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College still affordable in N.C.
Study shows aid offsets cost hikes
Broad
broaches Triangle lab for public, private research
UNC President Molly Broad is in preliminary conversations with Duke University
President Nan Keohane and others about the possibility of creating a Triangle
lab where scientists from universities and industry would do research on
biological agents and infectious diseases.
Prosecutors
Rest Case in Murder Trial
Closing arguments are expected today in the trail of a man accused of raping
and murdering a 77-year-old Lobelia woman in 2001.
Poplars
could handle hog waste
After years of struggling with the dirty disposal problem of sludge from
hog waste lagoons, researchers have come up with a possible green solution
-- poplar trees that suck up the waste like soda straws.
NCSU
Plans Pet Diagnostic Center
$2 Million Facility To Feature MRIs For Pets
No. 44
returns
Growing up as the 11th child in a poor family in Shelby, David Thompson was
fascinated by ACC basketball and by one player in particular -- Charlie Scott.
Groups
Aim To Save Former Home Of Late Raleigh Author
Some Say Current NCSU Fraternity House A Window To Past
Candler
Granted Bond, But Must Remain In Jail
An immigration judge has granted a $20,000 bond for former North Carolina
State University diving coach John Candler.
ASU
Board Of Trustees Raise Tuition, Fees
The ASU Board of Trustees voted in an anticipated raise in tuition, fees,
and subsistence for the next academic year, but students will have to wait
to discover whether tuition hikes will be applied for the next two or three
years.
Avery
County Teens Plead Guilty To Assault In Hazing Case
Attackers Say Assault Part Of Team Initiation
New
CEO named at Caterpillar
James W. Owens, a longtime Caterpillar executive, was named Wednesday to
replace retiring chairman and CEO Glen A. Barton at the world's largest maker
of earthmoving equipment.
USDA
Awards More Than $12 Million in Water Quality Grants
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced that more than $12 million
in grants have been awarded to 22 institutions to conduct research, education
and extension programs aimed at improving the quality of the Nation's water
resources.
Obituary:
Marie Cullins Ponder
worked at NCSU for 30 years
College still affordable in N.C.
Dec. 12, 2003
News & Observer
By Jane Stancill, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
Despite large tuition increases at public universities in the past five years, a college degree remains affordable in North Carolina relative to national standards, according to a new study.
As tuition has risen at University of North Carolina campuses, so has spending on financial aid for needy students. The legislature created a need-based grant fund several years ago, and campuses have set aside part of their own tuition increases to cover the cost for low-income students. At the same time, federal grants and loans have grown.
That means poorer students are getting more help than ever before in paying for college, and wealthier families are paying a larger share of educational costs.
The study, by the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority, analyzed three measures -- the state's college-going rate, the average student indebtedness and the net price of college in relation to family income and financial aid.
The net price data show that students from lower-income groups paid a smaller chunk of the total cost of their education in 2001-02 (after grants and loans) than they did in 1997-98. For example, students in the bottom income group paid 28 percent of their educational costs in 1997-98, compared to 24 percent in 2001-02.
Meanwhile, students in the wealthiest income group footed a higher percentage of their total bill after grants and loans, paying 53 percent of the price in 1997-98 and 57 percent four years later. The percent of the college price paid by the middle-income group remained stable at 49 percent during the four-year period.
The study also looked at the amount of money students borrow to finance college. In 2001-02, UNC system students had an average indebtedness of $15,048 over a four-year period. This level of debt would result in payments of about $150 a month for 10 years after graduation. Student loan debt in North Carolina was 11 percent to 14 percent lower than national averages in two recent surveys.
More North Carolinians are attending college, according to the data, with two-thirds of the 2000 high school graduates entering college within a year. North Carolina's college-going rate surpassed the national rate in the late 1990s and is the highest among the 12 most populous states.
However, the state has a long way to go when it comes to the percentage of all North Carolinians who have college degrees, UNC President Molly Broad said. There are too many people, especially in rural counties, who don't have high school diplomas.
Broad said the affordability study would be conducted every year to monitor the system's progress.
"Far and away, the most important priority of the university is extending affordable access," she said, "and we are doing that."
Broad broaches Triangle lab for public, private research
Dec. 12, 2003
News & Observer
By Jane Stancill, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
UNC President Molly Broad is in preliminary conversations with Duke University President Nan Keohane and others about the possibility of creating a Triangle lab where scientists from universities and industry would do research on biological agents and infectious diseases.
