UNC system lending hand to N.C. towns

The UNC system is using one of its greatest resources — its students’ expertise — to help small businesses and local governments throughout the state weather the economic crisis.

Universities are partnering with different local organizations and giving students and faculty internship and research opportunities while simultaneously benefiting the local community through their work, said Norma Houston, executive director of UNC Tomorrow.

UNC Tomorrow is a UNC-system initiative that promotes university engagement with the rest of the state by combining teaching, research and public service missions.

“The university system has an obligation to step up to the plate and do what is consistent with our mission of helping the state in these tough economic times,” she said.

“If ever our state needed our universities, it is now.”

The most widespread effort, an alliance with the Small Business and Technology Development Center, sent 140 student interns across the state to provide free consultation to small businesses.

They provided free consultation and guidance for the small businesses, saving them the cost of a professional consultant at a time when small businesses are especially struggling.

Students received course credit for their work and gained work experience, said Scott Daugherty, executive director of the center.

“It’s one of the more unique things ever done by a university system, and it will be very beneficial in the long run for North Carolina and our communities,” he said.

Burton Signworks Inc., a sign company in Mount Erie, participated in the program and was able to increase its revenue from $6 million to $7.2 million and employment by 25 percent, Daugherty said.

“It’s pretty remarkable stuff for this time in the economy,” he said.

Through another organization, the Carolina Economic Recovery Corps, UNC-Chapel Hill students are lending local governments a hand.

Nine students from the University were selected to help local government organizations in cities such as Asheville, Charlotte, Rutherfordton, Greensboro, Wilson and Wilmington for 10 weeks over the summer.

Students helped governments determine how best to use their federal stimulus grants, said Jesse White, director of the Office of Economic and Business Development at UNC-CH.

Houston said it was the only program of its kind in the country.

“We are really trying to be an engaged University by working on the problems of the taxpayers who fund us,” White said.

White said three of the graduate students involved with the program were hired by Dempsey Benton, the head of the state’s Office of Economic Recovery and Investment, which is in charge of handling stimulus funds in North Carolina.

Will Lambe, director of the Community-Campus Partnership Project, led another initiative that placed graduate students in Caswell and Lenoir counties to help their local governments with their most pressing problems.

“The University has resources and expertise that can help economically distressed counties, especially now that their problems are magnified,” Lambe said.

He said students helped with day-to-day administration, organized a cleanup day, drafted plans for more walking and biking trails, installed street lights, planned science and engineering initiatives and worked at the local domestic violence center among other projects.

He said students helped rural counties accomplish projects that otherwise might have been impossible.

“They’ve been really busy doing a lot of cool stuff for the community,”

Lambe said.

“The plan is now to build onto the work the students have done.”


Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.