Congress has cut federal funding for public media — an $800,000 loss for WFAE. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
There’s big higher ed news in Charlotte this week. Queens University of Charlotte on Tuesday announced it’s merging with Elon University. To look at the business trends driving this merger and talk about other business news of the week Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: These are both smaller universities. For those who don’t know, Elon is in the Greensboro area. What have the schools said about why they are doing this? And Elon was already moving into Charlotte, right?
Tony Mecia: Yes, Marshall. At the announcement of this merger the other day, the presidents of both universities said they're stronger together. They said they're both perfectly fine being independent, but if they combine their resources, they can serve students even better. I think for Elon it represents being able to get into Charlotte, which is a dynamic place. They can partner with businesses on things like health care and technology. For Queens, it really helps, I think, shore up some of their finances. It aligns them with a bigger university that has some financial resources. So that's sort of the, I think, rationale from both points of view.
Elon was already moving into Charlotte. It opened a couple of years ago a building in South End where it has a satellite campus of its law school and a couple other programs. So they're definitely interested in moving into Charlotte.
This is sort of an unusual combination. You don't have this happen all that much, although there are a lot of financial pressures on smaller colleges, so you might see more of this. I talked to Connie Book, who is the president of Elon, about it. She said they're really modeling it on other colleges that have integrated. She cited Oxford College and Emory University in Atlanta and Barnard College and Columbia University in New York.
Terry: In other merger news, one of the nation’s largest independent neurosurgery practices is joining Atrium Health. What's behind that deal?
Mecia: This is part of a continuing trend toward hospital systems buying independent physician practices. The thinking is that Atrium would expand its market share and could funnel patients into their facilities. Carolina NeuroSurgery & Spine Associates is going to join Atrium on Oct. 1, they announced this week.
Terry: Over now to a case of workplace embezzlement. It happened at North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue. What’s the story there?
Mecia: North Mecklenburg Animal Rescue sent out an email to supporters this week talking about some of the troubles that it had financially. It referred to a lawsuit that it had filed against its former executive director, who it said had transferred money from the nonprofit into her personal accounts using Venmo. They said the amount was more than $100,000. The rescue [group] said that it settled the case. The former executive director repaid $150,000. They agreed to drop the suit and they did not press criminal charges. They say that they're recovering. They just asked for support from the community to continue their work to save animals, and they say that it's something that they want to put behind them and move ahead.
Terry: Let’s end this week on a job update for former Charlotte City Councilman Braxton Winston. What’s he up to now?
Mecia: You might recall that Braxton Winston, the former Charlotte City Council member, former mayor pro tem of Charlotte, he ran for labor commissioner unsuccessfully last year. Just this last weekend, he was elected president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, which is the largest federation of labor unions in North Carolina. So he is going to be working in the labor movement.