The discussions grew out of a recent report from the Research Triangle Regional Partnership and RTI International that identified eight growth industries for the region. Among them were pharmaceuticals, infectious diseases, agricultural biotechnology, computing and advanced medical care.
The Triangle could have a huge stake in the nation's homeland security funding for research related to bioterrorism and emerging or re-emerging diseases such as West Nile virus and SARS, Broad said.
In recent focus groups, scientists suggested the Triangle should have a large lab facility with sophisticated security to test products. No single university can take that on, Broad said this week in a conversation with reporters and editors at The News & Observer.
It would require commitment from industry, state policy-makers and funding at the national level, she said.
"That's the sort of big idea that I think could come from that," she said, "but these are tough things to pull off."
On other topics, Broad discussed out-of-control spending on college sports and the rancor over the college football Bowl Championship Series. The UNC president also said she got the message from North Carolinians opposed to admitting more out-of-state students to state universities.
Prosecutors Rest Case in Murder Trial
Dec. 12, 2003
The Pilot
By Megan Ward, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
Closing arguments are expected today in the trail of a man accused of raping and murdering a 77-year-old Lobelia woman in 2001
Terrence Elliott, 34, of Lobelia, could face the death penalty if the jury convicts him of murdering Alice Mae McLeod McCrimmon.
Jury selection, which was completed Tuesday, lasted more than a week. But it took Assistant District Attorney Warren McSweeney and District Attorney Garland Yates just two days to present all of their evidence.
Jurors heard testimony from 13 people — family, neighbors, investigators and forensic experts — before the state rested Thursday afternoon.
Defense attorneys Bruce Cunningham and Arthur Donadio did not present any evidence or call witnesses. They scrutinized the investigations by law-enforcement officers, the qualifications of the forensic scientists and DNA analysis.
Elliott, charged with first-degree murder, rape, burglary, larceny and possession of stolen goods, did not take the stand.
On Wednesday, jurors saw the bloodied evidence collected from the scene and viewed graphic photographs of the murder scene and the victim’s body.
McCrimmon’s grandson, Donald McCrimmon, was first to testify. On Feb. 9, 2001, Donald McCrimmon and the rest of his family hadn’t heard from McCrimmon for about two weeks.
“I got kind of worried,” Donald McCrimmon testified. “But she was 77, she was spunky. She went anywhere she wanted to go.”
Donald McCrimmon, his mother and his wife drove from Sanford to McCrimmon’s home shortly after midnight. His grandmother’s red Ford truck was not in the driveway and the screened door was locked, which that told him that his grandmother had locked it from inside. With the light from a flashlight, he saw a side window was broken and the back door was open.
He went inside and found his grandmother’s naked body on the bedroom floor.
The last time he was with his grandmother was sometime in January 2001, when he painted her trailer, he said.
McSweeney asked Donald McCrimmon where his grandmother kept her money.
“There was a bag of change in her bedroom,” he said. “A bag of change in the sweet potato box, she used little purple Crown Royal bags.”
Donald McCrimmon said he had seen a Crown Royal bag at his grandmother’s house the day he was there painting.
The bags came up again when 16-year-old Clifford McLaughlin testified.
McLaughlin had known Elliott for about six years and lived near McCrimmon on McKeithen Road, near Vass. McLaughlin said Elliott came to his house on Jan. 28 around 10 p.m., left and returned about midnight.
“He had a little purple bag,” McLaughlin said. “We came back in the (bed) room and he said ‘you want some money?’ and poured it on the bed.”
Rings and earrings were mixed with the coins, McLaughlin said. He testified that Elliott let him keep the pennies.
Jury Sees Photographs
Moore County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Jeffery Allen Sheffield, who led the investigation, showed the jury photographs taken at the crime scene — the broken window, a used condom and half-smoked cigarette found on the living room floor and a condom wrapper in the hallway leading to the bedroom.
“We then went into the master bedroom,” Sheffield said. “She was lying on the floor. Her head was at the foot of the bed. Her left leg was under her body.”
Sheffield showed the jury photographs of McCrimmon lying face up on the floor, and, after they had rolled her over, a tooth and change embedded in her back.
About 10 members of the McCrimmon family sat behind the jury. Some cried, looked away, or covered their faces when they caught glimpses of the 8 by 10 glossy color photographs passed between jurors.
Later, outside the courtroom, Marilyn McCrimmon, Alice McCrimmon’s cousin, said she did not recognize the woman in those photographs.
