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Politicians lose, then try again
Democrat Erskine Bowles’ first campaign ended ingloriously last year when Republican Elizabeth Dole trounced him in an expensive bid for U.S. Senate. Politically, he was a loser.
Moose
Preaches Cooperation and Ethics to Students
Former Montgomery County, Md., police chief Charles Moose told a group at
North Carolina State University on Wednesday that cooperation, commitment
and honesty were the keys to capturing the suspects in the Washington, D.C.-area
sniper case last year.
Biotech
money could yield results next year
The Golden LEAF Foundation said North Carolina could see some results soon
from its investment in biotechnology.
Johnston
school board plans '04 bond proposal
Growth spawns need for $130 million to build new schools
Riverstone
Networks Appoints Michael P. Ressner to Board of Directors
Riverstone Networks (RSTN.PK) today announced that Michael P. Ressner has
been appointed to the company's board of directors. Ressner, an executive
with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications industry, has held
a number of senior financial management positions with networking, telecommunications
and technology companies.
Downtown
Raleigh Alliance Announces Survey Results; DRA Announces Results Of Public
Feedback From Online Survey
In an effort to obtain community input on the revitalization of Downtown Raleigh
from the community at large, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA) and the North
Carolina State University Center for Urban Affairs & Community Services
(CUACS) recently partnered to conduct a first-of-its-kind citizen survey addressing
issues relevant to the ongoing revitalization plans for Downtown Raleigh.
Several noteworthy findings emerged from the survey
Growth
of UNC keys vote
Campaign signs and their messages are vanishing, but the messages from Tuesday's
Town Council election seem clear to many
Student
leaders split over out-of-state enrollment cap
The UNC system Board of Governors will meet next week to discuss whether to
raise the 18 percent out-of-state student enrollment cap currently in place
for member institutions including UNC Charlotte.
NCSU
Fraternity, City Compromise Over Historic Home
The former home of a famous writer will not be written off.
Calls
frantic as 6 lives end on road
As the toll becomes clear on a dark street, sounds of comfort and mounting
horror heard
Procter
& Gamble Continues to Nurture North Carolina State University's Research
Capabilities
North Carolina State University to lead development and commercialization
of TEEGAFIX Technology and Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology
Parents
Take On Academic Indoctrinators
cites Micahel Schwalbe, sociology and anthropology
Politicians lose, then try again
Nov. 3, 2003
News & Record
By Eric Dyer, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Record
Democrat Erskine Bowles’ first campaign ended ingloriously last year when Republican Elizabeth Dole trounced him in an expensive bid for U.S. Senate. Politically, he was a loser.
Only months later, Bowles already has dusted off and started another shot at serving in Congress. In fact, he is applying again for the same line of work.
After a defeat, “you think, 'Did I do the right thing? ... Was it the best way to spend my time?’ ” he said in an interview last week. “You question things like that. But with me, I’ve always picked myself up and said, 'What’s next?’ ”
The fact that voters have rejected Bowles could cast a cloud over his current Senate campaign.
A loss at the hands of the electorate inevitably mars those candidates’ records and raises this question: Why should they be able to win the next time?
No one wants to be a loser, but the political world is filled with men and women who fell a time or two on the way to achieving their goals. Often they can squeeze advantages out of the bad experience, using an unsuccessful bid as practice, possibly learning from mistakes and enjoying the benefit of increased name-recognition that comes even with failing.
“It is indicative of someone with personal ambition,” political observer Andrew Taylor, a professor at N.C. State, said of candidates who seek public office after a loss. “Running a campaign is tiring, time-consuming. You’re separated from friends and family. ... Once they lose and want to do it again, it shows something about their personality.”
Some of North Carolina’s more successful politicians have been resilient after hitting bumps.
Democrat Mike Easley lost a race for Senate in 1990 and bounced back two years later to become attorney general and then governor, his current gig.
Democrat Jim Hunt was able to recover from his loss to Republican Jesse Helms in the 1984 Senate race to win two more terms as the state’s chief executive.
Dole’s strong victory over Bowles in the Senate race last year — she grabbed 54 percent of the vote — followed a disappointing attempt at a bigger office. She campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but had to bow out before the primary elections began because she could not raise enough money to compete with the ultimate champion, George W. Bush.
U.S. Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem is touted as a rising Republican star, and he essentially has a clear path to winning his party’s nomination for the Senate seat up next year. Yet his political career began in 1992 with a losing race for the congressional seat he won two years later.
The failed bid, Burr said last week, turned into his “biggest learning experience.” He likened the grueling endeavor of running a campaign to launching a company.
“You have to decide you want to start a business,” Burr said. “You have to structurally and financially put it together, run it either successfully or unsuccessfully, and if unsuccessfully, shut it down in an ethical way.”
A number of presidential contenders have taken multiple shots at the White House. Candidates such as Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan floundered before winning the prize.
Others have enjoyed several chances only to go down every time.
William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908, all unsuccessful bids.
Republican Thomas Dewey went down in the 1944 and 1948 general elections against Democrats Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, respectively.
Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot fits this model. He has lost two straight attempts for N.C. governor, although at different stages each time — in the 1996 GOP primary and the 2000 general election.
Undeterred, Vinroot is revved up for another turn at living in the Executive Mansion, even though he admits that losing, a possible outcome in this round, is “a bad feeling. I can’t tell you how painful it is.”
Vinroot, however, sees his frustrated campaigns as part of an educational process that slowly is teaching him how to run a winning statewide organization.
“I lost a primary. I studied and learned how to win a primary,” said Vinroot, who was more aggressive and more attuned to fund-raising the second time. “I won a primary and lost an election. I think I made 3,000 to 4,000 phone calls after I lost that election to people both thanking them for what they did but asking them how I can do this better should I chose to do it again, and I got a lot of advice.”
