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Burley tobacco center set to open
Blake Brown, agricultural and resource economicsWhite-collar jobs once outside the global economy are heading overseas
Thomas Grennes, agricultural and resource economicsFootnotes
Kenneth Adler, molecular biomedical sciences; UNCsystemPeople
Joann Burkholder, botany; Steven Spiker, geneticsSizing up sizes
Cindy Istook, textile and apparel, technology and managementKeeping it real does cost more
Charles Safley, agricultural and resource economicsRTP leaders seek relief from traffic congestion
Center for Transportation and the EnvironmentChatham bond could pay for schools, more
Institute of Transportation and EducationCostumed 'frontiersmen' greet Fort Dobbs visitors
Larry Gutske, Cooperative Research Center for TourismColor everlasting
Gus De Hertogh, horticultureEarly-Stage Companies to Test Drive Start-Up Grid Computing
NC State Technology IncubatorTweaking tree genes on
genetically modified trees
Area
colleges grapple with new standards for athletes
athletics
UNC
System needs more money
UNC system
UNC,
Lawmakers Disagree Over Student Admission Requirement
UNC system
UNC's
wish list is a whopper
UNC system
Schooling
for job needs
student
No Wall
Proves To Be Too Steep for ‘Wallter’, a Wall-Climbing Robot
graduate student
Jury
rejects hit-and-run
student
Waiting
student
Miracle,
with a familiar ring
alum
Letter
to the editor: ...Losing focus on vocational education
Larry W. Tombaugh, dean emeritus, College of Natural Resources
Tobacco quota buyout leaves growers wary
Blake Brown, agricultural and resource economics
Design
goal: Spaces for those of all abilities
Center for Universal Design
Farmers
told: Grow what sells
Johnny Wynne, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Nov. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By CATHERINE CLABBY
© Copyright 2004
After creating worm-resistant corn and glow-in-the-dark fish, it was only a matter of time before genetic tinkerers unveiled their next big thing.
Look up. Now they're talking trees, especially in the Triangle.
Science is poised to insert foreign genes into conifers and other trees harvested for cash.
Opposition already is stirring. The prospect raises ecological and cultural issues unlike any encountered before.
But the promise is big, too, said Claire Williams, a geneticist and visiting professor at Duke University. Designer trees may grow faster and yield products cheaper. That could preserve existing forests while the world's appetite for wood and paper keeps growing.
Supporters and skeptics, she said, need to talk. "We have a narrow window for constructive dialogue. In five or 10 years it will be too late," Williams said.
This week, she and the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke will host a gathering of scientists, lumber industry people, environmentalists and regulators to do just that. The two-day forum at Duke, funded by the National Science Foundation, will be closed to the media so that people can chat freely.
Also this week, the Institute of Forest Biotechnology will host a conference called "New Century, New Trees" in Research Triangle Park. It also wants to generate straight and informed talk about a field soon moving from the research stage to the planting stage.
Change is sprouting
So far, genetically altered trees are found in only a few places outside corporate or university research plots. Chinese foresters raise altered poplars resistant to bugs. And Hawaiian farmers tend papaya trees that have been made immune to a ringspot virus by a gene imported from that virus.
But change could be coming fast to states with sizable lumber-product industries, including North Carolina. In coming years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which reviews and permits genetically modified organisms, is expected to see more applications to test and then grow modified trees.
Geneticists at N.C. State University already have made experimental aspens that produce less lignin, the cellular substance that makes trees rigid and takes polluting chemicals and a lot of effort to break down in pulp mills.
In South Carolina, ArborGen, a research company launched by International Paper and MeadWestvaco Corp., wants to market genetically altered trees by the end of this decade.
"An increasing number of field trials will be very visible in the next three years," predicts W. Steven Burke, a vice president at the N.C. Biotechnology Center and a board member at the forest institute.
Plantations filled with engineered trees could follow.
Burke expects that people outside the forestry and lumber fields will be watching closely, because trees are so precious in aesthetic and in functional ways.
"Trees are requisite for life on this planet," he said. "We can survive without corn. We cannot survive without trees."
Worries of wide effects
Re-engineered trees would differ significantly from modified crops such as corn and soybeans, Williams said.
Trees are perennials that can live more than 100 years. They also produce large amounts of pollen that could carry altered genes for miles, making it more likely to affect nature's genetic profile.
That worries Alyx Perry, director of the Southern Forests Network, who will attend Williams' meeting. She sees possible environmental threats to natural forests and economic threats to private landowners raising timber on those forests.
"These are clearly brilliant people," Perry said of the scientists leading the charge into this new field. "But we have a real concern with ultimately how this technology is going to affect the land."
Some scientists advocate creating modified trees that are sterile, so their pollen can't mix with other trees. Similar strategies are under consideration to control the spread of altered genes from other re-engineered crops.
But some environmentalists question whether this planet needs sterile trees.
Extremists in this debate have previously resorted to sabotage. In 2001, vandals damaged most of the genetically altered trees grown at a University of Oregon program. That same year, an office building at the University of Washington was firebombed. It housed a geneticist who was developing a fast-growing poplar.
Dawn Parks, a spokeswoman for ArborGen, said her company hopes the Duke conference will help people with a stake in the debate sort substantive issues from those without merit.
"We want to determine which are real and which don't need to be addressed," she said.
Speaking face to face, Williams said, can only help. "I sympathize with all the different groups. It was time to talk," she said.
Early-Stage Companies to Test Drive Start-Up Grid Computing
Nov. 14, 2004
Triangle Tech Journal
By Adam Smith
© Copyright 2004
Young entrepreneurs are in a constant battle to do more with less. They must squeeze every last drop of utility out of their resources just to keep pace, let alone grow their company.
A recent partnership between MCNC and the N.C. State Technology Incubator aims to give these early-stage entrepreneurs an on-ramp to high-speed computing power, which up until now, was only enjoyed by those companies with the deepest of pockets.
Starting in November, MCNC will enable incubator companies to test drive its Start-Up Grid, an offering of high-speed Internet access and free high-performance computing and data services.
Overall, the test drive will allow the companies to save on valuable start-up costs and improve their collaborative and communications efforts, said Wolfgang Gentzsch, managing director of MCNC’s Grid Computing and Networking Services. In return, feedback from the tenants during this pilot-testing phase of the grid’s development will help MCNC improve the service for more expanded use throughout the state.
The partnership between MCNC and the N.C. State Technology Incubator demonstrates just how important brainstorming is to the success of entrepreneurship in the state. Talks about the grid project began last summer, when the two groups sat down to brainstorm ways they could work together, Gentzsch said.
“This definitely wouldn’t have happened without the partnership,” he said. MCNC has “most of the ingredients, but Centennial Campus has the offices, the infrastructure and the services.”
The Start-up Grid is an outgrowth of MCNC’s N.C. Research and Education Network, accessed by 180 universities and organizations over the last 20 years for high-speed Internet service, research, education and video conferencing.
The grid is essentially a way to adapt this mode of communication and data transfer to the private sector for similar activities. Participating companies will also have Web-site development options and the ability to provide digital services to partners and customers.
MCNC will target incubator tenants with intensive data and computing needs, such as those conducting genetics and bioinformatics research and others with interests in information technology, said Scott Yates, director of public relations and communications for MCNC.
The incubator has 22 tenants overall that “reflect the technological strengths of the university,” said Gene Fornaro, director of business development for the university’s Industrial Extension Service. In addition to genetics, bioinformatics and IT, there are also tenants in the life-sciences and textiles industries.
After making initial improvements to the grid, MCNC plans to roll out the service over the next six to 12 months to other locations around the state, Gentzsch said.
This means more partnerships will need to be forged with other incubators or small-business development offices. These partnering efforts will be well worth it, though. They will ease the hardships of entrepreneurship, and they will increase the number of young entrepreneurs entering the on-ramp to high-speed computing power.
Adam Smith is the Director of Entrepreneurial Programs for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED).
Costumed `frontiersmen' greet Fort Dobbs visitors
Nov. 14, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By KATHRYN WELLIN
© Copyright 2004
STATESVILLE - Two men in 18th-century frontier costumes carrying flintlocks welcomed visitors to the Statesville Depot, as Iredell County residents welcomed Fort Dobbs back to the community.
State historic site officials at the depot Wednesday said they support rebuilding Fort Dobbs, North Carolina's lone French and Indian War site. Only the footprint remains.
