Hickory Campus Building

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I was the guest speaker for the Catawba Valley Astronomy Club on Thursday and while in Hickory I drove by the Hickory Campus. That is a big building with space to grow into and plenty of parking it would seem, but there is also room it seems for another building if it takes off and grows. The parking lot in the rear is bigger than I thought from looking at Google Earth and though there is a cemetery beside the parking lot there also seems to be some green space that may not be part of the cemetery that provides a bit more room.

The one road that goes away from 321 runs up beside the Hickory Airport and has a great view of the South Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains as well. I had not been on that road in a few years and forgot how nice of a view that is.

[BambooRdApp]

It is the old Sie-Cor building I believe. My wife worked in the building for a while when with Sie-Cor. It is a nice size building. I believe the easy access to a decent size hwy (321) will help with enrollment as well.

[Captain Morgan]

gotta think this kind of expansion is our future....where else can we go? Statesville? Lenoir?

[311neers]

gotta think this kind of expansion is our future....where else can we go? Statesville? Lenoir?

Would love to see us go another hour to Charlotte for an Uptown CLT satellite program. Would attract upper 20’s to 30 year olds. If nothing more than just seeing the block “A” on a building in a city with 1.5M people would help the brand/University a lot.

[appdaze]

Hickory had not been claimed by another state college, and App has been doing cohorts at CVCC and elsewhere for some time. That, and 321, the Hickory move, made sense. If we hadn't done it, UNCC would have eventually.

If you look at this slightly jumbled map, you can get a picture of what open territory with no main campus remains.

We cant expand to Asheville or Gastonia/clt/concord. Winston to Raleigh is claimed. Statesville is too close to Hickory. I think Hickory is it for true major expansions.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

gotta think this kind of expansion is our future....where else can we go? Statesville? Lenoir?

One good thing about Hickory is that it is far enough away to not be so close as to just say "drive on to Boone" but close enough that it is possible for a professor to drive down the mountain some, maybe not every semester but it is an option as needed. And Hickory is the population center of the Unifor area. I think Lenoir is a bit too close and Statesville is a bit too far away to check all of those boxes. Morganton could work as well but Hickory and Catawba County has the population.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

gotta think this kind of expansion is our future....where else can we go? Statesville? Lenoir?

Would love to see us go another hour to Charlotte for an Uptown CLT satellite program. Would attract upper 20’s to 30 year olds. If nothing more than just seeing the block “A” on a building in a city with 1.5M people would help the brand/University a lot.

I am not fond of this as I do not like seeing us compete with sister colleges on the academic side, in that sort of way. I do not like seeing UNC-CH plop down an MBA program in Charlotte. It is a slap in the face of UNCC. Co-brand with a co-degree or something if fine but Charlotte is UNC-C territory and WNC down to Mt Mitchell and over to Statesville and Surry should be App territory and then UNCG and A&T and WSSU can split the area up or UNCA and WCU can do so as well and some areas overlap of course but even there there will be some historical situations there with HBCU and such that make the history of the schools not overlap directly.

[BambooRdApp]

Not sure Statesville, Lenoir or Morganton make sense. Too close to Hickory. Charlotte has some positives given population density. Asheville or Winston seem to make more sense to me. Wake is private. App would provide another public school option to other schools in WS/Gboro area. With all this said, I do not see further expansion happening anytime soon..In Hickory, no real public school competition. Also, not too bad of a commute if professors have to travel down the mountain. Also, housing costs overall are cheaper in Hickory overall compared to Boone these days (maybe more so for students).

[Tru2ASU]

With almost 300 million in construction projects planned for campus over the next 5 years (not including Hickory or Walker Hall), I would say expansion to another town is probably on the backburner. A small 2nd building has been only discussed (lightly)in Hickory. But, buildings are always being looked at, and discussed, as they hit the open market.

[BallantyneApp]

gotta think this kind of expansion is our future....where else can we go? Statesville? Lenoir?

Would love to see us go another hour to Charlotte for an Uptown CLT satellite program. Would attract upper 20’s to 30 year olds. If nothing more than just seeing the block “A” on a building in a city with 1.5M people would help the brand/University a lot.

I am not fond of this as I do not like seeing us compete with sister colleges on the academic side, in that sort of way. I do not like seeing UNC-CH plop down an MBA program in Charlotte. It is a slap in the face of UNCC. Co-brand with a co-degree or something if fine but Charlotte is UNC-C territory and WNC down to Mt Mitchell and over to Statesville and Surry should be App territory and then UNCG and A&T and WSSU can split the area up or UNCA and WCU can do so as well and some areas overlap of course but even there there will be some historical situations there with HBCU and such that make the history of the schools not overlap directly.

Unc executive mba is tailored around people that were going to CH or Duke or another elite university to get a sheet of paper to get a promotion. These people aren’t going to pay the executive price for a piece of paper that says UNCC (or App for that matter). It’s not about the quality of the education, just about the name on the paper for big corporations.

