(upbeat music) - [Commentator] Major support for Carolina Business Review provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their family, their finances, and their futures.

High Point University, the premier life skills university focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

And Sonoco a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and provider of packaging services with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

- East Carolina University in North Carolina is certainly a powerhouse in education, but it means a lot more than that in to Eastern North Carolina.

It means jobs.

It means a medical school.

It means a leadership position in the Eastern part of the state.

Later on this program, Dr. Phillip Rogers, the new ECU chancellor will join us, before that, we will start and take a look at what is going on across the Carolinas with our panelists.

And we start right now.

- [Commentator] Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource based building materials, providing the foundation upon which our communities improve and grow.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Visit us at southcarolinablues.com.

The Duke Endowment, a private foundation, enriching communities in the Carolinas through higher education, healthcare, rural churches and children's services.

On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Patrick Woodie from the NC Rural Center, Allen Smith of Onespartanburg Inc, and special guest, Dr. Phillip Rogers, Chancellor of East Carolina University.

- Well, welcome again to our program.

Patrick Allen, good to see you both.

Patrick, I'm going to start with you.

So as the feds debate and infrastructure bill 550 billion of it, half of it is going to go things like transportation, rural broadband that is something you know, something about.

Patrick, separately, I've heard some concerns that broadband seems like an easy thing for us to do during COVID, but yet it seems to be losing momentum.

Do you share that fear?

- I don't.

I do share a particular concern, but I don't share a fear that the focus on broadband is not there.

I think the level of debate that is happening, there is no more bi-partisan agreement in the North Carolina general assembly than around rural broadband and the level of that discussion between the governor and the two houses of our general assembly really make that clear.

We're now having a conversation about around a billion dollars in investment and, and in recent years, we've been having a conversation around 15 or 30 million.

So it dramatic commitment because of America's rescue plan act, making that an easy, easier decision, at least for the state and the new federal infrastructure bill has, as it's written right now, around a hundred billion in broadband for North Carolina.

So on top of, you know, what looks to be close to a billion-dollar investment by the general assembly.

- Allen of Onespartanburg, of course, as you know, can be certainly urban, but not very far outside the city can pretty be pretty rural.

How does this idea of broadband access in rural areas?

How does this square with you?

How would you characterize it?

- Well, you're right, in fact, five or six years ago, we worked with a group called Connect SC to really map out where our deficiencies were.

And there are plenty of them.

There are plenty of places in the county where there's no internet or slow internet.

And so like Patrick, we welcome the discussion and welcome action on all the investment that's coming into our respective communities.

And Patrick and I were talking about earlier, and I agree with him.

It really is an economic belt proposition.

It's up to leaders like us to, to convince the providers that in an house the time there's never going to be this much money involved in rural abroad broadband, we were also talking about this is an education issue.

And, you know, we saw what happened last summer as kids returned to school and they didn't have access to internet.

It was a real issue in terms of kids falling behind in reading and math and so on and so forth.

It's going to be an issue again, coming to this summer, if we don't get our mind around this.

- Let's talk a little bit about a debate going on.

Of course, there's a Delta variant about COVID and that is, has reignited some fear, but really, it almost seems like it's not so much about a public health crisis as it is about a personal rights issue.

And the battle lines have been drawn in in wearing masks and having to get vaccinations.

Patrick, we'll start with you again in rural North Carolina and those outside the urban cores, what is that debate light?

And is, is that more about resources and access to a vaccination or is that some type of personal challenge?

- Oh, it's a, it's a real challenge.

Our vaccination rates across rural North Carolina are not at all where they need to be.

We've got a lot of work to do.

We have seen the pace of vaccination picking up in the last couple of weeks as the Delta variant has become so predominant.

And as I think people are noticing a spike and in new infections and in new hospitalizations, but unfortunately, it's not being seen as a health issue.

It is too much a a political or a personal point of view issue.

And, you know, the science is real clear about the importance of vaccinations and the level of protection that it affords.

It's it's.

There is so much misinformation in that that people are, are getting their hands on is really misleading a lot of people, I think, unfortunately.

- Allen, why is this turned into a civil, civil liberties issue?

You think again.

- You know, I think unfortunately in politics, it seems to be advantageous to divide people.

And I think you see a lot of that.

I've even read about politicians polling these issues just to see where people are.

And, you know, I think now's not the time for that.

Now's the time for real leadership to do what's best.

I mean, look, I, I'm fortunate that the president of Spartanburg Medical Center division of the former regional healthcare system is a current chair of my board.

So we're equipped with the latest and greatest data.

June 25th, Spartanburg county, we had three COVID cases earlier this week, 71 that's about a 2400% increase.

And of those 71 cases, 94% were unvaccinated.

So if anybody's watching this and they're looking for any compelling reason to get vaccinated, that's it.

- Is, would you agree with that, Patrick?