On the flip side of optimism is the likelihood that Republican challengers will brand Vinroot as a loser who should not be entrusted with the party’s nomination. Indeed, his entry drew a dismissive statement from fellow GOP candidate Bill Cobey, who said he wanted to ``welcome Richard to the race and congratulate him on his dedication as he enters his third run for governor’’ but emphasized that Democrat Easley was his real opponent.
An investment banker who once served former President Clinton as his White House chief of staff, Bowles may have an easier time than Vinroot. He has lost only once and no other notable Democrats are lining up to oppose him for the party’s nomination.
Bowles said he grew during the last campaign from meeting with North Carolinians on the trail and hearing their stories. That, he explained, gave him a clearer understanding of their needs and concerns.
“You meet that laid-off textile worker. You meet those grown-ups who can’t afford their medicine or decent retirement,” he said. That takes an abstract policy position “from your head to your soul, to your heart.”
As for whether the experience has made him a better candidate, Bowles apparently believes so, saying this time: “I am absolutely going to win. You can take that to the bank.”
Raleigh lobbyist Dick Carlton, who has managed statewide campaigns for Democrats, said his gut feeling was that losing candidates are able to make a sequel fight so long as they did not embarrassingly bomb in a previous bid.
“I think the public is much more forgiving than they used to be,” he said. “It’s a widely held view that you can run again if you ran a competitive race before.”
Moose Preaches Cooperation and Ethics to Students
Nov. 5, 2003
Associated Press; WTVD-11; Story also appeared on WRAL-TV), The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer, WNCT (Greenville, NC)
By Jay Cohen, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
Former Montgomery County, Md., police chief Charles Moose told a group at North Carolina State University on Wednesday that cooperation, commitment and honesty were the keys to capturing the suspects in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper case last year.
Moose, who resigned from his police chief position in mid-June in order to write "Three Weeks in October," a book about his life and the sniper case, also spoke about why he stepped down from his chief position instead of fighting to keep his job.
"I had something to say as a black man living in America," Moose said about the decision. "I don't know if I'll get an opportunity to do it again."
Moose addressed the crowd of about 200 students and faculty as part of N.C. State's "Integrity Week."
He is touring the country in support of his 319-page book, which covers everything from his childhood in Lexington, N.C. to his part in the tense three-week sniper investigation that riveted the country.
John Allen Muhammad, 42, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, are charged with 13 shootings, including 10 killings, from a three-week spree last October in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Muhammad's trial began in early October in Virginia Beach, Va. Malvo's trial is scheduled to start Nov. 10 in Chesapeake, Va.
Moose, 50, was investigated by the Montgomery County Ethics Commission for his outside work after the sniper case, which included a book deal, a consulting firm and a community college teaching post Moose held before the sniper investigation started.
He said he never accepted any money from the book deal before he resigned from his police chief position in mid-June, rather than take the case all the way through the courts.
"I miss my job," admitted Moose, a graduate of nearby University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "I realized that I wasn't going to be police chief forever but I wasn't planning to resign at the time that I resigned."
Moose said he would like to get a police chief job in a different community or go into academia in the future.
But right now he is busy with the book.
On Wednesday he revealed a little more about some of the difficult moments of the sniper investigation. The most difficult of which for him, he said, was writing a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking to declare it a serial murder case.
He worried about what kind of control the government would want and if his subordinates in Montgomery County would feel he didn't have any faith in them.
"(We) were very, very fortunate that the people who help came to help, came to help," Moose said. "They adjusted their attitudes, their agenda and we were all focused on bringing the perpetrators into custody."
Moose also spoke about the value of the combination of people and technology in the case but cautioned that people are the most important thing. He said he would always opt to retain more of his people than to purchase more technology because people can make observations that computers just can't make.
One such contribution came from the lower level of his police department during the sniper shootings. That was to set up road blocks in the areas immediately after shootings, a technique that he said nearly caught the alleged snipers earlier in the investigation.
"Never underestimate people's capacity during the time of crisis," he said.
Biotech money could yield results next year
Nov. 5, 2003
News 14 Carolina
By Mitch Kokai, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 TWEAN Newschannel of Raleigh, L.L.C. dba News 14 Carolina
The Golden LEAF Foundation said North Carolina could see some results soon from its investment in biotechnology. On Wednesday, the foundation told state lawmakers plans for a biotech training program are moving forward.
"The Golden LEAF Foundation has committed nearly $102 million to the biotech sector,” Valeria Lee from Golden LEAF said. “We believe that is indicative of the priority you have placed on this sector."
State lawmakers formed Golden LEAF. It funnels money from a national tobacco settlement to projects like biotechnology training.
"This biotech training is a project that we feel like, statewide, is probably the most important thing that the Golden LEAF Foundation could be doing at this time,” Lawrence Davenport from Golden LEAF said.
Legislative leaders said they look forward to the biotechnology industry pumping up the state's economy. They said that'll make it easier for them as they make budget decisions for the state.
"You will see that deficit shrink because now we will have income coming in from a very productive North Carolina segment and that will make my job a lot easier,” Rep. Thomas Wright (D-New Hanover) said.
“I'd like for us to open the training doors tomorrow morning and start opening these large companies, these manufacturing plants, these research facilities here,” Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D) said. “You can't go quick enough for me, but they're doing very, very well."
Lawmakers said now is the time to push biotechnology.
"The biotech industry is just a good idea sitting there waiting to happen, and this kind of gets it up and running,” House Co-Speaker Jim Black said.
Legislators hope biotech can translate into new money soon.
Golden LEAF's biotechnology program includes more than $33 million for N.C. State University. N.C. Central will collect almost $18 million and the community college system will use almost $9 million.
