Articles

Nov 9, 2006 · Shannon Blosser

UNCG, A&T Eye Nano Program

GREENSBORO — UNC-Greensboro and North Carolina A&T officials recently submitted a request to the University of North Carolina general administration to operate a school of nanotechnology and nanoengineering.

If approved by the Board of Governors, students would be enrolled starting in the fall 2008. The program would mark the second time the two schools together offered a degree program. The schools already offer a combined master’s degree in social work.

School officials have requested a total of $65 million, including funding for new buildings and other operational costs, from UNC in the 2007-2010 budget for the program. Should the Board of Governors approve the program, its budget would still require approval by the General Assembly.

Nanotechnology is focused on microscopic research and development concepts.

Nov 9, 2006 · Lowell Gallaway

The Supreme Court and the Inflation of Educational Credentials

In the mid-nineteenth century, the French economist Frederic Bastiat distinguished between good and bad economists by focusing on whether they thought through the long-run consequences of their arguments. According to Bastiat, a good economist was not blinded by the possible short-run gains to be attained by pursuing a certain course of action, but asked the question, “What will be the long-run consequences of doing that?” Bastiat was saying that the good economist worries about what we today call unintended consequences, whereas the bad economist considers only the immediate and visible consequences.

While Bastiat’s point was couched in terms of economists, his analysis could be applied just as well to anyone in position to make public policy decisions, including judges who can make law through their decisions in cases. (Judges often say that they are simply “interpreting” the law when they’re actually creating it.) A classic case of this phenomenon was the Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Company (401 U.S. 424).

Nov 3, 2006 · Martin Center Staff

Higher Education Notebook

Increasing faculty salaries was the second-highest budget priority out of 11 presented to the Board of Governors’ Committee on Budget and Finance October 12. The administration plans to seek funds from the 2007 legislature to boost faculty salaries, on average, to the 80th percentile of their peers. This would mean adding $43.9 million in 2007-08 and the same amount for 2008-09. The $87.8 total would be in addition to 4 per cent merit-based increases, which will add up to $136 million for the two-year period, plus a proposed $2 million for distinguished professorships.

These numbers come from a “draft for discussion purposes only” list of priorities presented at the meeting and could change. The top priority is need-based financial aid, with a total proposed request for such aid $53.6 million. Other high priorities include $1.75 million for the “Academic Summer Bridge” program for students not ready to enter as freshmen, funds for University of North Carolina Online ($10 million over two years), and a variety of research projects totaling $59 million for 2007-8 and $29.6 million for 2008-09.

Nov 2, 2006 · Robert Paquette

The Alexander Hamilton Center stirs hopes – and fears

On October 13, the institution where I teach, Hamilton College, announced that an alumnus had committed $3.6 million to support the creation of the Alexander Hamilton Center for the Study of Western Civilization. The charter of the new Center clearly sets forth its reason for existence: “The reasoned study of Western civilization, its distinctive achievements as well as its distinctive failures, will further the search for truth and provide the ethical basis necessary for civilized life.” In the past, most colleges required a core curriculum that provided students with a proper grounding in Western civilization. But over the last forty years or so, a cafeteria-style model of education, touted at Brown University and other prestigious universities, in which students now enjoy the freedom to pursue their own tastes by choosing from an ever expanding menu of exotic entrées has replaced a required, coherent set of courses that privileges Western civilization.

Oct 31, 2006 · Shannon Blosser

Universities Plan Disaster Response

CHAPEL HILL — A program administered by Duke, North Carolina State, and UNC-Chapel Hill universities will establish off-campus sites to improve response to disasters in eastern and western North Carolina.

The Renaissance Computing Institute will open offices next year in Asheville, in conjunction with UNC-Asheville, and in Greenville, which will be affiliated with East Carolina University. The institute will fund the sites for three years.

Oct 26, 2006 · Will Fitzhugh

Windows on College Readiness

The Bridgespan Group, working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has just released a report called “Reclaiming the American Dream.” The study was intended to find out how to get more U.S. high school students prepared for and through college.

Much of the report is about getting kids to go to college, and it finds that if there is enough money provided, and if parents, peers, counselors and teachers say going to college is important, more high school students are likely to go.

The major weakness of the report, in my view, are its suggestions for the kind of high school work that will help students to do college work and to graduate.

Oct 24, 2006 · Martin Center Staff

Jane S. Shaw Appointed New Executive Vice President

RALEIGH – Jane S. Shaw has been appointed executive vice president of the J.W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the nation. The center is named for the late John William Pope, who was a trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Shaw comes to the Pope Center from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana, where she was a senior fellow and director of outreach for over twenty years. PERC is a nonprofit institute that applies economics to understanding and solving environmental problems. Before joining PERC, Shaw was a journalist. She moved to Montana from New York City, where she was an associate economics editor for Business Week. Shaw has a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.

Shaw is perhaps best known for her writing about the environment. With Michael Sanera she coauthored Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment (Regnery, 1999). This book points out the exaggeration and pessimism typical of middle-school and high school textbooks and offers more balanced discussions of environmental issues from acid rain to global warming. She also edited a series of young people’s books on environmental topics published by Greenhaven Press, and coedited a book on land use, A Guide to Smart Growth (2000).

Oct 23, 2006 · Shannon Blosser

App State Gets Wine-Study Grant

BOONE — Two Appalachian State University professors recently received a grant from a joint program between the United States and the European Union to create a degree track in wine science. Four institutions will be involved in the program.

The grant program is a venture between the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the European Union’s Directorate General for Education and Culture. It attempts to create dual degree programs among universities in the United States and Europe.

Grant Holder and Lucian Georgescu of Appalachian State were awarded a $65,000 grant from the European Union-United States Atlantic Program. Holder and Georgescu are professors in Appalachian State’s viticulture and enology program. Once the program is fully implemented it would create transatlantic degrees and dual recognition of degrees and credits. There also could be exchanges among students and professors.

Oct 23, 2006 · Shannon Blosser

Miami officials miss opportunity to set an example

In the aftermath of the Oct. 14 brawl between Florida International and the University of Miami, Miami President Donna Shalala has said all the right things. She’s done all the wrong things when it comes to punishing the players involved.

Shalala issued essentially 12 slaps on the wrists – or vacations – to the players who participated in the third-quarter fight. Only one player, Anthony Reddick was suspended indefinitely. Miami’s punishment standards are like a parent sending a child to their room, which is fully equipped with a television, Xbox, computer and cell phone. Sure, “punishments” have been issued, but the players involved will play again this season.

Oct 19, 2006 · Tom Burkard

Overselling Higher Education, British Style

Prime Minister Tony Blair clearly believes in education. When he took office in 1997, he announced his priorities: Education, education, education.

He believes in education so strongly that he has set a target of inducing 50 percent of our school leavers (graduates) to go to university. There is, of course, something a bit fishy about this: why not 48 percent, or 61 percent? If there was any rational basis for deciding on this figure, we have not been told.

The trouble is that the Blair government—which has almost doubled public spending since he took office—cannot possibly afford to pay for all this. Until recently, students were entitled to free tuition, and grants to pay for their living expenses. In terms of public spending, this was affordable when only 7 percent of our school leavers went on to university.