NCAA investigates UNC student-athletes
UNC Athletic Director Dick Baddour has confirmed in a press release that the NCAA has visited the UNC campus to investigate some student-athletes.
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UNC Athletic Director Dick Baddour has confirmed in a press release that the NCAA has visited the UNC campus to investigate some student-athletes.
Moving up in the ranks at Carolina isn’t easy. While many promotions choose the obvious second in command, UNC employs national searches to find the best and brightest to lead the school.
While no one can exactly replace UNC-system President Erskine Bowles, the UNC-system Board of Governors is doing its best to find someone like these North Carolina leaders, who hold some of his best qualities and points of experience.
At an impromptu UNC-system Board of Governors meeting at 3 p.m. today in Chapel Hill, system schools announced their individual tuition hikes.
Updated: 3:15 p.m. with statement from survivor’s family.
When Appalachian State University officially opened its College of Health Sciences on July 1, ?the school was fulfilling a vision tauted by the UNC system long before the economic downturn limited the potential for growth.
Viridiana Martinez has known since the age of 12 that she wanted to work in international relations when she grew up.
A team of researchers from UNC are six years into a study on new approaches to early HIV detection and prevention. And with a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study is set to expand.
11:30 a.m. — After one of the three young women hunger striking in downtown Raleigh for passage of the DREAM Act fell ill Sunday night, the strikers held a gathering on their campsite Monday to announce the end of their protest.
I’ll never forget the first day I walked into The Daily Tar Heel newsroom.
N.C. Democrats are looking ahead to the November election regardless of who won Tuesday’s runoff.
The discovery of anti-gay graffiti on the East Campus Bridge at Duke University toward the end of May re-opened the barely healed wounds between the Duke College Republicans and their former members. The graffiti specifically referred to former Duke College Republicans Chairman Justin Robinette, who claimed that his homosexuality was the cause of his April impeachment and continual harassment through the summer. After Duke Student Affairs attempted to mediate a reconciliation between college republican members and those who resigned after Robinette’s impeachment, the group’s former Vice Chairman Cliff Satell filed a complaint with the Duke University Conduct Board on Monday. “Having token conversations with each side and politely requesting that everyone play nice is NOT dealing with the situation,” Satell wrote in an e-mail, in which he explained his decision to take further action. Satell’s testimony was submitted through the university’s judicial process for undergraduate conduct. His complaints involved the bridge graffiti, an e-mail he received from a Duke College Republican that he interpreted as blackmail, and an incident in which a former member’s dorm room name tag was overwritten with the word “fa—ot.” Duke University Police are continuing to investigate the graffiti incident. The graffiti read: “Lying F-g Robinette, DCR = Righteous, get AIDS in hell.” “I am pursuing all avenues to continue to fight the culture of continued intimidation and harassment directed at my and others’ sexuality at Duke,” Robinette said. He added that he is concerned with the response he’s received from the Duke administration. It is unclear whether the dorm name tag incident, e-mails and various text messages are being further investigated as potentially actionable violations of student conduct. Duke University Police could not be reached for comment. “This particular situation is very complex,” said Larry Moneta, Duke’s vice president of student affairs. “We’re doing sort of everything at every level. “We’re sort of coordinating a set of responses specific to the individuals and contemplating what’s the best and most inventive way to turn it into the a teachable moment for the campus.” But that teachable moment could be difficult to find during the summer when most Duke students don’t even know their bridge had ever been defiled, Moneta said. Satell said he would have expected the administration to send out a campuswide e-mail condemning the graffiti and asking for tips if anyone knew how it happened. “We’re seeing if there is any action to be taken against the university for remaining silent in response to this,” Robinette said. Travis Rapp, a senior representative of the Duke College Republicans, said he was shocked to hear of the graffiti. “As a student who takes great pride in my school, I find it hard to believe that any Duke student would be capable of such an action,” Rapp stated in an e-mail. Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
North Carolina student financial aid could get a whole lot easier to understand. Before the N.C. General Assembly even officiated a study group to look into simplifying and consolidating state-based student financial aid, a working group was already making sure that the high school senior class of 2011 has a simplified student aid and loan experience. But one of the remaining questions left to legislators regardless of the group’s recommendations is how much money could be available to students based on whether they choose to attend a state community college or a UNC-system school. The working groups hopes to keep allotted grant and loan money proportional to this fiscal year — about $139.4 million appropriated for the UNC Need Based Grant and $13.9 for the N.C. Community College Grant — but legislators can change that proportion at their discretion. “The real challenge in this is finding a model that keeps the proportions the same, so that when students are in high school, they have some sense of what the money might be at each (system),” said Elizabeth McDuffie, director of grants, training and outreach for