Bonnie Cone
THs OitSOLIKA
•lOUSSBitL
volume ix^ number J,
July 3, 1973
Semi-Retirement from A Growing Grandchild
“I’m like the old man who wandered
through the train from seat to seat asking
each passenger if they had any
grandchildren. He finally found one who
djdn’t, and said ‘Fine! Let me sit down and
tell you all about mine.’ Let me tell you all
about the University.’’
■Bonnie Cone
Effective Friday, June 29, 1973 Dr.
Bonnie E. Cone, Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs and Community Relations,
goes into semi-retirement after twenty-seven
years of service to the University. After a
vacation trip to Europe, Miss Cone wiU
return to Charlotte to take a part time
position with the University working with
the development office and with the UNCC
Foundation.
The twenty-seven year history of UNCC
and Miss Cone’s involvement, begins in
1946 when Miss Cone came to the Charlotte
extension. of the University of North
Carolina for returning veterans as a math
professor. The next year. Miss Cone
replaced the director and worked to have
the extension program continued. With the
help of Dr. Elmer Garinger, then the
superintendent of the Charlotte schools, the
247 student program was drawn into the
Charlotte school system and by 1949 had
become a two year junior college. In 1954,
the city of Charlotte voted tax money to
the institution, and in 1958, Charlotte
College officially came under the North
Carolina Community College system which
led to the appointment of the first board of
trustees. In 1961, the college moved from
old Central High School in downtown
Charlotte to the present 1,000-acre
location.
Charlotte College was elevated from a
two year junior college to a four year senior
college in 1963 and in 1965, became the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
(UNCC) with Dr. D. W. Colvard as
chancellor. Dr. Cone became the Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs and
Community Relations.
The future of the University is, of
course, uncertain; however, speaking from a
very political point of view, it does look
brighter than ever. The official story is that
of one of the most dynamic and fastest
growing institutions in the Country, and
there is not much ground to deny that
except for the slight cutback in the
projected enrollement for the coming year,
but all this can be justified. The fact
remains that in twenty-seven short years
this institution has grown from a miniscule
Charlotte Center for the University of
North Carolina to a four year branch of that
University now offering graduate work,
with fifty six hundred students now
projected for 1973-'74.
Within these last twenty-seven years,
students have changed a good deal, but on
the whole, UNCC students have many of
the same ideas of students originally here in
the late forties and early fifties. They’re
here with the number one priority of
education. When students have made
choices, “They don’t fritter away their time
.spending money just to be there. I know
within the last decade, 10 to 12 years, on
this campus, I’ve seen a greater impact of
student thought, ideas, on what we’re doing
in the academic program. Students are