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(11/12/07 5:00am)
For the Millennial Generation, disenchantment with the political system has turned students away from national politics and toward local engagement.
A study released last week found that the generation - which comprises students born between 1985 and 2004 - is more concerned with the political state of the world than the previous generation, Generation X.
But Millennials are more inclined to turn to community service to make a difference, the study found, rather than what they see as an inaccessible political system clogged by a polarizing media.
The study was published by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. It found that although students are disenchanted with politics, they're hungry for change.
Sarah Schuyler, a UNC senior and co-president of the Campus Y, is one of the many Millennials who are more satisfied by direct local action than politics.
"A huge motivator for all the people at the Y, including myself, is that there are changeable, real results," she said, citing committees ranging from animal rights to assisting newly immigrated families.
The study reported that only 12 percent of students believe that politics is a route through which people can effect change. Almost 80 percent of high school seniors reported volunteer involvement, but only 48 percent of young college voters turned out for the 2000 elections.
For junior Jake Anderson, president of UNC Young Democrats, the idea that young people can make a difference and can make inroads in politics is far from absurd.
"If you ask the average Young Democrat who is heavily involved in the organization, I think that they would probably think that we can probably make a pretty big difference," he said.
"What we do is we give people an avenue, and I think that's a lot of what is lacking - the current political system doesn't give people a way to participate unless they're very wealthy."
The study sought to discover the origin of the Millennial Generation's seemingly heightened sense of social responsibility. In a 1993 study about Generation X, the center found that students of that generation were more individualistic and alienated.
Part of the change has been linked to the proliferation of service-learning opportunities in high school. Many students attributed their civic engagement to high school civics classes and community service requirements that were not as prevalent a decade earlier.
The Center for Civic Education is an organization that promotes civic education in K-12 institutions, which it sees as more focused on career and individual development than social and civic development.
"Human beings aren't born with the capacity or the knowledge of the skills or the dispositions necessary for citizenship," said Joel Elliott, the center's assistant director of the Campaign to Promote Civic Education.
Study authors say they hope universities will take the study into consideration when strengthening or beginning their civic programs.
They said that giving students an opportunity to ask questions in a nonintimidating environment is one way to spark political engagement, as is helping students connect with those already involved.
Schuyler said UNC is one of those universities with a well-developed civic mission.
"There are so many groups on campus, and you know that it's such an active campus in general," she said. "There are great institutions all over the place that give us a chance to be socially responsible."
Study results were derived from interviews with 47 student focus groups on 12 college campuses nationwide.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/31/07 4:00am)
When seven students from South Carolina died Sunday morning in a house fire that turned a weekend retreat of football and cookouts at Ocean Isle Beach into a nightmare, UNC-Chapel Hill couldn't help but be reminded of a similar tragedy of its own.
Eleven years ago, five UNC students were killed in a fire that burned the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house to the ground early on the morning of graduation day.
Now, at the beginning of every semester, Carolina Fraternity and Sorority Life shows a video taken just days after the fire to a selected group of Greek students who will serve as fire marshals for its houses.
"The video brings everyone back home and makes everyone understand how important the fire safety issue is," said Jenny Levering, assistant dean of students for fraternity and sorority life.
Of the seven students who lost their lives on Sunday, one was a student at Clemson University, and six were Greek students at the University of South Carolina at Columbia - three were members of USC's beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and three were members of USC's chapter of Tridelta.
The fire was said to have burned the house to an unrecognizable framework of charred wood within minutes. The cause of the fire is still uncertain, though experts point to a back porch as the possible origin along with the aggravating circumstances of strong beach winds.
USC opened up student access to grief counseling and held a vigil Monday night for students to remember their fallen classmates.
"I'm extremely impressed by my fraternity brothers, the sorority, and the way the university and community has mobilized behind us. They defined what it means to be a citizen of South Carolina very well," said Jay Laura, both vice president of USC's student body and the president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Laura said that the fraternity held a formal ceremony in the house after the vigil to honor and remember the three brothers - they had been three of Laura's closest friends.
In the aftermath of UNC's decade-old fire, the Chapel Hill Town Council mobilized to install sprinkling systems in every Greek house at UNC.
Every Greek house is now retro-fitted with sprinkler systems and is inspected by a fire marshal at the start of each semester.
UNC responded to the tragedy by beginning to install sprinklers in the residence halls as well.
As of last year, more than 12 residence halls still need sprinklers installed.
