| |
|
Local College Students Move In Under Less Than Ideal Conditions
Rainy Weather Makes Moving In NuisanceThey're back
Students stagger arrivals because of wet weather, averting campus chaosGlazier in group discussing trade
Interim Chancellor Robert BarnhardtA Few Tips to Curb the Recent Millipede Invasion
Michael Waldvogel, entomologyTobacco tops $151 average in first auction of 2004 season
Blake Brown, agricultural and resource economicsThe season's not over, folks
Sethu Raman, atmospheric scienceScholars and Dollars
technology transferExpressions in Clay
Lynne Jones Ennis, curator of the Gallery of Art & DesignPeople
David Fox, Ken Maxwell, Barbara H. Mulkey, Susan Rabon, Jo Anne Sanford, Board of VisitorsBeyond Farming
Cooperative ExtensionTuition rises at private schools
Private schools - Higher education has higher price tagClosings and delays
student move inVoter drives, policies aid students
student government associationsKroger planned as lure
Taking advantage of nearby NCSU
Land
rules change, quietly
Cities gain new say in state plans
Democrats
facing Tuesday runoff
Marshall Stewart, former state agricultural education coordinator
for N.C. State
Races,
quiet and brutal
college Republican group
College
freshmen should take note of this disease
Shots for meningococcal meningitis are strongly recommended
Profile
of Marshall Stewart
Marshall Stewart, former state agricultural education coordinator
for N.C. State
Hunter
given new post
athletics
N.C.
State Reassigns Hunter
athletics
Listening
post: Candidates, take heed
written by Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics
Editorial:
A promising new path for UNCG
technology transfer
Obituary:
Osteryoung, 77, NCSU professor
chemistry
Obituary:
Robert Allen Osteryoung
chemistry
Voter drives, policies aid students
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By JANELL ROSS
© Copyright 2004
The back of Anna Creagh's Volkswagen Beetle is covered in bumper stickers that say something about the college-age voter behind the wheel, but little about the effort she has made to cast her first ballot in November.
A homemade "When Clinton Lied, Nobody Died" sticker is just above the trunk; "Divided We Fall" is on the bumper; and in a space no one can see without tailgating is a sticker that reads "Darwin Loves You."
Creagh, a self-described hard-core liberal Democrat, registered to vote in Wake County in June. On Wednesday she turned 18 and asked the Wake County Board of Elections in writing to send her an absentee ballot. She was leaving Raleigh for her freshman year at UNC-Asheville at 6 a.m. Saturday.
While her enthusiasm for politics might be a bit unusual, the complexity of her first voting experience is not.
The Vietnam War gave rise to the idea that people old enough to fight for this country were old enough to help set policy, said Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington. The Nixon administration thought the vote might help calm young protesters. In 1971, it supported the 26th Amendment, which allowed 18-year-olds to vote.
Here's the fine print: The rules on registration and voting remain tied to residency. Anyone who will be 18 on or before this year's election date, Nov. 2, may register to vote at age 17. But at about the same time these people become eligible to vote, many are entering the nebulous world of semipermanent residence.
About 26.8 million U.S. citizens are 18 to 24 years old and eligible to vote, and about 10 million attend four-year U.S. undergraduate schools, said Andy Solomon, spokesman for the Harvard Institute of Politics, which studies the political personality of young voters.
Generally, students can register and vote in the county where they attend school if they regard it as their county of residence and are not registered anywhere else. If, like Creagh, they choose to register in their home county, they can request an absentee ballot.
The deadlines for citizens to register for a particular election vary from state to state. Policies governing how and when someone can request an absentee ballot, and residency standards for students, also differ.
North Carolina allows election officials to presume that a student's county of residence is where the student's custodial parent or parents live. But the N.C. Board of Elections interprets the law liberally and allows students to register in the county where they attend school, said Rosemary Blizzard, elections liaison.
At N.C. Central University, a student group working to increase political participation says an on-campus polling site and a freshman orientation process that puts a voter registration form in every new student's hands have increased student turnout for presidential elections to about the same level as at other precincts in Durham.
Student government associations and students at Meredith College, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, Shaw and Duke universities are planning voter registration drives on campus when classes begin this month.
Douglas Buchacek, 26, is a graduate student studying Russian at UNC-CH. He moved to North Carolina two weeks ago from Indiana and registered to vote in Orange County almost immediately.
"Thank you, motor voter," Buchacek said, referring to a program that allowed him to register to vote while he renewed his driver license. "I definitely want to vote in this election. I think I am always interested in presidential politics, but this time I'm angrier."
News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By ANNE BLYTHE
© Copyright 2004
In college towns and cities where the state of North Carolina owns much land, local governments typically have had little say when a UNC campus or some other state institution wants to put in a parking lot, add a new ball field, expand a runway, dig a new utility corridor or do any land disturbance that does not involve a building.
That could change, though, on Oct. 1.
Buried deep in a bill ratified by the General Assembly this summer is a change in state law scheduled to go into effect in just 46 days.
The provision caught many in the Triangle by surprise.
The change gives municipalities zoning authority over most land disturbance by the state, and it strikes language that previously required the Council of State or its designate to review any city plans to include state land in an overlay district or a special-use district.
University officials plan to spend much of the next week sorting through what the changes mean. As it is now, most municipalities have some regulatory authority over projects that include buildings.
"We didn't know anything about this until last week," Bruce Runberg, UNC-Chapel Hill associate vice chancellor for planning and construction, said Friday. "We believe it will have a significant impact on us. ... It's just a myriad of little nits and gnats that currently are not required.
"Our initial reaction to this is it could cost us six figures on an annual basis with all the zoning compliance permits, paperwork and additional time."
Diana Steele, a Chapel Hill resident who has property next to a large UNC campus housing construction project, is thrilled with the change if it means what she thinks -- that town officials and therefore the community at large could have more input in campus projects.
"Somebody seems to be paying good attention to livability," Steele said. "So much damage can be done in disturbing land, clear-cutting, leveling.
"Just look at the lot next to me and see what's been done to the land there without a building. Some of the biggest eyesores are leveled and/or paved without any structure."
In Chapel Hill, where there is often friction between town and gown over campus growth spurts, officials are curious about the origin of the new language.
Although the town currently has no authority over projects without buildings, Runberg says university planners typically seek the informal review and advice of town planners before moving forward with most construction.
The technical corrections bill was introduced by Sen. Fletcher Hartsell Jr., a Republican from Concord. The language, according to legislative researchers, comes from a Senate bill that Daniel Clodfelter, a Democrat from Charlotte, introduced in 2003.
Clodfelter's bill, with the stated intent to "clarify, simplify and modernize city and county planning and land-use management authority," never made it out of committee last year.
Neither Clodfelter nor Hartsell could be reached for comment.
In Raleigh, where the state owns a lot of property, with N.C. State University and all the government offices, city leaders say the change is likely to have an effect on how they do business.
"We generally have a pretty good relationship with the state and NCSU," said Dan Howe, assistant Raleigh city manager.
"For the city, it's always good to at least have a dialogue with the state when a project is planned. That's probably a good thing. It won't have an impact on our relationship with the state."
Democrats facing Tuesday runoff
Aug. 16, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By Bruce Buchanan
© Copyright 2004
Although many North Carolina voters may not realize it, there will be a statewide election Tuesday.
June Atkinson and Marshall Stewart will compete in a run-off election to determine the Democratic nominee for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Stewart drew more than 135,000 votes in the June primary, about 3,000 more than Atkinson.
Atkinson, a long-time Department of Public Instruction administrator, touts her experience. She joined the department in 1976 and has worked on most of the state's major education initiatives, ranging from standardized testing to putting computers in schools, as the department's Director of Instructional Services.
"I've already developed a trust with the state school-board members," Atkinson, 55, said. "I won't have a learning curve."
But Stewart, the former state agricultural education coordinator for N.C. State and a former executive for the National FFA (formerly the Future Farmers of America), said he brings an outsider's perspective that the average parent can relate to.
"This job is about advocating for children; it's not about advocating for the bureaucracy or the status quo," Stewart, 41, said. He said he worked with members of Congress and visited 600 public high schools across the nation while with the FFA.
