Niner Guide Practice Lines

Introduction

Hello Everyone! My name is… I am your niner guide for today. Your experience at UNC Charlotte today includes a tour of one of our 16 residence halls, a walk through one of 2 dining halls and finally a 1-mile walking tour of our beautiful campus that ends at our fabulous student union. Any Questions? Alright.. We begin our tour with…

Residence Halls

Alright! Here I will be handing you off to a housing ambassador who will give you a tour of a residence hall before returning you guys back to me. Questions? Great. They’re all yours.

Dining

Welcome to South Village Crossing! This what what we call SOVI. It is called South Village Crossing because our campus is broken down into directions: North, South, East, you get the idea. This allows for increase convenience for students on this side of campus whether in the dorms or for classes closer access to a dining hall. We have 2 dining halls, 3 coffee shops, and 4 food courts which are very accommodating to all dietary needs. As a first year student, you will be required to live on campus, of course there are exceptions to this rule. But for the most part, first years are living on campus and therefore need a meal plan as well. This daily meal plan consists of unlimited meals swipes that essentially just means that students will be allowed to come in and out of the dining halls as many times as they’d like during operation hours. In addition, as part of the daily meal plan, you will be given an account called declining balance. This is money that you can use at any of our on campus eateries, coffee shops, athletic facilities and other places. It is kinda like your on campus debit card although its not refillable. The amount that is given into this account varies based on the meal plan that you choose. Lastly, the money rolls over from the previous semester to the next but does expire at the end of the academic calendar year so be sure to use all of it. Do we have any questions? Great! onto the next stop.

Green Spaces, COA+A, CHESS

Alright. A neat feature of UNC Charlotte is our green spaces. The lake that you see here is Hechenbleikner Lake and is one of the many greenspaces that we have on campus. Some other examples include the Botanical Gardens, and access to the city’s 60+ miles of green way walking trials. Additionally, there are venture office that sponsors on campus rock climbing, ropes courses, off-campus adventure trips like backpacking and rafting and a minor in Outdoor Leadership. During our tour, you may hear me use the phrase “academic home” this just refers to the buildings that each major will spend majority of their time in as they progress towards their major specific classes. For example, my academic home is under the Belk College of Business in the Friday Building, which I will point out during our tour to put a visual of the building to its name that mentioned. Talking about the buildings that you see here, The building right here that has the light color strip at the top, is called Rowe. This houses our visual arts majors such as digital media and photography. It also has one of our in house rotating art galleries that have both student and professional art works. The building to the right of Rowe is called Robinson, this building houses the performing arts majors such as dance. Some things you’ll find in Robinson are the belk theater have student led and acted plays, music practice rooms and probably my favorite spot at Robinson is the dance studios. Fun Fact: I danced for nearly 12 years of my life so you will find me in there from time to time. The building that is directly behind these two that unfortunately you cannot see from here is called Storrs is holds our architecture majors. The architecture program here at Charlotte is one of the only 2 accredited program in North Carolina and prepares students for licensing the moment they graduate from here. These three building encompass the College of Arts and Architecture. Talking a little bit about the College of Humanities and Earth and Social Sciences, CHESS for short. This by far is our largest college as it encompasses the most number of majors such as English, History, Global Studies, Sociology, Writing, and Criminal Justice; just to name a few. Because this college is so large, it does not have an allocated building like the College of Arts and Architecture, instead the departments in which the major fall into are scattered across different building on campus.

Colvard, Academic Story

Alright! The building that we are in right now is called Colvard. As you can see, it is kinda split into North and South with different departments and classrooms at each level. This building houses the departments of Communications, Criminal Justice, and Psychology under the College of Humanities and Earth and Social Sciences. These little boxes on either building will tell you tell which department is on which floor, in case you ever need it. In addition to those department, this building also is home to those that come into UNCC as an undeclared or undecided major, which is completely normal, and for those that are undecided there is no need to worry about graduating late or anything because you will completing classes such as general educations classes that everyone needs to take anyway. On the second floor on this side of Colvard, you find the Advising and Transfer Center that helps undecided and/or transfer students as well as the University Center for Academic Excellence (UCAE) that offers free tutoring services by students that have gotten an A in the course that you need help in as well as academic workshops. Specifically for first years, there are several programs that encourage success. One of them is University Transition Opportunities Program (UTOP) which is a six week summer bridge program for incoming freshman to live on campus and get a head start on some classes for credit before their first official semester.

