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NC State University News Clips for September 11-13, 2004

Compiled by North Carolina State University’s News Services, a part of the Public Affairs Office. Listed below are the current news clips. Click on the headline of interest to be taken to the full text. Click on “Return to Headline List” at the bottom of each clip or use the scrollbar to be taken back to this location.

CURRENT PRESS RELEASES

IN-STATE CLIPS

Students react to new tailgating rules
student reaction to tailgating changes

Scrimping campuses raise pay of well-paid
pay raises

UNC Approves Raises For Chancellors
chancellor pay raises

UNC raises top-level salaries
chancellor pay raises

UNC board boosts salaries
chancellor pay raises

Tobacco buyout program could be economic windfall
Blake Brown, agricultural and resource economics

Conductor faces challenges
Wolt Wolfram, English

Legacies of 9/11
At N.C. State University, assistant professor Michael Allen usually devotes a day to Sept. 11 in his history classes, even though to a historian, three years is but a blink.

N.C. State pauses to remember 9/11 victim
Sept. 11 ceremony

Commemorative events
Sept. 11 ceremony

TV clip: Sept. 11 ceremony
Sept. 11 ceremony

On the Move
Industrial Extension Services

Search Warrants Reveal Alarming Evidence in NC Tailgate Shooting
tailgating murders

Tougher Parking Rules Announced for N.C. State Football Games
tailgating changes

Parking policy change follows shootings
tailgating changes

Blue gleams among the green
Bob Lyons, horticulture science

Storm readiness at your fingertips
Cooperative Extension

In absence of state funding, private donors make big impact at UNC
Universities rely on the generosity of a corporations.

Rockingham studies plans for new equestrian center
Robinson told the board that N.C. State University, which owns the Upper Piedmont Research Station nearby, wants to get more involved in horse research.

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

Click here to be taken to the CLIP ARCHIVES

Students react to new tailgating rules

Sept. 10, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Tracey Early
© Copyright 2004

Students aren't happy with new tailgating rules outside Carter-Finley Stadium.

The restrictions come as a result of last week's shootings before the NC State football game and students said the changes are too strict.

"I'd say it's pretty big, sort of like a Brent Road where everyone's having fun, a few people get out of control and then the university comes in and spoils the fun for everyone," said NCSU student Daniel Underwood.

Last Saturday's shooting involving a NC State student happened in the State Fairgrounds parking lot, across from Gate-B at Carter-Finley Stadium.

Officials with the university and the fairgrounds worked together on the changes.

“It's to ensure that the people that are there, are there to go to the game, and it's also designed to cut down on length of time that people, both students and non-students, have to be in a tailgate area, and quite frankly haven't consumed a lot of alcohol before the game starts," said Dr. Tom Stafford, NCSU Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

Only students with parking permits will be allowed in the lot. Tailgating is limited to three hours before game time and police officers will start patrolling the area.

And now students can only come on the lot through two entrances; one on Youth Center Drive and the one off Trinity Road.

Stafford explained, “The plan that we worked out with allocate about 600 parking permits for students and about 600 parking permits for members of the Wolfpack Club to park in that lot. The remaining spots will be used for RV's and campers."

Students like Keon Pettiway said the university has gone a step too far. They agree with the extra patrolling, but not the part that takes away their parking.

"Now you've got to worry about a parking permit, that's going to cause a lot of, I'm not going to say a lot of turmoil, but I definitely think there's going to be a lot of chaos in terms of parking," he said.

The new restrictions will start next Saturday for NC State's game against Ohio State.

Students can get a parking permit the same time they pick up their game tickets. Private parking lots will not be affected by the changes.

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Forensic photographer retires in Wake

Sept. 13, 2004
News & Observer
By JENNIFER BREVORKA
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- If all goes as planned this week, Gary Knight and his red PT Cruiser will begin a two-month journey along Route 66 to photograph America.

He won't need luminol to illuminate hidden blood spatters. There will be no shots of tire tracks and few opportunities for photos of fingerprints. Those were the things he photographed for nearly three decades as a forensic photographer.

"What this is, really, is a photographic journey," Knight said recently in his home near Lake Wheeler. "If I spend one week at a location, that's fine. If I spend just one day at a location, that's fine, too."

Long before agents from "CSI Miami" combed through crime scenes on television, Knight was in Raleigh -- snapping photos of bloody corpses, smoldering fires and chemical spills. He was the first one allowed behind the crime-scene tape, taking photos before investigators searched for evidence.

With his recent retirement from the City-County Bureau of Identification, Knight left behind dozens of investigators and prosecutors who came to depend on his unique approach.

"You might be looking at the crime scene one way," said Glenn Joyner, a Raleigh police captain who worked with Knight. "And Gary, in a polite manner, would say 'Maybe you need to look at it like this.' "

As the veteran photographer recently pored through a homemade scrapbook of his work, the pictures inside served as a visual time machine for Raleigh. The photos of police recruiting posters, homicide re-enactments and bloodied weapons transported a viewer from an era in which police communicated on radios inside their lumbering cruisers to a time when police bring computers and cell phones to a crime scene.

Knight started his photography career in high school and spent every free moment of his senior year in the darkroom. He worked as a photojournalist after he graduated from Randolph Community College, and he eventually enrolled in the State Bureau of Investigation academy. He worked with the SBI for two years and left the department to start Wake County's forensic photography program.

While the thought of photographing corpses may rattle some, it was rarely the bodies that disturbed Knight.

"When people are dead, it's not a problem," he said. "When people are alive and they've been through a traumatic experience, you have to use other skills -- treating that person with respect and not upsetting them more.

"But at the same time you have to get your job done."

In one case, a man used an unloaded revolver to beat a young woman to death in an apartment complex exercise room. For the 2001 murder trial, Knight took photos of the woman's battered body and placed Velcro on the back of the pictures. As the pathologist discussed the woman's injuries, photos of the wounds were stuck onto a poster with the outline of the body.

"It was just so powerful," prosecutor Susan Spurlin said. "I had never thought of doing it that way. The jury was riveted to the photo."

Knight's photos did more than win cases. They helped solve murders.

In March 1981, a 23-year-old N.C. State University student was stabbed to death in her bed near the campus. Leslie Hall-Kennedy's murder went unsolved for weeks and shook nearby college students.

When the trail grew cold, police re-interviewed Ronald O. Riggan, Kennedy's neighbor. Riggan had heard Kennedy's screams the night of the slaying and entered her Cox Avenue apartment with a stranger he had encountered on the street. Upon finding the body, Riggan left and called police. By the time officers arrived, the stranger had disappeared.

During the second interview, police showed Riggan a photo of Kennedy's bedroom.

"He told police there was a knife sharpener that was sitting on top of this hamper," Knight said, pointing to the photo in his scrapbook. "We wondered: 'Where did it go?' "

Knight pointed to a second photo of the woman' kitchen. The knife block in the galley showed the sharpener had been put back. Police intensified their hunt for the stranger Riggan encountered. That man, a short-order cook named James W. Jackson, was later convicted of Kennedy's murder.

When fires erupted, Knight was at the scene, his cameras clicking away as he photographed hotspots, smoke and the position of fire trucks. He snapped photos of a major chemical leak, using aerial shots, to help demonstrate the extent of the damage to a nearby water supply. And in 1995 -- when a mail bomb exploded in an office building -- he went to the North Raleigh workplace to document the wreckage.

"I think what I found so interesting was that the job encompassed so many different types of photography," Knight said. "As soon as you thought you were going to do something today, something would come up, and it would all change."

Now, he looks forward finally to visiting the towns he heard Natalie Cole sing about in her version of "Route 66." For two months he'll sleep in motels, listen to National Public Radio and stop at diners along the way to California. Most important, he'll take pictures everywhere he goes.

"I'm just looking to photograph Americana," Knight said.

(Staff researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)

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On the Move

Sept. 13, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004

The Eaton Heavy Duty Truck plant in Kings Mountain, the industry leader in transmissions for heavy-duty commercial vehicles, is the first recipient of the North Carolina Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing, administered by the Industrial Extension Service of N.C. State University.

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Tar Heel of the week: Downtown's best booster

Sept. 12, 2004
News & Observer
By DUDLEY PRICE
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- "I can show you more about downtown in 30 minutes than you can learn in a week."