Stewart said raising teacher pay will be a priority if he is elected. He wants to put the state in the top 10 nationally in average teacher pay. North Carolina ranks 23rd among the 50 states and District of Columbia in average teacher pay, according to a national teacher-salary survey released in July by the American Federation of Teachers. He also said the department must improve the professional development teachers receive.
Atkinson said she would reform the state's high schools, particularly ninth grade. Ninth-graders account for 60 percent of the state's dropouts. Struggling freshmen need smaller classes and extra help, she said.
She also said she would work with legislators to find more money for schools.
"Money is an issue," Atkinson said. "It's hard to provide extra assistance if you don't have the funds to hire a teacher."
Tuesday's race may be decided by a relatively small number of voters.
Gary Bartlett, executive director of the N.C. Board of Elections, said turnout in second-primary elections since 1990 has ranged from 19 percent in a U.S. Senate runoff to 2.5 percent in a Labor Commissioner race.
"I would say we'll be closer to the low end," Bartlett said. The runoff election will cost the state about $3 million.
The winner will face Republican Bill Fletcher, a long-time member of the Wake County Board of Education, in the November general election.
Mike Ward, state superintendent since 1996, didn't run for a third term in office. In fact, Ward is stepping down at the end of the month. An interim successor has not been named.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt supported J.B. Buxton, Gov. Mike Easley's former senior education advisor and a former education official in the Clinton White House, in the Democratic primary. But Buxton finished third behind Atkinson and Stewart. Neither Easley nor Hunt has endorsed a candidate in the runoff.
Local College Students Move In Under Less Than Ideal Conditions
Aug. 16, 2004
WRAL
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. -- This weekend was "move-in" weekend for many college students.
Usually, the moving is done in blazing August heat. But, this time, moving day offered a soggy, dreary start to the school year.
Moving containers, boxes and refrigerators into a college dorm is hard enough. But doing it in the rain is even worse.
"I'm just moving everything as fast as I can before it starts pouring down," Meredith College junior Whitney Picard said Sunday.
Although students and parents at both Meredith and North Carolina State University had a rainy move-in day Sunday. they felt prepared with their tarps, umbrellas and carts.
"I hate it," said Wayne Pendergrass, father of an N.C. State student. "But I got prepared this time and got a set of hand trucks."
Instead of moving in on Saturday, when Hurricane Charley made his arrival, a lot of local college students and their parents decided to move Sunday. Some of them said that was a mistake.
"We were going to come yesterday, " said NCSU parent Carter Jones. "But we were watching the news the whole time about Charley, and I figured it was going to be horizontal rain yesterday. So, we decided to wait and come today. We probably would have missed the rain yesterday."
NCSU student Mitali Patel moved in Friday. But Sunday's rain still caused problems.
"It's slippery in the halls," Patel said. "It's definitely slippery. I kind of, like, slipped and sprained my ankle."
On those slippery halls, hundreds of freshmen were ready to start new lives with high expectations from their parents.
"Go to church, work hard, and we just want the best for him," said NCSU parent Linda Cannon.
Students could not wait much longer for the weather to clear up. Classes start on Wednesday.
Glazier in group discussing trade
Aug. 16, 2004
Fayetteville Observer
By Don Worthington
© Copyright 2004
The top Israeli diplomat for the southeastern United States met with state Rep. Rick Glazier and other state officials Wednesday in Raleigh.
The diplomat, Consul General Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, spoke about cultural exchange and business, economic development and trade possibilities between North Carolina and Israel, Glazier said. Israel or Israeli firms could also offer training to local agencies and companies on security issues, he said.
State Rep. Stan Fox of Oxford, interim Chancellor Robert Barnhardt of N.C. State University and members of a Raleigh-based Jewish organization were among those who met with Ben-Shmuel.
Steven Green, a spokesman for Ben-Shmuel (and a Fayetteville native), said Ben-Shmuel is visiting officials from throughout the southeastern United States to discuss ways their states can work with Israel.
Aug. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By ROB CHRISTENSEN
© Copyright 2004
CATAWBA -- Sheriff David Huffman knows the folkways of the Balls Creek Camp Meeting by heart, having spent his Augusts for the past 50 years listening to Methodist preaching, smelling ham biscuits and heeding the 11 o'clock bell signaling lights out.
But as he makes his way down the streets of cabins -- called "tents" locally -- that have been in families for generations, Huffman is hearing something new.
"Your buddy sends me something once or twice a day," Udean Burke, owner of a Christian travel agency, says with a large dollop of irony. "He tells me all the good things you are doing."
In fact, everywhere Huffman goes, longtime friends and neighbors say they have received a barrage of negative campaign mailings and telephone calls from Huffman's opponent, state Rep. Patrick McHenry, in Tuesday's GOP runoff in the 10th Congressional District.
And Huffman -- despite being a political power in the Hickory area for a quarter century, first as county commissioner and for the past 22 years as Catawba County sheriff -- is clearly worried.
"I thought I was a pretty good guy until I started running for office," Huffman tells Burke. "I'm the lowest thing in the county now. Oh, lordy."
In the closing days of the runoff, the contest has become increasingly rough. Both sides are trading barbs and charges of wasteful junkets, late-night parties and illegal campaign contributions.
The negative campaigning reflects the high stakes Tuesday, when, if history is any guide, voters could be choosing their congressman for the next generation.
Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger of Hickory is retiring after 20 years in office. Before him, Jim Broyhill, another Republican, held the seat for 23 years. Democrat Anne Fischer, a Morganton teacher, faces long odds in November.
The runoff is also a classic battle between old and new politics; between a 58-year-old popular, folksy sheriff and a 28-year-old operative in the national conservative movement; and between traditional courthouse politics and aggressive, high-tech campaigning.
Bible Belt politics
The district, stretching across 10 counties in the western Piedmont and foothills, is the most blue-collar congressional district in the country. And it has been hit hard by job losses, particularly in textiles and furniture.
But in the primary July 20, the losers were two millionaire businessmen, George Moretz and Sandy Lyons, who stressed economic issues. Huffman finished with 34 percent of the vote, and McHenry won 26 percent.
In their runoff, overshadowing the economy have been cultural issues -- principally guns, God and gays.
In a district in the heart of the Bible Belt, both Huffman and McHenry have stressed their opposition to abortion, gun control and same-sex marriage while affirming the importance of keeping God in the public square.
"David is just like me," says Huffman supporter Gene Sigmon, 63, a Newton lawyer and former captain of the UNC-Chapel Hill football team as he stands on his cabin porch at the camp meeting. "He grew up rabbit hunting and quail hunting. He knows about the Second Amendment right. He's the best man in this race to protect my right to keep on hunting and fishing."
Appearing before a group of supporters at a Shelby hotel last week, McHenry called for conservatives to become more "proactive" and less defensive on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
"It is time for those of us who believe in traditional values to take on the task of fighting for and defending our way of life," McHenry said.
McHenry momentum
Huffman started the race as the front-runner, as sheriff of the largest county in the district and with the backing of GOP establishment figures such as Broyhill and former Sen. Lauch Faircloth.
The contrast in styles between Huffman and McHenry could hardly be greater. As Huffman spends a leisurely evening working the Balls Creek Camp Meeting, he seems to know everybody and their family histories. McHenry seems more focused, regularly checking his Blackberry hand-held computer for messages from his campaign network. His campaign has sent out at least 20 mailings to likely voters.
Despite his youth, McHenry is a political pro who is engaged in his sixth political race. He came up through the college Republican group at N.C. State University and headed the statewide college Republicans. By age 22, he had defeated the chairman of the Gaston County commissioners in a GOP state House primary.
He lost that 1998 race but went on to lead the George W. Bush presidential campaign's college outreach effort in 2000, was a Bush operative in Florida during the ballot-counting battles, was an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and was elected to the state House in 2002.
McHenry appears to be coming on strong. He has won the endorsement of the two primary also-rans, Moretz and Lyons, plus incumbent Ballenger and Congresswoman Sue Myrick of Charlotte. Recently the conservative Club for Growth announced a $115,000 television buy on McHenry's behalf.
"Patrick is suited for this," said state Rep. Tim Moore of Kings Mountain. "He worked in Washington. He worked as a presidential appointee. He worked on a presidential campaign. He ran a successful House race. He knows what he is doing."
