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Uncertain Future
Chinese imports cast shadow over local textile manufacturer
TV Clip:
WB 22
cites Dr. Barbara Risman, professor of sociology
House
has mold on hold
NCCU plea could await May hearing
Top
12 Reasons for dropping out
cites Richard M Felder, chemical engineering
Nov. 20, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By Richard Craver, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem Journal
The future for Adele Knits and its 120 employees has never been brighter, or more potentially cloudy.
Executives and plant workers of the company in Winston-Salem beamed with pride during the recent World Series. That was because the New York Yankees were wearing uniforms made from Adele's knit fabrics even though Adele has been in the professional-sports-apparel market just two years.
"Man, it was great to see somebody like Derek Jeter step up to the plate wearing our product knowing it was there because it was selected as the best out there," Cliff Harris, a frame operator and a 16-year Adele employee, said yesterday.
But textile imports are casting a shadow over the 33-year-old company even though its knit-fabric product niches have remained under the radar screen of Chinese manufacturers.
"We've been doing the right things about finding new markets, but it's been scary these last three years because of all those Chinese imports," Harris said.
Adele workers supported Tuesday's decision by the Bush administration to pursue quotas against Chinese textile imports in three categories - knit fabrics, dressing gowns and bras - but they also said they were realistic about the potential impact.
Even if the proposed one-year cap of 7.5 percent on current levels of Chinese textile imports is implemented this spring, the employees feel their future rests more on their own efforts rather than government protection.
Bruce Brown, the company's president, said that the restrictions represent little more than a Band-Aid to the industry.
"The decision has the capability of enabling jobs currently here to stay here, but I don't believe it will return any jobs back to these shores," Brown said.
Keith Davis, a product and research developer for Adele, said he is not sure that any free-trade legislation could stem the tide of Chinese textile imports.
"I frankly think that the safeguards are too little, way too late for what remains of the domestic textile industry," Davis said. "The volume that remains permitted with these safeguards is way too high."
Because the restrictions don't roll back the import volume, the quotas may be of limited use to most textile manufacturers, said Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University.
"If a company is having a competitive problem now, I don't think the quotas will help them," Walden said. "The quotas will help firms that are still on their feet today, but who could have fallen in the next couple of years."
Brown said that the most likely benefit of the restrictions is 12 more months for the industry to brace itself for when all textile tariffs end in January 2005.
"As the U.S. and China negotiate an import level that doesn't adversely disrupt the U.S. textile industry, U.S. manufacturers had better innovate and produce products that can be sold in this marketplace," Brown said. "Those who look at these restrictions as a chance to sit back and breathe, they won't be here in three to four years."
Analysts said that Adele Knits could serve as a textbook example for how a domestic textile manufacturer can survive with niche products, high production efficiency, high quality and a willingness to adapt quickly to market changes.
As recently as 1997, Adele's primary products were industrial laminate fabrics, automotive fabrics and swimwear.
But as imports began taking market share in those categories, Adele reacted by pursuing such professional-sport-apparel manufacturers as Russell Corp., Majestic Athletics Co. and Sports Belle.
"When those sports teams need a uniform, they don't want to wait for it to come across the Pacific on a boat. They want it now, which lends itself to niche domestic manufacturing," Davis said.
Adele also is benefiting from the hot clothing trend of current and old-fashioned professional or Negro Leagues jerseys made with the same fabrics as the pro uniforms.
"We've been a niche, entrepreneurial player from day one," Brown said. "Our markets and our products have changed several times because we've read the marketplace."
Brown lamented the loss of 316,000 U.S. textile- and apparel-manufacturing jobs, or 30 percent of the work force, since January 2001, according to the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition.
"I can't say we're going to remain competitive long term," Brown said. "We are investing aggressively in new technology, new equipment and training to produce the quality product we need to survive.
"I've heard forecasts that there may be only 65,000 domestic textile jobs in this country by 2006. I'm going to do everything in my power for our 120 workers to be among that work force."
Nov. 19, 2003
WB22
By Martha Guzman, reporter
© Copyright 2003 WB 22.
Cross-Cultural Relationships and Marriage. Cites Dr. Barbara Risman, professor of sociology.
Nov. 20, 2003
The News & Observer
By Vicki Cheng, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
DURHAM -- Despite a plea for $26 million to clean up the mold "emergenc" at N.C. Central University, state House leaders don't plan to consider the request until May at the earliest. anspokeswoman for Gov. Mike Easley said the university system might have to find the money in its current funding.
