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(04/26/10 3:53am)
DURHAM — Running unopposed, familiar faces were elected Saturday to lead next year’s UNC-system Association of Student Governments.Atul Bhula, a senior at East Carolina University, was elected president. UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore Dakota Williams will take over as senior vice president.Both candidates have been active members of the organization for several years. Bhula has been a member since 2007. Williams started as a high school delegate representing the N.C. School of Science and Math.Greg Doucette, outgoing ASG president, said Bhula and Williams have experience and know the fundamentals of the association.“They know the importance of transparency and accountability,” Doucette said.Their platform emphasizes keeping executive officers accountable and making sure that they aren’t doing their jobs just for stipends.This year, officers were paid at the beginning of the month. Bhula wants to push back paychecks to the end of the month to improve officers’ incentives to work. When beginning the job, officers will work one month prior to getting paid.“In doing so, we’ll weed out those people who are just in it for the stipends,” Bhula said.At the beginning of the year, officers will be asked for their goals and plans for the year. They will be evaluated throughout the year to make sure they are making progress on those goals, Bhula said.“If I need to fire anybody, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’m really big on accountability.”Doucette said he hopes that Bhula will continue to keep ASG united. Rebuilding the organization has been the chief focus of Doucette’s administration.“The fact that people are here participating is the reason why everything is falling into place,” Doucette said.“We have people. He needs to go out of his way to make sure that those people stay.”Williams, who is also treasurer in UNC-CH Student Body President Hogan Medlin’s cabinet, said he hopes to establish budgeting conferences between student body treasurers throughout the system.This conference is meant to be a collaborative process to help student governments from the different campuses share ideas on how they allocate student funds. “We have points of our budget that we do very well. We also have points that we don’t do as well. We could sit down with other schools and gain ideas,” Williams said.Like Bhula, Williams said holding officers accountable was important.Large stipends are one of the things that help the organization do that, Williams said.“The role of the senior vice president is to really manage the officers. I hope to do this by staying on them,” Williams said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/23/10 3:56am)
Greg Doucette, who is about to step down after two one-year terms as Association of Student Governments president, is leaving behind an organization far more unified than it was two years ago.ASG meetings this year have had full participation — representatives from every UNC-system school — at almost every meeting, but when Doucette took office in 2008, some schools were preparing to leave or had already left ASG.Former Senior Vice President Ashley Yopp, who served in 2008-09, said Doucette’s aggressive work ethic has helped bring ASG back together.“Under Greg’s reign we have had the highest attendance ever at meetings. He has a very aggressive style which a lot of people fought him for — but at the same time he gets everything done,” Yopp said.The organization has struggled to prove its legitimacy to ASG delegates, student body presidents and the UNC-system Board of Governors.ASG’s history has been tumultuous — in 2007, ASG President Cole Jones resigned after he was charged with assault (the charges were later dropped). Cody Grasty took office in his place.“When I took office in October, we were in turbulent waters,” Grasty said.That year, many student body presidents dropped out of the organization and tried to influence their delegates to do the same, Grasty said. Many other schools, while officially still involved, still had low participation.“Coming in and trying to wrangle that back to normalcy was difficult, and I’m not going to say we did that successfully during my term, but Greg definitely has,” he said.After taking office, Doucette and Yopp traveled to all 17 UNC-system campuses to ask students what they wanted to see from ASG . Since taking office, Doucette has made business visits to other campuses more than 100 times. UNC-Chapel Hill alone has received 14.“Greg knew everything about everyone. He didn’t run it as a top-down style of leadership. He ran it from the bottom up,” Yopp said.When Doucette stepped up, UNC-Asheville was not a part of ASG. It pulled out in 2007 because delegates felt the association wasn’t responding to the interests of the students, said Tristyn Card, who was UNC-A student body president the year the school left ASG. “When I was going it was a socializing event,” Card said. “The leadership lacked.”“(Doucette) always asked our input and he really made me have more respect for ASG and what it could do.”UNC-Charlotte was also on its way out when Doucette took office. Its delegates stopped attending meetings after an unsuccessful attempt to pass a budget.Doucette has since persuaded both the student body president and the school’s delegates to resume their participation.Doucette said he’s faced opposition from the association many times, but that comes with the job.“A lot of it just comes down to finding common ground,” Doucette said. “If you can’t find a compromise everyone can support, then it’s probably not something that ASG should be doing.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(04/06/10 4:43am)