“It took my breath away,” she said. “She was disfigured. She looked more like Miss Alice Mae at the funeral.”
Sheffield used a diagram of McCrimmon’s mobile home to show where evidence was found. Wearing rubber gloves, he opened evidence envelopes and displayed each item — two used condoms; a silver Lifestyles condom wrapper; a flattened, half-smoked cigarette, which he said was a Basic Menthol; a blood-stained pink and white nightgown; and an electric blanket also stained with blood.
On Feb. 15, 2001, after Sheffield received the results of the DNA laboratory tests, he obtained warrants to arrest Elliott and search his home on Lobelia Road in Vass.
Sheffield did not say what the results of the DNA tests were.
Cunningham asked about Elliott’s behavior and appearance when Sheffield arrested him. Sheffield said Elliott offered no resistance. When Sheffield fingerprinted Elliot, he did not see any scrapes or bruises on his hands.
Other detectives testified that they seized two open packs of Basic Menthol 100s from a nightstand and coffee table in Elliott’s home.
Dr. John Butts, the state’s chief medical examiner, who examined McCrimmon’s body, said she died from strangulation. McCrimmon had a fractured jawbone and several bruises and scrapes on her face.
McCrimmon had been dead for days rather than hours, Butts said. Prosecutors said she was killed Jan. 28 — 12 days before her body was found — the same night McLaughlin and his cousin said they saw Elliott with the purple bag.
“Unless it was extremely refrigerated, 12 days would be a rather long estimate,” Butts said.
Earlier, Sheffield testified that it was very cold on Feb. 9, 2001, and that he wore his heavy jacket inside McCrimmon’s home.
“The kerosene heater was turned on, but was not operating,” Sheffield said.
DNA Evidence
On Thursday, the state called on forensic scientists who discussed the gathering and collection of DNA evidence.
Special Agent Jenny Elwell, who performs body fluid analysis for the State Bureau of Investigation, extracted DNA samples from evidence taken from the scene and from Elliott and McCrimmon.
Elwell testified that she found no sperm or semen in either of the condoms. She also found no trace of semen, sperm or blood in McCrimmon’s truck, or on a pair of men’s briefs and a tank top collected from the scene.
Elwell was successful in extracting DNA from the half-smoked cigarette and collected skin cells from one of the condoms.
Special Agent Christopher Parker, who works in forensic DNA analysis at the SBI lab in Raleigh, said the DNA found in the sample taken from the cigarette matched Elliott’s and not McCrimmon’s.
From a condom, Parker found that skin cells showed DNA from two people.
“The predominant donor matched the victim,” he said. The weaker sample was most likely Elliott’s, he said.
Parker sent his findings to an expert in population genetics and statistical genetics, Dr. Christopher Basten at North Carolina State University.
Basten calculated the likelihood that the second DNA profile was Elliott’s and not from an unknown person. With information from the SBI database, Basten calculated that the samples taken from the used condom were 4.8 trillion times more likely a combination of the victim’s and the defendant’s than the victim and someone else.
“I would say the evidence is very strong that it is the defendant’s and the victim’s as opposed to the victim and an unknown individual,” Basten said.
Michelle McGarrah, who was working at a Southern Pines housing authority in 2001, testified that she told investigators on Feb. 9, 2001, that she saw a Ford F-150 pickup parked in front of her office for about a week. The truck had been moved during that time and she saw a black man get out of the truck.
In February 2001, investigators showed McGarrah mugshots of six black men and she identified Elliott as the man she saw at the truck.
During her testimony, when the jury was not in the courtroom, McGarrah said she could not point to Elliott and say he was the same man she saw with the truck in 2001.
“That was two years ago,” she said.
Mistrial Motion Denied
Cunningham asked Judge James Webb to strike McGarrah’s testimony because prosecutors did not inform the defense that McGarrah was going to testify. Cunningham also said McSweeney knew before McGarrah took the stand that she would be unable to point at Elliott and saw he was the one she saw at the truck in 2001.
Webb denied Cunningham’s motion but allowed McGarrah to take the stand again in the presence of the jury and questioned by the defense.
Cunningham also made a motion for a mistrial, arguing that the defense was not given adequate time to prepare for a cross-examination of McGarrah. Webb denied the motion. He also asked Webb to dismiss the charges against Elliot because the evidence presented by the state did not support the charges.
Webb quickly denied each motion with the exception of the stolen goods charge. Investigators accused Elliott of stealing a television, microwave and radio from McCrimmon in addition to jewelry and an undetermined amount of money. Webb allowed only the jewelry and money accusations to remain.
