Soviet Prime Minister
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 25
Nikita Khrushchev will speak Jan. 22. Currently serving as a senior
fellow at the Watson Institute, Khrushchev is a regular contributor
and commentator for the U.S. media in addition to being an
author of more than 250 books and articles. His books include
His books include Khrushchev on Khrushchev (1990), Nikita
Khrushchev: Crisis and Missiles (1994), The Political Economy
of Russian Fragmentation (1993), Three Circles of Russian Market
Reforms (1995), and Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a
Super Power (2000). He is currently working on his new book,
Nikita Khrushchev’s Reforms.
Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan will visit campus Thursday,
Feb. 26. Tarr-Whelan was appointed by President Bill Clinton
as the U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on the Status
of Women.
Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, global health specialist at the World
Bank, will speak in April. His work focuses on health systems
development and public health in East Asia and Pacific, South
Asia, Middle East and North Africa regions of World Bank.
The time and location of the International Affairs Speakers
Series lectures will be announced Sept. 8. Students, faculty, staff,
alumni and friends of the University are welcome to attend.
Admission is free.
For more information regarding the lecture series,
contact Rebecca Vincent at 704.687.7305 or e-mail
Rebecca.Vincent@uncc.edu.
UNC CHARLOTTE | a l u m n i p ro f i l e s

Success is
no mystery
Mark de Castrique serves up whodunnits, southern-style
By Lisa A. Lambert

What does a good mystery make? On
this question, readers and writers alike have
reached consensus; a variety of the usual and
unusual suspects, red herrings, evidence and
resolution are among the elements of some
of the most celebrated mystery novels of
our time.
Despite agreement upon the ingredients
of the genre, every author brings to the craft
unique experiences that result in wholly
original works of fiction.
Longtime Charlotte resident and author
Mark de Castrique drew heavily upon
his youth in the small mountain town of
Hendersonville, North Carolina, to create
the popular Barry Clayton mystery series.
After pondering a question many adult
children ask, de Castrique conceived of
his protagonist, Barry Clayton, former
Charlotte police officer and mountain
funeral director.
“I went straight from the hospital to the
funeral home, where my father was the
undertaker and our family lived upstairs,”
de Castrique explained. “Part of the genesis
for the character in the Barry Clayton
mystery series is that I thought, ‘what if
my dad had stayed in that job, what if I’d
stayed in Hendersonville and followed in his
footsteps?’” de Castrique said.
As a storyteller, de Castrique was
intrigued by the small town funeral home
because it is an institution that offers the
community the chance to reflect upon the
stories of its citizens – a place and time
to take stock of what is important and
meaningful about living in community. It
also serves a practical purpose as a venue
for bodies to be introduced into the flow of
events, allowing Barry to become involved
in criminal investigations.
Little Did He Know
Before de Castrique entertained the
“what ifs,” he left his hometown to earn

“My family put

on a Sherlock
Holmes birthday
party once a year
where we would
dress up, mom
would cook a
Victorian dinner,
and we’d act
out a mystery,”

Mark de Castrique in
Hendersonville, North Carolina

26 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 a l u m n i p ro f i l e s | UNC CHARLOTTE

bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and

Radio, Television & Motion Pictures at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. In Washington, D.C., he directed
numerous news and public affairs programs,
and received an Emmy Award for his
documentary film work, as well as Clio and
Telly awards. He continues to produce for
film and video clients and said his work in
the medium of television has informed
his writing.
“In crafting the novel, not only do you
have to write a thousand words for every
picture, but you also have to focus the
attention of the reader on that description.
The author becomes the camera,” he said.
“I tend to write thinking, ‘if I were shooting
this, what would the audience want to see?’”
In de Castrique’s latest endeavor, his
lens focuses on the physical splendor and
rich history of Asheville, North Carolina.
Blackman’s Coffin, the first installment of a
new mystery series, is described by publisher
Poisoned Pen Press as “a treasure hunt, a
social document, a literary investigation,
and a love story.” The modern-day murder
mystery featuring a new character, Iraq war
veteran Sam Blackman, links back to the
heyday of the Vanderbilt family and the
literary legacy of Thomas Wolfe.
He also has written two books for young
adults. One, Death on a Southern Breeze, you can tell a story that captivates a child imaginary world. After all, he said, “Creative
to be released by Bella Rosa this fall, is a or teenager, you’re probably doing a pretty expression and stories make us human.”
historical mystery that unfolds on a train good job as a storyteller.”
traveling from Charlotte to Charleston West, who was de Castrique’s academic Mystery Solved
in the summer of 1860. The book holds advisor, encouraged the aspiring author to Looking back, de Castrique admits he
special significance as a project that began as do a creative thesis geared toward young had plenty of home-grown inspiration for
an academic pursuit, de Castrique said. adults. The end product was Death on a his future career – not only did the family’s
Southern Breeze. living situation serve as fertile ground, but
Considering Motives Since earning his Master of Arts degree the celebration of mystery was, and is, a
Inspired by his eldest daughter’s college in English, de Castrique has discovered family tradition.
opportunities and the desire to hone his a new passion – teaching. He currently “My family put on a Sherlock Holmes
skills as a writer, de Castrique enrolled in serves as an adjunct professor at UNC birthday party once a year where we
graduate school at UNC Charlotte. He Charlotte, teaching classes on the history would dress up, mom would cook a
sought out a course of study that would of the American mystery, as well as the Victorian dinner, and we’d act out a
provide him with a stronger foundation fundamentals of film production. mystery,” de Castrique said. The venue
in critical studies and the analysis of, Through his teaching and creative works, has since changed, but the tradition,
in de Castrique’s words, “what makes a de Castrique hopes to help readers of all though somewhat more elaborate, remains
story work.” stripes develop an appreciation for the the same.
“I studied narrative fiction and took
a variety of courses and loved them all,” “I studied narrative
he said.
A children’s literature course taught by fiction and took a variety
Dr. Mark West, professor of English, shaped
de Castrique’s thinking. “I realized that if of courses and loved them all.”
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 27
UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re

