| |
|
Erskine Bowles About UNC Presidency: 'I Am Confident'
Erskine Bowles, UNC systemAppalachian Called “Best Value”
College rankings
Athletes
are graduating
Graduation success rates
Murdock
plans lab foundation
Kannapolis Biotechnology Center
US
tobacco farmers face foreign competition
Blake Brown
USA
: INDA offers nonwovens training courses four times in 2006
Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center facility
Appalachian Called “Best Value”
Jan. 20, 2006
Boone Mountain Times
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Appalachian State University has been cited as a best value among public colleges and universities in the United States by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. The magazine’s February issue lists the nation’s top 100 public colleges and universities considered “noteworthy for their combination of top-flight academics and affordable costs.”
Appalachian, with in-state costs of $9,121, was ranked 33rd in the nation. It’s one of only six UNC system schools appearing in the listing.
UNC Chapel Hill was ranked first, N.C. State University ranked 28th, UNC Wilmington ranked 32nd, UNC Asheville ranked 50th and UNC Greensboro ranked 75th.
Each school was ranked based on cost and financial aid. The formula included analysis of the total cost for in-state students, the average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but not loans), average cost for a student without need after eliminating non-need-based grants, average percentage of need met by need-based financial aid and the average debt a student accumulates before graduation.
“We are always pleased when a national publication recognizes Appalachian State University for providing a superior, quality education,” said Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock. “Our campus community is committed to continuing to provide access to a first-rate education and services to the citizens of North Carolina.”
The rankings are based on data provided by more than 500 public four-year colleges and universities. The list was narrowed to 130 schools based on several measures of academic quality including:
• Percentage of the 2004-05 freshman class scoring 600 or higher on the verbal and math components of the SAT
• Admission rates
• Freshman retention rates
• Student-faculty ratios
• Four- and six-year graduation rates, which most schools reported for the student cohort entering in 1997
Each school was then ranked according to cost and financial aid with the following items considered:
• Total cost for students (tuition, mandatory fees, room and board and estimated expenses for books)
• Average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but not loans)
• Average cost for a student without need after subtracting non-need-based grants
• Average percentage of need met by aid (need-based assistance)
• Average debt a student accumulates before graduation
More information is available at http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/tools/colleges/
Jan. 20, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Almost two dozen Division I schools reported Graduation Success Rates of at least 95 percent for athletes who enrolled from 1995 to 1998. All were higher than their general student populations and significantly higher than the rates reported by the federal government, according to NCAA figures released Thursday in Indianapolis.
The average for the 318 Division I colleges was 76 percent. The averages included a 69 percent success rate for men, 86 percent for women, 82 percent for whites, 59 percent for blacks and 68 percent for Hispanics.
The figures compiled by the NCAA are generally higher than those reported by the government because the NCAA GSR counts all athletes who earn a degree within six years of enrollment or, while still in good academic standing, transfer to other schools or turn professional.
The NCAA considers any rate above 50 percent to be good, President Myles Brand said.
"This is not Lake Wobegon, where every student athlete and every team can be above average," Brand said. "The 50 percent rate, while not sacrosanct, is a good rate to measure whether we're making progress."
The NCAA released data for specific sports in December. Thursday's listing was the first school-by-school and gender and ethnic breakdown that also included federal graduation data and a comparison of the rates for athletes with the entire student bodies.
[Only one area school had federal scores that echoed the national trend, meaning Division I athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. In the federal report, East Carolina graduated 63 percent of its athletes compared to 53 percent of the entire student body.
Duke's four-class federal graduation rate was 90 percent versus 93 percent for the entire student body. North Carolina graduated 70 percent of its athletes and 81 percent of the student body. N.C. State's federal score was 54 percent for athletes and 64 percent overall. Wake Forest's federal rate was 76 percent for athletes and 86 percent overall.]
Brand said the federal rate is "somewhat flawed and conservative. ... I don't think anything surprised us, but the numbers are revealing."
For example, he cited baseball, with an NCAA rate 18 percentage points higher than the federal rate.