Attorneys will meet with the judge this morning to discuss the charges before the jury arrives to hear final arguments.
Poplars could handle hog waste
Dec. 11, 2003
Wilson (NC) Daily Times; Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times; Rocky Mount Telegram
By Estes Thompson, Associated Press Writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
WHITAKERS -- After years of struggling with the dirty disposal problem of sludge from hog waste lagoons, researchers have come up with a possible green solution -- poplar trees that suck up the waste like soda straws.
If the procedure works well enough to be approved by state water quality officials, it could cut in half the cost of closing a waste lagoon, currently done with bulldozers and dump trunks.
"It is a simple method," said Frank Humenik, coordinator of the animal waste management program at N.C. State University.
Humenik has been working with Oregon researchers who have been experimenting the past few years with technology that relies on groves of fast-growing hybrid poplars to suck up waste.
Studies have found the trees can absorb nearly 3,000 gallons of effluent per acre per day, ridding the ground ammonia and nitrogen by safely metabolizing the compounds in their woody tissue.
Oregon State University water quality researcher Ron Minor said it could take 10 years before the trees clean the land well enough that it can be used again.
"Over time, the trees take up the nutrients, and it is natural purification," Humenik said. "With the trees, you have a harvestable product."
The current method approved by the state of North Carolina to clean up hog lagoons is complex. First, the liquid is drained from the top of the lagoon onto existing sprayfields of grass at the farm. Then the farmer pays to have the sludge scooped out and trucked away to be spread thinly on acres of fields.
"We don't like to haul that stuff around," Humenik said.
Humenik said the sludge usually isn't welcomed by neighbors of the fields. The cost and politics of cleanup may be the reason only 20 lagoons were closed last year in the state, he said.
There are 1,700 inactive lagoons in North Carolina waiting cleanup and 4,500 more lagoons in use. North Carolina ranks second in hog production at 9.6 million animals, behind Iowa at 15 million head.
National Pork Board figures show one animal produces between 8,000 pounds and 64,000 pounds of waste a year, depending on its development.
Cleaning out a typical lagoon could cost as much as $40,000 an acre, not counting the cost of land on which to spread the sludge. The sludge can't fertilize crops for human consumption.
Humenik said the typical lagoon cleanup using the poplars would cost between $15,000 and $20,000 for a lagoon that is two to three acres.
On a Nash County farm, liquid was drained from a hog lagoon, and the remaining sludge was mixed with dirt. Earlier this week, rows of 4-foot-tall poplar saplings were planted atop the old lagoon and researchers expected them to grow quickly.
"If it works, it would be a spectacular alternative to the traditional way of closing these things out," said Greg Sconyers, operations manager of The Hanor Co. hog farm where the test grove was planted.
Humenik said the process has yet to be approved by state regulators, but they are closely watching the experiment and have installed monitoring wells around the site to check for possible contamination. Because the lagoons are lined with clay, Humenik said he didn't expect sludge to leech into the groundwater.
"It looks like it's a better alternative to what we've got now," said Jerry Hardesty of the N.C. Pork Council, which helped fund the experiment. "We're interested in it because there are a lot of old lagoons that were put in in the '60s and '70s that were abandoned when the producers went out of business."
Trees used in the experiment were developed by Ecolotree of Iowa City, Iowa, but state foresters are being asked to develop a hybrid as well.
Ecolotree founder Louis Licht said poplars will grow in fuel-contaminated soil and clean it. "We use these things for cleaning up Superfund sites," Licht said.
The N.C. State program, financed with $59,000 in grants, is trying to develop a way to close lagoons while another university program is working to develop a way to process hog waste without lagoons.
NCSU Plans Pet Diagnostic Center
Dec. 11, 2003
WXII-12; NBC 17.com
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State Univeristy expects to open a diagnostic center for pets next year that officials say will be the first of its kind in this region.
The school's College of Veterinary Medicine plans to open a magnetic resonance imaging center.
The $2 million Iams Pet Imaging Center will be a 3,000 -square-foot facility.
MRI has been used for years with humans. Unlike a common X-ray, an MRI produces precise images of soft tissue. It can help diagnose cancer, spinal cord ailments and brain injuries such as strokes.
The MRI could be used to diagnose a dog's stomach cancer, a cat's seizures or a horse's lame leg, officials said.
The center should open in June.
Dec. 12, 2003
News & Observer
By DANE HUFFMAN, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
Growing up as the 11th child in a poor family in Shelby, David Thompson was fascinated by ACC basketball and by one player in particular -- Charlie Scott.