Doctoring
Organizations
Organizational science Ph.D. program
on the leading edge nationally
By Fred Tannenbaum

28 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu


Pressures on corporations continue
swelling — foreign competition,
skyrocketing costs for fuel and raw
materials. Surviving these and future
challenges not only takes hard work
but a tough look inward.
Any problems in the organization’s
culture, communications and
employee satisfaction only will
magnify those other pressures. UNC
Charlotte’s newest Ph.D. program
aims, along with its ambitious
educational and research goals,
to return functionality to the
dysfunctional.
The innovative doctoral program
in organizational science is
groundbreaking and silo-demolishing.
It’s the first in the country weaving
together four traditionally
separate disciplines: organizational
sociology, management, industrial/
organizational psychology and
organizational communication, said
Professor Steven Rogelberg an IO
psychologist and program director. Its
13 faculty members are drawn from
each of these fields.
The Ph.D. program features a
unique, integrated curriculum,
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 29
fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE
“If an
organization
Rogelberg said. It answers skeptics is going to be
that looked at each of the separately
operating fields of study and competitive on
questioned: How can academicians
in the four subjects truly improve a global scale,
the world of work when they don’t
communicate with each other?
economics, public
“These are four sets of folks,
who at most universities never talk
relations, the law,
with one another,” he said. “For
100 years … they’ve been talking
are critical for
about how the world of work is
inherently interdisciplinary but the
these organizations
organizational sciences, in practice, to work.”
are not.”
This cross-pollination of the Organizational Science students combine
subjects within organizational science their knowledge of organizations and human
behavior with advanced statistics to improve
is vital for two reasons, said Professor organizational and individual performance,
Orlando Taylor, vice provost for well-being, and effectiveness.
research and dean of the graduate
school at Howard University. OPPOSITE PAGE: left, Marisa Adelman;
First, the body of knowledge in the middle, Ben Baran; right, Joseph Allen
universe is so great that it’s difficult
for any one person to master that
discipline, Taylor said. Second, “most
topics of interest to most people,
whether its politics or global warming,
they require a convergence of theory,
research, professional experiences
from many disciplines to fully
UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re
“The same way a understand the nature of those issues.
“If an organization is going to
doctor diagnoses be competitive on a global scale,
economics, public relations, the law,
problems in a are critical for these organizations to
work,” he said.
body, we diagnose Without an interdisciplinary
approach, “We don’t understand
problems in an organizations well and we don’t
organization prepare people … to help their
organizations to be competitive,”
but we don’t Taylor said.
The program is giving its doctoral
do it from one students a breadth of resources to
achieve whatever they want to do and
perspective. We go where they wish.
“It’s interdisciplinary but it’s also
take the tool new research that hasn’t been done,”
says Brett Agypt of Barrington, Ill.,
from whatever near Chicago. “It hasn’t typically been
discipline will looked into. It speaks volumes of what
we’re going to be able to do later.”
Curriculum
most effectively Organizational science focuses
on examining and improving the
answer the health, well being and effectiveness
of organizations and the individuals
question or working in them.
help solve The program focuses on the study
of a wide range of topics, including
the problem.” but not limited to:
Team dynamics and effectiveness,
Organizational culture and climate,
30 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
Measurement and testing,
recruitment, selection and
promotion,
Training and development,
Communication systems and
processes,
Diversity,
Workplace stress and health,
Employee attitudes, satisfaction
and morale,
Communication effectiveness,
Employee motivation and job
design,
Organizational effectiveness,
development and change, and
Work-life programs.
“The best way to describe it to
people who aren’t familiar is that
‘I want to become a doctor of
organization,’” said candidate Joe
Allen of Ladoga, Ind. “The same way
a doctor diagnoses problems in a
body, we diagnose problems in an
organization but we don’t do it from
one perspective. We take the tool
from whatever discipline will most
effectively answer the question or
help solve the problem.”
While the organizational science
program is breaking down silos
between fields of study, it’s
demolishing walls between instructors
and students. They are working
together in ongoing research projects,
application projects, and co-authoring
scholarly papers and journal articles.
Faculty members are encouraging
the doctoral candidates to really
stretch themselves, launch research
projects on their own, and engage
in meaningful supervised consulting
opportunities.
In other words, the faculty
treats the students as peers not
subordinates.
“Some of them call us ‘colleagues
in training,’ said candidate Marla
Boughton of Oklahoma City. “It
encompasses a lot of mutual respect
and makes you feel like you belong
here and are contributing as an equal
or someone who will become an equal
soon.”
Allen believes the students serve
as the bridge between faculty who’ve
spent their careers focusing on their
chosen fields. “We’re the ones that