That said, Ann-Cabell Baum Andersen throws her new BMW sport utility into gear and, rapid-fire, starts the sales pitch for living in downtown Raleigh that has made her the area's most successful residential broker.

"You should see the view from the top floor," she says while cruising past The Dawson, a 58-unit condominium building under construction near Nash Square. "The north view is all church steeples."

Then she starts ticking off restaurant options for the neighborhood as she heads toward West Street and the site of the future Triangle Transit Authority station.

"This will be a new residential and commercial center for the city," she says, slamming on the brakes to greet a client who'd bought a condo from her. "Hi honey," she yells out the window, before heading blocks away to Person Street to point out more stores and shops.

No one sells more townhouses or condos in downtown Raleigh than the intense 37-year-old, say developers who have projects there. By selling people on downtown living, Andersen has in turn made herself a nice living, selling 50 to 75 units a year for a six-figure income.

Those who know Andersen describe her as one of downtown Raleigh's biggest boosters. She works on revitalization efforts and promotes the area with a Web site, www.downtownraleigh.com, that she supports. Both efforts obviously have helped her business but she is almost evangelical in her desire to attract people to the city's core, long considered key to the area's rebirth.

For years, she lived downtown -- at the Cotton Mill on Capital Boulevard and at Park Devereux on Dawson Street next to the fire station -- moving only when she married two years ago. Her stockbroker husband worked in California and made her agree to move into a house in return for relocating to Raleigh.

"That was part of the deal," Andersen says. "I'm a condo dweller at heart."

Andersen estimates she has sold or resold nearly 400 townhouses and condos since the mid-1990s and last week began marketing 66 condos that are part of Progress Energy's $100 million downtown mixed-use expansion.

"She's successful, and Raleigh's a better place because of her," said her boss, developer Roland Gammon, who got the downtown housing market moving when he developed the 50-unit Cotton Mill condo project in 1996.

It's hard to imagine that more than a decade ago nobody would give Andersen a full-time job.

Fresh out of N.C. State University with a marketing degree, she applied for jobs across the Triangle, but employers weren't interested.

"My $60,000 marketing job wasn't there," Andersen said. "I didn't realize you had to have experience."

Andersen got part-time work instead. She split days selling clothes at Belk, working as a bartender and a nanny. By chance, she landed a fourth part-time job working six hours a day for Gammon as a receptionist.

Working with Gammon introduced Andersen to real estate development. Then in 1992 an acquaintance mentioned that a house in Apex would be torn down unless someone moved it. Andersen, by then working full time for Gammon, bought the house for $1 and spent about $100,000 to move it five blocks and renovate it.

"I learned to frame a wall, and electrical and plumbing," says Andersen, who turned around and sold the home for a $25,000 profit. After that experience she was hooked on real estate.

Andersen became interested in downtown projects when Gammon developed the Cotton Mill and, in 1997, a 12-unit townhouse development on Martin Street. Sales at those two projects were handled by Jewell Parker, a broker with York Simpson Underwood. Andersen credits Parker with teaching her the ropes. Both women say only good things about each other even though Parker is probably Andersen's main competitor for downtown condo sales.

"She was a quick study, a hard worker, had a good personality and would do anything you asked her to do," Parker says. "I hadn't thought of her as a competitor -- we're both just in the real estate business and we work as hard as we can."

But when Gammon developed Governor's Square on Person Street in 1999, and a year later Park Devereux on Dawson Street, it was Andersen who oversaw sales.

Andersen has a network of former clients and has a strong advertising presence, Gammon said, including the Web site that lists downtown restaurants, nightspots and housing.

"She works very hard, she works smart and she has a certain quality and Jewell has the same quality -- they are very loyal to clients," Gammon said. "They don't care whether its a hundred-thousand-dollar property or a million-dollar property, and it breeds a lot of [customer] loyalty."

How good a saleswoman is Andersen? Consider that Gregg Sandreuter, who is developing The Dawson and is Gammon's main downtown competitor, has hired Andersen to market his condos -- even though she's still working as Gammon's sales manager.

"She's the best," Sandreuter says. "She's energetic, intelligent and knows the market and is dedicated to The Dawson." Andersen has 29 of the 58 units under contract.

Keeping up to date

Andersen, who says she regularly puts in 12-hour days, also spends a good deal of time learning about new nightspots and restaurants downtown.

"Been to Nana's [Chop House] yet?" she asks a visitor. "You should sit at the bar, have an appetizer and watch the crowd."

Margaret Mullen, president of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, a booster organization, says Andersen puts in many hours as one of the group's directors and on the board of Artsplosure, which sponsors First Night, Raleigh's New Year's Eve event complete with acorn drop.

"She always asks that you look at issues important to residents, to the younger generation," Mullen says, "and she's worked tirelessly to keep that big [First Night] event going on. It's a huge benefit to downtown."

By the way, Andersen also sold Mullen two homes, one in Five Points where Mullen and her husband live and a condo under construction in The Dawson.

"She's fabulous," Mullen says. "She takes care of everything. She was there for the inspection, I didn't have to be there, she did all the comps, recommended a bank, a lawyer, told me where I could get a cleaning lady and where I could buy rugs."

CAROLISTA ANN-CABELL BAUM ANDERSEN

BORN: Feb. 5, 1967, Chapel Hill

FAMILY: husband, Bryan C. Andersen of Raleigh; father, Walter G. Baum of Chapel Hill; brother, W. Gibbs Baum of Semora; sister, Inglis B. Walsh of New Bern.

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in business management, N.C. State University

CAREER: White Oak Properties Inc., marketing and sales manager, 1990-present

VOLUNTEER: Downtown Raleigh Alliance board, 2000-present; Livable Streets Partnership, City Council appointee 2002-2004; Artsplosure board 1996-present; youth basketball coach YMCA 1994-2000.

HOBBIES: hiking, water sports, walking on the beach.

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Scrimping campuses raise pay of well-paid

Sept. 12, 2004
News & Observer
By BARBARA BARRETT
 © Copyright 2004

Many employees at North Carolina's top research universities got a pay increase in the past two years, even though the legislature did not approve across-the-board raises.

Some got more money to keep them on board when they were offered jobs elsewhere. Others received promotions, or their bosses helped them get additional pay for taking on extra duties. Some were lucky enough to work for a department getting raises en masse because of market issues.

Workers already making the top salaries were more likely to get increases than those at the bottom of the pay scale.

"They can always find you some extra work, but they can't always find you the money," said Christine Mangum, a housekeeper at N.C. State University.

Mangum will finally get a slice of the pie this year. The legislature decided in July that all employees will get an increase of either 2.5 percent or $1,000, depending on their job.

Many workers, though, haven't had to wait.

A News & Observer review of personnel databases found that between July 2002 and February 2004, more than a third of state-paid workers at NCSU got raises for a variety of reasons. At UNC-Chapel Hill, about half of state-paid workers got salary increases.

At both universities, workers making more than $70,000 were more likely to get salary bumps than those making less than $25,000.

University officials say the pattern makes sense. Workers with higher salaries have specialized skills and are highly valued, whether they're top administrators or faculty members in such hot areas as genomics and business.

Haves, have-nots

Take the case of two employees working in facilities services at N.C. State.

Charles Leffler, who was associate vice chancellor for facilities, got a $31,000 salary increase last fall after he turned down a job at Virginia Tech. That 23 percent raise brought his total pay to $165,000. Leffler is a valuable asset to NCSU, and it was worth the pay to keep him, said George Worsley, Leffler's boss and the university's chief financial officer until his retirement in July. Leffler took Worsley's job Aug. 1 at a salary of $203,000.

At the other end of the pay scale, Mangum earns a salary of less than $20,000 after 11 years on the job.

Their workdays are vastly different.

As facilities chief, Leffler oversaw the hundreds of facilities workers who keep the lights on and the air conditioners running. As head of the university's construction program, he helped negotiate contracts and met routinely with the university's Board of Trustees to get their approval.

At the last trustees meeting this summer, a laid-back Leffler sat in the back of a committee room to offer advice as the trustees approved the site plans for building after building.

Under Leffler's direction, N.C. State's massive construction program is ahead of schedule.