Is that what it comes down to?

- Yeah.

I could, I couldn't agree more.

We're seeing similar numbers in our rural counties.

- Congress extended a moratorium on evictions through October 3rd, inevitably evictions are going to have to happen.

Is there an orderly way for us to handle this, Patrick again?

And I want to stay with you on this.

Is there a way to handle, not just the evictions, but you overlay the fact that we've had historic rise in real estate prices that we've talked about, affordable housing initiatives, et cetera, et cetera, is this stew of housing and primary residence?

How do we find our way through it?

- Well, it's a complicated, it is a complicated issue to find our way through.

There's no question about it.

There's unprecedented resources that are available to help tenants and landlords that are having trouble collecting rent, or paying their rent.

The, but there's seems to be a real disconnect, not only in North Carolina, but in states all across the country, around accessing those resources that are available and now been extended for a little bit of time.

So that's a huge concern compounded by, as I listened to some of our rural partners all across the state, we, I think generally are aware of the, the real estate, the demand for housing and how what that's doing to process right now.

And we think particularly we hear a lot about metropolitan areas, but I can tell you that's been that's being felt in my rural home Allegheny county, North Carolina, the same way as I talk to realtors there about the enormous price pressures.

All, you know, sellers are getting more than they're asking, and, and buyers are having a hard time getting an offer in before, before a house is under contract.

So it, it is an issue that is, that crosses this urban, rural divide.

It exists in both places.

- You know, Alan, this can't be, it's gotta be a dialogue you're having in onespartanburg, but also your members, but also the city.

Is there a compassionate way to, that we need to approach evictions, the inevitability of evictions?

- I have, I think the obvious answer to that is yes, but in a, and I want to kind of flip it a little bit and just talk about availability of housing in general.

And we've had the opportunity to really be proactive in this space.

I'm sitting right now in downtown Spartanburg, within five miles of where I'm sitting.

There are 2200 multi-family units, either in the pipeline or under construction, and almost all of them have a mixed-income component, at least some percentage of it.

And so other communities around us have, have grown quicker maybe in the past while we've been a little bit more stagnant.

That's changing now.

I mean our investment level and our new job creation number is outpacing every community in South Carolina, quite frankly, as far as the county is concerned.

So we've been able to watch others getting this affordable housing issue, and we're taking some proactive steps right now that as new stuff is coming out of the ground, we're building a housing trust fund.

We're ensuring that in our development deals that a certain percentage of it has got to be affordable.

So do we have the issue licked completely?

No, but we've been given the opportunity to be more proactive about it.

- We're going to, we're going to bring our guests in, and just a moment, you know, I don't want to let this go without saying something, but Allen, I want a single you out here because I know the Spartanburg chamber, also known as onespartanburg, was recently awarded the number one chamber in category three of all chambers in the country.

Congratulations.

That's no small feat in, I know you deflect it to many other members within your organization, but well done, Allen.

Congratulations.

- I was hoping you'd bring that up.

I would just say this; I think it's a, I think it's a great honor for our organization, but we think it's national affirmation that something special is happening in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

- Pitt county is an important place in Eastern North Carolina.

It's an important place in North Carolina and not withstanding because it is the home for ECU, East Carolina University.

Joining us now is someone that has been highly anticipated to be back in the county.

And certainly in the chancellor's chair, we welcome to the dialogue, Dr. Phillip Rogers, Chancellor at East Carolina University.

Dr. Rogers, welcome back home, and congratulations.

- Well, thank you, Chris.

It's great to be back home.

And I'm excited to be with all of you today.

- Somebody said of you, and it was an informal comment, but it was pretty telling, this this person was very excited about you being back.

It had a pirate nation, and this person said that they were thrilled because you know the tribal nature of Eastern North Carolina.

And that was a good comment because it seems that Pitt county and the board and the medical school at ECU and everything in orbit around that needed to have some orderly and solid direction.

So let's start out with an academic question.

Many students expect an informal survey has has shown that students expect that while they may be wearing masks, that they may not even be in class.

That they're going to be again, remote sometime this year.

How do you, how do you come down on that?

Where do you think you're going to start?

- Well, first of all, Chris, thanks for the kind comment on the front end about the the connection to Eastern North Carolina.

There's, there's no doubt.

This is my home.

This job is deeply, deeply personal to me.

We have no choice but to get it right, bring people together and make East Carolina University as successful as we possibly can be.

And at the very beginning of that is being successful in how we kick off this new academic semester.

And what you just described is the the topic of conversation right now across not just the University of North Carolina system, not just East Carolina University, but all of American higher education.

I was on a call earlier this week with about 15 or so other college presidents around the country, especially around the Southeast.

We get together on a regular basis to share best practices strategies for what to expect when we launched the fall and 2021 here in this new semester in just a couple of weeks.