the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority and a member of the working group. While one system or another could end up with less state aid at their fingertips in coming years, that is not the goal of the consolidation, said Bruce Mallette, the UNC-system’s senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs and a committee member. “First of all there’s no perfect answer. It’s a set of policy trade-offs and UNC, and the community colleges believe the trade-off reduces burden on the students and the aid administrator, and that’s is an important principle to follow,” he said. The committee — which includes financial aid officers from state schools — is doing its best in the two remaining meetings before the end of August to recommend a new financial aid model for the system grants and various loan programs. “We’re working as fast as we can in a collaborative way to come up with this consolidation of the program,” Mallette said. “The community colleges and UNC have discussed some different approaches of what that model would look like, but students who are seniors in high school will have pretty accurate information. I think we can achieve that,” Mallette said. The group will be made official when the Appropriations Act of 2010 is signed in July. While it is tasked with deciding what the model will look like, the main idea is to have grants and loans follow the student instead of the institution that student might choose to attend. “I don’t think anyone is trying to set a goal to disadvantage anyone,” said Sam Watts, of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a nonprofit that submitted its own recommendations for reforming student financial aid. “I think that the discussion happening at … the working group is looking for ways to create the greatest benefit to the most students.” Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Samantha Joye never expected to be on the front lines of one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.Joye, a UNC alumnus and marine sciences professor at the University of Georgia, led a research cruise through the oil-polluted waters of the Gulf of Mexico two weeks ago to confirm the existence of deepwater oil plumes from the BP oil spill.“It is an honor and I take it as a great responsibility,” Joye said in an interview two days after she returned from the cruise.“I want to do everything I can to make a positive difference. It has been life changing.”The Walton Smith was followed for two weeks by national news organizations as the scientists on board, including two UNC graduate students, discovered firsthand the impacts of the oil spill on the deep waters of the Gulf.Oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig has been surging from the ocean floor at depths of 5,000 feet, spewing estimates of 100,000 barrels of oil per day since April 22.The research team was tasked with discovering the effects of an oil spill at such depths.“The abundance of oil — and methane — in the water means that there is a lot of “food” for the microbial population,” Joye explained. “Stimulating microbial consumption of oil and gas will lead to increased oxygen consumption. Oxygen is a problem because if oxygen drops, animals can’t live in the water.”When the team found that filters submerged within the oil plume they had been following contained petroleum, the major scientific discovery that could assist in cleaning up the spill and future spills was nevertheless disheartening.“When the water collected from within the plume was transferred into collection bottles, we noticed an oil sheen. You could see it. Everybody saw it. Everybody got excited,” Joye said May 31 on her ‘Gulf Oil Blog.’ “Seeing is believing. Even more, the bottles from the plume layers smelled strongly of petroleum.”Joye said it was difficult to use the word “excited” to describe how the ecosystem she’d fallen in love with as an undergraduate studying marine sciences was saturated with oil.“The reality is that scientific discovery is exciting even under such disheartening conditions,” Joye said.“We had a scientific job to do and we did it. The data got us excited. But I tell you, every time I went outside and saw a dead jelly fish or flying fish or oiled bird, my heart sank. It was very difficult.”Research team members have now gone back to their respective labs and will analyze the data they collected for the next six weeks.At UNC, Tingting Yang and Lisa Nigro will continue studying how oxygen depletion affects the microbial ecosystem and whether a certain bacterium could work best in bioremediation of a future spill.“Biologically, we do not know the effects of the oil on marine life. We don’t know the effects of the dispersant either. Also unknown is how circulation will influence the spread of the oil,” Nigro said.Joye said it’s impossible to predict if dead zones will result from the spill and how far these plumes will travel.“I suspect the impacts will be long-lasting. The entire system has been turned upside down,” Joye said. “There is so much oil, and it’s everywhere. It will probably take decades for the system to recover.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Closing a $1.2 billion budget gap won’t be easy, and state legislators are in the last and longest stage of deciding which programs will be hurt most severely.Gov. Bev Perdue has given her recommendations and the N.C. House and Senate have passed their own versions of the Appropriations Act of 2010. Now, senators and representatives appointed Monday by their respective leaders must work out the differences between the two bills.The process, called “conferencing,” could take more than three weeks and will have started by the end of this week. A final bill must be presented to Perdue by July 1.Points of contention:— House amendment to eliminate in-state tuition rates for nonresident and foreign student recipients of the Morehead-Cain and Park scholarships, saving taxpayers $6 million annually.