McHenry has managed to put Huffman on the defensive, criticizing him for attending sheriffs' conferences at government expense and for saying nice things about President Clinton while serving on a national task force looking into a series of church burnings across the South.
McHenry, along with Moretz and Lyons, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Huffman did not properly report a $100,000 loan from veteran GOP money-raiser Dean Proctor. Huffman originally reported that he loaned himself the money but later said that was a bookkeeping error.
McHenry has also pushed for a debate, but the less articulate Huffman has declined.
Huffman has also criticized McHenry, questioning "young Patrick's" experience, noting that he moved into the district only days before announcing his candidacy and charging that he lists himself as a real estate agent but never set up a real estate business.
In one radio ad, Huffman accuses McHenry of holding loud parties at his home in Cherryville. McHenry denied the allegation and got six of his neighbors to sign a letter saying they knew nothing about any such soirees.
"If you invited more people to those late-night gatherings down there, you might get more votes," Nancy Moore of Shelby said jokingly at a reception for McHenry.
The increasingly sour tenor of the race reflects its uncertainty and closeness. And many voters don't like it.
"I've heard enough negative," Billy Estes, 49, a maintenance worker at a Baptist church, told McHenry at the Shelby reception. "I've heard too much. I've seen too much. I've read too much. Tell the good stuff. I've heard enough of the bad stuff."
A Few Tips to Curb the Recent Millipede Invasion
Aug. 14, 2004
Southern Pines Pilot
By LINDA GORE
© Copyright 2004
Those pesky, annoying worms. They’re everywhere. They show up in bathrooms, kitchens, particularly around the tubs and sinks (obvious sources of moisture), on walls, garages and basements.
The common garden millipede is dark brown to black, about an inch long and has two legs per body segment.
Millipedes are showing up almost anywhere indoors where they proceed literally to curl up and die, according to Dr. Michael Waldvogel, entomologist at N.C. State University. The problem seems to increase with excessive rain which forces millipedes to seek higher ground or with hot dry weather when they move in search of moisture.
The good news is that millipedes do not bite people, do not vector disease, do not eat your food and only on occasion do minor damage to plants.
The bad news is their appearance and eventual disappearance is about as predictable as the weather.
What can we do? According to Dr. Waldvogel, start with caulking/sealing obvious gaps through which the critters can invade. Pesticides are frequently a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Simply vacuuming up the critters, or using a dustpan and broom is far safer. However, millipedes secrete a compound that has an unpleasant odor, which is apparently used defensively to reduce the impact of would-be predators such as birds, spiders and centipedes. As a result, make sure you empty the vacuum after using it to collect millipedes.
If you are going to spray outside, use enough to saturate the soil below the mulch or grass. Any of the common outdoor insecticides that you find at the large retail stores and hardware stores can be used. They (millipedes) don’t last forever, a few weeks at best.
Although annoying, millipedes do serve their purpose. They’re among the decomposers that are responsible for the decomposition of organic wastes such as leaves and grass clippings.
Millipede Management Tips:
If you have questions or need additional information, contact the Cooperative Extension Service at 947-3188.
College freshmen should take note of this disease
Aug. 15, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By GINA GOFF
© Copyright 2004
I have a guest columnist this week. She is preparing to make the leap to college life at N.C. State University.
In so doing, she learned about a disease that disproportionately affects college freshman living in dormitories. She wanted to share her new-found knowledge with all of you.
Allison Goff is the writer. Yes, she is my daughter, whom I will miss tremendously while she's away at school.
Meningococcal meningitis
As I was sifting through about 10 million pages of information sent to me by N.C. State University, where I will begin classes this week, I found a sheet informing me about the importance of getting a vaccination against a disease called meningococcal meningitis.I spent about five minutes just trying to figure out how to say the complicated medical term (pronounced meh-nin-jah-cockle men-in-jye-tiss, for those who are interested). Since I am not the only 18-year-old in Cabarrus County preparing to enter college, I decided to share a bit of information I found in researching meningococcal meningitis and its relation to college freshmen.
In plain English, meningococcal meningitis -- also referred to as meningococcal disease -- causes inflammation of the membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain, resulting in symptoms of high fever, headache and stiff neck. Other symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, confusion and sleepiness.
Symptoms tend to progress rapidly over a few hours, and if the disease is allowed to progress, the patient may experience seizures. The scariest part of all is that the disease can be fatal. That was enough to encourage me to get vaccinated!
Two separate studies done in the early and mid-'90s found that overall incidence of the disease was low: The incidence of disease was no higher among college students than in people of the same age who were not enrolled in college.
That makes you think it's no big deal, right?
I kept reading, however, and saw that on the college campuses involved in the studies, rates of the disease increased among students who lived in dormitories. One study even said the disease occurred nine to 23 times more often among students residing in dormitories as compared to students residing in other types of accommodations.
Evidently this issue was serious, because the United States began surveillance of meningococcal disease in college students in 1998.
Data from the first year of U.S. surveillance reported that occurrence of meningococcal disease was actually lower in undergraduate college students than in persons of the same age not enrolled in college -- once again, kind of reassuring to me. But the data also reported that certain subgroups within colleges were more likely to be infected, specifically college freshmen residing in dormitories.
Yes, that would be me. In fact, this subgroup experienced the highest rate of infection, placing second only to children age 2 and younger.
Further studies reported the same information regarding freshmen living in dormitories but found that radiator heat, recent upper respiratory infection and being Caucasian were all associated with the disease.
Studies in the United Kingdom reported findings similar to those in the United States, discovering that universities providing housing for greater than 10 percent of their students experienced a higher rate of disease.
On Oct. 22, 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that incoming college freshmen and their parents be provided with information regarding meningococcal meningitis and be given access to vaccination should they choose to reduce their risk.
In response to the findings and recommendations made by the CDC, the N.C. House passed a law stating that any private or public institution that offers a postsecondary degree must "provide meningococcal disease information to students if the institution has a residential campus."
Now I know why one of my 10 million pieces of paper from school focused on meningococcal meningitis.
While most colleges do not require this vaccination for incoming freshmen, many recommend it. Incoming college freshmen or upperclassmen who want to reduce their risk of contracting meningococcal meningitis infection should seek out and receive the vaccination. The vaccination is safe and can be taken by anyone.
Vaccination against meningococcal meningitis is available at doctors' offices as well as at the Cabarrus Health Alliance. You can also get more information from them, the CDC Web site, www.cdc.gov, and most college Web sites.
Aug. 15, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By Marta Hummel
© Copyright 2004
Pay for performance. Profit sharing. Licensing fees. A few years ago such business lingo would have been reserved for corporate America.
Now the terms underlie UNCG's bid to remake itself from another liberal arts school in the UNC system into an entrepreneurial laboratory capable of luring millions from industry, the federal government and other outside sources.
To achieve its goals, the school has embraced free-market reforms more akin to Citigroup than academia. It's paying top dollar for talent and promising lucrative benefits for those professors whose research leads to a business that generates money for the university.
UNCG has also sponsored research contests to spur innovation and hired consultants to teach faculty members how to polish their grant-writing skills in hopes of winning a portion of the $50 million the school hopes to win in outside research dollars by 2008.
The moves come as universities across the region and nation are refashioning themselves into business incubators and churning out patents in hopes of finding the next Gatorade, created decades ago at the University of Florida.
They also come one year after UNCG -- once the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, which focused on preparing teachers -- affirmed a mission statement asserting its role as an economic developer for the Triad and the state.
Whether UNCG will succeed depends on the administration's ability to convince faculty across all its departments that the reforms will benefit them, say investors.
It also depends on whether the school can find ways to win licensing fees and start businesses without a medical or engineering school, by far the two areas with the most commercially viable research for universities.
"You can't edict culture change -- the chancellor can't write a letter to the faculty and say 'We're going to be entrepreneurs!' " said Jerry McGuire, the head of the school's Office of Technology Transfer, which promotes the school's research to industry and investors. "But you can set the table for it."
Spending money to make money
In a highly unusual move, the school recently hired two chemists, Patricia Reggio from Kennesaw State University and Phillip Bowen from the University of Georgia, as full-tenured professors.
"We're not going to get that $50 million goal if we limit ourselves to just hiring brand-new Ph.D.s," the university's normal practice, UNCG Chancellor Patricia Sullivan said.