Student Body President-elect Hogan Medlin says he will be heavily involved in a statewide student government organization but shares the concerns the current administration has with its use of student fee money.The UNC-system Association of Student Governments has a lot of potential, Medlin said, but the group needs to spend less money on officer stipends and expend more of its energy on campus-based initiatives.The organization is funded by $1 from every student in the UNC system.While in previous years ASG officers have complained about the lack of involvement from UNC-Chapel Hill, they have praised Student Body President Jasmin Jones’ role in the organization this year.Medlin, who attended his first ASG meeting last month, said he hopes to continue Jones’ legacy.But Medlin said it upset him when he saw ASG’s budget at the last meeting and realized how much of it went to salaries as opposed to campus projects.About $82,000 is allotted for stipends and compensation for officers. About $5,819.13 goes toward projects and programs on the campuses. The full budget totals $206,750.It’s important for ASG to figure out how they can reach out to students because if students do not see results from the organization, they won’t trust it and wouldn’t want to pay for it, he said. “It’s definitely an institution that has a lot of potential, but it can be tweaked a little bit to be a lot more effective for the students,” Medlin said. “If you come in with the right mind set, ASG can be productive and be used to benefit our students.”Medlin said he will continue to be an active participant in the monthly meetings, which are composed of student body presidents and their delegates from 17 schools across the state. The meetings are held at a different campus each month to discuss issues concerning the UNC system.Both Jones and ASG President Greg Doucette said it’s important that Medlin continue to attend meetings to strengthen UNC’s relationship with ASG. “My hope is that he is going to take the ball and run with it,” Doucette said.In the past UNC hasn’t always put much effort in attending the ASG meetings, Doucette said.Former student body presidents J.J. Raynor and Eve Carson kept UNC’s involvement with ASG to a minimum, which resulted in a lack of respect from other delegates, Doucette said. But Jones, unlike her predecessors, took on an influential role in the organization, helping lead efforts to lobbying legislators about tuition. Doucette said Jones’ attendance at meetings and activism with tuition petitions has brought UNC more respect within ASG.Jones said it is important Medlin attend every meeting next year and participate actively in conversation.“I would like to see him come up with something innovative for next year so that ASG continues to build and have a presence on everybody’s campus,” Jones said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/29/10 4:08am)
Correction, 2:13 p.m. March 29: An earlier version of this story included a graphic with incorrect totals. The graphic has been removed from the story. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
(03/05/10 3:30am)
The transportation that UNC Association of Student Government delegates sometimes used to attend meetings is no longer an option.ASG has to discontinue its official use of Enterprise rental cars and revert to its previous practice of reimbursing officers and delegates for mileage to and from meetings.The association consists of representatives that meet monthly at one of the UNC-system schools to discuss matters affecting their schools. Kenneth Craig, associate vice president for finance for the UNC system, said General Administration officials did not want ASG or students to be liable in case of an accident with the rental car.“It has little to do with us trying to control the ASG travel, and it has all to do with controlling the risk a student is exposed to,” he said.The General Administration cannot ensure that Enterprise will put insurance on the car once a student decides to use this resource, Craig said.The last couple of bills the General Administration received from ASG members did not have insurance, he said.In the past, ASG delegates and officers were able to rent cars with Enterprise and bill them to the ASG account number.Many delegates and officers said they found the new policy of reimbursing delegates for travel to be time-consuming and unnecessary.Mark Blackwell, student body president at UNC-Wilmington, said his school has relied on Enterprise and is unhappy about the change.“It is now a longer process to rent a car and to receive the reimbursement,” he said.Members will still be able to use the Enterprise cars as long as they don’t rent the car in association with ASG. Individuals traveling to meetings will be able to use a personal vehicle or a rental of their choice but will only be reimbursed for mileage.Greg Doucette, ASG president, said discontinuing the use of enterprise vehicles has been a smart policy change, but it will provide a challenge for schools such as Elizabeth City State University, where the student government budget doesn’t fund transportation. Those students will have to pay out-of-pocket.“The challenge is trying to provide for those students on campuses who can’t come up with the cash,” Doucette said.At ECSU, delegates and officers have used the Enterprise vehicles multiple times in the past.Illiana Thomas, ECSU student body president, said the policy change will affect their ability to attend meetings.“We have a budget that doesn’t allow for transportation,” she said.Some schools have the option of renting a car through a state-supported rental car account for the school.Jonathan Meisner, student body president at Appalachian State University, said he feels fortunate that his delegates at ASU are allowed to do so.The challenge for ASG is to help these schools who don’t have the funding or state-provided cars available to them, he said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/01/10 5:15am)
