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UNC's CEO
Erskine Bowles, UNC systemNew UNC president: Boost N.C. education
Erskine Bowles, UNC system, BOGNC's own greatest generation
Bill Dees, UNC system, Board of GovernorsWe're No. 1!
Kiplinger magazine rankingsDuke moves forward in low-income enrollment
Financial aid rankingsNCSU accounting programs crack top 25 lists
College of Management, 2005 Public Accounting Report's 24th Annual Professor SurveyIBM, N.C. State Team Up for Academic Effort Focused on Services
Steve Allen, College of Management, new curriculum initiative in Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME)
Judee
Lonnee new assistant director of admissions for NC State College of
Management
Judee Lonnee, College of Management
NC
State College of Management announces new MBA curriculum inservices
management
Steve Allen, Yannis Viniotis, Michael Devetsikioti, Harry Perros, College
of Management, new curriculum initiative in Services Sciences, Management and
Engineering (SSME)
Edwards
slipping in Democrats' '08 outlook
Emerging Issues Forum speaker
MLA Elements
of Style
Michael Adams
That's
unconstitutional
Free speech policies
Crime
Alert at N.C. State
Campus Police
NCCU
grad student plans thesis on Durham Committee
Activies/events
Top Drawer
Shawn Banks, Cooperative Extension
We could
tax the odometer, not the gas gauge
Michael Walden
Panel
studies beach building rules
Spencer Rogers, N.C. Sea Grant
Handicapped
parking often abused
NCSU research on driving and cell phone usage
Getting
it together on NC's hog waste
Hog waste disposal system
How
a library stacks up
NCSU Libraries
The
flexible rail system: trams
Transportation/rail system
WingSwept
Communications, Inc. Names Senior IT Consultant and Developer
WingSwept Communications intership program
The
next-up neighborhood
Uptown attractions, NCSU surrounding area
USA
: Daryl Bowman receives ‘Cotton Genetics Research Award’
Daryl T Bowman
Comedy
Central’s Colbert on the whole truthiness
Michael Adams
Women
of Influence
Annie Anton
Obit.:
Hubert Lowell Owen
retired physics faculty member
Obit.:
Alexander V. Allen
retired faculty of NCSUs Animal Husbandry Extension Service
NC State College of Management announces new MBA curriculum inservices management
Jan. 17, 2006
Carolina Newswire, dBusinessNews Triangle, Market Wire
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
North Carolina State University and IBM today announced a new curriculum initiative in Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME). The new academic initiative is designed to prepare graduate students for careers in the evolving multidisciplinary field of services management.
NC State, whose motto is ‘Innovation in Action,’ will be the first research university in the U.S. to launch a master’s-level curriculum initiative in SSME, which was created in collaboration with IBM through its Academic Initiative program. In the 1950s, IBM made a similar effort to help establish computer science as a new academic discipline.
The services sector develops and implements technological applications that help businesses, governments and other organizations improve what they do and tap into completely new areas. It currently represents over 75 percent of the U.S. economy and is growing rapidly as companies seize new business opportunities by building more efficient IT systems, streamlining business processes and embracing the Internet. At IBM alone, services now account for about 50 percent of the company’s revenue.
“We clearly need to develop a more systematic approach to services innovation if we are to sustain this vital new sector in the economy,” said Paul Horn, senior vice president, IBM Research. “It is critical that we work with universities to create curricula that provide students entering the workforce with skills and training needed for growing our services business.”
“SSME positions NC State as a worldwide leader in developing the skills that companies like IBM are looking for in their employees,” said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs and research at NC State’s College of Management. “Our students will now have a chance to be part of this emerging field, opening the door for them to pursue a wide variety of services-related jobs.”
The new program at NC State draws on research and teaching in the fields of computer science, computer engineering, business strategy, and management sciences to help students develop the skills required in a technology-based, services-led economy.
A team of faculty members from the management and engineering colleges has developed five new services-related courses that will be added to the MBA and Master of Science in Computer Networking (MSCN) programs.
Graduates from both programs will have master’s-level expertise in business processes, business strategy, information technology, and management of people in the workforce. Both colleges will be admitting students for the new curriculum in fall 2006. IBM will also encourage its employees to enroll in the program.
With thousands of technical researchers and business consultants around the world dedicated to services, IBM is in a good position to partner with universities to further develop SSME, providing a perfect breeding ground for testing and developing SSME theories and practices. In addition, many IBM developers and researchers have collaborations with university researchers and educators that can help drive new programs and courses and can help establish a new community around SSME.
“The College of Engineering and IBM have had a long-standing relationship that has benefited both NC State and IBM. In fact, IBM has remained one of the top employers of our graduates over the past two decades. At NC State we strive to provide the education and skills students need to compete in today’s highly competitive market place,” said Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of the College of Engineering.
Two IBM employees -- a Distinguished Engineer, one of the company’s top honors for outstanding technical achievement, and a researcher -- are serving as adjunct faculty members at NC State to help launch and develop the program there, providing direct access to IBM’s expertise in services and technology as the SSME curriculum continues to develop.
About SSME
Services experts must have a sophisticated understanding of business strategy,
business processes, information technology, and the management of individuals
and teams. Combining the strengths of computer science, computer engineering,
and management programs brings together all of these necessary components.
On the research side, while there has been progress within some traditional
academic disciplines, most of the big questions will require a broader perspective,
which the interdisciplinary SSME curriculum will provide.
Additional collaboration by corporations and universities is anticipated as SSME evolves, leading to greater integration of the varied approaches taken by these disciplines and resulting in a systematic approach to services creation, delivery and measurement.
Disciplines that are in a position to contribute include management, especially accounting, marketing, negotiations, management science, organization theory, supply chain, and technology management; engineering, including computer science, computer engineering, industrial engineering, and operations research; and the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, and psychology.
About the curriculum
The College of Management’s MBA program has added a new concentration in Services
Management. It is offering two tracks, one emphasizing the management of
relationships between service providers and their clients and the other emphasizing
service innovation. Both tracks will include an overview course on services
management, taught jointly with computer networking faculty, and a course
on consulting, taught by the management faculty.
Students in the relationship management track will take courses in business relationship management, marketing research, and organizational culture that provide essential tools for effective customer analysis and engagement management.
In the service innovation track, students will study process analysis and design, new service development, service modeling and other courses that will provide essential tools for successful innovation in the services arena. The MBA program also offers a number of other courses that are critical for success in services, including project management, privacy and security, and supply chain management.
This new concentration will be of interest to those working in or interested in the growing technology services industry. The college expects to develop Executive Programs offerings based on the new curriculum in the future.
Dr. Yannis Viniotis and Dr. Michael Devetsikiotis in the College of Engineering’s electrical and computer engineering department, and Dr. Harry Perros, in the computer science department, are leading the effort to add a concentration in Services Engineering in the MSCN program. Students in this track would take the new Services Management course (jointly taught with MBA faculty) as their required business course. They then would take three MBA courses: Management of Technology, Managing People in the High-Tech Environment, and Process Analysis and Design. The MSCN program also would launch two new technical courses: (1) Architecture and Design of IT Service Systems and (2) Design and Performance Evaluation of Network Services and Systems.
The new courses for the MBA and MSCN concentrations in services would be added between fall 2006 and fall 2007, with the first students graduating from this curriculum in spring 2008.
As part of this new program, faculty in the colleges of engineering and management
will also:
- Conduct basic and applied research relevant to services
- Support doctoral training in services
- Launch modules for executive education and lifelong learning
- Develop additional master’s-level courses to enrich the curricula
- Create a joint master’s degree program
About IBM’s Academic Initiative
IBM's Academic Initiative, launched in 2004, is an innovative program offering
a wide range of technology education benefits to meet the goals of most colleges
and universities. As a partner in this initiative, participating schools
receive free access to IBM software, free course material, training and curriculum
development and discounted hardware.
IBM is working with select schools in its Academic Initiative to achieve three key objectives:
• Training an IT workforce to fill the new kinds of jobs that are emerging at IBM and across the industry;
• Providing the right skills to the next generation of IT workers to ensure they are qualified for the jobs of tomorrow; and
• Ensuring that universities have the most current, relevant curricula that are geared to the kinds of jobs that are expected, so schools can be attractive for enrollment, funding and growth.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions
and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage
of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.
Jan. 17, 2006
LocalTechWire.com
By Rick Smith
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH – In a changing economy, we should not be surprised if 20 years or so from now, the acronym SSME might just carry the same weight as computer science.