"They haven't made as much progress on the existing dorms as I would like to have seen," said Dan Jones, the chief of the Chapel Hill Fire Department. "I would have liked to see it in 10 years, and they're not there yet."
At USC, tragedy is still too close for attention to turn to policy reform.
"Pro-active things will be planned in the future. It is way, way too close to the event to start thinking about pushing programming on students," Laura said "We're in a period of grieving here."
Because the fire occurred off-campus and outside of the jurisdiction of the University, there may be little that the University can do beyond fire-safety education.
Off-campus student housing is too difficult to register and license, let alone retrofit with sprinkler systems and enforce inspections on, Jones said.
"Students have to take a certain amount of responsibility for their own safety, too. It's very frustrating to me, because no matter how much we preach it, sometimes it's like falling on deaf ears," Jones said.
"All you have to do is look at what happened to the students at USC and at UNC in 1996, and there has to be a certain amount of responsibility to protect yourself."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/26/07 4:00am)
As more noticeable efforts to fight climate change combine with the harsh reality of worsening drought, North Carolina and the UNC system will prove sustainable building can go a long way.
The College Sustainability Report Card, released Wednesday by the nonprofit Sustainable Endowments Institute, found that 59 percent of universities nationwide are implementing green standards for campus buildings.
UNC-Chapel Hill is among those schools, with five green buildings that meet various standards of the U.S. Green Council's recommendations for sustainable buildings.
But UNC-CH received a B- on the sustainability report card. A grade that, while higher than last year's mark, may be further improved by state-mandated standards.
In August the N.C. General Assembly passed a law requiring all new state facilities to be built with at least 30 percent greater energy efficiency than the current standard.
"I think that this is a first step, one of many first steps," said Sen. Janet Cowell, D-Wake, who sponsored the legislation. "It's a win-win. You're saving the environment, but you're also saving tax payer dollars."
Although the legislation lacks direct funding, Cowell said N.C. schools are willing to take up the challenge.
"I talked to Erskine Bowles and his staff and sat down with the community colleges so that when it came down, nobody would say we don't like this, we didn't know about it," she said.
Shari Harris, UNC-system associate vice president of finance, said the law was not unexpected.
"I think that there's been a growing concern and a lot of attention now being paid to energy conservation and sustainability, more so than it has just a couple of years ago with concerns about global warming," she said.
Campuses have already begun the process of evaluating what will need to be changed in regard to the new building guidelines once the law goes into effect October 2008.
"Some campuses are taking initiative on their own," Harris said. "For example, UNC has a very focused sustainability plan with a special committee brought together by the chancellor."
Cindy Shea, director of the UNC Sustainability Office, said the campus started doing energy-modeling two years ago, which involves evaluating how much energy can be saved with alternative energy equipment such as day-lighting systems, geothermal heating and cooling and solar-heated water.
"What's important throughout the design process is to have a set of goals that many parties agreed to, and hold ourselves accountable to those goals," Shea said.
Doug Brinkley, a principal at PBC & L, a sustainability architectural firm that has worked with UNC-CH, said the Southeast faces a unique challenge.
Being prone to drought, North Carolina will have to evaluate its water re-harvesting options, while also utilizing its strong solar energy, he said.
Though accomplishing both might prove difficult, Brinkley said the state is moving in the right direction, especially regarding sustainable construction.
"I do think it will become the norm," he said. "Part of what sustainability has done is market transformation. I expect it to grow."
Cowell expressed similar hopes for the building industry in the state.
"I'm hoping that these building standards will really push the whole market because the state government is such a huge consumer," she said. "I think the rest of the market will follow."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/22/07 4:00am)
When Edward Rodriguez received an e-mail from a high school student who couldn't wait to take an Advanced Placement course, he felt that he had succeeded.
Rodriguez is the executive director of Rewarding Achievement (REACH), a philanthropic program created by the Council of Urban Professionals in New York City that works with public high schools to give students monetary rewards for passing AP exams.
Going into effect for the first time this year, the program is aimed at minority students who might otherwise have little incentive to take an AP course, let alone go through with the rigorous exams.
Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican who grew up in the Bronx, said REACH is an opportunity for black and Hispanic students to get involved in an academic program that has been mostly reserved for suburban high schools.
"AP isn't an elitist program, it's just exposure to college-level work," he said. "If we believe that African-American and Latino kids are willing to work hard - and I believe that they are willing to do so - it should be incumbent upon every school to provide that opportunity for children."