don’t have the disciplinary biases
coming into it,” he said. “We’re able
to approach things like a research
problem and use the different
disciplines to solve that problem.”
Trailblazing
Organizational science is about
understanding and working to
improve the world of work, Rogelberg
says.
UNC Charlotte hired Rogelberg
in 2003 to create the program. The
university provided him and the
graduate students with an entire wing
of the Colvard Building, providing
everyone with offices and computers.
“We’re doing it right,” he said. The
program now boasts 13 faculty
members who also support their
home departments in communication
studies, management, sociology, and
psychology.
Over time, parochialism and silos
began crumbling away. Faculty across
disciplines understand each other,
value each other, and want to work
together.
“That’s pretty unprecedented,”
Rogelberg said. “Scholarship usually
stays within the discipline.” We have
incredible training and scholarship
that’s interdisciplinary.
Meanwhile, around 2005, the
program sought its first students.
It received 60 applicants for five
positions, their grade-point averages
and Graduate Records Examination
(GRE) scores would compete in the
top 10 of the nation, he said. “For UNC
Charlotte, it’s pretty neat.” Students
have chosen to come here instead of
places such as UNC Chapel Hill, NC
State, Cornell, Columbia, Clemson,
and Texas A&M to name a few.
Rogelberg recruits candidates
from other universities through their
graduate schools. Taylor, the Howard
University graduate dean, already
has made a mental note of the UNC
Charlotte program.
“Students are always asking about
a good place to study,” Taylor said.
“We like to recommend schools that
are on the cutting edge and this is on
the cutting edge of the discipline.”
The candidates hail from as far
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 31
fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE
Meetings
research shows you don’t really hate them
Pity the poor folks in Dunder Mifflin Paper Co.’s Scranton Branch on the
NBC sitcom “The Office.” With hapless boss Michael Scott in front of the room,
meetings can be the bane of employees’ existence and make viewers cringe.
Think of sitting through some particularly excruciating gatherings you’ve
experienced: Checking out your BlackBerry, imagining you’re anywhere but
stuck in this room with people you’d rather not be. Wishing there was a trap
door beneath your chair.
Love them or hate them, meetings can be important to the proper
functioning of any corporation or group. UNC Charlotte’s innovative Ph.D.
program in organizational science is taking an interdisciplinary look at these
business gatherings.
The two-year-old doctoral program has a research group of 10 people
studying meetings from the perspectives of organizational communication,
management, organizational sociology, and industrial/organizational
psychology,
Each discipline has something valuable to add, said UNC Charlotte
Professor Steven Rogelberg, who directs the organizational science doctoral
program. An organizational sociologist might say: “Meetings are windows
of insight into the greater culture of an organization” and an organizational
communication scholar might add: “Meetings may be particularly
meaningful because in addition to operating as vehicles of activity
coordination and information sharing, they also provide opportunities for
members to demonstrate and make sense of their roles in relation to the
roles that others are playing”.
“As an industrial organizational psychologist, I’ve been interested in
meetings and their impact on employee health and well being,” Rogelberg said.
The group meets every week or two. Faculty members Steven Rogelberg,
Beth Rubin, Cliff Scott and Linda Shanock are involved, said Joe Allen, an
organizational science Ph.D. candidate.
Employees may moan about how much they loath meetings but research
shows they don’t. “There’s a norm to say, “I hate meetings. I haven’t gotten
anything done all day because I’ve been in meetings.’ But inwardly, as social
creatures, we like to have some meetings each day,” Allen said.
The meeting study group will launch four or five projects studying these
gatherings from different angles and how meetings may be used — or
misused. One project will study supervisor actions in meetings. Another
will examine how power is projected during such gatherings. A third project
examines together meetings, organizational structure, and temporality.
“Most prior research has looked at meetings as a tool for analysis,” said
candidate Ben Baran. “They’ve looked at it as something to study group
process. They haven’t looked at it as this activity that happens within
organizations.”
In fact, improving the quality of meetings can improve the quality of an
organization. Most quality initiatives are taken care of in meetings, Allen said.
“If your meetings don’t include an agenda and aren’t effective, you
need to talk about the various things you can do right now to improve your
meetings,” said Allen.
—Fred Tannenbaum
UNC CHARLOTTE | fe a t u re
away as Colorado and Malaysia. Some
ultimately want to be consultants
while others want to teach. Some
also are concurrently getting masters
degrees in some of the
sub-disciplines.
During an interview in a Colvard
conference room, they were asked if
they felt like trailblazers,
Laughter. Heads nod. “Yeah,” is the
mutual response. “The good and
the bad.”
“One of the appealing things to
me is that we have control over the
destiny of the program,” said Agypt,
the candidate from suburban Chicago.
“We can set the bar as high as we’d
like. And I think we’re setting it
relatively high.
“The bad (part) is that there’s not
really a template for how the program
is working,” he said. “We’re kind of
establishing that ourselves.”
“There’s a
huge disconnect
between what
we know in
research and
what is out there
in practice.”
— Adrian Goh
Comparisons to being guinea pigs
are unavoidable, the candidates said,
but in a positive way. “It’s evolving in
the process,” said Allen the candidate
hailing from Indiana. “There’s no
other program like it. So building it,
we’re all learning things such as “How
do you do interdisciplinary research?
How do you make these different silos
communicate with each other?’ …
Our experience has been a learning
process the whole time.”
32 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
Consulting and
Outreach
Along with its curriculum, UNC
Charlotte’s program has built a
consulting and outreach center,
generating research on recruiting
employees, motivation, leadership,
organizational structure and
organizational change. Student
and faculty teams are engaged in a
consulting practice assisting private,
public, small and large organizations.
It provides a variety of services
to locally based and national
corporations, including Bank of
America Corp., Automatic Data
Processing Inc. (ADP) and Carolina
Tractor, also known as Carolina CAT.
Faculty members lead the projects.
Sometimes, the suggestions are
simple, such as updating a client’s
Web site. Other recommendations
may require some changes to an
organization’s culture.
Ben Baran, a candidate from
Steubenville, Ohio, worked on a
project with Carolina Tractor to
identify the knowledge, skills,
attitudes and behaviors making
people successful there. In other
words, what separates the top
performers from the bottom
performers? The effort created eight
core competencies that Carolina Cat
now uses in its training and recruiting.
“It’s really an example of how we can
reach out into the community,” he
said.
Boughton, the candidate who
hails from Oklahoma City, says
the experienced gained through
consulting is invaluable. “Each project
I learn a new skill set,” she said. “I’ve
done process improvement. I’m doing
communication analysis. It’s nice to
practice what the research has shown
and to help organizations.”
Corporations and organizations
need to take a serious look at the
fruits of the doctoral program to
remain relevant in an increasingly
competitive economy where a
competitor is as likely to come from
across an ocean as across the street.
“There’s a huge disconnect between
what we know in research and what is
“What is being
done in research
doesn’t get
translated into
practice without
consulting.”
out there in practice,” said Adrian
Goh, a candidate from Malaysia.
“What is being done in research
doesn’t get translated into practice
without consulting. What we’ve
learned in the last 10 years won’t be
applied for the next 10 years. There’s
a huge lag there.”
And in an ironic twist, companies
need this kind of organizational
examination when the economy
sours, which is now. But as graduate
student Marisa Adelman points out,
“In times like this, it’s the people
development, the talent management,
that’s the first to go.”
Taylor said it’s crucial to understand
how institutions and people functions.
As a professor of communications, he
has studied how language can differ
across locations, races and genders,
including in organizations as large as
the U.S. Army.
The army recruits people from
around the country but they’ve
got to work with a single mind,
Taylor said. “If you have people
miscommunicating or being hostile to
one another, it erodes efficiency.
Kurt Kraiger, a psychology
professor at Colorado State University
and president-elect of the Society of
Industrial Organizational Psychology,
a professional trade group, sees
the UNC Charlotte program as an
example other universities will follow.
Two years ago, his organization
studied the problems of pay and
identity for people in the field and
what to do about it.
“To me,” Kraiger said, “The
organizational science unit is
probably the best solution.”

