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Updated: December 31, 2021 @ 2:19 am
New ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers shares a fist bump with a student who returned to campus in August. Rogers started in March and worked to ensure near normal operations after more than a year of pandemic shutdowns.
ECU’s held graduation ceremonies in May for the class of 2021 and the class of 2020.
Dr. Michael Waldrum, right, answers questions with Dr. Jason Higginson about ECU Health at the Vidant Health Administration Building on Nov. 18.
ECU administrator Ron Mitchelson was named Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in March.
A visitor at the opening of ECU’s new biotechnology building looks out a window at the 10th Street Connector and the Greenville’s warehouse district, which will be home to the Intersect East, ECU’s research campus.
An aerial photo shows part of Greenville’s warehouse district where Intersect East, ECU’s research campus will be located. The Life Sciences Biotechnology Building, completed in Novembers, is under construction in the background.
Tim Elliott, managing partner and founder of Elliott Sidewalk Communities, addresses the crowd.
Community leaders and stakeholders ceremonially break ground at 310 W. 10th St. in Greenville, the future site of Intersect East. The 19-acre, $325 million project is nearly set to enter Phase One.
ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers and Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly at an announcement for Intersect East. The project is a collaboration between ECU and Elliott Sidewalk Communities.
Chancellor Philip Rogers peaks to graduates in his first commencement address as the university’s leader. “You can feel the energy, the Pirate spirit, back in the air here,” he said.
Cole Eure hugs Jason Pilkington Friday at graduation, held on the football field under the threat of rain.
New ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers shares a fist bump with a student who returned to campus in August. Rogers started in March and worked to ensure near normal operations after more than a year of pandemic shutdowns.
ECU’s held graduation ceremonies in May for the class of 2021 and the class of 2020.
Dr. Michael Waldrum, right, answers questions with Dr. Jason Higginson about ECU Health at the Vidant Health Administration Building on Nov. 18.
ECU administrator Ron Mitchelson was named Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in March.
A visitor at the opening of ECU’s new biotechnology building looks out a window at the 10th Street Connector and the Greenville’s warehouse district, which will be home to the Intersect East, ECU’s research campus.
An aerial photo shows part of Greenville’s warehouse district where Intersect East, ECU’s research campus will be located. The Life Sciences Biotechnology Building, completed in Novembers, is under construction in the background.
Tim Elliott, managing partner and founder of Elliott Sidewalk Communities, addresses the crowd.
Community leaders and stakeholders ceremonially break ground at 310 W. 10th St. in Greenville, the future site of Intersect East. The 19-acre, $325 million project is nearly set to enter Phase One.
ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers and Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly at an announcement for Intersect East. The project is a collaboration between ECU and Elliott Sidewalk Communities.
Chancellor Philip Rogers peaks to graduates in his first commencement address as the university’s leader. “You can feel the energy, the Pirate spirit, back in the air here,” he said.
Cole Eure hugs Jason Pilkington Friday at graduation, held on the football field under the threat of rain.
In a year when East Carolina University worked to transition from pandemic shutdown to a new normal, it welcomed its 12th chancellor and saw major changes, including a partnership between Vidant Health and the Brody School of Medicine.
Philip G. Rogers, a former administrator with the university, assumed his duties as the school’s chancellor on March 15. He grew up in Greenville and is the youngest person to hold the position.
“This is the moment where the real work begins,” Rogers said after assuming the job. “This is a moment where we really dig in and we begin to get focused around our priorities, we begin to get focused on our vision for ECU students. For me, that vision and those priorities are very intentionally framed around a very deep personal passion and commitment to the institution and ECU’s future.”
Rogers’ career began as a policy analyst at ECU before he became chief of staff. He left the university for the American Council on Education, a research, policy and advocacy organization for colleges and universities.
He began his tenure determined to launch the fall 2021 semester with as normal operations as possible while continuing to expand on digital education offerings and address the mental health needs of students.
The university took a step to normalcy on May 7 when it held in-person commencement ceremonies for the class of 2021 and the class of 2020, which was denied a live ceremony by the lockdown. Rogers gave his first commencement addresses.
When students returned in August, they did so under strict guidelines that required near universal masking and incentives to vaccinate for staff and students — regular testing was required for those who did not.
The university was able to manage case numbers through the delta surge at levels far lower than those that forced a shutdown in August 2020 and ultimately reached vaccination rates of about 80 percent. It even hosted six home football games.
Mitchelson carries on
Rogers took over the helm from Ron Mitchelson, who as interim chancellor guided ECU after a turbulent transition between former Chancellor Cecil Staton and interim Chancellor Dan Gerlach and led it through the thick of the pandemic.
