 Good morning, everyone. Welcome. I'd like to call the March 9, 2001 Board of Trustees meeting to order. And I'd like to call now on our distinguished trustee, Kennis Wilkins to provide the invocation for us. Thank you, church. Invocation today will be based upon signs 91. Let's pray. Your father, God, we come to you with all reverence and honor. We love you and we thank you for being our father. Your word remind us that a father pitted his children. So you pitted them who honor and adore you. We are eternally grateful to you for all things that pertain to life and goodness. We thank you for the vision of this university. A vision that gathered us to be a premier public institution, a leading partner for economic, social environment progress, a destination institution that developed leaders, leaders who would make a positive difference now and in the future. We thank you, Lord, for the leaders of this great university, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor and her administrative team, the faculty members, Board of Governors, Governors and the entirety of the UNC system. Lord, together, each of us seek to make North Carolina a better place for all of our citizens, people, all races, babies, sexes. In spite of our differences, Lord, we may come together to make it better for all. Father, as leaders and trustees, we seek to make wise and God honor the decisions. Father, we seek to cast a broad vision. We seek to make sure that the right resources, both personnel and otherwise, are available in the right places at the right time. As we gathered this morning to be about the business of this great university, we humbly ask for your guidance, your protection and your presence. We ask for your guidance because you are the God who gives great vision. We need vision to fulfill our government's role at this great university. We ask for your protection because you are the God that take us through great adversity. Physical, political, personal challenges are no match for your protection. We ask for your presence because you are so the God who guide us to victory. Father, we declare that in you we will walk in safety. You are our God, our confidence, our total dependence is in you, Lord. Father, in this season COVID-19 pandemic, may we rest in your protection. May you protect each of us against the destructive force of every deadly disease. Thank you for your protective wings being around us, above us and surrounding us as a shelter. Father, we declare this because you have ordered your angels to protect us wherever we go. Father, we stand upon your promise of old to Joshua and Deuteronomy 31A, the promise that you will go before us to prepare our way, the promise that you will present with us every day, and the promise that your power will never fail nor forsake us. Father, in the matchless name of your son Jesus Christ, we ask all these petitions. Amen. Amen. Thank you. We have been fortified this morning. Thank you, trustee. Welcome. Yes, ma'am. Right. I'd like to take a moment before we move into our agenda to just welcome Governor Powers, who is with us this morning. Welcome, Governor Powers. Always nice to have you with the Vikings. Great to be here, Madam Chair. Great to be here. I want to say hello to everybody and thank you all. We've been through a pretty trying year. Coming on that first year anniversary, right? This week or so. And you and your colleagues around the system have really done a great job of keeping us on track as best we possibly can in very different, difficult circumstances. So on behalf of my board, I want to give you my most sincere and deepest thanks for the job you have done. I'm trying to keep things going, but keep things going strong and growing. I mean, y'all have just been what Chancellor Dixon has been able to do with her board and her staff and her faculty's help and her students' help is pretty amazing in this environment. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I look forward to better years ahead, even better years ahead as we go through. Thank you, Governor Powers. And we appreciate that our success is the system success and that we are highly united in becoming more so. So thank you again for being with us this morning. Look forward to that time I can make that pretty drive out there and spend some time with in person please. Excellent. Alrighty, as chair of the ECSU Board of Trustees, I want to remind everyone that we'll be conducting today's meeting pursuant to the new amendments to the Open Meetings Act that apply during states of emergency. The amendments were signed into law and allow for public bodies to meet the electronic means. The new law does require, however, that we take all votes via roll call, which we will do today. Additionally, pursuant to the amendments to the law all chats, instant messages, text, or other written communications between members of the board regarding transactions of the public business during the remote meeting are deemed to be public record. I will ask all committee members, board members, and participating staff to please identify yourself before participating in deliberations, including making motions, proposing amendments and raising points of order. As chair of the Board of Trustees, it is also my responsibility to remind all members of the board of their duty under the State Government Ethics Act to avoid conflicts of interest and appearances of conflict of interest, as required by this act. Each member has received the agenda and related information for this Board of Trustees meeting. If any board member knows of any conflict of interest or parents of conflict with respect to any matter coming before the Board of Trustees at this meeting, the conflict or appearance of conflict should be identified at this time. Thank