"This has every indication of being one of our most successful sites," N.C. Historic Sites Director Kay Williams told interested residents and fort booster group members.
A tourism economist said tourism related to a rebuilt Fort Dobbs, with a museum and living history programs, could generate $13 million a year in local spending.
An economic model of a revitalized site suggests 100,000 visitors a year and $7 million added to the local economy, said Larry Gutske, a professor at N.C. State University's Cooperative Research Center for Tourism.
That does not include increased sales tax and hotel occupancy tax receipts, which would drive the total higher.
"I think you're in the catbird seat," he said.
To realize those economic gains, the site would need a reconstructed fort, educational programs, special events and a living history approach, he said. Living history programs include guides dressed in period costume and demonstrations of the frontier life, like those at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
Creating a top-notch living history attraction could cost about $13 million, Fort Dobbs site manager Beth Carter said.
The money would come from the state, private donations and grants.
The Fort Dobbs Alliance and other community supporters have already proven to be a "great springboard" for the site's redevelopment, said Lisbeth Evans, secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, which oversees the state historic site program.
Heritage tourism is the fastest-growing segment of the state's tourism, she said. North Carolina is ranked 6th in the nation for tourism, Gutske said.
Next April, Fort Dobbs will host its first special events as part of a 20-state effort to commemorate the French and Indian War's 250th anniversary. Groundbreaking for the fort should start in 2006, Carter said, and state funding could come in 2007. The reconstructed fort is scheduled to open in 2009 and the museum in 2010, she said. For more information about Fort Dobbs, contact Beth Carter at (704) 873-5866 or send e-mail to fortdobbs@bellsouth.net. For information on national 250th war anniversary plans, look online at www.frenchandindianwar250.org.
Burley tobacco center set to open
Nov. 13, 2004
Asheville Citizen-Times
By John Boyle
© Copyright 2004
For mountain tobacco growers, this is the time of year when they find out just how much their hard work will pay off.
The Asheville Burley Tobacco Marketing Center opens for sales at 9 a.m. Monday at the Dixie Big Burley warehouse in Asheville. Last year, local growers sold 3.7 million pounds of burley through the center, at an average price of $1.94 a pound - a total of more than $7 million of leaf.
"The majority of the growers in Western North Carolina sell through the Asheville market," said Christopher West, county executive director for the Buncombe County Farm Service Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Asheville is the only burley market in the state."
Dallas Surrett, a Sandy Mush tobacco farmer who's grown the crop most of his life, plans to be at the auction Monday. He's hoping for a good year but he knows storm damage in September took its toll.
"I believe it'll go about like it did last year, as far as the price," said Surrett, 60. "I don't believe there'll be as many pounds this year, on account of Frances and Ivan the Terrible."
Those two September storms hit local farmers hard, including Surrett, who grew 38 acres of burley this year.
"I lost about five acres that were totally destroyed," Surrett said. "In a good year you can get 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per acre, depending on the type of soil. So that hurts."
The auction sales continue at Dixie Big Burley and another Asheville warehouse, Planters Tobacco, through the end of the year. After a break for Christmas, buying and selling resume in January.
North Carolina ranked sixth in the nation in burley tobacco production in 2003. Tobacco is big business in the mountains - every year about 4,000 mountain farmers sell their crop in two Asheville auction warehouses, typically generating between $8 million and $10 million in revenue.
Others growers contract directly with tobacco companies. In all, local growers tend about 7,000 acres of burley tobacco, which has been an economic mainstay since the late 1800s. Auctions may fade away
One looming question at this year's market undoubtedly will be if the auction system will continue next year. In October, the U.S. Congress passed a tobacco buyout bill, which essentially ends the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, a federal program that established the tobacco allotment and price support program.
Under the $10.1 billion buyout, those who own tobacco allotments will receive $7 per pound for quota owned. Those who grow tobacco, on their own or on rented allotments, will receive $3 per pound grown, based on the 2002 crop.
The buyout will eliminate the base, or "support" price for tobacco, which will make growing a crop much riskier. Some farmers likely will take the buyout money and get out of the business, while others may opt to contract directly with the tobacco companies, as some farmers already do.
"I think we'll see a large exodus of burley farmers in the Appalachian area," said Blake Brown, an agricultural economist at N.C. State University. "It's not clear to me whether they'll be able to maintain an auction or not. I think they're going to tend more toward a contract market, because we're seeing a lot of structural changes in the burley industry."
Asked if the auction system, a mainstay in the mountains for decades, could be nearing the end of an era, Brown said, "That could be the case."
The current Asheville auction market, established in part through a $2 million grant from the Tobacco Trust Fund, is entering its fourth year. Burley tobacco farmers pay no fees for warehousing, grading, assessment or other marketing services.
Opinions vary on whether an auction system will continue in a post-buyout economy.
"That's a good question," said Steve Duckett, a N.C. Cooperative Extension Service agent in Buncombe who works with the county's 450 growers. "Nobody really knows at this point. We'll probably have a need for an auction market simply because a lot of the foreign buyers like to pick and choose between the different piles so they can fill their orders a little more easily. I think there will be a need for an auction, but I don't know how it will work."
Surrett agrees with that assessment, saying buyers like to see a selection of tobacco grades and qualities. He'll nonetheless savor this year's auction, with its pungent stacks of auburn-brown leaf and growers and buyers eyeing the product.
"I've worked in the tobacco market, off and on, for 32 years," Surrett said. "It gets in your blood."
White-collar jobs once outside the global economy are heading overseas
Nov. 13, 2004
Herald-Sun
By ANNE KRISHNAN
© Copyright 2004
BANGALORE, India -- Nine time zones away from Cisco Systems' campus in Research Triangle Park, Sekhar Reddy leads a 40-person team that's creating next-generation mobile phone technology.
Reddy, who worked at IBM in the Triangle for a year and then at Cisco's office in San Jose, Calif., for eight years, returned to his native India this spring as a manager in Cisco's mobile wireless group.
When Reddy lived in the United States, an Indian team reported to him. Now, he says, his Indian team is driving its own projects, with support from U.S. sites. He and his colleagues at Cisco's Indian headquarters in Bangalore say the company's site there is no more or less important than the sites it collaborates with in RTP, San Jose and Richardson, Texas.
"We're all part of the same team," Reddy said.
Back in North Carolina, companies bombard Sandra Williams daily with e-mails and telephone calls encouraging her to send her company's medical transcription work overseas.
Williams, the CEO of Durham-based Applied Medical Systems and FastChart, knows she could hire employees overseas for a fraction of the cost of home-based transcriptionists in America, but she's decided to keep her 125 employees based in the United States.
"Yes, it costs me more to have American transcriptionists, but the quality is much better and it's just an option that as the CEO of the company I've taken," she said. "Cheaper is not always better."
Welcome to the new frontier in corporate cost-cutting.
Over the past 30 years, companies have sent millions of blue-collar manufacturing jobs overseas. Now the debate rages as white-collar, knowledge-based positions such as paralegals, accountants, software programmers and Web designers -- jobs previously shielded from global competition -- head to countries like India, China and the Philippines.
The issue isn't so much how many jobs are currently being sent overseas in the practice known as offshoring; it's what kinds of jobs are going.
"Apparel workers in North Carolina have been in competition with workers from around the world for 20 years," said Josh Bivins, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. "We may now see that competition entering new sectors of the American economy."
James Johnson, a professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler School of Business, agreed.
"Offshore outsourcing is moving up the value chain to where higher-order functions, especially research and development jobs, are moving offshore now," he said. "A real challenge to our economy lies in the fact that we may be losing our competitive edge as more and more corporations move research and development offshore by opening their own facilities in India or China or some other place."
'A fairly small number'
It seems that companies big and small have accepted offshoring as part of doing business.
Large firms such as IBM, Ericsson, Nortel Networks, SAS and Cisco have been offshoring for years. Now smaller Triangle firms such as Cary's Ultimus, Apex's Translogic Systems and Morrisville's LVL7 are operating offices in India or Pakistan. Other high-tech companies, like Durham's StrikeIron and RedPelican, are doing work in Vietnam and Russia, respectively.
Still, experts say the number of white-collar jobs currently moving overseas is relatively low.
