| |
|
Students face sticker shock
UNC system, student loan rates/tuitionEditorials: Don't let it slide
Erskine Bowles, tuition, BOGEarly leader for UNC board dies
UNC system, BOG memberMagazine: UNC 'Best Value' Among Universities
Kiplinger’s college rankings
UNC-CH
is rated No. 1 in value
Kiplinger’s college rankings
Tobacco
Farmers Trying New Variety in Buyout Market
Blake Brown
A singular
place and time
College of Design, John Peden
Editorial:
Make the TVA pay
Robert I. Bruck
Plane
Makes Emergency Landing In Raleigh Field
Plane landing on NCSU campus
TCNC
Announces New Director, Secretary
Charles Tomlinson , NCSUs Center for Turfgrass Environmental
Research and Education
Crystal
Therapy
Daniel Feldheim
Tower
Power
Jayant Baliga
Perquimans
SPCA plans to trap wild cats
College of Veterinary Medicine
Permeable
Parking
New pavement design research
Magazine: UNC 'Best Value' Among Universities
Jan. 10, 2006
NBC 17.com, WRAL
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina has been rated the best value in higher education in the U.S. for the fifth straight year by Kiplinger’s magazine.
Four other North Carolina universities also were in the Top 50 nationwide in the magazine, which hit newsstands Tuesday.
North Carolina State University was ranked 28th, UNC-Wilmington came in at 32nd, Appalachian State University followed right behind at 33rd and UNC-Asheville was ranked 50th.
Kiplinger’s rankings are based on the percentage of the 2004-05 freshman class scoring 600 or higher on the verbal and math components of the SAT, admission rates, freshmen retention rates, student-faculty ratios and four- and six-year graduation rates.
UNC offers the best combination of high-quality academics and affordable costs that "has helped Chapel Hill attract one of the highest-caliber student bodies of any public institution," the magazine reported.
Along with reasonable tuition rates, Kiplinger's noted that UNC improved its overall "Best Value" standing since the last report by becoming the only institution in the nation to meet 100 percent of each student's financial needs. The national rate is about 80 percent.
Jan. 9, 2006
abc11tv.com, Winston-Salem Journal, The State (SC), The Wichita Eagle (KS), Kansas.com (KS), Akron Beacon Journal (OH), Miami Herald (FL), San Jose Mercury News, San Jose Mercury News, WCNC, WVEC.com (VA), Dateline Alabama (AL), Duluth News Tribune (MN), WRAL.com (NC), Fort Worth Star Telegram (TX), Biloxi Sun Herald, Grand Forks Herald (ND), Charlotte Observer (NC), Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC), Lexington Dispatch (NC), Centre Daily Times (PA),
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
North Carolina's shrinking ranks of tobacco farmers are placing their hopes on new competitiveness from a drop in the price of U.S. flu-cured tobacco and the state's status as a the top producer.
Max Denning, 47, a fourth-generation farmer from Benson who grows flue-cured tobacco in five counties including Johnston, Wake, and Harnett, has some advice as tobacco farmers prepare to sign contracts for this year's growing season.
For growers bold enough to keep planting leaf in the uncertain world of free-market tobacco farming, he says to get bigger, get better or get out.
"The only thing that has viability right now is tobacco, it's the only crop where you can turn a profit," Denning said. "But the only way you're going to make some money is to increase your acreage a bit."
The new tobacco economy brings the added ability to plant more leaf without restrictive quotas of the federal tobacco program, which ended last year.
That freedom should favor bigger farms in the eastern counties of the state that are able to grow enough to still turn a profit at a lower price.
Some of the difficulties include last year's spike in diesel and liquid propane prices, which increased the cost of drying flue-cured tobacco, the dominant variety in North Carolina. That cut into already thin profit margins.
Tobacco farmers also face the second year of trying to compete in a global tobacco market, now dominated by Brazil and China, without the protective cushion of a federal price support system.
It's demise saw the price of flue-cured drop from about $1.85 a pound to $1.55 or lower. Tobacco experts say this decline reflects the eliminated expense of renting quotas and land under the old tobacco program.
This decrease has made higher-quality U.S. flue-cured tobacco more competitive on the global market, where the average price is roughly $1 a pound.
Still, it means a lower profit margin. A farmer needs to plant 200 acres of tobacco, not 20 to 50.
"Used to be you could grow a family on 10 acres of tobacco, but you can't do that any more," Denning said.
The trend favors big growers in eastern North Carolina, where land is cheaper, flatter and friendlier to farm machinery, said Graham Boyd, executive vice president of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina. It's also less pressured by suburban development, he added.
Boyd predicts a steady migration of flue-cured production out of the Piedmont and into the Coastal Plain over the next five years, a move to a larger, more efficient operation that should keep the price of U.S. leaf low.
But any such migration of flue-cured tobacco to eastern counties will be mitigated by tradition and modern-day risk management, said Blake Brown, a North Carolina State University professor and the state's leading tobacco economist.
Manufacturers and merchants will still want some nutrient-rich, flue-cured tobacco from the smaller farms in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia, he said. These farms are also less vulnerable to hurricanes and other coastal storms, Brown said.