you. I call on Ms. Sanders for roll call. I'm sorry, that's Trustee Johnson for roll call. Good morning. Good morning. I would like to ask the board members to take their mute buttons off so that we can get through this part quickly and then turn them back on as soon as you answer present. Harold Bonds. Harold Bonds. Phyllis Bosenworth. Present. Kim Brown. Present. Lynn Bunch. Present. Andy Cole Pepper. Present. Jimmy Chambers. Present. Christine Evans. Christine Evans. Stephanie Johnson present. Jan King Robinson. Present. Tracy Swain. Tracy Swain. Paul Tine. Present. Paul Bonds. Present. Thank you. You might put your mute buttons back on. Thank you, Trustee Johnson. We will move to our consent agenda. We discussed these matters yesterday during committee meetings. We are asking for approval of a selected firm for the Rosenwald School of School and Principles House of Renovation and approval of selected firm for HVAC systems upgrade project. I will ask for a motion. Kenneth Wilkins will likely make a motion for approval of the selected firm for Rosenwald School and Principles House of Renovation. Thank you. Should we do both at the same time? We can do the consent agenda. You can do the entire consent agenda. And Madam Chair, don't forget about the other two items, the contracts as well. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have that before me. It's on the agenda. You want me to do all of those? You can approve the consent agenda in total. The other two items that were on the consent agenda are men's basketball coach and ball coach. All of those are in the consent agenda together, ABC and D. Yes, they are. I'm happy to read those if you like. Perfect. Thank you. The consent agenda, approval of selected firm for Rosenwald School and Principles House of Renovation, approval of selected firm for HVAC systems upgrade project, men's head football and head basketball coach contracts, one year extension and Board of Trustees meetings one day for that. Perfect. Thank you. Madam Trustee, I would like to make the motion to approve the consent agenda. Thank you. May I have a second please. The list balsam or second. Thank you. Any discussion. This is consent agenda so we can move right to the roll call the Sanders door roll call vote for the consent agenda. Trustee Barnes. Trustee Bosenworth offered the second. Trustee Brown. Yes. Trustee Bunch. Yes. Trustee Culpepper. Yes. Trustee Chambers. Yes. Trustee Evans. I'm not sure if she has joined. Trustee Johnson. Yes. Trustee Robinson. Yes. Trustee Swain. Trustee Tine. Yes. And trustee Wilkins offered the motion for the consent agenda stands approved. Thank you. All right, I'd like to call on trustee Lynn Bunch for our report on the Committee on academic excellence and strategic growth. Madam chair if you can we go back to the approval of the minutes. Oh, I'm sorry. I did skip that. Thank you. May have a motion for approval of minutes for the December 14, 2020 board meeting. Lynn Bunch moved to approve. I have a second. All time second. Thank you. Any discussion. May have roll call. Miss Sanders roll call for the approval of the board minutes from the December 2020 meeting. Trustee Bosenworth. Yes. Trustee Brown. Yes. Trustee Bunch offered the motion. Trustee Culpepper. Yes. Trustee Chambers. Yes. Trustee Johnson. Yes. Trustee Robinson. Yes. Trustee Tine offered the second. And trustee Wilkins. Yes. Thank you. Chair Robinson. Thank you. Alrighty, we will move to trustee Bunch for our committee report on academic excellence and strategic growth. Thank you. Before I proceed with the official report from the committee, I'd like to take just a moment to commend Provost Ward and her staff for the commendable job that they've done this year. While dealing with all the changes in classes and types of instruction, they've also done a phenomenal job on preparation for the sax reaffirmation. So I'd just like to take a moment and commend her and her staff for the excellent job that they've done. We have talked many times over the years, over this year. And I could tell that she was extremely stressed, but she was taken it with poise and just doing a phenomenal job. So thank you. Okay. The academic excellence and strategic growth had no action items. As information, the committee received an update on the sax COC reaffirmation timeline. The on-site visit will be conducted virtually on March the 15th through 18th 2021. Provost Ward informed us that the Department of Business Accounting and Sports Management was reaffirmed with AACSB International Accreditation and that ECSU is the only HBCU with AACSB accredited sport management program. An update was provided regarding the $1 million COVID-19 mitigation grant. The testing occurred between October 15th and December 31, 2020 and served 21 counties. A total of 596 tests were conducted with 52 positive cases. Provost Ward shared the continued ongoing efforts throughout the campus regarding COVID-19. Information was shared regarding the various student engagement opportunities held virtually on campus. We're also currently working on certificate program criteria that's being reviewed and will be adding at least two new certificate programs for the 2021-22 academic year. The aviation science program has purchased two additional aircrafts and this brings our total of aircrafts to 14. And we also were notified that we have received the 25 million U.S. Coast Guard grant to fund restoration of the additional runway at the airport. Dr. Ward advised ECSU that advised us that ECSU and COA have executed bilateral agreements in business administration and social work programs. Provost Ward provided updates regarding the winter open house and the success of this event. And additionally, admissions is continuing the recruitment efforts