Library, Cone, Career Center

Stopping here at somewhat of an intersection. I want to talk about 3 different buildings. The first being this building right here which is our 10-floor library. It open 24 hours 5 days a week, weekend times tend to vary, and 24/7 during finals time. As I said it is 10 floors, so at the 10th floor you will have a breathtaking view of uptown Charlotte as well as almost the entirety of campus. Each floor has tables and open study spaces but as expected as you go higher in floors, it will be quieter for those that enjoy a more open silent working or study space. But you find a combination of both group collaborative working areas and individual silent study spaces all throughout the library. On the ground floor, you will find a Starbucks, one of 2 on campus Starbucks and 1 of 3 coffee shops plus some vending machines that have easy quick snacks for students in a hurry. The main floor has our Circulation Desk where students have the ability to check out laptops, electronic equipment like cameras and tripods and hotspot for 7-days with their student IDs. The 2nd floor holds our study cubes, and features our Area 49 that holds the library’s collection of innovative spaces where you can create, edit, game, check out tech in places like the Makerspace, EZ Video Studio, and Gaming Lab. The rooms on the first floor, the study cubes on the second floor, and the nap pods where students can take a nap in between classes for an hour are all reservable using the website. I have used and reserved so many study cubes during my time so far to study, to work individually and even for group projects. During Finals week, it is a very stressful time of the year for everyone, so the library hosts special events called De-Stress for Success to help students. Some of these include, puppy therapy where they bring in therapist dogs for you to pet and relax with for a little bit, recharge room with snack, calming music, donuts and coffee and sometimes even free massages by licensed massage therapists. The second of the 3 building is to the left of the library over there, that is called our Cone Center, named after our founder Bonnie E. Cone. It holds our Niner Central platform that help students with their loans, financial aid, class registration, transcripts and many others. You will find on the ground floor of Cone a few eateries that include Subway, Wild Blue Sushi, and a Market. Our office of Fraternity and Sorority life has many diverse Greek organizations including cultural, religious, and academic options for our students to choose from if any of you guys are interested in Greek life. In total, roughly 15% of our student population at UNC Charlotte participate in Greek Life. The last of these 3 buildings is the Atkins Annex, also known as our Career Center. It oversees our online platform of Hire-a-Niner of current students and recent graduates promoting on and off campus employment opportunities. Additional professional development services that they offer include resume workshops, practice interviews, and career treks which allow students to build their own brand to seek out more competitive job opportunities. Career Fairs also under their jurisdiction, they tend to host one generalized career fair each semester that hosts nearly 200 companies of various field as well as smaller fairs that are more specific such as the financial services career fair. A career coach is also available to assist students with internship, job, and career questions, and opportunities. Another very useful offering at the Career Center is the professional clothing closet where organizations will donate professional wear for the students here. This is completely free for students so one time each semester, you can check 4-5 pieces of professional clothing each semester for you to keep, no need to return so you show up to your interview, internship, job, networking event etc in professionally appropriate attire.

Smith, Friday, Prospector

This building here is called Smith it holds our William States Lee College of Engineering first year students. So the undergrad students taking majors in Mechanical, Electrical, Environmental, Civil, Computer, and Systems with options for various concentrations some of which are aerospace and motorsports will stay their first year classes in this building before taking the remaining classes on the west side of campus. As an engineering student, you will have access to all research lab spaces and equipment, and even work with industry partners to create a hands-on senior project. There are college of engineering tours that are being offered to prospective students that take a tour of all the facilities that they will have access to as an engineering student here. There is more information on their website about these tours. The building that you see over there with the 4 columns is the Friday building that holds the Belk of College of Business. This is my academic home as I mentioned previously. Charlotte is the 2nd largest banking capital in the United States with Charlotte having Bank of America’s corporate headquarters, which provides our business students like myself access to unique experiences and many internship opportunities. The business faculty have worked in corporate America who use their lessons and experience in their curriculum. On the third floor of Friday, has our Niblock Student Center which like the career center specifically for business students in terms of career guidance, and they host something called the C-Suite Speaker Series where they invite executives like CEOs, CFOs, VPs etc to come talk to business and non business students about their industry experiences. Lastly the building you see with all the seating is called Prospector, this is where you will find most of on campus eateries including, Chick-fil-a, Panda Express, Burger 704, Halal Shack, Qdoba, The Oasis Cafe and Lounge and Market at Prospector. I tend to spend most of my money and time here in between classes having lunch with my friends. On the ground floor of Prospector, it had our Fed-Ex Copy Machine, US Postal Office, and on the outside you’ll find multiple ATMs.

