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(09/12/06 4:00am)
The UNC-Chapel Hill Employee Forum was dealt a blow Monday in its efforts to champion the right of collective bargaining for state workers.
While voicing general support for the rights of University staff, Chancellor James Moeser warned that the forum would be overstepping its bounds by trying to directly influence a legislative issue.
"It is not appropriate . for the forum, which was established to advise the chancellor, to engage as a body in directly lobbying legislators," Moeser wrote in a letter to forum chairman Ernie Patterson.
Patterson was among the strongest advocates of a resolution passed last Wednesday calling for the repeal of North Carolina's prohibition on collective bargaining for state employees. Under the current statute, state workers are forbidden from unionizing or engaging in organized negotiations with their employers.
The chancellor's letter makes clear that any formal advocacy on the issue will have to come from the UNC-system president, Erskine Bowles, with approval from the system's Board of Governors.
But longtime observers of the system's lobbying efforts suggest Bowles and the board might be reluctant to add collective bargaining to their priorities.
"I don't think there's really any chance at all that we're going to be looking at unionization authorization," said Judith Wegner, a four-year member of the system's Faculty Assembly and former chairwoman of UNC-CH's Faculty Council.
The system's Faculty Assembly considered a collective bargaining resolution in April. Members of the assembly said at the time that they wanted to avoid putting Bowles in the position of either ignoring employees' wants or supporting an issue unpopular with legislators.
"In my opinion that was a reasonable thing on their part to do," Wegner said. "I thought that it really wasn't likely to yield any result."
She pointed to the long-running efforts of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which lists the right to collective bargaining among its top priorities.
Jeff Geller, a UNC-Pembroke professor serving on the benefits and welfare committee, said he doesn't see a need for the university to push the cause.
"My sense is that the evidence out there is that it's not a good idea."
Despite a lack of support from the system's Faculty Assembly, the issue could soon get a hearing at the system level. Patterson has vowed to present the resolution to the newly formed UNC-system Staff Assembly, scheduled to meet for the first time in October.
"I think President Bowles is a fair person, and I think he will listen to our reasoning," Patterson said. "This is not about forming a union; this is simply repealing a law that prevents state workers from organizing and prevents the state from recognizing them."
Bowles has not given any indication whether he would favor a university campaign for collective bargaining rights, but his chief of staff, Jeff Davies, said any assembly resolution would be given proper consideration.
"The president would discuss it with the chancellors and they would determine if it was something they wanted to recommend to the Board of Governors," Davies said.
On its chances for success in the state legislature, Davies was more cautious.
"I just don't have any sense of that."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
June 22 - RALEIGH - Student Body President James Allred looks set to offer some of the strongest backing ever for the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, a group that often has enjoyed only arms-length support from student leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
May 18 - UNC is one of the most recognizable collegiate brands in the country, and system President Erskine Bowles wants to harness that national reputation to promote the University's growing catalog of online degree programs.
The 16 campuses of the UNC system offer 90 online degrees, an increase from just six in 2000.
The vast majority of students enrolled in those programs live in North Carolina, but system officials are considering a major push into the booming national market for online education.
"One of the best opportunities we have is expanding our distance education effort," Bowles said in May.
"I think it can be a definite revenue source, and I don't have any qualms about that."
The N.C. General Assembly began funding the system's distance education programs in 1999, and they remain a strong priority.
Between 1999 and 2005, enrollment in the university's distance education programs rose from 6,929 students to more than 33,000.
As a result of that growth, much of the infrastructure for online learning is already in place throughout the system.
That, officials say, is what makes it possible to take the UNC brand into the national market.
"Our campuses are prepared to do it," said Alan Mabe, the system's vice president for academic planning.
"It's a matter of scaling up."
Any expansion beyond North Carolina would have to be self-funded, since state appropriations wouldn't cover those costs.
It also would represent a wider mission for the University, which now is oriented exclusively to serve students within the system through online education.
East Carolina University offers more online degrees than any system campus, with N.C. State and Fayetteville State universities not far behind.
UNC wouldn't be the first public university system to make the leap into the broader marketplace for distance learning.
While for-profit institutions like Strayer University and the University of Phoenix remain some of the most recognizable names in the business, public institutions also have sought a stronger online presence and the revenue that comes with it.
"It's growing like wildfire," said Michael Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education and Training Council.
"There are some great success stories out there in the public university world."
Lambert pointed to the University of Maryland University College, a campus oriented entirely toward nontraditional students that offers 99 bachelors and masters programs online.
Penn State University has a World Campus featuring more than 50 online degree programs.
But there are also plenty of pitfalls for public universities looking to capture a piece of the expanding online market.
Lambert said a number of universities invested too hastily in unworkable technology, and others failed to properly advertise their online offerings.
Mabe said UNC system officials are proceeding carefully and are anxious to avoid the fate of universities that pushed their online programs too quickly.
"A lot of universities just kind of jumped out," Mabe said.
"A lot of them just fell apart."
Thanks to strong legislative investment in technology to support distance education for North Carolinians, UNC might be in a better position to expand nationally.
But making online programs profitable will require a greater time commitment from instructors and class sizes large enough to create economies of scale.
A recent study by UNC's academic planning division found that online courses cost about 30 percent more to administer than face-to-face classes.