virtually throughout the spring semester. Enrollment data for spring 2021 and fall 2021 was provided and showed increases in both applications and confirmation. Information on ECSU's inclusion in the common college black application was provided regarding the total application submitted, total complete applications, admitted applications and confirmed applications. This is the report from our committee. Thank you. Alrighty. I will now call on Trustee Kim Brown for the report from the committee on student excellence. Good morning. During the committee of student excellence, we received informational updates from our athletics director department. Mr. George Bright, vice chancellor for student affairs, Dr. Gary Brown and student government association president, Mr. Jimmy Chambers. Our athletics director highlighted the following. We are privileged that two Elizabeth City State University alums have been inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame. They are Celeste Trayhan and the honorable Johnny Walton. He also updated us on student athletes and what their GPAs were. And the categories based upon GPA standards that have been established. We reviewed the 2021 softball schedule. And we did an in service on alumni booster requirements and those things that are not acceptable for boosters to participate in. During the division of student affairs update, vice chancellor Gary Brown provided an overview to include the spring 2020 update, which was broken into three categories, our reentry process and mandatory prescreening and negative COVID results. He informed us that we have a 71% occupancy rate of residents on campus. To date we had 26 confirmed COVID cases opportunities to host a COVID vaccine clinic on our campus were also discussed. I will also highlight the one of the things that was commendable about our student body is how many young people called before they even came to the campus, because they had already identified themselves as COVID positive and did not want to bring them to the campus so that speaks a lot about the maturity of our student body, and then engagement opportunities during COVID with our young people once again, hats off to all of our staff and the student body for the way they have mitigated COVID. It is just really impressive. This is a story that should be told strategic plan goals he went over with us that we had 58 virtual events held in fall with just under 5000 students participating to date just under $600,000 in grants have been sought, and $71,000 has already been awarded we have not received a no from anyone that we applied or requested grant funds from engagement of corporate connections and career conversations. And he dealt with the internships for our students talked about a spring many professional development and onboarding conference that scheduled for late March, and then review the campus climate survey, which was launched with a total of 537 respondents our goal was 500 professional initiatives he talked about project gap and their product progress with Golden Leaf Foundation, the governor's crime Commission grant and community connections. Program in which we were just privileged to have Nikki Giovanni lecture with over 700 registrants which is unbelievable. And then finally SGA President, Jimmy chambers highlighted 2021 goals for SGA. He talked about the importance of how they've managed to student activity fee and how they explained to students what that is used for he mentioned that the fix it ticket is in the final stages of completion, and that the UNC advocacy week was held on January 16 through 19. He also highlighted highlighted major events during the spring which included a town hall meeting, HBC you SGA presidents convening and the upcoming elections for student leaders for the next season of leadership. He also highlighted Royal Coronation crowning Miss Michaela Stoke less miss Elizabeth City State University and minister and Mr. normal practice Mr. Elizabeth City State University. This concludes the report from the student excellence committee. Thank you very much trustee Brown. All right, we're going to move on now to trustee Wilkins who provide the committee report on operational excellence trustee Wilkins. Please unmute. Good morning. I just want to make a statement before I start. You know I'm a graduate of Elizabeth City State University. I graduated here in 1977. I just want to look back on where we have come from. And now where our campus is today and the leaders that we have had and see and see me every leader we had we got a better leader each time. So now we have a, another leader that's taken us through another, another level so we appreciate her for what she's doing. On the committee of operational excellence, Vice Chancellor Alan Goodson gave us an update on the committee members on the following projects. 800 ton chiller constructions underway to improve the university cooling system. This upgrade will provide additional cooling to the campus, and this to be completed by the end of summer 2021. The Victorian repairs have been gone, and, and teams were asked to prioritize roof repairs by residence halls and key buildings. Vice Hall has a finishing point dated for the first week in April. He gave us a sneak peek, he gave us a sneak peek of the upgrades by way of a slide presentation was given to board members with pictures of the updated corridors to include modern flooring, crown molding, modern lighting, and a wonderful longevity. Very beautiful building. GR a little library, a connect bond project has been completed by Chancellor Goodson shared pictures of the upgrades. But we still need that new library is a government powers. We still need that new library. We're, we're, we're hopefully we need all that think you're okay I know