The program uses $1 million in seed funding from the Pershing Square Foundation to give students cash rewards of $500 for receiving a 3 on an exam, $750 for a score of 4 and $1,000 for earning a 5, the highest possible score.
Thirty-one private and public New York City schools have signed on to become a part of REACH.
New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein said he signed onto the program because he believes that minority student success in AP courses could and should be improved.
"I applaud the innovation of the REACH program and am grateful to the Council of Urban Professionals and its supporters for stepping up to tackle the critical goal of increasing the number of students who succeed on Advanced Placement tests."
Canarsie High School in Brooklyn, with a student population that's 84 percent black and 11 percent Hispanic, is one of the 25 public high schools that chose to participate in the program.
Canarsie has a 47 percent graduation rate, making it a prime example of the kind of school targeted by the REACH program.
"I hope the students will see that hard work pays off," said Canarsie Principal Tyona Washington of her expectations for the program. "I want our students to be prepared for higher learning and succeed in college."
REACH has fielded criticism from opponents who argue that paying students for academic achievement cheapens the idea of learning for the sake of learning.
"Once you start paying people to do things, there's no way of backing down from that expectation," said Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
"This principle is going to spread - why not pay people to go to class or pay people to turn in homework?"
Rodriguez said he has received many e-mails from both students and parents who look forward to participating in REACH, and Washington said she has heard no criticism from her student body.
"As educators we have to continue to find ways to motivate and reward academic achievement," she said. "I wish this program was around when I was in high school."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(10/15/07 4:00am)
A century-old debate resurfaced in the U.S. Congress last week that pits historical atrocities against the present realities of a delicate American foreign policy.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution condemning the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocidal campaign by Turkey.
Turkey, a key American ally in the war on terror, reacted to the resolution by threatening to withdraw its support for the war in Iraq, and Armenians and Turks throughout the states have responded to a renewal of old tensions.
U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who serves on the foreign affairs committee, voted against the resolution for cultural reasons.
"I would love to think that we had the standing in the world to pass a resolution like that and make another nation feel ashamed and examine their history and feel that there's something they need to do to make amends," Miller said.
"We do not have that standing in the world, particularly in the Muslim world, and I think that the Turkish citizens will feel insulted and angry."
Yet 27 of the 48 committee members approved the resolution with the Armenian victims in mind.
Ninety-five years later, there are still millions of Armenians who live daily with the pain of what they see as an unacknowledged atrocity.
UNC junior Maria Bagdasarian is the great-granddaughter of survivors who fled the massacre and arrived in Syria on foot to start over.
"This is a group of people that have been struggling for years to get this recognized," Bagdasarian said.
But Armenians aren't the only ones living with the past. Turkish students are also being faced with the issue, as they try to understand their nation's history and how it affects them today.
Turkish student Pinar Gurel, a junior at UNC, said that the topic is taboo among Turks because the massacres were committed under the Ottoman Empire, not orchestrated by present-day Turkey.
"There's no evidence that it was a genocide, that it was specifically planned and plotted against Armenians," Gurel said.
She added that there isn't sufficient evidence that it was a genocide, as opposed to a lot of Armenians dying during World War I and Turkey's coinciding struggle to become a republic.
The Armenian Assembly of America, a key lobbying group in Washington, D.C., argues otherwise.
"You have a mountain of evidence that it was a genocide, so we should not shy away from calling it as such," said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the assembly.
He said that if people don't recognize past genocides, they will never learn to prevent them in the future.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the mass murders but warned Congress of the resolution's repercussions for the war, as access to a Turkish military base is pivotal for supplying U.S. troops.
"This is clearly a very sensitive subject for one of our closest allies, and an ally that is incredibly important to the United States in terms of our operations in Iraq," Gates stated in a press release.
Miller said that keeping Turkey as an ally will be beneficial for foreign policy beyond the war in Iraq.
"I would rather use what limited credentials we have in the world right now to urge other nations to join with us to stop the genocide in Darfur, more than trying to sort through the history and moral obligations of events in 1915."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/27/07 4:00am)
Policy experts are worried that the state could be wasting millions of dollars in a misguided effort to preserve industries and jobs in counties threatened by outsourcing.
Lawmakers recently set aside $60 million in a compromise bill with Gov. Mike Easley for incentives to convince companies to remain in the state, a policy that some argue will prevent widespread layoffs during the next few decades.
