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(04/20/10 4:39am)
Correction (April 21 12:17 a.m.): An earlier version of this story stated that Hindi's group made recommendations to the paper's advisory board. They made the recommendations to the school's student media board after new editor Amanda Wilkins was selected. The story has been changed to reflect the correction.
(04/16/10 3:18am)
Private universities are giving record amounts of grant aid to help students with pricey tuition.In 2008, private universities spent a record amount on grant aid. The tuition discount rate increased from about 39 percent in 2007 to about 43 percent in 2008.That is a significant increase for universities, said Santiago Merea, a research associate for the National Association of College and University and Business Officers. While the organization didn’t make any formal predictions, the average increase — 4.4 percent — is higher than expected, Merea said.Alison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of financial aid at Duke University, said Duke has provided more aid grants in recent years than in its whole history.“More students are qualifying for financial aid and for larger amounts. We’ve had more families applying for financial aid in the past few years,” Rabil said.“In order to assist those that qualify, we’ve streamlined expenses as much as possible, as we have no plans to stop financial aid anytime in the near future.”Now the average financial aid package at Duke totals $30,000 in discounts during the course of four years. The size of the average discount only increased within the past two years. From 2005 to 2007, financial aid packages remained steady.At Davidson College, David Gelinas, senior associate dean and director of financial aid, said that the number of students eligible for need-based aid increased 4 percent from 2008 to 2009.Forty-four percent of students were eligible for need-based aid, and the average award was $30,715, Gelinas said.The number of students who feel that their financial aid package is adequate is at its highest point, Gelinas said. However, some are still not completely satisfied.“You have one set of families who say that they’re getting sufficient assistance but others who feel that it has not changed. On the aggregate, it is at the highest it’s been,” he said.“Reflective to our commitment to socioeconomic diversity and changing financial status of our applicants’ families, Davidson will offer financial aid as needed,” he said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/05/10 2:03am)
Some students at Louisiana State University might soon be able to add a beer-brewing class to their schedules.The university announced plans to open an on-campus brewery, where students can take courses on making beer and creating their own brews.But all plans are in the initial phase right now, said Jason Tolliver, director of LSU’s Auxiliary Services and manager of the project.Tolliver said the university is gathering information and researching all the legal and logistical aspects of the project.“Creating a brewery on campus is no different than the establishing a regular brewery such as B.J.’s Brewery in Baton Rouge, La.,” he said.“You must comply with city and state laws.”Paul Wilson, a food science professor at LSU, said one of possible courses will be a lab to show how beer is made.They are also developing a graduate-level class in brewing and oenology, or wine-making, Wilson said. Cornell University and Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago offer programs in brewing as well.Aside from academics, LSU also wants to market its product to possibly create a profit for the university.“We’re looking at creating niche markets such as the feasibility of bottling the beer and selling it in the faculty lounge,” Tolliver said.A location has not been chosen for the brewery, although one location being considered is The Cook Hotel, an on-campus center adjacent to an alumni center, Tolliver said.He said the university is unsure of the total cost of starting the program, but they know that it is going to be expensive.John Withey, head brewer at Top of the Hill on Franklin Street, said running a brewery is difficult and requires a lot of knowledge, experience and money.A secondhand brewery can cost up to $100,000, Withey said.Despite the cost, Tolliver said the opening of the brewery could only be beneficial to the university.“We are not in the habit to encourage drinking among students,” Tolliver said.“We’re trying to create an academic environment while attracting alumni and the local residents to come back and visit LSU.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/29/10 3:17am)
States across the country are revising their child pornography laws to adjust the punishments for what has become known as “sexting” — distributing sexual images via cell phone.Many states have relaxed the charge, previously considered a felony, for minors because minors are making up an increasing percentage of the people charged with sexting. In many states, it is now considered a misdemeanor for minors.Nebraska, Utah and Vermont have already reduced the penalties for minors who “sext,” making it less of an offense.Others are considering making it a misdemeanor, and some have gone as far as classifying it as a juvenile offense.But in North Carolina, although legislators have started to address related issues, they have yet to make adjustments to standing laws to address sexting.In summer 2009, N.C. Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, sponsored — and helped pass — a bill that made the solicitation of a child via computer or other electronic devices a felony.“My bill made it illegal to take pornographic photographs of a child with an iPhone and other electronic devices,” Tillman said.But more research into sexting is needed before adjustments can be considered, Tillman said.Tillman said he agreed with the actions taken by many states to relax the punishment for sexting because often they don’t realize the severity of what they are doing, at least the first time.“For the younger population, you do not want to hit them with a first offense. We’re a little open to about how stiff the punishment could be on the first offense,” he said.Relaxing the law isn’t the way to go, said Bill Brooks, executive director for the N.C. Family Policy Council, a nonpartisan group that tries to preserve traditional family values.What the state really needs to do is teach children, in the schools, that sexting is not appropriate or legal, Brooks said.“No parent wants to see their children caught in a web of criminal activity, but principals, teachers and parents need to educate their children in order to teach them that taking pictures is not acceptable or legal behavior,” he said.But Sarah Preston, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said that punishing minors for sexting would not solve the problem.“Punishing the person is a step backwards, not good public policy,” she said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/22/10 2:40am)
