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GREENSBORO — The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering took off a little more than a year ago when it enrolled its first students, who are already participating in groundbreaking research.

But the UNC Board of Governors on Friday gave the school its final stamp of approval by granting N.C. A&T’s request to establish a nanoengineering program.

The program is the last of four that needed the board’s approval. The school is also offering a master’s degree in nanoengineering, and master’s and doctoral degrees in nanoscience.

UNCG and A&T are partners in the joint school. UNCG is offering the nanoscience degrees, while A&T will offer degrees in nanoengineering.

Nanoscience is the study of atoms and molecules smaller than 100 nanometers. It plays a role in innovative technologies developed in fields from electronics to medicine.

Both universities are hoping the school and the work that comes out of it will help raise their research profiles. Already, scientists there are involved in projects such as developing a handheld device to quickly detect mild brain injury.

UNC President Tom Ross held the school up as an example of what can happen when two universities work together.

Ross said that UNCG often discussed ways to partner with A&T when he served on UNCG’s board of trustees but that there were struggles.

“With these two chancellors, it took no pushing,” Ross said of UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady and A&T Chancellor Harold Martin during the meeting at UNCG. “They have been amazing partners, have worked together very closely, and I extend thanks to them for the partnership that they have built.”

Martin said students have enrolled in the school’s programs intending to pursue a doctoral degree.

Students have been studying in temporary spaces at the Gateway University Research Park’s south campus, as the school is built on East Lee Street. The universities will dedicate the building in December and open it in January.

Brady said after the meeting that the universities’ provosts are exploring other collaborative ventures, saying it’s “critically important” that the area’s two research institutions take advantage of each other’s strengths.

“We can do so much more together than either one of us can do separately,” she said.

Tuition discussions

In other business, Chairwoman Hannah Gage told the board it will begin preliminary discussions about tuition in November.
The board won’t vote on tuition until February but plans to discuss issues that could affect how much tuition is increased next year.

She said those discussions will include tuition costs at universities that are considered peers of UNC schools; the median income of the state’s families; the status of financial aid on each of the campuses; and the various other challenges the universities are facing as they deal with $1 billion in cuts over the past five years.

“We have to figure out how to continue to deliver quality education at a price that doesn’t take the public out of public education,” Gage told the board.

“There is no question that higher education costs a lot. We know that. But I suggest to you that the costs of ignorance and an uneducated state is a cost much greater to North Carolina.”

UNC leaders have asked campuses to gather information on the number of students who did not return to school this semester for financial reasons.

“We’ve had a number of students that had to stop out this semester and not enroll in classes so they can work in order to pay for their education,” Atul Bhula, president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, told the board.

Bhula said he’s visited campuses across the state over the past several months and heard many such stories.

“It’s real. It hurts, and it’s not going to get better unless we do something,” he said.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com.