Sunrise was hours away one recent foggy morning when Mangum and other housekeepers arrived for their 4 a.m. shifts scrubbing classrooms and offices.

Mangum jangled her keys as she walked across campus in the dark, irked because she'd just learned that workers would soon get full uniforms that they would have to launder at home.

"It's our water, our electricity, our time, our supplies, and we're not getting paid," she said. "They can afford to buy uniforms, but they can't afford to give us anything."

Market rates dictate

Over the next eight hours, Mangum would clean her way through Leazar Hall, scrubbing stalls in eight bathrooms, emptying dozens of trash cans, vacuuming carpets, and individually dusting perhaps 200 swivel chairs in computer labs. Within half an hour, she was sweating despite the air-conditioning.

"It's kind of hectic at times," she said. "We have to move because there's so much work to do."

Mangum's last raise was the $625 bump that all workers got from the legislature in 2001.

Unfortunately, the university can't help all its good employees, Worsley said.

"All pay scales are determined by market rate," he said. "If you can hire employees in a job fairly easily, even though you have great employees, you don't make the [pay] adjustment. It's a tough management decision."

The same goes for faculty, said James L. Oblinger, provost and executive vice chancellor at NCSU.

Two of the university's top pay raises went to faculty members who were recruited by other institutions. An accounting professor got a $40,000 raise to $150,000, a jump of 37 percent. And a hog farm researcher received $26,000 to lift his salary to $110,000, a raise of 31 percent.

"If people are recognized in their discipline," Oblinger said, "that recognition comes not only on campus, but off campus as well."

Raises resented

Universities are only as good as their people, said Robert Shelton, the provost and executive vice chancellor in Chapel Hill. "We've worked hard to keep people, and in some cases that meant scraping together money."

Shelton thinks more raises were given to well-paid employees in part because dollars from a campus-initiated tuition increase, along with much of the enrollment money from the legislature, go to boost faculty salaries, which are typically higher. But on campus, some workers resent the raises passed around up top, no matter the reasons.

"It costs just as much for our lower-paid workers to buy a loaf of bread as the other folks," said Tommy Griffin, a lead mechanic and chairman of UNC-CH's Employees Forum. "Our folks, when they see people get big raises, it rubs them the wrong way."

Still, workers at the top don't get all the pay raises. Some departments and managers found ways to provide raises at all salary levels through promotions, department-wide adjustments or individual changes. Many police officers and information technology workers received raises because they are part of a statewide project to make salaries more competitive.

In other cases, managers lobbied human resources departments to either conduct market studies of the entire department or give increases to select staffers. At UNC-CH, officials have been encouraging managers to push for increases within employees' pay ranges, Shelton said.

Workers grumble that some managers are better at fighting for their staffs than others.

"Some department supervisors are loath to do it, as though they're taking money out of their own pocket," said David Brannigan, a groundskeeper and member of UNC-CH's Employees Forum. "And others will fight tooth and nail for [the pay increases]."

Inequity examined

In Chapel Hill, officials have been working to address inequities among workers.

A task force led by Griffin and Chancellor James Moeser recommended offering programs such as affordable day care, education scholarships and an emergency loan program.

N.C. State officials are working on expanding other benefits. Initiatives already under way include discount programs, recognition programs and free health clinics.

"We need some other monetary thing other than a pat on the back once in a while," Mangum said. "It don't pay the bills."

For now, workers at all pay scales are about to get some relief.

During this past legislative session, lawmakers approved across-the-board pay hikes for everyone covered by the State Personnel Act, such as housekeepers, secretaries and police officers.

Meanwhile, the university system was allowed to get money in a lump sum for its exempt employees -- which includes faculty and administrators. Last month, the UNC Board of Governors voted to give all faculty a $1,000 increase, then use the rest of the money for increases based on merit, market and equity issues.

So, the gap between the haves and have-nots may grow.

BEHIND THE RAISES

To look at salary increases, The News & Observer requested personnel databases from UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. The review included workers who were full-time, permanent employees whose salary was completely supported by state dollars. The review looked at salary increases between July 2002 and February 2004.

The reasons for the hundreds of salary increases doled out in the past two years are varied. Among them:

CAREER PAY STUDIES. Eighty-six percent of the N.C. State police department got raises, more than in any other university department. The agency was among the first to take part in a statewide program aimed at making workers' pay more competitive and more in line with the private sector. Instead of being based solely on experience, pay is linked to proven skills.

The study showed NCSU's officers were, in some cases, 30 percent to 40 percent below the Raleigh-area market, Chief Tom Younce said: "These are not what you would consider raises."

Younce was able to give many of his workers pay increases, but not enough, he said. He got only half his request for $350,000 last fall to lift salaries. He has asked for the rest, but hasn't heard back from university officials.

ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES. Entire departments or job classifications could get pay increases if an audit found that workers were underpaid across the board. Some audits come at the behest of the university, others at the request of a department manager.

INDIVIDUAL IN-RANGE RAISES. These occur when human resources officials conduct an audit of the position and examine whether the employee deserves a raise based on taking on extra duties, market issues or equity. Officials at UNC-CH and NCSU say that more than 75 percent of those requests are usually granted.

ABOVE-THE-POVERTY-LINE INCREASES. Some of the lowest-paid workers have received raises this year as part of a state plan. Fifty-one housekeepers and groundskeepers at UNC-CH and 69 at NCSU got their salaries raised to $18,312, or 20 percent above the poverty line.

COUNTEROFFERS. UNC-CH and NCSU each gave raises to many faculty members who had job offers at other institutions. Other counteroffers were made to staff and administrators, too.

CHANGES IN WORKLOADS. Many employees' salaries rose because they went from part-time to full-time status, or returned from a leave or sabbatical.

PROMOTIONS. Many workers got promotions or received stipends for becoming department heads, for example, or the directors of research programs. Some professors were rewarded with endowed chairs, which came with extra money.

News researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.

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In absence of state funding, private donors make big impact at UNC

Sept. 11, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By ERIC FERRERI
© Copyright 2004

CHAPEL HILL -- At UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, everything from the plush, wood-paneled library to the coffeepot in the faculty mailroom has a financial sponsor.

It is no easy chore to find a classroom, conference facility or faculty office without a plaque on the door detailing the person, corporation or private foundation that anted up for the rights to name it.

The building is a good, if extreme, example of where higher education is heading, particularly at state universities. With state appropriations shrinking, institutions are relying more and more heavily on external money, including donations from private industry, to not only bridge the gap but pay for the rising costs of high-tech higher education.

"I think it's evolution," said Richard Cole, who as dean of the journalism school raised $7 million in private funds to help turn an aged building into a 21st-century working laboratory for budding journalists. "Across the country, state legislatures are cutting back budgets. As that happens, private money becomes more important. We could not do it on state money alone."

A decade ago, 43 percent of UNC's budget came from state funds. This year, the state is responsible for just about 21 percent of the university's spending plan.

Financial struggles have been felt across the university. Earlier this year, UNC's Board of Trustees warily allowed athletics officials to explore the sale of advertising space in the Dean E. Smith Center and Kenan Stadium, the university's two largest, most visible sports venues. It did so as a sort of last resort; the athletic department, with 28 sports to fund, is struggling to balance its budget.

The decision was made with a great deal of reluctance, because trustees, faculty and a great many UNC fans fear selling out to corporate influence. The image of a UNC/Duke basketball game held against a backdrop of pizza ads and car dealership banners is a distasteful vision to most, and trustees made clear that any advertising sold in the athletics venues should be limited and tasteful.

But the truth is, the academic side of the university already is hugely reliant on the generosity of a great many corporations, and it will only become more so as state money continues to become a smaller part of the university's financial pie.

The corporate influence is everywhere. Private industry sponsors research on campus, helps pay for cutting-edge teaching and research facilities, and even helps pay some faculty members by endowing professorships.

Corporate involvement on college campuses is nothing new, experts say. In 2003, corporate support accounted for 20 percent of all charitable donations given to doctoral and research institutions across the country, said John Taylor, vice president for research and data services at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, a Washington D.C.-based organization that tracks university fund raising.