Services Sciences, Management and Engineering degrees are getting a start here in the Triangle. And just as it did in the creation of computer science, IBM is playing a role in the launch of SSME programs.
North Carolina State University announced on Monday plans to launch a master’s level program in SSME, touting itself as the first research university in the U.S. to do so. IBM is helping launch the program as part of its Academic Initiative, including the providing of two adjunct faculty members.
The goal is to capitalize on the shift taking place in the U.S. economy to the services sector. IBM itself acknowledges that half its revenues now come from services.
“We are really happy that NCSU is adding content in services,” said Paul Maglio, senior manager for services systems research at IBM who talked with State officials about the initiative. “They are listening to the needs that industry has.”
NCSU faculty from its management and engineering colleges have developed five courses related to services. Students will be accepted into the program this fall.
"SSME positions NC State as a worldwide leader in developing the skills that companies like IBM are looking for in their employees," said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs and research at NC State's College of Management, in a statement. "Our students will now have a chance to be part of this emerging field, opening the door for them to pursue a wide variety of services-related jobs."
Need for Workers
“We are developing an integrated discipline around services,” IBM’s Maglio told WRAL Local Tech Wire.
IBM has a selfish motivation as part of the program – its need for well-trained workers.
“Over the last 20 years IBM has moved from a hardware business to half of its revenue coming from IBM Global Services,” Maglio said. “The issue we have is we can’t hire into services people who have experience from day one like we can in computer sciences.”
IBM is one of the biggest hirers of current NCSU graduates. Maglio added, “We would really like to continue that” with SSME graduates.
Alan Brown, one of IBM’s “Distinguished Engineers”, will serve as an adjunct professor with the College of Engineering. Tony O’Driscoll of IBM will serve as an adjunct professor with the NCSU business school.
The new NCSU courses will focus on:
Business processes
Business strategy
Information technology
Management of people in the workforce
According to Maglio, the emphasis on people is crucial.
“Services tend to be around people, which is what makes it interesting,” he explained. Working with companies on performance, transformation, outsourcing and other issues “is not just information technology.”
An SSME graduate apparently will be a hot commodity when the first graduates join the workforce in 2008.
“When we take people with bachelor’s or master’s degrees, it takes years to grow all the capabilities we need,” Maglio said. “The hope is we can train (SSME) more from the beginning.”
IBM launched its Academic Initiative in 2004 in an attempt to improve education and training across the U.S. Big Blue offers a variety of discounts, services and support, such as the two adjunct professors at NCSU. And SSME programs will be a point of emphasis, Maglio said.
“Fifty years ago, there was no such thing as computer since, just some computers,” he recalled. “At some point people got together and said we need to focus on this new ‘thing’ – not just how it works but to develop a better understanding about it means.”
The same process seems to be at work for Services Sciences, Management and Engineering.
NCSU accounting programs crack top 25 lists
Jan. 17, 2006
Raleigh Triangle Business Journal
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
North Carolina State University's accounting programs have made their way onto the 2005 Public Accounting Report's 24th Annual Professor Survey for the first time.
The graduate and undergraduate accounting programs in N.C. State's College of Management ranked 23rd and 24th on the list, respectively.
The Master of Accounting program at N.C. State tied with Wake Forest University for 23rd place. The university's undergraduate accounting program tied for the 24th position with Baylor University and Florida State University.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill maintained its rank of seventh in both the graduate and doctoral categories in the 2005 survey.
The Annual Professor Survey asks accounting professors and department heads to rank the top undergraduate, graduate and doctoral accounting programs that they feel are the most successful in producing graduates capable of attaining partner status in accounting firms.
N.C. State's College of Management was established in 1992. The undergraduate accounting program has about 440 students, compared to about 60 in the Master in Accounting program.
Judee Lonnee new assistant director of admissions for NC State College of Management
Jan. 17, 2006
Carolina Newswire
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Judee Lonnee has joined the North Carolina State University’s College of Management as assistant director of admissions for the NC State MBA, focusing on the part-time program. She comes to the position with more than 30 years’ experience in career management and leadership development, in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors.
Most recently, Lonnee was senior vice president of career transition services with Lee Hecht and Harrison, a global provider of career management services. Previously, she had her own firm, Judee Lonnee and Associates, a leadership and board development company based in Michigan.
She also worked for 22 years with the Sisters of Mercy Community Health Care System in Farmington Hills, Michigan, serving as chief operations officer for her last 10 years there.
The NC State MBA program includes part-time and full-time program options, with a selection of specialty concentrations that address contemporary issues in business, including technology and innovation management. The College of Management also offers graduate programs in accounting and economics, and undergraduate programs in accounting, business management and economics. Read more about the NC State MBA online at mba.ncsu.edu.
Jan. 13, 2006
The Conservative Voice
By Malcolm A. Kline
© Copyright 2006
Millions of college students consult the MLA Stylebook when writing term papers,
but the group that publishes it, the Modern Language Association, devotes precious
little time to elements of style at its annual meeting.
“Despite our name, there are very few panels on language at the MLA [convention],”
Professor Anne L. Curzan said at the association’s yearly meeting in Washington,
D. C. Dr. Curzan is an associate professor in the English Department at the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
The panel on which Dr. Curzan spoke was itself markedly dismissive of the concerns of critics who fear a deterioration of literacy and grammar. Rather, panelists and the faculty members in the audience who crowded the suite and the Marriott here where the panel convened expressed frustration at being unable to counter the influence of language critics in the popular press.
Unlike the commercial about Las Vegas, what happens at the MLA conventions does not stay at the MLA conventions. The MLA is the nerve center for just about every English Department at every college and university in the country.
Most of those institutions of higher learning are represented at the MLA’s annual gatherings, either in the affiliations of the speakers on the dais or on the name tags of the professors and Ph.D. candidates in attendance. They openly discuss strategies for achieving their personal and collective goals at these summits.
Michael P. Adams, a visiting English professor at North Carolina State University delivered a well-received attack on Barbara Wallraff’s “Word Court” column in The Atlantic Monthly. For her part, Dr. Curzan dissected Eats, Shoots &Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss.
Punctuation itself is not an ascertainable fact, like mountains,” Dr. Curzan insists. “Creating this kind of insecurity in people is not helpful.”
“There are still victims of these attacks.”
Dr. Curzan is the author, or co-author, of First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate
Student’s Guide to Teaching and Gender Shifts in the History of English as
well as co-editor of Studies of the English Language II: Unfolding Conversations.
“Language is made by people,” Dr. Curzan says. “People create language.”
“Language in the form of our everyday conversation has no punctuation.” She did not explain how court stenographers and transcription services function in this punctuation-free world.
Academics have to contend with criticism from forces outside of academia, Dr. Adams lamented, “as a result of our capitalist system.”
“At The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Wallraff’s rise coincided with the publication of articles such as Christina Hoff Sommers’ ‘Girls Rule,’” Dr. Adams noted. “Forget what you heard,” the professor said dismissively. “It’s really boys who are the victims.”
“Never mind what you heard about women.” In the course of this riff, Dr. Adams did not offer one piece of evidence to counter the reams of data Sommers offers in her speeches, articles and books.
When a member of the audience asked why the professoriat “can’t get into The Atlantic Monthly,” Dr. Curzan answered, “We don’t have a voice with the public.”
“How do we get a public voice?,” Dr. Curzan asked rhetorically. “We’re seen as liberal relativists.”
A few minutes later, Dr. Curzan outlined her own pedagogic approach. “I tell my students what is expected of them but I don’t make it a question of right or wrong,” Dr. Curzan explained. “I don’t say, ‘Three errors per page and your grade goes down.’”
“I will just circle something that is not in standard written English but I won’t take points off for it,” Dr. Curzan said. “I won’t get judgmental about it.” Dr. Curzan’s address to the MLA was entitled, “Selling Grammar to the Public.” She may want to pitch it to her students first.
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
Jan. 15, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Two groups that often criticize the University of North Carolina system said in a report last week that most UNC campuses have policies that restrict free speech and violate the Constitution. Here are excerpts from what the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said about Triangle campuses.
N.C. CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
NCCU's Guide to On-Campus Living provides that "[s]tatements of intolerance and/or harassment due to race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, or sexual preference may be subject to disciplinary action." This policy is unconstitutionally overbroad because it prohibits a great deal of constitutionally protected speech.
A prohibition on "statements of intolerance" is also unduly vague since the university does not define what constitutes a "statement of intolerance." Would a student's vocal opposition to proselytizing on campus be a "statement of intolerance" due to religion since some religions require their members to proselytize? This student's opinion is unquestionably protected speech.
