- Hello, I'm David Crabtree here at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

In a moment, you'll hear from Dr. Robin Cummings, the sixth chancellor of the 138-year-old university.

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[spirited music] [spirited music continues] - We are here with Chancellor Robin Cummings.

Chancellor, thanks for having us here on campus.

- Great to be here, David.

Thank you for joining us in our studio classroom here on the campus at UNC Pembroke.

Glad to have you.

- Thank you.

I wanna point out that we are in a new studio here on campus.

It is being staffed today by students in the communications program, and it's exciting for us to be here and to watch them with their hands-on experience of what they're learning here.

- I think this is one of the unique things about our education here at UNC Pembroke is how we do provide for experiential learning, and so I think of so many students who leave here, and when they do, they know what it is to be behind the camera, they know what it is to be in front of the camera, so when they graduate, they're ready to assume that role.

- I want you to know I've spoken with many that are here on the floor crew today and in the control room, and there's a common denominator that they are passionate about learning this work.

That's always exciting for me, having been in this work for as long as I have been, but no matter what you're doing, if you have a passion for it, you have an opportunity to succeed.

- Without question, and I think in today's world, it's maybe more important than ever is to really love what you do, and again, here at the university, we're all about student success.

We're pushing student success.

We tell them if you're successful, we're successful.

And so experiences like this, experiences in our theater department where our students get firsthand, multiple, multiple opportunities to practice their art of performing, and when they graduate, they've got a resume that I don't think very many other students who they're competing with can compare.

- There are a lot of people across the state of North Carolina who may simply just not know the history of this campus that now is host to almost 7,700 students.

They don't really know about Robeson County and where we are.

Give us a brief history lesson on how this university came into being.

- Well, some folks tell me it's a hidden gem, but we're working really hard to make it not so hidden.

So, 138 years ago, March 7th, 1887, this university came into being.

Seven American Indian men at that time, now we're talking about 20 years after the end of the Civil War in the Deep South, had the vision that education was important, that it was the promise, the potential, had the pathway to success and these seven gentlemen got together and they talked about, "Let's do something for the next seven generations."

They talked about spreading the gospel of education if you read their writings from that time, and so they approached a local legislator, a white legislator from Red Springs who had just been elected, Hamilton McMillan.

Hamilton could have very easily said, "Now, wait a minute.

This is not something I wanna get into at this point in my career," but he didn't.

He saw the vision, and as a result, we have his statue out on our campus today, but in any event, he took those seven men, they went to Raleigh.

They came home with $500 and a charter to start a normal school, which was a two-year school to train teachers, and that's how UNC Pembroke started 138 years ago, and so we are the third-oldest public institution of higher education at this point in North Carolina.

Chapel Hill first, Fayetteville State second, UNC Pembroke was third.

Now, our charter was on the same day as NC State, but I've told my fellow chancellor at NC State the ink dried on our charter first, so we're three, they're four.

But it's got a great history and it has served this community, this region, after transforming into a four-year institution, and now, it's the University of North Carolina Pembroke.

- To try and state the importance of this university for this region is hard to do.

The impact here, I cannot imagine this region without UNC Pembroke.

- It would definitely be a different place without this university here in Robeson County.

Robeson County is my home.

I grew up about three miles away from where we're sitting right now.

And the importance of education has always been an emphasis in my life, as well as in the lives of so many in this region, and so if you look at this region, you see so many folks who even though they may not have attended UNC Pembroke as an undergrad, they ended up getting their education because of the influence of this university.

I went to the light blue school and then to the dark blue school myself, and someone asked me, "Which university influenced you the most?"

and I said it was Pembroke State University, which it was when I was growing up.

And the question was why?

Because I was able to come to this campus and when I left to go away from home for the first time in my life being away from home, I knew what it was like to be on a university.

It didn't scare me.

I was not intimidated.

I saw, I grew up seeing people from different parts of the world.

I grew up listening to different accents and I grew up seeing a classroom, studying in the library here on campus, so when I went away to school, it was very natural and was not a very intimidating situation for me at all.