Mitchelson joined ECU in 1999 as a professor and served as provost and senior vice chancellor of academic affairs from 2015 until his appointment as interim chancellor in October 2019. He announced his retirement after Rogers was named chancellor only to be name interim vice chancellor for health sciences in May.
The Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce in March named Mitchelson its Citizen of the Year, saying his leadership and management through a critical time allowed ECU to maintain its focus as a model for student success, public service and regional transformation.
The work of his administration helped quickly expand distance learning capabilities and established protocols that gradually helped students and staff return to campus safely. The university also increased its four-year graduation rate through his “Finish in Four” initiative. He also helped guide ECU’s Millennial Campus to fruition with Intersect East, a project that is expected to create up to 1,500 jobs with a financial impact exceeding $141 million annually.
Mitchelson’s retirement plans changed when it was announced in May that Mark Stacy, vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the Brody School of Medicine, would be leaving his post. It would soon become clear that bigger changes were afoot.
Brody-Vidant integration
When Rogers announced the leadership change at the medical school in May, Dr. Jason Higginson, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, was named interim dean of the medical school. It was a post he held for about a month because in late June ECU and Vidant Health announced the medical school and health system were integrating and creating a new health system brand.
Under the arrangement, Vidant CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum was appointed dean of the medical school and Higginson was appointed as executive dean, responsible for the operational aspects of school activities. Mitchelson remained as interim vice chancellor over health sciences.
ECU and Vidant previously attempted to integrate their physician practices but the effort faltered in late 2018. Rogers said the new agreement differed because there would be no transfer of assets or change in employment status.
The agreement was finalized in November when the governing bodies of ECU, Vidant and the UNC system approved the partnership along with Pitt County. The medical school and Vidant will combine their clinical and medical practices and operate as ECU Health. The medical school’s name won’t change.
The names of Vidant Medical Center, eight other Vidant hospitals and facilities that serve 29 counties will change but what they will be called had not been decided, Waldrum said.
“Rebranding Vidant to ECU Health in 2022 further signals and strengthens our commitment to bring the best research, doctors and care to the east,” Waldrum said. “We have proven in recent years, and particularly during the pandemic, what can be accomplished when we focus our energies on the mission to improve the health of eastern North Carolina.”
Building for the future
As ECU and Vidant were finalizing integration plans, state lawmakers were finalizing a new budget that included up to $215 million for a new building to house the Brody School of Medicine in addition to more than $82 million for additional renovations and repairs at the university.
The funding was long anticipated. Gov. Roy Cooper signed the budget bill on Nov. 18 after more than two years of wrangling with leaders in the General Assembly over other funding issues. The Brody building is among several projects on campus expected to propel the university forward.
November also saw ECU cut the ribbon on its $90 million Life Sciences and Biotechnology Building. The structure was funded through the $2 billion Connect N.C. Bond Referendum approved by voters in 2016.
The four-story, 141,500-square-foot building at 10th and Evans streets will be home to the university’s biology department and will provide space for interdisciplinary research.
A $1.9 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation will establish the Eastern Region Pharma Center on the building’s first floor. The center will work with community colleges and pharmaceutical companies throughout the region to teach students skills they need for the industry.
Construction began in July 2019 and it was scheduled to be completed in August but pandemic slowdowns pushed the completion to year’s end.
The building is the first on ECU’s new Research and Innovation Campus and will provide the needed proximity to a workforce training initiative planned across the street at Intersect East.
Intersect East
ECU and Greenville community leaders kicked off Intersect East in October. The 19-acre development is a joint venture between the university and Maryland-based Elliott Sidewalk Communities billed as the new Gateway to Greenville.
It will support light manufacturing, research and development, housing, restaurants and office space. It will serve as an innovation campus, with 10,000 square feet for ECU’s College of Engineering. The economic development group Greenville-ENC Alliance also will have space at the building.
The first phase is a $40 million renovation of three historic buildings in the 300 block of West 10th Street.
The Prizery is a one-story building that will have 72,000 square feet of Class A office and mixed-use space. The Stemmery offers two floors of Class A mixed-use and office space totaling 32,000 square feet. The Hammock Factory is a one-story building that includes 12,000 square feet of office space.
It is expected to take eight to 10 years to build out the campus, which will consist of 14 buildings, Tim Elliott, founder of Elliott Sidewalk Communities said of the $325 million project. He promised an economic engine that is drawing interest internationally.
“It is going to bring about 1,000 people here, and imagine the spinoff economy of that,” Elliott said. “We are not just moving chairs around on the good ship Greenville here, with moving offices from point A to point B. That is not what this project is about.”
Contact Ginger Livingston at [email protected] or 329-9570.
The Daily Reflector continues its review of 2021 with a look at major stories from Vidant and ECU. The series continues Friday with a round up of top news from the pandemic and politics to the year in sports.
Progress, controversy, departures and development marked 2021 in local government.
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