Goldman Sachs estimates that the U.S. economy is losing 5,000 to 10,000 nonmanufacturing jobs each month to offshoring and has lost 300,000 to 400,000 over the past three years. Forrester Research predicts that U.S. companies will send 3.4 million white-collar jobs overseas by 2015.
"It sounds like a lot, but at the same time, compared to the size of the U.S. labor market, that's a fairly small number," said Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the American labor force at 147.8 million in October, up by more than 900,000 from a year earlier.
Automation and productivity gains are much larger factors in the U.S. economy than offshoring, Bivins said.
"In business, companies have figured out how to do more with fewer workers," he said.
Indeed, technology such as grocery store self-checkout counters and airport self-check-in kiosks have eliminated 2 million jobs, said Andrea Bierce, who leads management consulting firm A.T. Kearny's offshore-outsourcing practice.
"I think the technology has had a tremendous amount to do with the job loss, as opposed to offshoring," she said.
And even as offshoring grows, American companies continue to provide more services to foreign companies than U.S. businesses import from overseas, said Thomas Grennes, a professor of international economics at N.C. State University.
Local companies like the Research Triangle Institute, SAS and IBM all employ people in the Triangle who work for clients around the world, he said. In September alone, American companies provided $4 billion more services to foreign companies than came into the United States, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported last week.
"Americans are good at this," Grennes said. "I think that gets missed by all of the politicians and the popular discussion."
A door opens
Companies first began sending information technology jobs overseas in the early-to mid-1990s, as the U.S. economy began to boom and skilled workers were in short supply, Bierce said. Also attracting companies overseas were labor cost savings of 50 percent or more.
As companies saw success in the IT realm, they began looking at what kinds of business process functions -- such as call centers -- they could make cheaper through offshoring, as well.
They found Indian workers had a lot to offer, Bierce said. The workers took accent neutralization courses to become more understandable to English speakers and learned about American popular culture so they could chat with customers. Plus, the types of repetitive, standardized jobs being sent overseas were sometimes hard to fill in the United States, she said.
When companies began cutting costs in the 2001 recession, they again turned to overseas operators for cheaper performance of back-office functions such as human resources, accounting and finance, Bierce said.
The decrease in telecommunication costs has been another factor in the movement of jobs overseas, said Tilton, the Goldman Sachs economist. The Internet makes it easy to send data between locations, he said, and cheaper phone calls have fueled the growth of call centers.
Companies commonly take advantage of the benefits of a foreign labor force in one of two ways. In outsourcing, American firms contract out work to companies that either have operations in another country or are based overseas themselves. The second option is for a firm to establish its own office in another country and hire its own employees there.
In 2004, choosing not to offshore isn't an option for many businesses in this global economy, Bierce said.
"Companies now see it as a competitive necessity," she said.
Another cycle
North Carolina native Rudy Puryear, the co-head of outsourcing strategy at Bain & Co., equates the current wave of offshoring to the economic cycles that moved farmers to factories a century ago and factory workers into "information economy" jobs over the past several decades.
"We're now finding out that we're at the end of another economic cycle," Puryear said. "Where will all the information economy workers go? We'll retool them into the next generation of jobs."
Companies' cost savings from sending jobs overseas allows them to create more --and ostensibly better -- jobs here, Puryear and other experts said.
"It's not about job loss, it's about job protection," he said. "It's giving U.S. companies the ability to offshore 10 percent of their jobs to be sufficiently competitive to protect 90 percent of their jobs."
But that comes at a cost for workers whose positions are sent overseas.
The human story associated with offshoring is complex, said Arie Lewin, director of Duke University's Center for International Business Research, or CIBER. CIBER is conducting a multi-year study that tracks 400 companies' offshoring decisions and results. It also will hold a national conference on trade policy in December, with much of the discussion about white-collar offshoring.
U.S. institutions aren't equipped to help people with the adjustment, said Lewin, who said he doesn't know how severe the exodus of white-collar jobs could become.
"We have a better institutional structure to help blue-collar workers when they lose their work," he said. "But if you're a white-collar worker and you've worked your way up and think you have a secure, middle-income kind of office work and you get offshored, it's psychologically difficult to take."
Bivins is concerned that continued offshoring will create polarization in the U.S. economy, with corporations and businesses becoming more profitable while a large group of workers' wages and employment suffer.
"Those well-poised are going to do well, and those that are not will fall farther behind," he said.
That's why Williams, the CEO of Applied Medical Systems in Durham, is standing her ground, even though she says it has cost her some business. For reasons ranging from political ideology and human rights issues to privacy regulations, she's resolved to keep her transcription and coding positions in America.
"If you send things offshore, you're taking money out of the United States," she said. "I know we're supposed to be going with worldwide trade, but it is putting people out of work."
Chatham bond could pay for schools, more
Nov. 13, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By CAROLYN NORTON
© Copyright 2004
PITTSBORO -- The Chatham County school board will meet next week to discuss the amount of money the district will need in a bond that could be put before voters as early as next spring.
If approved by the board, the county commissioners and the public, the bond could pay for at least two new schools and sundry other renovations and additions to buildings. At the meeting, slated for 7 p.m. Thursday, board members will begin to put priorities on their list of needs, said Deb McManus, the school board's chairwoman.
"The idea is that we are pricing things the school board needs," she said. "We know we are not going to be able to have all these things."
McManus said the board wants to investigate the cost of building a new high school in northeastern Chatham County, where it already has purchased a 90-acre tract of land off Jack Bennett Road. The board also already has purchased land for an elementary school in Siler City, and a recent study indicated that at least one new middle or elementary school will soon be needed in northeast Chatham, McManus said.
The board also would like to put new, modern gyms at each of the three current high schools: Chatham Central in Bear Creek, Jordan-Matthews in Siler City and Northwood, just north of Pittsboro.
The board also has discussed building an addition to Horton Middle School, in Pittsboro, and adding a multipurpose room to Moncure School, McManus said.
The issue of building new schools in Chatham has elicited controversy among county residents for some time. Several years back, the school board began discussing putting a $50 or $60 million bond before voters to build a new high school and elementary school, and do some renovations. Later -- in part because board members and the public couldn't agree on where and when to build schools -- the board formed five public committees to examine the issue.
Some critics have noted that there are schools in other areas of Chatham that are less crowded than those in the northeastern part of the county, and students could be sent there. But others have feared students would be bused too far.
Meanwhile, still others worried that if the district builds new schools, older ones won't get some much-needed renovations.
In February, the board asked consultant Jeff Tsai, director of the Institute of Transportation and Education at N.C. State, to study where growth will likely happen in the county, in an attempt to predict where new schools should be built.
The study results reinforced the need for a new high school, middle school and at least one new middle school, McManus said.
The high school would open by 2009-10, and the Siler City elementary would open by 2007-08, according to the study.
McManus said the board will look at ways to balance building new schools with renovating old ones. The bond, she said, will likely come between $60 and $100 million.
"Costs have gone up greatly since that original [$60 million] proposal," McManus said. "I know it is going to cost more than $60 million if we just build those three schools."
The board hopes to get its bond proposal to the commissioners by the end of the year, said McManus, with a public vote in March. She said she didn't know how the board's vote would coincide with the seating of two new board members, who were elected over the summer.
Holly Duncan and Norman Clark will take their seats in December, replacing longtime board members Ernest Dark Jr. and Cadle Cooper.
Area colleges grapple with new standards for athletes
Nov. 12, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By AL FEATHERSTON
© Copyright 2004
NCAA president Myles Brand called April 29, 2004, "a historic day in intercollegiate athletics."
That's when the NCAA Board of Directors adopted a far-reaching academic reform package that, Brand said, "reaffirms the emphasis on 'student' in the student-athlete equation."
Local universities are grappling with the new academic rules. And they are finding that the new package appears to represent equal measures of promise and problems.
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski says the changes generally are good.
"You can go line by line and say, 'I don't like this or I don't like that,' but overall, it's really a step in the right direction," Krzyzewski said.
Phil Moses, who directs N.C. State's academic support program for athletes, has some of those line-by-line quibbles.
But he also views the NCAA package as a necessary reform, given the situation with graduation rates, especially with men's basketball and men's football.
"Something had to change," Moses said. "This is our start."
Change wouldn't be an issue if every school had handled its own business, policed itself and produced phenomenal graduation rates for student-athletes, he said.
"I think we brought ourselves to this point, and now we need to hold ourselves accountable," Moses said.
