Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
Chancellor James Martin isn’t counting the months since he took the helm at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He’s counting the mileage. After nearly 20 whirlwind months of leading America’s largest Historically Black University (HBCU), Martin’s strategic roadmap is driving record-breaking growth and steering the institution toward a historic milestone: achieving R1 status as a top-tier doctoral research university.
While Martin inherits a legacy of long-standing leadership, his vision isn’t about dismantling the past; it’s about amplifying the university’s inherent strengths. Under his watch, N.C. A&T has reached unprecedented heights in enrollment, academic retention, graduation rates, and research output. Yet, true to his collaborative ethos, Martin shifts the spotlight back to the campus community.
“I’m here, but it’s this whole university campus,” Martin says. “It’s the amazing students, the hard-working professional staff, and the talented faculty who deserve credit. My job is to take the vision we had and craft it in a slightly different framework to show people what can be.”
Part of that new framework involves shattering what Martin calls a historical pattern of being “a little bit too quiet.” To compete on a global stage, the university has been aggressively expanding its footprint, notably through strategic partnerships with non-traditional entities like the Department of Defense. By systematically hiring former federal program managers who bring deep institutional knowledge, N.C. A&T has effectively shaved five to seven years off its timeline to secure major federal research and development funding.
This aggressive strategy feeds directly into the university’s drive toward R1 status. To achieve the designation, a university must sustain rigorous benchmarks in research funding and graduate at least 70 Ph.D. students annually. N.C. A&T is currently outpacing those metrics, graduating between 75 and 78 doctoral students per year.
Crucially, this momentum is being powered by the university’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. As a land-grant institution, N.C. A&T receives a baseline of $11 million in federal funding annually, which the state is mandated to match. While historically disadvantaged by inequitable state matching ratios compared to neighboring institutions, the university recently secured a historic two-to-one state match, with designs on a three-to-one allocation this year.
The impact was immediate. Prior to 2023, the agricultural program had zero doctoral students; today, it boasts 54 active PhD candidates, tapping into a state agricultural industry where 70 percent of economic output is tied to livestock and poultry.
Beyond research, Martin is deeply invested in redefining the student experience to prepare graduates for what he terms the “relationship economy.” In an age dominated by artificial intelligence and automated systems, Martin argues that human-centric leadership, emotional intelligence, and adaptability will be the true currency of success.
“Employers are not going to be paying you for what you know anymore only,” Martin notes. “It’s what you can do and how you show up. It’s the ability to bring people together to solve challenges using technology.”
To institutionalize this philosophy, Martin is rolling out an ambitious “Forever Learning” initiative. The program re-imagines higher education not as a finite four-year event, but as a lifelong subscription model. Under this paradigm, incoming freshmen don’t just enroll themselves; they enroll their entire households, granting families back home free access to the university’s online learning modules. Furthermore, the initiative is actively targeting the 17,000 former students who dropped out over the last decade, offering micro-credentials, certificates, and clear pathways to finally finish their degrees.
By pairing modern technical fluency with the grit, resilience, and emotional intelligence native to the Aggie community, Martin is confident about the university’s trajectory.
“If you can do that,” Martin says, “the world will beat a path to our doors.”