Sponsored coffee

In Cole's journalism school, the influence of private money, particularly from media companies and philanthropic communications foundations, is hard to miss. It is evident in the dean's suite, sponsored by Media General Inc. for $100,000. Down the hall, the student records office carries the Winston-Salem Journal name -- for $50,000. And downstairs, aspiring broadcasters tape Carolina Week, UNC's student newscast, in the James F. Goodmon Electronic Communication Studio and Newsroom. Goodmon's company, Capitol Broadcasting Co., split the $250,000 sponsorship with the A.J. Fletcher Foundation.

The anchor desk in the studio was provided by WRAL, a Raleigh television station owned by Capitol Broadcasting.

Full disclosure: The Herald-Sun was one of several North Carolina newspapers to contribute a sponsorship. The newspaper paid $25,000 to put its name to a computer effects laboratory.

The largest of all donations was the $1 million library, paid for by the Park Foundation of Ithaca, NY.

If the Park Library gift was the granddaddy of Cole's fund-raising efforts, the coffeepot in the faculty lounge and mailroom might be the grandbaby. Retired broadcaster Reese Felts paid around $7,000 to put his name on that small, unobtrusive nameplate that sits atop the coffeemaker; it was a last-minute add-on Felts made, perhaps in jest, while spending about $60,000 to sponsor three editing suites, Cole said.

In all, about half of the journalism school's $8 million annual operating budget comes from private sources.

"Most of the things that have enabled us to achieve national excellence here come about through private money," Cole said.

Financial GatorAid

When faculty in UNC's nutrition department were first approached about a possible partnership with Gatorade Co., there was some reluctance. The company was dangling an enticing carrot -- $4 million for a research study on childhood obesity ... and it was just the sort of seed money the department could use as a springboard for future grants from federal health agencies.

But Gatorade? The splashy, high-profile sports drink company? What would it look like for scholars to have such a company as a sponsor?

"People had plenty to say -- caution, and concern, and worry," said Dianne Ward, a nutrition professor and head of the "Get Kids in Action" partnership, the Gatorade project the department ultimately opted to take on. "I'm never worried about my own personal ethics, but I think you worry that, reputationally, you'll be seen as being 'for sale.' "

It was for that reason that, before agreeing to take part in the four-year study, the nutrition department created an internal oversight group to act as an additional barrier between the university and Gatorade -- just in case.

For the most part, things have gone swimmingly. At first, Ward said she bristled a bit when a Gatorade staff member would call for an update on her team's research.

But slowly, Ward realized that the company was not trying to infringe on the research; staffers there just wanted to be kept up to date. Eventually, a monthly conference call was created to discuss issues like marketing and advertising, but the details of research are intentionally kept out of the conversation.

Overall, UNC officials say they take ethics issues seriously. They point to a conflict-of-interest policy all researchers must follow.

"What we want to avoid is any perception that the research being done will only give the answer the company wants done," said Tony Waldrop, UNC's vice chancellor for research and economic development. "We hire the faculty we do because of their ethical conduct, as well as for their interest in asking and answering questions in an unbiased way."

UNC's relationships with private industry are becomingly increasingly common -- and lucrative.

To wit: The top corporate donor to UNC's current capital campaign is pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline, which has given more than $15 million thus far to fund a number of research projects and other ventures.

"There's a lot of overlap in the areas of research that we're doing, and areas of expertise at the university," said Mary Anne Rhyne, a GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson. "We have a huge research and development organization, but we know there is a tremendous amount of talent and bright ideas outside our corporate walls, too."

In the past, the pharmaceuticals company also has given money to Duke, N.C. State and N.C. Central universities, usually for health-related research, Rhyne said.

James Moeser, UNC's chancellor, knows his university is increasingly reliant on the generosity of private industry. That's OK, he said, as long as UNC does things the right way.

"Are there problems with corporate relationships? Of course there are. And we know what the dangers are," Moeser said. "We have to be careful we don't allow corporations to direct our research programs for corporate gain, that research is truly independent of its funding source. But is corporate money tainted money? Absolutely not. I think it's appropriate for a public university that has a role in the state's economy. It behooves us to have support from business."

Banking on Wachovia

Controversy can arise outside the research lab as well. In 1999, a UNC deal that allowed Wachovia to set up shop in The Pit rankled a number of UNC faculty members. As the central gathering place for students on the Chapel Hill campus, The Pit gets quite a lot of foot traffic from potential consumers. Thus, faculty members were bothered when Wachovia was allowed to open a small banking facility in the student bookstore facing The Pit, along with an automated teller built into the wall there.

While welcoming Wachovia, the university moved a handful of other nearby ATMs to a kiosk farther away from that central spot.

UNC officials liked the deal. As part of the contract, Wachovia promised to overhaul UNC's student identification cards. And UNC received $48,000 a year, additional payments for each customer Wachovia snagged, and additional services valued at $90,000.

Robert Adler, a UNC business professor who teaches courses in ethics, was one of many faculty members bothered by the deal.

"That was pretty troubling to us. We had entered into this special relationship with Wachovia," Adler recalled recently. "The Pit, historically, had never had a sign that identified a company. A lot of faculty thought we were shattering the academic serenity of the main meeting place on campus. Some of the older faculty were extremely upset about that."

The ATM and Wachovia service center -- UNC officials were careful not to label it a bank 'branch' -- is still there today.

Reciprocal relationships

Adler teaches at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, where students check e-mail at the Dell Technology Center, listen to lectures in classrooms with sponsors like First Union and Bank of America, and meet in study rooms paid for by Andersen Consulting and other companies.

The circular stairwell that students climb each day is sponsored by Sprint Corp., the communications giant.

The school's $44 million main building carried no debt when it opened in 1997. The state had kicked in $16.5 million, but the lion's share -- $27.5 million -- came from private donors. The 15-page program given to visitors attending the building's dedication listed 20 corporate sponsors among the new facility's benefactors.

Paul Fulton, who was the school's dean at the time, said the same building could have been built without corporate help; it would have taken quite a lot longer, however, and probably wouldn't have been totally paid for upon its opening.

For Kenan-Flagler, relationships with private industry don't just help the bottom line; they're beneficial for students, as well, Fulton said. While the school's dean, Fulton spent a lot of time on the road, lobbying influential CEOs to come to campus, give a lecture, and maybe talk to some students about jobs once they graduate. By making a donation, companies are investing in students who may one day work for them.

"You want them to come recruit, you want them to come teach your students, and hopefully, they'll make a gift also," said Fulton, who is now a UNC trustee. "There really is no negative fallout. It's a partnership that can benefit both parties."

Adler, the ethics professor, sees no problem with the relationships Kenan-Flagler has cultivated with private industry. He does stress, however, that when the dollars increase, the potential for influence grows.

While there is a corporate presence at Kenan-Flagler, it isn't overt. There are no company logos, banners or slogans affixed to entranceways or classroom walls. Every funded room carries the same sharp, square plaque emblazoned with the sponsor's name. It is the sort of understatement UNC officials and sports fans alike are hoping for if and when UNC does start permitting visible signage and other advertising in its athletics venues.

If it's too gaudy, people will know immediately, Adler cautioned.

"When it gets to be intrusive is when it is sort of forcing its way into your consciousness," Adler said. "There's no clear line, but at some point it becomes crass and unduly commercialized."

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UNC Approves Raises For Chancellors

Sept. 11, 2004
Associated Press; WRAL; NBC 17; WCNC; WTVD; Greensboro News & Record; News 14 Carolina; Wilmington Morning Star; Charlotte Observer; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL; WVEC, VA
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Most of the 16 chancellors for the University of North Carolina will earn more this year under a pay plan approved by system leaders.

The Board of Governors agreed Friday to raises for 14 chancellors, including a 7.5 percent hike for UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser. The retroactive raise puts Moeser's pay at $274,797, the most of any chancellor in the system right now.

His pay remains about $21,000 less than the minimum that the board set for the UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor in July when it reviewed its salary structure in an effort to become more competitive with other universities.

The goal is to raise salaries so that chancellors and other key university employees are among the top 25 percent in pay when compared to similar institutions.

After the approved raises, only the salaries for chancellors at UNC and N.C. State University remain outside of the 25th percentile, according to information from UNC system President Molly Broad's office.

The minimum goal for chancellors' salaries at both schools is $295,704.

The chancellors at Appalachian State and East Carolina universities didn't get raises Friday because their salaries had been negotiated during their recent hirings.