Rep. Mickey Michaux, Sen. Wib Gulley and other Durhsed legislators are trying to get the mold issue tacked onto the General Assembly's agenda for a special session on redistricting expected to take place this month. There is also talk of a session on economic development.
Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight said Wednesday that "the Senate would be delighted to address this mold issue, today, now."
But neither Jim Black, Democratic speaker of the House, nor Richard Morgan, Republican speaker, planned to include mold cleaate,mentdecision echoed by the governor's office. Chad Lowry, director of staff and legislative policy for Black's office, said UNC system President Molly Broad indicated that "the university would be able to deal with that issue without [the legislature] having to deal with it in the short session."
Potentially harmful mold has infested at least 12 campus buildings at NCCU. Those include four4-year-old residence halls that were shut down at the beginning of the fall semester. NCCU is paying $1.1 million for more than 500 students to live in hotels and apartments, not to mention debt service on the two empty dorms, which must be gutted and rebuilt before they can reopen.
Chancellor James H. Ammons Jr. said reconstruction could begin as early as April, but the university can't award contracts unless it has all the money in hand.
"We have what is equivalent to a fire on this campus that's burning out opportunities for students and faculty," Eric Michaux, an NCCU trustee and Mickey Michaux's brother, said during a board meeting Wednesday. "Each trustee, each student, each faculty member needs to be proactive. We need to be on the agenda this month."
Cari Boyce, communications director for Easley, said Wednesday that there is no intention to open up those sessions to a myriad of other interests.
"I don't think, at this point, that it's clear that they are going to need additional funding," she said. "They've been given money by the UNC system to deal with this, and it may be something the UNC system needs to look at, to come up with a comprehensive action plan."
NCCU has reallocated $10.4 million of its 2000 higher education undingmoney to address mold issues, and only $7 million of that remains, Ammons said. Fixing the dorms alone will cost about $9.1 million.
Jeff Davies, vice president for finance for the UNC system, said, "The only real source of funding we would have for further reallocation would be to further erode the bond program at North Carolina Central."
NCCU trustees worry that dipping into the university's bond money means that it won't be replaced, thwarting the university's to for growth.
Mickey Michaux said he thinks another sourfundingmoney is $138 million in repair and renovation dollars the UNC system has asked the General Assembly to allocate for all 16 camlina."
The mold has had no effect on recruitment or retention at NCCU so far, although prospective students ask about it, said Roland Gaines, vice chancellor for student at NCCU. lastpast in a row, NCCU was the second-fastest growing school in the UNC system, behind Winston-Salem State University. Gaines said he expects the numbers to be up again next fall.
Ammons planned to make an appeal to the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus today. And he personally lobbied the governor Monday, snagging him for a few minutes during a meeting about biotechnology. "I can't set the agenda, but we have a compelling case that needs to be addressed as soon as possible," he said.
Staff writer Vicki Cheng can be reached at 956-2415.
Molecule by Molecule, NC State Scientists Design a New Transistor
Nov. 19, 2003
Science Daily
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Science Daily.
When amazing new computers and other electronic devices emerge, they will have been conceived and incubated in university laboratories like that of Dr. Chris Gorman, professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University. There, the scientist and his multidisciplinary team are working to build, molecule by molecule, a nanoscale transistor.
That’s an electronic switch so small it can only be seen with a high-tech device called a scanning tunneling microscope. And if you go to the library to find the “how-to” book, says Gorman, “most of the pages will be blank, because nobody yet knows how to do it.”
And that, for the chemists, engineers and students engaged in the project, is what makes their painstaking, pioneering research so satisfying. If they can design and construct a nanoscale transistor, Gorman, his colleagues and his students will have filled in many of the blank pages in the how-to book. The field is so new, the research avenues so unexplored, that each experiment, each variation, helps write that book.
Their work is guided by the “bottom-up” approach to building something, says Gorman. “Most things are built using ‘top-down’ methods,” he explains, “where you take a chunk of metal, stone or wood and carve off the material you don’t want, until you have an I-beam or a two-by-four. In contrast, we’re interested in assembling molecules, and building a functioning transistor – with as few of the molecules as possible.”
A persuasive advocate of multidisciplinary research, Gorman is working with NC State colleagues Dr. Daniel L. Feldheim, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Gregory N. Parsons, associate professor of chemical engineering, to combine this bottom-up approach with Parsons’ top-down engineering in the creation of the nanoscale transistor. Parsons will construct a molecular platform with a tiny indentation into which Gorman, Feldheim and their student team hope to fit a molecular “plug.” The resulting structure should function as an electronic switch – the definition of a transistor.