Campus Life

We have multiple school traditions here. 3 of them are the Gold Rush and the International Festival and the Rings. Just before each semester, we host a gold rush that acts as UNC Charlotte’s welcome program that kicks off each semester that encompasses many events such as the Student Org Showcase where all the Student Org set up table and talk to all the incoming students, Gold Rush Resource Fair that does the same as the Org Showcase but this time with all the different resources such as the library, career center, niblock student center, grad admissions etc in the student union, and many more fun events where they hand out free swag if they participate. As for our international festival festival, this is where students and community members gather to represent over 35 different cultures through festival booths, food and performances. Lastly, the rings that you see, we have a legend that says that if you can run in and out in a swerving motion up and back down those 4 rings without touching them, you will get a 4.0. I had friends try it, it worked in their favor, maybe it’ll work in yours too when you try it out. The building you see here is the Barnhardt Student Activity Center and Halton Arena, it houses our men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams. We are a NCAA Division 1, member if the American Athletic Conference which mean we do compete at the highest and most competitive level of athletics. We have 19 men’s and women’s athletic teams. Students receive free tickets to all home game events and are preloaded into your student ID, except for the high profile games where student need to reserve them ahead of time. High profile game example would be like the Fall 2025 UGA Bulldogs and UNC Chapel Hill Tar Heels. Our in-state rival is East Carolina University. If you aren’t into the D1 sports, there are calmer levels where you can play at in your club sport and intramural sport. Club sports are a little bit more competitive than intramural as they go to other college within North Carolina while intramural stays local to Charlotte. As for the student’s wellbeing, we have fully functioning pharmacy, and doctor’s office that allows for immunizations, allergy clinic, travel medication, nutrition counseling, on-site lab, and x-ray. Luckily, we are also very close to a hospital, Atrium Health, which is only 4 minutes away. We believe that your mental health and just as important as your physical health as we have Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) that is included in your tuition and available to all enrolled students. It offers consultation, individual and group counseling, crisis services, referral services, and educational programs. Lastly, UNC Charlotte prioritize safety at all times. We have dedicated Law Enforcement Officers who have the same authority and training as a Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department officer has. They constantly patrol the area 24/7/365 days by car, utility vehicle, foot, bike, and a mobile command center. This blue light poles are another added feature to ensure safety. The big red button in the middle of the pole connects you directly to campus police dispatch who knows your exact location. The Live Safe App functions as a mobile blue light allowing for direct communication with the police via text, and phone services and also offers location sharing to your friends and family. Lastly, we have something called Niner Alerts, this is basically the university’s mass messaging system that communicates any threat to campus safety or operations. It comes with a combination of e-mail, text messaging, and general campus broadcasts. For example the snow storm that hit, and updates about campus operations were given through this system. Family members can also register to receive Niner Alerts through text message and email.

Academics

A little history about UNC Charlotte. This was established originally as night school for World War II veterans. In 1949 similar institutions were getting shut down throughout the state so Bonnie E. Cone, the class of 1949 and the city of Charlotte fought for higher education here in the city. We are named the 49ers in honor of those who in 1949 succeeded in keeping the university open. We then moved to the current campus in 1961 joining the UNC system in 1965. Norm the Niner is our university mascot and because he is a miner. our hand sign is a pickaxe. Talking about the different colleges here. We spoke about 3 already. We are in the College of Health And Human Services which encompasses our nursing, exercise science, public health, and health systems management majors. For our nursing students, our 3rd floor had simulation labs and observation rooms with mannequins equip out student to respond to real-life clinical scenarios such as child birth, drawing blood, and other procedures, The Office of Education Aboard is located on the 2nd floor with over 70 different programs and countries to choose from. Exercise system majors have hands-on learning opportunities to use medical equipment and physiology lab spaces located in the Belk Gym which is off to the left of the Student Activity Center. Next we Cato College of Education, Mebane Hall is the academic home for the majors in any kind of education such as elementary, middle, and special education and minors in secondary and foreign language education. We are one of the largest producers in newly licensed teachers in North Carolina. Education majors have hands-on classroom exposure starting their first-semester. We also have the College of Computing and Informatics. We have the largest computer science program in the Carolinas. We have concentrations in AI, Robotics, Gaming, Cyber Security and more. We have started a new degree in Sports Analytics. We are one of 5 schools nationally that offer a bachelors in this field. Our students work with professional athletic teams here in the city of Charlotte, including the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC and many more. The last of the 8 colleges is the Klein College of Science over the buildings Woodward, Burson, and Klein Hall, are the academic home for the majors in biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics, Statistics, Physics, and Optical Science. Klein Hall is our newer building who it features state of the art facilities including classroom spaces, in addition to instructional and research labs. The ground floor has an Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, vending machines, and a large area for indoor and outdoor seating. Charlotte focuses on a wide range of research opportunities which promote an interdisciplinary approach encouraging collaboration between departments and faculties. UNC Charlotte has achieved the Carnegie R1 research status, the highest possible level of research activity for a university. This will continue to attract high achieving faculty and students allowing expansion for grant funding for research projects and improve the value of your degree here at Charlotte.