UNC-Charlotte Chancellor James Woodward got the largest percentage increase among chancellors, an 8 percent bump that put his salary at $230,391, about $25,000 more than the target minimum.

Woodward is in his last year as chancellor, after about 15 years of what Broad called "extraordinary" contributions to the UNC system.

"This is a way of expressing our appreciation to him," Broad said.

The board also agreed to raise Broad's salary by 4 percent to $312,504, or about $36,500 below the target salary for that position.

The raises were the first "meaningful" salary increases in three years for most chancellors and system vice presidents, Broad said. She said the university needs to do more to keep its top administrators from leaving.

She mentioned the departure of J.B. Milliken, the former UNC senior vice president for university affairs who was named president of the University of Nebraska system this summer.

"We've got to keep these folks. They are being recruited away," she said.

The salary adjustments come in a year when the system's 15,000 professors and administrators will get raises of at least $1,000. Selected employees will get raises based on merit and market and equity considerations.

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N.C. State pauses to remember 9/11 victim

Sept. 11, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Heather Moore
© Copyright 2004

As the country took time Saturday to remember the tragedies of September 11th, N.C. State held a commemorative ceremony to honor one of its own.

Lieutenent Commander Eric Cranford died in the terrorist's attack at the Pentagon. He was a 1992 graduate of State.

In honor of Cranford and the thousands of other men and women killed on September 11th, N.C. State's Interim Chancellor placed a wreath in front of the memorial Belltower.

Then, there was a moment of silence to remember all the victims of 9/11. Students say it’s important to remember that terrible day three years ago. Some say the fact that Cranford graduated from State and went through the ROTC program makes them realize, it could happen to anyone, at anytime.

“Had I been a little older and graduated sooner, I could've been in the Pentagon. It could've been me in there and it could've affected my friends and family. The fact that it could possibly happen again once we get in there is always in the back of our minds,” said NCSU Naval ROTC Cadet, Billy Goodwin.

Cranford's family has established a scholarship in his memory. It awards $700 to an N.C. State student from Burke County, where Cranford grew up.

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Legacies of 9/11

Sept. 11, 2004
News & Observer
By ANNE SAKER
 © Copyright 2004

In a way, every day since Sept. 11, 2001, has been Sept. 11.

Time has sanded down some of the sharp edges of those shattering events, so on the third anniversary of the most significant terrorist attack on U.S. soil, commemorations have become less global and more personal.

At the North Raleigh home of Kim and Mark Philbeck, preparations are under way to celebrate the third birthday of their youngest child. Kim said that with the world in turmoil, "She has brought hope into our lives."

The date actually has a name. In December 2001, President Bush signed a bill designating Sept. 11 as Patriot Day -- not to be confused with the state holiday in Massachusetts known as Patriot's Day to recall the first battle of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

More tangible things changed, too. The Department of Homeland Security, which did not exist before Sept. 11, granted North Carolina $54.5 million in 2004 alone for preparedness. Intensified law enforcement aggravated concerns over ethnic profiling. Airport security is no longer a private business but a function of the federal government. The report of the 9/11 investigating commission hit No. 5 on Amazon.com's top 10 list Friday; longtime best seller "The Da Vinci Code" was No. 10.

Most important, the nation dispatched soldiers, airmen and Marines from Fort Bragg, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and Camp Lejeune to war, first to Afghanistan, then to Iraq.

Yet, as the anniversary arrived today, formal commemorations have been scaled back everywhere. Gov. Mike Easley, who led a huge service on the Capitol grounds two days after the attacks, issued a statement Friday calling on North Carolinians to observe a moment of silence, and he ordered flags to half staff.

A survey by the Society for Human Resources Management found that 20 percent of companies nationwide that responded to a survey were planning Sept. 11 events; the number was 71 percent in 2003.

One reason for that might be that Sept. 11 falls on a Saturday. Many people are weaving their memorials into the ebb and flow of a late summer weekend.

UNC-Chapel Hill students Margaux Escutin and Julia Buckner organized a 5K race in Chapel Hill early Friday as part of their studies in peace, war and defense.

At its massive Tryon Road campus, Colonial Baptist Church in Cary will hold a two-hour "safety event." David Loftis, the pastor of worship ministries, said the idea for a fall gathering to honor law enforcement jelled when a parishioner looked at the calendar, and, "We thought, why don't we do something on 9/11?"

When the St. Augustine's Falcons take the field against the Mars Hill College Lions today at Broughton High School, the honored guests will be people in civilian and military uniform.

"Everyone we called said, 'Wow, what a great idea,' " said Jim Andrews, director of communication for St. Aug's. "I'm a reservist myself."

As the anniversary approached this week, the Philbecks recalled how they figured a fourth pregnancy would be a snap. But Kim went on bed rest at 32 weeks. On Sept. 11, 2001, she stretched out to watch breakfast TV and saw the second plane strike the south tower.

"I immediately started having contractions," she said. Her husband and her doctor told her to stay calm. But she was "just sitting there thinking: I'm getting ready to have this baby. What is going on?"

Fears of complacency

At N.C. State University, assistant professor Michael Allen usually devotes a day to Sept. 11 in his history classes, even though to a historian, three years is but a blink.

"What history has to offer right now," he said, "is historical perspective, which can be reassuring, to look at other events in the past when it seemed like the sky is falling" -- such as the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Escutin, a senior who plans on medical school, recently spent two weeks in Israel, where suicide bombings are almost a weekly event. She worries about complacency in the United States since "some people are viewing Sept. 11 as maybe a one-time event and not something that we have to be worried about," she said. "That is alarming."

Andrews at St. Aug's said he plays drums and sings in the Army Reserve's 108th Division Band out of Charlotte. He counts at least 40 occasions in the past three years when he has sent troops to war or welcomed them home with his rendition of the national anthem.

"Fortunately, my band has not been called up to relieve a band gone over there," he said. "But it's a possibility."

Three years ago, Kim Philbeck's contractions came and went all day. On Sept. 12, she and Mark went to Rex Healthcare, where almost every TV brought forth horrible images. But not long after midnight Sept. 13, the Philbecks welcomed their fourth daughter.

The nurses told the Philbecks they were especially happy to be working in the birthing center, where they could again feel hope.

"One of the nurses cried," Kim Philbeck said, "and this was someone who had been doing it for, like, 20 years."

'Home of the brave'

In the Septembers to come, Escutin wants to go to the Third World for the relief organization Doctors Without Borders.

"Developing countries are more susceptible to terrorist attacks," she said. "Many of them don't have enough resources. That's tying back into me wanting to be a doctor. I know that many of the challenges I will face will not just be inadequate medical care."

Andrews, "a patriot for a long time," said he feels a fresh power in singing the national anthem to military men and women in wartime.

"To see tears, to see smiles on some of their faces at certain points in the song, especially after the second refrain: 'the land of the free and the home of the brave,' " he said. "It's taken on a whole lot of new meaning."

Kim Philbeck remembers that after she gave birth, she turned off the TV in her hospital room to savor the first sweet moments of holding her infant. She and Mark knew the baby's first name would be Rachel.

But haunted by the sorrow amid their joy, Mark Philbeck gave his daughter the name she would live by.

They call her Hope.

"Obviously, there was a plan for her to come now," Kim Philbeck said, "and we're going to hang on to that."

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UNC raises top-level salaries

Sept. 11, 2004
News & Observer
By ANNE BLYTHE
 © Copyright 2004

CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC Board of Governors doled out raises for chancellors and top system administrators Friday, but members lamented their inability to push some salaries as high as they had hoped.

In July, the board endorsed the idea of paying the 16 University of North Carolina system chancellors in the top 75 percent of peer universities across the nation and then raising the system president's salary accordingly.

At the time, chancellor salaries at five campuses were well below those at comparable universities. Those five schools were UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Pembroke and the N.C. School of the Arts.

After the board unanimously approved pay increases Friday, UNC-CH was the only school still below the minimum. Chancellor James Moeser received a 7.5 percent raise, pushing his annual pay to $274,797. But the basement of the salary range endorsed by the board earlier this year is $295,704 -- the same as at NCSU, where trustees are searching for a new chancellor. Chancellor raises are retroactive to July 1.