And I think one of the things that we all recognized was that there is going to be quite a few questions about what it's going to look like.

We're launching a new semester, that's coming on the heels of one of the most, really the most challenging academic years we've ever experienced, where colleges and universities across the country dealt with significant frustration, disappointment about having to make this pivot to online.

And we're now preparing for a fall that we can plan with a little bit more certainty, a little bit more confidence, that we can maintain a strategy that we know we can keep our students safe.

We can keep our employees safe.

And so we're intending to open with as normal operations as possible.

In the fall, we have a large majority of our classes that will be face-to-face.

We already have a pretty strong portfolio of of online learning classes and deliverables.

And so that was a position of strength for us in fall of 2020.

But we're moving back to that right mix here in the next couple of weeks, we'll have double occupancy dorm rooms in the residence halls right behind me.

There are students moving in right now.

The dining halls will be open.

Athletics will be in full swing, and we're being very thoughtful about the right mitigation strategies that we can apply to ensure we can keep them here over the course of the semester.

- Patrick.

- Chancellor, it's a pleasure to spend time with you.

You sit in the middle of Eastern North Carolina, a native of Eastern North Carolina.

We would argue at the rural center leading the most important anchor institution in all of Eastern North Carolina and beyond really beyond just the borders of our own state.

But I'd love for you to talk a little bit about the vision you have for the university as a real driver of the economic development future of the greater region.

- Absolutely.

First and foremost, as we talked about on the, at the very beginning Eastern North Carolina is my home.

I've lived in Greenville my entire life.

And so that was a great foundation for this role is knowing the people, knowing the area of being able to get out in the community and not have to ask where Deep Run is or a Husky or straits, or, you know, whatever it may be some small town in Eastern North Carolina that we serve.

And, you know, I think first and foremost, we have to recognize that in all we do the mission of East Carolina University is at the core of what we think about when we wake up and we lead this institution and make decisions each and every day, I traveled all over this country in a part of my role with the American council on education.

There's 4,000 colleges and universities around the United States, IVs, public flagships, community colleges, two year four year, private liberal arts.

I've seen them all.

I've asked folks to trust me, nobody authentically delivers on those three core components of our mission that ECU does.

And they're all rooted in driving the economic interests of of Eastern North Carolina.

And so you think about the hottest topic in higher education right now, student success, and how do we get more students in the door from rural underserved areas?

How do we keep them here?

How do we graduate them in four years with minimal debt, build them as strong citizens, and then send them back out into the workforce of our region to contribute to the economy of North Carolina and Eastern North Carolina.

That's what student success looks like.

That's what we're built to do at ECU.

That's why we're here.

And we haven't even talked about that second component, public service core to our DNA and, and founding of of our institution.

And then, of course, the reason why my colleagues in IDCU, you wake up each and every day and come to work is regional transformation, healthcare access, cultural impact, educational attainment opportunity.

That $3.8 billion impact that we make on Eastern North Carolina.

And we could go deep on it, any, and all of those topics, including our millennial campus and research innovation work that we're doing, it all has a role to play in, in driving the economic future of especially that 29 county region east of I95.

That's who we're here to serve.

- Allen.

- I was a pirate myself.

I'm so excited that we have someone that understands the personality of Eastern North Carolina and the people of Eastern North Carolina and our, and really our state as a whole, because as a chancellor mentioned, I mean, the motto motto is soiree to serve, and I've said it before on the show, And I'll say it again.

In fact, in the matter is if you're, if you're cared for, in a hospital, that nurse probably came from ECU, and you walk in a classroom and the person standing at the front more than likely, that person came from ECU, but I'm gonna pivot a little bit and go right into the private sector, chancellor and talk a little bit about talent.

I was very impressed, a couple of weeks ago in North Carolina launched a first in talent campaign strategy.

I took a look at it, read it, very impressed by it.

Tell tell the viewers, where does ECU fit in terms of meeting the talent needs of the business community?

- Well, we we have to play a key role in raising the educational attainment opportunities of our state.

And I, you know, there's so many different ways that higher education is changing right now.

That we're we're going to have to figure out the right strategy to meet both our students where they are, but also the workforce where it is as well, and develop more strategic connections between workforce opportunities and the learning pathways of students, whether it's a collaboration with the community colleges, whether it's going out into the bio pharma industry like we're doing with our Eastern region pharma center here at ECU to help workers up-skill, and re-skill how they can strengthen their approach to the work that they're doing.

We really play a critical role and integral role in in creating and supporting small business industry in Eastern North Carolina and in small rural communities through programs like Rise 29, that's funded by the Golden Leaf Foundation.

It connects small businesses to resources at the university to underserved communities.

We're we're leveraging our small business and technology development center.

We've just recently launched within the last couple of years, the Miller Entrepreneurship School within our college of business that helps to generate new and interesting ideas that can be launched and activated within our community.