“If we lose the provision, we’ll have to reduce the number (of scholars) by about a third. The provision allows us to bring in about 10 more North Carolina (students) each year than we otherwise could,” said Morehead-Cain Foundation Executive Director Charles Lovelace.— House provision to implement a UNC-system enrollment cap at 1 percent growth starting in 2011.“We need to do something in order to get better statistics concerning enrollment growth before we’re doing the budget so we can be more realistic about those figures,” said N.C. Rep. Martha Alexander, D-Mecklenberg.“I do think that will be discussed in trying to see if there might be a better way to reach the same goal.”The UNC system will keep fighting this provision, along with cuts to the system that exceed $175 million.“Clearly the cuts proposed in the House budget would be devastating … and we’re going do everything we can to reduce those cuts,” said Anita Watkins, UNC-system vice president for state government relations.— House amendment to eliminate End-of-Grade tests in U.S. History, civics, economics and physical science. The $2 million in savings would be used to supplement classroom supply purchases.— House provision to open N.C. Education Lottery funds to classroom teachers of public charter schools. Public charter schools would get $5.3 million in additional funding.— Senate provision to lower tax rates on small-businesses and a House provision to give tax credits to small businesses that provide employee health insurance and create jobs.— Senate provision to cut Smart Start, a subsidized preschool program, by 5.2 percent. Smart Start proponents argue that it helps close the achievement gap.— Senate provision to reduce funding for in-home personal care services. Only those needing help with three or more daily activities will receive aid.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
A new poll out of the Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling shows that both democratic challengers to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., have lost momentum since the May primary.
The N.C. House and Senate are on opposite ends when it comes to sparing cuts to the UNC system.The House recommended capping the system’s enrollment growth at 1 percent as well as cutting the budget by $175 million — more than twice the Senate’s recommended cut of $54 million.Once the full House votes on the budget at the end of the week, both the House and the Senate will conference to decide whether the UNC system will lose 1,700 positions and 2,200 potential students in 2011, or suffer a less drastic cut to its classrooms and its commitment to college access.UNC-system Vice President for State Government Relations Anita Watkins has been lobbying the legislature during the short session, arguing that the system can’t afford to cap enrollment growth, an unexpected measure that hasn’t been suggested in years.“If it was capped based on the number of students that have been admitted for August 2010, about half of the additional students that will be enrolled this year would be denied admission in 2011 if the numbers were the same,” Watkins said.While Watkins is talking to as many House members as she can to gain support against the enrollment cap, the UNC system would have to engage support against it in the Senate as well if it passes the full House vote on Friday.“Historically, the full General Assembly has been supportive of the University system,” Watkins said.“But we have not talked to the Senate about whether or not they would accept an enrollment cap at this point.”Tony Foriest, co-chairman of the Senate subcommittee for appropriations on education, said he expects the provision to be debated in the conference where appointed representatives and senators work out the differences between the two versions of the budget.“We obviously have a fundamental difference with the House,” Foriest said.“(The enrollment cap) will probably make it to the conference … if the House feels strongly about it,” he said. “The Senate, again from my perspective, just doesn’t think that’s the way to go forward as far as limiting that growth.”Foriest said an enrollment cap would only hurt the future of the state from an economic standpoint.“We’re trying to position ourselves so that when we come out of this bad economy we have a firm foundation to stand on, and it seems that if you start the precedent of, ‘Well the economy’s bad so we’re not going to educate as many people,’ that’s not the way to go,” Foriest said.UNC-system President Erskine Bowles echoed that sentiment in a response to the cuts the House recommended last week.“In the long term, this budget would have significant adverse effects on the state’s economy and the prosperity of all North Carolinians,” Bowles stated in a press release.“We must have an educated workforce to attract the jobs of the future in a knowledge-based global economy.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
The controversial Arizona immigration law has found its way into the halls of the N.C. General Assembly.A proposed Senate resolution makes North Carolina the 18th state to consider a law that would require everyone to carry immigration documents and enable law enforcement to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.N.C. Sen. Don East, R-Alleghany, has introduced Senate Resolution 1349, asking for a law similar to that of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 to be considered during the legislative short session.Although it would require a waiver for the bill to be considered this summer, opponents and advocates of the Arizona law are getting in gear to put up a fight.“We’ve been sending messages to state legislators asking them to stand up and follow Arizona’s lead to help fight illegal immigration here,” said William Gheen, president and founder of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee based in Raleigh.Gheen said supporters of the resolution have been making numerous calls asking the chairman of the rules committee to allow the resolution to be considered.