However, because it is difficult to know what is prohibited by this policy, students and faculty will likely censor protected speech themselves in order to avoid punishment.
NCCU prohibits "public profanity," in direct violation of established Supreme Court precedent. ... NCCU also prohibits employees and students from using the university computer network to "download offensive or derogatory material from the Internet." This is unconstitutionally overbroad. Although this policy clearly covers hardcore pornography, which the university can legitimately regulate, it also bans a great deal of constitutionally protected speech. As courts have held in cases too numerous to list, the state cannot ban communication simply because someone finds it offensive or derogatory.
N.C. STATE UNIVERSITY
NCSU's policies are, for the most part, consistent with federal anti-harassment law and thus the First Amendment. It maintains one policy, however, that could too easily be used to restrict protected speech.
NCSU's racial harassment policy provides that "[r]acial bias or harassment is a form of race discrimination in violation of federal and state law and NCSU policy, and it will not be tolerated."
The university's definition of racial harassment is acceptable; it provides that racial and other harassment "consists of unwelcome conduct when: 1. such conduct has the effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance, or 2. such conduct has the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working or learning environment." On the other hand, the prohibition on "racial bias" could be used to suppress protected speech if the university applied it to expression as well as to discriminatory actions. Leaving this term undefined makes this policy too susceptible to abuse by overzealous administrators.
UNC-CHAPEL HILL
At first blush, UNC-CH appears to maintain a permissible sexual harassment policy, which provides that sexual conduct constitutes sexual harassment when "such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment."
Yet, UNC-CH goes on to provide "examples of sexual harassment" that include, among other things, "sexually explicit statements or questions;" "sexually explicit jokes or anecdotes;" "remarks about sexual activity;" and "sexually explicit e-mails, away messages, voice mails." This policy is unconstitutionally overbroad. By stating that these examples are sexual harassment, UNC-CH explicitly bans constitutionally protected speech, since the state cannot ban sexually explicit expression unless it meets the legal definition of obscenity or harassment.
UNC-CH's network acceptable-use policy provides that "users shall not harass or stalk others, post, transmit, or originate any unlawful, threatening, abusive, fraudulent, hateful, defamatory, obscene, or pornographic communication" over UNC computers. This is a textbook example of overbreadth. The policy legitimately regulates a number of types of communication, including harassment, fraud and other illegal activities, defamation, and obscenity. But mixed in with these legitimate regulations are unconstitutional prohibitions on "abusive" and "hateful" communications. "Abusive" or "hateful" communications cannot be regulated unless they rise to the level of physical threats, fighting words, or actual harassment. These provisions are plainly unconstitutional.
Jan. 13, 2006
abc11tv.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH - Police are investigating the robbery of a student on the N.C. State University campus.
Police say the student was leaving the Reynolds Coliseum tunnel around 3 a.m. Friday. That's when a man asked the student for directions. A second man appeared with a gun and demanded the student's wallet.
Police are still searching for the suspects. Officials are sending e-mails to students to explain what happened.
NCCU grad student plans thesis on Durham Committee
Jan. 13, 2006
Durham Herald Sun
By Paul Bonner
© Copyright 2006
DURHAM -- After winning a national history essay award, N.C. Central University graduate student Brandon Winford is looking to chronicle the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.
Winford in October was awarded the Carter G. Woodson Essay Contest sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, at its 90th annual convention in Buffalo, N.Y.
A native and resident of Mooresville, Winford is in his first of two years in NCCU's master's degree program in history.
His essay, "Black Intellectuals, White Dominance and the Black Community," focused on W.E.B. DuBois.
"Because he was an academic who did scholarly work; he was an activist and a writer, a visionary" Winford said, when asked about his interest in DuBois.
Woodson, for whom the award was named, is considered the father of black history because of his efforts to raise the prominence of study of black Americans in history. He originated the idea of observing an annual black history week, and later, month.
He lived from 1875 to 1950 and was educated at Berea College in Kentucky and obtained advanced degrees at the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of Chicago and Harvard University. He founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915 and began promoting a black history week in the mid-1920s.
Professors of a number of universities including NCCU were at the conference in New York, Winford said.
"Our school was well-represented," he said.
Winford also works as a tour guide and site interpreter at the Stagville State Historic Site, the former Bennehan-Cameron plantation in northern Durham County. The site includes well-preserved slave quarters, and Winford said he helps visiting school groups understand slave life on the plantation.
The picture is complicated by slave narratives whose historical reliability may be clouded by the circumstances in which they were gathered -- with former slaves sometimes telling their white interviewers what they thought the interviewers wanted to hear, out of a lifelong fear of the consequences of candor.
Those are the kind of tools of analyzing the historical record Winford said NCCU's history faculty have taught him. Faculty members encouraged him to submit the essay.
"I was very excited," to win the award, which included a $500 prize, Winford said.
He is planning research and a master's thesis on the Durham Committee, which recently marked 70 years of organizing the city's black residents politically and promoting better and more equal education, housing and other needs.
He also will present a paper next month at N.C. State University about Luther P. Jackson, a noted historian at what now is Virginia Tech.
Jan. 14, 2006
News & Observer
By Weta Ray Clark
© Copyright 2006
Higher learning
Classes on propagation are coming up at Lakeside Gardens at 7020 Penny Road
in Raleigh. "Making More Houseplants" is being offered Jan. 21 and
26 for $35. "Winter Propagation" will be held on Jan. 28 for $38.
The Jan. 21 class will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. On Jan. 26, the
class will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. In addition to learning how to propagate
plants, participants will learn how to make special plant containers. Free
soil sample analysis materials and instructions on how to collect a good soil
sample also will be handed out. In the Jan. 28 class, participants will be
able to select plants from Lakeside Gardens properties to propagate. Registration
is a must; call 851-0066. The fee covers materials and refreshments.
Tip of the week
Colors and textures commonly found in nature are the perfect complement to any kitchen with earthy connections. Sage green, sunny yellow and cattail brown are natural companions, as are sky blue and slate gray.
Worth the trip
Serious antique junkies will trek to the Big Apple Jan. 20-29 for the 52nd Annual Winter Antiques Show. They will find all kinds of old things -- from the odd to the historically impressive -- at the Seventh Regiment Armory at 67th Street and Park Avenue. This year's event will feature 74 renowned experts in American, English, European and Asian fine and decorative arts. A highlight of the show is The Loan Exhibition: George Washington's Mount Vernon, which features many rarely seen items from the Founding Father's legendary Virginia estate, including the original Dove of Peace weathervane. Show hours will be from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is $20.
Too mulch information
Shawn Banks, consumer horticulture agent at N.C. State University's Cooperative Extension in Johnston County shares these valuable tidbits in a recent issue of "The Gardener's Dirt" newsletter put out by the Johnston extension office:
* This is for those Christmas stragglers just now getting their cut holiday tree down. Put it to use! Cut the branches and lay them over perennials to protect them from the cold. Shred small branches to make mulch.
* Mulch shrubs, trees, perennials, and herbs after the first killing frost for winter protection. Apply a layer 3 inches deep. This is an excellent time to mulch because most perennials are dormant and it's easy to get a wheelbarrow into the garden. Mulch comparisons and general info: www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-608.html.
* Want to know how much mulch you need to buy to cover your area? Check out 'Mulch Math' at http://hort.ufl.edu/fyn/maximize-mulch.htm.
* Want to reduce the amount of decorative mulch? Apply a 2-inch layer of chopped up leaves and cover with a 1-inch layer of decorative mulch
Handicapped parking often abused
Jan. 14, 2006
Fayetteville Online
By Catherine Pritchard
© Copyright 2006
Have you ever parked in a handicapped space when there was nothing wrong with
you physically?
Maybe it was the only open place in the parking lot and, hey, you were just going to be a minute.
Or maybe there were zillions of open places, many of them right near the door, so, c’mon, where was the real harm?
Or maybe you were in Mom’s car — without Mom, but with her handicapped parking placard dangling conveniently from the rearview, so ....
So ... stop it. If you didn’t have a legal permit, you were breaking the law. If you were using someone else’s permit for your convenience, you were breaking a societal trust. Either way, not cool.
Brenda Johnson knows. Johnson has osteoporosis and degenerative joint disease and a placard in her car indicating that she can legally park in handicapped spaces.
So she notices when those spaces are occupied by people who look perfectly able-bodied and who lack the legal permits.
