UNC discusses safety at policy meeting
CHAPEL HILL – University of North Carolina officials began working on ways to improve campus security weeks before Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech and then himself on April 16.
Originally, UNC officials were responding to incidents at UNC-Greensboro, where a student was shot in a dorm, and at East Carolina, and Winston-Salem State University. Officials were looking at what was needed to improve campus safety. Those meetings involved President Erskine Bowles, chancellors, and campus police chiefs across the system.
Now, in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, those discussions now include the Board of Governors (BOG).
Paying the Profs – How Much is Enough?
Is the University of North Carolina system experiencing a “brain drain” because of inadequate faculty compensation?
The UNC administration seems to think so. In 2006, the UNC Board of Governors approved a plan proposed by UNC President Erskine Bowles to raise UNC faculty pay to the 80th percentile among peer institutions. (Why the 80th percentile and not 75th or 85th or some other figure was not made clear.) This plan would also provide merit-based pay increases of four percent per year and $2 million to match private funds for distinguished professorships. To pay for all of that, Bowles has asked the legislature for an additional $87.8 million in fiscal years 2008-09.
“Western 2 Step” Aims at Smoothing Community College Transfers
RALEIGH – A new partnership between Western Carolina University and the North Carolina Community College System intends to help students transfer more seamlessly between the two systems and reduce the amount of time needed to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
Pope Center Releases Report on UNC Faculty Compensation
Raleigh — University of North Carolina faculty compensation compares favorably with compensation at peer institutions around the country, says a new report by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
Using data from the AAUP (American Association of University Professors), Jon Sanders compared average faculty compensation (salaries plus benefits), adjusted for living costs, with compensation at peer universities around the country. He compared UNC campuses with institutions in the same Carnegie classification (a widely-used way of grouping higher education institutions).
Study on faculty salary to be released
A new study comparing faculty compensation in the University of North Carolina system with peer institutions around the country will be released on Wednesday, May 9, at 11:00 a.m. at a press conference in the Legislative Press Room.
The study is published by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and written by Jon Sanders, a policy analyst and research editor with the John Locke Foundation. Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-District 26) will host the press conference.
A mini scandal amid a maxi push for federal control
It’s happening beneath the radar of most media and the public, but it is a major conflict, nonetheless. The prize that is being fought over is accreditation – who decides which schools are “good enough” so that their students can receive federal financial aid (such as Pell grants).
Nominally, eight regional associations accredit most of the nation’s undergraduate school (they divide up the country like a cartel, says George Leef, and have little competition). But dissatisfaction with these organizations is strong, especially from Department of Education secretary Margaret Spellings. She is trying to persuade the accreditors to measure student learning, rather than tally inputs such as the number of books in the library.
Should students all be “college-ready”?
Recently adopted regulations for high school graduation are threatening to shrink vocational education. Following the increasingly popular nostrum that all students should be prepared for college, the state of North Carolina now requires all students to complete the courses required for admission to the UNC system. This requirement adds a course in advanced math and two courses in a foreign language.
Superintendent of Education June Atkinson concedes that vocational and arts courses could get pushed aside. Since the requirements were enacted, some legislators have fought to increase funding for vocational courses. S.B. 1473, introduced by Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, would provide $150 million in funding for high school regional vocational education centers that would teach subjects such as biomedical technology, automotive technology, and construction skills.
What If the U.S. News College Rankings Went Bye-Bye?
Ask Americans how they know which colleges and good and which ones aren’t so good and they’ll probably say, “the U.S. News college rankings.”
For several decades, the annual issue of U.S. News & World Report that focuses on the rankings of colleges, universities, and graduate schools has been treated with exceeding respect by the public. It purports to identify the best university, best liberal arts college, best law and medical schools and so on according to a complicated formula. Rarely do people analyze that formula and ask if it’s a reliable means of identifying schools where students are most likely to receive an excellent education.
Guns, Troubled Students, and Campus Security
Last week, Pope Center writer Shannon Blosser expressed our sorrow at the lives horribly cut short by the massacre at Virginia Tech. He said that it was wrong to “play the blame game,” as some of the media had started to do, so quickly after the tragedy. It was more appropriate, he said, to honor the victims whose lives ended so suddenly.
There would be time to examine the causes of this tragedy and consider future policies. Now is the time. Indeed, in blogs and op-eds, commentators have addressed three major issues: guns, university dealings with troubled students, and campus security, as well as made broader societal statements.
Let’s Hold Off the Blame Game at Virginia Tech
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.”