Aug 30, 2006 ·

NCSU Manager Fired after Audit

RALEIGH — A project manager at North Carolina State University was fired after he received compensation from contracts that he was responsible for administering, according to a report released Monday by the Office of the State Auditor.

The project manager, who was unnamed in the auditor’s report, was also involved in submitting a bid by a company he managed on the side, interacting with other companies that submitted bids to NCSU, selling equipment to those companies from his own organization, all of which are violations of state law, according to the audit. According to the state General Statutes, no employee may receive a direct benefit from a contract in which the employee is responsible for the administration of the contract.

The case has been sent to the 10th Prosecutorial District for review and possible criminal charges. In his response to the audit’s findings, Chancellor James Oblinger said the project manager was fired in May.

Aug 28, 2006 ·

Workforce Training Doubles in Year

CHAPEL HILL — Workforce training performed at community colleges grew at a rate of almost 100 percent in the past year, according to officials from the community college system.

From July 2005 to June 2006, community colleges trained 23,799 workers through its New and Expanding Industry Training program, Dr. Larry Keen, vice president for economic and workforce development, told members of the State Board of Community Colleges at a recent meeting. That is up from 12,398 during a similar period in 2005 and 10,117 in 2004.

Aug 24, 2006 ·

The Student Fee System Sets a Bad Example

The new college school year has begun and the many student groups either have held or soon will hold their initial meetings. There is nothing objectionable about students with like interests getting together to pursue them, any more than for residents of a subdivision who like playing bridge, for example, to get together for a few hands. Unfortunately, student groups don’t rely entirely on money that comes from willing participants and there is something objectionable about that.

At each of the institutions of the UNC system, students are assessed, in addition to their payments for tuition, mandatory “student activity fees.” Some of the money thus collected goes toward the expense of running the student union, student TV and radio stations and similar services that are available to all and would be difficult to charge for on an individual basis. The rest of the money is distributed by the school’s student congress to various campus groups that have requested funding.

Aug 17, 2006 ·

The Intellectual Monoculture of Higher Education

“It just won’t do to have an all-white university,” Harvard’s president Derek Bok said several years ago, attempting to justify the policy of favoring non-white applicants. The rallying cry for “diversity” proponents has long been that our institutions should “look like America” – that is, to mirror the composition of society with regard to racial, ethnic, and other classifications of individuals. Taking them at their word, what about diversity of philosophy? What about intellectual diversity?

In education, you would think that diversity of ideas would be at least as, if not more important than skin color or sexual preferences. But when it has been pointed out that college faculties tend to be very homogeneous when it comes to their beliefs on socio-economic questions, the response from the higher education establishment has mostly been that it’s a threat to academic freedom even to discuss the matter. No need for “all colors of the rainbow” when it comes to points of view on the proper relationship between state and society. Many academic departments are intellectual monocultures, with hiring preferences by those in authority filtering out any new professors whose opinions are much different from the norm. They think that is perfectly fine.

Aug 10, 2006 ·

Bowles makes cuts to streamline UNC administration

CHAPEL HILL – When Erskine Bowles, the business executive who had served as President Clinton’s chief of staff, took over the UNC system in January, he proposed a visionary agenda that would dictate his activities. Among the top priorities was running the organization more effectively and through the prism of his business experiences.

In the past week, we’ve seen some of the results of that agenda. Bowles announced last week that he plans to cut 10 percent, or $1.3 million, from the UNC General Administration budget. The move would eliminate 15.5 positions, half of which are currently filled, including four vice presidents and six associate vice presidents. However, when taking into account three new positions created by Bowles earlier this year, the net reduction of the cut is 12.5 positions.

Higher education is very high in labor cost and approximately 80 percent of the UNC General Administration budget in the past has gone towards personnel.

Aug 3, 2006 ·

A New Academic Field – “Whiteness Studies”

For several decades now, American colleges and universities have been expanding their academic offerings to include courses in different species of identity politics: Women’s Studies, Black (now African-American) Studies, Latino Studies, Queer Studies and more. Whereas traditional academic fields were rooted in some distinct body of knowledge such as chemistry, mathematics, or economics, these new fields are not about transmitting knowledge so much as they’re about transmitting the edgy and often intellectually shaky attitudes of the professors. Women’s Studies, for example, is mostly about trying to inculcate a sense of grievance in young, impressionable women and that is accomplished with the use of some disreputable arguments about the supposedly discriminatory nature of our economic system.

Aug 1, 2006 ·

Higher ed benefits from budget surplus

CHAPEL HILL — Higher-education institutions in North Carolina received a significant increase in funding this year as legislators approved adjustments to the fiscal 2007 budget. Gov. Mike Easley called it one of the best education budgets he has seen.

The budget adjustments were approved a few days after the start of the fiscal year and signed into law July 10. UNC’s budget was increased by $128 million to take its total appropriation to $2.2 billion. Community colleges received a funding increase of $64 million to take their total budget to more than $831 million.

The increase in education spending, when including the Department of Public Instruction, was $1.4 billion. Increases in education spending would help economic development efforts in the state, Easley said.

Jul 27, 2006 ·

An Essential Book on Education

Does education matter? That is the title of an absolutely essential book by Professor Alison Wolf.

Yes, of course education matters. The author, who holds the Sir Roy Griffiths professorship of public sector management at King’s College, London, is not questioning whether education is good at all. Rather, she questions whether governmental efforts to expand “access” to higher education and public training programs are justified. The book’s subtitle – myths about education and economic growth – suggests that her answer is in the negative. It certainly is. In my view, Professor Wolf has given us one of the most useful books on education policy in many years because she quietly and carefully demolishes the conventional wisdom that it is imperative for government to “invest” more in higher education. After reading the book, I believe that most people will agree that the best we can do is to provide a solid education in each child’s early years and forget about trying to manage higher education and workforce training.

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NCAA should leave academic requirements to schools

It must be getting close to college football season, because my mind keeps wondering to all things college football, the NCAA, and the Fiesta Bowl.

Yet, when I think of the NCAA today there are more important things that come to mind besides if West Virginia University have a shot a national championship. With recent actions to declare some high schools as ineligible to receive accreditation from the NCAA because of weak academics, making it harder for their students to participate in college sports, we are left scratching our heads. Where do concerns about academic quality fit into the realm of the NCAA?

Jul 25, 2006 ·

Does Education Matter?

Does education matter? Alison Wolf addresses the question in her new book, “Does Education Matter: Myths about Education and Economic Growth.” The author, who holds the Sir Roy Griffiths professorship…