PEMBROKE – Business education is on the upswing at UNC Pembroke. Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings said enrollment in business programs has ballooned over the past two years, reflecting students’ increased interest in job skills and entrepreneurship.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of students pursuing business degrees,” he said. “We have strong faculty, and we’re working to recruit a visionary dean to lead us into the future.”
Southeastern North Carolina lags much of the state in both employment and income, adding urgency to the push for greater economic engagement. The unemployment rate in Robeson County stands at more than 8 percent, well above the state average of 5.7 percent.1
Unfortunately, the business school’s aging quarters are stuck in the past. The cramped, low-slung building is 46 years old and looks more like a small high school than a modern business campus.
“To prepare our students for a modern work environment, and to give our faculty the right tools, we need a new space,” Dr. Cummings said.
If North Carolina voters approve in March, UNC Pembroke will get the chance to build a state-of-the-art space. The Connect NC bond proposal includes $23 million for a new business school on the Robeson County campus. The $2 billion bond package includes more than $1.3 billion for university and community-college projects across the state; officials emphasize that it would not require a tax increase.
In Pembroke, the new School of Business would not only serve the growing student interest in business degrees, but also complement UNC-P’s recently opened Entrepreneurship Incubator. That facility, in a renovated storefront downtown, has modern office space ready to welcome start-up businesses from across the region.
UNC-P business students will work with entrepreneurs to gain real-world experience in marketing, accounting, management and planning, and UNC-P faculty will provide consulting to new ventures.
Dr. Carmen Calabrese, who directs the University’s Thomas Center for Entrepreneurship, said a new business school would bolster both student education and UNC-P’s economic development efforts across southeastern North Carolina.
“It would help attract more students, and also bring in great professors,” Dr. Calabrese said. “We want people with real experience in the business world, who can give our students a very hands-on education. A new building makes a difference in recruiting that kind of talent.”
State Sen. Jane Smith, D-Robeson, said the project can only benefit the region.
“Economic development is a tough business,” Smith said. “This is a chance for us to grow our own businesses, to create our own jobs.”
1 https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NCROBE7URN
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