Reggio and Bowen make $88,000 and $85,000, respectively. While the money does not stand out nationally, it does on campus.
Nationally, the average salary for full-time tenure-track faculty at public universities with doctoral programs ranges from $56,277 to $94,606, according to 2003-2004 statistics compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Salaries in the UNCG chemistry department range from $40,000 to $88,000 for full-time tenure-track faculty, with an average of $51,000, said Sean Olson, a spokesman for the university.
UNCG is also changing the way faculty are paid to foster entrepreneurship. Starting this fall, faculty whose ideas or inventions are licensed will earn 50 percent of the fees the school earns from their intellectual property, up from about 15 percent.
The new rates compare favorably with other state schools.
UNC-Chapel Hill offers professors 40 percent of the revenue generated by inventions; N.C. State's package is negotiable, but the standard is 40 percent.
N.C. A&T offers professors 50 percent up to $500,000, after which the percentage drops to 35 percent. Wake Forest University offers 35 percent of proceeds.
Behind the curve but making progress
UNCG is late in trying to turn its research into profits. In 1980, Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which required institutions that receive federal funding to look for ways to commercialize their research. But it wasn't until 2002 that the university established its technology transfer office, long after many schools.
UNCG has spun off two companies, EcoGenomix Inc. and SERVE Inc., since 2002 and has six patent applications under review. EcoGenomix makes a chip that analyzes water and can be used to detect everything from lead to biological weapons. SERVE creates K-12 curriculum and teacher training materials.
By comparison, UNC-CH filed 83 patent applications, received 34 patents, and started two companies in 2003 alone.
McGuire expects the first patent to be awarded to UNCG in 2005 and two or three others in 2006.
While the number of invention "disclosures" that professors have submitted is small compared with other schools, it is increasing. Disclosures are reports on research or inventions that professors think may have commercial value.
UNCG expects 17 this school year, up from a total of 25 over the past two years, McGuire said. By comparison, professors at UNC-CH reported 86 inventions in 2003.
Neither Sullivan nor McGuire would say how much money they would like to make out of technology transfer, but they confirm they would like to reap a steady income in the next five years. Last year, UNC-CH made about $1.1 million from licensing fees and N.C. State made about $4 million, according to their technology transfer offices.
An official with the N.C. Biotechnology Center, which promotes the life sciences industry in the state and frequently works with universities, said turning technology transfer offices into profit centers is a long-term process.
"You have to recognize that it's never easy to merge cultures," said Steven Burke, senior vice president of corporate affairs. "The long-established history of the university and the long-established history of business have been very different."
The path to riches is not always level
Aside from the culture clash Burke mentioned, the main stumbling blocks to transforming the school seem to be time and the lingering skepticism of some faculty who are not sure how the changes will affect their work.
McGuire says about 25 percent to 30 percent have fully bought into the idea, while the rest are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Ruth DeHoog, the head of the department of political science, said some areas have few funding opportunities, like political theory and public law, where it's harder to make connections between the classroom and everyday life.
"Professors in those areas do feel left out from the rewards system," DeHoog said.
The interim head of the history department, Karl Schleunes, said the changes are an "issue" for faculty, but one that professors in the social sciences and humanities are facing across the nation.
"Across the board many politicians are asking schools, 'How useful are you?', which has led to increased funding for business schools and hard sciences," he said.
The other issue is one the school has made for itself by investing in departments that likely will not generate cash.
This fall UNCG launches doctoral programs in economics, geography, history and special education. While the school has licensed curricula, the topics are areas where publishing, not starting businesses, is the career yardstick.
Some rewards are not monetary
Venture capitalists who have invested in university spinoffs say UNCG is making changes that will spur innovation -- and possibly generate income down the road.
Universities need to attract world-class talent, set up a pay scale that rewards business-minded professors and preach the message loudly through internal reforms, said Dr. Brad Walters of Academy Funds, a former professor at UNC-CH, and Jeff Clark at Aurora Funds.
Both emphasized, however, how difficult it is to strike it rich. The chance of discovering a product like Gatorade is as small as winning the lottery, they said.
But even if the school does not become an economic engine, the reforms are helping to create research alliances with other schools and institutions that could potentially improve the well-being of people in the region, another goal of the university, say administration officials.
UNCG and Duke University researchers are currently working together to create a system to genetically identify and psychologically test children who are predisposed to attention-deficit disorder.
Bowen, the chemist who left the University of Georgia and will begin teaching this fall at UNCG, is working on projects as diverse as blocking fire ants, a scourge to other Southern states, from North Carolina and creating medicine that will stop cancer tumors from growing, he said.
By extending UNCG's reach into the sciences and health, the administration is tying itself to research that has proved successful for other schools, such as Wake Forest University and UNC-CH. However, the university's strong ties to the liberal arts mean it's striking out on its own into risky territory.
"If you gave me a list of the main partnerships at universities, you would see pretty regularly that they are life science and technology based," said Burke of the N.C. Biotechnology Center.
"It's computers and engineering that the world really wants," he said. "That isn't going to change."
Aug. 15, 2004
Winston-Salem Journal
By Tom Patterson
© Copyright 2004
SEAGROVE - Clara "Kitty" Couch dedicated her early adult life to her responsibilities as a wife and mother. She raised four daughters in Charlotte and did community-service work in her spare time. But she spent the last 40 years of her life as an artist who traveled the globe when she wasn't in her Burnsville studio making the elegant, thin-walled ceramic vessels that were her specialty.
Couch was 82 in early January, when she was killed in a traffic accident in Vietnam. At the time she was among four ceramic artists from the Southeast whose careers were soon to be celebrated in an exhibition. Plans for the exhibition continued despite her death, which startled and saddened her many friends on the regional art scene, and the show recently opened at the N. C. Pottery Center.
"Four Women in Clay" includes three of Couch's vessels and 20 works by the other artists, and the exhibition is dedicated to Couch's memory. It was organized by Lynne Jones Ennis, the curator of the N.C State University Gallery of Art & Design, where it was initially shown in the spring.
Couch's works and others by ceramic artists Jennie Bireline, Virginia Scotchie and Lydia Thompson are on view at the Pottery Center through Sept. 18, and the
show is scheduled to go on view again from February to March of next year at Villa Julie College in Baltimore.
Ennis conceived the exhibition as a start-to-finish documentation of the creative process, as she wrote in her introductory essay for the accompanying catalog. "We imagined an opportunity to follow artists as they made work for a show, asking them to keep a journal as they moved from idea to object," Ennis wrote.
Facsimile copies of the resultant journals have been collected in a notebook that also contains related drawings and photographs. The notebook is on display at the Pottery Center with the works that originated from those journals.
The exhibition catalog includes photographs of works that each artist created for the show, photographs of the artists in their studios and Ennis' accounts of how each artist's career has developed.
According to Ennis, Couch led a life that was "comfortable and predictable" until she visited Europe for the first time in 1963 and was so inspired by the art she saw there that she "came home a changed woman."
Then in her early 40s, Couch returned to school, earned an art degree from Sacred Heart College in Belmont and went on to earn a graduate degree from the New York School of Ceramic Art at Alfred University.
Couch later taught ceramics at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. After her husband's death in 1982, she spent much of her time and created most of her art in a studio overlooking a pond at the home they had shared in Burnsville.
"She was always seeking to understand herself and the world at large, and in her later life she turned to the spiritual practice of Buddhism," Ennis wrote.
Not long before her death, Couch described her works as "symbolic containers that seek to replicate the spiral movement of the earth." And in summarizing the conceptual basis for her art, Couch wrote, "It is about my relationship to the natural world of form and its mysterious content."
Couch was the senior artist among the four whose works are on exhibit. The only other North Carolinian in the group is Bireline, who lives in Raleigh and creates off-centered, asymmetrical, coil- and slab-built pots with geometric-abstract surface designs.
Scotchie lives in Columbia, S.C., and makes vessels and vessel-referenced works that are sometimes punctured with holes, rendering them nonfunctional. Thompson, who lives in Richmond, Va., specializes in architecturally referenced figural sculptures.
