GREENSBORO (June 21, 2024) – As a civil engineering professor, James R. Martin II’s research focus was earthquake preparedness.

That might well have prepared him to deal with the shifting landscape of higher education in North Carolina – and the nation.

Martin, named Friday as the new Chancellor at N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, has enormous shoes to fill.

Over 15 years, outgoing Chancellor Harold Martin (no relation), a former engineering professor himself, built N.C. A&T into the nation’s largest Historically Black College or University (HBCU), which produces more Black engineers than any university in the country.

A school that had 12,000 applicants in 2014. And 42,000 in 2023.

Harold Martin raised unprecedented amounts in private donations to the university, which has an annual economic impact of $2.4 billion.

Yet he also maintained its culture as a place that produced both the A&T Four and astronaut Ron McNair.

A&T ranks in the top 5% of universities in social mobility, according to U.S. News & World Report, and is tied for 25th (with UCLA and Virginia Tech) among all universities for innovation. And it is on the brink of coveted recognition as an R1 doctoral research university.

AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT FRIDAY, James Martin appeared ready to step into those shoes.

“I don’t know any other schools in this country that have that unique impact. There’s something special in our DNA,” he said.

“Let me assure you, Dr. Martin does indeed get it. He gets what we have built here,” said Kimberly Bullock Gatling, Chair of A&T’s Board of Trustees. “He gets it when we say A&T is always doing – and never done.”

Martin – who has led engineering and STEM initiatives at Virginia Tech, Clemson and the University of Pittsburgh – delivered an address that was a stirring combination of an engineer’s organized thought (“let me share two thoughts/three points here”) and the eloquence and pregnant pauses of a country preacher.

He shared the perspective of a Black man who grew up along Highway 49 in rural Cross Keys, SC, but also the discipline of a military graduate of The Citadel. And the sweeping, global vision of a university executive who even thinks about national security.

That’s a highly unusual combination. Engineers aren’t often great communicators. Yet Martin has spoken on CNN and at the White House.

During the search process, “It was clear to me … that expectations are high. Good,” he said. “We’re about excellence…. I’m about excellence too.”

MARTIN SPOKE about growing up and driving today along Highway 49 in Union County, South Carolina.

“I ask myself, ‘How much stranded brilliance is along these highways?’” he said. “‘How much untapped human potential is out there?’ And I represent that story.

“For us to realize the full potential of our region, our state, our nation, we have to do as much as we can to maximize human potential. We can’t afford to have stranded brilliance anywhere in this country.”

When he went to his first integrated school in the second grade, he said, his mother insisted he sit in the front row in every class because he belonged there.

Learning is the way to change communities, he said: “Learning is a lifestyle. It is not an event. When it comes to learning, we should all be doing – always doing – never done.”

When Martin won a scholarship to The Citadel and his parents dropped him off, his mother told him he could not call and ask to come home.

“I only had one shot at it,” he said. “I had one way out. Like many of our students here, we have to make it.”

There have been rumblings that Martin hasn’t served at an HBCU during his academic career.

He addressed that in his remarks, saying The Citadel was his only chance – and he can’t imagine what he might have become had he not been “swimming upstream” at the universities where he’s been.

INNOVATIONS have come through investments in education and technology after major social upheavals, Martin said. 

Like the Civil War, with the creation of land-grant institutions like N.C. A&T; World War II, with the GI Bill and creation of student loans; and today, with China and others catching up to the United States using “the American playbook that we invented.”

Asked about the UNC System’s recent pullback on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and A&T’s tradition in civil rights, he replied:

“For us here, diversity means a multi-cultural meritocracy based on merit and excellence. That’s what it’s based on. The rest of the world comes here because of its diversity, and that speaks for itself….

“We’re based on excellence, and we happen to be an HBCU. And that’s being validated by unprecedented demand.”

Martin said he’s eager to start as Chancellor Aug. 15 and “to hear ideas about what our next big audacious goals will be.”