"That indicates that Division I baseball players transfer a great deal," he said. "Not every team or sport will go up as a result of moving from federal rate to GSR, and those teams that go down are ones that probably brought in some transfer students who didn't graduate. We now have a way to track that."
Radford was the only Division I school with a 100 percent GSR for 1995-98, the most recent period. Next was the U.S. Naval Academy at 99 percent. Notre Dame and Valparaiso tied at 98 percent.
The national graduation average for all Division I students, including non-athletes, was 59 percent.
(Staff writer Luciana Chavez contributed to this report.)
Jan. 20, 2006
Charlotte Observer
By ADAM BELL
© Copyright 2006
KANNAPOLIS - Billionaire David Murdock disclosed Thursday he is creating a
$120 million nonprofit foundation to operate the Core Lab facility at the heart
of his North Carolina Research Campus.
He mentioned his foundation at a state Agriculture and Forestry Awareness Study Commission meeting in Kannapolis. The group received an update on the planned $1 billion biotech hub, which will focus on health and nutrition.
Murdock, who owns Dole Food Co. and Castle and Cooke developers, said he is using personal funds for the foundation.
Murdock said he usually doesn't discuss the money he is spending, but didn't want people to think he was out to make a profit on the lab, so he set up a foundation for it. Access to lab space and the specialized equipment there, available for rent to campus tenants, is one of the key selling points for the campus.
For example, the lab is getting a nuclear magnetic resonance machine that provides extremely detailed visualization of molecules. The machine and related equipment costs several million dollars, and there are only three or four in the country.
About $100 million will cover construction of the lab and pay for equipment, Murdock said. The rest of the foundation's money will support other nonprofit work at the 350-acre campus, such as the planned math and science residential high school for girls, campus project manager Lynne Scott Safrit said.
In typical fashion, Murdock said of the lab, "You can go to Harvard, UCLA and anywhere else, and they'd die to get the facility we are building."
Murdock did not say whether the foundation has a name yet.
Work has already begun on the Core Lab facility, the first to be built for the campus. It will include the core lab for basic analysis and a fermentation facility to make single-run product tests.
The campus is going up at the site of the former Pillowtex Corp. textile mill complex, and demolition is about four months ahead of schedule, Safrit said. Dole will have a significant presence at the campus, as will UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State.
Murdock said he has not chosen a site yet for the Dole frozen fruit packaging plant he is bringing to North Carolina. Dole also is building a $54 million salad production plant in Gaston County.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adam Bell: (704) 786-2185
Erskine Bowles About UNC Presidency: 'I Am Confident'
Jan. 20, 2006
WRAL.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The new president of the massive system that makes up the University of North Carolina has only been on the job two weeks. But Erskine Bowles has hit the ground running, and said he doesn't plan to stop anytime soon.
From his Chapel Hill office, Bowles sounds more like a preacher than president. The source of his passion for the job is his vision for the future of higher education.
"My job is to set up the organization, structure and focus to make it real," said Bowles. "That's what I'm good at, and that's what I'm going to do here."
One major issue to tackle is tuition rates.
"We have a state constitution that says we will keep tuition as low as practical, and as free from expense as practical," he said. "I think it's not only in our constitution. I think it's in our very soul."
Bowles brings to the job a powerful resume of successes in the private and public sector. He served two years as former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, crafting the first balanced budget in a generation.
That experience earned him a reputation for combining all opinions for the greater good. He plans to use those skills to keep the system together, even when members like UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University want greater autonomy.
"I have to prove to them the true value of being part of this system, and I am confident, because in the meetings I've already had with the chancellors and the trustees, so far I know we can do that," said Bowles.
Bowles is fervent when he talks of improving salaries and classroom conditions for teachers. He is equally intense when discussing his concerns that some business owners don't understand the competition from better-educated countries.
And for those who fear his Chapel Hill background might shape his decisions?