Like other exhibitions that have been presented at the N.C. Pottery Center since it opened nearly six years ago, "Four Women in Clay" is on view in the center's main building, a 5,760-square-foot, two-story building designed by Raleigh architect Frank Harmon. In addition to its exhibition areas, the building also contains a gift shop, offices, storage space for the center's permanent collection and a multipurpose, kitchen-equipped room.
Located on nine acres along N.C. 705 in the heart of Seagrove, the center also includes a remodeled, two-story house with a kitchen and rooms that are being converted into a reference library, as well as lodging for interns, visiting potters and pottery scholars.
The center has an education building with pottery wheels, other clay-working equipment, electric kilns and ready access to several nearby wood-fired kilns.
The official mission of the center, a nonprofit, is to "promote public awareness and appreciation of the history, heritage and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina through exhibitions, educational programs, public services, collection and preservation, and research and documentation."
A permanent historical display, also in the main building, uses texts, photos and other illustrations to trace the development of pottery in the state. It details the state's longstanding pottery tradition, extending up to the contemporary era, as represented by ceramic artists such as those included in "Four Women in Clay." The historical display is being redesigned and reconfigured, and the new, improved version is scheduled to open in January.
The center's new executive director as of early May is Denny Mecham, who was the director of the Waterworks Visual Art Center in Salisbury from 1998 until this spring.
In a recent interview, Mecham said that next year she and the center's board of directors will begin to develop a master plan to incorporate a review of the center's mission and public programs. She said that the plan will also cover the landscaping of the center's grounds to accommodate naturalized plantings, outdoor artworks and areas designed for public events.
• "Four Women in Clay" will remain on view at the N.C. Pottery Center through Sept. 28. The center is at 250 East Ave. in Seagrove, a little more than 50 miles from Winston-Salem by way of I-40 east, U.S. 220 south and N.C. 705. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (336) 873-8430.
Tobacco tops $151 average in first auction of 2004 season
Aug. 14, 2004
Roxboro Courier Times
By PHYLISS BOATWRIGHT
© Copyright 2004
Hyco Tobacco Warehouse opened the 2004 auction season Thursday by selling 51,479 pounds of flue-cured tobacco at an average price of $1.51.53.
Hyco owner Jack Hester said the auction season got off to a good start, with “not much carryover” leaf for sale. With mostly new leaf from this year’s crop at auction and a “pretty good crowd” in attendance, Hester said, he was pleased with the first of this year’s sales.
Although the auction itself is much different than in the past, with hand-held computers replacing the chant of the auctioneer, Hester said he was still pleased to be able to offer tobacco growers in Person County an alternative to contracting with a tobacco company.
Hester reopened Hyco Warehouse as an auction site last year, after serving as a buying station for Standard Commercial Corp. in Wilson for two years. When the tobacco company that had bought contracted leaf from growers suddenly pulled out, Hester then decided to offer his neighbors an alternative means of selling their tobacco.
Last August, he did just that, with the first “traditional” auction to be held in the county in two years.
Hester said this week’s first sale of 2004 was “pretty much like last year’s” and that “things went about like we expected” as far as price, pounds sold and attendance.
Hester said he plans to hold a sale each week throughout the season. Next week’s sale will begin on Thursday, Aug. 19, at 9 a.m.
Rob Satterfield with the Farm Service Agency said last month that growers planted 3,110 acres of tobacco in Person County this year. That is up slightly from last year’s 2,800 acres.
Person County Cooperative Extension Service Director Derek Day recently said this year’s crop looked to be one of the best in recent history, although it was also one of the smallest ever.
Since 1997, tobacco growers have seen their quotas cut by more than half. Blake Brown, an agricultural economist at N.C. State University has predicted additional cuts of at least 30 percent in 2005.
Aug. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
N.C. State University strongly encourages students to wait until Sunday to move in. The Departments of University Housing and Transportation will be on site all day Sunday to provide assistance unloading and moving items into the residence halls.
Aug. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By DAVID RANII
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- The fact that N.C. State University encouraged students to wait until today to move into their dorms -- in deference to looming Hurricane Charley -- was extra incentive for Travis Collier and his parents to arrive Saturday.
Avoid the rush, they were thinking. "We figured the majority of people were going to heed the warning and wait," said Margaret Collier, 44, of Fayetteville.
Travis Collier, an 18-year-old freshman, can only hope he does so well on his first college exam.
When he and his parents arrived on campus about 9:30 Saturday morning, they easily found a parking space near his residence hall. The weather wasn't great -- gray and drizzly -- but it posed no real problems. And there were no lines to contend with -- not the norm for the fall semester's first big move-in day for Triangle colleges and universities.
With fewer students moving in Saturday, "there was no waiting at the elevators," said Susan Grant, associate director of university housing at NCSU. "There was no waiting at check-in."
But there was a downside for students who moved in Saturday, Grant added.
The university normally has an army of student volunteers who help arriving students, and their parents, tote their clothes, televisions, microwaves and mini-refrigerators from their cars to their dorm rooms. But the volunteers weren't available Saturday.
The hurricane certainly was a concern for parents such as Bill and Becky Beasley of Gastonia, who moved their daughter Ashley, a freshman, into her dorm Saturday morning. But the Gastonia couple studied the weather reports and concluded that if they arrived at mid-morning they would have plenty of time to unpack before the worst of the weather hit.
"I'm ready for her to get out of the house," said Bill Beasley as he feigned a kick in his daughter's direction. "It's time to separate."
Move-in day traffic at Meredith College in Raleigh also was lighter than usual Saturday morning because of the weather. Thursday evening, Meredith had sent e-mail messages to first-year students inviting them to beat the weather by arriving Friday, a day early.
About 130 of the more than 400 incoming freshmen took advantage of the early move-in date, said Heidi LeCount, director of residential life.
Those who arrived Saturday morning were greeted by a gaggle of student volunteers clad in amber, see-through ponchos that protected them from the rain. Two of the volunteers supplemented their ponchos with snorkeling regalia. One of them, Jennifer Noel, a junior from Fuquay-Varina, wore a scuba mask and snorkel, an orange life vest and a purple foam "noodle."
"I've got to be prepared in case we have floods out here," Noel deadpanned.
By mid-afternoon at Shaw University in Raleigh, where freshmen began moving in Thursday, a steady downpour was dousing the last remaining trickle of students and their parents.
Karen Cash, 18, admitted to being both excited and nervous about going to college. The inclement weather didn't daunt her.
"I've got my daddy," she said. "He's going to get all my stuff and carry it up to the room."
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By JACK HAGEL
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- Mission Valley shopping center sits between N.C. State University's two major campuses like a heart between two lungs. And it's about to undergo minor surgery.
A planned Kroger grocery and walking paths connecting the center and the university's 1,130-acre Centennial Campus will be the pacemaker and arteries that will pump lifeblood -- students -- to the center with more regularity.
It's part of a scheme to expand the center's retail space by about 25 percent. And it comes at a time when Kroger and the 31-year-old shopping center -- which has used its tenant mix of a laundromat, coffee shop, record and book stores, liquor store and restaurants to lure students and maintain full occupancy -- can cash in on the booming student housing market near Avent Ferry Road and Western Boulevard.
Housing for roughly 1,500 students will be finished this year within a mile of Mission Valley.
"A lot of people are going to the Food Lion centers because there's no grocery store here at Mission Valley," said George York, vice president of York Properties' retail division, referring to two nearby Food Lions. Students also go to a Harris Teeter at Cameron Village.
"They can come here to eat and they can come here for enjoyment, to rent a movie or whatever, but it's not one-stop shopping without a grocery store," York said. "So it adds a whole new element. And hopefully people will be coming to Kroger and discover things that they haven't seen before at Mission Valley."
The addition of a large retailer could affect the bottom line of smaller tenants by decreasing taxes, insurance, common area maintenance costs and other expenses that are determined by square footage, he said.
In the first phase, expected to begin in October, the York Family Properties subsidiary that owns the shopping center will build a two-story, 8,000-square-foot building adjacent to the 48-unit Mission Valley Garden apartment complex. Blockbuster will occupy the 5,000-square-foot top floor. And two 1,500-square-foot spaces, to which York is trying to lure an ice cream shop and another restaurant, will exist below. That construction, along with repaving the parking lot, repainting the center's faded green facade and sprucing up signs, will cost about $2.5 million.