GREENSBORO — As their terms wind down, student body presidents from across the UNC system are making one last push to get the money from tuition increases returned to schools. The UNC Association of Student Governments met this weekend to discuss strategies for convincing N.C. legislators to swap the state- mandated tuition increase with the UNC-system Board of Governors’ campus-specific requests. The revenue from the tuition increase — the lesser of $200 or 8 percent — instituted last summer by the N.C. General Assembly goes toward the state’s general fund instead of the UNC system. Student body presidents support the board’s lower-cost proposal, which increases tuition by an average of 5.2 percent, or $131. UNC-CH Student Body President Jasmin Jones is leading the effort by drawing up plans to present to legislators before the General Assembly convenes in May.“It’s not a one-step thing. To lobby, it goes on and on. We only have so much time and resources,” Jones said.Jones said she wants to draft a press release this month requesting the legislators to return the revenue from the tuition increases back to the UNC system. The press release will include the number of students who signed a petition against the state-mandated tuition increase.The student petitions totaled over 22,000, surpassing the goal of 21,500 from all 17 UNC-system schools.UNC-CH had the highest number of student petitions with about 2,400 signatures.Jones also said she wants to get more students, parents and members of the UNC community involved in the process by encouraging them to call and e-mail legislators.Jones said that they will be coming up with creative ways to increase student and parent participation. “Everybody has to think of the culture at their school and say what would get them to make that phone call,” she said. Students at UNC-CH love free food and T-shirts, so they can use that as an incentive for students to call legislators, Jones said. “We’re coming up with creative ideas on how to inform constituents that deal with this,” she said. In order for students to have an impact upon legislators, they need to be registered voters, said Greg Doucette, the ASG president. The committee on academic and student affairs discussed ways to advocate voter registration to students.PA Rowe, chairman of the ASG academic and student affairs committee, said many of the schools are using programs similar to those they used last year to get students to vote in the presidential elections. “If a large percentage of them aren’t registered voters we won’t have leverage when we go to lobby.” Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/25/10 5:27am)
Two North Carolina universities are launching programs that will help students earn their undergraduate degrees in three years. UNC-Greensboro and Mount Olive College officials said the programs will help students save money and get an early start on their plans for graduate school. “UNCG in 3,” announced Monday, is expected to save participating students up to $8,000 over three years, provided that students take the recommended 16 credits per semester and seven credits in each of two summer sessions, said Robert Brown, the UNC-G dean of division of continual learning.Students also get priority in registration and extra advising help.Brown said UNC-G has been planning this program for more than a year because of the large number of students entering college with many college credit hours.Students with 12 hours or more of college credit upon enrollment will be invited to enter the program.Students at UNC-Chapel Hill trying to graduate in three years said the University needs an organized plan in place to help them. Out of 3,800 students who entered UNC-CH in 2006, 68 students graduated in three years.Sam Chapman, a sophomore psychology major, entered UNC-CH from the Early College at Guilford with about 60 credit hours.Chapman said he has had little help from UNC-CH. He has had trouble getting into classes he needs to finish his major, he said.“It’s really hard when all I can take are miscellaneous classes and not the upper-level psych classes I need,” Chapman said.UNC-G plans to launch the program in the fall of 2010. Mount Olive will launch its three-year degree program at the same time.Brown said he was surprised to see Mount Olive College’s January announcement of their three-year program. Mount Olive was the first college in the state to unveil a three-year program for students.“We’ve been meeting over the past seven or eight months, and it’s been in the works for over a year,” Brown said.Students accepted into the Mount Olive program with a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher will save $22,000, a year’s tuition, said Rhonda Jessup, director of public affairs at Mount Olive College.Both universities plan to arrange preferential scheduling for three-year students so that they don’t have trouble taking necessary classes.At Mount Olive, students in the three-year program can take as many as 24 credit hours a semester.David Horton, a sophomore who entered UNC-CH with 47 credit hours, said he wants to graduate early for financial reasons.“My parents are footing the bill for my education, and I could not ask them to pay an extra year of my tuition,” Horton said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/17/10 5:41am)
A federal program that awards funding to universities with exceptionally large Latino populations is creating an incentive for schools to reach out to potential Latino students.
In order to be designated a Hispanic Serving Institution and be eligible for the grants, 25 percent or more of a school’s population must be Latino.
A recent report by Excelencia in Education reflects a growing number of schools that might be altering their practices to attract more Latino students and better meet their needs.
There were 265 schools already eligible and another 176 on the cusp as of 2006-07. Universities that meet the 25 percent requirement are able to compete for research grants and other university funding.
Although UNC is nowhere close to the 25 percent benchmark, the steps that the University takes are similar to schools that are seeking the Hispanic-serving designation.
UNC has the highest number of Latino students in the UNC system at 937 undergraduates, or about five percent. That number has doubled since 2004.
Deborah Santiago, author of the report, said that universities need to focus not only on increasing Latino enrollment but also on retaining those students.
Schools need to make sure that once they enroll the students, they cater to their needs, which might not be the same as the needs of the broader student population, she said.
“I think that the traditional way of offering a college education is going to evolve as we get more and more non-traditional students coming in,” Santiago said.
The report found that many of the designated Latino serving schools were aware of their enrollment numbers but not the retention and graduation rates of those students.
Archie Ervin, associate provost and director of diversity and multicultural affairs, said that UNC has one of the best Latino retention rates in the Southeast.
The university also makes a concerted effort to attract those students.