NCSU Fraternity, City Compromise Over Historic Home
Nov. 5, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The former home of a famous writer will not be written off.
FarmHouse, a fraternity at North Carolina State University, owns the former Elizabeth Lawrence home on Park Avenue.
The fraternity wanted to tear down the structure and rebuild.
Neighbors fought to save the property and the Raleigh City Council got involved.
Both sides reached a compromise. The fraternity will build a new house and agreed to preserve the historic home.
Riverstone Networks Appoints Michael P. Ressner to Board of Directors
Nov. 5, 2003
Business Wire
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Business Wire.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2003--Riverstone Networks (RSTN.PK) today announced that Michael P. Ressner has been appointed to the company's board of directors. Ressner, an executive with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications industry, has held a number of senior financial management positions with networking, telecommunications and technology companies.
"Michael not only has significant strategic leadership, financial reporting, corporate governance and business management experience, but he also possesses a deep understanding of the technology and competitive aspects of this industry," President and Chief Executive Officer Oscar Rodriguez said. "Riverstone expects to benefit from his knowledge and guidance as a financial and business strategist. We look forward to his joining our Board of Directors as we continue to strengthen our corporate leadership and help evolve the strategy for the company."
Ressner currently holds several board positions with companies such as Entrust, WilTel Communications and Arsenal Digital Solutions. He is also a venture advisor with the Southeast Interactive Technology Fund, Research Triangle Park, N.C., which focuses on emerging technology companies, including those in the data storage, wireless communications, imaging and semiconductor sectors.
Ressner's senior management experience includes a 22-year tenure at Nortel Networks, where he held the positions of Vice President and General Manager, Vice President of Finance and CFO, in Raleigh, N.C. and Santa Clara, Calif.
"The networking and telecommunications industries have evolved tremendously in recent years and are now more dynamic and segmented than at any time in history," Ressner said. "In response, Riverstone's new management team is formulating a strategy to align the company's core competencies and technological leadership with the most appropriate segments of this new market. I look forward to assisting Oscar and his team in defining and implementing a plan to bring greater value to both customers and shareholders."
Ressner, who lives Raleigh, N.C., is an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Accounting at North Carolina State University's College of Management.
Riverstone Networks
Riverstone Networks, Inc. (RSTN.PK) provides carrier class switches and routers for mission critical networks. From the metropolitan edge to the campus network, Riverstone's advanced technology delivers the control and reliability carriers, government organizations, educational institutions and large corporations require. Worldwide, operators of mission critical networks trust Riverstone. For more information, please visit www.riverstonenet.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including the expected benefits of Mr. Ressner's contributions as a director of the company and expectations regarding the company's strategy and prospects, including its efforts to strengthen corporate leadership and its plan to bring greater value to customers and shareholders, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the company's ability to define and implement its strategy, the results and effect of the ongoing accounting practices review, changes in scope and nature of, and the outcome of, the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation regarding the company's accounting practices, the ability of the company to file its Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs, whether the company's outstanding convertible notes would be subject to accelerated repayment under the terms of the indenture governing the notes and the impact of any such repayment on the company or its business, the impact of any restatement on the company's financial results, and the risks detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended November 30, 2002 and amended current report on Form 8-K/A dated August 26, 2003. The company disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements.
Riverstone Networks is a registered trademark of Riverstone Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names belong to their respective owners.
Downtown Raleigh Alliance Announces Survey Results; DRA Announces Results Of Public Feedback From Online Survey
Nov. 5, 2003
Business Wire
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Business Wire.
RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2003--In an effort to obtain community input on the revitalization
of Downtown Raleigh from the community at large, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance
(DRA) and the North Carolina State University Center for Urban Affairs
& Community Services (CUACS) recently partnered to conduct a first-of-its-kind
citizen survey addressing issues relevant to the ongoing revitalization plans
for Downtown Raleigh. Several noteworthy findings emerged from the survey:
-- More respondents visit Downtown from outside the beltline and in the greater
Wake County area than inside the beltline, yet citizens inside the beltline
visit more often.
-- The cost of parking and ease of locating parking were viewed as major concerns for area citizens.
-- The majority of respondents feel safe Downtown during the day. While safety at night ranked lower overall, those who visited Downtown at night ranked safety much higher than those who had not visited Downtown in the last year.
-- A vast majority of participants rank a lack of housing options and shopping as major issues to be addressed.
Conducted online during September and early October, the purpose of the survey was to ensure that the renewal of Downtown Raleigh meets the needs of the community, adds to the economic viability of the region, and is a place of pride for residents of the region. For more information regarding the study, contact the Downtown Raleigh Alliance at 832-1231 or visit www.downtownraleigh.org.
The DRA is a non-profit organization comprised of individuals, associations, corporations, and partnerships who want to improve Downtown Raleigh. This leadership organization is focused on the revitalization of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina and serves as a clearinghouse and advocacy group for all issues affecting downtown. The organization also sponsors the Bicycle Safety Patrol and Sidewalk Cleanup Programs. For more information, please call 832-1231.
Nov. 6, 2003
The Durham Herald Sun
By Rob Shapard, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Durham Herald Company.
CHAPEL HILL -- Campaign signs and their messages are vanishing, but the messages from Tuesday's Town Council election seem clear to many: Voters are concerned about the university's plans to grow.
"To me, what [the election] said is that people are worried about UNC's expansion, and that the development at Carolina North has really hit a nerve with people and they're anxious about it," said Flicka Bateman, a current council member who didn't seek re-election.
The voters returned incumbents Bill Strom and Jim Ward to office, and chose Sally Greene and Cam Hill by solid margins for the other two available seats on the council. The winning candidates appeared to benefit, in part, from a series of endorsements.