Classroom

The average classroom is of roughly 30-35 students. Although that will differ based on the class that you’re taking. I have sat in classes where the class size was of maybe 30 students and others where the class size was 300. Student to Faculty Ratio is 20:1 so a fair load. All professor are required to hose office hours and larger classes will have Teaching Assistants to help with communication and exam review session and answers students’ questions. This is probably the most different than out of high school. In high school, you were given your schedule, had a fixed time of being in school from 8-3, class size of maybe 20-30 people. Thats all different once you’re in college. class registration, you have much more freedom in the timings as multiple professors will be teaching the same course at different times. So you can set your schedule how you would like. I have friends who work part time so they finish all their classes in 3 days and leave the other 2 days completely empty. I myself cannot do that so I spread my classes across all 5 days, where I take 2 classes 3 days a week and 3 classes 2 days a week. Additionally, I am not a morning person, I have always known that but the thing that solidified it for me was trying to have my psychology lab at 8 am in the morning. I was sooo ridiculously tired. But that’s just me. There are people that thrive at 8 am in the morning. I personally am an night owl, I’m most active in the afternoon and evening. This flexibility allows for each person to figure out what type of person they are. And that’s exactly what college is for, yes its important to be educated and get a degree but also to find who you are. Not to toot my own horn , but this place is great for that.

UREC, Transportation

This is the University Recreation Center, UREC, it is 148,000 square feet with 5 floors of fitness equipment and workout space. Resources include indoor and outdoor pools, heavy weightlifting, an outdoor basketball and sand volleyball court, strength and cardio equipment, over 80 fitness classes as week, 4 open courts for basketball, volleyball, badminton, and pickleball. EGYM is an AI enable strength training equipment designed to make workout smarter using personalized data such as height and weight, It creates workout routine based on individual goals. Transportation on campus. We have the Niner Transit have 3 bus routine. The Passio Go App or website tracks bus arrival at each stop. There are shuttle buses offered on weekend to go to Patel Brothers, Target, Harris Teeter, and additional shuttles offered around University breaks to airport and train station. You probably saw all the e-bikes and e-scooters across campus, they are available for rent to students via the LIME app, students are also welcome to bring their skateboard, scooter, bikes, etc. to campus for easier transit on campus. All students including first years are allowed to have cars on campus with the purchase of a resident or commuter parking permit. Included in your student fees is the use of the light rails which also includes unlimited entry in the CATS app. It connects campus to places like Uptown, NoDa, South End, and the DuBois center, the center city building allowing students further opportunities for classes, internships, and entertainment like concerts, sporting events, restaurants etc. Runs from 5 am until 2 am, frequencies vary with shorter waits during peak travel times.

Student Union

Here is the fabulous student union, you find our second art gallery, grand piano, norm’s longue filled a foosball table, multiple pool tables, and a movie theater. Movies that are shown here are free for students and $2 per guest. You do not need to worry about sneaking food in, you are welcome to bring sweets and snacks. Just please do clean up after yourself to make it easier for everyone. We have numerous dining option which include our second on campus Starbucks, Shake Smart, Wendy’s, Bojangles, Erbert and Gerbert’s that houses 49er Fresh, Amazon Just Walk Out, and lastly our second dining hall Social 704 on the second floor. You will find many resources in this building like the Niner Tech store where you can buy mouses, laptops, keyboard etc. the Hair Salon, Union Station, Student Legal Services that help with passport renewals and things like that more for advisory than representation. On this floor, this the Barnes and Noble where you can buy Niner swag and the floor below it is where you’ll find the actual bookstore with all of your textbooks. If you opt into the Niner Course Pack and have physical books, either you can pick them up here or have them delivered. I personally would have them delivered cause those lines can get pretty long and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone. The Union also houses the Esports and Gaming Arena that has gaming stations, iRacing rigs, and console gaming systems available for student use. Charlotte Esports is the largest collegiate esports organization on the east coast of the US. Some of the departments you will find here is the Niner Media responsible for newspaper, podcasts, arts magazine etc., Community Engagement, and the Center for Student Involvement that oversee Campus Activities Board and Student Government. Lastly, before we end our tour, on your college application you are often asked why you chose that specific school. I wont give you the glorified one that I wrote on that application. The real version of it is one for its academic flexibility in its programs and second the confidence that I would thrive in happiness and success.

The End