I think that story that I just told you can be repeated tens of thousands of times over the decades, and so in this area, you have so many folks who are, who have succeeded because of the pathway of education.

- And you have students from, not just from this area, of course.

You have students from across the state, other states, and other parts of the world here.

- On our campus this year, we have students from 50 different countries, and I think, again, of those seven men and someone pointed out, they were all married, so seven men and seven wives, how they had the vision and the courage to start this school and how they would be so impressed if they could walk on this campus now and look around and see the different people from different countries, hear different languages and so forth.

I don't think they ever imagined what they were starting at that time, which is true many times when a vision is first created.

- Tell me about students on this campus.

What, I mean, obviously you have different programs, different fields of studies, different levels of degrees, but the typical student is what?

- That has changed in the last few years.

Right now, the average age of our undergraduate population is 26.

When I went to school and perhaps when you went to school, it was 18 to 22.

You come in, you go for four years, you get your degree.

That's not the case at this point, and so we have a lot of folks who are actually returning, many online, but some do come back to campus at a later age to get their education, but a typical student on this campus, I find them to be very motivated.

They're directed, they're focused on their career, and they see that education is the pathway for them to success, and so I find the students here to be very much serious about their education, and they want to learn, and they're eager to learn, and again, you can see that here in the studio today as you've interacted with some of our students.

- What's the biggest challenge?

- Biggest challenge for UNC Pembroke?

- [David] Yes.

- I think it's the same challenge that's facing higher education in general, David.

I think it's the change in demographics.

The population shift that's occurred because of the decline in the population growth, resulting in fewer students going on to high school, fewer students graduating from high school, and yes, fewer students who are seeing the value maybe of a four-year education, and so that particular impact, I think, is felt more at the smaller public universities than at some of the larger flagship universities for sure, and so UNC Pembroke is working to create ourselves for the future.

What will this university look like in five years?

Right now, we're undergoing the creation of a new strategic plan, so in 5 years, 10 years, what does the University of North Carolina at Pembroke look like, and that's what myself with my cabinet and our faculty, our staff here, we're trying to envision exactly what that is.

What's the combination of on-campus, online?

What's our duty to educate the adult population, which is significant in North Carolina, that's looking for an education?

And how do we supply those folks?

How do we bring those people to our campus, or not, and make sure that they have the opportunity?

One of our most exciting and growing programs is our bachelor of interdisciplinary studies, and that's a, the BBIS program really is a program for that adult who wants to come back and finish their undergraduate degree, which we find to be a growing, as you well know, and, you know, a growing population, - You've got a lot of first-generation students here.

NC Promise is very important to this campus, no question about that.

Once you, once you realize you've sparked something within a young person or an adult that wants to further their education and they land here, how many of them will graduate?

What's your rate?

- So, I need to put that into context because, again, our average age is 26.

So, when I went to college, my goal was four years and I complete and I move on.

That still represents a percentage of our students, but we do have a number of students who are coming and they're gonna take the number of courses that they can afford to take, both in money as well as in time, so that's gonna stretch them out to a five or six and sometimes beyond year plan.

Now, they're gonna get their degree.

You were our commencement speaker this past spring and you saw going across the stage many adults.

One lady, I think when she hugged my neck, she was probably 60 years of age, and she said, "I intended to get my degree and I'm so happy about today."

So, when you look at our four-year graduation rate, a third of our students will end up graduating in that four-year period, and that's probably your typical 18-year-old who comes in and that's what they're gonna do, but again, we're servicing a different population.

If you look at the peer group, which is a group of about 10 to 12 universities across the nation that we compare ourselves to, that we think we're like them in terms of the students that we serve, in terms of the resources that we have, that's about what you see at a four-year, and then it gradually increases from five years, six years.

I think as higher ed adjusts, especially at the level of the mid-size, small to mid-size public, you're gonna see, it's a longer period before they hit that point where they graduate.

- Thank you for the context.

That is very important.

Look, it took me 10 years to finish a master's.

I took one course a semester for 10 years, and it was the greatest opportunity to learn, I mean, learn in ways that I had not anticipated, so I'm one of those who honor the time factor that can involve there.

- And if you see those students when you come back, guess what?