As Moses noted, the NCAA's big problem is in its two revenue-producing sports: football and men's basketball.
Overall, athletes graduate at a slightly higher rate than the student body overall. But the NCAA's latest graduation report show that just 52 percent of football players graduate in six years compared with a student-body rate of 59 percent. The graduation rate for men's basketball is a dismal 43 percent.
N.C. State basketball coach Herb Sendek says basketball presents its own set of graduation hurdles. But he adds that the graduation rates schools cite don't really reflect the total number of people who get their degree.
"It's an erroneous measure, ... so why do we continue to use them?" Sendek said.
In fact, the "erroneous measure" Sendek mentioned was eliminated as part of the NCAA reform package. It was replaced by a new measure that is earning nearly unanimous praise.
The new academic reform package, like most NCAA legislation, can be bewildering to digest. But in simplified form, it contains the following provisions:
-- Entrance requirements for student-athletes have been made more flexible. The new plan provides a sliding scale that rewards borderline students who do well on either their high school grade-point average or on standardized tests.
-- Once enrolled, student-athletes must make steady progress toward graduation. A newly installed progression requirement means a player must have completed 20 percent of the degree requirements after one year, 40 percent after two years, 60 percent after three years and 80 percent to play as a (redshirt) fifth-year senior.
-- Graduation rates will be measured and reported under a new system that doesn't penalize schools for losing athletes for non-academic reasons.
-- A totally new measurement, to be called the Academic Progress Rate (APR), will be used to measure a school's retention rate for student-athletes. This is the key to the NCAA's systems of incentives and disincentives that eventually will punish schools -- and specific sports at those schools -- that don't measure up academically.
Trouble for the 'pros'
Todd Turner, athletics director at Washington and a former N.C. State AD, chaired the committee that helped write the legislation on incentives and disincentives.
"All of us have to adjust to it," he said. "If nothing else, it will make everybody sit up and pay attention. It won't affect the Carolinas, the Dukes, the Virginias, the Vanderbilts -- the schools that traditionally do a good job of educating and graduating their athletes.
"The schools playing professional sports are in trouble."
None of the Triangle's three Division I schools appear to be in that category. But that doesn't mean the new legislation is being welcomed without misgivings at Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State.
"My problem is with the concept that one size fits all," said Chris Kennedy, Duke's senior associate director of athletics. "[The NCAA has established] satisfactory progress requirements for a vast range of institutions ... with a vast range of curricular structures and requirements and constituencies."
For 26 years, Kennedy has presided over one of the NCAA's most successful academic support programs. Duke's graduation rates are outstanding by NCAA standards.
Yet Kennedy is skeptical of school-to-school comparisons.
"I think it oversimplifies a very complicated situation," he said. "It leads people to compare Duke and 'Southwest State U.' and say, 'Southwest State U's [graduation rate is] at 50 percent and Duke's is at 90 percent -- Duke's doing that much better than SW State.'
"They're not understanding the differences between the two institutions, ... what their missions are, what their constituencies are, ... who goes to those schools and what programs are they in."
Finding the flaws
John Blanchard, North Carolina's senior associate athletics director for student-athlete services, shares Kennedy's concerns.
"Trying to equalize this academic playing field, ... it's a difficult thing to do," Blanchard said. "The thing people forget is that this is not something new. There was controversy over the very first intercollegiate athletic event, a Harvard-Yale rowing match, and that was in 1852."
Blanchard is worried about several aspects of the reform package, including the NCAA's more flexible entrance standards.
"Though they strengthen it in core courses, which is significant, the flexibility on the SAT and grade-point average allows for some students to be admitted that in the past wouldn't be admitted," he said.
That's part of the package that Krzyzewski likes, specifically the reduced emphasis on the standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT.
"The great thing about it is that it's not discriminating to the extent that our other rules did as far as getting into an institution," Krzyzewski said. "There's much more flexibility with kids getting in."
But that just increases the burden on the academic support personnel.
"Just because initial eligibility standards have dropped doesn't mean we take those students," said Robert Mercer, UNC's director of academic support. "But it certainly puts institutions in a position where they have to make a decision as to whether they'll take those students, then justify why they did or did not take them."
N.C. State's Moses says the stricter progression requirements also create some unique problems.
"The one thing I really don't like is that it forces students to make up their mind [as to majors] in one year," he said. "You have to know where you're going in one year. You can't run the risk of picking a really selective major, where you run the risks of losing credits or something like that."
At North Carolina, Mercer ran a test program, checking to see how the legislation would have affected Tar Heel athletes if it had been in effect last year.
"One of the things we found was that some of our real close calls were some of our elite students," Mercer said. "Some of our very best [were in trouble] because they were in majors that allow for very few electives.
" ... Maybe they were redshirted athletes and they're taking more electives than the major requires, so therefore, the NCAA doesn't count those other ones and they turned out ineligible. That's where you find the dilemma of this legislation."
One unqualified success
Sendek was not the only coach to object to the NCAA's old system of measuring graduation rates.
Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt used last spring's Final Four as a forum to blast the way the NCAA measured and reported graduation.
The old standard was formulated by the U.S. Department of Education. It measured the percentage of students from each class who graduated from that institution after six years. Thus, athletes who left school early to play professionally or who transferred looking for playing time counted against a school's graduation rate.
"It seems like we were never able to educate the public as to what the graduation rate meant," Blanchard said. "The problem is that people think graduation rate means the number of people who graduate from colleges when, in fact, it means the number of people who graduate from your institution. They think it's either graduate or flunk out."
All three local schools have been punished by the old standard.
Bill McCaffrey and Crawford Palmer were excellent students who left the Duke basketball team in search of more playing time and got degrees at prestigious institutions. Josh Powell was a dean's list student at N.C. State when he left the Pack to enter pro basketball. Jerry Stackhouse left UNC early to enter the NBA and returned to earn his degree but finished in 6½ years.
Each of those players counted against his schools' graduation rates.
The new standard will not penalize a school for an athlete who leaves in good academic standing. And it will, for the first time, count athletes who transfer in and eventually graduate.
"I think it's a better indicator of what's going on on individual campuses," Moses said. "During this time, there has been a little more mobility -- transfers in, transfers out. I think the old definition created significant negative connotations that really weren't accurate."
Naturally, coaches like the new standard.
"If a young man [turns pro] in basketball after one year ? or even in football, if he's there three years and he's in good academic standings with the school, he's not going to count against you," N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato said. "A lot of young men left here when I first got here, and sooner or later, that's going to be a reflection on graduation rates because it will be with the old scale."
Crime and punishment
The most significant part of the new legislation is the Academic Progress Rate (APR) -- a tool that will be used by the NCAA to punish schools that don't meet their academic responsibilities.
"I don't know how it's going to work in the real world, but I think what they perceived and based it on is right," Kennedy said. "What you want to focus on is retention. For all the focus on outcome, what really matters is what happens every day. The longer you keep them in school, the better their chances to achieve that outcome."
Transfers, even non-academic transfers, will count against a school's APR. Moses explained how the loss of Wolfpack basketball player Mike O'Donnell, who left school last season in search of playing time, would count against the Pack.
"What we get for Mike O'Donnell is three of the four points," Moses said. "We get both for the fall -- he was eligible and he returned for the spring. And in the spring he was eligible to return but didn't, so we get one of two points."
It's still not clear what an acceptable APR percentage will be. The NCAA has formed a committee to look at the incoming data and draw a line to divide acceptable and unacceptable APR.
"I have a sense that most of us will make that line," Blanchard said.
It will be awhile before anybody is penalized. The NCAA committee will consider four years of APR reports before it decides where the line is drawn.
The first year a school falls below that line, it will receive a letter of warning. The second year will bring a scholarship penalty. The third year will bring a ban from postseason competition.
"We are wondering what's really going to happen," Moses said. "I don't think these scores are going to be at such a high level, like 90 percent, that it becomes a nightmare for everybody. I don't think that's the NCAA's intent."
Success or failure?
Will the NCAA's academic reform package actually improve real graduation rates?
Blanchard suggested that the mere attempt at reform is significant.
"I think it will help, not so much because of the legislation itself, but the attention it brings to academics and the practicality it presents to coaches -- we've got to conform to these things," he said. "So that will create an environment."
Kennedy doesn't sound as optimistic.