"For those chancellors and vice presidents who have been here for a while, there have been no meaningful salary increases for three years," UNC President Molly Broad said. "Chancellor Moeser's salary is substantially below the floor for his position -- so far below the minimum that it simply wasn't feasible to bring his up to the minimum."

Broad's salary jumped 4 percent to $312,504.

"The board wishes that we had the resources to do more for everyone, and that includes the president," said Brad Wilson, board chairman.

The salary adjustments come in a year when the system's 15,000 professors and administrators could expect pay increases of at least $1,000. The General Assembly appropriated a 2.5 percent salary increase pool for the UNC system's faculty and administrators, who do not fall under the jurisdiction of the State Personnel Act. The Board of Governors decided in August to devote about $15 million of that $32 million to across-the-board increases. The rest will be distributed based on merit, market and equity considerations.

Campuses are allowed to make some exceptions from the $1,000 minimum in the case of new hires or newly reassigned employees and those who recently received raises because they were being recruited elsewhere. Employees whose salaries are set in multiyear contracts also may be exempt.

James Woodward, the chancellor at UNC-Charlotte who plans to retire after this year, received the highest percentage increase, 8 percent. His new salary is $230,391.

WHAT THEY WILL EARN

Percent New

Chancellor University increase salary

Kenneth E. Peacock* Appalachian State University 0 percent $210,000

Steven C. Ballard* East Carolina University 0 percent $215,000

Mickey L. Burnim Elizabeth City State University 4 percent $156,130

T.J. Bryan** Fayetteville State University 2.5 percent $191,675

James C. Renick N.C. A&T State University 5 percent $190,287

James H. Ammons N.C. Central University 4 percent $187,850

Wade Hobgood N.C. School of the Arts 4 percent $172,250

James H. Mullen UNC-Asheville 7.5 percent $167,835

James Moeser UNC-Chapel Hill 7.5 percent $274,797

James H. Woodward UNC-Charlotte 8 percent $230,391

Patricia A. Sullivan UNC-Greensboro 5 percent $227,247

Allen C. Meadors UNC-Pembroke 5 percent $160,572

Rosemary DePaolo** UNC-Wilmington 2.5 percent $210,125

John W. Bardo Western Carolina University 5 percent $185,667

Harold L. Martin Winston-Salem State University 5 percent $173,907

*Hired this year

**Has been on the job only one full year

Not listed is NCSU, where Robert A. Barnhardt is interim chancellor.

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Commemorative events

Sept. 11, 2004
Associated Press; News & Observer
By Joyce Sykes and the Associated Press
 © Copyright 2004

Organizations in the Triangle and nationwide have planned events to memorialize the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed thousands in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania. Events are today unless otherwise noted.
NORTH CAROLINA

MOMENT OF SILENCE: Gov. Mike Easley has asked state residents to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to pay tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Flags at state offices will be lowered to half staff. The moment of silence will coincide with the time when the first hijacked airplane struck the World Trade Center in New York City.

WAKE COUNTY

EXPLORIS: Exploris in downtown Raleigh will offer hands-on activities for children from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Crafts include mosaics and origami peace cranes.

Representatives from the Asian, Middle Eastern, Slavic and West African communities will have activity booths at the museum. Exploris is at 201 E. Hargett St. Admission is free on this day. Information: Call Andrea Hill at 857-1085 or send e-mail to ahill@exploris.org.

MEMORIAL CEREMONY: A public safety event with a memorial ceremony will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at Colonial Baptist Church, 6051 Tryon Road, Cary. Memorial program begins at 8 p.m.

The event also will feature exhibits with patrol cars, fire engines, a Highway Patrol helicopter, a home fire safety exhibit in English and Spanish, and an appearance by River, a retired search and rescue dog with the Wake County Sheriff's Office.

Parents can get a free inspection of their child safety seat and a "Kid Care ID." Food and drinks will be sold. Proceeds from food sales will benefit the 200 Club of Wake County, which provides financial support to the spouse and children of officers killed in the line of duty, and Feed the Firefighters, which supplies food to emergency personnel during emergencies. Information: 233-9100.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION: All local firefighters, law enforcement officials, military personnel and emergency rescue team members are invited to the St. Augustine's Falcons football game. Honored guests admitted free; tickets for family members will cost $10.

Game begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Broughton High School stadium in Raleigh. Guests are asked to wear their uniforms and be prepared to show valid ID at the ticket booth. Information: 516-4093.

N.C. STATE UNIVERSITY: NCSU will commemorate the terrorist attacks with a wreath-laying ceremony beginning at 8:46 a.m. at the Belltower. The wreath will be placed in memory of alumnus Lt. Cmdr. Eric A. Cranford and the thousands of others who died in the attacks.

The ceremony will begin with the presentation of the colors by the university's ROTC Color Guard, followed by remarks from interim Chancellor Robert A. Barnhardt.

ORANGE COUNTY

TOWN HALL SERIES: A U.S.-Islamic meeting will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Carroll Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Speakers include Dr. Rajai Al-Khanji, dean of the faculty of arts of the University of Jordan; Jibril Hough, president of the Islamic Political Party of America; and Curtis Jones, former U.S. Foreign Service officer in Lebanon, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Information: www. AIDemocracy.org, www.HopeNotHate. org or www.ThePeopleSpeak.org.

DURHAM COUNTY

PATRIOT DAY: Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center and New World Communities will hold a Patriots Day observance from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the center, 1009 W. Chapel Hill St. in Durham.

In addition to commemorating those who lost their lives Sept. 11, the event honors members of Durham County Sheriff's Office, Durham police, fire, and emergency medical service departments and other public servants.

Guest speaker will be Imam E. Abdulmalik Mohammed, spokesman for the Muslim American leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Information: 225-1729.

(Joyce Sykes)

National events

NEW YORK: Parents and grandparents of World Trade Center victims will read aloud the names of those lost. At sunset, the Towers of Light will be illuminated in lower Manhattan.

WASHINGTON: Wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, with remarks by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

PENNSYLVANIA: Victims of Flight 93 crash will be remembered at a gathering near Shanksville, Pa.

(Associated Press)

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A&T qualifies for prestigious classification

Sept. 11, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By Lanita Withers
© Copyright 2004

GREENSBORO -- N.C. A&T, which has been fortifying its doctoral programs and research endeavors, has met the criteria for a more prestigious national classification.

A&T qualifies for the doctoral/research intensive category as established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which indexes schools by their missions and accomplishments.

The announcement was made Friday at the UNC Board of Governors meeting in Chapel Hill.

The designation speaks to the work of faculty involved in research and training Ph.D. students, said Chancellor James Renick.

"It recognizes that research and Ph.D. education is an important aspect of the mission of the university," he said.

"When we look back 50 years from now, this will be a major milestone."

A&T is the fifth North Carolina school -- and one of only a handful of historically black colleges nationwide -- to qualify for the category, Carnegie's second-highest grouping.

UNCG, UNC-Charlotte, East Carolina and Wake Forest also share the classification. The only state schools ranking higher are UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and Duke.

In 2000, the last year the Carnegie Foundation revised its listing, A&T was one of 11 state schools classified in the master's colleges and universities group.

Using current data, A&T qualifies for the doctoral/research intensive category, but the foundation doesn't update its listing on a case-by-case basis, said Alexander McCormick, a senior scholar at the California-based organization.

Created in 1971, the Carnegie classifications put the nations' nearly 4,000 two- and four-year colleges in groups by their academic programs. It was formed to help higher education officials and others identify similar schools for policy research purposes.

In her comments on Friday, UNC system President Molly Broad said the system has "witnessed important progress on our focused-growth campuses in recent years, particularly in the area of graduate study.

"In this regard, A&T has reached a notable milestone this year," she said, later noting that A&T was positioned to establish itself as a research institution.

A&T offers Ph.D.s in electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering and graduated 21 Ph.D. candidates in the 2003-04 academic year, a record number for the university.

A&T also received $34 million in research awards in 2003-04. The amount of funding has increased steadily since 1997.

In recent years, the school has bolstered its research efforts by encouraging faculty to engage in more funded studies, hiring research-oriented faculty and providing additional laboratory equipment, Renick said.

A&T is planning to offer two additional doctorates, in leadership studies and energy & environmental sciences, within the next year.