But many experts disagree with this kind of reverse incentive. The state usually concerns itself with creating incentives to lure companies to the state, they say, not to convince them to stay.
"It is a terribly misguided policy to be giving public money to a handful of industries to keep jobs in North Carolina," said Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the nonprofit N.C. Policy Watch.
The $60 million provided by the legislation will be allocated during the next 10 years to five qualifying companies. The only two currently selected are Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire.
Fitzsimon said that while the legislation aims to prevent layoffs, loopholes would allow companies to do just that.
To be eligible for the grant, Goodyear must maintain at least 2,000 jobs in Cumberland County. But that still allows the company, which currently employs 2,750 area residents, to reduce their labor by 27 percent.
Jonathan Morgan, a professor in the UNC School of Government, believes this investment is a short-term fix to a long-term problem.
"It might be good for now and buy us another day. But what in the long run do we need to be doing as a state to help these depressed communities?" Morgan said. "That's what we've got to come back to."
He listed improving the school system, investing in infrastructure and retraining workers as essentials to growing the economies of counties like Cumberland.
But Margaret Dickson, a Cumberland Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation, argued that keeping Goodyear around was in her county's best interest.
Prerequisites for receiving the incentive grant include providing health care benefit packages and maintaining wages that are at least equal to 140 percent of the average offered by area private employers.
"I would challenge anyone to tell me how they're going to retrain some of those people and find them a comparable job that pays that and provides for their families in such a way," Dickson said in defense of the legislation.
Dickson said that the General Assembly will continue to look at long-term sustainability plans and that the proposed change will not be treated as a permanent solution.
"This program that we've set up is a 10-year program. This is not necessarily forever."
Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, voted against the legislation and said she feels that incentives like this detract from other state priorities.
"It's very compelling when a company comes and says, 'Pony up or else,' but we've got a limited state budget, and we cannot just spend it on paying companies to keep them from leaving," Weiss said.
Fitzsimon referenced a similar incentive proposal two years ago that would have benefited Bridgestone Firestone but failed to gain ground in the General Assembly. The company stuck around, he said, and enjoyed a considerable profit margin thereafter.
"I don't blame the businesses for trying to get the money," he said. "I blame our policymakers for the policy."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu
(09/20/07 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>APEX - The steam billowing out of the cooling chamber at Shearon Harris is the only visible indication that the residents of New Hill live next to a nuclear power plant.
But the plant remains part of the public consciousness, and residents are discussing for the first time in 20 years what it could mean to invite new nuclear energy into the Triangle.
Though Progress Energy has yet to apply for the combined operating license they need to install new reactors, public hearings are already under way to ensure a comfortable working relationship between the affected communities and Progress Energy.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires public hearings to air out concerns that often arise during plans for nuclear facilities. The first to address the Progress reactors was Tuesday, and another will be held after the company submits its application to build.
"It's an exciting time for the industry," said Rick Kimble, spokesman for Progress Energy. "That was really the first open public discussion that the industry has seen on new nuclear energy in a long time."
Paul Barth, president of the New Hill Community Association, said he hopes to be involved as much as possible in determining the future of Shearon Harris.
Barth said living next to a nuclear reactor has inured New Hill residents to the hazards the reactor presents, but by no means have they grown complacent.
"It's going to be very hard to stop it, but we're certainly going to make our issues known and make sure that they're addressed as best as possible," Barth said. "We're tired of sitting here and being steamrolled over."
Residents' concerns, such as evacuation safety, rising lake levels and acreage reduction in Harris Park, are being considered by the review processes already put in place by the commission.
Facing predictions of high N.C. population growth, Progress is evaluating options for growing its energy supply and increasing efficiency, Kimble said.
But the company has a long road ahead of it before it can build.
The regulatory commission is expecting an application from Progress by January 2008, at which point the proposal will have to go through a long review process.
"It's a very thorough review," said William Burton, chief of the environmental projects branch of the commission. "It will be for a safe design for public health and safety. We feel very strongly about that."
Officials said the main concerns about nuclear energy are guaranteed to be addressed early on, with community input welcome, if not explicitly asked for.
A security review and environmental impact report will be conducted in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
Roger Hannah, spokesman for the commission, said an application review yielding negative results is close to unheard of.
"It'd be like applying for a job that you're not qualified for."
Kimble said he expects Progress Energy to be granted a license within 12 months of applying.