That's due mainly to high start-up costs, Mabe said, adding that per-student costs will fall as programs become more established and more students enroll.
But this could be a while in coming, Mabe said. System officials held a workshop on distance learning when the Board of Governors met in June which addressed the feasibility of a national initiative.
Lambert said a well-planned entry into the marketplace could be a solid proposition for UNC.
"I think nameplate universities have a built-in advantage of instant credibility," he said. "UNC has it in spades."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
June 1 - With North Carolina suffering from a chronic shortage of licensed nurses, the UNC system has made a high-profile effort in recent years to expand the reach of its nursing programs.
But even as system officials trumpet the system's role in addressing a critical statewide need, some existing programs are coming up short.
In 2004 and 2005, three nursing schools fell below system standards for the percentage of graduates successfully completing the state licensing exam, and two fell below the more lenient state standard.
For the past two years, UNC-Charlotte's nursing school saw less than 85 percent of its graduates pass the exam to become licensed nurses in North Carolina. At N.C. Central and N.C. Agricultural and Technical universities, the pass rate was below 75 percent.
"Rest assured that the subject is at the top of our list, and we will be working with people to determine what the best approach is to get those numbers up," said former Board of Governors chairman Brad Wilson.
"Especially with nursing, where there is such an emphasis and a focus and a need."
At a time when UNC campuses are requesting millions of dollars in new funding for nursing schools and scholarships, lagging state exam scores could present a challenge for system officials.
The system's 2006-07 budget request included more than $19 million to expand nursing and health care programs, and lawmakers already have shown strong support for many of those initiatives.
The N.C. Senate put forward $850,000 to start new degree programs at three smaller campuses, along with $2.7 million for scholarships.
With pressure toward expanding the system's nursing programs, any effort to reform the three struggling schools will be difficult.
"It may be necessary to make them a little smaller to make them more successful," said Alan Mabe, system vice president for academic planning.
"But the last thing we want to do is eliminate a program right now."
Mabe said teams of outside consultants will be called in to assess the status of degree programs at all three universities and determine what changes should be implemented.
For UNC-Charlotte, this will mark the first time its nursing school has undergone such close scrutiny. But it will not be the first review for N.C. A&T or N.C. Central, as their long-standing difficulties with pass rates could increase the likelihood of being forced to par down enrollment.
"I don't think we ought to characterize any approach we take on any subject as punitive," Wilson said. "We're in conversation about what needs to be done to help them continue to improve."
A variety of factors can cause problems with pass rates, health care officials said.
Dr. Brenda Cleary, executive director of the North Carolina Center for Nursing, said the retention of qualified faculty is difficult for universities because of the highly competitive job market for nursing professionals. Often, someone qualified to teach nursing can make far more money as a practitioner.
"Programs are trying to expand, faculty are aging, and we don't have enough people who have the credentials to teach," Cleary said. "And among those people, there's a lot of competition for them."
Campus officials said they're confident pass rates can be brought back in line with university policy and state standards.
"I can honestly say we're always doing our own self-evaluations," said Patricia Price Lea, dean of the N.C. A&T School of Nursing. "We are not just sitting holding our thumbs."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(06/22/06 4:00am)
RALEIGH - Student Body President James Allred looks set to offer some of the strongest backing ever for the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, a group that often has enjoyed only arms-length support from student leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill.
(05/25/06 4:00am)
RALEIGH - University officials always have been quick to praise the North Carolina legislature's generosity, even as lawmakers responded to tight budgets in recent years by enforcing cuts in funding for the UNC system.
Now, with state coffers buoyed by a surplus of almost $2 billion, system officials are finding ample cause for gratitude.
The 2006-07 budget proposal put forward by the N.C. Senate on Tuesday would fully fund a host of major system priorities, including more than $79.2 million to support enrollment growth and almost $21.6 million for need-based financial aid.
Without major spending cuts looming, students at UNC-Chapel Hill shouldn't have to dread what have become inevitable increases in class size and cuts to the number of course sections offered.
And in a move that surprised even the most optimistic system officials, senators are backing a pay raise of 8 percent for system faculty during the next academic year and the promise of annual 6 percent increases in future years. The system's Board of Governors had requested only 5 percent.
"We are very pleased," said Rob Nelson, UNC-system vice president for finance.
"When we put the request together in January and February, we didn't realize the state is doing as well as it is.
"Had we known that, we would have asked for more."
Still, not everything on the system's wish list made the cut, and the General Assembly's budget approval process is far from over.
Once the Senate has finalized its proposal, the House must draft its own version and negotiate to reconcile the two.
Lawmakers have set a target date of July 1 to complete the process.
But even at this early stage, lobbyists for the UNC system and individual campuses say this year's process is a far cry from recent, leaner budget years.
"For the first time in many years, we don't have any cuts," said Mark Fleming, UNC-system vice president for government relations.
"This is an excellent budget."
In a significant victory for the rapidly expanding UNC system, the Senate proposal would place enrollment growth funding in the legislature's continuation budget, meaning that it automatically would be funded in future years. System administrators long have pressed for such a move.
"Enrollment growth shouldn't be something that we have to argue or work hard on every year," Fleming said. "It should be a given."