To me, as we go past peak enrollment it won’t be so much satellite campuses as much as consolidation.

For me the perfect plan would be for App to subsume UNCA. Put our graduate and eventual professional programs in Asheville in a more urban environment, Boone is the undergrad center of excellence, Hickory houses a little of both and Admin.

[Bootsy]

Limiting expansion to Hickory is the prudent move for App right now.

If demographic trends continue, I believe the university will be satisfied they decided not to pursue a larger geographic footprint.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I know why the MBA program was started in Charlotte and I still do not like it. It should be co-branded and let UNCC milk it a bit for marketing. One could allow the student to choose what the degree says as far as schools. If everyone chose UNC-CH then fine, but UNCC can still claim it as partly their own.

Do you think WCU and UNCA would merge before APP and UNCA? The drive time is 1/2 almost to the minute and the distance is about 2/3 the distance. Though if a merger of the mountains schools were to happen it wold seem the population of App would be over 50% of all three combined campuses and would control the admin and such. GaSo and Armstrong are about 1 hour away which is close to the same as WCU to UNCA.

Consolidation in the upper Piedmont would be a mess with UNCG being the biggest by far of three schools but sandwiched between two HBCUs. And there is UNCSA as well in there. UNCP and FSU could happen though the Lumbee tribe would not be happy. My suggestion is that ECSU just merge with Norfolk State and be done with it. Va can have that entire corner.

This is fun to think about how this could work out.

[Rekdiver]

Queens University had an executive MBA in CLT long before any of the State schools thought about it. Hugh McColl a UNC grad was the catalyst behind it. UNC coming to town makes no sense but if you can get an MBA and not attend any classes…..

[T-Dog]

Hickory is as far as App should go west for the foreseeable future. You could make an argument for everything north and west of I-40/I-77 from Hickory to Statesville to Mt. Airy.

My big student worry going forward for App State and the smaller non-HBCU UNC System schools is the big rural NC push toward Career and Technical Education (CTE) and community colleges. Lots of principals and HS admis are falling in love with workforce training starting in high school partnering with CC's that given the kids college credits. Some are even graduating high school with associates degrees. And the state legislature is going to fall in love with it too as the argument is that'll help plug up a shrinking workforce in certain skilled positions. They'll pass laws to deregulate how much training or certifications one needs for those positions. As I heard from the mouth of one NC community college president in the last year, "the world needs ditch diggers."

It might not soon affect App State, but I can see a school like UNCA or UNCP have enrollment declines.

[appdaze]

Hickory is as far as App should go west for the foreseeable future. You could make an argument for everything north and west of I-40/I-77 from Hickory to Statesville to Mt. Airy.

My big student worry going forward for App State and the smaller non-HBCU UNC System schools is the big rural NC push toward Career and Technical Education (CTE) and community colleges. Lots of principals and HS admis are falling in love with workforce training starting in high school partnering with CC's that given the kids college credits. Some are even graduating high school with associates degrees. And the state legislature is going to fall in love with it too as the argument is that'll help plug up a shrinking workforce in certain skilled positions. They'll pass laws to deregulate how much training or certifications one needs for those positions. As I heard from the mouth of one NC community college president in the last year, "the world needs ditch diggers."

It might not soon affect App State, but I can see a school like UNCA or UNCP have enrollment declines.

The vast majority of students that were going to go to college still are. The ones that had no real intention to go still aren't going. The CTE push is great for the 65%ish of students who don't go to 4 year college. Community college populations have been dropping so of course they are looking at ways to bolster that but the CTE degrees are mostly terminal and do not transfer. The reality is, is that we have a gap in our workforce with the massive push in the 90's and 2000's to get students in 4 year colleges. You were a failure if you didn't go. That was the mindset in so many places that we now have too many skilled jobs and not enough skilled labor. I'm fine with the CTE push.

[Stonewall]

Hickory is it for the foreseeable future , most reasons outlined above.But who knows what things will look like in ten years ?It does hold the potential for a 10,000 plus student full scale "campus" .

[APPdiesel]

Whether on main campus or off I’d love to see App develop a higher dollar degree program. I know it’s hard with the UNC cartel wanting to control all of those programs but a medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or legal program would really help with profile and down the road with athletic donations from alums with more disposable income.

If a merger or an expansion were to happen down the road I’d hope it would be to acquire or start one of those.

I’d always heard rumor of a possible partnership with Lance Armstrong to develop a sports science program…whatever happened to that?

[TheMoody1]

I’d always heard rumor of a possible partnership with Lance Armstrong to develop a sports science program…whatever happened to that?

https://www.marca.com/en/more-sports/20 ... b4573.html

You are kidding, right?

[BallantyneApp]

I’d always heard rumor of a possible partnership with Lance Armstrong to develop a sports science program…whatever happened to that?

https://www.marca.com/en/more-sports/20 ... b4573.html

You are kidding, right?

worked for UNC

[APPdiesel]

This was before the massive doping scandal. It was my understanding he owned a home and trained in the high country. It’s just what I’d heard.