you can do it right. Yes, sir. Yeah, more hall and connect bond project expect to get beneficial occupancy within the coming weeks. The station track is upgrade is going on. A new project upgrading the bond selling pool area will introduce with a slide presentation of needed repairs of the pool railing outdated fan core unit and replacement of the floors inside locker room and shower area. Project completion is for the fall of the semester. The committee approved two items to action items, approve a selected firm for the H back mechanical system upgrade renovation. Motion was made by trustee swing, second by trustee chambers, the roll call vote outcome, all approved. A second action item was approval of the selected firm for the Rosenwald school and principal house renovation. A second action item was made by trustee swing, second by trustee Bosnward, the roll call outcome, all approved. We all had a report from the chief information officer, so Reese Merrigan, sharing an update on just teaching initiatives. That operated excellence, develop it governments committee to prioritize standardized consolidate overseas technology growth. The Charlie framework has become has been completed and it governments council members identified. We had a report from the director for strategic communications. Miss Michelle ball. It was reported that the communication and marketing department is creating a process procedures, institutional tools for internal communication. It was also reported that an internet site for employees and students is being developed. This is to be completed by the end of the summer. Lastly, the social media sites have shown significant growth by followers. This is to report to the committee of operational excellence. Thank you. Thank you trustee Wilkins. We will now move to trustee Andy Culpepper who will provide us with the committee report on finance audit and university advancement trustee Culpepper. Thank you madam chairman. During the committee on finance audit and university advancement. March the eighth 2021 committee received updates from finance internal audit and university advancement vice chancellor for business in finance leasing the clinic. She presented information items, no action items. The information items were updates on the completed audit. fiscal year 21 general fund and trust and an all January budgets. COVID funded that ECSU has received. And a financial outlook for the fiscal year 22 general fund budget. The expenditures of the 2000. Excuse me of 1231 20 the six months in in 1231 20 were favorable at 46.9% of budget and trust in our jewelry fund balance where 27.5 million with 15 million of that. And I believe that was the best as been in a long time, even with that 15 million gift. I know it's the best as been in the last six years since I've been chairman of this committee. So we're looking good financially. She followed it officer, she needed Parker, presented information items only, which was a summary of completed reports to reports completed this quarter were financial aid operations and follow up. I just realized. Which resulting in no recommendations and purchasing process accounts payable. I'm sorry. It's completely went blank. I told you yes, I couldn't read. I had. I've been since the last meeting. I'm supposed to be able to read but I address is that sometimes it can focus focus. I'm sorry. Vice chancellor for university. Advancement and need a white excuse me I skipped it. Anyway, we had no action items from Miss Parker on the audit function. And vice chancellor for the university advancement and need a watch and providing committee with an update on fundraising fundraising progress today. Key data points that assist with quality control relationship building and help eliminate waste and update. Policies and procedures, engagement plan and that comes list. Elicitations and acceptable. Plans that dollars. I'm sorry. I printed it out. Let me see if I can read that. I'm sorry. Thank you. Miss Anderson, can you finish it for me? I can't see it. I'm sorry. No problem. We thank you. Bestie. Miss Sanders. I can't read it. I was starting with miss. Are we starting with, can, can you all see the screen? Yes. Okay. Are we starting with advancement? Yes, ma'am. Certainly. I'll be happy to share that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have an update with an update on fundraising progress to date. Key data points that assist with quality control relationship building and help eliminate waste and update on policies and procedures and different plans and upcoming solicitations and stewardship plans. Total dollars received to date. We have a little over $1 million. fundraising goal, and 3,000 over where we were the same time this time last year. Steady trends for donor participation are reflected across various constituents. Alumni participation has increased. Leadership giving for both the foundation and the custody board are at 90% or greater. The support of other individuals and foundations is significantly with the number of supporting foundations nearly double of what it was this time last year. Recent engagement efforts were reviewed, which included evenings with the dean and planning giving presentations and upcoming plans for the annual ECSU Foundation Founder's Day Scholarship Gaila shared. Gaila will take place on March 13th and will be virtual. Currently, $80,000 has been raised for the scholarship fund. Finally, an update on upcoming solicitations and stewardship activity was given. This concludes the report of the Committee on Finance, Audit and University Advancement. And even though I cannot see, I would like to commend the entire staff for the excellent increase in the advancement area where it's beginning to roll and now we're gonna steam roll. Increase the funds that are being raised. So congratulations staff. We should all be thankful for them. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Colpepper. And thank you for the assist from Ms. Sanders. Alrighty, we are going to move on to Trustee Paul Tynne who will provide the Committee report on regional development. Trustee Tynne. Thank you, Madam Chair. During the Committee on Regional Development, we received a progress report regarding the creation of a Board of Visitors. The bylaws have been completed and nominations are being accepted through April 15th. The regional economic summit planning meeting will be held on March 31st. Stakeholders in economic development have been invited. This meeting is intended to determine if the summit will be valuable and work on the content for an agenda. Dr. Wilkins announced the appointment of Wanda Gill, regional center director, small business and technology development center. He then shared a report on the small business and technology development center scoreboard activity, 2020 totals and year to date activity. Those categories include businesses, served, business counseling hours, capital formation created, jobs created and retained, new business starts and training events with participants. The Committee then received information from Carson Rich, special assistant to the Chancellor for External Affairs. Highlights included the Senate passed a $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan. A few changes were adopted from the original House version but ultimately funds for higher education remained untouched. Overall, the bill includes roughly 700 million for UNC system campuses, 509 million for regular higher education relief funding, plus 191 million for HBCUs slash MSIs slash SIPs, which will benefit 10 system campuses including ECSU. The bill now needs a final vote in the House due to changes but reports indicate it's not expected to be problematic. A $25 million appropriation was solidified for the U.S. Coast Guard base to repair and renovate the airport runways in Elizabeth City. At the state level, the 2021-2022 biennium is underway. The legislature has an appetite for the UNC system priorities and is very pleased with the four main pillars of the proposal. This includes overall enrollment funding, North Carolina Promise funding, building reserves and faculty staff salary raises. There is also an appetite for the UNC systems R&R funding list which includes roughly 56.2 million for ECSU projects. UNC system is not asking for a specific dollar amount to be appropriated for salary increases but rather asking that faculty and staff be treated equally to other North Carolina state employees. That includes the report for the Regional Development Committee. Thank you, trustee time. Alrighty, I will move on to provide the report on the Committee on University Governance. We had an update on the Board of Trustees goals supporting the ECSU 2020 to 25 strategic plan that was reviewed and I have a special thank you truly to our committee chairs and actually all of the trustees for indulging me. It's highly unusual to have written a strategic plan supporting the university strategic plan but the method to the madness was so that we could better evaluate ourselves and what we were doing throughout the year. So I thank you for all the work and for noting the work and also that we will reach our 100% goal of participation and fundraising which absolutely delights me to know it. Dr. Lane, Chief Human Resources Officer referenced the personnel report provided in the materials. She then presented the 2019 to 2020 diversity and inclusion report. Following that discussion, I received two calls from trustees requesting that we get the diversity numbers for management. And I've talked to Dr. Lane about that. He will provide us that information at a later date and I will share it with all of you. So I thank you trustees for requesting that information. I also, I know that we got some numbers from our provost on the diversity of our student population and we'll also provide those numbers with the same information. So thank you trustees and also staff. Vice Chancellor Goodson, General Counsel provided the legal affairs update and closed session. Also like to note that the committee approved moving our committee meeting to a full board meeting to one day and that the caveat that we agreed upon was that we'll review that decision again after we return to face-to-face meetings. And I would like to take a moment just to repeat what we've heard from so many of our committee chairs this morning. This has been, of course, an unprecedented year and it has been an amazing feat by our chancellor, the staff, the leadership team and the staff on what you've been able to accomplish under such dire circumstances. It's almost like the fire made you all jump higher. And so I know that there is as we all appreciate a price, a personal price to your own self-care, the care of your family and you all went above and beyond. So our hope speaking on behalf of the board is that you will take a moment as we have these vaccines and we start seeing a little window that you'll start thinking about taking care of yourselves and modeling that behavior for your staff because we need to continue to move. We don't have to move at the rate we've been moving. The fire is gonna start coming down but we've got to model the long-haul sustainability approach. So I encourage you all to please take care of yourselves. And I thank you very much. And I'm gonna turn the meeting now over to our chancellor, chancellor for your report. Good morning, Chair Robinson. UNC Board of Governor David Powers, the members of the ECSU Board of Trustees, the ECSU leadership team and to everyone who has joined us today. This