Kevin FitzGerald, special assistant to the chancellor for state government relations at UNC-Chapel Hill, said campus trustees ought to be pleased with the attention given to their top concerns.
"The priorities of the trustees were around salary increases, the enrollment growth, the repair and renovation, and this budget does great on all of those," he said.
Lawmakers set aside about $103 million for the system's repair and renovation reserve fund.
They also allocated millions of dollars for the construction of capital projects that had been planned previously.
Many new capital projects were left out of the budget, though some were listed as priorities by campus officials.
"There are tremendous demands and a finite amount of money to meet those demands," said Sen. Walter Dalton, D-Rutherford. "We did our best to fund top priorities."
Though many wants and needs remain unfulfilled, for the most part system administrators seemed to be counting their blessings after enduring years of punishing cuts.
"This is great, as far as we're concerned," FitzGerald said.
"Chapel Hill has come out well, and I think the whole system has."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(05/18/06 4:00am)
RALEIGH - Last August, with little notice and almost no debate, state lawmakers added a provision to the state budget designed to boost scholarship foundations and athletics departments at UNC-system schools.
Almost a year later, the measure - which charges in-state tuition rates to out-of-state students on full scholarships - is doing exactly what its creators intended.
Across the state, scholarship groups such as UNC-Chapel Hill's Morehead Foundation and booster groups like the Rams Club saved almost $5.2 million during the 2005-06 academic year - with taxpayers picking up the tab.
The groups say the savings have enabled them to expand their aid to students. Critics, on the other hand, charge that the measure will leave the state with a ballooning bill in years ahead and that the state shouldn't subsidize private scholarships.
And though there's little chance of the provision being repealed, at least one lawmaker is making an issue of it during negotiations for the state's 2006-07 education budget.
"It's not a good program," said Rep. George Cleveland, a first-term Republican from Onslow County. "If we don't nip it this year, I can very quickly see us with $50 million tied up in this program."
There are no official estimates of the program's future cost, but there is no question that it will grow rapidly for at least the next four years. The wording of the provision obligates the state to continue paying for current beneficiaries as they move toward graduation, while adding new students from each incoming class.
"It comes out of the taxpayers' pockets," Cleveland said.
Some of the groups affected have used the savings to add new awards for the coming year. The Park Scholarship program at N.C. State University has added five new awards for the 2006-07 academic year, and the Morehead Scholars program at UNC-CH is adding eight new students.
"We see this as an opportunity for more students to receive the benefit of the scholarship," said Chuck Lovelace, executive director of the Morehead Foundation. "We were able to offer not only more scholarships in general but more scholarships to North Carolinians."
Any move to repeal the provision would force the programs to pare back the number of awards offered, said Laura Lunsford, executive director of the Park Scholarship.
"We would just reduce the number in the classes following them," she said.
One hundred students at UNC -CH were affected by the provision during the 2005-06 academic year, the highest number of any system school. The campus lost almost $1.4 million in tuition receipts from scholarship providers, all of which will be made up by the state.
Though Cleveland said he's determined to cut the program, he faces an uphill fight.
Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said Tuesday that it strongly benefits the university system and will likely remain in the budget.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(05/18/06 4:00am)
UNC is one of the most recognizable collegiate brands in the country, and system President Erskine Bowles wants to harness that national reputation to promote the University's growing catalog of online degree programs.
The 16 campuses of the UNC system offer 90 online degrees, an increase from just six in 2000. The vast majority of students enrolled in those programs live in North Carolina, but system officials are considering a major push into the booming national market for online education.
"One of the best opportunities we have is expanding our distance education effort," Bowles said last week. "I think it can be a definite revenue source, and I don't have any qualms about that."
The N.C. General Assembly began funding the system's distance education programs in 1999, and they remain a strong priority. Between 1999 and 2005, enrollment in the university's distance education programs rose from 6,929 students to more than 33,000.
As a result of that growth, much of the infrastructure for online learning is already in place throughout the system. That, officials say, is what makes it possible to take the UNC brand into the national market.
"Our campuses are prepared to do it," said Alan Mabe, the system's vice president for academic planning. "It's a matter of scaling up."
Any expansion beyond North Carolina would have to be self-funded, since state appropriations wouldn't cover those costs.
It also would represent a wider mission for the University, which now is oriented exclusively to serve students within the system through online education.
East Carolina University offers more online degrees than any system campus, with N.C. State and Fayetteville State universities not far behind.
UNC wouldn't be the first public university system to make the leap into the broader marketplace for distance learning. While for-profit institutions like Strayer University and the University of Phoenix remain some of the most recognizable names in the business, public institutions also have sought a stronger online presence and the revenue that comes with it.
"It's growing like wildfire," said Michael Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education and Training Council. "There are some great success stories out there in the public university world."
Lambert pointed to the University of Maryland University College, a campus oriented entirely toward nontraditional students that offers 99 bachelors and masters programs online. Penn State University has a World Campus featuring more than 50 online degree programs.
But there are also plenty of pitfalls for public universities looking to capture a piece of the expanding online market. Lambert said a number of universities invested too hastily in unworkable technology, and others failed to properly advertise their online offerings.
Mabe said UNC system officials are proceeding carefully and are anxious to avoid the fate of universities that pushed their online programs too quickly.
"A lot of universities just kind of jumped out," Mabe said. "A lot of them just fell apart."