The graceful Scott was the first black player at the University of North Carolina, finishing in 1970.
As a boy, Thompson did all he could to hone his game, even wearing ankle weights to strengthen his legs. In high school at Shelby Crest, he wore the same No. 33 that Scott had worn at UNC.
But when he was ready to attend college, Thompson took a different path. UNC coach Dean Smith recruited Thompson earnestly and even spoke at a Crest sports banquet in an effort to sign Thompson. But N.C. State University convinced him that by joining the Wolfpack he could create his own identity and not be another Charlie Scott -- or anyone else.
Once in Raleigh, a new number was in order.
"I didn't want to wear No. 33 at State," Thompson said in an interview. "So I moved up a notch."
He moved up to No. 44, a number no one has worn at N.C. State since.
His leap was measured at 42 inches as a freshman and 44 inches as a sophomore. In games Thompson seemed to explode off the floor and glide above other players. Soon it was rumored you could leave a quarter on top of the backboard and Thompson could leap up, take the quarter and leave you change.
Thompson led State to the NCAA championship in 1974, and he remains a player many consider the best in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
His professional career was not as glorious. He had a spectacular start with the Denver Nuggets but his abuse of cocaine and alcohol sapped his marvelous talents. In 1984, he tore his knee in an incident at Studio 54 in New York City when a employee pushed him down some steps. Thompson was never the same player after that.
Now, Thompson is back in the news with his autobiography, "Skywalker" (Sports Publishing, $22.95). Thompson will sign the book Saturday afternoon at Barnes & Noble on Brier Creek Parkway in Raleigh. He'll also be in the Cary store on Jan. 10.
That Thompson would agree to write the book, in conjunction with writers Sean Stormes and Marshall Terrill, is something of a surprise. Ever polite and soft-spoken, Thompson has never been one to boast.
But Thompson said he thought the time was right to tell his story. In particular, he has reflected on his career as his 50th birthday -- July 13, 2004 -- approaches.
"There's been so much stuff written and said about me by others," said Thompson, who still lives in Charlotte, where he once worked in community relations for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. "I wanted to have a chance to tell my story the way it actually happened. Also, the main purpose was to talk about my recovery as a way to help others through my life story.
"I had the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I've been able to overcome adversity and turn a negative into a positive."
This season also marks 30 years since N.C. State's landmark championship that seized control of college basketball from UCLA.
"The book talks about N.C. State and a lot about my basketball career," said Thompson, who met his wife, Cathy, while he playing for the Wolfpack and has two daughters. "It's got a lot of historical significance. This is the the 30th anniversary of the national championship at N.C. State, and I wanted to put all that into the book. I thought the timing was great. Everything fell all into place."
His fondness for NCSU and for his teammates remains evident. He did not graduate with his class but did earn his sociology degree this past summer.
"I was so close all these years and never had the time to actually do it," Thompson said. "It would have been a shame for me to go to school all those years and not get a degree."
He said he had even talked to N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler about working for State as an assistant athletics director at some point but said, "We could never get anything worked out."
Thompson said he would be interested in working with Charlotte's new NBA team in some capacity. He'd also be interested in coaching.
For now, he does motivational talks, focusing on how he has remained drug and alcohol free since December 1988. Those talks center on how he has learned to tether his life to his Christian faith and his family.
"There's nothing more important than God and then your family," Thompson said. "But when I was playing ball, all my self-esteem and self-worth came from being a basketball player. ...
"Basketball was such a part of my life that that's how I looked at myself. When I no longer had basketball, my self-esteem was low, and that caused me to wallow in self-pity."
That led to the continuing problems with drugs and alcohol, which ended when he entered rehabilitation 15 years ago.
He says he has been clean and sober since and has often told groups about the highs, and lows, in his remarkable career.
Many fans in the state remember much about his legend, even the one about him being able to reach the top of a backboard and give change for a quarter.
Asked if that were really true, Thompson chuckled and then paused.
"I could take the quarter off," he said, "but I couldn't leave the change."
Groups Aim To Save Former Home Of Late Raleigh Author
Dec. 11, 2003
WRAL-TV
By Kelcey Carlson, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina State University fraternity is looking toward the future with plans for a new house, but some worry the building proposal ignores a big part of North Carolina's past.
Different groups are trying to work together to preserve the former Park Avenue home of Elizabeth Lawrence -- an innovative garden writer who died in 1985.