"It's always hard to predict what something like this is going to do," he said. "The desired outcome obviously is that more kids will make progress toward graduation and that the retention rates will go up and, as a result, graduation rates will go up. But the unforeseen consequences are always what you wonder about."
Moses has more faith in what the NCAA is trying to accomplish.
"I think the NCAA has been very, very bold," he said. "This [package] is based on a gathering of data on hundreds of thousands of students and [learning] what a college graduate looks like, working from graduation back. They've got tons of data that supports that. This is all data driven."
It will be years before the ultimate success or failure of the NCAA's academic reform package can be judged. But whether the current plan works, there's no denying that the organization is determined to make sure that college athletes are real students.
Nov. 13, 2004
News & Observer
By BENJAMIN NIOLET
© Copyright 2004
HILLSBOROUGH -- A jury found a Raleigh man did not commit hit-and-run when he drove off in a truck that had just killed Stephen Gates, a reporter for the Tar Heel Sports Network who was changing his tire along Interstate 40.
The Orange County jury acquitted Rabah Samara on Friday after two days of testimony about the events surrounding the death of Gates, 27, on Oct. 4, 2003. Witnesses agreed that Samara, 27, was a passenger in the Cadillac Escalade about 2:30 a.m. when it slammed into Gates, who had stopped along I-40 near Hillsborough.
But after the driver of the Escalade, Emily Caveness, pulled over, Samara switched places with her and drove the truck to Raleigh. Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox made a deal with Caveness, 21, to allow her to plead to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report an accident in exchange for testifying against Samara.
Fox tried to convince jurors that Samara was the one who decided to turn the accident into a hit-and-run. But Samara and others in the car testified that no one saw Gates or had any idea what had happened.
After his acquittal, Samara had a quiet, tearful conversation with Gates' parents. Dozens of family, friends and reporters leaned forward in the hushed courtroom to try to make out what was said.
"I do not believe you when you say you didn't know," the mother, Pat Gates, said.
"It's true," Samara said.
Samara left the courtroom with a throng of friends.
Under the law, the jurors had to decide whether Samara was helping Caveness commit hit-and-run since he was not driving when Gates was struck.
Gates' parents said they wanted to work for a change in state law to prevent Friday's outcome from happening again.
"There is in this advice for drivers in North Carolina: If you hit someone, you do well to have a passenger take over and drive away," George Gates said. "The law as we heard it today is both of them walk away."
'A loud, loud noise'
Samara is a former electrical engineering student at N.C. State University who manages a Subway restaurant to save money to go back to school. On the night of the accident, Samara and Caveness went separately to Durham for a party. Samara testified he had several drinks and shots.
After 11:30 p.m., Samara, Caveness and two others left. Caveness drove because she was the only one who had not been drinking. She was a student at NCSU and was lost in Durham. Their route to Raleigh took them to the junction of Interstates 85 and 40 near Hillsborough. Samara was drunk and asleep in the passenger seat. The two passengers in the back seat were busy talking.
Sometime after 2 a.m., Gates was parked along I-40, his wheels just a few inches into the roadway on the acceleration lane. Caveness merged onto I-40, and the Escalade hit Gates and sheared off the door of his Saturn.
"The next thing was a loud, loud noise. I felt it through my whole body," Samara testified Friday.
Panic took hold of the four people in the car. Samara testified that Caveness was letting go of the wheel and everyone was yelling, asking what had happened. Samara coaxed her into pulling over, and he got out.
A couple who had followed them down the road hollered. Bruce Cottrell testified that he told Samara they had hit someone. Samara testified he thought Cottrell was asking whether they had hit anyone. Samara looked at the front of the SUV, which was mangled by the impact. He got behind the wheel and drove away.
A short distance from his home in Raleigh, Samara stopped at a well-lit gas station, and he saw for the first time traces of blood on the car, he said. None of the four knew anyone had been killed until Raleigh police officers stopped them, according to testimony.
No one else to charge
Duncan McMillan, one of Samara's attorneys, told the jury that Samara could not be more responsible than Caveness.
"If the prosecution made the right decision in dismissing the charges against her, then you must make the right decision and find him not guilty," McMillan said.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about an hour. Samara could have been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor.
Fox said after the verdict that Caveness did not do anything wrong when she hit Gates. It was an accident. And she eventually stopped the SUV, so he couldn't proceed with hit-and-run charges.
After Samara left the courtroom, Pat Gates said she does not believe Samara has taken full responsibility for what happened.
She attended nearly a dozen hearings as the case made its way through the court. And she has encouraged both Samara and Caveness to make a difference in the world, "to live a life worthy of the one they've taken," she said in an interview before the trial.
"I told him I hope you will live a life worthy of being alive rather than our son," she said Friday. "He promised he would, as did Emily."
No Wall Proves To Be Too Steep for ‘Wallter’, a Wall-Climbing Robot
Nov. 15, 2004
LocalTechWire
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
DURHAM – “Wallter”, the wall-climbing robot, is earning international recognition for a team of Duke University students.
Wallter, which is about the size of a book, won an international conference in Madrid back in September. It uses in part technology from a Morrisville-based firm that has developed suction technology labeled as “tornado in a cup”.
But the robot is far from being a toy or just an item of curiosity.
Jason Janet, an adjunct professor at Duke’s electrical and computer engineering department, assisted the Duke student team in efforts that produced the winner at the International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots, and said Wallter points to how important they could be.
"Robots that climb walls and cross ceilings can go where humans can’t," Janet said. "They can do security and safety jobs like looking for bombs or finding cracks in a support beam or the wing of a jumbo jet."
Brian Burney, a staff member at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering and graduate student at North Carolina State University, led the team along with Kevin Parker, Andrew Meyerson and Julien Finley, who are undergraduates at Pratt.
The robot reared up on its hind legs and used the “tornado” suction developed by Vortex HC to scale the wall. Janet is vice president of development at the company. He said the Vortex technology is patented and uses swirling rather than recirculated air in a small cylinder to create the suction. The students wrote the software and worked with sensors needed for control of the robot.
Wallter prevailed in a competition requiring five tasks:
Nov. 12, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Tim Boyum
© Copyright 2004
North Carolina universities need more money than ever to pay for an increasing student population.
Friday, the Board of Governor's approved its state budget request but getting the money might be a tough task with another predicted state budget shortfall ahead.
In three years, 20,000 new students have filled the 16 state universities. To help pay for that the UNC System asked the state for $47 million two years ago, $65 million last year and now they want $73 million.
It is money the board must ask for every year. Unlike K-12 schools, enrollment growth money is not built into the state budget.
“We will seek again this year as we did for the past few years to put enrollment growth into the continuation budge for enrollment growth as it is for the K-12 schools,” Molly Broad, the UNC System president, said.
But there is a hitch; next year House budget writers predict a $1.1 billion state budget shortfall.
“But the governor's track record and that of the General Assembly has consistently supported money for enrollment growth. It is imperative North Carolina college going rates continue to increase to have a workforce that is qualified for jobs of the 21st century.”
While the General Assembly has approved the request in the past, it also meant budget cuts in each university's overall budget.
“If you look at where we started and where we ended, North Carolina did a great job protecting the quality and integrity of the system because the cuts were kept below 1.5 percent,” James Ammons, N.C. Central chancellor, explained.
The shortfall meant some cuts in staffing and kept other projects on hold but the Board of Governors has made it clear that enrollment growth remains the top priority.
Even if the state gives less money for enrollment growth, it will have no affect on tuition prices.
That's another issue the Board of Governor's will take up early next year.
The General Assembly makes its final budget decisions next summer.
UNC, Lawmakers Disagree Over Student Admission Requirement
Nov. 15, 2004
WRAL
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Combine population growth with job losses in textiles and furniture and you've got a boom in North Carolina higher education.
More than 779,000 people enrolled at the state's 59 community colleges this year, with most of them involved in continuing education or job retraining. Meanwhile, an increasing number are completing associate's degrees in the hope of transferring to one of the 16 University of North Carolina campuses.
With the UNC system already enrolling 183,000 students - and projecting to reach 235,000 by 2012 - it makes sense that the two systems streamline transfers.
But a new report from an outside consultant raises questions about just how closely the two systems are willing to work.
The report recommends that the UNC system guarantee admission for every community college student who completes an associate general education degree. Such transfers would enter UNC campuses with standing as juniors.