Thanks to strong legislative investment in technology to support distance education for North Carolinians, UNC might be in a better position to expand nationally. But making online programs profitable will require a greater time commitment from instructors and class sizes large enough to create economies of scale.
A recent study by UNC's academic planning division found that online courses cost about 30 percent more to administer than face-to-face classes.
That's due mainly to high start-up costs, Mabe said, adding that per-student costs will fall as programs become more established and more students enroll.
But this could be a while in coming, Mabe said. System officials will hold a workshop on distance learning when the Board of Governors meet again in June, likely addressing the feasibility of a national initiative.
In the meantime, Lambert said a well-planned entry into the marketplace could be a solid proposition for UNC.
"I think nameplate universities have a built-in advantage of instant credibility," he said. "UNC has it in spades."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/28/06 4:00am)
Most hurricanes create temporary evacuees. Katrina created a diaspora.
The storm that struck Mississippi and Louisiana on Aug. 29 caused the largest mass-migration in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
It flooded the city of New Orleans, erased entire towns along the Gulf Coast and revealed glaring weaknesses in the nation's ability to cope with a large-scale catastrophe.
It exposed deep racial and economic fault lines, wounded the nation's already strained energy infrastructure and prompted bitter recriminations among national policymakers.
Almost seven months later, its toll in lives has climbed to more than 1,500, and the final tally might never be known. Recovery costs are being estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
And yet, forecasters say, it's far too early to name Katrina the storm of the century.
"We've been pretty lucky," said Andrew Coburn, associate director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke University. "We haven't seen the big one yet."
Katrina might not have been the worst-nightmare scenario envisioned by New Orleans officials, but for many of the city's residents, it was close enough.
The storm made landfall to the east of the city, along the Mississippi coast, but proved powerful enough to breach several levies and inundate much of the state. Despite a mandatory evacuation order, thousands of residents were still in their homes as the water poured in.
In the days after the storm, television cameras and news photographers relayed a scene of mostly poor, black residents awaiting help in New Orleans, prompting difficult questions of whether the city and federal government had somehow left them behind.
"There was a definite impression that a whole part of the population had been missed in some way by the evacuation," said Francois Nielsen, a sociology professor at UNC. "It definitely brought out a type of inequality that has been simmering there for a very long time."
Confronting that inequality has been an ongoing challenge in the months since the storm, as government agencies and private charities have struggled to help displaced residents return from exile or build new lives in new places.
"I point out to my class that we have, in every industrial society, pockets of people who are left behind by economic development," Nielson said. "Of course, New Orleans happened to contain a very large pocket of those people."
Beyond the thorny questions of race and class that continue to bedevil decisions about rebuilding, storm victims and policymakers are weighing the fundamental issue of how to redevelop the Gulf Coast.
Coburn and other experts on coastal development have pointed to the storm as evidence of flawed government policy. Providing funds for extensive reconstruction on the Gulf Coast creates incentives for building in dangerous areas, they contend.
"It's somewhat disheartening that we didn't have more of a debate in terms of the vulnerability of certain places," Coburn said. "If Katrina didn't change people's ideas and perceptions, then I don't what's going to."
In towns like Waveland, Miss., which has been leveled twice by hurricanes in the past four decades, residents have voiced anxiety that rebuilding will be guided by large-scale developers and speculators.
"These (coastal) lots are going for unbelievable sums of money," Coburn said. "You have to question the sanity of whoever is allowing that to occur."
Aside from a bull market in Gulf Coast real estate, Katrina has had few lasting effects on the national economy, said Doug Woodward, a research economist at the University of Southern California.
"Mostly it's going to be felt in the region itself," he said. "Hurricanes don't really have ripple effects across the nation except initially."
After the storm, with oil refineries and pipelines in the region damaged, gas prices soared to record highs in much of the United States. Most economists attribute the sustained rise to increasing global demand for oil.
Still, the fallout from the storm is far from over. Calls for reform of the nation's disaster response agencies continue to echo in Washington, D.C.
"Certainly as you look back over the Bush administration, one of the problematic areas is going to be the reaction to the hurricane," said Charles Bierbauer, dean of USC's College of Mass Communications and Information Studies.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/28/06 4:00am)
Campus-based tuition has a short but contentious history in the UNC system, having emerged since 1998 as an important source of campus revenue and an object of frustration among students.
As the system Board of Governors prepares this summer for an overhaul of its campus-based tuition policy, the need for a predictable stream of revenue will weigh against concerns about the ballooning cost of higher education.
Of all the policies and priorities on the university agenda, few will have such a far-reaching impact on students and campuses.
"We all know the real impact on tuition has come from campus-initiated tuition increases," said Jeff Davies, chief of staff to system President Erskine Bowles, speaking to university faculty members earlier this month.
Before the 1998 policy, which allows campus officials to propose tuition hikes and keep control of the revenue, almost all increases were initiated by the state legislature.
Few lawmakers or university officials viewed tuition as a significant source of campus revenue, but that began to shift with the advent of campus-based hikes.
Initially envisioned as a mechanism for raising funds under "extraordinary circumstances," the policy quickly evolved into a more regular source of revenue.
"The extraordinary circumstances over the next few years generally were the state's weak economy and the inability of the General Assembly to meet all of the university's needs," Davies said.