"My guess is that the NRC will not find any reason not to approve it."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Nuclear lingo
(09/17/07 4:00am)
For many students at N.C. Central University, financial aid from the federal government is a critical lifeline.
More than 60 percent of N.C. Central students are recipients of the Federal Pell Grant, the largest direct federal-aid program that helps to offset the financial burden of low-income students.
The grant has been limited to a maximum of $4,050 annually for the past four years, but an act that passed the U.S. Congress on Sept. 7 will lift the grant ceiling.
N.C. Central students, along with thousands of others across the state and nation, are expected to benefit significantly from the College Cost Reduction Act, which promises to raise the Pell Grant to $5,400 during the next five years. Minority-serving institutions will see an additional infusion of $500 million.
"This act will certainly, over time, have a positive and profound impact on our students," N.C. Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms said.
More than three-quarters of Nelms' students receive some kind of financial aid, a phenomenon that is common at historically black colleges and universities.
"We have a mission of serving first-generation students, many of whom come from low-income families," Nelms said. "The availability of money is one aspect of providing access."
Nelms said minority colleges need more than just Pell Grants to improve the education of their students and to address problems at the state's minority-serving institutions.
"There are a number of challenges," he said. "You want the resources to make it possible for students to be here, and the resources to provide the academic support that many first-generation students need."
He spoke of resources such as tutoring, mentoring and counseling, as well as undergraduate research and internships. He said he's unsure what kind of resources N.C. Central will receive from the minority grant.
Kimrey Rhinehardt, UNC-system vice president for federal relations, said the U.S. Department of Education will allocate funds.
Regardless of how it's distributed, she said, the legislation is a breakthrough in HBCU funding.
"This is a big win for students."
Winston-Salem State University, another HBCU, also is anticipating its share of the minority grant.
"We're certainly excited," said Jonathan Martin, executive assistant to the chancellor at WSSU.
He said that fixing problems such as retention and graduation rates, which are generally lower at minority institutions, are a priority.
"What's interesting about the issue of retention is that often retention and graduation is linked to financial aid," Martin said. "A student only has so many semesters that he or she can stay on financial aid before financial aid is exhausted."
Martin said students without financial aid are at risk for dropping out or taking on jobs that distract them from their studies.
"Funding of higher education is a partnership between the state, the federal government, the student and the student's family," Nelms said. "In order for the partnership to be successful, it will have to continue. No one entity can provide all the support that's needed."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/10/07 4:00am)
The USA Patriot Act took a blow when U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero declared a highly utilized provision of the legislation unconstitutional.
The judge has stayed the effect of his Thursday ruling, giving the government time to respond to the opinion, which states that a lack of judicial oversight in warrantless national security letters is an invasion of privacy.
"These national security letters have been used to obtain access to subscriptions, billing transactions, Internet services and library records. It can be used against anyone," said Sarah Preston, legislative coordinator at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.
Updated in 2005, the original Patriot Act was passed just more than a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a means of improving the investigative abilities of police and intelligence agencies in the war against terror.
For the ACLU, which has been fighting the Patriot Act since its inception, last week's decision on Doe v. Gonzales was a victory.
"The decision says that every time one of those letters was issued, somebody's First Amendment rights were violated," Preston said.
About 143,000 national security letters were issued between 2003 and 2005.
Preston cited students as easy targets for the national security letters, in that library records could be used against them if one book is determined by the U.S. government to single someone out as a terrorist suspect.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is set to resign this month, expressed strong support for the provision in 2005, when it was up for renewal and faced similar opposition from Congress and members of the public.
"The USA Patriot Act has been an integral part of the federal government's successful prosecution of the war against terrorism," he said in 2005. "Now is not the time to relinquish some of our most effective tools in the fight."
Charissa Lloyd, chairwoman of the UNC College Republicans, said that she has not spoken to a single College Republican who supports the Patriot Act in its entirety.
"The goal of the Patriot Act is to make it easier to find terrorists, but we need to do that in course with the Constitution," Lloyd said. "Otherwise it's that we're giving up the same freedoms that the country was founded on, so it's not worth it."
Hodding Carter III, a professor of public policy at UNC, echoed Lloyd's concerns about sacrificing key freedoms.
"The Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act have elements which far overreach the necessity of the moment," Carter said, recalling his experience in the U.S. Department of State during the Cold War. "We faced extinction in the form of a nuclear stand-down. And yet we did not find it necessary to indulge in some of the things which are incorporated into the Patriot Act."