“A lot of people do that,” said Johnson as she slowly loaded groceries into her Volkswagen outside the Wal-Mart on Skibo Road. “It infuriates you because you wish you had the physical ability that they do.”
It’s against state law and punishable by a $250 fine if you park in a properly marked handicapped space without the proper permit — an up-to-date placard or license plate.
Folks who spot violators can report them to the police, who’ll come to the scene if and when they can. An officer has to see the violation before he (or she) can write a ticket.
Sometimes the situation doesn’t merit a ticket. The driver might have forgotten to hang his placard on the rearview mirror.
Or, though well-intentioned, the handicapped space might not meet the letter of the law — that is, it must be marked with pavement markings as well as with an official N.C. Department of Transportation sign noting the $250 fine.
You may be able to get away with it legally — but not ethically — if you park without a permit in a handicapped space that doesn’t have all those markings.
Frank Novotny, who is disabled, said he sees violations all the time.
I saw a couple myself during a recent prowl through the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Skibo Road.
Most of the cars and trucks in the parking lot’s handicapped spaces had the proper placard or license plate.
But a wood-paneled van in one space lacked a permit, though it was covered with support-the-troops magnets and it bore a Fort Bragg pass.
Elsewhere in the lot, I saw a man and a woman, both apparently able-bodied, both puffing on cigarettes, walk up to a blue Buick parked in a handicapped space without benefit of a placard or license plate.
Before I could find a parking space so I could ask them why they’d parked there, they were gone. But not forgotten.
A recent study at N.C. State University found that drivers aren’t as aware of what’s going on around them on the road when they’re talking on their cell phones.
Big surprise, huh?
The study found a trend toward “worse headway maintenance” — the distance between vehicles — and worse lane deviation when drivers were on the phone.
I wondered at this the other day as I waited at a red light on Robeson Street and watched a huge truck turn left onto the street off the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway. As the truck passed within a few feet of my car, I saw its driver navigating the turn with one hand, holding his cell phone to his ear with the other.
But he made it and kept on trucking.
Getting it together on NC's hog waste
Jan. 14, 2006
News & Observer
By Chuck Stokes and Daniel Whittle
© Copyright 2006
Five years ago, a partnership between hog farmers and environmentalists may have seemed as unlikely as sprouts on a BBQ sandwich. Today, members of our two groups are working toward a common goal: making hog production in North Carolina profitable and clean.
The partnership is timely. Researchers at N.C. State University have spent five years studying new and better ways to manage hog waste. This month they will release a report that is expected to identify five systems that meet improved air and water quality standards.
The findings provide a logical starting point for turning academic research into on-the-ground reality, and symbolize the significant progress that has been made in the collective thinking about hog farms.
Large-scale hog farming in the state is relatively new. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, raising hogs on contract offered a reliable income to farmers and allowed many, including the Stokes family, to keep their farms. In just a few short years, North Carolina had become the second largest producer in the country.
As farmers focused on growing their new operations, concerns grew about the environmental effects of hog farming. The rupture of a lagoon at Oceanview Farms in 1995, among other factors, led to a moratorium on new hog farms in 1997. In 1999, when Hurricane Floyd drenched Eastern North Carolina with 54 inches of rain, many farmers were successful in pumping out the flood waters in a responsible manner, but others were not.
Adding to the water pollution concerns, in the late 1990s scientists recognized that the release of ammonia nitrogen from barns and lagoons raises additional challenges. And odor from hog barns and sprayfields has been a continuing source of friction between farmers and neighbors.
All the while, the moratorium, although preventing new construction, did little to reduce animosity between the pork industry and environmental and community groups. And even less progress was being made toward finding solutions.
• • •
In 2000, North Carolina reached a turning point when Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms reached an agreement with then-Attorney General Mike Easley to spend over $17 million to research treatment alternatives. With support from environmental groups, Frontline Farmers, an association of contract hog farmers, soon joined the process to ensure that farmers were directly involved in the search for cleaner waste treatments.
Involving farmers has paid off. Once Frontline had a seat at the table, several of its members volunteered to test new technologies on their farms. With the help of Sustainable North Carolina and other groups, Frontline received a grant to put one of the alternative waste systems on the ground at Little Creek Hog Farms. The participation of farmers in the process gave all stakeholders a better appreciation of each other and helped break down barriers that had prevented the groups from working together.
Over time many farmers began to realize that the environmentalists involved in the process are not out to put them out of business, and environmentalists began to see that some farmers are ready to move beyond lagoons to cleaner waste systems. Now that the technology research is nearing completion, those farmers and environmentalists are committed to determining not whether but how to put cleaner technologies on the ground efficiently and affordably.
• • •
We cannot be intimidated by the current estimated costs of new technologies. Many factors will help drive down the price. Research has given technology providers a clear understanding of acceptable standards, which will help them more efficiently meet those targets. History also has shown that the cost of pollution controls quickly declines as engineers learn more about the systems and as economies of scale are realized.
New markets for hog waste byproducts will be developed, which will further reduce costs, and soon farmers may even receive credits -- and therefore money -- for capturing greenhouse gases that fuel the discussion over global warming. And, finally, contributions from major pork companies, federal farm bill programs and other state and federal financial incentives can help make conversion affordable for farmers.
Hog farmers and environmentalists now know that when they stop pointing fingers and work together, real progress can be made. But getting cleaner technologies on the ground won't happen at the flip of a switch. Leadership is needed now to bring farmers, environmentalists, businesses and policymakers together to develop a cooperative plan for moving research to reality.
We call upon Governor Easley, Attorney General Roy Cooper and lawmakers to take the lead in this effort now. We cannot succeed without their leadership.
Jan. 14, 2006
News & Observer
By Rob Christensen
© Copyright 2006
Bill Dees passed away last week - a smart, tough, small-town lawyer to whom people always gave the hardest tasks
Disposing of unexploded bombs during World War II? No problem. Integrating Goldsboro city schools? Piece of cake. Heading the fledgling UNC Board of Governors in the early '70s? Give the job to Bill.
Dees was still practicing law at age 85, carrying an oxygen canister to help with his emphysema, when he died. Near the end, he knew he wasn't going to beat the record of his father, who practiced law until 92.
It's been nearly 60 years since Dees was part of the most famous law school study group the University of North Carolina has ever produced.
Most nights, a group of World War II veterans, many of them fresh from Europe and the South Pacific, would meet at the Pittsboro Road house of Bill Aycock to pore over law books together, testing each other's knowledge and dividing up the work.
For the next generation the University of North Carolina system -- the state's crown jewel -- would be in the hands of the Pittsboro Road gang.
Aycock would become a law professor and chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill during the 1950s and early '60s. Bill Friday would become president of the UNC system for 30 years. Dickson Phillips would become dean of the UNC law school and later a judge on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Dees would become the first chairman of the UNC Board of Governors, the governing body for the 16-campus system. John Jordan would succeed him.
This was a generation toughened by the Depression and the war. Many were also influenced by Frank Porter Graham, the charismatic UNC president who inculcated the values of public service in the young men and women who passed through Chapel Hill.
The group's civic involvement "reflects that this is the generation that came back from the war," said Jordan, a retired Raleigh attorney and former state senator. "They were all determined to make things better."
North Carolina may be on its way to becoming a mega-state. But through much of its history, it seemed a much smaller place.
The 1940s law school group was one of several power groupings.
In Monroe, there was Jesse Helms' high school band in the 1930s. That group included a future admiral, a couple of business tycoons, and a Senate and a gubernatorial candidate who was the father of current UNC system President Erskine Bowles.
Then there was the farm boy/politician clique at N.C. State University in the late 1950s and early '60s. The group included four-term Gov. Jim Hunt, two state legislators who ran for governor, the current state revenue secretary, a state Supreme Court justice and another state senator who also founded a pork empire.
The UNC law school group would remain lifelong friends and allies.
When Dees took over as chairman of the newly formed 16-campus UNC system, the political infighting was savage, Jordan recalls. But Dees, a natural leader, handled it with his usual calm and good sense. After all, once you've disarmed Luftwaffe care packages, what is a college political spat?
Rob Christensen can be reached at 829-4532 or robc@newsobserver.com.
Edwards slipping in Democrats' '08 outlook
Jan. 17, 2006
Charlotte Observer, NCrumors.com,
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Ex-Sen. John Edwards has slipped a notch in the latest poll of Democratic insiders ranking potential candidates' chances of winning the party's 2008 presidential nomination.
The Tar Heel Democrat dropped from second to third in the semi-annual survey by Washington-based National Journal.