For example, both the Sierra Club and The Independent Weekly had backed Greene, Strom and Hill, along with Andrea Rohrbacher, who ended up in sixth place, about 300 votes behind Dianne Bachman.
Robert Porter, chairman of the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club, said Wednesday that the group's leaders felt confident about the chances of the candidates the club endorsed going into Election Day. But he said they were surprised at just how "resounding" victories were by Greene, Strom and Hill.
Greene was the top vote-earner with 4,618 votes, or 16.8 percent; while Strom tallied 4,582 votes, or 16.7 percent; Hill was third with 3,594 votes, or 13.1 percent; and Ward had 3,447 votes, or 12.5 percent.
Bachman finished in fifth, about 1,000 votes behind Ward.
"We thought it would be closer than it was," Porter said. "The candidates did a good job of showing how and where they were different on issues. I think, ultimately, the people of Chapel Hill largely succeeded in distinguishing those differences.
"Sally Greene will be a one-person research arm for the council," he said, citing Greene's penchant for delving into the details of issues. "Bill Strom is a diligent, intelligent, hard-working incumbent with an excellent voting record. And Cam Hill's sincerity and genuineness deeply impressed me. I believe that he's going to stand up for the citizens of Chapel Hill and is going to diligently fight to protect the environment."
The new council will be sworn in next month. And it may not be long after that when UNC makes a formal proposal to the town for Carolina North, the satellite campus planned for nearly 1,000 acres along Airport Road.
The future of Carolina North and other town-gown matters played a significant role in the election, observers said.
Bateman, who will leave the council at the end of the year, had the luxury of watching the campaign and election this year without having to be the middle of it. She said she wasn't really surprised with the results in the council race, although she said she had figured Ward would finish higher than fourth.
Her take was that voters seemed to be saying they want the council to "stick to its guns" in negotiating with UNC on Carolina North and other matters.
"I hope that everybody on the council will be committed to doing what's best for the town, being fair to the university and the town, and will look at all the complexities," Bateman said. "I think the university and the town will always be in a complex relationship. The characters may change, in terms of who's representing the town and the university, but it's just like a marriage. It's continuous, ongoing work to be able to live together. There should be give and take."
Bateman said the implication from the election was that many voters felt there has not been enough "give" on the university's part.
"I think voters voted for people they thought would be strong in dealing with the university," she said. "I don't think the community wants to see an inundation of cars [due to Carolina North]. I don't think the community wants to see housing prices driven up more than they are. I don't think the community wants to see schools become more crowded [or] to see the air quality eroded."
The Community Action Network endorsed candidates for the first time this year and was 1-for-4 with its picks, backing Ward, Bachman, Rohrbacher and Terri Tyson.
Gary Barnes, who recently became chairman of CAN's board of directors, said the council election pointed to a certain "level of anxiety" about Carolina North and other university growth, and added that he and others may not have recognized the strength of that anxiety.
But Barnes, who retired in 2001 as vice president for program assessment and public service for the UNC system, said he believes that anxiety stems mainly from the fact UNC hasn't yet made its formal proposal for Carolina North.
"I think, frankly, that the [election] outcome is more a reaction to uncertainty than to anything else," he said. "I think the university has demonstrated historically that it's a pretty good neighbor. I would trust it to be a good neighbor in the development of Carolina North.
"Carolina North is uncertain," he said. "It's an enterprise more like the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University than anything on the Carolina campus. To some extent, it's driven by prospects for research and development that just can't be predicted right now."
Barnes said he therefore expects there will be details that UNC won't be able to nail down at the start.
"But I don't think that should be interpreted to mean the university is not going to collaborate as it develops its resources," he said. "I think this council will grow into its responsibilities and be fair in its work with the university. It may be rough sledding initially, but I think once there's a plan on the table, the conversation will get down to what it needs to be."
Roger Perry, lead developer of Meadowmont, likely will be part of that conversation in his role as a UNC trustee.
Perry wasn't willing to tip his hand Wednesday on exactly whom he voted for in the council race, although he did say, "I supported some winners and I supported some losers." Perry also refrained from offering a strong take on what the election might mean for town-gown relations on Carolina North and other matters.
"The only thing I can vouch for is that the university has and will continue to deal in good faith with the town in trying to find solutions to common issues," he said. "I would assume that the new council will do the same, just as the last council did.
"I think they're all good, competent people, and I suspect the Chapel Hill voters have selected two more people who will serve just as well," he said.
Student leaders split over out-of-state enrollment cap
Nov. 4, 2003
NinerOnline.com
By Justin Vick, UT News Editor
© Copyright 2003 University Times.
The UNC system Board of Governors will meet next week to discuss whether to raise the 18 percent out-of-state student enrollment cap currently in place for member institutions including UNC Charlotte.
The proposal would allow the 16 universities to compete for the acceptance of more out-of-state National Merit Scholars, National Achievement Scholars and National Hispanic Scholars.
The plan would not count these students toward the 18 percent cap unless they exceeded 22 percent of freshman enrollment.
The approval of such a move would benefit the system's flagship school, UNC-Chapel Hill, who turned away over 10,000 out-of-state students this year.
Other schools that are near the borders of other states could also benefit from the proposal as well, such as Elizabeth City State and UNC-Asheville. As many as seven universities in the system are close to the 18 percent cap or over.
Opponents of the proposal, such as UNC Charlotte Student Body President Stefanos Arethas, said that increasing the cap to 22 percent would be a political backstabbing to the citizens of North Carolina, who recently supported the growth of the state's higher education by voting for a $3.1 billion bond package in 2000.
"When we ask the taxpayers for money and at the same time ask them to pay for more out-of-state students, that's not good politics," said Arethas, who is also a UNCC trustee.