Although the decision is expected to be appealed and overturned, Lloyd said she sees it as a good first step.
"We need to see some change. It's a step in the right direction."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(08/29/07 4:00am)
For Melissa Riggins, the issue of separation of church and state was never really a problem when she was in high school.
Riggins, now president of the University Baptist Church University Ministry, remembers her public school education as religiously and culturally tolerant.
But Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, said public education is too secular and often anti-religion.
Akin's seminary hosted a two-day workshop this week to train Baptist ministers to start Christian schools.
"We want to provide alternatives," Akin said, calling for "a true religious educational free-for-all."
Although he is far from advocating teaching Genesis in biology class, Akin said he fervently supports a student's right to pray in school.
Stephanie Knott, assistant to the superintendent for community relations for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, said nothing suggests that students have left the school system for religious reasons.
"Holidays have not made a complete exodus from our buildings but are taught in the context of a survey of world religions . our students come from a myriad of religious backgrounds," Knott said.
The Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, based in Florida, was founded in the 1970s to help start private Christian schools.
Executive Director Ed Gamble, who is leading the workshop in Wake Forest, explained that these schools are not an attack on public education, but rather a response to a lack of Christian education.
"We want to take ownership of that 16,000 hours for our children and create schools that teach what Jesus taught," Gamble said.
Riggins said that, given her time in both a public and an Episcopal private school, she doesn't think that schools teach religion well.
"But even in the private school I don't feel that they ever taught us about the love of Christ," she said.
Akin said he hopes to pressure public schools into improving their curriculum, which he feels is antithetical to Christian beliefs, while Gamble aims to imbue education with the Christian world view.
"What we've discovered is that Christian people have not been taught a Christian world view," he said. "Consequently, their beliefs are sometimes just unchristian."
At the workshop, Gamble provided ministers with a curriculum that would teach "the word of God."
The curriculum would include intelligent design, evolution, U.S. religious history and a more focused abstinence program.
"I think there is a hostility toward the Judeo-Christian world view," Akin said. "When you forget that even a deist like Jefferson and Franklin were still very committed to a Judeo-Christian ethic and framework . you've got some serious revisionist history going on."
Thomas Tweed, chairman of the department of religious studies at the University, said that the N.C. guidelines that require education about different religions sometimes don't translate in the classroom.
"Teachers have not been well trained in the academic study of religion," he said.
Gamble said he would continue promoting private religious schools even if public schools began to incorporate religion in their curriculums.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(08/27/07 4:00am)
Local N.C. governments are taking on the environmental challenge issued on the international stage about a decade ago, stepping in where the federal government has yet to become involved.
Greensboro and Wake Forest joined 20 other N.C. cities last week in a commitment to uphold the Kyoto Protocol, an international measure to fight global climate change.
The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, signed by 650 cities nationwide, creates a group of "Cool Cities" committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
(07/19/07 4:00am)
DURHAM - Big Mama's Restaurant is one of the few places in West Louisville, Ky., where people can sit down to a healthy home-cooked meal.
With four grocery stores serving 80,000 people in this poverty-stricken area, it isn't the way the food is cooked that keeps people coming back to Big Mama's table; it's the kind of food that's cooked.
This restaurant is what the people who attended last week's Center for Integrating Research and Action at UNC-CH's conference would call a staple of the local food system.
The conference was held in order to find solutions to the displacement of small farmers and their markets by corporate agribusinesses.
The fatback-smothered green beans and honeyed yams served at Big Mama's are fresh off the farm. They travel only a few miles from a distribution center stocked by local farmers and manned by commissioned youth from the area. The produce then serves the people who had been feeding themselves from under-stocked convenience stores.
"There's room. If you get rid of all those people sucking up dollars and cents, farmers can make money and serve needs," said Barbara Webb, who represented Kentucky's Community Farm Alliance (CFA) at the conference.
CIRA's Collaboration on N.C. Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction hosted the conference and invited CFA and others to share ideas, experience and knowledge with a host of people committed to revitalizing the farm industry in North Carolina by bringing back local food as an integral force in the market to compete with corporate, importing entities.
"The pressure in agriculture is to get big, or to get out," said Claire Hermann, a representative of Rural Advancement Foundation International, USA, or RAFI.
Hermann further explained how, after the big tobacco buyout of 2004, North Carolina found itself in a particularly challenging situation.
"Small farms are having trouble figuring out how to make a comparable income (to tobacco) and figuring out how to stay around," she said.