Eventually, the reference to extraordinary circumstances was dropped from the policy altogether.
"The focus really ought to be on the need rather than whether the circumstances were extraordinary," Davies said.
That change in emphasis allowed in-state tuition costs at UNC-Chapel Hill to more than double between 1998 and 2006, with out-of-state costs rising by more than $7,000.
Campus officials and students alike have complained that the process is unpredictable, with the board approving sizable hikes one year and denying them the next.
In revisiting the policy, board members have said it is their chief aim to provide a greater measure of predictability for administrators and students - in other words, an expectation of annual increases.
Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the BOG's tuition policy task force, explained in February the direction of the board's thinking.
"What we've said to the chancellors is that if they can work within a given framework, they can expect to have their requests approved."
The board experimented with exactly such a policy this year, guaranteeing approval for requests that fell within set limits.
The streamlined process led to quick approval for tuition and fee hikes at all 16 system campuses, and met with strong approval from chancellors and system officials.
Still, Gage said the board will move cautiously before implementing any permanent changes.
Further debate was put off until the summer to give Bowles time to review the proposals and weigh in, she said.
"I think that he wants to get a lot of input," Gage said. "He really wanted to research the history."
His most important concern, Bowles told the board in February, is to avoid any policy changes that might lead to lower state appropriations. Campus-based tuition must not become a replacement for public funding, he said.
"He is examining the history of tuition increases very carefully, examining the relationship between tuition and state appropriations," Davies said.
System administrators are hopeful that Bowles can work with the legislature to implement any changes. Board members and campus administrators are quick to note that the assembly is generally supportive of university needs.
"I think the legislature tends to put a lot of faith in the president of the university," former system President C.D. Spangler said.
Even if a policy allowing for regular increases could be implemented without prompting a change in state funding, Spangler said he has concerns about the long-term trend toward higher tuition.
"I'm not a fan of increased tuition, no matter where it comes from," he said. "Students are not a revenue stream."
But campus-based revenues have become an important component in paying for university priorities, Davies said. He pointed specifically to faculty salaries and other initiatives to increase competitiveness.
"We have had some large tuition increases and we have had some very important needs that have been met by those increases," he said. "The goal is to have regular, predictable increases rather than no increases."
Zack Wynne, president of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, said that stopping increases in tuition would be extremely difficult under the proposed new policy.
But given the reality of spiraling college costs nationwide, a set framework for tuition hikes could be a worthwhile goal, he said.
"I think it's already become an annual increase anyway. I think all we can do now is to use this framework to allow for predictability over the next few years."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/24/06 4:00am)
GREENVILLE - After months of work, the UNC-system Association of Student Governments announced Saturday that one of its major advocacy initiatives has been junked.
The association completed report cards for all state lawmakers, assigning grades based on legislators' support for higher education; plans were in the works to publicize them on a specially designed Web site and in newspapers across the state.
But the whole project has been set aside after ASG leaders met with Mark Fleming, the university system's vice president for government relations.
Fleming persuaded the student group that any attempt to publicly pressure lawmakers was likely to backfire and potentially complicate the university's own lobbying effort.
"We're not going to publish these," said association President Zack Wynne. "We would be double-barrel shooting ourselves in the foot."
Members of the association's legislative affairs committee, who worked to produce the report cards, were disappointed by the announcement. Most said that they understood the decision to scrap the initiative but that they wished it could have been made much sooner.
"It saddens me that we had to move away from a project that we invested so much time and effort into," said Dominique Keaton, vice chairwoman of the committee. "I do find it frustrating."
UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President James Allred raised concerns last month about the potential fallout from the report cards and tried to convince ASG leaders to halt the project. His motion was defeated.
"We tried to knock this off in March," Allred said Saturday. "I think the ASG has learned their lesson. If you have a lobbying proposal, ask a professional lobbyist."
UNC-CH's student government makes a point of closely coordinating its advocacy with the University's administration, Allred said, adding that the ASG needs to do the same.
"It's something they need to be very careful with," said Kevin FitzGerald, special assistant to the chancellor for state government relations at UNC-CH. "There might be unintended consequences."
During Saturday's meeting, several ASG officials said they were convinced that publishing the report cards could seriously damage the association's standing as an advocacy group.
Forrest Gilliam, a junior at Appalachian State University, said that the association was particularly ill-suited to put electoral pressure on lawmakers because student participation in state elections generally is sparse.
"Publishing this list does no good if you're a group with very low voter turnout," he said.
Committee members said they would try to salvage some good from the time invested in the report cards, pointing out that the research can be used to direct their advocacy work.
But they emphasized repeatedly Saturday that the grades already assigned to lawmakers should be kept under wraps.
"We can use these internally," said Patrick Kelly, ASG vice president for legislative affairs. "But those GPAs don't need to leave the room."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/24/06 4:00am)
GREENVILLE - In what many are calling a significant shift, the UNC-system Association of Student Governments elected Derek Pantiel and Daniel Fischer as president and vice president Saturday in a close election.
By a vote of 31 to 22, delegates selected Pantiel, a junior at N.C. Central University, making him the first president from a historically black university since the association became supported by fees and gained a significant budget in 2002.