Boosting Minority Presence in Graduate Programs
UNC Charlotte’s organizational science doctoral
program is reaching deep to create the next generation
of specialists trained to create healthy companies
and groups.
In 2009, the program launches an organizational
summer institute targeting high-potential African-
American and Latino undergraduate students.
Plans call for 10 rising undergraduate seniors to be
invited to Charlotte and spend a week being exposed to
the organizational science program and graduate school
in general.
“This is a really special opportunity for under-
represented students and provides them with an
extremely unique opportunity to experience what
graduate education is all about,” says Shawn Long, Ph.D.,
coordinator of the institute.
The goal is energizing students about the
opportunities provided in graduate school and providing
them with the tools to realize those opportunities,
Rogelberg said.
During the institute, the students will:
Experience a research project using data already
collected, working with a doctoral student mentor and
a faculty member. They will work with those two people
to study that research question. Unlike research that
usually takes a year, this is research that’s going to be
completed in a week. “They get to enjoy the experience
and excitement of discovery,” Rogelberg said. At the
end of the week, they will give a presentation of what
they found,
Learn how to apply to graduate school and the
qualities and achievements graduate admissions
officers look for,
Build a sense of community among
themselves and with the doctoral
candidates and faculty, and
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 33
fe a t u re | UNC CHARLOTTE
Be given some Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)
preparation.
UNC Charlotte’s graduate school is funding much
of the program but Applied Psychological Techniques
Inc., a management and human-resources consulting
firm in Darien, Conn.; Kenexa Corp., a Wayne, Pa.-based
employee recruiting and retention-consulting company;
and Development Dimensions International Inc. of
Pittsburgh are donating money.
To prepare, the organizational science program is
hosting a think-tank for the honors-program directors
from minority-serving colleges and universities to
discuss and promote the institute.
Rogelberg says it’s a cutting-edge approach
to diversity.
Orlando Taylor, vice provost at Washington, D.C.’s
Howard University and head of its graduate school, says
the summer institute is a tried and tested approach to
increasing a minority presence in graduate education.
Minority students have little understanding of
graduate school and how to prepare for it, he said. As
a result, they are underrepresented in masters and
Ph.D. programs and in the upper echelons of corporate
America.
“It’s good that we increase the professional
opportunities for all our students but at the same time,”
Taylor said, “it’s good for the country and will allow us to
remain competitive.”
–Fred Tannenbaum
UNC CHARLOTTE | a l u m n i p ro f i l e s

TV duo fulfilling
childhood dreams
By Phillip Brown

WBTV on-air personalities and UNC production meeting. WBTV producers start it’s just me and the camera, I forget there
Charlotte alumni Sarah Batista and Danielle with a list of story ideas, but Batista and her are thousands and thousands of people
Trotta are fulfilling childhood dreams. colleagues are expected to offer their own watching at home.”
Communication studies majors, Batista ideas, too. In the end, the producers’ goals Batista agreed. As a field reporter, she
’03 and Trotta ’05 said they are thrilled are to give each reporter the story that is the meets lots of interesting people from all over
to be working in the “magical” world of best fit for his or her strengths, said Batista. the region.
television, but admit it’s not all glitz and
glamour.
“There is a lot of work we do behind the
scenes,” said Trotta, who has combined her
enthusiasm for broadcasting and sports into
a career. Viewers who watch her five minute
segment each night are witness to the
culmination of a day that starts at 10 a.m.
Trotta spends time perusing video footage
on five TVs to capture each day’s sports
highlights and then writes a script to cover
the events. Some days it involves going on
location and conducting interviews, which
means carrying the camera equipment and
filming the story.
As a general assignment reporter, Batista’s
day starts at 9:30 a.m. with the morning