But UNC, which treasures the academic independence and unique budget control given it by legislators, is resistant to being told whom it must admit.
University officials say they currently find spots for all associate degree holders who want a higher degree. But the system doesn't want to have to be forced to do so.
"I do think it's a slippery slope when (legislators) start getting into the admissions process," said Mark Fleming, a lobbyist for the UNC system. "That should be left up to the campuses."
Community college leaders are backing the automatic admission proposal, saying it would provide additional incentives for their students to remain in school and complete their degrees.
"They will have a place in the university system," said Delores Parker, a community college system vice president. "They will say, 'I have a two-year degree. It means something."'
Lawmakers from both parties appear interested in making the recommendation a reality. A state senator has asked that a bill be drafted to make the admission requirement the law.
"The math is real simple, folks," Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, said as the report was discussed this past week by the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee. "We should encourage that young people go to community colleges and get their courses. You don't have to build as many as dorms, classrooms and cafeterias."
Added Sen. Katie Dorsett, D-Guilford: "If they can't be guaranteed a spot, then to me it defeats the purpose" of an associate degree.
In 1995, the Legislature ordered UNC and the community colleges to make plain what community college credits would transfer to UNC system campuses.
The two entities signed an agreement that laid out which classes would transfer and to ensure that students with associate of arts or science degrees would enter UNC campuses as juniors, if they were admitted.
The community colleges also switched from a quarter to semester schedule and numbered classes the same way at all campuses, so that "English 111" would be the same wherever it's taught.
The recent report by MGT of America Inc. found that the number of community college graduates transferring to University of North Carolina system campuses grew by 27 percent over four years, to more than 6,800 students in 2003.
Community colleges and UNC schools also are working together to prepare hundreds of new teachers by having them take two years of classes at community colleges before going to a UNC campus.
But the consultant found that one-third of students interviewed did not know enough about the transfer process. Teachers, counselors and administrators from community colleges and universities each felt that the other provided ineffective counsel to students.
Bobby Kanoy, a UNC senior vice president, said an admission requirement could lead to creating "reserved slots" at UNC campuses for these students, harming the competitive admission process at those schools.
Fleming, the UNC lobbyist, suggests the best way to improve the transfer process is to follow the recommendation of a separate task force of UNC and community colleges. That panel wants the General Assembly to appropriate $6.5 million next year to hire advisers on every community college campus who will help students figure out how to transfer.
The request is unusual, given that the two systems often have had to compete for the attention of legislators. Combine the history, research dollars and athletics of UNC-system schools - and the fact that so many lawmakers are graduates - and the UNC system has had a decided advantage in such skirmishes over the years.
But enrollment growth pressures and the need for community colleges to help with job retraining could give them more power at the Legislative Building this time around.
Rep. Robert Grady, R-Onslow, a co-chairman of the oversight committee, said it may take legislative action to force better cooperation.
"We are reaching a point on some of these issues in which I do not believe the universities and the community colleges will resolve them in discussion," Grady said. "I believe it will take some outside force."
Nov. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
NCSU professor receives grant
A professor of cell biology at N.C. State University has received a 10-year, $4 million award.
Kenneth Adler, a professor in NCSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, received the award from the National Institutes of Health. Adler is studying inflammation in the respiratory airways seen in asthma, cystic fibrosis and chronic bronchitis.
The grant, known as the MERIT award, was created in 1987 to provide money to researchers who have "demonstrated a long-term commitment to and success in research." Less than 5 percent of NIH-funded investigators are selected.
Adler and several colleagues created a molecule that prevents the buildup of mucus in asthmatic mice. The research could lead to advances in the treatment of respiratory diseases.
UNC system enrollment grows
The UNC system has more students than ever -- 189,615 this fall. That's a 3.4 percent increase over last fall and the fourth straight year that enrollment has grown by more than 6,000 students.
All schools except the N.C. School of the Arts expanded this year. The heaviest increase was at Winston-Salem State University, where the student body jumped 703 students -- 17 percent.
Minority enrollment also was up by 5.5 percent, and minorities now make up nearly 30 percent of the university system's students. The African-American population climbed 5.2 percent, American Indian students increased 6.7 percent, Asian students increased 2.5 percent and the number of Hispanic students grew 14 percent.
The system also seems to have advanced in quality. The average SAT score systemwide rose from 1075 to 1079.
Nov. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
JOANN M. BURKHOLDER, professor of botany and director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology, and STEVEN SPIKER, professor of genetics, have been elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Burkholder and Spiker are among 308 scientists to be honored by AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.
RTP leaders seek relief from traffic congestion
Nov. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By BRUCE SICELOFF
© Copyright 2004
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Executives at Research Triangle Park say that, just as hiring starts to pick up after a three-year slump, they hear more grumbling this fall from workers weary of the daily traffic jam.
After similar commuter complaints in 1998, RTP leaders persuaded the state to speed up improvements to Interstate 40 and other roadways that serve RTP. They haven't given up their demands for fresh asphalt, but now they also are pursuing their own strategies against the relentless spread of traffic congestion.
More than any other group of employers in the region, RTP bosses have invested money and effort in the past few years in a determined push to help workers reduce their driving. They see promise in mass transit, carpools and vanpools, bicycling and telecommuting, and in new opportunities for RTP employees to live closer to where they work.
They may find a vigorous ally in Rick L. Weddle, RTP's first new chief executive officer in 16 years. Weddle succeeded James O. Roberson as president of the Research Triangle Foundation, the park's nonprofit developer and landlord, in July. He immediately launched a sweeping rethink of RTP's long-term business plan.
Weddle says RTP must become more engaged in transportation issues and other aspects of Triangle life. His goals include making the park more compatible with public transit.
"We want to make this a better place to live and work, in a way that is complementary to today's life patterns," Weddle says.
It's no coincidence that the Triangle's priceless economic heart is also its most expensive traffic problem.
The green, sprawling layout of Research Triangle Park is a key element of its renowned appeal for employers who have come here to create ideas and opportunities since 1959, when the park was carved out of the wide-open spaces between Durham and Raleigh.
But the park's spread-out design and its determined isolation from the swirl of modern life mean that its 38,000 employees have to do a lot of driving -- to get to work, to get home, and even to get lunch. They contribute more than their share to the traffic clogging N.C. 55, the Durham Freeway and Interstate 40, where car counts have grown by as much as 62 percent during the past four years.
"The people who came up with this wonderful creation did so much for the state," says Dick Sloane, 58, of Durham, who bicycles 7 miles to work at the tree-lined RTP campus of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "But then it seems like it was all designed around the automobile."
Transportation officials and RTP workers want to break the park's automobile habit. Barely 1 percent of the park's employees are bus riders, but mass transit's appeal is expected to grow as the Triangle Transit Authority prepares to start the region's first commuter trains rolling in 2008.
The TTA's plans include two rail stops in RTP with connections to a consolidated Raleigh, Durham and Triangle Transit bus system. Triangle Metro Center, a 168-acre development planned around one of the two train stops in RTP, will offer a place for thousands of people to live and shop near their jobs in the park.
Support is growing in RTP for an expensive proposal to upgrade I-40 and the Durham Freeway with express lanes reserved for carpools, buses and toll-paying solo drivers. Cost estimates range from $1 billion to $3 billion.
Further in the future -- if it ever rises above its status as a planners' dream -- is an idea for a transit loop with trains, trams or buses that would connect the TTA train line with major RTP worksites, Raleigh-Durham International Airport and other western Wake County economic centers.
Pushing public transit
RTP employers don't want to jinx the park's cherished formula for success. But they warn that traffic congestion is a threat to the park and region's economic growth.
"Traffic and transportation concerns are still the number-one issue on the minds of RTP employees," says William G. Laxton, senior administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 1,200 employees in RTP and chairman of the park's owners and tenants association. "The work on I-40 the last two years has put a burden on businesses and employees. We are anxiously looking to see that completed this year."
While the DOT finishes paving new lanes on I-40, N.C. 55 and Davis Drive, it is preparing in the next decade to open a new link to Wake County's Outer Loop and perhaps a north-south toll road through RTP.
Park leaders want faster action on these projects -- and more.
The proposed carpool lanes are "something that's probably got to happen with I-40 in the next 10 to 15 years," says Joseph A. Freddoso, RTP site director for Cisco Systems, which has 3,000 workers in RTP. With an enthusiastic campaign called SmartCommute, Cisco and other park employers have cut the share of workers who drive alone to work from 90 percent in 1999 to 82 percent last year.