"I didn't cut my heart out," said Bowles. "I'm always going to be fond of Chapel Hill and pull for the Heels when they play. But I wasn't elected mayor of Chapel Hill. I was elected president of all 16 (campuses). "
Reporter: David Crabtree
Photographer: Keith Baker
Online Editor: Dana Franks
EQUINE HEALTH CENTER EXPANSION PLANNED
Jan. 20, 2006
Harnesslink (New Zealand)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
North Carolina State University is expanding services at its equine center in Southern Pines, North Carolina.
Formerly known as the "Veterinary Equine Research Center," the 83-acre campus now will be named "North Carolina State University Equine Health Center at Southern Pines."
“Southern Pines is an excellent location for us to expand,” Warwick A. Arden, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, said.
“The Mid-Atlantic region is home to a thriving sport horse industry as well as a training location for performance horses from all along the eastern seaboard. In addition, the existing facility here in Southern Pines allows us the room to grow. Thanks to the 83 acres we have here, we can expand our medical services, research, and teaching capabilities to better meet the needs of the equine community, both in North Carolina and across the nation,” he explaind.
Formerly known as the Veterinary Equine Research Center (VERC), the Southern Pines campus now will be named the North Carolina State Equine Health Center at Southern Pines (EHC-SP). In 2005, 52 different veterinary practices used the services offered by the center and dean Arden expects that number to grow.
“The services we offer here combined with the leading-edge clinical programs at our large animal hospital in Raleigh ensure that we continue to provide the best equine care possible. The number of veterinary practices we support through the Southern Pines center has grown steadily over the years, and we have every expectation that trend will continue,” Arden said.
In 2006, services offered at the NC State Equine Health Center at Southern Pines will include:
Podiatry and rehabilitation services, including assessment of difficult lameness and shoeing problems;
Expanded ophthalmology services, including diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic treatments for eye disorders, as well as examination for genetic-based eye disease and national registry of horses found to be free of these diseases;
Diagnostic testing that includes over 90 different tests, with 45 that are conducted in-house such as equine infectious anemia (Coggins) and blood chemistry profiles. Emergency Coggins tests can be performed in less than two hours. Other diagnostic services include video endoscopy for the stomach and upper respiratory system; and
Reproductive services such as infertility treatment, embryo transfer, semen collection and transport, artificial insemination, reproductive emergencies, and reproductive surgery.
In support of the expanded mission of the Equine Health Center at Southern Pines, a new Web site was created specifically for the center, www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ehc-sp. The site makes it easier for referring veterinarians and horse owners to learn about the services offered and contact the center.
CEM quarantine site
Currently the Equine Health Center at Southern Pines is the only U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified contagious equine metritis (CEM) quarantine site in North Carolina, and one of only a few certified sites on the East Coast. The center’s new Web site offers downloadable forms to help facilitate the quarantine process.
Services offered at Raleigh campus
The Equine Health Program at NC State is focused on four areas of excellence: colic and digestive diseases, reproduction, ophthalmology, and sports medicine. The College’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) in Raleigh offers all the services provided at its Southern Pines campus, plus MRI imaging. The North Carolina State VTH has an MRI unit that is the most powerful in the nation for optimal imaging of horses’ limbs and heads.
History of Southern Pines equine center
In 1958, the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association (NCVMA) organized the North Carolina Veterinary Research Foundation and obtained approximately 29 acres of land from Mr. and Mrs. W.O. Moss, masters of foxhounds of Moore County. Citizens in the area raised $150,000, which was matched by Mr. Raymond Firestone to establish an equine emergency center on the property to serve the needs of hunter and jumper horses that were brought to the area for training purposes. Later, the Mosses donated additional acreage. When North Carolina’s College of Veterinary Medicine was established, the center was turned over to the university to be used as a satellite research center.
The North Carolina State University Equine Health Center is located in Southern Pines, N.C., about 60 miles south of the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, in Raleigh. It is within easy access to both I-95 and I-40, and is centrally located along the Atlantic Coast.
For more information, visit www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ehc-sp or call (910) 692.8773.