Once Blockbuster moves, its old home will be torn down and a 40,000-square-foot Kroger will be erected. It will feature about 27,000 square feet of retail space on the ground level and roughly 13,000 square feet of storage and preparation area below. It is expected to open in the first quarter of 2006.
Most Kroger stores are between 45,000 and 60,000 square feet. Kroger has not decided on how to stock the store but it could be tailored to suit collegiate customers with ready-to-go meals, fresh foods and smaller versions of the departments found in larger Krogers, spokesman Carl York said.
Although a smaller Kroger could mean less selection and repel potential customers, there's still plenty of built-in demand, said Andrew Jenkins, a former NCSU student who is now a managing partner at Karnes Research, a Raleigh firm that tracks commercial real estate.
"You don't need to have 25 different types of pasta when you're a student. You just need pasta."
Aug. 15, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
Marshall Stewart (D)
2812 Old Crews Road
Raleigh, NC 27616
919-872.0912
E-mail: marshallstewart@bellsouth.net
Web site: www.stewartforstudents.org
Age: 41
Place of Birth: Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Resident of district since: Living in Wake County since January 1996.
Employer: N.C. State University (through January 16, 2004) -- resigned to campaign
Job description: Since Jan. 1, 1996, I have served as State Agricultural Education Coordinator/State FFA Advisor for the State of North Carolina.
Family
Spouse: Jan Jernigan Stewart
Children: John, 11
Education
High School: Midway High School, Sampson County Schools
College: N.C. State University, BS, Education, 1986; NCSU, MS, Education, 1994; NCSU, Ed.D, Education, 2003
Offices held
None
Personal and Political
Interests and hobbies: I really enjoy time with my family, fishing, reading, traveling and writing.
Favorite TV show: Andy Griffin reruns
Hero: My father, the Rev. R.M. Stewart (1932-1999)
Favorite book: Bible
Self-ranking on political scale (1-extremely conservative, 2-very conservative, 3-moderately conservative, 4-mildly conservative, 5-middle-of-the-road, 6-mildly liberal, 7-moderately liberal, 8-very liberal, 9-extremely liberal): 5 -- I have very strong values that are based on my faith. I believe that it is imperative that we bring greater civility to our political process and find "common ground" upon which we can build a stronger North Carolina for all of our citizens.
Self-written description of political philosophy: I am a strong believer in the idea that to those that much is given, much is required. I have tried to live my life by that ideal that were instilled in me by my family. This is the cornerstone of my life and drives to me to find ways to serve others and to assure that all voices are heard. Our lives should be more centered on giving and helping one another, rather than seeking our own greatness. We must find ways politically to assure that as we make decisions that we embrace the ideas of diverse audiences and that all voices are heard and respected. North Carolina is a diverse state and that requires leadership that listens and responds to the needs and concerns of the citizens. My philosophy is based on the idea that we must make decisions that reflect a respect for one another and that enable us to ensure that all children receive a high quality education and a future filled with positive possibilities if we are to succeed as a state and nation.
Candidate Questionnaire
The following responses were not edited:
What would be your top priorities in office?
My priorities are focused on student achievement and quality teaching. We must ensure that all children receive a high quality education regardless of where they live. The is a right of all children. As a part of that we must make sure that all children are able to read at grade level. Reading is central to a students success in school and in life. Second, we must have a quality teacher in every classroom. Quality teachers are called to the profession. We must recruit, retain and reward teachers. We can do this by moving our teacher salaries to top 10 in the nation and making sure that our public school facilities are quality learning environments. Our state must consider a bond referendum for our public schools in the near future if we are to have adequate classrooms to serve our students.
Finally, we must focus everything that we do in education on the children we serve. All too often we forget the child. They are the reason we exist and we are here to serve them. We have allowed the over-emphasis on high stakes testing to take away the joy and excitment of teaching and learning. We need strong state leadership to ensure public confidence in the public schools.
Why are you qualified to hold this office? Why should you be elected?
My qualifications are based on a career of service in education and youth development. I am a product of North Carolina's public schools and drove a public school bus as a senior in high school. I taught in Sampson County public schools. Additionally, I have worked with educational leaders in all fifty states and helped to shape state and national educational policy. However, most imporantly I have a deep commitment to children and understand "first-hand" what it means to graduate from and teach in a public school in North Carolina.
Evaluate the performance of the incumbent(s) in this office (even if you are an incumbent).
I believe Dr. Ward has done an admirable job of guiding North Carolina's public schools through a most challenging times. There are higher expectations on our schools than ever before and he has been effective in leading through this transition.
Editorial: A promising new path for UNCG
Aug. 15, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
Experts have long touted colleges and universities as largely untapped economic engines that can help communities reinvent themselves. Back in 2000 when the McKinsey report made front-page news in this paper, imploring Greensboro to chart a new economic course or face dire consequences, the city's five institutions of higher education were singled out as keys.
All too often these kinds of assessments wind up on some bureaucrat's bookshelf. Fortunately that's not been the case in Greensboro. The powers that be at UNCG obviously heard the message loud and clear.
In the years after McKinsey, the university began laying the groundwork to enable UNCG, as a center of knowledge and research, to create new companies and new jobs. In 2002 it opened a technology transfer office to help faculty members turn their research into products the public will buy.
Now the university is upping the ante, paying top salaries for senior researchers and offering faculty a huge incentive to become entrepreneurs -- 50 percent of what the school earns from their ideas or inventions. (N.C. A&T already does so). UNCG also has hired consultants to help faculty in their quest for lucrative research dollars and sponsored research contests. Among its current projects: a joint effort with Duke University developing diagnostic indicators and genetic markers for detecting Attention Deficit Disorder in children.
Truth be told, UNCG is playing catch-up. Other schools, such as N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill, began reaping the benefits of technology transfer years ago. They reportedly netted $4 million and $1.1 million, respectively, in licensing fees last year. A&T is pursuing research agreements with engineers and scientists at seven institutes of technology in India in hopes of creating jobs in biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology.
One note of caution: UNCG must take care not to abandon its roots in the humanities, for which it is best known. Producing well-rounded students and creative thinkers who contribute to their communities is what it does best.
Given UNCG's past, the interest in commercializing research has been met with skepticism from some faculty. But with four new doctoral programs set to begin this fall -- in history, special education, geography and economics -- the university appears to be spreading its investments.
That's wise. UNCG needn't sell its soul in its pursuit to become a business incubator.
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By Lynn Bonner
© Copyright 2004
Even if you're sick of the hurricane warnings, don't let down your guard.
The first three named storms of the season, Alex, Bonnie and Charley, have had the state on edge for two weeks. But hurricane season isn't half over, and it doesn't reach its height in North Carolina until next month.
Although no one can predict what the rest of the year will bring, three in a row doesn't get North Carolina off the hook.
"We're just now getting into the peak of the season," said Jay Barnes, author of a book on hurricane history and director of the state aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. "We have to watch every system that forms."
The next few days, at least, will bring a reprieve. In its five-day forecast, the National Weather Service has Hurricane Danielle staying at sea. Tropical storm Earl is expected to become a hurricane, meteorologist Trisha Palmer said. The forecast has it moving into the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It's too soon to say where Earl will end up.
"A lot of things can happen between now and then," Palmer said.
Meteorologists have predicted an above-average year for serious storms, expecting 12 to 15 tropical storms to form, with six to eight becoming hurricanes.
Hurricane Alex clipped the coast Aug. 3. Tropical storm Bonnie was a tropical depression by the time it passed through North Carolina on Thursday, and Charley was downgraded to a tropical storm before it arrived Saturday.
Though this season may seem unusually wet and windy, North Carolina has endured worse combination punches in the past.
In 1955, state residents saw three hurricane hits, from Connie, Diane and Ione, in six weeks. Diane followed Connie by five days.
In 1999, Hurricane Dennis didn't make landfall here as a hurricane but dumped enough rain to saturate soil and set up massive flooding from Hurricane Floyd about two weeks later.
Two or more hurricanes have made landfall in North Carolina eight years in the past 100, Barnes said.
On average, one hurricane moves from the ocean into North Carolina every four years, said Sethu Raman, state climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at N.C. State University. Every year, on average, a hurricane has swept into North Carolina after having made landfall in another state.