Concerns began to surface when FarmHouse fraternity was given the green light to build a new house and tear down the old one.
The fraternity has called the structure home since 1969, but said it no longer provides ideal living conditions.
"The house is for a single family home and it's being used for a fraternity house," said Matthew Moyer, FarmHouse building committee member.
The original plan called for demolishing the old home when the fraternity moves into its new one. If that happens, former city council member Benson Kirkman said Raleigh would lose a window to its past.
"Our hope is to move the house," he said.
In the early- to mid-1900s, pioneer garden author Elizabeth Lawrence called the structure home.
"She's the Jane Austin of garden writing," said Kate Torrey, UNC Press director. "She's maybe best known for her first book, 'A Southern Garden.'"
Lawrence was one of the first to talk and teach about gardening in a southern climate. Her inspiration came from the windows in her Raleigh home and the garden that grew beneath them.
A compromise was reached in November to protect the structure from demolition. Kirkman is hoping to raise money to move the house.
"You're probably talking a couple hundred thousand dollars," he said. "So often you have to reach crisis before something can be done."
Kirkman said Preservation North Carolina is trying to get involved, as well.
Pieces of Lawrence's historic garden are already preserved at N.C. State's arboretum. Lawrence was the first woman to earn a degree in landscape architecture at the North Carolina State College School of Design.
The fraternity hopes to move into its new house next fall.
Candler Granted Bond, But Must Remain In Jail
Dec. 12, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- An immigration judge has granted a $20,000 bond for former North Carolina State University diving coach John Candler.
The INS detained the England native last week, just one day after he resigned from his job because a woman notified the school of his 1966 child molestation conviction. He has been in the Johnston County jail since.
Candler has been appealing a deportation order since 1998. He will have to stay in jail while the government decides if it will appeal the bond ruling.
ASU Board Of Trustees Raise Tuition, Fees
Dec. 12, 2003
Mountain Times (Boone, NC)
By Miles Tager, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
The ASU Board of Trustees voted in an anticipated raise in tuition, fees, and subsistence for the next academic year, but students will have to wait to discover whether tuition hikes will be applied for the next two or three years.
Meeting by conference call Tuesday morning, the board approved in separate motions a tuition jump of $300 for at least the next two year, total fee increases of $44 for 2004-05, and subsistence increases - food and board - of $173.
Chair Robert Fox led discussion on the measures, the only agenda items addressed in an abbreviated agenda carried over from the scheduled meeting changed by the snowfall.
Vice-chancellor for Business Affairs Jane Helm reported that two separate committees - one for fees and the other for tuition - set down the recommendations after receiving guidelines from the president's office.
The tuition hike was set at the top recommended level of $300 per year.
Helm reported that other UNC schools, including Chapel Hill, N.C. State, and UNC-Charlotte, had set their tuition increases for three consecutive years, and asked the board "for the flexibility to let us follow suit."
Fees and subsistence would increase for the 2004-05 year only.
Six students sat on the fee committee, Helm said, and five faculty and three students on the tuition committee.
The breakdown for allocation of the additional revenues from tuition would be 24% for financial aid, 35% for faculty salaries and benefits, 20% for staff salaries and benefits, and 21% for academic and student support.
"We went the extra mile for scholarships," Helm said; above the recommended level of support.
The hikes would keep ASU in its current ranking among the state's campuses, currently 10th among fifteen in resident tuition, ninth in non-resident tuition, and the same for total tuition and fees.
A motion was made that would allow the decision on the two or three year time period for tuition to be deferred.
Student Government Association President Rachel Johnson said the association was taking a position "against the state" putting increases on the backs of students to counter shortfalls in Raleigh.
"Our class sizes are increasing and we feel like we are getting less for more," Johnson said.
Board Member and Boone attorney Jim Deal agreed but said "there is no way around it."
The board decided that the motion, if approved, would approve the distribution of funds for one year only.
The tuition motion passed with Johnson voting against.
Much discussion centered around the proposed $173 subsistence hike, which followed a more than $250 rise for the current 2003-04 academic year.
Deal felt this was "not appropriate" considering projected deficits in food service and housing never transpired and both showed better reserves than anticipated.
Helm and Vice-chancellor for Student Development Dr. Gregory Blimling both explained that the reserves anticipated future expenses that greatly outweighed them, with new facilities and major renovation projects on the books.
"We have a cascading effect with our old buildings," Blimling said, including East Hall and some of the Mountaineer Apartments that were in such poor condition they would have to be torn down.