Piedmont growers are also experimenting with burley tobacco, a smaller-volume but more-lucrative tobacco variety once geographically limited to eight states under the old quota system, including Kentucky, Tennessee and western North Carolina.
Growers in the Piedmont can handle 15 to 20 acres instead of the small plots typical of western North Carolina or Kentucky, partly because it's cool enough for burley -- a valuable component of American-blend cigarettes.
With the exodus of burley farmers in Kentucky, Tennessee and other states, burley is also fetching a higher price than flue-cured -- about $1.60 a pound.
That makes burley an attractive option for David Hartman of Walnut Cove, in Stokes County.
He hopes stepping into burley farming will augment his flu-cured acreage and give him the edge his smaller western Piedmont farm needs to compete in a market that favors bigger farms in the eastern part of the state.
"It's a learning experience," said Hartman. "Now, flue-cure I can do that blindfolded. But this is something new. It's been a lot learning this year on burley."
Plane Makes Emergency Landing In Raleigh Field
Jan. 7, 2006
WRAL
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A plane had to make an emergency landing in Raleigh Friday afternoon.
The landing occurred shortly after 2 p.m. off Lake Wheeler Road on the North Carolina State University farm campus.
Officials say the single-engine plane had low oil pressure and the pilot, Michael Wells, brought the plane down for safety reasons.
The plane initally took off from RDU International and Wells was in constant contact with tower before landing.
According to reports, Wells is OK and the plane did not have any major damage to it.
UNC-CH is rated No. 1 in value
Jan. 10, 2006
News & Observer
By Jane Stancill
© Copyright 2006
UNC-Chapel Hill has been dubbed the best education value in the land among U.S. public, four-year universities by a financial magazine.
The ranking, released today by Kiplinger's Personal Finance, means UNC-CH has remained at the top position since the magazine started the ranking in 1998 -- even though tuition and fees have more than doubled for in-state students during the same period.
Still, Kiplinger's says, UNC-CH offers "the best combination of high-quality academics and affordable costs." Other North Carolina public universities on the list were N.C. State University (28), UNC-Wilmington (32), Appalachian State University (33) and UNC-Asheville (50).
The magazine considered indicators of academic quality, including SAT scores and graduation rates. Then it ranked each school based on cost and financial aid.This year at UNC-CH, North Carolinians pay about $4,600 in tuition and fees, and out-of-state students pay $18,400. Room and board add about $7,000.
Nationally, in-state students at four-year, public universities spend an average of $5,491 for tuition and fees, and $12,127 in all, counting room and board, according to the College Board.
UNC system students likely will pay more in the next academic year. The system governing board will consider tuition and fee increases in the next two months. UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser said Monday that the university's financial-aid policies have helped lessen the blow of tuition increases.
"Tuition notwithstanding, we've made it more affordable than three or even five years ago," Moeser said.
In 2004, the university started the Carolina Covenant, which guarantees a free education to the poorest students, who agree to work on campus as much as 12 hours a week. The covenant program covered about 10 percent of the freshman class this year.
Last year, the university introduced new merit scholarships to help recruit talented students. And in recent years, the legislature has set money aside for financially needy students in the UNC system.
'Gated' communities
Still, some critics say UNC-CH is increasingly elite.
Tom Mortenson, an independent analyst of higher education policy, put UNC-CH at 19th on his recent ranking of 50 public universities that he calls "gated communities of higher education." NCSU was 31st on that list.
He cited the fact that 14.5 percent of undergraduates at UNC-CH in 2003-2004 received Pell Grants, federal financial aid for poor students.
"From my perspective, this is an extremely exclusive, publicly financed gated community, and I think it's an inappropriate role for a state flagship university to play," said Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.
Because of UNC-CH's competitive admissions standards, it is generally attended by students who are born into affluence, Mortenson said. That means that taxpayers end up subsidizing the education of students who would go to college anyway, he added.
North Carolina's private universities made Mortenson's list of 50 private "gated communities," with Davidson College seventh, Wake Forest University 12th, Elon University 27th, and Duke University 46th.
Davidson officials took issue with the ranking, which identified 7.2 percent of students as Pell Grant recipients.
"That is so skewed," said Kathleen Stevenson, senior associate dean of admission and financial aid. "That sort of thing is only one measure of affordability."
Stevenson said one-third of Davidson students receive financial aid. This year, Davidson's tuition is about $28,600. Room and board bring the total cost to about $36,800.
Staff writer Jane Stancill can be reached at 956-2464 or janes@newsobserver.com.
Early leader for UNC board dies
Jan. 10, 2006
News & Observer
By Jane Stancill
© Copyright 2006
William A. Dees Jr., a Goldsboro lawyer and instrumental leader in North Carolina public higher education, died Monday at the age of 85.
Dees was the first elected chairman of the UNC Board of Governors, serving from 1973 to 1976 in the tumultuous early days of the 16-campus university system. He is remembered as a steady, intelligent leader who helped hold the system together despite fierce infighting among the campuses.
He was at the helm during debates over desegregation and the establishment of a medical school at East Carolina University.