You're more focused.

You're directed.

Your goal is to get that degree so it's a very much more determined, focused student when you come back, and now life has moved on.

Many times, you're married.

You may have children in the family involved.

- [David] And you're working full-time.

- Many have a full-time job, yeah, so this is important, and when they come to us, "I want my education, I want it the way I need to get it and I want it on my time.

Not your time, Chancellor."

- You've been chancellor now for nine years?

- July 15 will be 10 years.

- 10 years.

A decade.

- Time flies.

A decade.

- Your path to higher education, like so many of our paths, was not linear, right?

Would you share your story?

- Well, I mentioned I grew up three miles from where we're sitting, second-youngest of nine children.

My dad was a Methodist minister.

He was a trailblazer in that, back in those days, most ministers had a primary job and then preaching was something they did on Sunday.

When my dad went into ministry, he told the church, he said, "I wanna be full-time, so if you can take me on full-time, I'm your minister."

They took him on full time.

So, he was one of a few, in fact, one of the first who started that pathway, but in any event, Dad was always gone.

He was always busy.

Mom was a full-time mother, she was always at home, so we grew up on a 25-acre farm, picking cucumbers, cropping tobacco, working really hard, as you might imagine, for nine kids to survive at that time.

- A lot of food.

- A lot of food, and a lot of pressures on my parents.

I admire what they did, but we grew up in my home with the emphasis on education, that you are going to, my dad was actually a four-year graduate of this university.

Two years, went away to World War II.

In five years, came back and finished his education for, at that time, four years.

So, he always emphasized to us education is important.

Faith is important in your life, but education's important in your life.

And so I grew up knowing, "I'm going to go to college."

I was blessed to have a lot of grade school and middle school and high school students who pushed me and inspired me.

My 10th grade teacher one day, I was dissecting a frog or something, and he came up and he said, "You look like you really enjoy that.

Have you ever thought about being a doctor?"

which I had not.

Now, he probably said that to every student in that class that day, but for me, it stuck.

It stuck in my mind, and so from that point on, my goal was to be a physician.

So, I finished high school, did well, was blessed to get a scholarship, which allowed me to leave and go away to school.

Did well undergraduate.

Medical school, and then in medical school, I, I remember in second year seeing a heart operation and walking into this operating room and seeing this person with his hands in a chest, moving a heart around, operating on it, and then to go and visit the patient later.

The chest is closed and they're sitting up in bed and it's, what miracle is this?

How did this happen?

I decided at that point, that's what I want to do with my career, so I ended up staying on at the medical school at Duke, and I ended up training for nine years to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Finished in 1992.

Was fortunate to find just a perfect place, which was close to my people, close to my community here in Pembroke, about an hour down the road over at Moore Regional, and I practiced there for about 12 years.

I've had the opportunity to operate on well over 2,000 individuals' hearts in my life and that's been a great, great honor.

One day discovered that I had something called an acoustic neuroma, left side, which is a small, very small brain tumor, but when it was removed, it left me with some fine motor skill deficit and I made the choice, and really wasn't much of a choice to not operate again at that point.

So, I'm 42 years old, I've got three children and, actually, four children at that time, and I can't do what I've been trained to do and loved doing.

So, a period of recreation, reflection, education provided me another pathway and that pathway was to get into healthcare administration, which led me from being a medical director over in the Sandhills region.

Got the opportunity to go to Raleigh and be a Medicaid director, to be the Medicaid director at that time.

Got a call one night from a member of the board of trustees here at UNC Pembroke, who said, "Our chancellor announced today that he's going to retire in six months.

We think you should look at this job."

Out of the blue.

I remember thinking, "What does a chancellor do?"

and I actually asked that.

"Well, what does a chancellor do?"

He said, "Well, you'll find out.

You can understand."

And I said, "Well, I'm really enjoying being a Medicaid director, so I don't think so."

Well, one thing leads after another, the door opened, my wife Rebecca and I came and looked and we absolutely loved what we found here at UNC Pembroke, and now it's 10 years later and I'm still really excited about this opportunity, this door that's opened to me, which opened because of education.

