Life on Campus at NC State: What's Happening - April 2023

I last wrote one of these campus happenings posts back in January. Since that time, State MBB had its season end in a predictably frustrating fashion, State WBB saw their 3x streak of ACC Titles snapped, and the Pack9 has gotten off to a 2-4 series record in ACC play. Therefore, as I often do, I turned my attention back to NC State-related news that doesn't relate to on-field/on-court performance:

Donation from Doeren Family to Fund "OnePack Empowered":

Dave and Sara Doeren made a $1.25M commitment under the Doeren Family Fund to establish a new initiative at NCSU - "OnePack Empowered". This initiative will benefit NCSU students who face challenges with executive function skills, such as organization, planning, setting priorities, task completion, and decision-making. The hope is that the Doerens' donation to establish the program will push other donors to join them in contributing to OnePack Empowered.

This is an incredibly kind and gracious gesture from the Doerens that will assist a number of students at NC State for years to come that will also make the University a better and more inclusive institution.

NCSU Partners With 321 Coffee:

321 Coffee is a locally-based coffee shop & roaster founded by NC State alumni. 321 Coffee's mission is to foster inclusion, which is exhibited by the fact that they currently employ over 50 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The partnership between NCSU and 321 Coffee resulted in the “Greater Good” coffee blend, which is available for purchase directly from 321 Coffee. The packaging features NC State branding and one of 321's baristas, Sam.

Check out the video below for the reveal of "Greater Good":

There's also an NC State Philanthropy podcast, which can be found here, that features an interview with 321 Coffee founders, Lindsay Wrege and Michael Evans.

Stadium Series Economic Impact:

The NHL Stadium Series game between the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals took place at Carter-Finley Stadium back in February. The weather was perfect, the tailgate was an all-timer, and the game wasn't even as close as the final 4-1 score indicated.

The most notable aspect of this game from an NC State perspective was that the event also put a massive spotlight on both Raleigh & NC State. See below for the intro video that was played prior to the teams taking the ice:

As the link above from Visit Raleigh explains, it is estimated that the Stadium Series game on 2/18 resulted in $13.6M in total economic impact for the area and that the events across the entire weekend - which consisted of a Canes game against the Montreal Canadiens at PNC Arena; the Hurricanes FanFest in Downtown Raleigh; a Hootie & the Blowfish concert at PNC Arena; the Truly Hard Seltzer PreGame FanFest; the Stadium Series game; the MBB game between UNC and NC State; and the club hockey game between UNC and NC State at Carter-Finley - generated $20.1M in economic impact.

This event was a huge win for both Raleigh and NC State that will hopefully position the area to host other events of this scale in the future.

Carter-Finley Scoreboard Renovation Underway:

As I outlined above, the Stadium Series game was basically perfect; however, if there was one aspect that clearly was lacking, it was trying to decipher what went on during a replay given the "pixelated-ass mess" (scientific term) that was the Carter-Finley video board. However, as was mentioned in the January post, the Carter-Finley video board will be totally replaced in advance of the 2023 season. See below for some pics of the progress from early March:

Update on Future of PNC Arena:

This post I made back in December 2022 detailed much of what has been publicly announced for PNC Arena renovations and surrounding area development. In February 2023, the article linked above from the N&O indicated that PNC Arena's Centennial Authority will be working with its consultant, CAA ICON, over the next 8-10 weeks to estimate specific costs associated with the renovations and to prepare options to present to the City of Raleigh and to Wake County. This meeting is scheduled to occur in June 2023 and the Centennial Authority is expected to request tourism taxes from the City and the County to fund the proposed renovations.

The planned upgrades include: a new grand entry lobby at the south end of the building with space for a future sportsbook; an updated building exterior; new/updated bars on the main concourse and in the upper level that would over look the arena bowl; premium lounge/club areas beneath the stands and under the main concourse; a “view terrace” on the upper level of PNC facing Carter-Finley; and a new road that would connect the arena perimeter with Edwards Mill at the intersection with Wade Park Boulevard.

In somewhat related news, PNC and the Centennial Authority also recently came to an agreement to extend PNC's naming rights of the Arena for another 2 years.

Poole College of Management Explores Centennial Campus Expansion:

The Poole College of Management ("PCOM") at NCSU is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and, as these TBJ articles explain [Article 1 and Article 2], PCOM has been exploring a potential expansion to Centennial Campus. PCOM's current home is Nelson Hall, which was previously home to NCSU's College of Textiles.

As NCSU's engineering and textiles practices grew over the past few decades, those programs opened additional space on Centennial Campus. Now PCOM is looking to do the same with a process that could take up to a decade to complete and that would involve requesting funding from the NC General Assembly and fundraising through PCOM's donor base.

If NCSU is able to fund and construct a new PCOM facility, it would likely result in something similar to what engineering/textiles students currently do - with freshmen/sophomores continuing to spend most of their time on main campus, then transitioning to having some courses on Centennial junior year, and then having most senior & graduate level courses exclusively in a new facility on Centennial.

As a 2013 PCOM grad, I've always been a fan of Nelson Hall as I enjoyed having most of my undergraduate courses on main campus. However, the space limitations at Nelson have grown more challenging as the College has grown. Additionally, other business schools have opened new facilities and/or have undergone massive renovation efforts of their current spaces.

PCOM not only needs a new facility to house its growing student enrollment, but also needs to be able to compete with the facilities offered by other business programs at peer universities.

From an historical perspective, the College of Management at NCSU has only been around since 1992 and the MBA program at the University was only founded in 2002. Essentially, NCSU has been playing catch-up with its business school since the time it was founded. Additional space and updated facilities for PCOM are needed to continue to foster the growth that's been seen since these programs were instituted. Providing a new facility for PCOM will be by far and away the most transformative project for the College since Lonnie Poole's $40M donation back in 2011.

Future of the Brickyard:

It was previously announced that a new Integrated Sciences Building was going to be the (eventual) replacement for Harrelson Hall in the Brickyard with an estimated completion date of 2027.

However, additional future changes could be coming to the Brickyard as NCSU is looking to re-grade the surface of the Brickyard to make it more accessible. This would involve replacing the original bricks that were installed in the 1960s with new bricks in similar colors/patterns.

Other News:

Jimmy V to be Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Ray Romano Provides Update on Jimmy V Movie at 38:17 Time Stamp of 4/19 Podcast of The Dan Lebatard Show

Christina Koch, NCSU Alumni, Selected by NASA for Moon Mission

Under Armour Teams With NCSU

"Aura Blue Ridge" Apartments to Replace Ramada Across from PNC

Hillsborough/Blue Ridge Construction Continues

"Micro" Apartment Units to Come to Hillsborough?

NCSU Purchases University Towers

CaliBurger to Move into Old Hillsborough St. Arby's

"The Lansing Condos" and "29 Enterprise Condos" to be Constructed Near Campus

Trea & Kristen Turner Donate $1M to support the NC State Baseball Stadium Enhancement Fund and Pack Gymnastics

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Go Pack.