When Dees was presented with the university's top award in 1990, one UNC official likened him to George Washington in the early days of the republic."He was a born leader," said his lifelong friend, John Jordan, a retired lawyer in Raleigh. "I think he made all the difference in the world in the success of this new system ... He just steered us through those waters."
In 1984, Dees won a national award for his achievements in higher education from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
He was a student leader as an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he also attended law school. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and received the Bronze Star for disposing of 600,000 pounds of explosives in the South Pacific.
Dees was a lifelong resident of Goldsboro, where he practiced law until late last year and specialized in trusts and estates.
He served on the local Board of Aldermen and led the Goldsboro City Board of Education for eight years in the 1960s and 1970s.
UNC President Emeritus William Friday was a close friend of Dees. The two were study partners in law school at UNC.
"He was one of those leaders who came back from World War II determined to make North Carolina a better place, and he succeeded over and over and over," Friday said. "I don't know of a more dedicated public servant."
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church at 1101 E. Ash St. in Goldsboro.
Dees was preceded in death by his first wife, Ozello Woodward Dees.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Turlington Dees of Goldsboro; son John Woodward Dees and daughter-in-law Georgia Martin Dees of Goldsboro; daughter Mahala Dees Myrick and son-in-law Michael Myrick of Greenville; daughter Alice Crabtree and son-in-law Steve Crabtree of Chapel Hill; stepson William Turlington and wife Angel of Clayton; stepson David Turlington and wife Connie of Raleigh; 11 grandchildren; and six great grandchildren.
Staff writer Jane Stancill can be reached at 956-2464 or janes@newsobserver.com
Jan. 10, 2006
Publication
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Regarding the Jan. 9 article "Pollution battle looms":
Bravo to state Attorney General Roy Cooper! After a quarter century of denial,
the egregious polluters of the Tennessee Valley Authority are being called
on the carpet. Our natural resources have been degraded and the state's biodiversity
threatened. The incidence of asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease has
doubled. The TVA, the largest emitter of sulfur and nitrogen pollution in the
country, has unequivocally harmed our state -- it's time for them to pay. Give
'em hell, Roy!
Robert I. Bruck, Ph.D.
Raleigh(The writer is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of plant pathology at N.C. State University.)
Jan. 8, 2006
Publication
By Thomas Goldsmith
© Copyright 2006
The streets around the old Peden Steel Co. warehouse ran mostly deserted after dark in 1964. Its neighbors were a casket company and a vacant roller-skating rink. But John Peden decided he could give people a reason to venture to the corner of Hargett and West, on the fringe of downtown Raleigh. Peden, an N.C. State freshman who shocked Raleigh society with his long hair and beard, saw possibilities for the building when his father moved the company out to North Boulevard. He envisioned something along the lines of the coffeehouses in Cambridge, Mass., which he had visited in prep school. He wanted a place to hang out with his Raleigh friends and new ones from NCSU's School of Design, play and listen to music and talk with others who had begun to plug into the fledgling youth movement.
For 14 tumultuous months, Peden ran the Sidetrack coffeehouse, the destination for the young and adventurous in the mid-1960s. The corner room, with its low stage and mismatched wooden chairs, meant that someone's lonesome enthusiasm for painting, or old movies, or jazz, or politics, or folk and blues, could find company and inspiration.
With music by such rising stars as John Hammond and Doc Watson, poetry readings, jazz performances, art exhibits and an intensely political atmosphere, the Sidetrack was Cup A Joe, Amazon.com, the Cat's Cradle, Lump Gallery, myspace.com and Scorsese's Bob Dylan documentary rolled into one.
The coffeehouse lasted only as long as Peden remained in Raleigh. The building that housed it is long gone, replaced by a Dillon Supply warehouse. And the Sidetrack's story is unknown to most of the last two generations, to the young people who trek to the area's bars and restaurants today. But for its denizens, now in or close to their 60s, it was a place of passage."It changed my life," said Art Rogers, who documented the Sidetrack's history with his camera before moving to California for a successful photography career. "There ought to be a plaque or a statue: 'Here sat the Sidetrack coffeehouse.' "
The first hippie
With a father who founded a steel company, presided over the Carolina Country Club and worshipped with other wealthy congregants at Christ Episcopal Church, John Hoover Browne Peden hit young adulthood in ways that made him stand out in the slow-paced Raleigh of the day.
He often walked a different road from his society peers. While other kids went to Daniels Junior High neatly but discreetly dressed, the ninth-grade John might show up in a Brooks Brothers suit and bowler, and carrying a cane, says longtime friend Harry Stewart.
As he shuttled among Eastern prep schools, Peden found a new direction. He went from liking the smooth, folky Kingston Trio to preferring the acts at Club 47 in Cambridge, where traditional singers such as Lightnin' Hopkins and new stars including Joan Baez had performed. These artists were much on Peden's mind when he came back to Raleigh in 1963.
"He was so clearly a part of what was getting ready to happen in the '60s," said his sister Melissa Peden, seven years older than John. "I refer to him as the first hippie."