Fischer, 44, is a junior at UNC-Greensboro who is preparing himself for a new career as a middle-school teacher.
In many ways, their election reflects a conscious push by the ASG during the last year to encourage greater involvement from campuses across the system, especially those that have not participated heavily in the past.
Delegates have voiced complaints this year about the association being out of touch with the needs of smaller system schools and the concerns of historically black colleges.
With his pledge to amplify campus issues into ASG priorities, Pantiel seems likely to have capitalized on much of that discontent.
"I think that the students who voted for me wanted something new in this association," he said. "They wanted to feel a part of something."
As a candidate Pantiel promised to give all students a greater sense of ownership in the organization and said he wants delegates to leave every meeting with a sense that something has been accomplished.
More than anything, that promise of tangible progress and concrete assignments for delegates seems to have resonated Saturday.
"When I first started coming to these meetings, I was going to drop out of ASG because I didn't think it was going anywhere," said Kent Williams, a freshman at N.C. Central. "I'm staying because of Derek and Dan. They seem to have everything organized and know what they want to do."
Lee Hyde, the association's vice president for finance who was running against Pantiel, said he has concerns that the newly elected president could risk weakening the ASG by taking on campus-specific issues that might not reflect a consensus among all students.
"I think he'll focus on certain charged issues that are not necessarily good for the whole," Hyde said after the vote. "I think everything just changed."
For supporters of Pantiel and Fischer, change was the point. Hyde and departing president Zack Wynne have emphasized the importance of a highly professional cadre of officers to push the ASG agenda, but Pantiel and Fischer appealed to broader involvement at the campus level.
Presiding over the last meeting before he steps down May 19, Wynne said Saturday that the organization should consider the idea of hiring nonstudent professionals to take on tasks like administration and lobbying.
In contrast, one of Pantiel's campaign initiatives calls for the creation of student lobbying groups on every campus. After the election, he continued to tout the theme of wider participation.
"Keeping students involved is the key to keeping up morale in this association," Pantiel said. "Students are going to be excited to come to these meetings and be a part of something."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/21/06 4:00am)
For the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, simply having a contested election has been called a sign of maturity.
And so far, the first multi-candidate presidential race in three years has backed up the view among ASG officials that the association finally is coming of age.
Both candidates vying to replace departing President Zack Wynne have put forward fairly detailed platforms and are expecting hard-edged questions from delegates gathering tonight at East Carolina University.
"I really can't wait to discuss the issues at hand," said Derek Pantiel, a former speaker pro tem of the ASG General Assembly who is seeking the presidency. "I'm prepared to answer any questions from the delegates."
Pantiel, a junior at N.C. Central University, is running against Lee Hyde, the association's vice president for finance, in a race that has no clear front runner and no distinct constituencies.
With votes being cast Saturday by delegates from across the state, neither candidate claims to have a defined base of support.
"I think people are all mixed on us, and the campuses are all mixed," said Hyde, a senior at N.C. State University. "I think it's good that people have a choice instead of having to settle for the only person that runs."
No matter who they choose, delegates will be getting a president determined to make the association more relevant to the average student and to promote a more professional atmosphere.
Both platforms call for a tighter structure, greater efficiency during monthly meetings and a concerted effort to build broader grassroots support.
"Our base needs to grow," Hyde said. "Right now, quite frankly, I don't believe 10 percent of students know who we are."
Hyde is proposing a large-scale advertising campaign in media outlets statewide to make the ASG a more recognizable voice for students, and Pantiel's first platform plank calls for responding more specifically to individual campus concerns.
Being proactive in seeking campus input, even on issues that might not affect the entire system, would be a hallmark of his administration, Pantiel said.
"As an association, we need to come to the campuses," he said. "Not the campuses coming to us."
To put a more professional face on the organization's efforts, Hyde emphasized the importance of attracting top-tier students willing to make a serious time commitment to the association. After a spate of resignations among ASG officers during the last year, a stable cabinet will be a top priority for whoever becomes president.
"Our personnel is lacking," Hyde said. "Our goal should really be to employ people who are experts in their field."
That will mean seeking out well-qualified students, he added, not simply waiting for people to apply.
In dealing with the state legislature and the UNC-system Board of Governors, Hyde stressed a closer, more collaborative relationship between ASG officers and state officials. Pantiel emphasized a more populist approach, calling for student rallies and the organization of lobbying groups on each campus.
Fighting for lower tuition, of course, is high on both candidates' agendas.
"Tuition is always going to be one of our No. 1 priorities," Hyde said about the association.
Regardless of how Saturday's vote plays out, both candidates said the ASG is likely to emerge stronger next year as a result of the contest.
"It's showing the Board of Governors that this association really has students who care," Pantiel said. "We're not just trying to give this position away. We're really trying to make sure we have the right student for this job."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/19/06 4:00am)
Two candidates for the presidency of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments have seen their campaigns fall victim to good fortune.
Jud Watkins and Daphne Villanueva have both withdrawn from this year's contest so that their running mates could accept other job offers.
Quentin DeBerry, Watkins' running mate, was re-elected last week as student body president of Winston-Salem State University, prompting Watkins to end his bid for the presidency.
"He wanted to commit to that," Watkins said of DeBerry. "I don't think it'd be fair to ASG or fair to Winston-Salem State to try and split him between the two."