----------
About North Carolina State University’s Equine Health Program
Established in 1979, North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is one of the youngest veterinary colleges in the United States, yet is currently ranked third among the nation’s public veterinary programs by U.S. News and World Report. The College’s Equine Health Program offers nationally recognised tertiary equine care in ophthalmology, reproduction, sports medicine, and colic, and digestive diseases.
The program attracts distinguished equine specialists from around the world to its faculty. In addition to training students and offering continuing education for equine practitioners, the program supports equine veterinarians and their clients by offering advanced equine diagnostics and therapeutic options that may not be available in private practice.
For more information, or to make a tax-deductible contribution, call (919) 513-7725, or visit www.cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/ehp.html.
Courtesy Of North Carolina State University
US tobacco farmers face foreign competition
Jan. 20, 2006
Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC), Winston-Salem Journal (NC), WVEC.com (VA), WCIV (SC), Dateline Alabama (AL), The State (SC), Hilton Head Island Packet (SC), WCNC (NC), News & Observer (NC), Charlotte Observer (NC), Lexington Dispatch (NC)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Prices paid to farmers for flue-cured tobacco will increase in the coming year as farmers pay more for fuel, labor and machinery, economic experts say.
But growers should not expect a substantial increase in the price paid by cigarette manufacturers, said Blake Brown, a tobacco economics professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, at the 42nd annual Tobacco Workers Conference here Wednesday.
Growers of both flue-cured and burley tobacco, economists, merchant representatives were among those at the session.
Prices paid to farmers will vary with individual contracts and the quality of the tobacco, experts said. Prices will steadily increase in the coming years while more tobacco companies are expected to increase their use of imported tobacco from countries like Brazil, the top U.S. competitor for flue-cured tobacco.
The number of smokers is expected to decline as more people stop smoking and education keeps others from starting.
Bill Givan, a tobacco economist with the University of Georgia Extension Service, said even though production costs will increase, farmers should stick with the crop because it is the most lucrative for the area.
"Farmers know how to grow tobacco, they've grown it for years so don't just off tobacco yet," Givan said. "We're getting buyout money greater than what we were earning with just the crop. If you continue to farm and invest your buyout money wisely then I suggest grow a little tobacco because once farmers get out they don't tend to get back in."
Keeping up the tradition of tobacco farming will help the United States remain competitive, experts said.
Darryl Jayson, vice president of the Tobacco Merchants Association said almost three-quarters of leaf used in U.S. cigarettes will be imported by 2015.
USA : INDA offers nonwovens training courses four times in 2006
Jan. 20, 2006
Fibre2fashion.com (India)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) is holding the popular Nonwovens Training Course four times in 2006. The courses are scheduled to be held at INDA Headquarters, Cary, North Carolina on March 14-16; May 16-18; August 22-24; and October 3-5.
Nonwovens industry newcomers and seasoned professionals will find this course helpful in understanding what nonwovens are and how they are used. Plus, course attendees will be able to tour Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center facility at NCSU, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Topics Include:
- Raw Materials for Nonwovens – Fibers, Polymers, and Additives
- Web Forming Technologies – Dry Laid Nonwovens, Wet Laid Nonwovens, Short
Fiber Air Laid Systems, Direct Polymer to Web Nonwovens
- Web Bonding Technologies – Mechanical, Chemical, and Thermal Bonding Processes
and Binders used in them
- Web Conversion & Finishing Technologies
- Recommended Test Methods
- Nonwoven Products & Applications
- Environmental Issues – Waste Management
- Nonwoven Markets & Future Directions
- Nonwoven Product Analysis Guideline
This is a comprehensive three-day course covering nonwoven technologies and markets. There are also a limited number (40) of spaces available.
Edward A. Vaughn, Ph.D., Professor, Clemson University, will be the course instructor. Ed Vaughn has several decades ofexperience in various sectors of the textile and nonwovens industries.
Trade association representing INDA is well known worldwide as a show organizer.
IDEA, International Engineered Fabrics Conference and Exposition is the key
event and is offered every three years.
Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry