664 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(11/18/10 3:06am)
A provision in the revised UNC-system tuition policy could allow universities to increase tuition above the set limits, but administrators are still unsure how those requests for increases will be handled.
(11/17/10 3:06am)
A change in regulation for the Humans vs. Zombies game on the UNC-Greensboro campus eased community concerns, but at the cost of some student participation.
(11/10/10 4:21am)
The UNC-system Board of Governors bid goodbye to the system’s President Erskine Bowles at its last meeting of the year Friday.
(11/09/10 5:39am)
With the dust settling from last week’s historic election and the Republican takeover of the state legislature, University administrators are still holding their breath.
(11/05/10 4:21pm)
True to his personality, UNC-system President Erskine Bowles did not want a “hoopla” for a farewell.
(11/05/10 3:15am)
The UNC-system Board of Governors spelled out what a 5 and 10 percent cut would mean for the system at its last meeting of the year Thursday.
(11/04/10 3:08am)
The UNC-system Board of Governors is expected to make final revisions to the system’s proposed budget and tuition policy at its last meeting of the year today.
(10/31/10 10:03pm)
RALEIGH — Student leaders from across the state awarded funds on Saturday to UNC-system schools for projects to help improve their campuses.
(10/27/10 4:00am)
If a recommendation for simplifying the state’s financial-aid system is followed, students from similar economic circumstances in the UNC system would be receiving the same amount of aid, regardless of the tuition costs they pay.
(10/27/10 3:05am)
Fluctuating tuition from UNC-CH’s peer institutions might soon have a bigger impact on the University.
(10/19/10 2:09am)
Because so many students chose the new insurance plan offered by the UNC system, the cost of the plan is likely to stay constant.
(10/18/10 2:43am)
With extensive budget cuts looming, members of the UNC-system Board of Governors want universities to move toward a less traditional form of education.
(10/18/10 2:37am)
The UNC system’s top administrators are paid less than their colleagues at peer institutions, making them the targets of poaching attempts by rival institutions looking to lure away the universities’ chancellors.
(10/11/10 2:12am)
Adjusting to college life is never easy for incoming students — especially if they are transferring from a foreign battlefield.
(09/09/10 11:41pm)
The UNC-system Board of Governors met with UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour Thursday at their meeting to discuss the NCAA investigation into academic infractions.
“We are very near the end,” Thorp said about the investigation into the individual players. The University is still looking into academic sports services and how to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
UNC-system President Erskine Bowles said that the investigation was being handled well.
“I think you can be very, very proud of the way they are handling this,” Bowles said.
Baddour said the investigation could go back further than the last academic year but wouldn’t comment further.
We will go where the information takes us,” Baddour said to the board.
(04/09/10 4:35am)
A sweeping study of North Carolina’s K-12 teachers concluded that those who come to the classroom from Teach for America consistently outperform the rest of the state’s newer educators.It also reflected a growing number in N.C. classrooms of inexperienced teachers, which study leaders cited as the biggest obstacle to K-12 student success.The state needs to determine how to take TFA’s teacher preparation program and expand it to all the UNC system’s education degree programs, the study leaders said Thursday at a presentation of the study’s findings.“TFA is a boutique operation. We need an industrial model,” said Gary Henry, a UNC-Chapel Hill public policy professor and one of the leaders of the study.TFA teachers make up only 0.3 percent of North Carolina’s K-12 public school teachers, but middle school math students taught by TFA members gained the equivalent of 91 days of learning over their peers, Henry said.Researchers analyzed about 2.3 million test scores, 770,000 students and 18,500 teachers, all in North Carolina, to reach those conclusions.Proposed by the UNC system and directed by system administrators and professors, the study evaluated which teacher preparation programs were most successful, using student performance as the benchmark.“We’re responsible for producing and educating so many teachers across the system,” said UNC-system Board of Governors Chairwoman Hannah Gage.“(The findings) shatter a lot of preconceived ideas.”Results will be used to tailor UNC system schools of education to include “best practices” and improve the performance of UNC-system-educated teachers.The study also found that teachers from outside the state were less successful than those from North Carolina and that the number of teachers who entered the classroom before obtaining a formal teaching license, a process known as lateral entry, is on the rise.About 32 percent of the state’s K-12 teachers come from UNC system undergraduate education schools. The next largest source of teachers is undergraduate out-of-state education schools at 23 percent. Lateral entry teachers make up 15 percent of the group.Half of new teachers leave within five years — but it often takes until a teacher’s fifth year in the classroom to see dramatic improvements, Henry said.The key is to understand how TFA turns its inexperienced teachers into success stories and to figure out how to “scale up” those methods to the UNC system, he said, citing intensive summer programs that immerse TFA members in teaching.“They’re living and breathing teaching,” he said. “It’s hard to reproduce. It’s hard to scale that.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/26/10 6:26pm)
UNC-system President Erskine Bowles announced Friday that he had chosen who would replace the system's outgoing chief financial officer.
(03/26/10 4:29am)
Outgoing UNC-system President Erskine Bowles manages 16 more schools than UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp — and only makes about $60,000 more a year.But members of one of the committees helping to find Bowles’ replacement said the next system president needs to make substantially more than any of the system chancellors.At a meeting Thursday, the committee discussed factors it will consider when setting the compensation and benefits package for the next system president, — particularly how it compares to the packages for presidents at peer institutions.Before the search for candidates can really begin, the search committees must decide what they plan to pay the UNC system’s future leader. In 2008-09, Bowles made $494,023 and Thorp made $433,882 in total compensation, which includes benefits. Both were also provided with homes.According to data the committee discussed, many public universities and university systems pay their presidents substantially more than the UNC system pays Bowles.Despite the compensation discrepancies with other states, committee members were more focused on how the president’s salary compared to the salaries of system chancellors. “I can’t conceive us considering compensation that would be less than a chancellor makes,” said Board of Governors member Frank Daniels, Jr.Hannah Gage, board chairwoman and a member of the search committee, said university presidents typically make 18 percent to 20 percent more than the chancellors of individual universities.The committee will not set compensation and benefits for the next UNC-system president until after they have selected a search consultant, which they hope to do by late April.Candidate pool is still wide openGage also reminded the search committee that there is not yet a preliminary set of candidates.That won’t happen until the consultant firm is hired.Gage urged search members to keep an open mind about who could be a potential candidate.There is already widespread speculation about who might take Bowles’ place.“There is not a presumed candidate,” Gage said. “We are casting a wide, wide net, and it is my hope that we will have a vibrant pool.”Can costs be kept down?Gage said she hopes to keep the cost of the search at or less than $100,000, much of which will go toward hiring a consulting firm.But the high prices of recent searches at UNC-CH make her think it might be more costly, she said. The search that netted Thorp cost $213,581.If the search costs more, the board will have to find the money because the search is a top priority, she said.Emphasizing transparencyAlthough candidates will be kept secret, keeping the search process within N.C. open meetings laws is a major priority, board members said Thursday.They hope to make the search process as inclusive as possible, said Laura Luger, general counsel for the UNC system.Most meetings will be open to the public. Committees must announce their meetings 48 hours in advance. Still, nearly all substantial discussion will be held behind closed doors.If committee members discuss search matters with a majority of members outside an official meeting, their conversations are still legally public record, she said.“If a majority of the committee is on the 12th hole and talks business … that’s out of order,” Luger said.Members are also not permitted to discuss closed meeting business with anyone outside the session, including members on the other two committees that are involved in the search process.Every member must sign a confidentiality agreement with repercussions for members who disclose confidential information.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/24/10 4:12am)
The UNC system is taking another step to strengthen its ties with the military. UNC-system President Erskine Bowles will sign an agreement with the U.S. Marines Corps Forces Special Operations Command and Marine Corps Installations East today to cement a partnership between the two groups. This partnership is similar to the one launched in November 2009 between the UNC system and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.That partnership allowed the Army to use UNC-system resources to train and teach military personnel.The partnership will be signed at the Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., according to a press release from the Marines Special Operations Command.This agreement will allow the Marine Corps to use UNC-system resources to enhance its training programs.They are placing a particular emphasis on the Performance and Resiliency program, which will help deployed Marines handle harsh combat conditions.UNC-system officials are hopeful that the new partnership will be as successful as the one with the Army.One of the premier collaborations with the Army is the combat medic training program, which allows trained military personnel to come to UNC-Chapel Hill and work in specialized areas such as burns and surgery that benefit troops stationed in remote settings, said Charles Cairns, professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine at UNC-CH. “Ideally, special operations’ medics would provide health care provisions in foreign nations,” Cairns said. “We hope to provide unique educational resources for them and develop this brand new area of medicine that they created, which I call situational medicine.”So far, the response to the Army partnership has been positive, said Kimrey Rhinehardt, vice president of federal relations for the UNC system and the one overseeing both partnerships on the UNC system side.“They have been asked to do more than they ever have, for less,” she said. “But no one has complained. They are trying to make a difference in their own world and try to keep as many Americans safe as possible.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(12/08/09 5:43am)
Student health insurance premiums in 2010 would be about one-third the current rate at UNC-Chapel Hill under projections presented Monday for a plan to be offered on all UNC-system campuses.All students in the system will be required to have health insurance by the next school year, as mandated by the Board of Governors.BlueCross and BlueShield of North Carolina and Pearce & Pearce, the two finalists to provide the plan, gave presentations Monday before representatives of the system’s general administration and campus health services.Student leaders said projected premiums were roughly comparable to officials’ early estimates, which set rates between $549 and $679 per year. The estimates were determined based on a set of benefits stipulated by system officials.Premiums at UNC-Chapel Hill were $1,565 for the 2008-09 school year.BCBS and Pearce & Pearce also took questions from participants in the room and via video conference.“This is unscripted. It’s kind of like ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Bruce Mallette, UNC-system senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs, said during the afternoon session, prompting laughs around the room.“There will be no singing in the introduction though.”Participants quizzed representatives from the companies on how they guard against security breaches, what Web services would be available to students and whether they could handle the high volume of students enrolling in or waiving out of the new plan next fall.The plan will serve students who do not demonstrate creditable coverage from another source, such as a parent or employer. Students who already have coverage can choose not to switch to the campus plan.Representatives from both companies said their organizations have experience working with schools that require students to have insurance.Pearce & Pearce, which specializes in student insurance, provides the plans at 13 UNC-system schools.Eleven of those schools require students to demonstrate coverage.“There will be no system change because the system works,” said Carolyn Pearce, chief operating officer at Pearce & Pearce.BCBS, the largest insurance company in North Carolina, provides the plans offered at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and Appalachian State University. Those schools don’t require students to have insurance.But Dan Hill, BCBS director of service and administration, said his company worked with Duke University when the school began requiring insurance in 1979.Hill also said he has a team that is separate from the rest of BCBS that manages student insurance plans.Five insurance companies submitted bids to provide the new campus plan, said Joe Rippard, risk manager for the N.C. Department of Insurance.Aetna, United Healthcare and University Health Plans vied with the two finalists for the contract, Rippard said.Officials plan to choose a provider for the campus plan by mid-January.Rippard said seven companies submitted bids for a voluntary dental plan. The group will hear from finalists for that plan today.Contact the State & National editor at stntdesk@unc.edu