He grew a beard and wore his hair long. People called him Jesus Peden. When he roared by on his BSA motorcycle, "it was like mothers' clutching their babies to their chests and crossing to the other side of the street," says Barbara "Bunny" Church, a Broughton grad and Peden's first wife.
The city, home to about 95,000 people and with just one section of the Beltline complete, had seen few public signs of the youth movements developing in San Francisco, New York and Boston. Raleigh was more like the '50s, more "Andy Griffith Show" than "Easy Rider."
Raleigh had a few outposts of hipness: Jimmy Thiem's downtown record shop, where you could find jazz, blues and folk records; Poole's music store, where they let budding pickers play some of the guitars; sessions at Del Reno's and other downtown jazz spots; the coterie of young bluegrass musicians living on Ashe Avenue; Norman Delancey's trendy clothing store on Hillsborough Street; and the old Varsity Theater, where outsiders turned up for the midnight show of "Thunder Road."
People who might visit those places, the musicians and the creative cast at the School of Design, needed a hangout of their own.
"The kind of music that we loved and were playing -- there really wasn't a venue for that," Peden, 60, said in a call from his New York City photography studio.
James M. Peden, his father and a businessman from the heart, struck a deal with John: He could use the warehouse, but would have to submit a business plan and pay rent.
"We had kind of a sweetheart deal -- we had to pay rent but it was something we could bear," John says. "We actually thought that we could make a profit."
The place to be
With this deal, Peden and his design-school and other friends went to work on the Sidetrack.
"We built it out of scraps," he said. "We figured out that you could put a seven-watt bulb inside a V8 can and it would make kind of a cool light. My sweet mother sewed us burlap curtains to cover all the windows."
After a brief shakedown period, the Sidetrack slated its formal opening for Dec. 1, 1964. Peden expected a modest turnout -- enough for "a casual game of cards," he said. The actual event reflected the excitement of having such a place in Raleigh.
The newspaper covered the opening, billing the Sidetrack as "Raleigh's first coffeehouse." So many people showed up that the fire marshals shut it down.
It was the start of a run that seems even more amazing in hindsight. Within months, the Sidetrack, conveniently located between D.C. and the Florida folk scene, went from a place where Peden and crew could hang with their girlfriends to a nightclub booking national talent. The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, with a young Maria Muldaur singing and fiddling, drove down in a Dodge van to perform at State and the Sidetrack. Kweskin and his freewheeling crew were the cream of the folk and blues world at the time, appearing on network TV as well as at festivals and clubs nationally. First-class jazzmen Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd turned out.
"Peter, Paul and Mary came and sat on the floor and talked politics all night," Peden said. "We had Len Chandler, a guy who was a big influence on Bob Dylan. Somebody gave us a piano and we had jazz night. We had poetry night."
When Bob Dylan and Joan Baez appeared at State's Reynolds Coliseum, people thought they might stop by the Sidetrack. But the closest sighting came when Harry Stewart and some friends from Ashe Avenue saw the folk-star couple emerge from the back of the Velvet Cloak hotel.
No matter. Patrons got nights of acoustic blues from John Hammond Jr., whose record-exec father discovered both Billie Holiday and Dylan. For a buck they heard the great young singer's bent-note vocals, slide guitar and harmonica. That summer, crowds went from a handful to a hundred.
Wade Smith, one of North Carolina's top defense attorneys, was 27 in the summer of '65, when his friend Wade Hargrove told him that a guitarist named Doc Watson would play the Sidetrack. Watson, who had made his first solo albums for Vanguard Records, had played the Newport Folk Festival, but at Peden's coffeehouse, people could sit almost as close as you are to this newspaper and watch Doc play.
Smith didn't really know who Watson was. He had never heard of the Sidetrack. The night was a revelation.
"I thought that it would be a fairly elegant place," he said. "It was just a little corner of a warehouse."
But the music the two Wades heard that night, that many people heard during Watson's several nights at the Sidetrack, made up for any lack of ambience.
"What word would I choose to describe how I felt?" Smith said. "Electrified, stunned at the speed of his fingers and the way he played single strings, and the clarity of the sound. Each note was like a piece of gold, so amazing.
"We stayed to the last note. When we left I remember thinking that I had never heard anything like it and that in some way I had been changed by it, that I was in an altered state of existence."
War and civil rights
Times were changing fast in the Sidetrack's day. The civil rights movement was in full swing, with significant federal legislation passed in 1964 and 1965. The Vietnam War was escalating and opposition was rising.
There was no doubt about where the Sidetrack stood. Behind the stage were the first peace and equality signs many Raleigh people had seen. From West Street, passers-by could see posters for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had been formed at Shaw University in 1960, and the Congress of Racial Equality.
Len Chandler's songs of civil rights and politics suited the diverse crowd of students, professors, artists, interracial couples and bikers.
"We had all these guys who were the motorcycle guys in Fayetteville," Peden says. "They had been called into active duty because of Vietnam. They got on these high-powered motorcycles and drove to the Sidetrack. It was not unusual to have 20-30 motorcycles out front. They were as much pacifists as we were."
