Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the shooting on campus. UNC-Chapel Hill in which a professor was killed.

Mr Qi, a former doctoral student at the university, is accused of shooting Mr. Zijie Yan, a professor from the Faculty of Applied Physical Sciences in a laboratory building on campus. Due to the events, the campus was closed for several hours.

The university’s bell tower will ring at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday in honor of Yan, Chancellor. Lee Roberts announced this on Monday.

There has been little movement in the criminal case against Qi, who was charged with premeditated murder and alleged possession of a firearm on an educational campus the day after the shooting.

Last November, Qi was declared mentally ill and unable to continue the trial. A judge ordered him to be sent to a state-run psychiatric hospital for treatment. If his condition improves, the judge ruled, the trial could continue.

Qi’s lawyer will return to court in December to give a status report, according to the Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jeff Nieman said N&O reporter Tammy Grubb on Monday.

But there has been progress in another area since the shooting: UNC has evaluated its emergency preparedness and response and made changes to campus safety protocols and technologies that were years in the making.

Welcome to Dean’s List, a summary of higher education news in the Triangle and across North Carolina from The News & Observer and me, I’m Korie Dean.

This week’s edition includes an overview of the changes UNC has made since last August, as well as a multi-year partnership between Fayetteville State University And Lenovo which the university’s chancellor says will represent “a real turning point.”

How security on UNC’s campus has changed since the shooting

In the days following the Aug. 28 shooting, some students told The N&O that they and their professors felt the university had not adequately prepared them for the emergency. Some faculty continued teaching while the university was on lockdown, and others said they felt the university’s communications during the event did not clearly convey the nature of the threat or the course of action to be taken.

While the university Training for active shooters Available on request before shooting, such training was not necessary – even though the university was asked to implement such requirements in an internal audit in 2020, three years before the shooting.

That has now changed, almost a year after the shooting. The faculty was tasked with a 25-minute online emergency training program last month, with Provost Chris Clemens calls on all lecturers to complete the modules before the start of the autumn semester last week. Similar training will eventually be carried out for staff and students.

The move to introduce new training measures came after an independent agency made recommendations to the university in an “after-action report” following the shooting in May.

In addition to training, the university has also made changes to the security infrastructure and technology on its campus over the past year. These changes include:

▪ Completion of a multi-year project that began in 2018 to ensure classrooms function properly Interior door locks. The final phase of the project, which involved installing locks in classrooms of 10 to 24 students, was not completed at the time of the shooting on August 28, but was completed in the weeks following the event.

▪ Install License plate reader around the campus through Herd safety, a private company. The university had placed an order for the readers before the shooting, but later canceled the contract when it learned that Flock “was not licensed to do business in North Carolina.” After Flock resolved that issue with the state’s Alarm Systems Licensing Board, UNC entered into a new contract with the company in March.

Using Flock technology, police can search for any license plate for up to 30 days. The company has been criticized, particularly by the American Civil Liberties Union, for the massive amount of data it collects and for the lack of regulation of the technology, but UNC Police Chief Brian James has said the technology would help his department “better secure the campus.”

▪ The message transmission on Alarm Carolina Emergency notifications are clearer and updates are sent more frequently. In an active shooting situation, messages now include instructions to “run from a threat, hide if you can’t, and fight if you must.” Previously, messages urged the campus community to go indoors, avoid windows, and stay put until further notice.

“More action-oriented language, as well as emails and text messages, will help the community find the safest option in an emergency,” the university said in an article about the changes published Thursday.

▪ Adding a “I’m fine!” feature to the Carolina Ready safety app, which allows users to notify loved ones and other contacts of their location and status in the event of an emergency on campus.

“Campus safety is always a top priority, and we have learned a lot over the past year about improving our security procedures,” Roberts said in a campus message Monday, adding that the university “will continue to look for ways to make our security measures even more effective.”

Fayetteville State and Lenovo launch multi-year partnership

As part of a new partnership with Lenovo, all first-year students Fayetteville State University will receive new laptops this year – as will the next three grades.

Lenovo has committed to providing more than 800 laptops to students this year, and the company expects to provide more than 3,200 laptops in total over the course of the four-year partnership.

Campus and Lenovo leaders announced the partnership at the university’s annual awards ceremony on August 18. In a press release, Chancellor Daniela called the initiative a “real game-changer,” noting that it would help students graduate in four years – something Allison has pushed since becoming chancellor in 2021, particularly by offering free summer school to all students.

Cheo Johnson, The general manager of Lenovo’s U.S. distribution center said in a press release that the university’s “efforts to ensure on-time graduation align perfectly with our mission to give students the opportunity to reach their full potential.”

College news I read

• The number of people General application The number of students who were underrepresented because of their race has generally increased last year, even though the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the consideration of race in the admissions process, Inside Higher Ed reports.

• Duke Kunshan University, a joint venture between Duke University and Wuhan University in China, welcomed its largest class yet this fall. But the university’s future is uncertain, with the initial partnership set to expire in 2028, the Duke Chronicle reports.

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That’s all for this roundup of North Carolina higher education news. I hope you’ll stay tuned for more.

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Reporter Tammy Grubb contributed.