TRUSTEES VISIT COAST

Coastal Studies Institute hosts BOT meeting

The East Carolina University Board of Trustees ventured outside Greenville for its regular meeting on Feb. 15-16, visiting and touring the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese. ECU is the administrative campus for CSI, which also includes several other member institutions in the UNC System.

John McCord, CSI outreach director, shows how raw data is used to create detailed topographical maps.

CSI was founded in 2003 and the current facility was completed in 2012. The trustees learned about the institute’s public outreach efforts and K-12 education programs, which have grown rapidly and now bring between 2,000-3,000 children to CSI each year.

“This year we are more than doubling our summer camp offerings and will have 14 weeks of programming,” said John McCord, CSI’s director of education and outreach. Day camps for children ages 9-15 are held throughout the summer on a variety of topics. Registration opens March 1.

Dr. Nathan Richards showed the 177 scale drawings that make up the site map of the Pappy’s Lane shipwreck, a site that was studied by ECU graduate students in the maritime studies program in conjunction with the N.C. Department of Transportation. The DOT needed to determine the identity and history of the wreck because it lies in the path of the Bonner Bridge replacement project.

Students were instrumental in the effort that resulted in identifying the wreck as an amphibious landing craft from World War II.

The board members also saw the facility’s wave tank, used in ocean energy research; two of the boats in CSI’s fleet of research vessels; and a demonstration of a drone used for mapping shorelines and tracking erosion.

Dr. Mike Piehler, interim director of CSI, shows the facility’s wave tank and describes research into harnessing energy from waves and currents in the ocean.

During the meeting, Chancellor Cecil Staton provided several updates, including the university’s $500 million comprehensive campaign, which is currently in its quiet phase. To date, $169 million has been raised, pledged or committed toward the goal.

Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic was named dean of East Carolina University’s College of Health and Human Performance during the ECU Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, Feb. 16. Zvonkovic will officially begin her new role on July 1. She succeeds Dr. Glen Gilbert, who stepped down in December after serving 18 years as dean. Dr. Susan McCammon, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology, is serving as interim dean until Zvonkovic takes over the role.

J.J. McLamb, associate athletics director, provided an update on the southside renovation project of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, which continues on track. The existing press box has been removed, and a temporary press box and lights will be installed in time for the first home game in fall 2018. A live webcam and construction photos are available at ecupirates.com.

In other business:

• Athletic director Jeff Compher gave an update on the search for a new coach for the men’s basketball team. He is currently assessing interest from a number of candidates, he said, but will wait until after the end of the current season to fill out the candidate pool.
• Phillip Wood, executive director of the Pirate Club, described a new six-point All Hands On Deck initiative to raise membership to 20,000 and increase scholarship support to $12 million annually.
• The board approved the sale of the property located at 301 W. 10th St. to the ECU Real Estate Foundation.

Harry Smith, vice chairman of the UNC System Board of Governors and an ECU alumnus, described the BOG’s plans to develop 17 distinct strategies for its 17 member institutions rather than a one-size-fits-all policy, efforts to revitalize the system’s historically black colleges and universities, and the challenges facing ECU and the system as a whole.

Dr. Nathan Richards, associate professor of maritime studies at ECU, explains how ECU graduate students mapped the site of a mystery shipwreck and helped track down its history.