Articles

Articles

Jan 27, 2005 ·

UNC-CH approves tuition increase

CHAPEL HILL – UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees members voted Thursday to increase tuition for in-state students by $200 and out-of-state students by $950. The approved increase is a lesser amount than what trustees members had considered the previous day.

UNC-CH’s request will join others within the UNC system for a possible vote on tuition increases next month during the Board of Governors meeting on Feb. 11. Board of Governors Chair Brad Wilson has been outspoken in his belief that, after several consecutive years of tuition increases, UNC system students deserve a break.

Jan 26, 2005 ·

Inquiry #19: Tuition Waivers at the N.C. School of Science and Math

Since the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) opened in 1980, the school has attracted some of the state’s top high school students to come to Durham study at the residential high school. At the school, students take college-level courses, and they have performed well on SAT tests and in national competitions and been admitted to some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. In recognition of the school’s generally high level of academic achievement, in 2003 the General Assembly instituted a policy of waiving tuition charges for NCSSM graduates who enroll in any University of North Carolina institution. That policy, however, cannot be justified by any of the arguments advanced in its favor. It produces no public benefit, costs the state money, and unfairly discriminates in favor of NCSSM graduates.

Jan 21, 2005 ·

Despite the landmark Supreme Court ruling, race preferences continue to roil

RALEIGH — In June 2003, the Supreme Court heard two cases concerning racial preferences in Michigan higher education, Gratz v. Bollinger (on preferences used by the University of Michigan) and Grutter v. Bollinger (on preferences used by its Law School). The Court ruling against outright racial preferences in admissions while ruling in favor of considering race in admissions so long as it is used as only one of “pertinent elements of diversity.”

Jan 14, 2005 ·

Wrestling with Title IX

For more than 30 years, Title IX of the Education Amendments has been heralded as the reason for the increase in the number of women’s athletic programs across the country and providing opportunities for women like Mia Hamm to compete on the college level.

While Title IX has provided more opportunities in athletics for women, it has done the opposite for men. A federal guideline intended to prevent discrimination among the sexes in education has done just the opposite in college athletics. Title IX requirements have been used to cut athletic opportunities for men, while at the same time increasing opportunities for women.

Jan 10, 2005 ·

In defense of mockery as criticism

Democritus, the “laughing philosopher,” was described by Laurence Sterne as “trying all the powers of irony and laughter to reclaim” the town of Abdera, “the vilest and most profligate town of Thrace.” Meanwhile, some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members complain about the mockery of the Pope Center.

Dec 31, 2004 ·

Ten who failed to make a difference in 2004

End-of-the-year columns are usually replete with the old chestnut of honoring people who “made a difference” the expiring year. Heck with that. Let’s recall instead those who memorably inserted themselves into things to no avail. This column is dedicated to people everywhere who now seek comfort in the thought that but for them, their embarrassing setback would have really been a disaster.

Dec 22, 2004 ·

The haunting fear that someone, somewhere in the classroom, may be conservative

Remember H.L. Mencken’s famous jest about Puritanism? “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere is happy.” Apply it to F.H. Buckley’s observations that “The modern Puritan devotes himself to political rather than religious duties” and that this Puritanism “is particularly pronounced in the academy.” Does that not explain this spectacle of self-righteous UNC professors carping about mockery and fearing political infidels in the classroom?

Dec 21, 2004 ·

Conservatives Make Valid Points

In the December 4 issue of The Washington Post, a column by Ellen Goodman entitled “Those Poor College Conservatives” claims conservative protests about the makeup of university faculty lacks substance. Goodman expresses her bafflement by exclaiming, “The only ones who take the universities as seriously as universities take themselves are activists on the right.”

Dec 20, 2004 ·

A dickens of a protest at UNC

What if the petty, snarling villain in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol were Bob Cratchit? What if Ebenezer Scrooge had tried from the beginning to help the hobbling young Tim, but Bob threw his money back in his face? What if the other Cratchits sat mute in fear of Bob as he said, “Bah! You don’t believe as I do, Mr. Scrooge! Sometimes you criticize my work! To me your money is tainted!”

Here’s what: You would have the situation now playing out at UNC-Chapel Hill.