The yin and yang and yin of higher education; North Carolina State University, UNC — Chapel Hill and Duke
I’m pretty excited about this evening’s dinner with the Boards of Trustees from NC State University and UNC — Chapel Hill. We all live and work together and are kind of the yin and yang of higher education locally. In fact, you could probably use the two as the definition of yin and yang in the dictionary…an example of how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world.
I don’t think anyone really knows what will come out of this first meeting between boards, but I’ve gotta believe it will be something good. But why not push for more?
As I noted last week, the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill region is a hotbed for higher education. In addition to the three major universities, we’ve got more than a handful of excellent smaller colleges and a strong community college system. A mecca for higher education if you will.
So, if our trustees can work well together and our faculty and staff are already working together, what about a joint effort to promote higher education in the triangle.  I think NC State, UNC – Chapel Hill and Duke are up for it. What about the others in the region. What do you think?
From today’s N&O:Â http://www.newsobserver.com/news/education/story/291630.html.
Passion Rules!
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“The ties between the schools are already substantial. NCSU faculty publish much more work with their counterparts at UNC-CH than with faculty of any other university. And the two schools have worked together on a host of programs and research projects, including a joint Department of Biomedical Engineering started in 2003 and built around N.C. State’s engineering college and UNC-CH’s medical school.
“Other examples include a push by both, with Duke and the nonprofit company RTI International, to land a federal energy innovation center. The two schools have a center with cutting-edge equipment for nanotechnology research, and they cooperate on social science work such as a study of the hazards facing young construction workers. Last year, researchers at NC State’s veterinary school and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center began working together to study a type of cancer that kills both humans and dogs.”
2 comments
I have found Chapel Hill and Duke folks very open to collaboration. We’ve been working with UNC developers on the NC State mobile project and it has worked out great for both parties. It is encouraging to see them setting up some more official collaboration. Gotta save those $$$$ any way we can…
Good to see trustees are on board with the concept of collaboration–something research faculty have been championing for years.
This productive outreach is the basis of the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research. The CCMTR has more than 100 NC State researchers from five colleges collaborating across campus disciplines and working in partnership with colleagues not only at UNC and Duke but with scientists across RTP and researchers in human and veterinary medicine across the country.
In his article the N&O’s Jay Price only touched upon a couple of the multitude of important research collaborations involving other institutions that are underway at NC State.
Could/ should this be part of our brand as a land-grant, research-centered university in the 21st century?
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