“I feel very confident from the fervent and enthusiastic response that our activists are approaching state legislators in all 50 states in this matter,” Gheen said.Regardless of North Carolina voter support for such a law, it’s not likely to be considered before the next session of the legislature, said Sarah Preston, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.“These kinds of policy changes are things the legislature prefers to deal with during the long session. They’d have to move pretty quickly to get it through,” Preston said.“Immigration law is extremely complicated, and I think rushing this kind of legislation could really just end up confusing local law enforcement and creating bad law.”While East’s bill still lacks any wording as to what the law would involve, Preston said the ACLU is concerned that the idea behind the Arizona law is unconstitutional.“The federal government has the authority to enforce immigration law, and as far as I know there’s no permission given by that federal law to states to start to do that kind of thing unless they’re contracting with the federal government.According to Arizona’s SB1070, “Where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of that person.”A similar policy active in six N.C. counties, Section 287(g), allows local law enforcement officials to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement if an undocumented person happens to be arrested for an entirely different offense.Opponents of SB1070 fear racial profiling will result in arrests of undocumented people who haven’t committed any other crimes.“Certainly it encourages racial profiling because it makes people carry papers on them that prove their citizenship. But only people law enforcement think look foreign are people who will be stopped,” Preston said.Dani Martinez-Moore, coordinator for the Network of Immigrant Advocates at the N.C. Justice Center, said federal comprehensive immigration reform is what’s needed, not policy changes from Raleigh.“We need fixes out of Washington rather than Raleigh,” Martinez-Moore said. “I think that it could put a huge burden on local police and sheriffs, that our justice system would be overtaxed even more, and issues of public health and safety may go neglected.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
The N.C. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved cuts of more than $175 million to the UNC system today, more than the cuts proposed by the governor and the N.C. Senate.
Michael Mutuku sold used clothes in an open market in Nairobi, Kenya, before he came to the United States.Now a security guard at BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, Mutuku works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day.After a brief “night’s” sleep, he attends classes at Durham Technical Community College from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., patiently working toward a degree in respiratory therapy.Mutuku, 31, wants to work as a respiratory therapist in a hospital and settle down to start a family.“You gotta sacrifice,” he said of his lifestyle as he studied algebra during one of the few breaks in his day.People like Mutuku, who are hoping to improve their lot in life, fill a large portion of the ranks of students in the N.C. Community College system.Since the 2009 fall semester, enrollment growth across the system’s 58 schools has grown by 31,000 students, especially in the health sciences program.With such high enrollment growth and the short-term effects that community college degrees can have on the state’s job growth, state legislators are cutting less from the community college system than they have in years past.Gov. Bev Perdue’s budget recommendation for the 2010-11 budget adjustment would cut the community college system’s budget by the least amount, compared with K-12 schools and the UNC system, and would appropriate an additional $85 million for community college enrollment growth.“A lot of what’s being recognized is the fact that we have such a huge influx of students,” said Jennifer Willis, director of government relations for the system.“It’s a mix of students — those coming out of high school, but obviously a lot of workers who have been displaced from their jobs. We’ve grown by the equivalent of N.C. State in one year throughout our 58 colleges,” Willis said.The health sciences program, along with the life sciences and four-year-college transfer programs, have grown the most, as workers laid off in the recession look to retrain in fields with more job opportunities, Willis said.Mutuku said he chose to study respiratory therapy after looking into job offers and average salaries.“I did my own research, seeing the jobs out there. I’m investing where there will be money,” Mutuku said.N.C. Sen. Tony Foriest, D-Alamance, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Education, said spending on the community college system has the most immediate impact on the economy as re-trained North Carolinians re-enter the workforce.But each level of public education has its own long-term and short-term impact on the state’s growth, and education leaders are trying to work together instead of against each other, Willis said.“NCCCS President Scott Ralls, UNC (system) President Erskine Bowles (and K-12 officials) have certainly been working collaboratively to further education initiatives — address needs among our three systems,” Willis said.The community college system is especially important for students who hold down jobs and maintain families.Emily Hampden, a single mother saving to send her three teenagers to college, is herself back in college, studying at Durham Tech to become a licensed practical nurse.“I have to work and go to school, so I’m doing it step by step,” said Hampden, who has been lining up credits since 2008.“In life, that’s what you want to do. You want to get ahead, you want to progress, you want to get better at what you do, and a lot of times that takes being educated,” she said. “I’m thankful that there are community colleges that offer the education.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.