Some were uncomfortable with the idea of all those outsiders gathered in one room. Rumors flew that the Pedens were embarrassed by the Sidetrack.
"I think everybody in the family was almost ... proud?" Melissa Peden said. "I don't know that we were proud because it was so strange. Every aspect of it was different."
Herb Jackson, one of Peden's childhood friends and an art student, along with painter and future wife Laura Grosch, cleaned out another room in the warehouse to showcase their art. He had held a 1964 show at the old Olivia Raney Library at Hillsborough and Salisbury streets, so there was a constituency for the Sidetrack exhibit. But the club spooked some Raleighites.
"I think there some people that were afraid to come," said Jackson, who like his wife became a nationally known painter. "[The Sidetrack] was just a little bit too far out for some people."
And some didn't appreciate its politics. In early March 1965, someone threw a smoke bomb through the Sidetrack's window. According to an N&O story, the device crashed through a plate glass window and exploded. It was, Officer M.G. Clifton said, a sulfur smoke bomb "of the kind used by the Army." No one was hurt, and the poetry, blues, bluegrass, jazz and coffee kept flowing.
Another night the Klan, or people thought to be the Klan, sent a delegation. Peden recalls that it was poetry night, which was not terribly well attended. Suddenly about 25 or 30 guys came in, looking as if "they had come to cause trouble. We had our SNCC and racial equality posters facing out. We wanted to be as confrontational as possible, and they returned the favor."
The Sidetrack crew got along with the police -- they didn't sell alcohol and helped send runaway teenagers back home. A couple of squad cars showed up, lights flashing. The visitors took the hint and headed home, according to Sidetrack veterans.
Moving on
In July '65, Peden and Bunny Church traveled north to the Newport Folk Festival. They watched the fabled performance when Dylan came out with a Stratocaster to play loud rock 'n' roll. Many fans were outraged. Peden and Church thought it was great.
Once again, Peden was ready for change.
He played in the Heavenly Blues Band, an electric combo with guitars, harmonica, bass and drums. The band got at the mood of the day, perhaps better than the soft acousticisms of the Sidetrack.
"If I had wanted to be the Kingston Trio earlier, I wanted to be Dylan or Mike Bloomfield," Peden said.
There were other reasons to move on. Business didn't flow as smoothly as it had at Peden Steel. Sidetrack regular and performer John Snakenburg recalled tension when something wasn't getting done fast enough, or well enough, or finances weren't working out.
"We were very young, and doing business was the last thing on our minds," Snakenburg said.
Peden had heard that his family was going to sell the building to Dillon Supply: "The writing was on the bare brick wall."
As near as anyone can remember, January 1966, 40 years ago this month, marked the end of the Sidetrack. Peden headed for San Francisco, hoping to join the emerging scene with Heavenly Blues Band. They hooked up with Bill Graham, who booked them a gig at the Fillmore concert hall -- the date actually made it onto one of those famous psychedelic posters. But their lead guitar player was held up and the band never materialized in California.
Peden wound up in New York as a photographer of fashion and valuable guitars. But in Raleigh, many people still remember him as the long-haired adventurer who started a place for people who cared about certain new and interesting things.
"It was so wonderful that he undertook to do the Sidetrack," Jackson says. "It was sort of a focus of energy. There was great music, great conversation."
"When it closed, I felt it was our loss," Wade Smith said. "That was a singular time."
(News researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)
Reach Thomas Goldsmith, who visited the Sidetrack several times as a young teenager, at 829-8929 or tgold@newsobserver.com.
Jan. 9, 2006
News & Observer
By Tim Simmons
© Copyright 2006
It won't take an economics
degree for college students to figure out what happened while they were away
on winter break: Student loans got more expensive.
The increased costs, scheduled to kick in July 1, are the result of a federal
budget-cutting bill approved by the Senate just before Christmas. It has attracted
limited attention from college leaders during the holidays, but education officials
said that would probably change when students return this month.
With a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Senate voted 51-50 to cut $12.7 billion from the federal government's student-aid programs. The savings, the largest in the history of the program, are part of a larger budget bill that would cut $39.7 billion from the federal budget during the next five years.
The bill requires House approval, which is expected when lawmakers return this month.Those who supported the bill, including both North Carolina senators, underscored that many of the cuts require lenders, such as banks and loan companies, to absorb costs previously paid by the government. But those who work in higher education say it's only a matter of time until lenders figure out how to pass those costs to borrowers.
"The lenders are going to have to make that money someplace, and the most obvious place is the student," said Chris Simmons, associate director of government relations for the American Council on Education, an advocacy group for U.S. colleges and universities. "So it's not clear yet how much more student aid will cost, but it's naive to think it won't cost more."
Students who borrow money after July 1 -- or those who currently have variable-rate loans -- will be offered a standard fixed rate of 6.8 percent. Many students now carry rates 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points below that level.
About two of every three students in North Carolina borrow money to pay for college.
Parents who take out loans to help pay their child's college costs -- about one in 10, according to industry estimates -- will see their interest rate rise from 7.9 percent to 8.5 percent.