In the past five years, an influx of internships have been available for both current undergraduates and those who have recently graduated.Steven Rothberg, founder and CEO of CollegeRecruiter.com, said that the number of internships that are available to students has increased, but most of them today are unpaid.Rothberg attributed this fact to the recession.“As the economy continues to slowly rebound from the recession, employers are increasingly staffing up, but they want to do it the lowest-cost way possible,” Rothberg said. “Many of them are doing through unpaid internships.” Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at the National Association of Colleges and Employers, said the increase in internships available is a result of the rebounding economy.“As a reflection of the labor market, although it is improving, the amount of temporary jobs, including internships, are increasing,” Koc said. Employers feel that the internship process leaves emotional baggage and paperwork at the door, since both the employer and intern understand that it is temporary, whether that be one or three months.Rothberg said that certain interns should receive an offer for permanent employment, though it is not happening as much in recent years.“If the intern did a good job, they should always receive an offer for a permanent position,” Rothberg said.Koc said a little more than half of students have at least one internship before they graduate from college, according to a 2009 survey conducted by NACE.According to the Final Destination Survey, reported to UNC Career Services, 53.3 percent of graduating seniors at UNC had at least one internship during their four years in undergraduate studies.But there is also an additional competition for undergraduates applying for internships, Rothberg said.“Recent graduates and professionals changing their careers are searching and willing to take on an internship. It’s rare, but not super rare,” he said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/25/10 5:20am)
The UNC-system Board of Governors is trying to persuade state legislators to create a spring tax-free weekend to help students buying textbooks for the spring semester.But that plan could cause the state to lose as much as $20 million a year, according to a 2008-09 report from the N.C. General Assembly fiscal research division.A weekend is already set aside at the end of each summer for students to purchase textbooks without the burden of sales tax.Legislators might not be willing to approve the system’s request. The state’s budget is already being geared toward other areas of improvement, such as health needs, said N.C. Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, vice-chairman of the education subcommittee on universities.It will be difficult to add additional items to the budget, he said.The average student spends $680 on textbooks and course-related material in stores, according to the General Assembly report. With about 425,00 students in the UNC system and N.C. Community College System, that adds up.Ginger Burks, UNC-system associate vice president for finance, said at the February meeting of the Board of Governors that they have been coming up with suggestions to keep costs of textbooks low. The request for a tax-free weekend in the spring is just one of the suggestions they will be discussing with legislators.Dollar said the idea of having another tax-free weekend would be a good way to balance the increasing cost of tuition. “I think that it’s a proposal that I believe a lot of legislators will be very sympathetic toward,” Dollar said.Greg Doucette, president of the Association of Student Governments, said he would like to see this happen, but acknowledged the challenges that the state could face if it implements this policy.“The challenge of course in eliminating the sales tax is that we’re talking about a significant amount of the state budget,” he said. “From a pragmatic standpoint, I don’t see it happening.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/23/10 3:24am)
For several years now, high school seniors applying to universities haven’t just had to worry about perfecting their college essays and transcript, but also editing their Facebook profiles and security settings.
Admission officers at some universities such as N.C. State University said they are using social networking sites to further evaluate prospective students.
But the nationwide trend doesn’t seem to have caught on at public schools around the state. Admissions officials at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, Appalachian State University, N.C. Central University, UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they do not use Facebook to assess applicants.
Thomas Griffin, director of undergraduate admissions at NCSU, said they use Facebook if there is a query about an applicant.
But with an applicant pool of 24,000, it’s not done for everybody. Admission decisions are not solely based off of one factor, Griffin said.
“Decisions are holistic in nature. We would look at all pieces of information,” he said. “There is not one element that determines the decisions.”
If an admissions officer sees a discrepancy with the application, they will refer to Facebook to further research that applicant.
But Ashley Memory, assistant director of admissions at UNC, said institutions can make an accurate judgment on a prospective student based upon their application and supplemental material.
“At Carolina, we do not rely on social networks such as Facebook at any point during the admission process,” she said.
All applicants are required to sign an honor pledge and have teacher recommendations with their signatures. That is strong enough of an indication of an applicant’s character, Memory said.
Cindy Barr, assistant dean of admissions at Elon University, said her university uses Facebook for marketing purposes and to get students interested in applying, but never uses the Web site to evaluate applicants.
“If Facebook is your sole basis of judgment of an applicant, then you’re not doing a thorough job,” she said.
Universities are legally allowed to view an applicant’s profile before making their decision, said Michael Curtis, professor of law at Wake Forest University.
Curtis said as long as it is open to the public, then it is legal for anyone to access a user’s profile.
“If you leave it on public setting, open to everyone, then you’ve waived your right to privacy,” he said.
Some students said they don’t mind universities using Facebook during the admission process.
“It’s public knowledge if you put everything out there, so I think it is right,” said UNC senior Allison Wilborn.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.