Much revenue would be lost during the time between demolition and completion of new residence halls, Blimling said.
ASU anticipated $60 million in the next five years to address their aging residence halls, Blimling said.
But "do we have to do it this year," Deal asked, and repeated that he did not feel students should have to bear the added burden on top of the last subsistence increase instituted at the beginning of the fall term.
The $44 fee increase was approved unanimously in separate motion, and the subsistence increase passed with Deal and Johnson voting against.
In other news, Chairman Fox reported that the search for a new permanent chancellor was proceeding with interviews this week in Charlotte, and a top list of candidates coming to campus for review sometime soon.
Chancellor Harvey Durham reported that applications for the coming year had reached 7,000 as of November 30, with an average high school Grade Point Average of 3.7 and SAT score of 1123.
The search for a new provost had been delayed, Durham said, until selection of a new chancellor.
Commencement will be held 1:00 p.m. Saturday, December 13 at the Holmes Convocation Center, with speaker Phil Kirk, Chairman of N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry.
Eight hundred students will be graduating, Durham said.
Avery County Teens Plead Guilty To Assault In Hazing Case
Dec. 11, 2003
WRAL-TV; Asheville Citizen Times
By Amanda Lamb, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Three Avery County High School teenagers admitted in court Thursday that they assaulted 10 boys at a Raleigh basketball camp last summer. The victims were as young as 13 years old.
The attackers told the court the assault was part of an initiation to their team. It is a tradition victims' families say must end.
It is not often a judge feels compelled to comment from the bench. But Wake County District Court Judge Paul Gessner did.
"What happened here went way over and above and beyond, and should never have happened," Gessner said.
Beyond decency is how most people would describe what 17-year-old Tyler Boone did.
Boone pleaded guilty to 10 counts of hazing at North Carolina State University coach Herb Sendek's basketball camp in Raleigh in June.
According to the prosecutor, Boone and four other boys held the victims down and sodomized them with an object.
Boone's attorney said the behavior is a tradition.
"It's something he went through and everyone went through," defense attorney Alan Briones said. "It's a learned behavior. It doesn't make it any better, but it's certainly something I hoped the court would consider."
The parents of one victim spoke out in court.
"It breaks your heart, and then it makes you mad," his father said. "He came home a changed boy. He was very sullen and very quiet."
The parents said their son bled for eight weeks after the incident and that he will never get over the emotional scars.
Boone was sentenced to 42-months probation and community service. He will be expelled from school permanently.
Sendek's office said he had no comment on the charges except to say that the boys were not under his supervision when the hazing occurred.
Two other boys connected with the case -- both juveniles -- pleaded guilty in court Thursday to simple assault charges. The district attorney expects to charge two more boys, probably next week.
The victims' families hope this will send a strong message that this behavior will not be tolerated.
Dec. 11, 2003
Associated Press; News & Observer
By AP staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
PEORIA, Ill. -- James W. Owens, a longtime Caterpillar executive, was named Wednesday to replace retiring chairman and CEO Glen A. Barton at the world's largest maker of earthmoving equipment.
Owens, 57, was named vice chairman and will lead the company when Barton retires Jan. 31. Barton spent 43 years at Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar.
In August, Barton will turn 65, mandatory retirement age for Caterpillar officers. He retired early so the leadership transition corresponds with the heavy equipment maker's annual planning cycle.
Owens joined Caterpillar in 1972 as an economist, becoming chief financial officer in 1993 and group president in 1995. He earned a doctorate in economics from N.C. State University.
Researchers Manipulate Tiny, Floating Droplets On A Chip
Dec. 3, 2003
Science Daily (Sandy Hook, CT); Small Times; TechnologyReview.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Science Daily
In an innovative study, researchers at North Carolina State University have designed a way to control the movement of microscopic droplets of liquid freely floating across centimeter-sized chips packed with electrodes. The discovery allows the performance of new types of chemical experiments on the microscale.
The breakthrough came as the researchers - Dr. Orlin D. Velev, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and two NC State doctoral students, Brian Prevo and Ketan Bhatt - learned how to circumvent friction by suspending the droplets of water inside a fluorinated oil, and then using electrical voltages to allow the liquid to hover over the electrical circuits of the chip. Switching the chip's electrodes on and off - either manually or with the aid of a computer - lets researchers move the droplets across the oil surface to any location on the chip.
The chip also allows researchers to conduct experiments with mixed droplets, as liquids can be moved along different paths and then merged or encapsulated in oil or polymer droplets.