Representatives from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions attend college fairs organized by national Latino organizations, send out targeted e-mails to potential Latino students and recently translated sections of its Web site into Spanish, Ashley Memory, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions, said in an e-mail.
Texas State University at San Marcos, which is 24.3 percent Latino students, is taking similar steps to recruit those students in hopes of meeting the federal benchmark. Representatives send admissions officers to diverse high schools where they work with students.
UNC’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs also will host a visitation weekend later this year specifically for Latino students. Students who have been accepted will see the campus and get information on financial aid and academics.
Adrian Lopez, a UNC junior who is Latino, said that he felt that the University took a particular interest in recruiting from his demographic group.
“I absolutely think this University caters to Hispanic needs because we offer tons of programs that reach out to the Hispanic community.”
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/08/10 4:41am)
William Fu, a UNC freshman, took the train home to New York for the holidays.Because of improvements to the rail system that are meant to boost speed and efficiency, Fu said he might choose a train ride over a flight more often.The improvement of North Carolina’s Southeast High Speed Rail is good news to students at UNC-Chapel Hill and the rest of the state population that travels frequently up and down the East Coast. The rail will begin in Charlotte and end in Washington, D.C., passing through Raleigh and Richmond, Va., as well as some smaller towns.Officials also hope to increase train speeds, first to 79 mph and later to 90 mph. The proposed changes will be funded by President Barack Obama’s Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor plan, which awarded North Carolina $520 million to boost its railroad systems between Raleigh and Charlotte. The improvements could create between 4,800 to 5,000 jobs and improve air quality, said Patrick Simmons, director of the N.C. Department of Transportation Rail Division.“This is a jobs program,” Simmons said.The state’s unemployment rate was reported at 11.2 percent in December 2009, the last official recording.North Carolinians will be hired for conducting surveys and for filling construction and real estate positions.“These folks will be employed and building infrastructure that will last for generations,” Simmons said.The rail improvements will also decrease the need for personal vehicles. Environmentalists support the plan because the decreased need for trucks and cars will improve air quality, said Tom Mather, the spokesman for the N.C. Division of Air Quality.The largest effect will be felt in the state’s major metro areas, such as Raleigh and Charlotte, where the cars and trucks are the biggest pollution contributors, Mather said.“If more people start using the transit rather than using their personal vehicles, it would help curb the emissions from their vehicles,” Mather said.Joan Bagherpour, spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Transportation, said they have other projects in mind, but they have not yet been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.With part of the federal grant, North Carolina hopes to buy two used locomotives and increase train services to Raleigh, Simmons said.They hope to add double track and grade separations, which will separate highways from the rail roads, one of their new safety measures.Some smaller projects will be started within the next six to eight weeks, but larger projects such as building bridges to separate rail road tracks from highways will be looked at over the next two years.Simmons said all of the funding has to be distributed to agencies and companies by September 2011.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/01/10 4:59am)
Student body presidents from throughout the UNC system plan to continue collecting tuition petition signatures to convince the General Assembly to return tuition money to the universities.Because the number of signatures — about 14,800 so far — still falls short of their goal, the Association of Student Government student body presidents decided Saturday at their meeting in Winston-Salem to continue collecting through February. The plan is to get about 22,000 signatures, approximately 10 percent of the student population of the entire UNC system, said Greg Doucette, ASG president.The 14,800 signatures doesn’t include numbers from many of the schools that couldn’t be at the meeting because of inclement weather, Doucette said. “It’s an excellent start, but I obviously want more,” he said. “We still have at least a month to go. I would like to get that number doubled.”Adverse weather prevented full attendance at this weekend’s ASG meeting and prevented those there from leaving the hotel.Only nine out of the 17 schools in ASG had representatives at the meeting, the last before the February Board of Governors meeting, when ASG plans to present its petition showing support for the Board of Governors-approved tuition increases and the return of tuition revenue to the campuses.The board will meet next week to discuss UNC-system President Erskine Bowles’ recommendations for tuition increases, which are based off of the requests from the individual schools. The Council of Student Body Presidents passed a resolution formalizing its support for campus-initiated tuition increases.According to the resolution, when the Board of Governors releases its recommendation for tuition increases, ASG will support their plan instead of the increases recommended by the N.C. General Assembly, Doucette said.The legislature mandated a tuition increase of the lesser of $200 or 8 percent. However, it can choose to replace its plan with the one created by the Board of Governors.NextBus for P2P gets $1,000UNC-Chapel Hill received a $1,000 grant for implementing NextBus features on the P2P. Doing so will enable students to check arrival times for the P2P as well as Chapel Hill Transit buses.The $1,000 comes from a Campus Innovation Grant. UNC-Chapel Hill was one of three schools that received the grants, which are all a maximum of $1,000, this semester.In order to be eligible for one of the grants, the school has to agree to match the funding they receive.The governmental operations and community services committee selected which schools received funding.UNC Student Body President Jasmin Jones said she hopes this keep students from waiting for long periods outside in the dark for the P2P to arrive.UNC-CH also applied for funding for bicycles for the SafeWalk program, but the funding was denied because each school is only allowed to receive funding for one project.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/29/10 4:43am)
