The new Hunt Library at Centennial Campus will bring with it more study areas for students and the latest in design and technology to assist students in their academic pursuits. However, the new Hunt library will also hold the latest extension of a program that has been thriving on campus for years unbeknownst to many students. Opening in the Hunt library will be the Emerging Issues Commons, the latest achievement of the Institute for Emerging Issues.

Since 1986, one of the ways that N.C. State has brought together community leaders with experts and policy makers is through an Emerging Issues Forum, a meeting that brought a couple hundred experts and leaders to talk about issues such as education, the economy, healthcare and the environment.

However, North Carolina has grown since then and the University seeks to match that growth.

According to Anita Brown-Graham, the director of the Institute of Emerging Issues, the Institute was created to not only expand the forums, but also to help improve them.

“In 2002, the University realized that while there was a lot of benefit in bringing people together once a year, there wasn’t much capacity to help people do anything with the new information the gleaned from the forum in a meaningful way.” Graham said. “So [the Institute for Emerging Issues] was an opportunity to make sure that we were focusing on these policy issues year round and we weren’t just thinking about them, we weren’t just talking about them-we were doing something about them.”

The institute is the only organization whose sole purpose is to bring people from across the state together to focus on the future of N.C., according to Brown-Graham. However, the forums are far from the Institute’s only method of addressing issues that face North Carolinians.

The Institute has brought back an N.C. State alumnus to help them reach out to a demographic that is of growing concern. This demographic is what the institute is calling “Generation Z” and represents the population born between 1990 and 2002.

John Coggins, 2009 alumnus and the first Emerging Leaders Fellow, said “Generation Z” is a generation destined to face several challenges.

“The most diverse in our history and the most connected in our history.” Coggins said. “However, they are also the generation that is going to be the first generation expected to be worse off than their parents so they’re not expected to live as long and they’re expected to have a lower quality of life. Since they’re entering the job market in a time of recession, it’s going to take an estimated ten years to reach their expected earning potential.”

During this year’s Emerging Issues Forum, Coggins helped to organize about 200 Generation Z ambassadors from the state to participate in the forum. These ambassadors helped create three objectives for leaders and the Institute to focus on in order to ensure that the state will be a sustaining and empowering place for “Generation Z”. These include healthy eating objectives, a business mentorship program and a community co-working initiative.

While the specifics of the action plans are still in process, according to Coggins, it will be easy for NCSU students to learn more and get involved.

“Early summer, we’re going to be unveiling the action plans and then we’re going to be reaching out to organizations and to schools to see how people can get involved in these,” Coggins said. “If N.C. State students want to get involved, they just need to check our website for updates.”

With the Emerging Issues Commons, located in Hunt Library, the institute will continue its natural evolution through the idea that when dealing with large state-wide issues more people need to be involved in the process.

“We wanted to be able to create a space that would be a physical space…where people could come together to talk about the future, but we wanted to do it in a 21st century way.” Brown-Graham said.

When the Commons opens with Hunt Library, the Institute will have another medium to allow involvement in the creation of a better future for North Carolina. It will be open 24 hours and will also have online opportunities for people anywhere in North Carolina to connect with other leaders to spur change.

“The Commons will [bring] people together who may not know each other but have common interests and common identity as North Carolinians…to address some of the core issues [facing] our state.” Coggins said.

With the Commons opening, the Institute for Emerging Issues will provide opportunities for anyone to become involved in North Carolina’s future.