Editorial Draft #1

Title

Courtney Ceccarini

Q News

An extraordinary school with extraordinary expansions.

Since 2005, Dr. Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, has transformed the college campus into what some would call a resort. While these expansions have put the university on the map, it has, simultaneously, altered the way members of the community are living. 

High Point University bought the College Village Shopping Center on Lexington Ave. in 2019. Since the purchase, the university has put in a request to rezone the 11- acres from retail to institutional.

The retail stores that used to live there, including Dollar General and Auto Zone, have let their leases expire and left the premises. 

The university is working on renovating the grounds to transform it into a more cohesive aesthetic to the rest of campus. They are working to add crosswalks, sidewalks and have added a new security gate.

Through these renovations they have run into a small problem, not all of the businesses are ready to let go. 

Rent-A-Center and Tobacco Land & Vape Shop are less than enthusiastic about closing their doors for good and are still operating “business as usual.”

These efforts to keep their doors open has not gone exactly as planned for the tobacco and vape shop because High Point University has begun to turn students away from entering the former shopping center. 

As of right now, the space has been functioning as offices, parking and a mock trial courtroom for criminal justice classes. 

***Add quotes from vape shop, students, security, and townies***

*Must show passport to get in

*doesn’t matter if you are 21 or not 

*There’s a list? 

*How to add my opinion 

   *the school is icing out the business so they will sell -unethical

*bad because it's a business and can they really say who can go where

*good its a bad habit and they’ve been caught for selling to underage 

*middle ground they wait until its fully vacant 

*hpu bought other areas (mall loop)  and they don’t have gates or saying we can’t go to target