In the past 20 years, though, the state has had to wrestle storms with increasing frequency, he said. One-fifth off all hurricanes that land anywhere in the country will bring wind, rain or storm surges to North Carolina.
The climate is in the midst of a long-term cycle in which a warmer Atlantic Ocean helps spawn more hurricanes than average, said Stan Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the Hurricane Research Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cycle is measured on a 10-year scale and could last for several more decades, though no one knows how long it will go.
"People have to realize this might continue for a while," Goldenberg said.
The season means a constant hurricane watch for state emergency planners.
"It's a marathon we're in," said Ken Taylor, the state's emergency management director. "We have to get through P, Q, R, S and T."
That's storms Paula, Richard, Shary and Tomas. We skip the Q.
Aug. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By Lorenzo Perez
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- N.C. State football assistant strength coach C.J. Hunter, whom federal investigators recently interviewed as part of a steroid probe involving elite professional and Olympic athletes, has been reassigned to another job within the athletics department, the university announced Friday.
In a statement released by State's sports information office, athletics director Lee Fowler said he made the decision after evaluating recent allegations involving Hunter.
A former world-champion shot putter and former husband of U.S. Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, Hunter testified last month in federal court in San Francisco as part of a growing probe of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). The California nutritional company is accused of distributing steroids to elite professional athletes.
Hunter retired from shot put competition in 2000 after it was revealed that he had tested positive four times for steroids. Hunter repeatedly has said that he was the unsuspecting victim of tainted iron supplements.
According to investigators' memos obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Hunter recently told an IRS investigator looking into BALCO that Jones had used illegal performance-enhancing drugs when they were married. Hunter also reportedly said that he had injected the five-time Olympic medalist with illegal drugs up to the time she competed in the 2000 Olympics.
Jones' attorneys have denounced Hunter and the leaked statements as lies.
In the statement released Friday, Fowler said that State would honor Hunter's contract until it expires March 1, 2005.
"We have no knowledge that these allegations are true ...," Fowler's statement read. "Unless the University receives confirmation that these allegations are true, the University will honor that contract until it expires. Mr. Hunter will perform duties we consider appropriate during this period."
Reached by telephone after State released his statement, Fowler declined to comment on which allegations triggered his decision or what Hunter's duties would be.
But before the statement was released, Fowler acknowledged that N.C. State had taken a lot of "hits" for its continued employment of Hunter as a coach.
Hunter was unavailable for comment.
Angie DeMent, an attorney for Hunter in Raleigh, said that she was "dismayed and disappointed" by the university's decision.
"Although he understands that his cooperation with the government's BALCO investigation has created some concern for State, the assistant strength coach position was one he loved and one for which he is highly qualified," DeMent said.
Hunter was first hired at State as a part-time coach in June 2001. University personnel records indicate he was promoted to full-time status in March 2003.
In recent interviews, N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato has supported Hunter and said that Hunter's proven rapport with players made him a valuable member of the coaching staff.
N.C. State professor Donn R. Ward, chairman of the university's council on athletics, said that several faculty members recently had expressed concern about Hunter's employment.
"I think Mr. Fowler is taking a prudent action at this time, and I fully support what he's done," Ward said.
DeMent said Hunter is looking forward to the conclusion of the BALCO-related investigations and that he still holds out hope that he will be able to rejoin the Wolfpack football program as a strength coach.
Listening post: Candidates, take heed
Aug. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By Michael Walden
© Copyright 2004
Here are ideas for improving the workings of government
Dear North Carolina candidate for public office:
I'd like to humbly offer you some advice about a sensible public agenda for North Carolina. My recommended agenda is comprehensive, yet reasonable, and it addresses five key areas: education, roads, state spending, state taxes and government efficiency. Even if you don't agree with all components of my agenda, hopefully it will stimulate your thinking about public policy.
Education
More money is being spent in North Carolina on K-12 education, but one problem is that much of it doesn't reach the classroom. About 36 percent of North Carolina's K-12 public education budget is spent in noninstructional areas, excluding food service, according to calculations of U.S. Department of Education data. If half of this noninstructional spending could be re-directed to the classroom, instructional spending would increase by more than $1 billion annually. I recommend following the lead of the private sector and using modern technology to cut layers of middle management in the public schools as a way to reach this goal.
Roads
Along with education, an important economic development tool is roads. But after years of being ranked at the top of states, North Carolina's road conditions are now calculated to be the fifth-worst among the states, according to UNC-Charlotte. The reason is simple -- road use in our state is increasing at double the rate of road spending. We're simply not putting enough resources into roads.
Three changes could fix this. First, end any transfers of monies from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. Drivers pay a user fee through their state's gas tax, and these funds should be spent on roads. Second, make sure North Carolina gets back all the money it sends to Washington via the federal gas tax. The U.S. Department of Transportation says we're short by more than $150 million annually. Third, if the above two measures aren't sufficient, consider an increase in the state gas tax. I know this would be a hard sell, but adjusted for inflation, the state gas tax today is lower than it was a decade ago. Studies show that higher gas taxes, if they are spent on roads, actually contribute to faster economic growth.
State spending
The biggest budget-buster in state spending is Medicaid. Medicaid spending in North Carolina jumped 168 percent in the past decade, twice as fast as other state spending, according to the N.C. Office of Management and Budget. Medicaid spending now exceeds state spending for K-12 education. A way to control the growth of Medicaid is to "voucherize" the program -- that is, convert Medicaid funds into health-insurance vouchers for low-income recipients.
This would help in three ways. First, it would greatly reduce the open-endedness of the current Medicaid program and provide more cost predictability. Second, it would allow the state to directly adjust the quality of assistance by changing the size of the voucher. Third, by working through private policies, health-care vouchers force Medicaid users and providers to confront choices and recognize that funds for health care are not unlimited.
State taxes
Our state tax system is in desperate need of reform. It's complicated, unresponsive to structural economic changes and unfair in the eyes of many. I recognize that a massive overhaul of state taxes is "political heavy lifting" at the extreme, because many toes would be stepped on in making any major changes. Yet it's still worthwhile to have a goal of what the best system would be.
My best state tax system would be a flat income tax. I would eliminate all state taxes except the gas tax and replace them with one simple flat-income tax system. In a nutshell, households would get one large deduction based on household size and then pay a single rate on the rest of their income. Businesses would pay the tax on their income after expenses, where capital costs are fully "expensed" in the year they occur. With an $8,000 per-person deduction, the flat rate would need to be about 9.5 percent to produce today's state revenues.
Government efficiency
Everyone has heard stories of government agencies wasting money, perhaps by hurriedly spending their unused budget at the end of the fiscal year so they can ensure a bigger budget next year.
A quick way to reduce government waste is to give government workers an incentive to do so. The popular term for this is "gain-sharing." Gain-sharing means workers in government agencies that meet or exceed agency objectives, without spending the entire budget, receive part of the savings as salary bonuses. Thus, gain-sharing gives government workers a financial stake in improving government efficiency.
Thank you for considering these ideas.
Respectfully yours,
Michael L. Walden
Aug. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
North Carolinians need jobs, and thanks to the Cree semiconductor company's decision last week, they will have 300 more well-paying ones in Durham. The process Cree followed in deciding where to expand, as reported by The News & Observer's Jonathan Cox over the past few months, provides a welcome window on the global economy. Through that window, North Carolina can better assess its chances.
Cree's business of manufacturing chips to illuminate electronic gadgets grew out of research done at N.C. State University.
Now in its third decade, Cree was forced to drastically widen its horizons. The company earns three-fourths of its revenue in Asia, where its biggest customers are located and a humongous market awaits. Those who govern China's 1.3 billion people are courting foreign investment, which is drawn there by low labor costs.
What won the day for North Carolina when the company decided it needed to grow turned out to be uniquely American laws protecting inventions, sweetened modestly by state financial incentives.
Besides, the Triangle labor pool is the right match for Cree's manufacturing and research jobs, which pay average annual salaries of $50,000. Those are the sorts of jobs North Carolina needs to replace the low-wage manufacturing jobs leaving here for the Third World. State leaders have committed considerable public investment in that vision. So it's gratifying to see the home team win this one.
Cree shapes up as a star player, as demand for its chips has surged from the makers of cell phones and cars. With manufacturing space at a premium in Durham and sales opportunities awaiting, the company felt pressure from investors to make a decision on expansion.
