NC A&T Chancellor Harold Martin to retire in 2024

NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY

North Carolina A&T State University Chancellor Harold Martin, an alumnus who led the school's growth as a research institution and the nation's largest historically Black college, is retiring at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

Harold Martin, architect of North Carolina A&T State University’s drive to becoming a national leader in research, is retiring.

Martin, the longest serving chancellor in the 17-campus University of North Carolina System, announced his decision to step aside at the end of the 2023-24 academic year Friday at the A&T Board of Trustees meeting.  An A&T graduate, Martin, 71, oversaw the school’s rise as the country’s largest historically Black college and a research powerhouse that graduates more Black graduates in the sciences, technology, engineering, and math than any U.S. college.

“Davida (Martin’s wife) and I are very much looking forward to this next phase in our lives, as I join her in retirement – one that is filled with grandchildren and family, travel and adventure and many visits to Aggieland, where we will continue to be enthusiastic members of the Aggie Family,” he said in a statement to students and alumni. “She and I share a deep sense of gratitude for the enormous role that A&T has played in both our lives, a commitment to its strong and accomplished future and a great love for the many wonderful friends who make up our university.”

Martin, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at A&T and Ph.D. at Virginia Tech, joined A&T’s College of Engineering faculty and became department chair, dean of the college and vice chancellor for academic affairs, He was Winston-Salem State University chancellor from 2000-06 before moving on to the UNC System as senior vice president of academic affairs under President Erskine Bowles. He was hired as A&T chancellor in 2009. 

“Harold Martin is the very model of a devoted, effective public servant. He’s a brilliant thinker, a disciplined leader and a great man,” UNC system President Peter Hans said. “For more than three decades, he’s been a friend, a mentor and an inspiration to students and colleagues across the UNC System.

“Under Harold’s leadership, North Carolina A&T has become one of the strongest and most impressive institutions in all of American higher education. He’s an Aggie legend — an alum who embodies the best of the A&T spirit and who helped grow his alma mater into a powerhouse of research, economic impact, and life-changing opportunity.”

“Throughout his 35-year career within the UNC System, Chancellor Martin has championed affordable, accessible public higher education, helped North Carolina A&T to become the largest HBCU in the nation and cemented the institution as an education and research leader in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said UNC Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey. “The impact of Chancellor Martin's career is felt far and wide, and we are indebted to him for his service and commitment to our students. We offer our deepest thanks to the chancellor and wish him all the best for retirement.”

During Martin’s tenure at A&T, the school has become one of the country’s fastest-growing universities during a time of falling enrollment at many schools. From 2011-2021, applications grew by 246% – one of the best rates among doctoral research universities –doubling that of UNC Chapel Hill over the same period.

When Martin joined A&T, enrollment was 10,613; today it’s13,883 and became America’s largest HBCU in 2014 and two years ago became the largest enrollment ever for a Black college with 13,322. First-year A&T students have an average 3.75 grade point average with out-of-state applicants averaging 4.1.
 
A&T expanded infrastructure for development as a doctoral research university under Martin’s leadership. The school launched the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering and leveraged $90 million from a statewide bond package for an engineering research and innovation complex that bears Martin’s name. In the last four years, A&T research and sponsored program contracts and grants grew to a record $147.4 million in 2023, a 138% bump.

Those investments in STEM research also lifted A&T’s economic impact on the state’s economy. A study published by the UNC System earlier this year found to be measured at $2.4 billion compared to $978 million in 2012.

“Chancellor Martin’s greatest gift to our university has been the 14 years he has served as our CEO, providing steady, ambitious and wise leadership, always calling us to rise to the next challenge,” A&T trustees Chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland said. “As a fellow alumnus of A&T, I can attest that his passion for this work is a reflection of his lifetime commitment to this special place. For many generations to come, Aggies will experience his legacy and benefit from the many things he did that opened the doors more widely for their success.”


 

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