The new runner-up: Ex-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who is clearly the flavor of the month among Dem operatives.
"He is the Southern alternative," opined one of the insiders, "as well as the strongest moderate alternative."
That's what they used to say about Edwards.
Even more stinging: Warner has been invited to N.C. State University -- Edwards' alma mater! -- to give the Feb. 7 keynote at the well-attended Emerging Issues Forum.
Edwards can take solace in the latest Gallup Poll, where he and his former running mate, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tied for second place among registered Democrats, with 14 percent.
The red-state Warner, now a relative unknown among the masses, got just 3 percent.
Jan. 17, 2006
News & Observer
By G.D. Gearino
© Copyright 2006
The good news: The newly remodeled Cameron Village Regional Library is gorgeous. It's airy, smartly designed and flooded with natural light.
The better news: My secret time-killing spot -- the library's magazine area, which I frequently visit to do, uh, "research" -- now occupies some prime, second-story real estate, complete with a view.
The take-it-with-a-resigned-shrug-of-the-shoulders news: It's unlikely that there will ever be a huge, main public library in downtown Raleigh.
If a big, downtown library is important to you, the remodeled Cameron Village branch is as good as it's going to get. It may not be a temple of books along the lines of the New York Public Library, but it's substantial. The Cameron Village facility, which reopens Saturday, is by far the largest branch in the Wake County Library system. It has about 145,000 books and it attracts the lion's share of people who use the system's public computers. It's full of blond wood furniture, it has meeting space galore and there's a nifty glass-walled elevator in the lobby. (Great for getting to the second floor, not so great as a love venue.)
Despite its glories, the library is -- how do I say this politely? -- a reflection of popular tastes. As library supervisor Dale Cousins points out, patrons ask for children's books and audiobooks. They like mysteries and thrillers. So they get those things.
"What we've done is put libraries where the people are, and responded to what people say they want," Cousins says.
What patrons don't clamor for is a big downtown branch with a million volumes, a place designed for research. So they're not getting one.
I can't fault library officials them for that. It's just that the absence of a serious, research-oriented public library in the state's capital seems to say something. Maybe not something specifically about Raleigh, but something about the direction of our culture. The accumulation of knowledge -- the literal gathering in a public location of the things mankind has learned about itself and the world -- is an important undertaking. The Library of Congress has 130 million items: books, manuscripts, photos, recordings, maps, etc. But shouldn't every community have something like it?
Yeah -- unless a community doesn't much want it.
I know, I know. I'm just a half-step away from old-codger status. Next thing you know I'll be ranting about how the phrase "happy holidays" will destroy western civilization. Still, I felt better about things after talking with Cousins for a while.
We agreed that technology has changed many facets of life, among them the job of retrieving information. If fewer people need a library to look things up, it's because it often can be done via the Internet. That's why the remodeled Cameron Village branch has 128 computers and wireless Internet access. You still go the library to do research. You just use a computer instead of wandering the stacks.
Also, there's already a huge research library in Raleigh, at N.C. State University, just a mile or so from downtown. Ditto for Chapel Hill and Durham. It would be tough persuading taxpayers to pay for another facility that duplicates what's available within an easy drive -- especially when $4 million has just been spent on the Cameron Village branch.
Good thing it's gorgeous. The book buck stops there.
Columnist G.D. Gearino can be reached at 829-4802 or dang@newsobserver.com.
Jan. 17, 2006
News & Observer
By Bruce Mamel
© Copyright 2006
Raleigh has a Downtown, and recently the Chamber of Commerce discovered "Midtown" in the quadrant of Creedmoor Road to the west, Millbrook to the north, Capital Boulevard to the east and Wade Avenue to the south.
Considering the frenzy to grab labels and thus "brand" a person, place or thing for marketing purposes, I want claim my part of the city as "Uptown."
Uptown's boundaries are essentially the boundaries of City Council District D on the south side of the city: Interstate 40 to the south and west, Wade Avenue to the north and South Saunders Street to the east.
Lest you think that "uptown" implies "north," consider that in Minneapolis the "uptown" is about 30 blocks south of downtown. I won't deny that "midtown Manhattan" exists, but my old American Heritage dictionary defines both downtown and uptown, and midtown is nowhere to be found. Furthermore, downtown and uptown have no geographical reference other than "up," and "down," which are merely constructs for those of us not living in Australia.
If you want to say that Midtown Raleigh is halfway between Downtown and what we all refer to as "North Raleigh," fine, but nobody is ever going to call the intersection of Strickland and Falls of the Neuse "uptown." Capital Boulevard and U.S. 70 west of Crabtree can wrangle over who gets the Miracle Mile moniker. However, if we travel west from downtown, straight into Uptown, the far boundary becomes Cary, and the transition from urban to suburban is apparent.
So what does Uptown have to offer? Obviously, N.C. State University dominates the area. We also have Meredith College and St. Mary's. This means not only a surfeit of intellectual capital, but the area is an exporter of knowledge and skills. If there is a hub for the creative class in town, this is it.
The infrastructure is sound, and road interconnectivity through the area is excellent. Even with the State Fair and Carter-Finley Stadium full of people, folks can traverse the area with relative ease. Bus lines offer a mass transit option. Lake Johnson, Pullen Park, Fletcher Park and the greenway system offer outdoor amenities, and Lake Wheeler is nearby. The Raleigh Little Theater has provided first-rate entertainment for 70 years.
Looking for a place where the hip slip to sip? Glenwood South has it all: restaurants, clubs and most importantly, walkability. There is no hotter part of town on any given night of the week. Hillsborough Street is slated for a facelift and the restaurants there draw a steady clientele. Downtown nightlife is right next door.
If you were a real estate agent looking to find neighborhoods with spacious half-acre lots, solid brick ranch-style architecture, easily remodeled homes still below market in cost, this is where you'll find them. Five Points might be the stomping grounds of the wealthy, but the long swath of neighborhoods sandwiched between Wade Avenue and Hillsborough from Downtown to Meredith College is as pretty and exclusive as any in town and getting more so.
Most of Uptown is inside the Beltline. In terms of economic development, the area is ripe. With the help of a consultant, business owners, citizens and city staff have been formulating the Southwest Update, a long-term plan for the economic revitalization of southwest Raleigh. With Downtown taking off, the area adjacent to Uptown between South Saunders and Wilmington is positioned for renewal. Regardless what happens with the Triangle Transit Authority's regional rail project, Uptown has four projected train stops and thus prime development opportunities around them. And the crown jewel will be the Dorothea Dix Park.
Finally, location, location, location. The farther west you move in Uptown, the closer you get to what city staffers once described as the geographical center of the region. Everything is about five to 15 minutes from home. I am halfway between downtown and the airport. I am surrounded by about 15 grocery stores and over 60 movie screens. Umstead Park and the N.C. Museum of Art are minutes away. Cary is my next-door neighbor with all it has to offer, and if I feel like shopping, Cary Town Center, Crossroads, Cameron Village, and Crabtree are close by.
So, what was it The N&O said about Midtown recently? "Urban feel with suburban convenience?" Check. "Located close to housing, schools and major thoroughfares?" Check. And would the Uptown label give this area "...a little prominence in terms of desirability?" Need I say more?
(Bruce Mamel is a former chair of the West Citizens Advisory Council.)
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The flexible rail system: trams
Jan. 17, 2006
News & Observer
By Thomas D. Wason
© Copyright 2006
The Triangle is agonizing over a commuter rail system and considering a high-speed
regional train. But how about city trams as an initial -- and less expensive
-- step.
In my job I travel quite a bit within the United States and internationally.
With very few exceptions (Orlando, Fla., being one), cities that are successful
in attracting meetings and conferences are successful in attracting their own
citizens. If the local people don't like the area, why would out-of-towners
select it, when they have other choices for meetings?
A critical part of the attractiveness of an area is the ability to move about in it. Think of a tram system as similar to the blood circulatory system in a person. It moves critical elements efficiently; it supports the brain and muscles; it is the price the body happily pays for its vitality.
Trams do not make money. They don't break even. They are a part of the infrastructure of the city. Paying for a tram is part of the cost of keeping a city alive. They allow a city to grow without dying at its center. They are part of the hustle and bustle of a vibrant city.
A tram system is flexible. It is local. A tram is not a train, but a vehicle powered from overhead electrical lines that runs on tracks, usually down a street, either on the side or down the middle. It is relatively quiet and doesn't make fumes. Trams can navigate fairly sharp corners, compared to a train.