Yet Cree could hardly afford to expand in a way that risks piracy of its secret process for growing product crystals from silicon and carbon. China presents just that risk. Pirates of such intellectual property in China cost American. companies a couple of billion dollars worth of sales last year.
The United States, by contrast, has strong laws giving commercial advantage to innovators. This country also has the will and the technological tools to enforce those laws. Young high-tech companies, such as Cree, thrive under such protection. And it proved to be pivotal for Cree when time came for its $300 million expansion.
With Virginia and Georgia also wooing the company, North Carolina threw in $5.1 million worth of financial incentives, something that could be avoided in a perfect world. But the state relieved some of the sting by tying grants to the actual salaries paid by Cree and limiting Cree's sales tax exemptions to construction materials. That way, the state treasury won't continue losing money if the company eventually moves work overseas.
Expect more such decisions as Tar Heel companies expand into global markets. At the same time, the public should expect North Carolina's proven attractions to draw more foreign companies to do business here -- and to hire North Carolinians.
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
David Fox, vice president for private wealth management for Goldman Sachs & Company in Philadelphia; Ken Maxwell, a business development executive in the economics development department of Progress Energy; Barbara H. Mulkey, president and CEO of Mulkey Engineers & Consultants; Susan Rabon, senior assistant for administration for Gov. Mike Easley; and Jo Anne Sanford, chairwoman of the N.C. Utilities Commission have been named to the NCSU Board of Visitors. The board, composed of 30 members, advises NCSU's chancellor and board of trustees.
Tuition rises at private schools
Aug. 16, 2004
News & Observer
By CINDY GEORGE
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- Meredith College students saw some whopping tuition increases
in the past three years to support a wireless campus, laptops for every full-time
undergraduate and a new science building.
But this year, the increase was smaller -- just $935 more.
At St. Augustine's College, the increase in tuition and fees was $858 over last year. Shaw University bumped its tuition and basic fees just $260 over last year. And at Peace College, following six years of record enrollment, tuition and fees are $956 over last year.
It's been a long while since the difference between an education one year to the next was less than $1,000 across the board for Raleigh's private colleges.
But after several years of dramatic increases, students are seeing smaller rises this fall. Still, freshmen starting at Meredith this fall are paying twice as much for tuition and fees as this spring's graduates who started in fall 2000. Back then, tuition and fees were $9,840. Today, they are $19,000.
"We had three years of increase so we could raise the level and quality of programs," said Danny Green, associate vice president for enrollment. "We really changed the whole rubric to take us to the next level, and you need funds to do that.
"It was very smart to raise tuition, though one could argue whether, given what happened with the economy, it was a good time."
In 2001, Meredith began an aggressive schedule of tuition increases. That fall, tuition and fees jumped by nearly $5,000 to $14,465 to pay for better technology, more faculty and an emphasis on undergraduate research and faculty development.
This year, the tuition bump was less than $1,000.
"That is a much more inflation-conscious increase," Green said. "It's normal. Nationally, some of our peer institutions are even decreasing tuition as recruitment strategies."
Growth spurt at Peace
Though tuition and fees at Peace College also rose less than $1,000 this fall, the cost to attend the school, including room and board, has risen $10,000 since fall 1999 -- with slight gains for living expenses and nearly double for tuition and fees in five years.
"Higher education is still a subsidy business," said Peace President Laura Carpenter Bingham.
Last fall marked the college's sixth year of record enrollment. During that historic run, the college made some significant investments in new technology, land purchases for campus expansion and building projects.
Although taxpayers make up the difference between tuition and the true price of education at public universities, private schools must pursue those dollars from alumni, corporations, foundations and other private donors.
At Peace, between 60 percent and 80 percent of the budget comes from student fees, Bingham said.
Bingham expects enrollment to remain steady this year -- between 680 and 700 students -- partly because dorms are at capacity. She expects another climb in the number of students when a new residence hall opens next fall that can accommodate 66 students in cottage-style super-suites.
Retention at Meredith
Meredith has endured declining enrollment in recent years, falling from 2,640 students in 1999 -- when it had one of the lowest tuition prices of any private college in the state -- to 2,152 students last year.
The slower rise in tuition over the past two years has increased retention of students, Green said.
College leaders expect enrollment this fall to match last year's. They have already attracted more first-time students.
Freshman enrollment was 388 in 2002 and dipped to 332 last fall. This year, a freshman class of 415 students is expected.
It also happens to be the most racially diverse bunch ever. Minority freshmen have exceeded 20 percent of the class for the first time in Meredith's history, and black enrollment has doubled from 20 or fewer students to about 40 students.
Meeting goals at St. Aug's
Across town at St. Aug's, tuition and fees rose $858 with a similarly slight increase for room and board. In five years, the cost to attend has risen less than $1,000 per year, from $11,690 in fall 1999 to $15,700 this fall.
President Dianne Boardley Suber expects about 500 first-time freshmen and a class equally divided between women and men.
"It looks like we're going to meet that goal, to hold it steady, and it would be great if we exceed it," Suber said. "But until I lay hands on warm bodies, it's all just projections."
Cost to attend area colleges
2004-05 TUITION & FEES,
ROOM & BOARD,
TOTAL, TOTAL INCREASE OVER 2003-04
TRIANGLE PRIVATE COLLEGES
Duke University $30,720; $8,520; $39,240; 4.5%
Meredith College $19,000; $5,350; $24,350; 5.6%
Peace College $16,881; $6,526; $23,407; 7.1%
St. Augustine's College $10,388; $5,312; $15,700; 7.5%
Shaw University $9,438; $6,050; $15,488; 4.4%
TRIANGLE PUBLIC COLLEGES
N.C. Central University* $3,524; $4,312; $7,836; 10%
N.C. State University* $4,282; $6,508; $10,790; 2.3%
UNC-Chapel Hill* $4,451; $6,756; $11,207; 8.2%
*In-state tuition, dependent students
(Estimates from cost of attendance compiled by the colleges and universities;
University Of North Carolina general administration)
Aug. 15, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By Jim Schlosser
© Copyright 2004
The role of N.C. cooperative extension agents has changes greatly since the national Agricultural Extension Service was founded 90 years ago. Now, the agents are as likely to give the public tips on butterfly gardening and family nutrition as they are to serve farmers.
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 5-3470.
Aug. 14, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; WRAL; Winston Salem Journal; Durham Herald-Sun; WCNC; Akron Beacon Journal, OH; Biloxi Sun Herald, MS; Bradenton Herald, FL; Centre Daily Times, PA; Chicago Tribune; CNN/SI; Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA; Contra Costa Times, CA; Duluth News Tribune, MN; Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN; Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN; FOX Sports; Grand Forks Herald, ND; Kansas City Star, MO; Kentucky.com, KY; The Ledger, FL; Macon Telegraph, GA; Miami Herald; MLive.com, MI; Monterey County Herald, CA; Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC; Newsday, NY; Philadelphia Inquirer; philly.com, PA; Pioneer Press, MN; Poughkeepsie Journal, NY; San Francisco Chronicle, CA; San Jose Mercury News, CA; San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA; Tallahassee.com, FL; Times Picayune, LA; Tuscaloosa News, AL; Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, PA; Worcester Telegram, MA; WVEC, VA
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
North Carolina State has reassigned assistant strength coach C.J. Hunter due to his connection with the investigation of steroid use by track and field athletes, including his ex-wife, Marion Jones.
In a statement Friday, athletic director Lee Fowler said Hunter was moved to another position in the athletics department "after evaluating recent allegations" involving the former world champion shot putter. The statement did not specify Hunter's new duties nor the specific allegations against Hunter.
According to published reports last month, Hunter told federal investigators he personally injected Jones with banned substances and saw Jones inject herself with performance-enhancing drugs at the 2000 Olympics in Australia. Jones won five medals at the Sydney Games.
Hunter retired from track and field after testing positive four times for steroids in 2000. Instead of competing in Sydney, he removed himself from the U.S. team because of an injury and then addressed reporters at a news conference with Jones at his side.
Hunter's nutritionist, Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, said the shot putter had tested positive due to contaminated iron supplements.
Hunter gave a 2 1/2-hour interview to federal agents