A Catawba County legislator worked a deal Thursday that, if approved by the entire House, would provide an additional $600,000 in recurring funds for the North Carolina Engineering Technology Center. This is a collaborative project between the UNC system and community colleges in the Hickory area, designed to attract new companies to the area by providing technical education.
It seems fruitless on this day to comment on the “inside baseball” of the state budget process or the academic climate within higher education. There are other days and other weeks for those serious conversations.
This week, all such policy discussions take a back seat to the briefness of life.
Today I turned my thoughts to my disbelief and anger over what occurred Monday at Virginia Tech. We were all shocked as news began to circulate that a gunman – in two separate shootings – killed 32 students and professors and then later himself, leaving 33 dead in all. The gunman was identified Tuesday as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student originally from South Korea. Many at Virginia Tech described Cho as a “loner.”
It seems fruitless on this day to comment on the “inside baseball” of the state budget process or the academic climate within higher education. There are other days and other weeks for those serious conversations.
This week, all such policy discussions take a back seat to the briefness of life.
Today I turned my thoughts to my disbelief and anger over what occurred Monday at Virginia Tech. We were all shocked as news began to circulate that a gunman – in two separate shootings – killed 32 students and professors and then later himself, leaving 33 dead in all. The gunman was identified Tuesday as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student originally from South Korea. Many at Virginia Tech described Cho as a “loner.”
RALEIGH – Members of the joint House-Senate appropriations committee Thursday proposed a 5 percent increase in community college tuition to help fund additional programs within the system.
If approved, the rate increase would be the first since 2005. It would provide $6 million of additional revenue.
The tuition hike was included in the spending report of the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. It includes what areas the joint committee intends to fund and how much. Now, the committee will split to work on appropriation matters in their separate chambers. House members are expected to release a budget document by May.
Just as the state House did last week, state Senate members elected three new members to the UNC Board of Governors and re-elected five others during voting held Thursday.
The Senate elected Frank A. Daniels Jr., Ann Goodnight and Clarice Cato Goodyear as new members to the BOG. They join Ronald Leatherwood, Purnell Swett, and Marshall Pitts, Jr., who were newly elected earlier this week by the state House.
Daniels, Goodnight, and Goodyear were joined in election by R. Steve Bowden, John W. Davis, III, Peter Hans, Adelaide Daniels Key, and Estelle Sanders, all of whom were re-elected by the Senate.
Last week, a study commission examining the feasibility of bringing North Carolina Wesleyan College into the University of North Carolina system released its findings and recommendations.
The study commission was created through legislation backed by legislators from eastern North Carolina last year. Political and business leaders from Rocky Mount had hoped that adding North Carolina Wesleyan into the UNC system would give a large boost to the region’s economy, described by one supporter as like a “Third World country.” While acknowledging the economic concerns, the report made it clear that UNC had to look at what was best for the entire state not just that particular region.
State House members this week named three new members to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors (BOG), while Senate members approved a slate of candidates that fell short of the required number of candidates.
Ronald Leatherwood, Purnell Swett, and Marshall B Pitts, Jr., were appointed by House members to serve a four-year term on the BOG during a vote Tuesday. Also during the vote, House members re-elected current board members Charles Hayes, G. Leroy Lail, Priscilla Taylor, Brent Barringer, and Gladys Ashe Robinson.
RALEIGH – Members of a House subcommittee Thursday challenged the merits of two UNC items at the top of the university system’s legislative wish list.
Primarily, legislators questioned whether a new dental school at East Carolina University is a sound investment and whether a large expenditure for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina North project would crowd out funding for other programs statewide.
A feasibility report released this week argued against making North Carolina Wesleyan part of the University of North Carolina system.
The report was issued by a legislative study commission and was headed by James Leutze, former chancellor of UNC-Wilmington. It said the operating and construction costs needed to bring the school up to UNC standards were a major reason for the recommendation. In all, roughly $207 million would be needed in operational and capital costs to bring the institution on a par with some of the comparable institutions in the system, such as Elizabeth City State and UNC-Asheville, the report said.
RALEIGH – Bills that would provide full funding for all University of North Carolina budget requests, create a ROPE Scholars program, and alter tax deductions for contributions to 529 plans were among the bills introduced in the State Senate Wednesday.
The introductions came during a busy day in the General Assembly that marked the deadline for bills in the State Senate to be filed with the Senate Principal Clerk’s office. The House has a similar deadline of April 18 for public bills and May 9 for appropriation bills.