Arethas said that with the state's budget woes and the eroding textile industry, the UNC system has a greater obligation now than ever to support in-state families.
"My opinion is it's much more important to educate the child of a textile mill worker or tobacco farmer than to bring some student down from New Jersey who got a 1500 on his SATs," said Arethas.
That same sentiment is shared by members of the UNC Association of Student Governments, which recently rejected a measure to support the out-of-state enrollment cap proposal.
ASG is a student-run advocacy group made up of student body presidents among all 16 UNC system schools which advocates student issues in the state legislature and Board Of Governors.
Jonathan Ducote, president of ASG and a non-voting member of the Board of Governors, believes that raising the cap for rankings won't necessarily help the UNC system in the long run.
He said many schools would not benefit from the cap increase, because they don't have the scholarship packages like UNC-CH to sway top-performing out-of-state students to enroll in N.C. universities.
"If Chapel Hill would like to have their cap extended, I think that's a conversation we need to be having and just get right to the root of this, as opposed to dilly-dallying around with policies that don't really work for the system," said Ducote.
"I think if we're going to play for rankings, then we're going to lose a lot of what the UNC System stands for and what UNC Charlotte stands for."
Matt Tepper, UNC-CH student body president, has publicly supported raising the cap, but abstained in the ASG vote at the October meeting. After the meeting, Tepper expressed disappointment concerning the vote to UNC-CH's student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel.
"I have to weigh what's worth my time and what's not worth my time," Tepper told The Daily Tar Heel. "If I'm sitting there and I'm discussing this ridiculously divisive topic, ... I think that's definitely a waste of my time to be involved in something like that."
Reactions from other ASG members, including Arethas has been fierce.
"Chapel Hill wants the increase, ASG voted against it and this is his retaliation," said Arethas.
Arethas said that when you have an organization with 16 different interests, difference of opinion is going to be expected.
"Even if there is a problem, you don't slam your other members in the paper," said Arethas. "That doesn't get you anything."
Tony Caravano, student body president for N.C. State University, the UNC system's other flagship school, said the issue does not have a direct impact on his university, where out-of-state students account for only 10-12 percent of freshman enrollment.
Still, he would personally not like to see an increase in the cap.
"I think the UNC system itself has an obligation to the citizens and taxpayers of N.C.," said Caravano, who is an out-of-state student.
While raising the cap system-wide has been the most-commonly talked about proposal on the table, the Board of Governors could decide to allow individual campuses to request cap increases.
Such a move will be decided at the Board of Governors meetings on Nov. 13 and 14.
Johnston school board plans '04 bond proposal
Nov. 6, 2003
The News & Observer
By Samiha Khanna, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
The Johnston County school
board plans to propose a bond issue in the spring to finance new schools and
renovations that will likely cost more than $130 million, Superintendent Jim
Causby said.
school crowding
SCHOOLS ALREADY OVER CAPACITY: Cleveland Elementary, East Clayton Elementary,
Glendale-Kenly Elementary, South Smithfield Elementary, Wilson's Mills Elementary,
Selma Middle School, Clayton High School and Princeton School
SCHOOLS THAT WILL EXCEED CAPACITY BY 2005-06: McGee's Crossroads Elementary, Riverwood Elementary, West Clayton Elementary, Clayton Middle School, Corinth-Holders School, Four Oaks Middle School, Smithfield Middle School, North Johnston High School, Smithfield-Selma Senior High School
SCHOOLS THAT WILL NOT EXCEED CAPACITY BY 2012-13: Selma Elementary School, West Smithfield Elementary
(OPERATIONS RESEARCH/EDUCATION LABORATORY, INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH AND EDUCATION, N.C. STATE UNIVERSITY)
The board has yet to settle on the bond package but will meet this month to name the amount and the projects, Chairman Fred Bartholomew said. The board is aiming for the referendum to be held in March, Causby said.
The biggest concern in Johnston is accommodating growth in the 25,000-student district, particularly in western Johnston County.
Researchers hired by the school system issued a report Tuesday predicting that all but two county schools will outgrow their capacity within 10 years.
Some already have. The county added nearly 1,500 students this year, and according to attendance records, eight schools are out of room. Most have trailers to house additional classrooms.
If projected growth is on target, nine other schools will overflow by 2005-06, according to the demographic study by Operations Research/Education Laboratory on N.C. State University's Centennial Campus.
In five-year projections, new students will be concentrated in areas served by Clayton High School and West Johnston High School, said Jeff Tsai, director of Operations Research/Education Laboratory. The research firm conducts similar studies for more than a dozen school systems in the state and has been making predictions for Johnston County schools since the mid-1990s.
"After a five-year period, they were only off by about 20 students," Causby said. "Their predictions for this year were only off about 30 students."
The most recent numbers indicate the need for a new elementary school in western Johnston to relieve crowding at Cleveland Elementary, Polenta Elementary, Four Oaks Elementary and West Clayton Elementary, Causby said.
The county also needs middle and high schools in the northwestern corner of the county served by Corinth-Holders and Riverwood Middle schools and Clayton and Smithfield-Selma high schools, Causby said.
County Commissioner Cookie Pope said she thinks voters will support the bond package that school board and county leaders will put together.
"I think the commissioners have set a standard that we are frugal and that we are going to do things that will serve the students," said Pope, vice chairman of the commissioners. "But at the same time, we're always reminded of the taxpayer, too."
If the school board moves quickly, the county could build the new schools by 2006, Causby said. But to keep up with growth, a bond issue will be necessary every two years, he said.
The last time Johnston voters approved a school bond issue was in 2001, which gave the county $75 million to build West Smithfield, River Dell and Selma elementary schools and McGee's Crossroads Middle School.