Since the tram is on tracks, the stops can be constructed for easy entrance and exit. They are on raised platforms with protection from the elements. The height of the platform is the same as the floor of the car. Tram doors open wide and there is little gap between the tram and the platform, so getting on and off is quick -- the time spent at stops is short. Putting in a new tram stop, or taking one out, is not terribly expensive.
And a tram is not an expensive vehicle compared to a high-speed train. Most cities with trams have simplified fare systems, including multi-trip, day and week passes.
Trams are not high speed. Usually they run along or in streets. They have relatively frequent stops -- every half-mile or so. Trams stop for traffic lights, although the lights are usually timed to accommodate them. In a remarkable system in Switzerland, the trams run in both directions on a single track. They arrive from both directions at a stop at the same time and split left and right with the platform between them. Ah, the Swiss.
• • •
A tram system in a metropolitan area supports a flexible flow of people. Such a system separates parking from events. For example, if First Night is going to make a busy downtown Raleigh, people can park at the fairgrounds and easily go downtown. If there is something going on at the fairgrounds, people might park downtown, or anywhere else along to tram lines. A route would connect Moore Square with Glenwood South. A night on the town or at a hockey game could incorporate more of Raleigh. Schoolchildren could take trams. A tram system encourages higher density housing and mixed-use development.
Where might Raleigh put in tramlines? The first could run from Southeast Raleigh to near Moore Square, with a stop somewhere near Fayetteville Street and/or Memorial Hall, to the museum complex, Glenwood South, N.C. State University/Pullen Park, the fairgrounds and the RBC center. A spur from the Pullen Park area arching over Western Boulevard would produce a graceful Southwest entry to the city, and would extend the park into the Dix Hill property and connect to Centennial Campus. Later spurs would connect in other parts of the city.
A system could grow without imposing a major long-term disruption. Trams might not necessarily serve specific shopping centers, but shopping centers might be motivated to provide shuttles to a nearby stop.
Let's think about a tram. We can plan for a regional rail system in the future. When fast regional rail comes along, the tram can serve to collect people to those few stops. The two systems are compatible.
(Thomas D. Wason, Ph.D. works on international Internet standards and online learning.)
WingSwept Communications, Inc. Names Senior IT Consultant and Developer
Jan. 17, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH -- Jay Strickland, president of WingSwept Communications, Inc., a leading IT consulting company specializing in Web and database development, today announced the addition of Jason DeChicio as a senior IT consultant and Eric Baram as a developer. With years of experience in networking, security, technical support, systems administration, connectivity issues and voice, DeChicio will develop WingSwept’s expanding information technology support division as an additional service for WingSwept’s growing client list. His most recent appointment was as the operations manager for Intrex Computers in Raleigh.
‘We are very excited about working with Jason to expand into additional markets and offer even more value-added services to our potential and existing clients,’ said Strickland. ‘With Jason on board, WingSwept can continue to enhance the quality suite of comprehensive information technology solutions our customers have come to expect.’
Baram will be responsible for working with the firm’s commercial and government consulting clients. He served as an intern with WingSwept for two semesters before earning his bachelor’s degree in computer science from North Carolina State University in December. ‘We’re extremely happy to have Eric join WingSwept in a full-time capacity,’ said Strickland. ‘We’ve worked very hard to develop a quality internship program, and that investment of time and talent has definitely paid off with Eric’s addition as a top-notch developer. His work and subsequent hiring adds to the success of our internship program.’
With a strong belief in grooming future talent, WingSwept has established a rigorous internship program. The company seeks recommendations from N.C. State University computer science faculty members, and only those candidates with strong academic achievements and drive are encouraged to apply. Both candidates and recommending faculty are interviewed to gauge a candidate’s fit and performance capacity. Promising candidates who perform beyond expectations are encouraged to stay at WingSwept and continue subsequent internship opportunities until graduation.
The WingSwept companies provide full-service information technology consulting focused on interactive media and e-business systems. Headquartered in Garner, N.C., WingSwept Communications was established in 1995, followed by the incorporation of WingSwept Technologies in 2002 by its president, Jay Strickland, who has been in the technology consulting field for more than a decade. www.wingswept.com
We could tax the odometer, not the gas gauge
Jan. 13, 2006
News & Observer
By Michael Walden
© Copyright 2006
Think of this future. Hybrid vehicles, averaging 70 miles per gallon, are used by 30 percent of drivers. Another 10 percent use hydrogen, an exciting new fuel. The remaining drivers use highly efficient gas-powered vehicles. Because the use of gasoline has declined so much, oil imports have dwindled and gas costs only $1 a gallon.
This is a future many dream of, and it may be one we eventually reach. The demand for hybrids is jumping, fuel efficiency is becoming a higher priority for drivers and a car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell is being tested in California.
Sounds great, right? We help the environment, we reduce our dependence on gasoline and oil and we still maintain the independence provided by the automobile. Could there be anything wrong with this picture?
Unfortunately, there is one downside. Funding for the maintenance and construction of highways is dependent on the gasoline tax, assessed on a per gallon basis. But as fuel efficiency improves and gas consumption per mile driven falls, public monies for highways shrink.
Of course, a solution would be to increase the tax rate per gallon to counteract the effects of improved fuel efficiency. Yet any increase in the gas tax faces stiff opposition, as evidenced by today's debate over the three cent hike that took effect in North Carolina on Jan. 1. Furthermore, additional improvements in fuel efficiency would necessitate more increases in the gas tax rate.
Yet by many reasonable estimates, North Carolina faces a significant backlog of road projects to keep pace with growth. Shortfalls in highway funding for construction and maintenance translate into more congestion and vehicle repair bills.
Therefore, the time may have come to consider a new way of funding highway spending -- one that replaces the gas tax and eliminates its problems. One candidate is a mileage tax.
A mileage tax charges drivers on how many miles they drive, not how much gas (or other fuel) they use. As such, it is a true user fee, since a driver's use of the roads is directly related to how many miles he or she drives. Since the mileage tax is independent of the type of fuel used and fuel efficiency achieved, it won't be affected by the use of gasoline alternatives, hybrid vehicles or gains in fuel efficiency.
Implementing a mileage tax would be relatively easy. Global positioning devices, costing about $100, would be placed in every North Carolina-registered vehicle. The device would record drivers' in-state mileage, and the latest information would be relayed via satellite to service stations when drivers refuel. The mileage tax would then be added to the fuel bill. Out-of-state drivers without a device would be charged a traditional gas tax.
As with any tax proposal, there are issues. One is privacy. Could the collection of mileage data by the government be used to track the movements of drivers?
Advocates of such a tax say no. They claim the only information collected would be the total in-state mileage since the last refueling, not where a driver has been and for how long.
Others raise an environmental concern. Since a mileage tax would negate the savings in the gas tax achieved by drivers using highly fuel-efficient vehicles, they worry that the tax would discourage the purchase of such vehicles.
Mileage tax supporters have two rejoinders. First, fuel-efficient vehicles cause wear and tear on roadways and create congestion, just like fuel-inefficient vehicles, so fairness implies drivers of all types of vehicles should "pay their own way." Second, there are other substantial financial incentives for purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles, including direct savings on gas expenditures and tax credits for the purchase of hybrid cars.
A further advantage of the mileage tax is its versatility. Lighter vehicles, which cause less wear on highways than do heavier vehicles, could be charged a lower mileage tax. To encourage car pooling and mass transit, the tax could be higher for vehicles using more congested roads. To achieve this, though, would require that more detailed driving information be recorded.
Our transportation system will likely undergo dramatic changes in the next generation, making the gas tax a less reliable revenue source for highway projects. The mileage tax is a logical successor. Transportation policy-makers can get ahead of the curve by beginning a study of this alternative today.
(Michael L. Walden is a William Neal Reynolds distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at N.C. State University. His latest book is "Smart Economics: Commonsense Answers to Fifty Questions About Government, Taxes, Business, and Households.")
Panel studies beach building rules
Jan. 17, 2006
News & Observer
By Wade Rawlins
© Copyright 2006
A state rule designed to keep oceanfront development out of harm's way has prevented construction on hundreds of lots, creating gap-toothed rows of beach cottages along North Carolina's coast.
Now, the state panel that sets coastal policy wants to reassess the rule and perhaps relax it, making more beach land available for development.
"We're not happy with our method," said Courtney Hackney, chairman of the 15-member Coastal Resources Commission. "It may be that one size does not fit all, when it comes to that rule."
The panel will look into the restriction this spring.
Beyond keeping some lots vacant, the rule also means that some homeowners cannot replace modest houses with bigger ones.
