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GREENSBORO - Stanley Battle became N.C. A&T's chancellor just over a year ago, after a massive audit prompted a State Bureau of Investigation probe into school finances.

When he took the job, Battle said, morale was at an all-time low.

"I walked into the middle of a storm," said Battle, who spoke to a crowd of faculty and staff on their first day of the fall semester. "Everything about this university was being questioned."

Those were dark times, he said, that persisted until a few months ago. But things are changing.

"I couldn't have made this speech at commencement - we were still wading in the water - but I see this as an 'oh, happy day,'" he said.

Among the notable improvements highlighted in Battle's speech, the average SAT score for the incoming freshman class is 947, up 59 points from last year and the highest average in 25 years. The average lags behind the state average of 1008, Battle said, but he vowed to have the school there within a year.

The freshman class grade-point average - 3.22 - also is up.

Academics for current students are improving as well. Two years ago fewer than 69 percent of students in the School of Nursing passed NCLEX, the national exam required for licensure. That rose to a 96 percent pass rate last year with 26 students passing the exam.

Battle promised the nursing school a new facility for the work they've done.

"The students have worked har; the faculty have worked hard," said Patricia Chamings, interim dean of the School of Nursing.

Chamings said the hard work has included competency testing for all students to hold both students and teachers accountable. The school is also discouraging students from waiting too long after graduation to take the NCLEX.

Retention rates are up across the campus. Battle wants the school to have an 80 percent class-to-class retention rate within three years.

Frankie Day is director of the theatre arts program at A&T and has been with the school for more than 21 years. In recent years, she saw the school's legacy threatened. The school is leaving those days behind, she said, thanks to Battle's leadership.

"He has a vision; he knows what he wants," she said. "It's kind of like, 'Let's open it up and let people see us because we have nothing to hide.'"

Battle applauded faculty and staff for their work, encouraged them to stand together to return the school to greatness because, he said, "North Carolina A&T will succeed. A&T will thrive."

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com