Watkins said he wouldn't lose any sleep over the withdrawal, and is looking forward to focusing on academics and athletics at Appalachian State University.
"That's really where my heart is right now," he said. "I want to spend a lot of time at Appalachian hanging out with good friends."
Villanueva's running mate, Sandy Dempsey, found out she'll be able to graduate in May and has accepted a job offer with a research firm in Massachusetts.
"Although we are both saddened by the missed opportunity, we are very excited to see new leadership in ASG and wish the remaining candidates the best of luck," Villanueva wrote in an e-mail to ASG officers and delegates.
That leaves only two candidates still vying for the presidency, and it remains almost certain that the association will see its first contested election in three years when delegates gather this weekend.
Departing ASG President Zack Wynne said he has encouraged the candidates to campaign as thoroughly as possible, given the challenges of running for a statewide office.
"I advised them to visit student governments," Wynne said.
Candidates Lee Hyde and Derek Pantiel have posted platforms on the ASG's Web site - www.uncasg.org/delegates - so delegates can prepare questions for this weekend's debate.
The association has made a conscious effort this year to bring many of the same delegates to each monthly meeting, which means those voting should be familiar with the candidates.
"We've really hammered it home that it was necessary to start having consistent delegates," Wynne said.
Four delegates from each UNC-system campus will cast their votes Saturday for one of three remaining candidate slates.
Hyde, the association's vice president for finance, is seeking the presidency with running mate Patrick Kelly, who recently took over as ASG vice president for legislative affairs.
Pantiel served last year as president pro tem of the ASG general assembly, and is running for president alongside Daniel Fischer, who has been active with the organization since last fall.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/13/06 4:00am)
GREENSBORO - When he took office as UNC-system president in January, Erskine Bowles told members of the university's governing board that he'd prefer a small inaugural ceremony, if there had to be one at all.
So far, that's the only presidential request board members have declined to follow.
A high-profile guest list of congressmen, state lawmakers, university officials and academic notables gathered Wednesday on the UNC-Greensboro campus for Bowles' formal swearing-in as the 16th president of the UNC system.
It was an opportunity for chancellors, trustees and Board of Governors' members from across the state to cut loose a little, and most were clearly reveling in a moment of university history. More than a few danced their way into place as the N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University marching band warmed up at the head of the procession.
By the time Bowles stepped to the podium, any reservations about the pageantry of the occasion were gone.
"As my Mama, who is sitting right down there in the front row, knows, I am about to burst - about to burst with joy to stand before you in my hometown, surrounded by my family and my friends from across our state and nation as the leader of our university."
A former investment banker and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, Bowles said the UNC-system presidency is "by far the single greatest honor I can imagine ever being given."
Though the mood was firmly optimistic, Bowles used the occasion to lay out his view of the system's most pressing needs and to explain the urgency of meeting them.
He sounded a warning about an approaching "tsunami" of economic competition and the threat it could pose to North Carolina. Preparing the state has to be the fundamental aim of the university, he said.
"Now is not the time to be complacent. To win in this new knowledge-based global economy, we must move forward quickly."
That will mean creating a more efficient university system able to shore up the state's workforce through better education, Bowles said.
Drastically increasing production of K-12 teachers, maintaining high levels of research funding and integrating more fully with the N.C. Community College System were all presented as key strategies.
"If we don't grab hold of the future and get more people better educated, we're going to be crushed - crushed -- by this tidal wave of highly educated people from all parts of the world competing for the jobs of tomorrow."
Gov. Mike Easley, who addressed the audience along with other officials before Bowles' address, spoke in similar terms of the economic pressures facing North Carolina and the need to face them.
"We entrust that responsibility to the university," he said. "And we entrust the university, confidently, to Erskine Bowles."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/13/06 4:00am)
GREENSBORO - It was a message that easily could have been meant for a corporate boardroom, delivered by a CEO with an eye toward future performance.
"Our people are no longer competing for jobs and work with just the citizens of South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia," said Erskine Bowles in his inaugural address Wednesday as UNC-system president.
"In today's knowledge-based global economy, we're competing head-to-head with China, India and dozens of other countries that are making tremendous strategic investments in education and research."
(04/10/06 4:00am)
Correction: Due to a reporting error, this article incorrectly states that letters were mailed Friday to all UNC faculty and staff describing the new health-plan structure. Letters were mailed only to nine-month faculty. A letter for all employees is being prepared. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
In a long-awaited change, state employees will be allowed next month to enroll in one of three new benefit packages offered by the N.C. State Health Plan.
(03/21/06 5:00am)
RALEIGH - Before the end of the week, a judge will decide whether N.C. lawmakers skirted the state constitution when they narrowly enacted lottery legislation last August.
In approving the lottery, legislators failed to follow a specific constitutional procedure for passing revenue bills and imposing taxes.
Lawyers for the state contend that it doesn't matter because the lottery act isn't a revenue bill, but a coalition of public interest groups filed a lawsuit alleging that it is.
Superior Court Judge Henry Hight heard arguments from both sides Monday, and his ruling will hinge on whether the legislature should have treated the lottery legislation as a revenue bill.
Arguing for the plaintiffs, former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr said it is a matter of common sense that the lottery act ought to fall under that definition.
