Business View Magazine | October 2020

218 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Urbana University in Ohio, and I negotiated the merger of that University with another nonprofit, Franklin University, because it was insolvent. The point I’m trying to make is that this is a business. Our Board of Trustees requires us to operate from a financial background. We are very careful, and we are very methodical. We’ve erased more than $25 million of deferred maintenance, we’ve built a new housing community, and renovated our campus.” Dr. Peterson has continued to embrace the practices that were established by Dr. White and Dr. Moore, placing an emphasis on promoting a positive corporate culture at Chowan University. “We offer our staff competitive salaries and benefits, but what we offer at Chowan, more than anything, is that we are a family, and we’re proud of that. We see schools that are $80,000 or more per year. Our cost is just over $36,000, including room, board, and tuition. We offer 100 percent of accepted students institutional merit scholarships, and roughly 90 percent of our students receive federal financial aid. And yet, we’re still very competitive with academic offerings. “We have just been approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to begin in 2021 with a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. With the approval of this program, SACSCOC also approved Chowan University to offer distance learning. Demands and technology are always increasing, so we are adjusting to meet the needs of our students and region. We have 20 athletic programs, plus junior varsity basketball, co-ed cheerleading, and co-ed eSports, and I have dreams for additional sports. I’d like to see us having track and field, field hockey, and men’s volleyball. Forty-five percent of our students are student-athletes, and these are all programs that would fit very well within our conference affiliations.” In addition to its academic programs and athletic offerings, Chowan is having conversations and President, Dr. Kirk Peterson