“Sometimes
when it’s just me Sarah Batista Danielle Trotta

and the camera,

Of course, breaking news can disrupt this
I forget there are entire process, she added.
The unpredictability of the work adds to
thousands and the job’s stresses. “We’re constantly being
judged, from our appearance and what
thousands of we say to how well we handle crises,” said
people watching Batista. While they expect reactions from
the viewing public, Batista joked her family
at home.” is her toughest critic.
“It’s a huge responsibility to work in
—Danielle Trotta television,” Trotta stated. “Sometimes when
“People recognize me and come up to
me. I’ve even had someone kiss my hand,
but every situation is different,” said Batista.
“You don’t realize the power of TV, and you
have no idea how many living rooms you’re
going into.”
As on-air talent for one of the top
stations in one of the country’s largest
television markets, Batista and Trotta have
achieved tremendous success in a relatively
short time following graduation. They

34 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu


“We’re constantly
being judged, from
our appearance
and what we say to
how well we handle
crises.”
­—Sarah Batista
credit their 49er experience and UNC
Charlotte education as part of the reason.
Beyond the strong academic preparation
received through the Communication
Studies Department, Batista and Trotta
extolled the virtues of the department’s
internship program.
“Internships are integral,” exclaimed
Trotta. “They help transition from the
classroom to the real world. Whenever
anyone asks me how to get started in the
business, I tell them – intern, intern, intern,
intern. That’s how you get a foot in the
door.”
Trotta interned for WBTV and was
“fortunate” to land a position after
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 35
graduation. Batista wrote for the University
Times as well as interned at two local
stations. After finishing her degree, she
worked for a new ABC/CBS affiliate in
Virginia before returning home to the
Queen City.
“It was a great training ground,” Batista
stated. “I may not operate a camera like
I did then, but I have the knowledge and
experience.”
The daughter of a coach, Trotta said
growing up she was always in the gym.
As a result, she’s a huge sports fan and
remembers watching Hannah Storm, who
worked briefly in Charlotte, move onto
the national stage as one of the first female
sports reporters. During her burgeoning
career, she’s had the opportunity to
interview several famous sports figures
including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods,
Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith.
“It’s definitely cool to get to meet some of
these stars, but they are such normal people.
It’s the power of TV that elevates them,”
Trotta noted.
Given their success and the size of
the Charlotte market, both women have
thought about the prospect of going
national.
“Sometimes I think yes, sometimes I
a l u m n i p ro f i l e s | UNC CHARLOTTE
think no,” said Batista. “However, whether
people like to admit it or not, to do so
you have to make sacrifices – children,
relationships. It would require a lot more
time and travel. At some point you have
to decide whether to go national or try to
maintain some balance.”
And yet, the two TV stars are both
excited to hit the airwaves each day.
They admit some aspects of the job aren’t
glamorous, but the thrill is in the finished
product and their ability to tell a story –
their way.
Phillip Brown is UNC Charlotte’s
internal communications manager.
“You don’t
realize the power
of TV, and you
have no idea how
many living rooms
you’re going into.”
­—Sarah Batista
UNC CHARLOTTE | g i v i n g

36 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu

 giving | UNC CHARLOTTE

Remembering a special
teacher with a scholarship
By Joe Marcucci ‘85

For most people, college was an enriching
experience. There were easy classes and
hard ones, interesting classes and boring
prerequisite classes, there were friends, parties
and social events. For some of us, there were
also professors who have had a long lasting
impact on our lives. These professors were
the ones who pushed us, encouraged us, and
made us work harder. They knew that we
had what it took to succeed in our education
at UNC Charlotte and to ultimately be
successful in our careers.
For me, one of those professors was Dr.
Judith Suther. I took every French class I
could under Dr. Suther not only because
she was an articulate, knowledgeable,
demanding teacher but because I was
obsessed with getting an A. No matter how
hard I worked, no matter how hard I tried,
I never managed to finish one of her courses
with an A; the best I ever got was a B.
In 1984, Dr. Suther put forth my name
as a scholarship candidate for a summer
program at the Institut Catholique. I
won one of the scholarships and spent
that summer in Paris, where I grew to love
France, its culture and people.
One spring evening in 1985 after
I graduated, I met with Dr. Suther. I
finally had the chance to express to her
my frustration that I did not get A’s in her
classes. She responded that I was always an
A student. She explained that I received B’s
in order to keep me working, motivated and
striving to do better. I remember telling her
that those B’s did not help my GPA. Her
response was that in the future grades would
matter less than what I had actually learned.
Five years later in 1990, I realized one
of my life’s dreams when I move to Paris.
The day I moved into my flat in the 15th
Arrondissement, my first telephone call was
to Dr. Suther. I ended up staying in France
for five years as the marketing director for
a Canadian company and experienced as
much of French culture and day-to-day life
as I could.
I have fallen out of contact with Dr.
Suther, but over the years I have always
wondered where she was and how she
was doing. I think back to those days at
UNC Charlotte and wonder if there aren’t
other former students who remember her
as fondly as I do and who would like to
help other students, who may not have
the financial means, to learn French and
experience France; her culture and people. them to contact Mary C. Gaertner in the
I’d like to start a scholarship founded development office at UNC Charlotte at
in her name. If there are any former 704.687.3207 or mgaertne@uncc.edu.
students who are interested in working
with me to honor Professor Suther, I urge Joe Marcucci lives in St. Louis, Mo.

left: Judith Suther 1989

right: Joe Marcucci

Editors note:
Dr. Judith D. Suther is currently living in Seattle
where she is enjoying many activities such as
travel, cooking and gardening.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 37