month is Women's History Month. I want to acknowledge the women on this board, the women on my cabinet, women on our faculty, women on our staff, women who are students, women who are alumni and women who are supporters and friends of our great university. Thank you for all you do. So you may ask and some may wonder, why do we celebrate a month dedicated to women? Well, I found a quote that I think speaks very well to why we celebrate Women's History Month. We celebrate Women's History Month to remind ourselves of the accomplishments of women throughout the years to our culture and society. From science to politics is a chance to reflect on the trailblazing women who lead the way for change. We celebrate today and every day the beauty, the power and work of all women. So thank you so much women for all you do. And I'm sure the men on this call really appreciate you as well. So thank you so much. Elizabeth City State University stands today because of visionary leadership, resilient faculty and staff, dedicated alumni and donors and faithful friends of the university who dutifully served in the past and today continue to serve in ways that have had a profound impact on this region, the state and the nation. For 130 years now, ECSU has contributed to the upward mobility of graduates whose lives have been transformed by academic and social experiences provided by this great university. As you saw from presentations provided by my leadership team yesterday, ECSU was in great hands and the spring semester is off to an excellent start. I am fortunate to serve with such dedicated employees across this entire campus community. The ACE mindset is being reflected within our culture. We are all focused on accountability, commitment and excellence. Collectively, we have leveraged opportunities to join forces as a team of administrators, trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters, all working together to keep our university advancing during these uncertain times that we are all experiencing. We are prepared for a successful SACS Reaffirmation Visit next week, March 15th through the 18th and I must thank and commend our amazing Provost Ward for your leadership in this process and thank you to the leadership team and everyone across ECSU's campus who have written a standard, provided information, assisted with technology needs, recorded videos or help in any way. I am confident that we will be well on our way to reaffirmation with SACS COC. As we are in the last quarter of our one year, our first year of our five year strategic plan, foraging our future, I look forward to sharing with the board our progress in June, which will be a complete calendar year for our first year of our strategic plan. I will have a visual that shows you the progress as my team have outlined various objectives within their reports on yesterday. A lot of energy and effort have gone into implementing the following areas of our strategic initiatives. Academic excellence, sustainable growth, institutional advancement, operational excellence and regional development. I am clear eyed in forging our future to ensure the success and sustainability of this great institution. With our strategic plan as our guide, we will be intentional and deliberate and decisions we make will continue to move our institution in the right direction. We continue to cultivate relationships with prospective advocates and supporters. Although we have experienced some challenging times over the past year, things continue to look brighter for ECSU. I wanna thank the UNC Board of Governors and the UNC System President Peter Hans and his staff in working with the campuses to come up with four major UNC budget priorities for the state budget. The first is overall enrollment funding. The second is North Carolina Promise funding. Third, building reserves and fourth, faculty staff salary increases. These are the four major asks from the UNC System that we all advocate for in seeing our university system move forward, but also seeing our faculty and staff be rewarded for their hard work. Some faculty and staff have not seen raises in two and a half years. Others have not seen it in three or more. Now is the time and we are aligned with the UNC System and the Board of Governors in support of these four priorities. As mentioned yesterday in Carson's report, the UNC System has included within the ask of the state budget for UNC that ECSU is allocated $56.2 million for infrastructure needs. At this time, there is no appetite for capital projects or new projects, but we know that our top priorities are our infrastructure needs that keep our university going forward. Things that we need fixed, things that are sometimes unseen because they may be underground like electrical issues, water pressure issues, but this funding will allow us to fix those things and not just with a band-aid approach, but a permanent fix that will last us for years to come. So we are grateful for the allocation as presented and we are hopeful that this budget will pass and we're able to secure that allocation to help ECSU be more effective and efficient but operate in a way that we are continuing to sustain this university for future generations. Last week, we hosted MC-Belt Pylon, chair of the John M. Belk Endowment Foundation, along with Scott Hamilton, president of the Golden Leaf Foundation and at MC on our campus for three hours. The leadership team highlighted our community engagement, academic excellence, experiential learning, workforce development and career readiness. We also highlighted our signature aviation program. It was clear at the end of this visit that our guests were highly impressed with what they saw and experienced in the afternoon that they spent on our campus. However, what I think