How much those rate increases will ultimately cost students depends largely on how much money they borrow and how long they take to pay it back. The average debt for graduating seniors in the UNC system is about $17,500. Those who pay back the money in 10 years face an increase of a few thousand dollars at the higher rates.
Those who spread the payments over 30 years will find the higher rates costing them almost $10,000.
"I wouldn't say the average student understands those details yet," said James Hankins, a member of the NCSU student government who lobbied against the changes. "It won't become obvious until they have to sign for the next loan."
The changes will help students if market rates rise above 6.8 percent in the coming years. And the package approved by the Senate includes an additional $3.75 billion for low-income students who choose to study in the fields of science or technology.
But Brian Orol, a financial planner in Raleigh who works with families saving for college, said the costs to students far outweigh the benefits. He also agrees with education officials who say lenders are certain to pass along at least some of the cuts Congress is asking them to absorb.
"As a financial planner, I'm OK with cuts as long as there is something in return," Orol said. "But this was a bad trade for parents, students and, I think, the country as a whole. Instead of using the opportunity to increase access to higher education or close large tax loopholes, the result of all this effort is likely to be tax cuts that affect 1 percent of the population."
House Democrats are likely to do their best in this month to underscore that point, particularly if tax cuts are larger than the $39.7 billion in budget savings approved by the Senate.
Under the heading "What Might Happen in 2006," a release by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in Washington offers this scenario: "Democrats would argue that not only does the [tax-cut] bill wipe out all the savings of the $39.7 billion budget-cutting reconciliation bill, but it also adds to the deficit."
It doesn't take a political science degree to figure out that Republicans will counter that charge.
Staff writer Tim Simmons can be reached at 829-4535 or tsimmons@newsobserver.com.
Editorials: Don't let it slide
Jan. 9, 2006
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Senate leader Marc Basnight has said the state should charge tuition based on ability to pay rather than charging a flat fee as it does now. He aired that idea Dec. 28 in an interview on State Government Radio. Under such a system, the state tuition schedule would work like the state income tax schedule: Families that earn less would pay less and families that earn more would pay more.
That would be better than standing by and watching ordinary citizens get priced out of universities their tax dollars support. But sliding-scale tuition isn't as fair as it sounds. Nor will it address the long-term funding needs of the state's universities.
In the past decade, the bill for enrolling at a state university has risen as much as 70 percent at campuses such as Chapel Hill and N.C. State. The culprit? Over the past three decades education costs have increased sharply. Funding by the state legislature has not kept up -- a trend repeated across the nation as public money has shifted to skyrocketing expenses like Medicaid.
That means more and more dollars have to come out of students' pockets -- because it's the only ready source. That's unacceptable.
The UNC Board correctly froze tuition for a year. Now it has capped increases for next year at 10 percent. A tuition committee has also recommended permanent tuition guidelines that would allow universities to routinely increase tuition and fees while requiring each campus to keep student costs in the bottom quarter compared to similar public universities nationwide.
Any such policy must include specific measures for campuses to justify tuition increases -- and the right of the UNC Board to reject them. Yet enacting a cap is preferable to sliding-scale tuition.
Why? For starters, North Carolina families have already paid their share to support state universities through the state's sliding-scale income tax. That progressive system allows ample means for the state to extract extra revenue from the most productive citizens.
There's another issue, too: Tuition alone can't support the cost of public universities. One of the most important mandates facing Erskine Bowles, UNC's new president, is persuading the legislature to take a larger role in funding universities.
Here's what needs to happen.
The UNC Board should continue working toward a policy that caps tuition increases.
The legislature should take the following steps:
• Automatically fund the cost of increased enrollment.
• Tie every tuition increase by law to state-funded student aid.
• Create a reserve fund for the state's five research campuses -- including UNC Charlotte -- to help defray the higher costs of programs and salaries.
TCNC Announces New Director, Secretary
Jan. 10, 2006
Grounds Maintenance (KS)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
The Turf Council of North Carolina’s (TCNC) President Dean Baker announced that the board of directors has selected Charles Tomlinson as executive director and Michele Harrington as executive secretary. Both will officially take their posts beginning March 1, 2006.
Speaking of Charles Tomlinson, Baker said, "The board is pleased to attract an individual with a long and distinguished history of volunteer service to the organization and the turfgrass industry. Charles' experience and vision will serve the Council well in helping to meet the future needs and demands of this ever-growing industry.”
Tomlinson is a past president of TCNC and has served as treasurer since 1989. He served as a charter member and is a past chair of the Industry Advisory Board of North Carolina State University's Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education. He is a member and past president of the National Roadside Vegetation Management Association and has served on an industry advisory committee for the Transportation Research Board of The National Academy of Sciences.
Jan. 10, 2006
MIT Technology Review (MA)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Rainwater running off of a concrete or asphalt parking lot carries oil and other contaminants into storm drains, fouling waterways. New "permeable pavement" designs from North Carolina State University could make parking lots less polluting.