"We cannot walk away from the issue of growth," Bartholomew said. "We're either going to have to build buildings or put people in trailers, and nobody likes trailers. That's a tough way to send the kids to school."
Staff writer Samiha Khanna an be reached at 829-4565.
Calls frantic as 6 lives end on road
Nov. 6, 2003
The News & Observer
By Andrea Weigl, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- The 911 calls paint a chilling picture of the crash that took six lives Saturday night: people pulling over on a dark stretch of Chapel Hill Road to help two motorists injured in an earlier wreck. An Econoline van hitting the crowd, sending bodies flying. Sobbing witnesses waiting for emergency workers to arrive.
Emergency dispatchers got four calls related to the incident near Carter-Finley Stadium -- two reporting the initial crash and two reporting the second. No emergency vehicles or law enforcement officers arrived between the two accidents, and there were no flares or flashing lights to direct or warn motorists.
the tale of
the tapes
911 calls cover seven frantic minutes as wrecks' toll becomes clear.
8:39
The first call comes in, from a man helping Martha West, whose car was off the road in a ditch:
Caller: Yes. There's been a very bad accident at Nowell Road and Chapel Hill Road.
Operator: Are you with the patient now, sir?
Caller: I am with one of them, and there's a group of people with the other.
8:41
A second man assisting Baron Fulk calls:
Operator: Is anyone pinned in the vehicle?
Caller: No. The vehicle is smoking, so we've moved him out of the vehicle. He's laying on the road.
8:46
Then the first man calls back to report the fatal wreck:
Caller: I reported an accident before. We just had a van collide with, like, the entire accident team. ... We need like many, many ambulances here.
Operator: OK, sir. You're at Nowell Road and Chapel Hill Road?
Caller: Yes, sir. That's correct. There were people helping people in a car. A van just nailed, like, four people. People's bodies went flying everywhere.
In the darkness, an unidentified male caller reporting the second wreck told a 911 dispatcher: "A van just nailed, like, four people. People's bodies went flying everywhere."
Asked whether any of the victims appeared to be completely awake, the caller said, "Completely awake? People appear to be, like, dead."
Larry Robert "Rob" Veeder Jr., 32, of Raleigh, faces a charge of drunken driving and six counts of involuntary manslaughter in the accident, which officials are calling the Triangle's worst car crash in years.
On Wednesday, Veeder's parents released a statement addressed to "those families who lost loved ones Saturday night." It described their sorrow over the deaths and offered prayers to the victims' families.
"Our hearts are broken for you today. There aren't words to tell you how very, very sorry we are for the loss of your friends and family members, or how much we wish we could bring them back to you."
The letter said the parents, who don't live in the Triangle, have spoken to Veeder twice by phone.
"He can only cry," the letter said. "Those of us who know Rob know that he would give his own life if he could bring back even one of your family members."
Those killed were Robert Alfaro, 46, and wife Gene-Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, of Waxhaw; Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, of Cary; Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, of Coats; Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, a Campbell University student from Minnesota; and Christopher Clemons, 41, of Raleigh.
The first accident happened shortly after 8:30 p.m., investigators have said, when Baron A. Fulk, 20, an N.C. State University student, ran a stop sign as he pulled his green Chevrolet Blazer onto N.C. 54. The vehicle was struck by a silver Blazer driven by Martha P. West, 40, of Marble in Cherokee County. Neither had passengers.
An unidentified man called 911 at 8:39 p.m. to report that collision. He can be heard helping West, whose car was in a ditch on the south side of Chapel Hill Road. The caller said a group of people was helping Fulk, who was trying to climb out of the passenger-side window of his vehicle, which was on its side in the middle of the road.
A second unidentified caller called at 8:41 p.m. to report the initial crash.
"Someone is injured seriously," he told the dispatcher, apparently referring to Fulk. "The car's really messed up, and there's trash all over the highway."
The second caller was assisting Fulk, who he said had been helped out of the car and placed on the road. Fulk wasn't bleeding but couldn't move well, the caller said.
Then at 8:46 p.m., the first man called 911 again.
"I reported an accident before," the caller said. "We just had a van collide with, like, the entire accident team. ... We need, like, many, many ambulances here."
The dispatcher asked: "How many people are hurt now?"
He responded: "There's got to be about six people hurt, and none of them are moving except for, like, one."
Thirty seconds later, a fourth call came in reporting the accident. By that time, rescue crews were on the way.
The Highway Patrol said it first got word about the wreck at 8:51 p.m. The first trooper arrived 11 minutes later.
Because the wreck happened just outside the Raleigh city limits, those responsible for responding to the scene included the Western Wake Volunteer Fire Department, Wake County EMS and the Highway Patrol.
At various times, the man who called 911 twice can be heard consoling West, who goes from sobbing to screaming in the background as the impact of the second wreck becomes clear. At one point, he says: "Just relax. OK, ma'am. It's not your fault at all."
Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848.
P&G donates paper, fabric technology to North Carolina State
Nov. 5, 2003
Cincinnati Business Courier, OH; Raleigh Triangle Business Journal, NC; Stock World, Germany; Yahoo News
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
Procter & Gamble Co. has given North Carolina State University two pieces of intellectual property related to paper and fabric innovations.
The first donation is of Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology, which P&G developed as a process to make softer tissue, towel and facial paper products. The process uses cellulase enzymes, which soften the woody and plant fibers used to make paper consumer goods, P&G said.
The other donation is TEEGAFIX Technology, which allows fabric dyes to work at lower temperatures and lower salt levels, providing cost savings and environmental benefits to textile and dye manufacturers. The technology involves a series of enhancements that can be applied to textile dyes for cotton, rayon and other fabrics containing cellulose.