That brings RTP roughly even with the solo-commuter averages for Durham County and North Carolina as a whole. SmartCommute employers provide subsidies for bus and vanpool riders, preferred parking spots for carpoolers, and other incentives to wean workers from rush-hour driving. For the majority who still drive alone to work, flexible schedules have expanded employee options to drive during off-peak hours.
Some commuters take TTA buses into RTP and transfer to small shuttle vehicles that drop them where they work. The park's sprawling layout prolongs shuttle journeys and keeps ridership steady but low. Many park employees are hoping for faster and more convenient service as the TTA rail service cranks up over the next 15 years.
Michelle R. Campbell and her husband, Russell, last year moved from Philadelphia to southern Durham near RTP, where she works as a biologist at NIEHS. Each morning they park at Woodcroft Shopping Center and board different TTA buses. His takes him to his job at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Campbell appreciates the NIEHS subsidy that covers her $48 monthly bus pass. The bus schedule doesn't always meet her needs on days when she must work late, but she heaps praise on TTA for its clean buses and its dogged efforts to win new converts for public transportation.
"The bus drivers are very friendly, and they make a big effort to help you if you miss your bus," Campbell says.
Moving closer
Private developers ultimately may have the greatest impact on RTP commuter habits. Big residential and mixed-use projects are taking shape around the park perimeter.
Cary developer Craig Davis plans to create a dense urban center around the TTA rail stop near the Nortel Networks campus. He says the project will cost $300 million and take 10 years to complete.
The 168-acre Triangle Metro Center will be packed with a hotel, shops, offices, buildings up to eight stories high, and as many as 2,800 apartments and condominiums.
Most of the development lies just outside the park boundary, but a 25-acre portion within RTP will include 300 residential units -- a first for Research Triangle Park.
"These land-use changes really get at what the root cause of the problem is," says Janet D'Ignazio, a senior researcher at N.C. State University's Center for Transportation and the Environment. "You begin to get people much closer to where they work, so the trips they need to take are much shorter. And maybe they get to where they don't even need to use the car."
The idea of a transit loop for RTP and major centers in western Wake County was spun out from the Center of the Region Enterprise (CORE), an effort convened by John Hodges-Copple, the Triangle J Council of Governments planning director, to look at transportation and land-use issues in the area. Possible destinations for rail or bus transit vehicles on the loop include two TTA rail stops, the Stirrup Iron Creek and Brier Creek village centers, the airport, and three of the largest RTP employers not directly served by the TTA trains -- Cisco, the EPA and Research Triangle Institute.
More new thinking will be needed to tame traffic congestion at the heart of the Triangle, RTP executives say.
"It's education, it's land-use planning, it's mass-transit alternatives, and it's infrastructure improvements," Cisco's Freddoso says. "We're not to the point yet where the average worker is commuting 45 minutes or an hour, but we're going to get to that point if we don't take a multi-faceted approach to this."
The Census Bureau last year pegged the Triangle's average daily commute time at 23.4 minutes.
RTP's original designers did not plan for tens of thousands of workers all driving their own cars to work every day -- or, Weddle notes, for the new employee in search of the nearest Starbuck's.
"Their thinking was built in a very complementary fashion to the life patterns of 45 years ago," Weddle says. "It was such a profound business model that it became the world's leader in science parks. "We did a few things right along the way, but the world has kind of changed."
TRAFFIC GROWTH AROUND RTP
Vehicles Increase
Highway per day 2003 since 1999
DURHAM COUNTY
I-40
N.C. 751 to Fayetteville Road 86,000 13%
Fayetteville Road to N.C. 147 93,000 19%
N.C. 147 to Davis Drive 129,000 17%
Davis Drive to Miami Blvd. 134,000 14%
Miami Blvd. to Page Road 140,000 11%
Page Road to I-540 144,000 7%
Davis Drive
N.C. 54 to I-40 20,000 15%
N.C. 55
Sedwick Road to N.C. 54 21,000 62%
N.C. 54 to I-40 31,000 3%
I-40 to Cornwallis Road 19,000 6%
N.C. 147
I-40 to Cornwallis Road 55,000 6%
Cornwallis Rd. to Alexander Dr. 53,000 6%
WAKE COUNTY
I-40
I-540 to Airport Blvd. 125,000 16%
Airport Blvd. to Aviation Pkwy. 122,000 17%
Aviation Pkwy. to Harrison Ave. 134,000 12%
I-540
I-40 to Aviation Pkwy. 47,000 62%
Aviation Pkwy to Lumley Road 62,000 48%
Lumley Road to US 70 58,000 53%
(N.C. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION)
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
WHAT IS IT?
It's a public/private, planned research park, housing more than 100 research and development facilities. The park bills itself as one of the largest in the world and notes that researchers there have developed many inventions to improve daily life.
HOW LARGE IS IT?
The park covers 7,000 acres, including more than 1,000 acres still available for development. The park is about eight miles long and two miles wide.
WHEN WAS IT CREATED?
Leaders from business, academia, government and industry created the park in 1959. Its location was chosen to take advantage of its proximity to Duke University in Durham, N.C. State University in Raleigh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK THERE?
About 38,000 full-time employees work in RTP, many for organizations that do research and development in areas such as biotechnology, environmental sciences, pharmaceuticals, information technology and telecommunications. About half work for multinational corporations.
WHO RUNS THE PARK?
The Research Triangle Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization, develops and markets Research Triangle Park.
Nov. 15, 2004
News & Observer
By SAMANTHA THOMPSON SMITH
© Copyright 2004
It's inevitable. When Jennifer Babson buys clothes, she loads up before going into the dressing room, taking a size 6, 8, 10 and often a 12.
Truth be told, 37-year-old Babson is a solid size 8, with hips, bust and waist measuring fairly close to standard sizes set in the 1940s. Depending on where she's shopping, though, she's often something else: a 6 at Ann Taylor or a 12 at Eddie Bauer.
"It can be really frustrating," she said. "It's part of the reason I don't like to go shopping."
It's one of the most common complaints among shoppers: finding the right size. Some retailers skillfully cut back inventory to cater just to certain body types. Others practice the art of vanity sizing, labeling bigger clothes as smaller than they really are.
All of it adds up to some undue angst in the dressing room.
"Retailers are hoping they can meet your fit requirement and keep you a captive customer," said Cindy Istook, an associate professor of textiles at N.C. State's College of Textiles. "That's probably smart on their part."
Smart and lucrative. To help boost sales, retailers create their own sizes and clothing fit depending on the shoppers they want to attract into their stores. By offering up smaller sizes on labels, retailers hope that women will feel better about themselves and become loyal to a particular brand or store.
What it means for consumers is that some stores are better-suited to their body types -- not just their wallets.
Ann Taylor is best for the tall and thin. Same with Old Navy. Gap appeals more to pear shapes. Express likes younger, thinner bodies. Eddie Bauer is best for thicker middles and legs.
The problem is that not enough consumers shop enough to know which stores are best for their body type, and they end up buying clothes that don't fit. Studies conducted by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and separately by Kurt Salmon Associates, a textile-apparel consultant, show that about half of consumers are dissatisfied with the fit of off-the-rack clothes.
"The reality is most people can't buy off the rack," said Suzanne Libraind of Wardrobe Consulting, a personal shopping business in Raleigh. "They have to be realistic. Most things they buy are going to have to be altered."
Richelle Sajovec, 38, has just about abandoned the idea of spending the day at a local mall shopping for new clothes. Instead, she heads only to the stores, such as Talbots, that she knows are going to have clothes that will fit her -- and a staff to help her find exactly what she already knows will fit.
"I love shopping at Target, but I'm not going to buy my clothes there," she said. "It's just going to be frustrating to me to have to try on 20 or 30 things to find one thing that fits me and even then I'll have to have it altered later."
It hasn't always been this difficult.
For years, retailers used size standards that were based on the nation's first sizing study in 1941, when the government funded a project to measure 10,000 women. Only those from ages 18 to 25 were measured, and all the subjects were white and lived in the South. And most of them wore girdles, so they likely had an hour-glass figure.
But as the nation's demographics changed and Americans started getting heavier on the bottom, savvy retailers started conforming to keep certain customers happy. As retailing became more competitive in the last decade, more retailers caught on to the sizing tricks.