"We know from the very language of the lottery act that its express purpose is to raise revenue for education," he said. "It is clearly an education tax."
Norma Harrell, arguing on behalf of the state Attorney General's Office, said the court should defer to the legislature's own interpretation of its actions.
Legislators clearly didn't consider the lottery act to be a revenue bill, and the court should be reluctant to second guess them, she said.
"There simply is no tax involved here. The state has not imposed a tax on anyone."
But Orr countered that the state's net profit on each ticket sold - the law specifies that 35 percent of lottery revenue be used for public education - amounts to an involuntary tax on purchasers.
In asking for the lottery act to be struck down as unconstitutional, Orr said such a move would not necessarily doom the state's lottery.
"A ruling that the lottery act is unconstitutional does not mean that North Carolina will never have a lottery," he said. "If it's the will of the elected officials of this state to enact a new lottery act, so be it."
Part of the backdrop for the lawsuit, however, is the knowledge that legislators just barely garnered enough votes to pass the lottery act last year.
"The legislature would prefer not to have to do it again," said Ferrell Guillory, director of UNC's program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life. "A new set of dynamics would take over, and it would be unpredictable."
Guillory said it is questionable whether the lottery could have passed if it had been submitted under the rules of a revenue bill.
That would have required three readings on three separate days, a far cry from the half-day session that prompted howls of protests from lottery opponents in August. The final tally in the Senate was 25 to 24, with a tie-breaking vote cast by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.
"They knew that given the very politically charged nature of the issue and the narrow divide in the legislature, they had to do it when the time was right," Guillory said of the vote. "That's what legislative craftsmanship is about."
Even if the court were to strike down the lottery act, which Guillory said is unlikely, lawyers for the state almost certainly would appeal. Orr said that the plaintiffs also are prepared to appeal, and that he'd like to see the case taken to that level.
"That's where you make law. We think it would be useful and important to have an appellate ruling."
Regardless of the ruling, the first scratch-off tickets are likely to go on sale as planned March 30.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/20/06 5:00am)
Due to a reporting error this story incorrectly states that Student Body President-elect James Allred served as treasurer last year. He was student body secretary. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
(02/16/06 5:00am)
Erskine Bowles likes to remind audiences that he's not an academic. And fewer than two months into his tenure as UNC-system president, Bowles is relying on his outsider image to help shake up a very academic world.
He called Friday for urgent reforms to the system's schools of education, vowing to make them the top priority of his presidency - but only if campus deans and administrators show a willingness to scale back or eliminate inefficient programs.
"I would do that because we have a crisis," he said, referring to North Carolina's long-running teacher shortage. "If you have a crisis, you have to treat it like one. And we have to lead."
For years public schools across the state have struggled to recruit and retain enough qualified teachers to accommodate a rapidly expanding student population. The problem has been acute particularly in rural counties with relatively low levels of education spending.
Efforts to address the shortfall encompass a range of state and local initiatives dealing with everything from improved teacher benefits to more on-the-job training. The UNC system has focused on tackling one of the most basic solutions: churning out more teachers from the state's public universities.
"The universities and the schools of education have stepped up with a plan to significantly increase the number of teacher education graduates," said Alan Mabe, the system's interim senior vice president for academic affairs. Fourteen UNC-system campuses have schools or colleges of education.
But for Bowles that plan isn't producing the kind of results it should. Drawing on his background in the business world, he said Friday that each campus, and the system as a whole, needs to look more critically at concentrating resources where they can do the most good.
"I think it's natural that in any organization you need to review what you're doing from time to time and take stock," he said. "Every organization has great, good, OK, fair and poor programs. It just happens over time."
The crux of his proposal, Bowles said, is to streamline the system's teacher development efforts. That means programs falling into the "fair" and "poor" categories should be axed in favor of those showing more impressive results.
Presenting an ultimatum of sorts at a January meeting of school of education deans, Bowles said he told the group, "If you'll get your own house in order, I'll fight like the dickens to get you additional resources to meet this challenge."
The message seems to have resonated.
"I think we've always been aware of the need for cost-effectiveness and efficiency," said Charles Duke, dean of the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University.
"But he clearly brings a perspective to the whole operation that we probably have not had."
Supporting the state's effort to end the teacher shortage presents a unique challenge for the university system because it involves coordination with so many other agencies, said Cathy Barlow, dean of the Watson School of Education at UNC-Wilmington.
"We have a lot of masters," she said.
One major component of the system's effort is the UNC Center for School Leadership Development, located near UNC-Chapel Hill, which plays host to a variety of different programs designed to promote teacher recruitment and training.
Many of those initiatives have independent advisory boards with overlapping mandates and little coordination among them. Finding ways to eliminate redundant programs will be a top goal for the system president, Mabe said.
"I think he's looking to try to figure out a more rational scheme of organizing all of those teacher education efforts."
But Bowles acknowledged that it won't be easy. The hodgepodge of programs aimed at tackling the teacher shortage have gained entrenched interests of their own, and many owe their existence to backing from the state legislature.
"There are very few programs around here that don't have a godfather or a rabbi behind them somewhere," Bowles said. "You have to shake it up."
Speaking to the system Board of Governors, Bowles was guarded about his chances of success.
"I may not be here long," he joked.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.