UNC CHARLOTTE | a l u m n i n ew s
alumni news
Alumni Association forms
Young Alumni Chapter
The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association
has formed its first chapter - the Young
Alumni Chapter. Chartered by the
Association on July 1, it is guided by a 24-
member board of directors.
According to Chip Rossi, director of
alumni affairs, the Young Alumni Chapter
was created to engage young alumni with
the association and the University.
“Half of our alumni base graduated from
UNC Charlotte in the last 15 years,” Rossi
observed. “The Young Alumni Chapter is a
fantastic way to engage them early on and
will hopefully keep them connected to the
University throughout their lives.”
The chapter board will meet periodically
at the Harris Alumni Center. Board officers
are Adam Bridgers (’06) president, Keisa
Hines (’06) vice president and Tongreia
Norman (’00) secretary. The other members
are Jamal Briggs (’05), Russell Brown (’06),
Anissa Burton (’98), Stephen Collie (’02),
Joseph Franco (’06), Lisa Gaskin (’07),
Mandeep Gill (’08), Kevin Harward (’01),
Kim Hodges (’00), Jason Keath (’05), Ryan
McDaniels (’01), Beau Memory (’02),
Adam Montgomery, Lewis Morgan (’08),
Sarah Peifer (’07), Justin Ritchie (’07), Tara
Sekayi Robinson (’04), Aisha Thomas (’03),
October reception planned for Childress Vineyards
UNC Charlotte alumni will gather at
6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 8, at Childress
Vineyards in Lexington. Chancellor Philip
L. Dubois and head men’s basketball
coach Bobby Lutz will be at the event,
where the coach will share information
about the upcoming season.
Alumni who would like to attend
this October reception should fill
out the registration form on the
38 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
Stephanie Steiger (’05), Steve Steiger (’04)
and Daphne Williams (’84).
The board already has scheduled several
events. On Monday, Sept. 15, the chapter
will host a networking reception at Ri Ra
Irish Pub in uptown Charlotte, and on
Sunday, Sept. 28, it will host a tailgate party
prior to the Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta
Falcons game.
For more information on the Young
Alumni Chapter or upcoming events, visit
the Web site www.unccharlottealumni.org
or call the Alumni Association at
(704) 687-7799.
Young Alumni to host
networking reception
The UNC Charlotte Young Alumni
Chapter will host a networking reception
from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Monday, Sept.
15, at Ri Ra Irish Pub on Tryon Street in
uptown Charlotte. All young alumni are
invited to attend this event.
Prospective attendees should complete the
registration form on the Alumni Association
Web site (www.unccharlottealumni.org).
Registered individuals will be contacted by a
representative from the Alumni Association.
The cost is $10 per person and may be paid
by check or credit card. Food and one drink
ticket are included.
Alumni Association’s Web site (www.
unccharlottealumni.org). Registered
participants will be contacted by a
representative from the Alumni Association.
Registration is $15 per person and may be
paid by check or credit card. Heavy hors
d’oeuvres and wine will be served.
The UNC Charlotte Alumni
Association will host a number of regional
receptions during the 2008-09 academic
For more information on the event,
contact the Alumni Association at (704)
687-7799 or (800) 745-8622. For more
information on Ri Ra Irish pub, visit its
Web site www.rira.com.
Alumni invited to attend
Carolina Panthers game
The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association
and the Young Alumni Chapter offer alumni
the chance to watch the Carolina Panthers
take on the Atlanta Falcons at Bank of
America Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 28. The
game kicks off at 1 p.m., and there will be a
tailgate party starting at 11 a.m.
Two ticket packages are available for
alumni to purchase. Ticket Package A is $60
and includes one game ticket, one parking
pass per group and admission to the tailgate
party. Ticket Package B is $15 and includes
admission to the tailgate party only (It does
not include parking or game ticket). The
tailgate for both packages includes barbeque
and beverages. Payment must accompany
registration.
Passes for parking will be available on a
first-come, first-served basis. Game tickets
will be distributed at the tailgate. Parking
passes and tailgate directions will be mailed
in early September.
To purchase tickets, contact Jen Thomas
year. Receptions are planned for Atlanta,
New York City, Raleigh-Durham and
Washington, D.C. 
For more details about the vineyards
reception, contact the Alumni Association
at (704) 687-7799 or (800) 745-8622.
Information about Childress Vineyards
can be obtained by calling (336) 236-
9463 or visiting the Web site www.
childressvineyards.com.
far left: Richard
Childress and
Director of Alumni
Affairs Chip Rossi
left: Childress Vineyards
 a l u m n i n ew s | UNC CHARLOTTE

at (704) 687-7799 or e-mail jlthomas@
uncc.edu. For more information, contact
the Alumni Association at (704) 687-7799.
Second young alumni
etiquette dinner planned
The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association
will host its second Young Alumni Etiquette
Dinner at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15, at
the Harris Alumni Center. Etiquette and
protocol consultant Savannah Shaw will
conduct the lesson.
“We held our first etiquette dinner in
March of this year, and the request to have
another one has been overwhelming,” said
Chip Rossi, director of alumni affairs.
“Clearly, this is something in which our
alumni are interested, and we are thrilled
that we can provide this service to them.”
The dinner will include a multicourse
dinner with instruction by Shaw. Attendees
will receive a take-home guide for future
reference. Registration is $20 per person;
space is limited.
“Eating with people you have known
forever or just met can be an intimidating
experience.  The etiquette dinner not only
allows our alumni to gain crucial knowledge
of appropriate etiquette, but it will also teach
them appropriate toast and introduction
techniques. Attending the last etiquette
dinner at the Harris Alumni Center boosted
my confidence level going into any dining
experience,” said Scott Plunkett (’05),
assistant director of alumni affairs.
For more information, contact the
Alumni Association at (704) 687-7799.
Learn more about Savannah Shaw on the
web at www.savannahshaw.com.