"Retailers are trying to understand their target customers and create clothes that fit just them," said Jim Lovejoy, director of industry programs at Cary-based TC2, a textile technology company that has studied the sizing issue. "What happens is they can only fit a certain percentage of the consumers."
Lovejoy said financial pressures drive retailers' sizing decisions. By targeting a certain body type -- tall and thin, pear-shaped or hour-glass -- retailers can cut costs by stocking less inventory.
"We know it's frustrating for the consumer," said Peggy Carter, a spokeswoman at Sara Lee, which has apparel companies in North Carolina.
Sara Lee is one of a handful of apparel makers studying the sizing issue after being involved in several national sizing studies in the past few years. Although Carter wouldn't discuss what sizing changes Sara Lee is considering, she said the company is committed to making comfortable clothes. "The consumer is our boss and we aim to please them," she said.
Sara Lee was a driving force behind the SizeUSA study that TC2 did two years ago. TC2 spent a year scanning 10,000 volunteers using funding from some of the textile industry's biggest names -- Sara Lee, VH Corp., Jockey, Target and Dillard's.
Initially, one of the goals of the study was to help the textiles industry standardize sizes. But the companies that participated in the study so far have been reluctant to create a standard, Lovejoy said.
"The merchandisers don't want to do anything drastic at this point," Lovejoy said. "They figure they already have satisfied customers out there, and they don't want to alienate them. So they are proceeding cautiously."
J.C. Penney is one of those hoping to make some sizing changes but treading lightly, said Tim Lyons, a spokesman at J.C. Penney. The retailer has control of the sizing of only its private label brands. But the company is hesitant about making extensive changes to the sizes. "You have to have a balance in your merchandise," he said. "You don't want it to be so different from the other brands you have in the store."
Istook said the issue boils down to money, and customers have the power to effect change.
"If customers would complain more to retailers, retailers would force manufacturers to make a difference," she said. "We need to educate the consumer about some of the changes that could occur if they would motivate the retailers."
Nov. 13, 2004
News & Observer; Greensboro News & Record; Charlotte Observer
By JANE STANCILL
© Copyright 2004
North Carolina's public university system is seeking big bucks from the state -- a 28 percent increase in its budget next year.
The money would cover the costs of more students, faculty salary increases, libraries, new research programs and technology improvements.
The 16 UNC system schools are likely to ask students and their families to reach deeper into their pockets, too. Tuition won't be set until early next year, but already campuses are crafting proposals for another round of increases.
On Friday, the UNC Board of Governors approved a budget request for the next two years. It includes almost $316 million in new spending next year and $410 million in 2006-07. The request also calls for a 7.5 percent increase in academic salaries for each of the two years, adding nearly $105 million next year and $223 million in 2006-07.
Even university leaders acknowledged that their wish list might be wishful thinking. State agencies have been through several years of budget cuts during the economic downturn.
And just this week, state agencies were told to send 0.75 percent of this year's budget back to North Carolina's coffers to cover hurricane damage. The UNC system will have to come up with $13.5 million to help cover expenses after a series of hurricanes hit the state this fall.
"It is a very large request, and we have no expectation that it can be fully funded," said UNC President Molly Broad.
But Brad Wilson, the board chairman, said the board's responsibility is to tell the legislature the university's priorities without regard to the availability of money.
"That's what's been done here," Wilson said.
All agree it's a lot
Legislators and others say it's too early to assess the university system's chances.
"It's kind of like at Christmas," said Rep. Wilma Sherrill of Asheville, who has served as a Republican appropriations chairwoman. "You ask for more than you know you're going to get."
Cari Boyce, spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Easley, said: "This is one piece of the puzzle. The governor is going to have to look at the whole picture. We've got limited resources for the entire state, and they need to be allocated accordingly."
The new spending requests for next year include $25 million in research programs and nearly $25 million for economic development. Broad wants the university system to become a partner with the state in helping attract business and science that would bring jobs to North Carolina.
Then there are plans to pump up libraries, with about $20 million next year, and to improve technology, including almost $36 million next year for computer network security, data management systems and high performance computing.
A chunk of the money would go toward educating an influx of new students. This fall, the UNC system had a record 189,615 students, and enrollment is expected to climb to more than 196,000 next year. It will cost $73 million to provide faculty and services for those extra students, according to UNC officials. By 2006-07, the enrollment growth funding estimate rises to $133 million.
The UNC board has repeatedly asked the legislature to automatically pay for enrollment growth, as it does with public schools. But the General Assembly hasn't acted.
The college-age population bulge has created a renaissance on the state's campuses, where a $2.5 billion building program is under way. Hundreds of construction projects are in the pipeline. The money was approved by voters in 2000.
Sherrill said sustaining student growth is important to the state's future.
"We have to take care of our enrollment growth," she said. "We are growing because we are so good."
On the other hand, the state has many other needs, she said. The community colleges are growing fast, and the state is under a court order to provide more resources for public schools in low-income counties.
"It sounds like it's not within reach," Sherrill said of UNC's total request. "We're not going to have a $1 billion surplus sitting down there."
Richard Morgan, the Republican co-speaker of the state House, also told members of the Board of Governors this week that the state's budget outlook this year isn't good.
The state's economy is expected to improve, though, and that gives hope to some university leaders that at least some of their wishes might be granted.
"I don't think anybody believes everything in this budget is going to get done, by any means," said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser. "But I am optimistic in a measured kind of way."
Nov. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By ERIC AND LAURIE ZACK
© Copyright 2004
LAURIE ZACK:
'I am so ready to be done with school. That's my biggest worry that when I'm
done with school, I can't find a job, especially with how poor the job market
is right now.
'I went to high school in San Diego, then I went to undergrad at the University of Arkansas, where I swam for them. I worked as well for the math center on campus, tutoring. So I did that through school. I kind of knew I wanted to do math when I was little, and when I went to undergrad, I wanted to be a high school math teacher. But I did an internship in Massachusetts the summer before my senior year teaching high school math, and I hated it. So I didn't know what I was going to do my senior year of college, so I decided to stay in school, maybe thinking I wanted to teach in college instead of high school, so I needed to go and get my master's in math.
'I went to N.C. State immediately when I was done with my undergrad to work on my master's. I was only going to get my master's at N.C. State. It wasn't until last year I decided to get my Ph.D. I didn't want to be out of school yet. So now I'm still in school.
'I met Eric my freshman year in college. He is two years older than me. We lived in the same dorm. I got engaged my junior year. We just decided we had a good relationship, and we loved each other and we decided to get married when I was done with school. He graduated a year before I did, undergrad. He's in school now, too, at UNC. He's working on his master's in exercise physiology.
'We're living on nothing. That's the stress part. Neither of us have loans. We both are on graduate assistantships through school, so I have to teach a math class at State, and he teaches a P.E. classes at UNC, so they pay for our school, and he gets a stipend. But it's not enough to live off of, so he still works, and I still work.
'I do have a lot of friends that are stressing out. The major issue is jobs. They've graduated from college and can't find a job. I don't know how long ago, but it used to be that if you got your bachelor's degree, that was enough to get a good job. Now you have to have a master's to be competitive in your field.
'I'm happy with my decisions I've made in life. I'm happy with Eric. So I don't think I'm going to turn back and say I should have waited or done something different. I think there's always more time to do things in life. I can always go back to school if I want to. I don't have any regrets.'
ERIC ZACK:
'I finished school for the first time in 2001, and I spent a year working for a physician thinking I'd go be a physician's assistant. I was waiting for Laurie to finish so I could move somewhere and go into a PA program. We came here, and I worked for a year as a warehouse manager, just something to earn a paycheck, and I lost the PA drive.
'I don't know why. It wasn't necessarily the thing I wanted to do, and I was a little unsure about what direction I wanted to go. I couldn't do what I wanted with just an undergrad [in exercise science]. I'd like to go into research, for example, with a pharmaceutical company. So I ended up back at UNC in exercise physiology. It's not positive that that's the best degree for me. I'm not really sure what I want to do, so I'm not sure what degree I need to get.
'I'm not thrilled about getting back into the job market. I'm really concerned. It's very competitive with so many people who have been laid off. I'm out there competing with people with lots of experience. Looking at the job postings, they want three, five, 10 years experience. I can't offer that.