The relationship between consumers and producers played a large role in the conference. Beginning a local food system necessitates locating points of connectivity between all forces in the community, such as the connection made between the needs in West Louisville at Big Mama's, and the need for a living wage.
"The challenge is getting farmers a living price, competing against highly-subsidized chains and getting food to consumers in need," said Tom Philpott, an eastern N.C. farmer.
Concerned with the idea of the independent farm becoming obsolete, Philpott focused heavily on educating consumers about the benefits to be garnered by buying local food.
"People think that food appears like magic in the grocery stores," he said.
The lack of a progressive, all-inclusive grass roots movement in N.C., like that of the CFA, was a nagging presence at the conference.
When asked what could be done in the next thirty days, people found themselves without much to say. They focused ahead on the statewide summit that CIRA hopes to host to finally bring localized food industries to fruition.
But co-coordinator of the CIRA coalition, Charles Price of the Department of Anthropology at UNC-CH, smiled as he addressed the crowd.
"Don't despair. People are taking control. There's a silent revolution out there!"
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(07/19/07 4:00am)
John Locke warned that apathy is the poison that can make a democracy go sour.
Democratic representatives in the N.C. House recognized this reality all too well when they drafted the legislation to implement one-stop voting, where eligible voters can register and vote all at once on election day, a move they hope will encourage voter turnout.
The bill was ratified July 12 and is likely to become law sometime this week as expectations are high for Gov. Mike Easley to sign the bill.
"The idea is that it would provide more opportunities to get people involved in voting when it's closer to the election," said Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Wake.
As the law stands now, registration is required 25 days in advance of an election.
Yet, Ross explains how young people, the demographic least involved in elections, get involved and motivated only days before an election when the media coverage of the race is most exciting and hyped up.
Ross said 40 percent of unregistered voters in North Carolina are between 18 and 25.
"States where there is a shorter period of time between registration and voting have a much higher turnout and particularly a much higher youth turnout," said Ross.
But the N.C. GOP is not so sure.
Republicans in the House have stood vehemently against the legislation, arguing that the bill's absence of a requirement for photo identification at registration sites opens the system up to terrorism, identity theft, illegal aliens and fraudulence in general.
"Our purpose in opposing this bill is to protect democracy. We cannot protect democracy if we have people voting who should not be voting," said Brent Woodcox, press secretary for the N.C. GOP.
Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, finds the Republican argument to be nothing more than a red herring.
While Woodcox argued that it's not very difficult to provide photo identification, such as a driver's license, Insko presented familiar cases in which people lack any form of photo ID.
"It's been shown that the photo ID would discriminate against poor people and minorities. If they don't drive, they would have less ability to get a photo ID than people with more means," said Insko.
"It would decrease the participation among the poor; those are the people we really need to have participate," she added.
Currently, photo identification is not required in any method of voter registration.
Any document providing a name and proof of residence is all that has ever been necessary. Furthermore, one-stop voters cast retrievable ballots, allowing election officials to review questionable ballots.
Director of the Orange County Board of Elections Barry Garner was not concerned about the issue of photo identification, as it's never been needed before. However, in supporting the status quo, he found himself in opposition to such changes in the voting process.
"I think we should have a deadline for voter registration. To me, they're making it too easy," said Garner.
"It hasn't surprised me that it's been such a problem," said Ross in regard to the ardent Republican disfavor.
"Virtually every time you help people exercise their rights, it's difficult to get passed."
Contact the State & National Editor stntdesk@unc.edu.
How to vote in One Stop
Go to a designated registration/polling location.
Photo ID is not necessary. Only a document confirming your name and address is required.
Visit www.sboe.state.nc.us for registration locations.
(07/12/07 4:00am)
There wasn't any food to be found in the house, and the electricity had been shut off; needless to say, the kids didn't make it to school that day.
At Mary E. Phillips High School in Raleigh, an alternative school that gives second chances to students who dropped out of their base schools or suffer from behavioral or circumstantial problems, this scenario is far from a rare phenomenon.
"When teachers work with kids from poverty ... kids are primarily left to themselves. They're the kids that will mostly drop out of school," said Christine Williams, a history teacher at Mary Phillips.
The rate of high-school dropouts in North Carolina has become a number-one priority for House Speaker Joe Hackney, as the first graduation rate came out at 68 percent for on-time graduation, with minority students falling 10 percentage points or more below majority students.
"North Carolina is 45th in the nation in terms of graduating students; it's not a pretty picture," said Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth.