And of course, the Isley Innovation Hub, another part of our work at ECU that allows us to bring innovation from our faculty and our students out into the communities to connect with business and industry.

And I have a real passion for making sure that we develop the right academic modalities so that we can go out and work with industry in Eastern North Carolina, across the state, find out what their needs are in terms of what the workforce of the future needs to look like, and then build the right academic programs that we can place right in front of them to ensure that ECU students are coming out and meeting the workforce needs of those particular areas within our state.

- Chancellor, let me cut and paste that comment you just made.

The educational attainment phrase.

How much do you value?

How much are you monitoring, watching what the educational attainment that some say it was a lost year of educational attainment, whatever it is, however, it's valued.

How do you transpose what that risk was into freshmen that are coming in now?

How do you look at that?

How do you watch it?

How do you make sure that the credibility of that education is where it needs to be?

- Yeah, and I think Chris, we have to expand that beyond just the freshmen who were coming in and make sure that we're taking a careful look at the returning students who started their first college experience as freshmen last year in the fall of 2020, we're here on our campus.

We're on Chapel Hills campus, NC state, virtually every campus in the United States and turned around after two weeks and had to go back home or to go to some other environment, to engage in an online learning experience.

In a lot of ways, we've got 8,000 of our 9, 8, 9, 10,000 of our almost 28 20 9,000 students on our campus who are coming to East Carolina University for the very first time in person this fall.

And so, in a lot of ways, there's two freshmen classes that we're going to be serving two freshmen classes that haven't had, those engagement experiences, that student activities, the exposure to athletics and cultural and arts to our academic advising center.

So we're, you know, we're thinking really carefully about how to take some of the stimulus dollars that were provided from the federal government we've received 19 or so million in the first round close to 30 million in the second round.

And then more than 50 million in the third round of stimulus funding, the first two rounds were opportunities to patch some holes in revenue losses, but this third round, we've been very, very strategic about how we can think about applying some of the student success opportunities to post COVID environment that we're facing right now.

And so we're, we're investing in artificial intelligence and automated learning technology, learning assistants, virtual tutor, tutors hybrid learning environments, so that we can meet students where they are at a time when higher education isn't going back to the way it was before COVID.

We have to make some good strategic investments now, so that we could be prepared for what's coming up in the next five or 10 years with these students who have been through this experience.

- Patrick, we have about two minutes left.

You get the last question.

- Sure.

And I'd like to make this one a little personal.

At the rural center, we do a lot of leadership development work.

And anecdotally, one of the things we're seeing is a lot of native people who have moved away from their community and lived a lot of their professional lives somewhere else.

And, and they bring, but they're returning to their communities, and they're returning and they're getting involved and they're making a difference.

So as a native North Carolinian, from Eastern North Carolina, just a simple question.

Can you go home again?

And how's that experience been for you?

- Well, when I left ECU back in 2013, I always intended to come back home.

I left for an intentional purpose, which was to go out into the world of American higher education, the global world of higher education gain a new set of experiences that I could then bring back and apply to my hometown, to my university, a place that I wanted to see succeed.

And so I'm here to make ECU a mission-aligned institution in all that we do to ensure that we're future-focused in every decision that we're making, we're looking around corners.

We're making sure that we're preparing ourselves for the next generation of students who look very different than the students, we've been serving in the past.

And to ensure that we wrap that wrap innovation around all of those things.

And so that's why I came home to lead our mission, to transform rural healthcare in Eastern North Carolina.

We're doing that through a great partnership with our local hospital here and the creation of ECU health.

And it's a great joy to be back and to be able to deliver on that promise that we've made for more than a hundred years.

- And we've got literally about 30 seconds.

So the key role, the CEO of Viden health, as well as the head of the medical school now, Dr. Michael Waldron, how key is that?

And how, how, how, how, how closely is that gonna be watched?

- The top priority for us right now is to create a shared leadership shared accountability model, where we can deliver a more efficient, effective healthcare strategy to 1.4 million patients in Eastern North Carolina.

It's part of our mission.

It's part of what we need to do, and it's what we're going to do in the future.

- Chancellor, Dr. Rogers, we're glad to have you back in the state, glad to have you back in the region.

We didn't ask you about barbecue.

You're off the hook about best barbecue.

Cause I know that that's a completely different level of accountability, and I know you don't want to get in the middle of that, but thank you.

It's good to see you.

Allen, congratulations on the chamber again, the the chamber win, and Patrick always nice to see you as well, gentlemen.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Take care.

Thanks so much.

- Until next week, I'm Chris William.

If you have any questions or comments, carolinabusinessreview.org, happy weekend.

Goodnight.

- [Commentator] Major funding for Carolina Business Review provided by High Point University, Martin Marietta, Colonial Life, the Duke Endowment, Sonoco, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.

And by viewers like you, thank you.

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