After a two-month hiatus, the UNC-system Association of Student Governments is convening this weekend in Winston-Salem with an ambitious agenda.In the interim, members have been applying for project grants and gathering student signatures on a tuition petition to present to N.C. legislators.Members will present their requests for funding for campus projects this weekend and decide which of those projects receive funding through the group’s campus innovation grants. ASG has allocated $9,300 of its annual budget for innovation grant programs. The maximum grant amount is $1,000, said Cydney Swofford, ASG vice president of government operations and community service.Members will decide whether to award money to projects based on how beneficial the projects are for students and the community, Swofford said.“We don’t want to stifle the creativity within the campuses so there is no textbook criteria for requesting a grant,” Swofford said.Jasmin Jones, UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, said UNC applied for grants to implement the NextBus system on the P2P and for bikes for the SafeWalk program.ASG also will discuss strategies to persuade N.C. legislators to allow revenue from tuition increases to be returned to the UNC system, said Greg Doucette, ASG president.Members have already been circulating petitions at their individual campuses that make that request and that the legislature approve campus-based tuition increases, rather than the increase generated by the legislature.The N.C. General Assembly mandated a tuition increase in August 2009 that would bring all the revenue generated from the increase back to the state’s general fund, rather than the UNC system.The academic and student affairs committee will discuss coordinating a Haiti relief project. Ira Lawson, an ECU student and vice president of ASG’s academic and student affairs committee, said he hopes to compile individual schools’ donation collections and sent them to the American Red Cross or a similar organization.However, many schools already have plans in place for sending their donations.“If they want to join then they are more than welcome. It’s all going to the same place whether it is collected through ASG or other organizations,” Lawson said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/22/10 4:02am)
North Carolina school systems are racing toward education reform in hopes of proving themselves worthy of a federal stimulus grant.Last year, the federal government set aside $4 billion in a program called Race to the Top to improve education across the country. Instead of distributing the money to states equally, President Barack Obama is encouraging states to compete for it by submitting their proposals.“We’ll open up opportunity — evenly and equitably — across our education system,” Obama said Tuesday while explaining the grant at a school in Virginia. “We’ll develop a culture of innovation and excellence in our public schools. And we’ll reward success and replicate it across the country.”The grant will be awarded to states that apply for it and fulfill several criteria set by the government for improving students’ education.School systems are encouraged to incorporate technology into the classroom and use better techniques to assess student progress, Obama said.Gov. Bev Perdue has requested nearly $470 million in education stimulus money to be spent in four years, said Chrissy Pearson, Perdue’s press secretary.“As a national leader in educational innovation, I’m confident that North Carolina is in a good position to receive Race to the Top funding,” Perdue said in a press release.The state has submitted its proposal and is looking into making the necessary improvements to stay competitive.June Atkinson, the state superintendent of public instruction, said North Carolina’s proposal for the grant includes increasing graduation rates and improving low-performance schools.Atkinson said they hope to use the grant to provide teachers with technology to assess student learning in place of quizzes and standardized tests.“We’re trying to figure out what students’ weaknesses are before they get to the end of the course,” she said. “We want the assessment to go beyond the multiple-choice test.”Another component to the state’s proposal is an educator evaluation system.In the past, teachers have needed assistance with teaching students with special needs and those who speak another language, Atkinson said.Rather than attending training sessions, teachers will be able to access online programs at home to learn techniques for working with these types of students, Atkinson said.Forty states, including North Carolina, and the District of Columbia have applied for the grant. California, Florida, New York and Texas have requested the most money from the grant.But Atkinson said the state stands a good chance of receiving the grant because of its past efforts in improving education.“This is a huge step in the right direction and a big incentive for the Feds to know that North Carolina is serious about educating our children in an innovative way,” Pearson said.The first round of grant recipients will be announced in April.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/15/10 5:36am)
After controlling alcohol sales for 73 years, the state is considering dramatic reforms, one of which would take ownership of liquor stores out of state hands.