The restriction has particularly affected Oak Island and Ocean Isle Beach, among others, because the towns have renourished their beaches.
Proponents of the rule say it is doing what it was intended to: preventing more intense development in vulnerable coastal areas. But its critics say property owners are being unfairly prevented from using their beach land.
Retired banker George King has owned an oceanfront house on Oak Island for 25 years. If a hurricane were to destroy his $750,000 home, King would be left with a nearly worthless pile of sand. Under the rule, he can't rebuild.
King says restrictions on rebuilding are a financial calamity not just for him but for all beach communities.
"I think the current situation is an enormous threat to the whole economy of the coast of North Carolina," he said. "Should we have a [Hurricane] Katrina, property owners stand to lose a little money. The businesses and towns stand to lose a great deal more."
The rules say that oceanfront structures must be set back a certain distance from the first line of established vegetation, usually dune grasses. The setback distance varies depending on the local erosion rate, but it is at least 60 feet for most single-family dwellings. Setbacks are greater for larger structures.
Officials say the principle of using the first stable line of vegetation is solid.
But the problem is that beaches shift, sometimes dramatically. Storms wipe out sand dunes, vegetation and houses, often moving the setback line farther inland.
Ocean Isle and Oak Island pumped sand onto eroded beaches after Hurricane Floyd hit in 1999. The towns now have wider beaches, but the current setbacks don't take that into account.
About 150 houses and vacant lots cannot be replaced or built upon in Oak Island. Grass grows atop the row of rebuilt dunes, but the cottages with peeling paint behind the dune cannot be replaced.
"Why shouldn't you be able to use vegetation that is out here as the setback?" Dara Royal, an Oak Island Town Council member, said as she walked out on a stretch of beach that had been widened.
Such a change would allow building again on many of the lots and would raise property values and boost the town's tax base, Royal said.
But for now, pumping sand onto beaches to stave off erosion is considered a temporary fix. The assumption is that beaches will wash away again if more sand isn't added.
Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation, an environmental group, said the setback rules were designed to prevent man-made beaches from providing a false sense of security and encouraging development closer to the ocean.
"Our concern is, once we open this up, there is a lot of pressure to use renourishment to make unbuildable lots buildable on the oceanfront," Miller said. "When the next disaster happens, that just raises the stakes."
Instead of a rule change, Miller suggests that variances could address individual cases.
Spencer Rogers, a coastal engineering expert at N.C. Sea Grant and a member of the Coastal Resources Commission's science advisory panel, said that in areas where there are rows of houses, it's questionable whether it's fair to keep owners from developing single lots that have been called unbuildable.
And Harry Simmons, mayor of Caswell Beach, said the question is not whether more property could be developed, but what is fair for property owners.
Vegetation that grows up on renourished wider beaches should be used to measure setbacks, Simmons said.
"You could suggest that life itself is temporary," Simmons said. "To say a beach is temporary because you have placed millions of tons of sand on it doesn't make a lot of sense."
Staff writer Wade Rawlins can be reached at 829-4528 or wrawlins@newsobserver.com.
Duke moves forward in low-income enrollment
Jan. 15, 2006
Herald-Sun
By Paul Bonner
© Copyright 2006
DURHAM -- While many of its peers among the nation's top colleges and universities are losing ground, Duke University is moving forward in admitting low- and moderate-income students, a national study indicates.
Duke enrolls a higher-than-average percentage of those students and has increased its percentage in the past 10 years, according to the study in the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education's December newsletter.
A Duke spokesman says the trend is no accident but a conscious goal.
The university's need-blind admissions policy is responsible, said John Burness, Duke's senior vice president for public affairs and government relations.
And among top universities by ranked by reputation and competitiveness of admissions, Duke's enrollment of low-income students stands out even more, he said.
"The group of schools we're in is the most competitive in the country," Burness said. "We do very well in maintaining high numbers of poor kids. We have been much more aggressive in our need-blind financial aid policy."
Under that policy, Duke admits undergraduates without regard to their ability to pay its $44,000-a-year cost of attendance.
Duke benefits from having a range of income levels among its students that more nearly resembles that of society, since much learning in any university occurs in ordinary social interactions outside the classroom, Burness said.
"If you think about the world which our students will be entering as leaders, it's important for them to be exposed to people of other cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds," he said.
Overall, Duke ranked fifth-highest among the nation's 50 most exclusive four-year institutions in the percentage of undergraduate students who received Pell Grants in the 2003-04 academic year. Pell Grants are a form of federal financial aid based on students' family income. The maximum grant is $4,050 a year.
Duke's percentage of 11.2 exceeded the 50 institutions' average of 9.3 percent. It also topped that of three other North Carolina private institutions: Elon University (9.8 percent), Wake Forest University (8.2 percent) and Davidson College (7.2 percent).
Washington and Lee University in Virginia ranked lowest at 3.5 percent, and Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania highest, with 11.6 percent.
The study also showed that Duke increased its percentage of Pell Grant students in the 10 years preceding 2003 by 2.7 percentage points, while the share fell in most of the other exclusive private colleges.
Among four-year colleges and universities generally, the Pell Grant rate was 31 percent for both private and public institutions.
UNC and N.C. State were ranked among the 50 public institutions with the lowest percentages of Pell Grant students at 14.5 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively.
The Iowa-based Pell Institute said that an average drop of half a percentage point in Pell Grant rates at exclusive private school has occurred as more students than ever are coming from low-income families.
It cited increasing rates of K-12 students receiving free or reduced-price lunches and more minority graduates of public high schools.
New UNC president: Boost N.C. education
Jan. 14, 2006
Herald-Sun
By Rob Shapard
© Copyright 2006
CHAPEL HILL -- UNC system leader Erskine Bowles says he's done with running for office in North Carolina, but he still has quite a bit of the stump speaker in him.
In remarks he made from a podium in Chapel Hill on Friday, Bowles highlighted the economic changes that have come to the state and the country, and warned that a "tsunami" of even more, rapid changes was bearing down.
After taking over this month as president of the 16-campus UNC system, Bowles -- who once focused on issues such as job creation and quality education as he ran twice for the U.S. Senate -- tried Friday to rally his new constituents to take higher education in the state to another level.
Bowles gave his first official report to the Board of Governors since succeeding former president Molly Broad. He told the board North Carolina already has seen enormous changes in sectors of its economy such as textiles and other manufacturing.
Still, he predicted, "We haven't seen anything yet. If we don't get some people better educated, we are going to be in no position to face up to this tsunami heading our way."
Bowles has tsunamis on his mind at least partly because he spent much of last year as a United Nations special envoy in South Asia, coordinating relief efforts from the huge wall of seawater that killed tens of thousands in late 2004.
He talked Friday about Asian societies in places from Singapore to Shanghai, and he pointed to statistics that show many of the students in those areas as learning and performing at higher levels than their American counterparts.
In North Carolina, he said, about 38 of every 100 eighth-graders go to college, while only 18 make it all the way through to graduation.
"That won't cut it in this new knowledge-based, global economy," Bowles said.
UNC leaders need to keep the pressure on hiring and keeping great faculty, and improving the percentage of incoming university students who finish their degrees, he said. Bowles added that the university system also had a key role in improving the K-12 education in the state, in part by producing more and better teachers and dealing with the current shortage of about 9,000 teachers needed in North Carolina.
And while the university is doing all that, it also has to face the reality of major crunches in both the state and federal budgets -- not to mention the commitment that Bowles reiterated Friday to keep tuition at the 16 campuses as low as possible.
He promised to run the general administration of the university as efficiently as possible to help with that critical balance of needs and resources. Leaders at each campus need to look at making more use of facilities during the off-hours for educational programs, both to get the most out of those resources and generate more revenues for the schools, he said.
Bowles has gone to great lengths to describe the N.C. General Assembly as very generous to the UNC system. But answering questions after the board meeting Friday, he said he'd like to see legislators consider steps such as putting funds into summer-school programs.
He expressed support for a possible expansion of the textbook-rental program at campuses such as Appalachian State University. Bowles said he's heard from students that the program can yield some $400 to $800 in savings per semester.
And he came back to his core argument that both the state and the U.S. easily could be left behind without improving education and boosting the number of students who reach graduation.
"If we don't, America will become a second-rate power before you know it, and North Carolina will be non-competitive," Bowles contended. "We've got some catching up to do."
Jan. 15, 2006
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Tar Heels, don your colors. UNC Chapel Hill is No. 1 again -- not in hoops
but as the best value in undergraduate public colleges, according to Kiplinger's,
a finance magazine.