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Rockingham studies plans for new equestrian center

Sept. 11, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By Carla Bagley
© Copyright 2004

WENTWORTH -- An equestrian center in Rockingham County could generate $15 million a year in tourism and have an annual $45 million economic impact, the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners was told Friday.

Glenn Petty of Triangle Farms Management/Consulting said the facility would cost nearly $10 million to build, but would generate nearly $1 million a year in sales tax revenues.

County Manager Tom Robinson said that could translate into a total economic impact of about $45 million.

The commissioners took no action at the meeting, but will study the proposal further.

The county has suffered a number of economic punches during the past decade, and consultants have told officials to look within for economic development, rather than depending on large outside businesses to bring jobs to the area.

One thing it is considering is building an equestrian center near the Chinqua-Penn Plantation, a former tourist site near Reidsville that is now closed.

North Carolina has an estimated 225,000 horses, more than triple the number it had in 1955, according to the N.C. Horse Council.

Guilford County, which adjoins Rockingham, has the largest horse population of any county in the state, according to a 1996 study by the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

Nearly a third of the country's 7 million horses are shown at 14,000 sanctioned horse shows yearly.

Petty, who is president of the N.C. Horse Council and now in private business, was a key figure in the startup of state-owned equestrian centers in Asheville and Raleigh.

Petty said the center could be built on about 50 acres of land near the plantation, whose stonework and clock tower would offer it a unique brand.

The proposed site also is near the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Center, which has expressed interest in partnering on such a facility. Nearly 20,000 4-H projects each year involve horses, Petty said.

Petty said Rockingham County would be an excellent site for an equestrian center because it is a population center for people and horses, has a great climate, is a stopping point for people traveling between New York and Florida, would draw competitors from southern Virginia, has adequate access to highways and airports and has motels and golf courses.

It also has limited competition. Equestrian centers in Raleigh and Asheville are booked nearly all year, and promoters can't get shows on their schedules, he said. The state's only other center is in Williamston near the coast.

Virginia has just two facilities, one in Culpeper near Washington and one in Lexington, the Virginia Horse Center, about three hours north of Rockingham County.

The Virginia Horse Center has a direct annual economic impact of about $41 million and an employment impact of $708 million in a county about a third the size of Rockingham, Petty said.

He recommended that if the county built a center, that it have a 2,500-seat arena and office building, a covered arena building, 400 stalls, four uncovered show rings, two schooling rings, seven lunging rings, parking for 800 and camping for 40. Later, 200 more stalls could be added on the site.

Stalls are important because, like rooms at a hotel, they are the primary source of revenue for the center, Petty said.

Covered arena areas provide insurance for promoters, who stand to lose money if their events are rained out, and two arena buildings would allow two small events to go on concurrently.

The center also would need banquet facilities and a restaurant, which might be a use for Chinqua-Penn, he said.

"When you are on the same grounds and you are eating the same food for five or six days straight, that hot dog and hamburger gets a little tiring," Petty said.

The Great Southwestern Equestrian Center in Katy, Texas, has a mansion that attracts weddings and other revenue-producing events, he said.

And while the staff of the center would be small, it would generate new jobs by spurring horse industry growth in the area and by bringing new residents to the county.

"I think it would make folks think about moving horse stables here," Petty said.

The center could cost $581,615 a year to operate, but conservatively, it could generate revenues of $513,429 a year from shows, Petty said.

With sponsorships, advertising revenues and revenues from weddings and other events, the center most likely would break even or make a small profit, he told the board.

"I feel confident that if a facility is built that will hold the events I've outlined here, the events won't be a problem," Petty said.

Robinson told the board that N.C. State University, which owns the Upper Piedmont Research Station nearby, wants to get more involved in horse research.

The proposed site might also mean Rockingham County would have to swap land with the research station, taking some of its property nearest Chinqua-Penn in exchange for property on its perimeter.

If the county decides to build the center, it probably could get grants to help with construction, Robinson said.

He urged the board to make a decision soon.

"There's a risk that if we don't move forward with this, someone else is going to take this and do it,'' he said.

Board member David L. Isley agreed.

"I'm concerned that Guilford County or Alamance or Randolph might jump on this,'' he said.

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UNC board boosts salaries

Sept. 10, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By ROB SHAPARD
© Copyright 2004

CHAPEL HILL -- The Board of Governors agreed Friday to a 7.5 percent raise in the annual salary of UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser, part of a package of raises approved for top administrators throughout the University of North Carolina system.

The raise puts Moeser's pay at $274,797, and is retroactive to July 1, the start of the fiscal 2004-05 year. Percentage-wise, the 7.5 percent bump for the top administrator at Carolina was among the highest increases approved Friday by the board, which oversees the UNC system. Moeser's salary is the highest among the chancellors at the 16 UNC campuses.

On the other hand, his pay is still about $21,000 below the minimum goal that the governors have set for the chancellor at UNC Chapel Hill.

The board also agreed to a raise of 4 percent for James Ammons, the chancellor at North Carolina Central University in Durham. The raise puts Ammons' pay at $187,850, or about $31,300 higher than the board's minimum goal for the N.C. Central position.

In July, the board agreed on a benchmark it would try to reach for the salaries of all UNC chancellors, along with the university system president and a number of other top administrative positions in the system.

The goal is eventually to raise salaries to at least the 25th percentile of the "peer group" for each position. For each campus, there is a defined group of peer universities that officials use for salary comparisons.

The chancellors at Appalachian State and East Carolina universities didn't get raises on Friday because their salaries had been negotiated during their recent hirings.

After the raises that were approved, the salaries for chancellors at Carolina and N.C. State University are the only two that aren't at or above that minimum goal of the 25th percentile, according to information from UNC system President Molly Broad's office.

The minimum goal for the chancellor's pay at both Carolina and N.C. State is $295,704 per year.

"Every chancellor that is getting a salary increase is performing well," Broad said Friday. "We're very satisfied with their performance. For some, like Chancellor Moeser, the issue is the market. [His salary] is way below the market."

The highest percentage increase for chancellors was for James Woodward, the top administrator at UNC Charlotte. An increase of 8 percent put that salary at $230,391, compared to the target minimum of $205,674.

Broad pointed to the fact that Woodward is in his last year as chancellor, after about 15 years of what she described as his strong leadership of the Charlotte campus and "extraordinary" contributions to the UNC system.

"This is a way of expressing our appreciation to him," Broad said.

The board held a closed session meeting that lasted nearly two hours, devoting a little more than an hour of that time to the salary matter, said board Chairman Brad Wilson. The discussion also covered increases for a number of senior administrators and academic leaders at seven of the UNC campuses, not including Chapel Hill.

Earlier this year, the board granted one-time bonuses to a dozen chancellors. Moeser declined his bonus, which would have been somewhere between about $21,000 and $30,000.

Wilson and Broad talked after the meeting about trying to make a dent in salary-compression for administrators by giving pay raises, while being realistic about the available funds.

"At the end of the day, the board had to utilize the available resources and make a decision in the context of the whole," Wilson said. "We recognize that this is incremental progress, but it's progress nonetheless."

The board also agreed to raise Broad's salary by 4 percent. That puts the system president's compensation at $312,504, or about $36,500 below the target salary for that position.

Broad said that for most chancellors and system vice presidents who had been in their jobs for a while, the raises were the first "meaningful" salary increases in three years. Asked whether the 4-percent raise in her own salary was enough to make her feel appreciated, Broad talked mainly about the vice presidents who answer to her, whom she described as among the best in the country.

She mentioned J.B. Milliken, who was named president of the University of Nebraska system this summer. Milliken had been senior vice president for university affairs for the UNC system.

"That's where I think the priority needs to be this year," she said. "We've got to keep these folks. They are being recruited away."

UNC Chapel Hill is one of the campuses where the Board of Governors has agreed for the university trustees to have control over salaries for top administrators. The UNC Board of Trustees approved a proposal from Moeser in July to raise salaries for five top officials, ranging from about $10,000 to $14,700, increases of about 4.5 percent to 6 percent.

For example, the salary for Robert Shelton, executive vice chancellor and provost, went up by about $14,700, to $259,000.

Moeser said he was pleased the trustees took that step.

"In most cases, those senior officers had no salary increase for three years, so it was a long, dry period," he said.