GIVING
Belk College of Business
Merrifield Partners and the National Association of
Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) have each committed
$25,000 to the Center for Real Estate Campaign. NAIOP is the
nation’s leading trade association for developers, owners, investors,
asset managers and other professionals in industrial, office and
mixed-use commercial real estate.
College of Education
Alumni and the Department of Counseling have established
the Bob Barret Distinguished Lecture Series on Multiculturalism
to honor Professor Barret, ’84, who retired this year after 29
years of service on the UNC Charlotte faculty. This will be
an annual event featuring a presentation on a topic related to
multicultural counseling and social justice. The lecture series
will be open to the public and is affiliated with the Counseling
Department’s annual multicultural workshop. Alumni are invited
to contribute gifts to support the fund.
The College of Education’s Center for Mathematics, Science and
Technology Education will use a $25,000 grant from the North
Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation to support its “Science Club”
program, designed to increase the number of historically underserved
students pursuing careers in science, mathematics, technology,
engineering and teaching. The center was among 21 inaugural
Ribbon of Hope grant recipients announced by the foundation. The
Science Club Program is a community-based outreach initiative that
promotes the exploration of science and technology among more
than 600 at-risk children and youth ages 4 to 18. “This funding
will allow us to offer a rich hands-on opportunity to our pre-college
students in a research science laboratory here on the university
campus,” said David Royster, director of the center.
The Cato Corporation has established the Cato Scholars
Endowment to provide scholarship assistance to students studying
to become elementary and middle school teachers in the College of
Education.
Robert, ’85, and Jacqueline Hull have established the Lateral
Entry Teachers Endowment to provide scholarship assistance to
students studying to become K-12 teachers.
Dr. Jane K. Testerman, ’73, emeritus faculty member of the
College of Education, has established the Legacy for Leadership
Award which recognizes outstanding academic performance for
a doctoral dissertation successfully defended during the previous
academic year in the Department of Educational Leadership.
Gray’s Bookstore established the Excellence in Research
Faculty Award in the College of Education and the Faculty Award
for Sustained Service to Public Schools.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Department of Criminal Justice received a contribution
from VeriSign/I-Defense to support research being conducted by
Dr. Tom Holt in the area of computer crime and computer-based
attacks around the world.
Elsevier Limited made a donation to support Dr. Jean-Claude
Thill, who is serving as the Knight Distinguished Professor in the
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.
William and Harriet Barnhardt continued their support
of the Barnhardt Annual Seminar on Ethics and the World of
Business. This is the signature program of UNC Charlotte’s
Center for Professional and Applied Ethics. The fall 2008
seminar’s keynote speaker will be Michael Tarwater, chief
executive officer of Carolinas Healthcare System.
Mark, ’84, and Pamela Fiechtner made an additional
contribution to the Fiechtner Scholarship, which supports an
outstanding undergraduate student pursuing a math, mechanical
engineering, computer science, electrical or computer engineering
major at UNC Charlotte.
The North Highland Company made a contribution to the
North Highland Scholarship, which supports international study
for UNC Charlotte students who are majoring in Art. North
Highland Company also featured a UNC Charlotte student
exhibit and reception in their Uptown office.
The Graduate School
The Wayland H. Cato Jr. First-Year Fellowship completed
its final pledge payment to the UNC Charlotte Graduate School.
For the first time, the school awarded two annual fellowships in
the amount of $18,000 each.
During the past year, the UNC Charlotte Foundation awarded
a total of $350,000 from both endowed and non-endowed funds
for graduate student fellowships.

www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 39

UNC CHARLOTTE | a l u m n i n o te s
1970’s
Dianne Ellis (72,’85) retired on May
31 after 21 years in the Operations,
Technology, and E-Commerce Division of
the Wachovia Corporation in Charlotte.
Catherine Anthony Harvey (’70)
accepted the position of executive vice
president community programs and
publications for the American Diabetes
Association in Alexandria, Va.
1980’s
Tom Goins (’89) and his wife, Amy,
welcomed daughter Audrey Grace on
April 25.
David Hefferon (’80) practices law in
Charlotte with his brother Tom (’78).
Several other members of David’s family
have graduated from UNC Charlotte
including brother, Michael (’83),
nephew Ben Hefferon (’05) and niece
Amy Hefferon (’06).
Diane Lollar-Hernandez (’89)
welcomed her second daughter, Keira,
in November 2007. Keira joins big sister
Kaila.  from 1985 to 1987 and includes many
Mark Isaacs (’80) accepted a position
as North American sales manager for
Nuroz LLC, which is a subsidiary of
Newport Industries. It specializes in
products for the chemical and adhesives
industries.
1990’s
Naresh Bharadwaj (’97) joined Fujitsu
Consulting in February 2008 as a senior
consultant in their SAP Practice. He is
currently on assignment at Rockwell
Automation in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Theodore “Clip” Clippinger (’90)
was named an associate with JDavis
Architects in Raleigh. Clippinger has
been with the firm for two years and
works as a project manager. He and his
wife Lynn (Daniel) (’93) live in Durham
and are expecting their fourth child in
December. The baby will join siblings
Andrew (5), Caroline (4) and Carmen (3).
Jay Daughtry (’96) has joined Real
Magnet LLC, in Bethesda, Md., as a
national account executive.  We want to hear from you.
Andrew Pfeiffer (’91) is pursuing
certification in education through
40 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
UNC Charlotte and works part time
for Ferguson Enterprises. He and
Maureen Wilson (’90) graduated from
West Virginia Wesleyan in May with a
wife Rebecca reside in Charlotte with Master of Business Administration.
their three children Sarah, Alycia and
Jonathon.
Paul Pustinger (’99) earned a Doctor 2000’s
of Osteopathic Medicine degree from
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Robert Baysden (’02) has been named
Medicine in June 2008. He is currently director of engineering at Cole, Jenest
doing his residency in emergency and Stone P.A.
medicine at Botsford Hospital in
Farmington Hills, Mich. Adam Boyd (’05) is in the United
States Air Force. He also is pursuing an
Hubert Setzler III (’99) recently online master’s in geosciences through
Mississippi State University.
published the article “EMS Call Volume
Predictions: A Comparative Study” in
the international journal Computer Ashley Buckles (’07) and Ryan Hefner
(’07) were married on May 24. Buckles
& Operations Research. Setzler is an
associate professor of management at is a dental lab technician at Drake
Dental Lab, and Ryan is a software
Francis Marion University.
developer at Vanguard. The couple
resides in Charlotte.
Jonathon Scott (’95) was named the
associate registrar for Wake Technical
Community College. Darwin Hanna (’04) received
a master’s degree in tourism
administration from George Washington
Ramona Stone (’93) completed
the self-published book “A Year in the University in May.
Sun,” a first-person narrative of travel
and personal journey after the death Tamar Robinson (’04) became a board
certified behavior analyst in November
of her son, Chris, also a UNC Charlotte
graduate. The book chronicles a period 2007. She received her master’s
degree in special education with a
references to UNC Charlotte. Stone specialization in autism intervention
retired from UNC Charlotte in 1993.  and applied behavior analysis from the
University of North Texas in December
2006.
Laura Dean Train (’98) married
James William Train (’03) on April 19
in Burlington. The couple resides in James Robson (’04) passed both the
CCRN (adult critical care nursing) and
Columbus, Ohio.
CMC (adult cardiac medicine nursing)
Carrie Turner (’94) welcomed her certification exams from the American
first child, daughter Katie Ashlyn, in Association of Critical-Care Nurses
February. (AACN). He is a staff nurse in the
surgical-trauma intensive care unit at
Carolinas Medical Center.
What are you doing?
Do your old classmates know?
Do you have a new job?
Did you land a board position?
Is your family growing?
It is time to share what you’ve been up to lately and let other Alumns help
you toot your horn or spread the word on small or large achievements. Where
do you volunteer your time? Did you land your dream job or start a new
business or career? Whether you’ve become CEO or a new parent...
Visit Alumni Affairs Web site at www.unccharlottealumni.org
and tell us what you’ve been doing.
Or write Alumni Affairs, UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