Rankings are rankings, but this one is worthy of note. It's the fifth-straight
best in show for Chapel Hill, and four other N.C. campuses also made the top
50 -- N.C. State, UNC Wilmington, Appalachian State and UNC Asheville.
Kiplinger's ranks America's public campuses every two years based on: test
scores of entering freshmen, student/faculty ratio, four- and six-year graduation
rates, the cost and students' average debt at graduation. This year, a third
of North Carolina's universities stood out nationally, despite steep tuition
hikes and lagging faculty pay.
That's evidence that tax dollars spent on those resources are good investments.
But it's also a mandate to keep state tuition and fees from boiling out of
reach of ordinary citizens.
As higher education costs have risen, funding by many state legislatures
hasn't kept pace. Some schools have upped tuition by unacceptable levels
to help close
the gap -- as much as 70 percent in the last decade at Chapel Hill and
N.C. State. That prices low- and modest-income families out of colleges
their
taxes support.
The UNC Board is considering guidelines that would cap tuition increases.
That would help. But the legislature must also pay a greater share of the
university's
operating costs. Plus, private financial aid needs to increase at each campus.
One thing that stands out in the rankings is the role UNC's Carolina Covenant plays in opening the campus to financially needy students. The covenant pledges to meet 100 percent of an eligible student's financial need through grants, scholarships and Federal Work-Study.
UNC's part of that money comes from its unusual fund-raising prowess and its commitment to financial aid. Other campuses would be hard-pressed to match its record, but every state campus should have its version of the covenant.
One other note: UNC Charlotte, the state's fourth largest university,
did not make Kiplinger's top count. Why? One reason may be money. An
example:
Disparities
in state per-student funding levels among campuses make UNCC's student/faculty
ratio significantly higher. In Chapel Hill the student/faculty ratio
is 14:1; in Charlotte it's 19:1. The only way to overcome that disadvantage
is by
improved state funding.
To check Kiplinger's list:
Go to www.kiplinger.com and click on This Month, then Inside, then
Your Money.
Jan. 17, 2006
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
UNC President Erskine
Bowles sounds like a broken record. Every time he opens
his mouth, the same words come out: efficiency and results.
Those ideas may not make Mr. Bowles popular on campus, but they will improve
the state's system of universities. There's more to providing quality higher
education than tending to the bottom line. But it's high time the state's universities
applied more business know-how to the way they plan, are organized and operate.
North Carolina's 16 public campuses are one of the state's most costly investments
-- $2 billion a year. They are invaluable to the state's economy, yet they
need to do a better job applying simple business practices: planning, goal-setting
and measuring results.
Since Mr. Bowles, a Charlotte businessman and former White House chief of
staff, began work Jan. 2, he has sounded very much the CEO. He agreed to
an inaugural
celebration only if private donations pay the bill. He has asked administrators
to provide prioritized goals for 2006 accompanied by cost, urgency, a funding
source and measures of accountability. He has said repeatedly the state's
universities must improve their performance by increasing the number of students
they graduate.
Good. Frugality, structured planning and measuring performance may make some people in the ivory tower uncomfortable, but they work. The world's most effective organizations operate on those principles, and the state's universities could improve immeasurably if they adopted them across the board.
An example? Last week, at Mr. Bowles' urging, the UNC Board of Governors voted to set specific priorities for the funds it requests from the legislature this year, based on the system's long-range plan. That may sound like a small deal, but it's not. It assures money lines up with priorities.
Yet that hasn't always been the case. Each year UNC requests millions and
millions more dollars than the legislature can reasonably fund. The UNC
board simply
approves projects and programs the campuses ask for, then sends lawmakers
a list without priorities.
The result? The most urgent -- or deserving -- needs don't necessarily get
funded. That's wasteful, and it costs the universities in public and political
support.
Recognition of that -- and the practical experience to do something about it -- is welcomein the president's office. It can translate into greater state support for critical needs, such as money for faculty salaries, student aid and a long list of capital repairs.
Mr. Bowles will face resistance as he urges reforms. Building a culture built on efficiency and effective planning is not easy, particularly in universities, where people are often insulated from scrutiny. Yet it's the kind of tough-minded leadership UNC needs most right now to maintain quality, affordable, accessible higher education.
Pig’s genome to unlock new information
Jan. 16, 2006
Checkbiotech.org (Switzerland), Checkbiotech.org (IL), Medical News Today (UK), Washington File (DC), USDA.gov (DC), WebWire (GA), AgWeb, EurekAlert (DC)
By Jim Barlow
© Copyright 2006
Lawrence B. Schook, a professor of animal sciences at Illinois and co-chairman of the International Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium, will head the project that is expected to cost $20 million and involve researchers at seven other institutions. Sequencing of the some 2.5 billion chemical base pairs that spell out the pig’s genetic code will be done at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom. The groundwork for the project has grown over time at Illinois, through extensive swine research, the development of genetic tools and a campus commitment to pursue genome-related research with the establishment of the Institute for Genomic Biology, Schook said.
Last year Schook and Jonathan Beever, a professor of animal sciences, announced that a side-by-side comparison of the human and pig genome revealed remarkable similarities. They rearranged 173 pieces of the human genome to make a map of a pig. “Now we can take all of the pieces and put them into their correct order and know the exact DNA sequence in each piece,” Schook said. “We were able to build a map to know what parts of the pig genome were equivalent to the same parts of the human genome. Now we can take those parts and compare them sequence by sequence.” Schook, Beever and Bruce Schatz, interim head of the department of medical information science in the U. of I. College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign, will continue an ongoing collaboration with Jane Rogers and Sean Humphray at the Sanger Institute to provide an initial three-fold coverage of the pig genome sequence. As the sequencing proceeds, the data will be mined on campus at the IGB. Because the pig and human genomes are similar in size, complexity and organization, researchers expect that comparisons will lead to biomedical advances, including pig-to-human transplants and disease treatments. “This grant represents the efforts of many colleagues around the world,” Schook said. “We were very fortunate to be able to conduct research that provided the opportunity to assume this leadership position. Clearly this is a significant acknowledgement of the leadership of the genomics program at the University of Illinois.”
The female, reddish-brown Duroc pig involved in the project was used by Beever and Schook to study genes that control growth and contribute to meat quality. Its DNA also was extracted, donated and cloned to develop genetic tools and biomedical models. The USDA grant – issued through its National Research Initiative – also recognizes the success of the university’s participation in the Livestock Genome Sequencing Initiative (LGSI), also funded by the agency, said IGB Director Harris Lewin. “It’s truly gratifying to have the USDA acknowledge the efforts of our LGSI and our national and international collaborators by selecting our proposal for funding,” Beever said. “After many years of laying the foundation for sequencing of the pig genome, it is truly rewarding to see our dreams of a porcine sequence come true. This sequencing will have tremendous, long-lasting impacts on the continuum of science in animal agriculture and human health.” Other financial contributors to the project are the National Pork Board, Iowa Pork Board, Iowa State University, North Carolina Pork Council and North Carolina State University, as well as sources in France, South Korea, Holland and the United Kingdom. The other five institutions collaborating with Illinois and the Sanger Institute are the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland; the University of Nevada, Reno; INRA Cellular Genetics Laboratory, Toulouse, France; USDA Agricultural Research Service Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Neb.; and Iowa State University.
Jim Barlow
Life Sciences Editor
217-333-5802
jebarlow@uiuc.edu
USA : Daryl Bowman receives ‘Cotton Genetics Research Award’
Jan. 16, 2006
Fibre2fashion.com (India)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Cotton ginner’s helping association The National Cotton Council (NCC) informed that Dr. Daryl T Bowman, a professor of Cotton Breeding at North Carolina State University, is the recipient of the 2005 Cotton Genetics Research Award.
The announcement was made during the Cotton Improvement Conference of the NCC-coordinated 2006 Beltwide Cotton Conferences.
Bowman received $1,000 in recognition of his efforts, which include his leadership in variety testing techniques, statistical analysis of test data, genetic diversity of cotton cultivars and germplasm, host-plant resistance to insect and nematode pests, and genetic tolerance to abiotic stresses. He also is credited with one cotton cultivar release and four cotton germplasm releases.
One of Bowman’s nominator’s, Dr. Jack E. Jones, professor emeritus at Louisiana State University’s agronomy department, said Bowman found time for his extensive quality research in cotton “has to be a testament to his love and dedication to cotton breeding/genetics” because Bowman also conducts variety testing on numerous others crops.
“Because