was most impactful is that we were able to tell the ECSU story, where we work as an institution, where we are today and where we are going. We've come a long way and we will still be focused on continuous improvement. I thank all of you for your commitment to building this foundation that sustains ECSU for the future. Northeastern North Carolina needs Elizabeth City State University to thrive and to be successful for this region as a senior institution of higher education and a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. I want to take a moment to announce a few accomplishments from members of my executive cabinet that I'm sure you would want to hear about. First, hot off the press. We just learned that Vice Chancellor Dr. Gary Brown has been selected as a 2021 protege by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Millennial Leadership Institute. Please join me in giving Gary a hand. We are very proud of this prestigious opportunity for him. We also have two on my cabinet who have completed this program already as we continue to focus on professional development. We are building a pipeline for the leaders of tomorrow. And first is our provost, Dr. Farah Ward. She is in the process close to completion as part of the 2020 MLI cohort. Congratulations, Provost Ward. You have represented us quite well. And also our Chief of Staff, Derek Wilkins, finished this program in 2019. So we are delighted that he was chosen as well to be a part of this national program and the recognition that it has brought to our campus but more specifically the great deeds that this program serves across the country as they develop leaders for higher education. And we also have Vice Chancellor Allen Goodson participating in the 2021 UNC Executive Leadership Institute. And Allen will be finished with the Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by the UNC system very soon. So congratulations to V.C. Goodson as well. I want to welcome our newest member to my cabinet, Mr. Jacob Mullins. Jacob started in January. Jacob, if you will wait for everyone so they will see where you are on the video. Jacob serves as Associate AD for Compliance in our athletic department. And we are delighted to have him on our team. He brings years of experience in athletics and in compliance. And so we're happy to have him be a part of the Viking family. As we go forward, I will continue to maintain open communication lines and keep you informed of necessary topics as we are working towards shared goals by way of town halls, chancellors, communicates, ECSU news, social media outlets, phone and when we are able, when it's safe, I look forward to meeting all of you again in person. Health and safety on our campus remain our top priority as we maintain an environment that facilitates teaching, learning and working. We will continue to adhere to safety protocols wearing masks, washing hands and observing social distancing. I commend our students on how well they have responded to COVID restrictions and safety protocols while pursuing their education. And I have to thank our student body president, Jimmy Chambers, for aligning with us to create a culture of expectation where we're all holding each other accountable for doing the right thing during this pandemic. The future is very bright for ECSU. Let's work together for the good of this university, the region, state and world. Remember, a rising tide lifts all boats. Finally, I leave you with information on two upcoming events. You are invited to join us as we commemorate the founding of ECSU on Friday morning during a virtual Founders' Day Convocation at 10 a.m. Our keynote speaker will be the new city manager for the city of Elizabeth City and ECSU alumnus, Montray Freeman. Please join us also for ECSU's Founders' Day Scholarship Gala on Saturday evening. This virtual event promises to be one to remember. Thank you all for your leadership, your dedication to the success of this great institution. We are and will continue to be the mighty Vikings. Thank you so much. Ooh, thank you, Chancellor. It's just so inspiring. Thank you so much for that brilliant report. Your staff, our students, faculty, and our trustees. I mean, it's just an exciting time to be in such an unprecedented time. I'd like to call on Trustee Bunch, who's going to take us into, I'll make a motion to take us into closed session. Move that we go into closed session in accordance with North Carolina General Statute, section 143-318.11, subsection A3 to consult with our attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and ECSU. Thank you, may I have a second? Second. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Brown. Ms. Sanders may have roll calls. Roll call, vote for closed session. Trustee Bosenworth? Yes. Trustee Brown, offer the second. Trustee Bunch, offer the motion. Trustee Culpepper? Yes. Trustee Chambers? Yes. Trustee Johnson? Yes. Trustee Robinson? Yes. Trustee Swayne? Yes. Trustee Tyne? Yes. And Trustee Wilkins? Yes. Okay. One moment as we. We can now begin. Thank you. Do we have any announcements other than looking forward to seeing everyone at our virtual scholarship gala and at our founder's convocation? Hopefully all our trustees have received that information. I think they both look to be very well attended meetings and we hope to see our trustees there. Any other announcements from trustees, staff? Well, we thank you very much for the robust meetings we've had over the course of these few days. Hope everybody continues to take care and we are so proud of the mighty Vikings. Happy to be associated with them. Just everyone have an excellent day. Without objection, we stand adjourned. So have a blessed day. Have a blessed day. Have a good day. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.