(12/04/09 5:43am)
Your fake ID might have hologram graphics or a photo that looks just like you, but law enforcement is on to your tricks.As demand has increased for fraudulent identification, law enforcement began improving security features on driver’s licenses.The more sophisticated characteristics have allowed officials to track and more easily uncover individuals breaking the law.From January 2009 to October 2009, there were 373 arrests for the possession and manufacturing of fake licenses in North Carolina, up from 294 in all of 2008 — a 27 percent increase in less than a year, said Marge Howell, communications officer for the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.In 2008, there were 18 charges in Chapel Hill related to fake IDs. Since the beginning of 2009, there have been 22, said Lt. Kevin Gunter, Chapel Hill Police Department spokesman.“We are seeing more of these (arrests) because we have seen an increase in the security of our driver’s license. In a way, that has brought out the bad guys,” Howell said.UNC student Emory Parsons, a bouncer at Players nightclub, said he catches fake IDs every busy night he works.“On a really busy night, I’ll see at least 25 people with fake IDs. You’d be kind of shocked, actually,” Parsons said.Some of the IDs used by students are clearly fake, he said.“A lot of them are very gaudy. Sometimes the hologram on the fake is not even there or it’s a completely different design.”The state also is seeing a jump in the number of fake ID manufacturing labs across the state.But contrary to common belief, the labs are mostly not for college students, said Jeff Lasater, a local special agent with the Alcohol Law Enforcement Division of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.Instead, they mainly cater to undocumented immigrants who need official identification for jobs and official services, he said.College students are much more likely to use IDs they order online and customize with personal information or real IDs belonging to older friends, he said.Taking a closer lookFake license manufacturers have tried to keep up with the increasingly sophisticated designs, but the main giveaways remain the same, Lasater said.From his experience, most fictitious IDs are seized around college campuses where students use Web sites and other methods to make them, Lasater said.“We do see a lot around Carolina, Duke and State,” he said.Israel Morrow, a special agent for ALE, said making people take IDs out of their wallets helps because by holding it in their hands, people checking the IDs can better detect discrepancies.“I’ve seen people who have the information on the front, but when you turn it over you can see that it’s a completely different card that has been fraudulently manufactured,” Morrow said.Getting caught with a fake ID is a misdemeanor, and the punishment varies depending on the district judge’s decision, said Mark Senter, an ALE supervisor.But at some bars, getting caught by a bouncer or bartender could end with just a shake of the head.“We don’t call the police. Sometimes we confiscate them from time to time. We usually just say, ‘No, have a good night,’” Parsons said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(11/23/09 4:14am)
BOONE — Student leaders from across the state resolved this weekend to oppose the state-mandated tuition increases for the 2010-11 school year.The Association of Student Governments passed a resolution at its meeting Saturday at Appalachian State University urging the state legislature to repeal the 8 percent or $200 tuition increase it passed in August.The resolution says that if the tuition increase can’t be repealed, the funds raised should go back to the schools, rather than the state’s budget, as is the plan now.The association is composed of student body presidents and delegations from each of the system schools and is charged with representing the students to the state legislature and the UNC-system Board of Governors.The resolution also stated that the N.C. General Assembly should approve the tuition rates recommended by the Board of Governors, which considers and votes on each of the campuses’ recommendations.Greg Doucette, president of the association, said that in the past three years, the state legislature has accommodated the requests of the Board of Governors.“It lays the groundwork for dealing with the state legislature,” he said of the resolution. “We would really, really appreciate if they defer to the Board of Governors on tuition rates.”At the association’s October 2008 meeting, it passed a resolution recommending specific tuition increases for each campus — a move later criticized by system leadership as being too hasty. Several campuses’ Boards of Trustees had not yet submitted their recommendations to the UNC system.This year, Doucette said, the association has taken a different approach to tackling tuition issues.The multifaceted tactic involves passing resolutions, attending board meetings and gaining feedback from students directly impacted by the tuition increase, he said.“What I want is for them to talk to their students and find out what the students want,” Doucette said of the system student body presidents.UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Jasmin Jones said she plans to organize a tuition campaign for the month of January.Jones said she is organizing a petition urging the N.C. General Assembly to return tuition increase funds to the university system.“I think this is a perfect opportunity for student advocacy, and that’s exactly what ASG is doing,” she said.P.A. Rowe, head of the committee that passed the resolution, said he thinks that if the campaign is successful, it will greatly benefit students.“It would be nice to keep that money on our campuses because we all have our own individual needs that we need to satisfy,” he said.The success of the movement depends on multiple factors, Doucette said.“I think unfortunately a lot of it’s going to come down to what the economy is like come April,” he said. “I’m cautiously optimistic but preparing for the worst.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(11/19/09 5:44am)
