Apr 13, 2006 ·

Appalachian State Moves Back Toward First Amendment

It’s not every day that we find something within the University of North Carolina system to applaud. A recent development at Appalachian State University gives reason for us to take notice and also hope that other schools in North Carolina follow suit.

Just a few short months since the Pope Center and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released its report on “The State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System,” Appalachian State has eliminated one of its policies that was heavily criticized by the study. After reading the study, Paul Funderbunk, a graduate student and president of Appalachian State’s ACLU chapter, contacted school officials to ask that they change their policies inhibiting free speech.

Administrators saw the good sense in Funderburk’s position and repealed the school’s “harassment” policy on March 22.

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Bowles innagurated as president

GREENSBORO – Erskine Bowles was inaugurated Wednesday as the 16th president of the University of North Carolina. His official swearing-in was held at UNC-Greensboro, four months after he took the job on Jan. 1.

The festivities began with a faculty procession down Spring Garden Street led by the N.C. A&T State University marching band. Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. administered the oath of office, and Crandall Bowles held a family Bible for her husband. About 1,500 people filled Aycock Auditorium to hear the former U.S. Senate candidate outline his plan for the 16-campus system.

Apr 6, 2006 ·

What should we do about college accreditation?

College accreditation is a little-understood aspect of our system of higher education. Most people don’t know how it operates, but believe that accreditation is a guarantee of reasonably good educational quality.

Sadly, that is far from the truth. A college or university can be accredited and yet offer pathetically weak academic programs. A recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor tears into the accreditation system with surprising frankness.

In “The Need for Accreditation Reform,” Robert C. Dickeson begins by explaining that “The standards for accreditation…are based on an institution’s self-study of the extent to which the institution feels it has met its own purposes.” Since college and university mission statements are never couched in precise language about educational results, that means that accrediting bodies don’t focus on questions pertaining to the central point of college life (what do students learn?) but rather on peripheral matters.

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Commission publishes

The Commission on the Future of Higher Education reconvened today in Indianapolis hosting a two-day meeting. It is the fourth such meeting since Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings organized the group to examine higher education issues in America today. This week’s meeting focuses on affordability and accreditation.

As a prelude to various meetings, the Commission has released several “Issue Papers” that discuss different topics that have come before the board. It is believed that the “Issue Papers” will help the Commission in their work and ultimate policy recommendation, which could come later this year.

Mar 31, 2006 ·

CCs want more money

RALEIGH — N.C. Community College System officials are requesting more than $141 million in non-recurring spending from the General Assembly, including more than $31 million to accommodate increased enrollment.

System officials also are asking for increased funding for technology enhancements, economic development, salaries, and system-office needs. Legislators will return to Raleigh on May 9 to adjust the state budget and to deal with other issues.

Mar 30, 2006 ·

Questionable Need for New ECU Dental School

For the past year, leaders at East Carolina University have been promoting the idea that North Carolina needs second dental school, one that would be housed on the school’s campus. They have been able to rally the support of several legislators in the General Assembly, including Senate leader Marc Basnight and embattled Speaker of the House Jim Black. It is anticipated that a proposal for a new dental school will be discussed in the General Assembly’s upcoming short session.

Advocates of the plan say that there is a need for more dentists in certain areas of North Carolina, especially eastern North Carolina, and that a new school would help to alleviate that need.

Mar 23, 2006 ·

Arizona Study Recommends Student-Grant System of Higher Education Funding

On March 14, the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona think tank that favors market-based solutions to public policy issues, released a study that education leaders and policy makers in North Carolina should read and consider. Entitled “Cash for College: Bringing Free-Market Reform to Higher Education,” (available here) the paper argues that Arizona’s higher education system would benefit from the adoption of a new policy that would grant higher education money directly to students rather than appropriating funds to public colleges and universities.

The author of the study, Dr. Vicki Murray, makes a strong case that “Giving grants directly to students would expand their educational options and would help make the delivery of higher education in Arizona more efficient.” Undoubtedly, those are goals worth pursuing.

Mar 16, 2006 ·

Should the American Bar Association accredit law schools?

On March 8, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) issued a public statement calling on the U.S. Department of Education to oppose renewal of recognition of the American Bar Association (ABA) as the accrediting body for legal education. What is at stake is this: only ABA-accredited schools can currently accept federal student aid money. A law school that doesn’t obtain or loses ABA accreditation can continue to operate – and some do – but they are restricted to students who don’t depend on federal grants and loans to help pay for their expenses.

Obviously, the law as it now stands gives the ABA enormous influence over law schools. Since many of them would have a much smaller student body if they lost the students who need federal aid, they are as obedient as trained poodles to the whims of the ABA’s accrediting council. But so what?

The NAS press release explains why they oppose continuation of the ABA as the gatekeeper for access to federal dollars. Recently, the ABA has proposed new accrediting standards that would compel law schools to adopt “diversity” policies having nothing to do with educational excellence and which would sink law schools further into the morass of social engineering. “Unless the ABA eliminates all requirements of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity from its accrediting standards,” continuing to give it power to declare law schools acceptable or not is, the NAS argues, “inappropriate.”

Mar 9, 2006 ·

Campus events should promote debate, not anger

On the afternoon of Friday, March 3, an act of terrorism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill left the university community in disbelief. Why would a former student would ram an SUV into a group of students?

Mohammad Reza Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian native who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill last December, rented a Jeep Cherokee Laredo and launched his attack on a student assembly area known as “The Pit.” Nine people were injured in Taheri-azar’s rampage. He appeared in Orange County District Court on Monday where he was arraigned on 18 charges, including nine counts of attempted murder.

Given that Chapel Hill is a university that prides itself on its welcoming and inclusive environment for students, the question is why Taheri-azar would attempt to kill some of his former classmates. The Associated Press reported that Taheri-azar “allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims.” He also told a 911 dispatcher that “the reason is to punish the government of the United States for their actions around the world.” Comments he made to police detectives and court officials indicate that Taheri-azar thought he would become a hero in the radical Islam community for injuring and attempting to kill college students.