These are the third and fourth technology donations P&G has made to North Carolina State, which is known for its textile and paper manufacturing research. The university will benefit from all future revenues if the technology is successfully developed and commercialized.
"With a little more research, these important discoveries may one day play an important role in producing inexpensive fabrics and softer paper goods for millions of consumers around the world," said Joel Monteith, director of P&G Technology Development-Family Care, in a news release.
Cincinnati-based P&G routinely donates patents and intellectual property for technology it doesn't intend to commercialize. The company manufactures and markets a variety of well-known consumer brands, including Tide, Downy, Charmin and Folgers.
Procter & Gamble Continues to Nurture North Carolina State University's Research Capabilities
Nov. 6, 2003
Yahoo! Finance
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 PRNewswire.
RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- North Carolina State University (NCSU) today celebrates the donation of two more intellectual property portfolios from The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG - News). The first of these donations is commonly referred to as Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology. This technology, developed by P&G research, is a manufacturing process to create softer tissue, towel and facial paper products. The second donation is TEEGAFIX Technology. This technology will permit fabric dyes to work at lower temperatures and lower salt levels, potentially providing significant cost savings and environmental benefits to textile and dye manufacturers.
Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology and TEEGAFIX Technology are P&G's third and fourth intellectual property gifts to NCSU. In November 2002, P&G donated its Cationic Peroxide Activators Technology, which P&G researchers found could potentially lower the temperature and, therefore, cost at which textiles are manufactured. In November 2000, P&G donated its Fiber Fractionation Paper Recycling Process Enhancement Technology to NCSU, which permits a more efficient paper recycling process.
"With its widely respected reputation for textile and paper manufacturing research, NCSU has the skills, staff and resources necessary to continue the development of TEEGAFIX and Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology," said Joel Monteith, director, P&G Technology Development, Family Care. "With a little more research, these important discoveries may one day play an important role in producing inexpensive fabrics and softer paper goods for millions of consumers around the world."
"The College of Natural Resources and P&G have been at the leading edge of technological development in the paper industry. This gift enables us to continue advancing the quality and environmental sustainability of the paper industry," said Dr Larry Nielsen, dean of NC State's College of Natural Resources.
"TEEGAFIX technology is a very attractive alternative to constructing expensive wastewater treatment facilities where operating costs, monitoring requirements and liabilities increase every year," says Dr. C. Brent Smith, Cone Mills Professor of Textile Chemistry. "With its increased process efficiency, Teegafix has the potential to reduce color in the wastewater and achieve cost savings for the consumer. It may also reduce the waste of costly raw materials, handling costs, lab testing, record-keeping and paperwork."
NCSU was selected because of its proven track record in developing new textile and paper manufacturing technologies. As the sole new owner of these technologies, NCSU will benefit from all future revenues if these technologies are successfully developed and commercialized.
How TEEGAFIX Technology works
TEEGAFIX technology is a series of enhancements that can be applied to commercially available textile dyes for cotton, rayon and other fabrics containing cellulose. TEEGAFIX is designed to work specifically with reactive fabric dyes. Reactive fabric dyes form a chemical bond with the cellulose found in a wide variety of commonly used fabrics. TEEGAFIX fabric dyes work more efficiently than normal reactive dyes and in a more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner. Using less dye in reduced temperature and salt conditions, TEEGAFIX permits more color to be transferred to the fabric, thereby, creating a desired color and intensity at lower cost.
How Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology works
Enzyme Modified Fiber Technology is a process to manufacture softer, stronger tissue, towel and facial paper products as well as textile non- wovens. This technology utilizes cellulase enzymes, which soften the woody and plant fibers that are the primary component in the manufacture of a variety of non-woven and paper consumer goods. Current wood and cellulose fiber softening techniques are expensive and result in strength performance trade-offs. P&G's novel approach to use enzymes rather than chemicals to modify fiber properties and improve softness, is more straightforward and less likely to degrade other consumer important attributes.
About North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University educates students for the 21st century and inspires future leaders. NC State forges unique partnerships that generate economic development and applies research discoveries that benefit everyone in North Carolina and across the United States. For more information on the North Carolina State University, go to: www.ncsu.edu .
About Procter & Gamble
Two billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the largest and strongest portfolios of trusted, quality brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Bounty®, Pringles®, Folgers®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Actonel®, Olay® and Clairol Nice 'n Easy®. The P&G community consists of nearly 98,000 employees working in almost 80 countries worldwide. P&G makes a significant annual investment in developing and improving its products -- leading the way in R&D globally among consumer products companies. P&G's External Business Development and Global Licensing organization is charged with ensuring the company maximizes the value of its 'treasure trove' of technologies by selling, licensing and, in some cases, donating these technologies. The unit is also responsible for licensing select P&G brand trademarks. For more information on licensing P&G technology, go to: www.pgtechnologytransfer.com.
Parents Take On Academic Indoctrinators
Nov. 6, 2003
FrontPageMagazine.com
By Jon Sanders, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 FrontPageMagazine.com.
"Sunlight," Justice Brandeis observed, "is the best disinfectant." Currently a Senate panel is conducting hearings over the lack of intellectual diversity tolerated by American universities. Despite the problem, which finds the reflexively socialist stances of the modern academy in stark relief against the more diverse hues of modern American society, a panelist before the committee said that the problem wasn't to be solved with legislation. Speaking before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Anne D. Neal, president of the American Councils of Trustees and Alumni, a group that was smeared as neo-McCarthyists for citing their sources in their "Defending Civilization" report on academic anti-Americanism, said the solution rested with trustees and alumni.
Let's add students and parents to that list as well, and let's see one place where they're doing what they can to shine sunlight on the problem. It's a web site entitled NoIndoctrination.org, and as the site will tell you, it "is an organization of parents who are disturbed that sociopolitical agendas have been allowed to permeate college courses and orientation programs," in the words of president and founder Luann Wright.