Construction proceeds in layers. A water-permeable polymer fabric is laid over a gravel base. Then heavy-duty interlocking plastic rings are embedded in sand layered over the fabric. More sand tops the whole structure. Rain filters down through the lot rather than running off of it; pollutants are carried into shallow ground water where microbes break them down. Researchers have been studying a city-owned lot in Kinston, NC, for two years and plan to construct another in Wilmington, NC. Bill Hunt, a North Carolina State water management engineer working on the projects, says that the design should be less prone to potholes than earlier efforts with porous asphalt. Although not durable enough for busy parking lots (think McDonald's), the new pavement could serve well in daily or long-term lots like those at airports. Hunt says other local governments, as well as homeowners, have expressed interest.
Jan. 9, 2006
MIT Technology Review (MA)
By Lisa Scanlon
© Copyright 2006
One of the reasons gene therapy has faltered so far is that it's hard to get the right genes into cell nuclei safely. Genetically modified viruses are a common but less-than-ideal vehicle for the genes because the viruses can cause a fatal immune response. Looking for a way to deliver the genetic goods harmlessly and efficiently, cancer researcher Gayle Woloschak of Northwestern University Medical School and researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are turning to nanocrystals-particles a few billionths of a meter in diameter.
The tiny particles act as "scaffolding" for the genetic material and make it possible to attach other molecules, such as peptides, that can help guide the complex directly to a cell's nucleus. In initial experiments, Woloschak and her coworkers used a small electrical stimulus to make the cell wall semipermeable, allowing the nanocrystals, which are only slightly wider than DNA, to slip through. Currently, the scientists are working on adding a navigational peptide to the scaffolding.
To make the crystals, Woloschak and her colleagues used titanium dioxide, a material that shouldn't provoke the immune system. Nanocrystals are attractive also because they can bear multiple genes, a property that could simplify therapy for diseases caused by several malfunctioning genes, Woloschak says. The nanocrystals may also provide a way to knock out unwanted genetic material, she adds. The researchers would attach to the nanoparticle a short stretch of DNA that matches a defective gene sequence; once bound with the unwanted genetic material in the cell, the nanoparticle could be broken apart by light or x-rays, thereby snipping out the problematic DNA.
Although Woloschak says the group's work is at least two years away from animal testing, nanoparticles' potential is definitely beginning to crystallize. "The hope is that nanoparticles will be able to incorporate some of the useful features of a viral vector, like the localization peptides, without the concern that they'll cause a negative immune reaction," says Daniel Feldheim, a North Carolina State University chemist who is developing gold nanoparticles that may also be enlisted in gene therapy efforts.
Perquimans SPCA plans to trap wild cats
Jan. 8, 2006
Virginian Pilot (VA)
By FRANK ROBERTS
© Copyright 2006
HERTFORD — “The Price is Right” concludes with Bob Barker’s admonishment to “have your pets spayed or neutered,” an important piece of advice that is being taken a step further by the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The group is planning to concentrate on reducing the population of feral cats in Perquimans County by trapping them and operating on them before returning them to their colonies.
“We’ve got to do that to reduce the numbers of homeless, unwanted cats,” said Keith Burnett, local SPCA president.
The feral cats, descended from lost or abandoned house pets, form colonies in the wild. Many of the ever-growing colonies live in and around Snug Harbor and Holiday Island.
It is a nationwide problem, according to a Web site maintained by the San Diego Department of Animal Control.
“Many people assume their animals will survive when they leave them behind, but contrary to popular belief, domestic animals cannot fend for themselves. U.S. animal shelters are forced to kill an estimated 15 million homeless cats and dogs annually,” the San Diego group noted. “The alternative to humane euthanasia for almost every stray is a violent end or slow painful death. Many throwaways die mercilessly outdoors from starvation, disease, abuse or as food to a predator.”
The Perquimans County SPCA wants to reduce the feral cat population by instituting a program that will trap the animals, a necessity since cats living in the wild are elusive and do not trust humans. Once captured, they will be spayed or neutered, making them unable to produce offspring. Then they will be returned to the wild.
The group members are looking for money and volunteers to help.
“We’ll return the cats to the areas where they were picked up,” said Sandy Sperry, a founding member of the local SPCA chapter. “They won’t reproduce, and we won’t be overrun with cats. Most cats will stay with their own colony, and they won’t allow other cats into their colony. The feline population will be cut drastically.”
The trap-neuter-release “is the most successful method of stabilizing and maintaining healthy feral cat colonies with the least possible cost,” according to the San Diego Department of Animal Control. They add that it is cost- effective “and provides the best life for the animals.”
Sperry, who houses four cats she rescued from an Albemarle Plantation roadside, says there is one benefit to feral cats : “They help control vermin and mice.”
She said the organization will first concentrate on cats rather than dogs.
Dogs are pack animals and can be dangerous, said Sperry, who found her dog, Brownie, when he weighed 28 pounds and was covered with fleas and ticks. “He was slowly starving to death, but he’s been a very good dog and now makes a good search-and-rescue dog.”
The SPCA’s first order of business is to raise the money it will need for the 2-foot-long, 1-foot-wide metal cages, as well as for medicine and equipment.