UNC health officials have joined the ongoing debate regarding new guidelines that raise the recommended age for women to start mammogram screenings.The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced earlier this week that women don’t need annual mammograms until they turn 50. That is 10 years older than the current medical standard for beginning the annual check-ups.Many women and medical professionals are outraged over the new guidelines, saying that pushing back the age decreases the chances of detecting breast cancer early.The recent change to the task force’s guidelines contradicts what many institutions and medical professionals have been teaching women for years.Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer foundation, recommends beginning annual mammograms to screen for breast cancer at 40, and intends to keep those recommendations.“Even this task force recognized that cancers were found early in women. This early detection is very important,” said Andrea Rader, spokeswoman for the foundation.But Dr. Nortin Hadler, professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at UNC, said that women need to ask themselves whether they benefit from annual mammograms.Mammograms are not foolproof, he said.“You’re likely to be called back for another mammogram and likely to have a biopsy. There are an awful lot of false positive biopsies,” Hadler said.Dr. Etta Pisano, vice dean for academic affairs in the UNC School of Medicine, said she disagrees with the idea of telling women they don’t need a mammogram until they turn 50.Pisano, who is known for her work in breast cancer diagnosis and radiology, said instead of using age as the determining factor for when women should start screenings, they should consider the physical makeup, particularly density, of their breasts.Susan Kowalski, 62, of Southern Shores, waited to see a doctor at the UNC Breast Center on Wednesday. She said she has battled breast cancer more than once.She was first diagnosed at 50, and the cancer did not previously show up on a mammogram. Fifty is too late to begin screenings because it reduces the chances of detecting breast cancer early, she said.Abby Murnick, a senior in the School of Nursing from Raleigh, was also at the UNC Breast Center for a mammogram. If people care enough to get a breast exam, they shouldn’t wait until age 50, she said.Both her mother and grandmother battled breast cancer.“If my mom and grandma would have waited until they were 50, they would be dead,” Murnick said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(11/18/09 5:56am)
A faltering economy on top of several years of outsourced jobs has made western North Carolina one of the regions hardest hit by the national recession.Textile and furniture companies, formerly a major source of income for the region, have crumbled under competitive pressure from multinational corporations, which can offer goods at lower prices.Many of the region’s manufacturing operations have shut down or moved to other countries, leaving hundreds in western North Carolina without jobs.In response, many are turning to the area’s community colleges to learn new skills and trades, making them viable for new jobs.The schools have seen elevated enrollment rates, and some are sending instructors to different companies for on-site training opportunities, said N.C. Rep. Ray Warren, D-Alexander, one of the counties hit hard.McDowell County was once one of the highest manufacturing bases in the state, said Michael Lavender, director of external relations at McDowell Technical Community College.But as of September, the county’s unemployment rate was 14.1 percent, he said. Between fall 2007 and fall 2009, enrollment at the school increased 36 percent, largely due to the economy.“It’s good for enrollment, but it’s bad for the people,” Lavender said. “Over the years we’ve lost almost all of our textile and furniture in the area.”In Alexander County, a tremendous number of jobs have been lost because of foreign competition, Warren said.“Globalization has created unemployment situations in the district because of the closing of some facilities that are unable to compete with lower prices of China and other countries,” he said.But companies such as Williams-Sonoma and Apple, which are coming to the region, could help relieve the high unemployment rate. Apple is expected to open a data center, creating more than 2,000 jobs, Warren said.Henderson County, like most of the region, is facing high unemployment numbers — 8.6 percent in September. Its normal unemployment rate is between 3.5 and 4.5 percent.The county has been hit the hardest in the real estate market, said Robert Williford, president of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce.“There were a lot of jobs in the construction industry that were dependent on houses being sold and being built. That’s really slowed down tremendously,” Williford said.Local legislators are encouraging citizens to support local markets because it could help relieve the crisis, Williford said.“We are encouraging citizens to do business with people in the same area. In tough times, everyone has to help their neighbors and do what they can locally,” he said. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(11/10/09 4:01am)
Sophomore Meghan Howard, like many students at UNC, forwards her e-mail from Webmail to a private provider.Students across campus are choosing to abandon their Webmail accounts for private e-mail providers that they say are more convenient, leaving school technology officials nationwide to question the need for university-supported e-mail systems.EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association that deals with information technology in higher education, found that in 2008, 10 percent of colleges with associate’s, baccalaureate and master’s programs and 25 percent of doctoral colleges were thinking about putting an end to campus e-mail accounts.Larry Conrad, vice chancellor for information technologies at UNC, stated in an e-mail (from his Webmail address) that he believes college e-mail accounts could become extinct within the next couple of years.“We find the preponderance of students already come with an e-mail account, which is why we think the University can get out of the business of providing e-mail to students,” Conrad stated in an e-mail.“This is actually occurring quite rapidly as institutions struggle with budget cuts. Plus, the available upside services provide more storage space and other options which we can’t afford to provide,” Conrad said.Administrators could not provide an exact value of the cost difference between a UNC-based e-mail system and outsourced e-mail. Maintaining the Webmail system costs the University more than $100,000 a year, Conrad said.Andrew Phillips, co-chairman of the student government technology and web committee, said that students are using outside e-mail providers because they supply services such as calendars and note systems that Webmail doesn’t.“Quite frankly, unless the University is going to outsource that e-mail to a company like Yahoo or Google, the Webmail that the University is going to provide is not going to be as good,” Phillips said.“On the whole, you’re going to get lots of those features that students demand with private e-mail accounts.”Tim McGuire, manager of ITS messaging services at UNC, said the University has been considering the possibility of outsourcing college e-mail to other private accounts.“We are exploring those options. We really want to offer the best service that we can and a competitive service,” McGuire said.McGuire estimated that approximately one-third of the student body forwards their e-mail address to another account.Some students said that Webmail tends to be confusing and not as convenient as other providers.Bryan Casciere, a sophomore from Raleigh, said he doesn’t like Webmail and uses Gmail instead.“I started using Gmail last year because one time I accidentally deleted all of my e-mail. With Gmail, everything is saved. Even if you delete something, it can still be found,” Casciere said.Hope Griffin, a sophomore psychology major from High Point, said she uses both AOL and her Webmail account but has been trying to figure out a way to link the two.