Wright explains that the site came about because some (not most) professors would "use their courses as stages for social or political propaganda … with impunity" and because "conventional means [of] communicating with administrators, regents, trustees, alumni, and legislators" brought no end to the problem of "[i]deological fiefdoms." Wright explains that NoIndoctrination.org doesn't target "[t]he study of controversial topics and unpopular ideas," but rather "'thought reform' and mandated 'group think.'"
The site advocates academic freedom -- which, as it makes quite clear by citing the American Association of University Professors' statements defining academic freedom, is a right of not just professor, but their students as well. Students also have the right to engage in a free and open search for truth, the site maintains, and therefore it offers students who are prevented in their search a chance to publicize the problem.
Like the ACTA report, NoIndoctrination.org names names, so naturally it has come under the same change-the-subject-please equations to McCarthy that the report received. But the M card, no matter how withering it may be within the classroom, has not deterred nor is it likely to deter the site. Wright signaled as much in her response to two articles that spoke unfavorably of NoIndoctrination.org that appeared in the May-June 2003 issue of the AAUP's bimonthly magazine, Academe (this was the issue with McCarthy on the cover).
The letter is notable for its author having to tell the AAUP -- long proud of producing definitive explanations of academic freedom that included recognizing "the need for teachers to avoid persistently intruding material which has no relation to their subject" as well as the right of students not to "be forced by the authority inherent in the instructional role to make particular personal choices as to political action or their own part in society" -- that NoIndoctrination.org is obviously "dedicated to promoting, rather than impeding, open inquiry in academia."
Certainly there are concerns that the web site could be abused by merely vindictive students. Wright addressed them also, noting that it's not simple political bias that they publicize, but "cases where sociopolitical biases are so blatant and oppressive that reasonable alternative views are silenced or ignored — often with hostility or contempt." Furthermore, she explained, "Postings are checked carefully, and those merely reporting ideological objections are rejected. To date, 70 percent of the submitted postings have been rejected."
Nevertheless, even the sunlight brought about by NoIndoctrination.org could use enhancement. That is the role for others in society to play.
For example, in the John Locke Foundation's monthly newspaper, Carolina Journal, I write about issues concerning higher education in North Carolina. One of the features I write is entitled "Course of the Month," which is a sort of Golden Fleece award to highlight, as I wrote in the introductory segment in May 1997, courses with "overt political content, rabid infatuation with pop culture or sexuality, and abject silliness."
Recently, NoIndoctrination.org posted a course from a university in North Carolina. The course is an introductory sociology course offered at Elon College. A quick read of the student's account (the student's name, for obvious reasons, does not appear -- but NoIndoctrination.org does allow for rebuttals from the professors whose courses are discussed) was enough to persuade me that the problems the student encountered needed more publicity. So it became the "Course of the Month" for October 2003.
The particular section of SOC 111 discussed on NoIndoctrination.org is the “Honors” section taught by Professor Angela Lewellyn Jones. The student reporting on the class said Jones was intolerant of dissent within the class from her strident feminism. Jones “declared her status as a feminist numerous times in class,” spoke of “her disdain for male success,” and stated that prohibiting abortion is a sexist act since it takes away a woman’s right to correct a ‘mistake’ and forces the female to be confined to the shackles of motherhood.”
The course reading material was as unbalanced as the lectures. It included “readings on Marx and communism,” and “all reading held pro-feminism, anti-government, pro-choice diatribes,” the student wrote. “Not a single reading was balanced by a different perspective.”
One of the texts the student mentioned was Michael Schwalbe's The Sociologically Examined Life, which the student described as "the infamous abortion and affirmative actions text." Ironically (or perhaps not), there is another entry in NoIndoctrination.org about Schwalbe's class at North Carolina State University, where a student says he "is so angry at the social structure and so angry at rich white America that his teaching suffers."
In her lectures, the student wrote, she never mentioned “non-feminists” except to “dehumanize” them or call them “Philistines.” She would curtail class discussion “contrary to her own views,” and if students pressed forward regardless, “she would snap at them in very unprofessional manner.”
Students who voiced opinions contrary to Jones’s were “ridiculed for their opinions and later ignored or silenced.” In one incident, the student wrote, “a friend of mine dropped the course around midterm because of Jones’s unfair treatment of him. When someone in the class asked about him a few weeks later, Dr. Jones told the class that he just wasn’t smart enough to handle the demands of the course.”
According to the student, dissent in Jones’s class was met by more than ridicule:
Any student who voiced contrary opinion was not only subjected to having everything they said in class dissected under a microscope and negated, but having their grade lowered significantly. On numerous occasions, dissident students would meet outside of class and discuss how their grades drastically changed on assignments the week after expressing opinions. Since the grading in the class was all subjective (no objective tests), such grade drops alarmed these “Honors” students whose status in the honors program depended on success in the class. As a result numerous students quelled their opinions for grades sake, including myself.
In short, “what I learned in the class,” the student wrote, “was that men are all oppressors, African-Americans cannot stand on their own feet and need government handouts to survive, and such problems were not meant to be discussed by different parties because dissenters aren’t thinking in a ‘sociologically mindful’ manner and are ill-informed.”
What I learned from NoIndoctrination.org is that more sunlight is needed. From trustees, alumni, students, parents, and anyone else who cares about education and academic freedom, for professors and students. Because in her letter to Academe, Wright also wrote that "Many faculty tell us they are embarrassed and disturbed by the professorial conduct described on our Web site. Some corroborate the abuses, yet they cannot speak out. They, like our posters, are muzzled by fear."
Fear should never be the hallmark of an American institution, especially higher education. Throw open the windows; let in the light.