We’ve been having fun the last few weeks sharing Greensboro-centric stories with you ahead of The Thread ‘s official launch on July 16.
This week we want to share our coverage of N.C. A&T’s next chancellor and other stories of interest in the Greensboro area. If you like what you see, please consider telling a friend to sign up.
Morning, gang.
If you haven’t yet heard, there’s a new leader in Aggieland.
On Friday, the UNC Board of Governors elected James R. Martin II the next chancellor of N.C. A&T. The Assembly broke the story hours ahead of the official vote, including concern from some search advisory board members about the chancellor-elect’s lack of experience with historically Black colleges and universities (HCBUs).
That debate is likely to linger, but Martin addressed it in his opening speech. He talked about his own hard road out of rural South Carolina and the role higher education played in transforming his life and that of his family. The road might have been smoother had he attended an HBCU, he said, where he could have concentrated on excelling academically without the additional labor of fitting into predominantly white spaces and facing racism.
The chancellor-elect has big shoes to fill. Harold Martin—no relation—has been at the helm of the university for 15 years. In that time, he’s helped transform the campus from a beloved but struggling Greensboro institution to the nation’s largest HBCU, an academic powerhouse that attracts students from all across the nation and abroad with a $2.4 billion statewide economic impact.
I was a young reporter at the News & Record when Martin became the first alumnus to become chancellor. I’ll never forget the rapturous welcome he was given and how he used his first address to the campus to highlight its many problems—something many Aggies didn’t want to hear—and how they were going to fix them together through hard work and vision.
The new chancellor Martin is inheriting a very different university, one on the verge of becoming the first HBCU to be designated an R1 research university. But he’s also entering a UNC System that’s very different from the one in which his predecessor began his leadership journey—one now governed by conservative political appointees, hostile to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and which insists universities, their leaders, and faculty remain neutral on contemporary political and social matters. That’s a fraught position for the leader of a university with a proud history of social activism that most students and faculty consider central to its identity.
Martin seems confident he can navigate that terrain.
“Expectations are high,” Martin told the crowd at his welcome event Friday. “Good. This place is about excellence.”
“You will know you selected the right person,” he promised. “No doubt about that.”
Read our full story here.
— Joe Killian
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
This week we want to make sure you check out a terrific and bizarre story from contributing writer Sayaka Matsuoka. She and her husband Sam ventured out to the 2024 Cosmic Summit at the Koury Convention Center—a gathering of those who want to believe.
In what, exactly? A lot of things, as it turns out…
From the story:
“Ancient lost civilizations, sacred geometry, UFOs, cold fusion, alien technology, thunderstorm generators.
At first blush, none of these things appear to have anything in common. But at Greensboro’s Koury Convention Center in mid-June, these ideas—most of them controversial—found a home at the 2024 Cosmic Summit.
I watched on in utter fascination and mild horror as Sam, my husband, laid face-up on a massage table covered with a plush, cheetah-print throw and two glass cones buttressing the ends. Looking not unlike giant bongs you might pack and smoke something out of, the glass containers filled with amber light as he closed his eyes.”
At the Cosmic Summit, a Proliferation of Conspiracy Theories, Distrust in Institutions and a Yearning for the ‘Truth’
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What We’re Reading
Jesus, Pride, and Liberation: As Pride month winds down, the Rev. Holden Cession takes a look at the past, present, and future of LGBTQ Pride through a spiritual lens for Triad City Beat.
Cone Health Joining Risant: Last week, Cone Health announced it would become part of Risant Health, a Kaiser Permanente-backed non-profit based in Washington, D.C. Business North Carolina has the story.
Preventing Evictions Beyond the Pandemic: Next City examines the Tenant Education Advocacy Mediation (TEAM) project, which prevented evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and is looking to become a permanent fixture in Greensboro.
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
Around the State
How Jewish Democrats Are Navigating a Difficult Year
As the war in Gaza continues, gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein and other Jewish politicians are subtly maneuvering to hold their traditional coalition together.
North Carolina A&T Names Its Next Leader
The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to approve James R. Martin II, a current vice chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh, as the next leader of the country’s largest HBCU.
Dads of Death Row
Fathers on North Carolina’s death row are navigating complicated relationships with their children amid uncertainty about their fate.
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