The Daily Tar Heel
URL: http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2012/01/central_nc_isnt_the_only_nc
Current Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 10:30:24 -0400
Central NC isn’t the only NC
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Tiffany Hensley was valedictorian of the class of 2008 at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville. She ran cross-country, volunteered for the Special Olympics, was co-editor of the yearbook and served as secretary of her school’s student government. In her senior year, she was rewarded for her efforts with an acceptance letter from UNC. But you won’t see her on campus today because Tiffany is a senior at East Tennessee State University.
Tiffany’s reasons for choosing ETSU were practical. ETSU offered her a full scholarship. UNC did not. ETSU is only an hour away from her home. UNC is five.
But Tiffany’s case is an illustration of a larger problem. A quick look at some statistical profiles makes it easy to see how insular this campus’ student body is. A 2011 report from the UNC General Alumni Association, which profiled the class of 2014, found that 51 percent of in-state students come from five counties: Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Orange and Forsyth.
Think about it. The majority of in-state students in the current sophomore class come from just five of North Carolina’s 100 counties. It might be tempting to write this off as a fluke or to at least attribute it to population distribution. But a closer examination offers no such explanation.
In fact, it reveals an even greater disparity than the initial figures suggested: These five counties may account for 51 percent of the class of 2014, but they only represent about 30 percent of North Carolina’s population.
This is a problem for North Carolinians, who have all made an investment in the world-class university we have here in Chapel Hill. By failing to draw a sufficient number of rural students, UNC is depriving these areas — who pay taxes just like everyone else — of much-needed homegrown leaders, who can go back and make a difference in their all-too-often overlooked communities.
The disparity is detrimental to other segments of the student body, too. A homogenous student body diminishes campus life and denies us a fundamental college experience: exposure to and education from people with different backgrounds.
Less obvious but equally crucial are the political consequences of this homogeneity. Chapel Hill was especially roughed up in last year’s state legislative budget battles. Could a contributing factor have been that representatives from the state’s less-urban counties felt relatively little responsibility to our campus? If a representative’s constituency isn’t connected to UNC, if only a few students go to Carolina every year, what incentive does that elected official have to fight — truly fight — against spending cuts to our university?
UNC needs to continue to attract North Carolina’s best and brightest, and the talent will never be equally distributed between the state’s counties. But it is ridiculous to suggest that the current disparity is an accurate reflection of the quality of the students outside of the Triangle Area and the suburbs of Charlotte.
It won’t be easy to change this profile, but we can start by improving our social, economic and educational outreach in these areas, so students like Tiffany will feel like there is a place for them in Chapel Hill. Both our future and North Carolina’s will be better for it.
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9 comments
Is the population the right comparative measure or is high school graduates?
It is an accurate reflection of the quality. That’s why the disparity exists. No one is rejecting the rural student in favor of the urban based on geography. It’s the test scores, GPA, and overall competitiveness of these applicants. UNC-CH’s job is to educate the brightest, most competitive students in the state. There are other schools in the system that disproportionately enroll eastern or western NC students. Their schools also receive tax dollars. Problem solved.
“In fact, it reveals an even greater disparity than the initial figures suggested”
Actually no… 5 counties/100 total= 5%
And then you tell us those five counties have 30% of the state population
So really the knowledge of the how the population is distributed lessens the impression that there is a disparity.
@JohnBlack
GPA is, at best, a tool for comparing students relative to one another at a single school. Your attitude regarding this situation is overly simplistic. Western and eastern schools tend not to have the resources, AP courses, etc. that Piedmont schools do, which, on paper, makes these students seem less appealing though their aptitude for learning might be the same as or greater than their mid-state counterparts. Until the state can provide the resources to make education have parity statewide, I think the county level representation ratio should better represent the population of the state.
Well said, GradStudent. I come from an eastern county and can attest to the scarcity of resources. I would also speculate that having more competition in elections/hiring for these more populous counties might give them an edge. More importantly, the seeming relative lack of competition (assumed based on low population) might result in administrative bodies (school-specific and county-wide school boards) with low standards (“pass, and that’s all we expect from you!”) and weak credentials. I graduated in 2009 and remember having principals who led prayers at school events (during school hours) in addition to trying to block the formation of pointedly secular clubs.
Still don’t understand how incompetent administrators can manage to make 100K salaries while overseeing educational programs which are mediocre by design. Meanwhile, the few talented teachers in such schools are underpaid and undervalued by the administration until they decide to GTFO and move to a bigger school.
(graduate from a 1A eastern high school)
The anecdote doesn’t make sense. She got into UNC, and chose to go elsewhere. Are you suggesting we offer scholarships purely for those in non-central NC? Isn’t that basically affirmative action based on geography?
Based on interactions in the classroom I’ve found it very hard to support this article. The reality is that the valedictorians of these rural schools probably wouldn’t have been accepted had they gone to a 4A “city” school. They simply aren’t smart. It is not a stretch to infer that the vast majority of UNC’s top students, even proportionally, come from the 5 counties mentioned. The larger cities provide many more white collar jobs, have more college educated parents, thus more kids raised in an atmosphere where UNC is considered an expectation rather than a goal.
Before coming to UNC, I would have to travel to the middle of nowhere for athletics, despite being from Greensboro, due to a poorly designed conference. There is absolutely no sign of intelligent life in Yanceyville, Eden, and every other podunk town out there.
Sorry, but this article is stupid. If anything, UNC should start taking these kids’ poor SATs more seriously and overlook the fact they became valedictorian competing against kids with no aspirations beyond working the family farm.
Harsh Reality,
Nice troll. I really wonder why so many people with so much hate frequent the internet.
What a myopic and arrogrant viewpoint. You may be forgiven as a sports fan for thinking Carolina is the only Number One but UNC-CH is only the flagship in the 16 campus University of North Carolina System
which has campuses throughout the length and breadth of the state.
Are you saying that poor miss Hensley left the state simply because she could not get a full scolarship to Chapel Hill?
What about NC State, UNC Charlotte,UNC Asheville,Applacaian State,Western Carolina or East Carolina? What outstanding undergraduate program does ETSU offer that she couldn’t find right here with
three campuses in her own back yard?
And what of the Morehead/ Cain foundation that brings such talent from throught the region?
To imply that she had to leave the state because she couldn’t get a full scholarship only to Carolina is to sell the entire UNC System short and a disservice to the other fine campuses.
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