“Our research will tackle two critical issues in future materials for advanced molecule-based information processing,” says Gorman. “One, how to assemble and attach single molecules to electronic contacts and, two, how to create electronic gain – the fundamental operating principle of a transistor – at the molecular level.”
The benefits of the team’s success could be far ranging, he says. “Better techniques for information processing will keep our economy growing stronger by enabling smaller, faster and lighter electronics.” Imagine, says Gorman, the contents of a library in a postage-stamp-sized chip, and you can begin to ponder some exciting possibilities and “the next phase of electronics development in the United States.”
While the private sector and corporate research and development will ultimately develop such technologies, Gorman says, the fundamental research – with its exploration of byways and promising side streets, false starts as well as serendipitous discoveries – must take place in universities, with federal and state help.
Gorman’s research, for example, is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) program.
Another must, according to Gorman, “is fundamentally changing how the next generation of technically savvy students is educated. In our research, we want our students to pursue degrees that involve traditional science, engineering and technology-development aspects and state-of-the-art research approaches. We also want to expand the opportunities for women and minorities to participate in this new, interdisciplinary paradigm.”
As evidence that this new paradigm is already taking shape, Gorman’s undergraduate and graduate students, “the Gorman Group,” are fully engaged in his quest for the nanoscale transistor. From the newest students, such as Tiffani Bailey and Jennifer Ayres, to rising juniors such as Bill Capshaw and Jonah Jurss, to veteran grad students such as Tyson Chasse and Drew Wassel, among others, the group collaborates in exploring the nanoscale realms for promising applications.
“With the increasingly fast pace of technological change,” says Gorman, “it’s possible that many of the rules that we teach students in college can be obsolete by the time they graduate. That’s why we must focus on how to think, how to solve problems, how to explore the unexpected avenues and surprising new paths – and, in some ways, to disregard traditional disciplinary boundaries.”
Disregarding traditional boundaries may be a necessary practice for all successful scientists, especially the pioneers, such as Gorman, working at the very edge of the possible. When the next generation of technology transforms our lives, it will have been conceived and perfected in university labs, built grant by grant, student by student, molecule by molecule.
Top 12 Reasons for dropping out
Nov. 19, 2003
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, Texas)
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
1. Lack of parental involvement/encouragement
There are 13,971 members of the PTA in 67 schools across five city districts - Corpus Christi, Flour Bluff, West Oso, Calallen and Tuloso-Midway. There are 53,640 students in all five districts.
2. One-size-fits-all education
Visual learners remember best what they see - pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films and demonstrations.
Verbal learners get more out of words - written and spoken explanations. Everyone
learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.
Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises.
Intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition.
Source: Richard M. Felder, Hoechst Celanese Professor of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University.
3. Lack of a caring adult/mentor
In the Big Brother/Big Sisters program, a national mentoring agency, 46 percent of participants are less likely to do drugs, 27 percent are less likely to begin using alcohol, 52 percent are less likely to skip school and 37 percent are less likely to skip class. There is no Big Brothers/Big Sisters program in Corpus Christi.
Source: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
4. Irrelevant curriculum
CCISD and local businesses are collaborating to address this issue in vocational courses.
5. Behind academically
Of CCISD's dropouts, 5.9 percent are attributed to academic performance.
Source: Texas Education Agency
6. Students overwhelmed by life issues
In CCISD, 137 students dropped out or left school because of removal by court order, incarceration, health reasons, pregnancy, marriage, homelessness or problems in the home.
7. Schools push kids out
CCISD expelled two students in 2002-03.
8. Lack of role models in schools
Similar to reason 3, in that there are no quality individuals for at-risk students to turn to when they are discouraged or need help.
9. Poverty
In 1999, 18.2 percent of Nueces County residents were below the poverty line. The state level is 15.4 percent.
Source: U.S Census Bureau
10. Pregnancy/drugs
Pregnancy accounts for 0.3 percent of CCISD dropouts. No measurement was available for drugs as a cause of dropouts.
Source: Texas Education Agency
11. Course failures/ failure in general
Enrollment in the Alternative High School Center or in High School Equivalency Program in CCISD is 7.2 percent of the district's enrollment.
12. Lack of motivation
"Achieving the goal of making the individual classroom a place that naturally motivates students to learn is much easier if students and teachers function in a school culture where academic success and the motivation to learn is expected, respected and rewarded. An atmosphere where students learn to love learning, for learning sake, especially insofar as it evolves into academic achievement is a chief characteristic of an effective school."
Source: A 1992 report, 'Student Motivation, School Culture, and Academic Achievement: What School Leaders Can Do,' by Ron Renchler, University of Oregon.