“Donations and volunteers will dictate the scope of what we can do. It will dictate the number of cats we can help,” Burnett said. “We need donations, donations, donations. We did collect more than $2,000 during a recent membership drive. We’d like to get enough money to buy an anesthesia machine, which we’d share with other organizations. And we need more people to commit to this work.”
Impressive but frightening figures illustrate the importance of the task.
“Pet overpopulation is a problem throughout the United States,” according to a Web site sponsored by the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force. “For every human born, 15 dogs and 45 cats are born. There aren’t enough homes for all those animals. The only way to break this chain is by altering our animals.”
The program has proved successful in Montana, where Sperry recently worked as a volunteer with a task force. “In one weekend, they did about 300 cats and dogs, mostly cats. They had a team of veterinarians. They got old towels from The Salvation Army, help from some retired nurses and volunteers who kept the animals warm, rubbing them as they came out of the anesthesia.”
Catching the cats is not difficult.
“We put food in the traps, the animal goes in, and the door closes behind it,” said Burnett, who cares for eight cats and three dogs at home. “We’ll use as many traps as we can get and, maybe, borrow some from other animal control units.”
Dr. Chris Ford, who runs the Chowan Animal Hospital in Edenton, is eager to work with the Perquimans County SPCA but warns that it is not an inexpensive proposition.
“A minimal surgery pack with economy quality instruments will run about $85. If you wanted to do 50 surgeries a day you’d need 50 packs,” he said in a letter to Burnett. “Suture material runs about $4 a pack, and anesthesia machines are about $2,000. We’d need five of those to do a high volume. Instrument tables could be homemade for about $25.”
He said that it would take three or four nights to round up 50 cats, five or six vets or students, and five anesthetists, vet students or technicians, some of whom would work in the recovery room.
Ford suggests saving money by looking into the possibility of linking up with the Campus Community Partnership through the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which has feral cat spay/neuter clinics using a mobile unit. They do some work in the Outer Banks.
Ford will volunteer his time, but the need for money is still there. It would cover overhead for the anesthetics and pay for the necessary surgical equipment as well as two technicians.
Whatever route the SPCA takes, “it will be a monumental task. We’ll start slowly and build,” Burnett said, adding, “If we get the volunteers and money we can do the job.”
For more information, e-mail spca@inteliport.com.
'Truthiness' Wins Word of the Year Award
Jan. 7-8, 2006
Editor & Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune (MO), St. Augustine Record (FL), Buffalo News, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Akron Beacon Journal (OH), Centre Daily Times (PA), Kansas City Star (MO), Sioux City Journal (IA), Leading The Charge (Australia), Herald News Daily (ND), Ely Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution (GA), Milwaukee Channel.com (WI), WISC (WI), WRAL.com (NC), WPXI.com (PA), Boston Channel.com, KTVU.com (CA), Champlain Channel.com (NY), WLTX.com (SC), KCRA.com (CA), WXii 12.com (NC), NBC 4.com (DC)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
A panel of linguists, editors and academics has decided the word that best reflects 2005 is "truthiness," defined as the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.
The American Dialect Society chose the word Friday after a runoff with terms related to Hurricane Katrina, such as "Katrinagate," the scandal erupting from the lack of planning for the monster hurricane.
Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said "truthiness" means "truthy, not facty."
"The national argument right now is, one, who's got the truth and, two, who's got the facts," he said. "Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we're not going make much progress."
Truthiness has gained particularly wide play via the new "Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.
The group of linguists, editors and academics agreed the most useful word was "podcast": a digital feed containing audio or video files for downloading to an MP3 player.
In a runoff for most creative word, "whale tail," the appearance of a thong above the waistband, beat out "muffin top," the bulge of flesh over the top of low-riding jeans.
Tom Cruise became the first public figure in the contest's 16 years to be noted for his influence on public discourse. The group coined the term "Cruiselex" to describe such expressions as "jump the couch" and "Cruisazy."
"Jump the couch," meaning to exhibit strange or frenetic behavior, won the best Tom Cruise-related word or phrase. It stems from the actor's antics in May on Oprah Winfrey's couch as he talked about his love for fiancée Katie Holmes. "Cruisazy" means to exhibit crazy behavior.
"I don't know any other public figure who has inspired so many words in a single year," said Erin McKean, editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
Other winners included "sudoku," a Japanese number puzzle voted the word most likely to succeed.
Jan. 7, 2006
MIT Technology Review (MA)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
The towers used to relay calls to cell-phone users are sprouting everywhere. But the skyrocketing demand for cell phones and for wireless Internet access overwhelms the relay stations' capacity as fast as companies can erect them. A radio-frequency transistor technology created by electrical engineer Jayant Baliga at North Carolina State University could help stem the tide by allowing towers to handle 10 times their current signal capacity.
Baliga says his new chip design will make the transistors used in relaying calls cheaper and smaller, and it will boost the power of the towers' signal amplifiers as well. That should allow wireless stations to handle more calls at once, send data faster and help avoid the interference that occasionally results in users overhearing others' conversations. Baliga has founded a company called Silicon Wireless in Raleigh, NC, to commercialize the technology and has received funding from Fairchild Semiconductor. The first chips using the transistors could be in cell towers by the end of the year.