(10/30/09 3:29am)
Students at N.C. State University are putting pressure on administrators to give them a takeout option as dining facilities become increasingly overcrowded. This year at NCSU, 8,100 students are crowding the dining halls during mealtimes, creating a space crisis that students and administrators are hoping to fix, said Jennifer Gilmore, a spokeswoman for dining at NCSU.“In the past we’ve been able to spread the load of students out across dining locations,” Gilmore said. “This year we’ve had a big spike with students on a meal plan. We’re not sure why.”Students who have experienced the overcrowding in the dining facilities firsthand are pushing for a takeout option, which would let them get food and eat it at a place and time that fits into their schedules.“I am definitely for it because it would give me an opportunity to not have to sit in the dining hall, but to be able to just stop by and get lunch,” said Casey Baker, a sophomore biology major at NCSU.Although they are looking to fix the problem with a takeout option, Gilmore said officials are worried that the option might become costly if students start putting too much on their plates.“The way we budget is based on plate cost,” Gilmore said. “For example, if they load their plates full of hot wings, which cost more than other things, it would skew the plate cost.”Gilmore said they plan to have a solid plan for the overcrowded dining halls by the end of the semester.“At some point we have to step out on faith, and say we’re doing this for the students,” she said. “We have to minimize the variables and have a program we can feel good about and the students can feel good about too.”At UNC, the full takeout option, with Styrofoam boxes, was first available to students in 2007.Before the full option, students could use their meal plans for takeout that was offered at the downstairs Mainstreet Lenoir, called “Outta Here,” said Scott Myers, director of food and vending at UNC. First started in 1992, “Outta Here” offered a couple of the items that were on the menu in the main dining hall, such as burgers and fries, Myers said. “It was initiated basically for students’ convenience,” he said. In 1992, there were only 400 students who had a meal plan. Today, there are 6,000 students with a meal plan, Myers said — more than the dining hall can support at one time. “If we didn’t have takeout at the Top of Lenoir, it probably would be a problem now.” Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/28/09 3:56am)
UNC is not alone in its increased attention to excessive and underage alcohol consumption.Universities across the state have implemented substance abuse programs to try to control underage drinking. Some also are taking extra measures to educate the Greek community and freshmen classes on the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.Underage drinking citations given by Chapel Hill police have more than doubled from last year as the department cracks down on alcohol violations. Attention has also been focused on the Greek community at UNC after the death of Delta Kappa Epsilon president Courtland Smith.But other schools had already begun focusing on underage drinking.Miles Komuves, coordinator of alcohol and drug education at Western Carolina University, said the school became concerned after looking at the amount of alcohol 18- to 24-year-olds were consuming nationwide.WCU has implemented an online interactive program for freshmen called Alcohol-Wise. The course includes self-use assessments and statistics that compare the student’s alcohol use to that of other students.“The reason we do this is because we would like to educate students before they get into trouble,” Komuves said. “We want to try to influence their perception of alcohol, their behavior, to just make sure they have that positive college experience from the start instead of trying to fix the problem later.”WCU Student Body President Josh Cotton said the programs have changed student life.“We’ve veered away from that party atmosphere that we were once known for in the early ’90s,” Cotton said.Komuves said WCU is trying to expand its program to other groups at high risk for excessive alcohol consumption as well as the Greek community, which is 13 to 15 percent of the student body.East Carolina University also has mandated an online program for freshmen, called College ALC.Students are unable to register for their spring semester classes until they complete the program, said Bob Morphet, assistant director of the center for counseling and student development.Administrators at UNC-Wilmington have recently paid closer attention to the Greek community in particular, said Rebecca Caldwell, director of substance abuse and violence prevention.When the Greek population was compared to the general student population, Greeks consistently ranked higher in alcohol consumption, she said.However, Greek students also are more likely to take precautionary measures such as making sure they have a designated driver before going out to a party and keeping tabs on friends, Caldwell said.UNC-W Student Body President Mark Blackwell said underage students are becoming noticeably more conscious of the consequences of drinking because campus police have been cracking down.“It’s an issue like everywhere else, but the party scene has toned down,” he said. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.