The discovery has wide-ranging scientific implications. Besides analyses and characterizations of chemical samples, the chip can serve as a tiny factory, Velev says, allowing researchers to mix droplets to test chemical reactions, for example, or add specific amounts of toxin to a cell to see how long it takes the cell to die. Velev is also eager to synthesize new particle materials or crystals inside liquids.
The research was published in the Dec. 4 edition of Nature.
"Moving droplets of liquid on solid surfaces as other researchers have done before us has a number of limitations," Velev said. Other research in moving droplets on solid surfaces was stunted by friction if particles or solids were moved along the channels or solid surface of a chip. "But the freely suspended droplets on this microfluidic chip never touch solid walls and thus can act as reactors for materials synthesis or precipitation," he said.
Velev's interest in microfluidic chips stems from his lab's work on growing self-assembling microwires by moving gold nanoparticles with alternating current in water, and his earlier work on using floating droplets as assembly sites for complex particles.
"Experiments and bioassays, or determinations of the presence or concentration of biological molecules, that we presently do with test tubes and beakers can now be done on the microscale. This device enlarges the scope and capabilities in the field of microfluidics, which is just a few years old," Velev said.
The chip - which was simple and inexpensive to make, Velev says, and is reusable - has received a provisional patent, with application in place for a full patent.
The research is funded by Velev's National Science Foundation Career Award and by an ARO-Stir grant.
USDA Awards More Than $12 Million in Water Quality Grants
Dec. 10, 2003
USDA.gov (Washington, DC)
By Alisa Harrison and Marti Asner
© Copyright 2003 USDA.gov
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2003--Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced that more than $12 million in grants have been awarded to 22 institutions to conduct research, education and extension programs aimed at improving the quality of the Nation's water resources.
"The Bush Administration is committed to improving water quality," said Veneman. "These grants will help control nutrient delivery from agricultural watersheds and educate consumers about safe drinking water practices."
In addition, the funding will focus on the impacts of bacteria and pharmaceuticals on water quality and developing improved tools for decision-making through economic and policy analyses.
"These grants will not only help us to better understand rural water quality issues, but they will also assist USDA in developing implementation guidelines for rural areas," said Mark Rey, agriculture undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment.
About $750,000 of the funds will be used to train Technical Service Providers (TSP) who assist farmers and ranchers on nutrient and pesticide management issues related to water quality. TSP's will help meet the growing demands on USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to provide technical service to support their conservation programs. The grants are administered by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)
The following is a list of those universities receiving an award:
Connecticut
University of Connecticut
$302,000
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
$250,000
Minnesota
University of Minnesota
$275,000
Texas
Texas
A&M University
$275,000
Maine
University of Maine
$296,000
Florida
University of Florida
$275,000
Oregon
Oregon State University
$193,000
Tennessee
University of Tennessee
$290,000
Ohio
Ohio State University
$99,500
Alabama
Auburn University(2 awards)
$702,000
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State University
$163,216
Alaska
Institute of Northern Engineering
$598,000
Mississippi
Mississippi State University
$596,000
Nevada
University of Nevada, Reno
$365,000
Maryland
University of Maryland
$530,000
North Carolina
North Carolina State University
$550,000
Arkansas
University of Arkansas
$550,000
Georgia
University of Georgia
$550,000
Kansas
Kansas State University
$550,000
Nebraska
University of Nebraska
$335,000
Colorado
Colorado State University
$450,000
Michigan
Michigan State University
$485,000
For more information about the Water Quality Program, visit www.usawaterquality.org. Additional details are available from Michael O'Neill, National Program Leader for Water Quality, at moneill@csrees.usda.gov or 202-205-5952. For more information about conservation and Technical Service Providers, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov
Obituary: Marie Cullins Ponder
Dec. 12, 2003
News & Observer
BORN IN ROBESON COUNTY IN 1927, Marie moved to Raleigh to attend Meredith and work at NCSU for 30 years. In 1979, she retired to Madison County.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Zeno Ponder.
She is survived by her daughter, Debbie Snow, 3601A Burris Street, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582.
She was a beloved sister, aunt, as well as grandmother to Jennifer Snow Thompson, Longs, SC. She was a devout Christian, active Baptist and proud Democrat.
There will be a private memorial service for family at the Kinlaw family farm in Robeson County.
Memorials may be made to Lower Cape Fear Hospice, 725-A Wellington, Ave., Wilmington, NC 28401 in her honor.