Parmon is a key leader in the House Initiative on Dropout Reform, a study committee founded in 2006 by Hackney's predecessor, Jim Black. The committee has been holding public hearings across the state to learn from teachers, parents and students what can be done to reduce the dropout rate.
The initiative hopes to fund regional pilot programs based upon ideas and pre-existing programs that have been shared at the public hearings.
"One of the things that we are hearing throughout is that we've got to do more to keep students engaged," Parmon said.
"We're learning that students fall behind early and just lose interest because they never catch up," she said.
Ideas such as expanding programs which allow high school students to earn college credit, are popular with the initiative, as is the night-school option in Durham, where working students can catch up on work and get extra help.
But alternative programs aren't the only factors present in the effort to reduce the dropout rate.
Angella Dunston, the director of the Education and Law Project at the N.C. Justice Center and an advocate for the initiative, worries about the gap between communities and school systems.
"We could work together, reach more students and create more effective programs," Dunston said.
Rep. Angela Bryant, D-Halifax, an initiative member, said she feels the community isn't concerned enough about at-risk students.
"We have not agreed as a culture that we expect all children to finish high school," Bryant said.
"We just agree to write off a certain number of kids and render them invisible and irrelevant until they turn up in a negative fashion, increasing the prison population."
Apart from issues arising at the community level, Bryant, Williams, and Parmon all agreed that recent legislation may have a significant impact on academic success.
"There's so much emphasis on testing right now that the focus on teaching is not where it needs to be," said Williams.
"From a professional point of view, the dropout rate among Hispanics and blacks will be reflected in the numbers; they'll get frustrated," Williams said.
She explained how some students who do well in class don't necessarily do well on tests, and vice versa. She said without those course credits, students may not graduate on time and may be more likely to simply give up.
"The devil is in the details because the method is based upon standardized testing, and many students, particularly minority students, don't do well on standardized tests," Dunston said.
As Parmon discussed this ever-present achievement gap, she referenced the recent Supreme Court decision that found forced school integration unconstitutional.
"In spite of all we do with studies telling us what some of the problems are, we don't have the law on our side to do anything about it," she said.
And that sentiment is embodied at Mary Phillips.
In hopes that the initiative finds some workable solution, Williams questioned whether the hearings would truly bring light to the real issues facing at-risk students.
"The kids we see are not likely to have parents who will speak up."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu
(06/28/07 4:00am)
When their youngest daughter was admitted to the hospital after her lungs had failed, the Endicott family had to close their business.
It was only after their daughter was hooked up to a life support machine and the Endicotts lost their livelihood that they finally qualified for Medicaid.
With three children who suffer from cystic fibrosis and another with brain damage, the Endicotts, who earn an annual income of $58,000, couldn't afford health insurance for their children and didn't qualify for Medicaid either.
"There have been too many sacrifices made," Kimberly Endicott said. "We cannot sacrifice anymore."
More than 260,000 children in the state have no health insurance at all, leaving the doors open for frequent and expensive ER visits that cost hundreds more than a visit to a doctor, illnesses too far gone for outpatient care, and unnecessarily high rates of absence from school.
In order to combat this situation, Action for Children North Carolina proposed N.C. Kids' Care, which expands publicly subsidized children's health care to include families whose incomes fall between 200 and 300 percent of the federal poverty line.
"Children who don't get proper health care in early childhood are behind in developmental issues and don't perform well in school," said Louis Cook, the supervisor of the N.C. Family Health Resource Line and a signatory of Action for Children North Carolina's proposal.
North Carolina ranks second in the nation for declines in employer-based health coverage, and 38th in the number of uninsured children.
"North Carolina is at risk of bringing up one of the most unhealthy generations in our history," said Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, who sponsored NC Kids' Care as a top budget priority.
Similarly, Gov. Mike Easley included the program in his budget proposal, as well.
Now it is up to the Senate to make the health care coverage of 38,000 uninsured children a reality.
The proposal calls for funding to begin at $4.6 million for 2007, and then $7 million per year thereafter.
Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue, who strongly supports N.C. Kids' Care, said the program is a first step.
"It's not the end all and be all - we can't sleep until every child in North Carolina has health insurance," Perdue said.
Cook condemned the need for sacrifice that the Endicotts and thousands of other North Carolina families endure every day:
"What are you going to do?" Cook asked. "Skip one meal for a doctor's visit? You just can't do that."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.