The Heft of the Humanities
Deborah S. Bosley, Co-Director
UNC Charlotte Center for Humanities, Technology,
and Science
We live in a culture that worships technology and is awed by
science. Both have transformed the way we live, how we think
about our bodies, how we move through time and space, how we
communicate, and both have produced innovations that have made
this country highly ranked in the world. Because of this power, we
have become a culture dominated by, and under the dominance of,
science and technology.
No one would quarrel with the importance of the technological
professions: we need bridges, cell phones, computer applications,
stop lights, roads, medicine and medical equipment – we need most
of the products created by scientists and engineers. But it can be
a dangerous thing to focus less attention, both in universities and
among the public, on the humanities. The baseline of our cultural
and democratic triangle is the humanities, for they teach us what it
means to be human.
First, the humanities teach us how to stake our ground, how to
argue our point of view, and how to verbally and aesthetically
www.UNCC.edu UNC CHARLOTTE magazine
perspective | UNC CHARLOTTE
defend our democratic way of life. We need to be reminded that
we want a country in which people think and quarrel about the
universal human questions of good and evil, imagination and
change, compassion and hope, rights and responsibilities
Secondly, science and technology need the humanities to foster ethical
discussions about the consequences of scientific advancement and
technological innovation. Science knows much about the body, but
little of the soul. Technology gives us tools, but does not teach us
how to use them to understand good from evil. We believe both
science and technology will save us from our enemies and give
us better, healthier lives. But the humanities may, in fact, be the
best weapon we have to protect our culture. The humanities, the
force us to challenge the status quo; fire our creativity; make us
ponder ethical situations; and then help us make hard, personal,
professional, and political decisions.
Third, the humanities, science, and technology inevitably should
stream into one another. As Alan Lightman, professor of physics at
MIT and novelist (Einstein’s Dream) states: “You cannot understand
the sciences without first understanding the humanities.” We have
created a false dichotomy as if an ability in one area precludes the
importance of the other: instead, both need to know much more
about the other.
Creativity and innovation, two words frequently associated
with technology, are, after all, at the heart of the humanities. Ira
Flatow, from NPR’s Science Friday, gave a talk at UNC Charlotte
in April in which he showed how many innovations and inventions
came from musicians, actors, and others whom you would not
expect. Hedy Lamar, an actress in the 1940s, was an engineer.
She and a musician invented a device that allowed submarines to
communicate in code on the same frequencies; this device became
the precursor to what allows cell phones to communicate with one
another. Scientific insight and technological innovation do not
come only from scientists and technologists.
Finally, the humanities teach a facility with language. On a
practical level, corporations, governments, and non-profits are all
concerned about the lack of communication skills among college
graduates. Several national studies rank the abilities to write and
speak among the top hiring characteristics required of recent
graduates. A recent article in Newsweek indicated that 50% of
those applicants accepted into medical school are majors in the
humanities and, in particular, English majors because of their ability
to communicate clearly.
In spring 2008, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UNC
Charlotte launched its new Center for Humanities, Technology, and
Science (HTAS). One of the goals of HTAS is to help scientists
and technologists learn to communicate their research so that the
general public can understand what they are doing and thinking: to
de-mystify science, to bring understanding to the public.
If our citizenry is going to participate in the debates of global
warming, energy alternatives, internet voting, stem cells, etc.,
then scientific knowledge must be made clear to the non-scientific
public. That’s communication. That’s democracy. That’s nothing to
be overlooked.
An earlier version of this article was first published
in the CHARLOTTE VIEWPOINT, July 2008.
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