Earlier this year, the N.C. General Assembly approved pay increases for state employees of 2.5 percent or $1,000, whichever was higher.

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Tobacco buyout program could be economic windfall

Sept. 10, 2004
Fayetteville Observer
By Paul Woolverton
 © Copyright 2004

Congress would give about 91,000 people in North Carolina an estimated $3.8 billion under one of two proposed tobacco buyout plans, according to the Environmental Working Group.

About $42 million would be divided among nearly 1,500 tobacco growers and quota holders in Cumberland County, according to the organization.

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit organization based in Washington that analyzes farm subsidies and farm price-support programs.

In the 10-county Cape Fear region, 16,846 people and businesses would get paid an average of about $42,000 each, according to the organization's estimates.

The cash would come from a buyout of the federal program that controls the price and production of tobacco in the United States. People own or rent parts of the tobacco quota, giving them the right to grow a certain amount of the crop.

The Environmental Working Group's estimates for payments are based on a proposal approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, which would give nearly 437,000 people $9.6 billion. The payments would be spread over five years.


Farm economy jolt

Another proposal, passed by the Senate, would pay $12 billion over 10 years.

Growers and others say the money, coupled with an end to tobacco's production caps and price controls, would give the farm economy a much-needed jolt.

"In my opinion, it'll be the single-biggest event to occur in North Carolina's economy in history," said Keith Parrish, a tobacco farmer in Harnett County. Parrish has lobbied for years for a tobacco program buyout and visited Washington this week to press again for it. He plans to return to Washington next week.

"It's going to be a tremendous input or influx of money," Parrish said.

Parrish himself would get almost $282,000, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Money from the buyout would be paid to tobacco farmers and tobacco quota owners. You don't have to be a farmer to own a tobacco quota. Most quota owners don't farm, but rent their quota to farmers.


Depression-era idea

Since the 1930s, people have not been allowed to produce tobacco unless they had access to a share of the national tobacco quota. The program established minimum prices for tobacco and limits on how much the country could produce. It was designed to protect farmers during the Depression.

Generally, the farmers were satisfied with the program until the late 1990s. By then, it started being blamed for keeping American tobacco overpriced on the world market. Every year, the government adjusts the production cap on American tobacco based on the expected demand. Demand has plummeted since 1997.

While U.S. flue-cured tobacco's mandated minimum price this year is $1.23 to $1.93 per pound, other countries charge less than $1.

In 1997, the country's flue-cured tobacco quota was more than 1 billion pounds. This year it's about 500 million pounds. Blake Brown, a tobacco economist at N.C. State University, expects it to fall 33 percent in 2005. That would put the production quota around 335 million pounds.

A farmer who grew 100 acres of tobacco in 1997 would have about 50 acres now and 34 next year unless he tried to make up his loss by buying or renting quota, which has grown scarce and expensive. Meanwhile, the cuts have whacked the farmers' incomes, said Parrish.

Ending the quota and price support system would allow the price of U.S. tobacco to fall to more competitive levels and farmers to grow as much as they want. But if the quota program ends, the farmers and quota owners want to be paid for their share of the quota.

Buying or renting a portion of the quota was an investment, Parrish and other farmers said. They expect to be compensated for losing the money they have spent.

Parrish said owners who have rented their quota to farmers will want compensation so they can set up another investment. He said those who rent their quota typically get 50 cents to 75 cents per pound.

The $9.6 billion House buyout plan would pay 60,000 farmers $3 per pound that they produce. The 430,000 quota owners would get $7 per pound. If a farmer owns the quota he farms, he would get $10.

The $12 billion Senate plan would pay quota owners $8 per pound and farmers $4 per pound, with a farmer getting $12 for any quota he both owns and grows. The Senate plan would create a new production quota system but would eliminate price supports.

Members of the House and Senate are expected to begin meeting this month to prepare a compromise between their plans.

As of this week, the House had not yet picked who would meet with members of the Senate to produce a compromise.


Congressional support

But the buyout's chances remain strong, said spokeswomen for U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge. Both congressmen back the bill. Etheridge and his wife would each get $31,000 under the House buyout, according to the Environmental Working Group's estimates.

"The tobacco buyout is obviously one of Robin's biggest priorities in the next few months," said Hayes' spokeswoman, Carolyn Hern. "He's very optimistic that things will continue to move forward."

The tobacco bill is attached to a bigger piece of corporate tax legislation aimed at creating jobs. That legislation is a high priority. "It's been described as 'must-pass' legislation" that helps the tobacco buyout's chances of passage, said Sara Lang, a spokeswoman for Etheridge.

Brown, the tobacco economist, said a buyout will prove to be a boon to North Carolina.

"We do know that when you inject money into a local economy, it will increase the demand for goods and services," he said.

It could be a new car, a new truck or home improvements, he said. And it could be investments on the farms. "If they reinvest some of that in agriculture, some of that's going to increase demand at the local tractor dealership or for help on the farm for various things," he said.

The money will create jobs, Brown said. Based on a tobacco buyout study that Brown did in 2002, the plans could create about 1,300 jobs for southeastern North Carolina.

Brown expects some farmers to retire with a buyout.

The economic development directors in Columbus and Robeson counties said they had not considered how the money would affect their communities.

"My golly," said Columbus County Economic Development Director Jim Hinkle when he learned that people in his county could split nearly $137 million.

"Some of it, hopefully, can be used to go back into agriculture in diversifying their crops," he said.

Tobacco farmers could convert to sweet potatoes or use greenhouses where they grow young tobacco plants to grow strawberries in the winter, Hinkle said.

Greg Cummings, Robeson County's economic development director, would himself get $9,759, according to the estimates of the Environmental Working Group. People in Robeson County would divide $155 million. "That would definitely stimulate the economy and the tax base of this county tremendously," Cummings said.

He predicted that the recipients would buy cars, pay off debts and build homes or remodel them.


Cumberland's share

The Cumberland County Business Council, which oversees economic development in Cumberland County, expects a benefit from the $42 million that people in the county could get.

Kristie Lozano, a spokeswoman for the group, said people buying goods, making home improvements or doing other things would generate taxes on those sales.

"We think eventually the money could be turned over in the Cumberland economy by at least one and a half times," she said.

Until a bill passes and the checks start rolling out, farmers are reluctant to make specific plans for the money, several said.

Farmers will have to decide, Parrish said, whether to invest in tobacco equipment to take advantage of the free market or to move on to something else. Many have built up debt that they'll want to clear, he said.

Farmer Craig Tyson of Cumberland County would get almost $40,000, according to the Environmental Working Group's database. He has five acres of tobacco quota, which he says is too small to be profitable.

"I don't know what I'd do with it," he said. "I would probably use it to enrich the value of the farm somehow ... On the other hand, if I get a tuition payment for my oldest daughter ... some of it might go to that."

Regardless of whether there is a buyout, Tyson expects to quit growing tobacco and concentrate on growing produce and soybeans.

Larry Sampson of Robeson County has been a full-time farmer for 33 years. The database doesn't list his name, but he said he expects to receive a payment through his partnership at Oxendine Farms.

"I would try to pay off my debts, and if there's any left, I would like to put a little bit of it away for a rainy day and move on," he said. "If the free market is not profitable enough for me to grow tobacco, I hope there's enough money that I could exit the business and do something else."

But he doesn't know what that would be.

Craig Tyson's 86-year-old uncle, Upton Tyson of Gray's Creek, would get $1.4 million from the House buyout, according to the Environmental Working Group, more than any other individual or farm in Cumberland County. He said he didn't know he had the possibility for such a windfall and joked that he could buy a lot of overalls and work boots.

Upton Tyson said he has no debt and plenty of assets. He probably would save the money he is paid through a buyout, he said.

"We try to look out for every little bit, you know. My granddaddy always told me: A little bit added to what you have will always make a little bit more."

TOBACCO BUYOUT PROPOSALS
The U.S. House and Senate have passed competing proposals for a buyout of the tobacco program. A compromise is to be worked out.

CURRENT LAW

Tobacco may be grown only by people who own or rent a share of a national production quota.

The quota limits tobacco production to certain geographic areas.

The system sets a minimum price for tobacco. If no one offers more than the minimum price, the system buys the tobacco. It eventually tries to resell it to commercial customers.