When one opportunity was not there, when one door closed, there was another one that was opened.

It was even more magnificent than the first, in some ways.

- A couple of things, Robin.

First off, thank you for your vulnerability in telling that story.

It's a powerful story that I hope people hear a central message in there of, "Life will bring you disappointments.

It will break your heart, literally and metaphorically, and then what do you do?

Do you give into that challenge or do you find another passion?"

So, thanks for sharing it.

- You're welcome.

- I wanna go back to something you said.

As a non-physician, I'm just fascinated by that moment when you saw a heart surgeon doing his job and how it captured your imagination, that you wanted that same connection with life that that physician had.

- It's hard to, again, capture that moment.

I was on one side of the screen with the anesthesiologist looking over, and I look over and I remember the first time and the anesthesiologist, "Now be careful," 'cause a lot of times, students would look over and faint.

That was not an uncommon thing, that you'd look over, see what you're seeing and fall back, and so they were prepared, but I looked over and it was like, this is the most fascinating thing to see a human heart beating in the chest.

The chest is open, the bypass machine is over here.

Now, you know, a minute later, the blood's flowing through the bypass machine and then the heart is stopped, not working any longer, literally dead.

You know, by every definition dead, except for the machine keeping the body alive, the patients asleep, and to see the surgeon take his hands, move the heart around, find the area that he was focused on, do something, fix it, close the chest up, and as I say, to go back that afternoon and the patient is up and, you know, still under the influence of anesthesia, 'cause it's a long operation, but alive, chest is closed, and I remember seeing the family, the family standing around that bed and to think, this father, this brother, this son has been given a new lease on life because of education, because of the person who I witnessed who had that education, that experience to do what he did and such a magnificent experience.

- So now you can walk this campus and you see students knowing that they have an opportunity, again, for a spark.

They have an opportunity to learn something different they didn't know, and they have no idea where they may land and what impact they're going to have, but you know they are going to have an impact.

And I think of the students who graduated from here who have an impact.

Let's pivot for a moment and talk about sports.

You watch the University of Houston with great intent, now, do you not?

- Why would you bring that up?

[David and Robin laughs] - Since they may be in a final four coming up this year with- - Well, I think they have- - North Carolina schools.

- I think they have a great chance to be in the final four.

Kelvin Sampson is the coach.

Kelvin is an alum of this university.

His wife Karen is likewise an alum.

Karen and I went from first grade to 12th grade together in each class so Karen and I are dear lifelong friends, but Kelvin is the coach.

Kelvin is a genius at coaching.

Everywhere he's gone, he's taken a team from one level into the next level, and so Houston, the whole city of Houston is on fire and they are in love with Kelvin Sampson and what he's doing.

And Kelvin told me once that he credits the fact that he grew up in rural North Carolina here in Pembroke with his success as a coach.

Now, there's a lot more to it than that, but his ability to relate to his players is because he grew up in an area where relating to people of different levels in life was important, was very important and he learned that.

So, he can go into a home and talk to a mother and a father and say, "I'm gonna take care of your son.

Trust me."

His wife, who is a trustee, by the way, on our board here, told me a lot not long ago that Kelvin has reached that point where mothers and fathers want their son to train under him, to train under him.

Now, this is a day of NIL and you know, folks getting on the internet and switching from school to school.

Kelvin builds loyalty in his players.

I watched them beat Kansas the other night.

What a great game.

Kansas is a magnificent school, storied history, and here is Houston beating them and setting so many records.

Very proud of Kelvin.

- We've only got about 30, 40 seconds left, but for that potential student, no matter what age they are, that may be watching, or their parent is watching thinking about them, your message of encouragement.

- My message is to get your education, and I know there's a lot of deliberation about the value of a higher education.

I think once you get that education, as you may have heard me say at our recent commencement, you've got something.

No one can ever take it from you.

It will shape and mold.

When I couldn't perform heart surgery, my education opened up a magnificent pathway that led me sitting here talking to David Crabtree today.

- Dr. Robin Cummings, always good to be in your company.

Thank you for your time and all the best to all of your students here at UNC Pembroke, and thank you for joining us.

- Thank you.

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