If all it took was a little cheese to bring David Wharton back…

First post since March and it’s about an event I really wanted to attend this weekend.

Well, it’s a sad thing we didn’t get to the Goat Lady Dairy open house today. I really wanted to, but I had too many commitments, including the Fam Jam Brunch at UNCG’s Alumni House this morning where I got a chance to hear Chancellor Sullivan again (she REALLY knows how to work a room) as well as Earlene Hardie Cox, a ’74 grad who rose through the ranks of IBM and was director of taxes for IBM Credit Corporation before retiring. (Note: She’s also a Tar Heel, having gotten or JD from the law school.)

In fact, Hardie – as she’s known – and her husband, Maurice, are both UNCG grads. Maurice is an executive at Pepsi-Cola Co.

Chancellor Sullivan spoke about the capital campaign and the rise in minorities on campus, saying that of the 16,600 or so students on campus today, 30 percent are minorities and 23 percent are African American.

When Cox and her husband set foot on campus in ’70, she said there were only 300 African Americans of the 5,000 students and only nine of them were male.

Her funny story was that her husband told her how lucky she was to have gotten one of the nine. She said what he didn’t know was that she had two, but he was lucky he wasn’t the one she threw back.

I wasn’t supposed to tell that part, but…

Cute.

Cox also pledged another $25,000 to a scholarship fund in their names to help minority students, and one of those recipients attended the brunch.

This marked one of the last major events in the Alumni House before it closes for renovations next year.