Have you met Eddie van Halen, UNC Chapel Hill's new chancellor?

Actually, that's Holden Thorp, UNC-CH's new boss, rockin' out Marty McFly style during a recent UNC/town of Chapel Hill trip to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan.

And I always thought that James Moeser, a classical organist, was Carolina's resident musician-chancellor.

My colleague Mark Schultz has been methodically pecking away at the maneuvering involving UNC Chapel Hill, Carolina North, local business interests and the Horace Williams Airport, which the university has for years said it wants to close in order to develop that land.

Mark's latest installment arrived today in the Chapel Hill News. It reveals that last year, then-Chancellor James Moeser asked two local businessmen to help fund a study of the economic impact of a new airport in Orange County.

The two businessmen, Jim Heavner of VilCom and J. Adam Abram of the James River Group, each pitched in $15,000 towards an eventual $100,000 that the UNC Chapel Hill Foundation paid a consultant.

The resulting report, which Mark wrote about last month, suggests a windfall for Orange County in the neighborhood of $53 million a year. And one local legislator, State Rep. Bill Faison of Cedar Grove, likes that idea very much.

The prospect of a new airport in Orange County has some folks on edge, even though there has not been any sort of indication that a site has been selected.

Mark has also put some questions on the issue directly to new Chancellor Holden Thorp. Read that interview here.

Late last week I wrote this story about the release of the UNC system's final report on the mess involving N.C. Central University and its unauthorized satellite campus at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.

In the story, I wrote that the report didn't place specific blame; that's true, but it did name former Chancellor James Ammons at least once, in a section that points out how odd it seems that the creation of this campus did not follow proper guidelines.

The brief background: In 2004, NCCU created a series of undergraduate programs at the church, whose pastor is Eddie Long, a university trustee. Problem was, the programs were never approved by any of the various bodies who should have either voted on it or been told about it, including campus trustees; the UNC system's governing board, the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges' Commission on Colleges — which accredits NCCU — and the federal Department of Education, which doled out financial aid that made its way to students at the Georgia campus.

Meet Courtney Jordan. He's young, black and Republican.

Jordan, a sophomore at N.C. Central University, is the subject of this profile in the student newspaper.

In it, he says in part:

"I would like to vote for [Obama], but just because he looks like me doesn't make him the best candidate."

This is absolutely fascinating.

A novelist has written an essay in a Drexel University publication recounting his days as a term paper author-for-hire.

Yes, that's right. Billy the college kid doesn't have time to write 12 pages on MacBeth, so he goes online and buys one. Pays several hundred bucks or more. The paper broker contacts the author, who bashes out the term paper and sends it in.

Incredible.

The writer here, Nick Mamatas, says there are several types of people who buy term papers. Some are just too dumb to do the work. Others are people from other countries who are educated but struggle with language. And some are the protected and coddled; here's his description of one client whose mother — yes, his mother! — bought a term paper on his behalf. In other words, mom paid for sonny to cheat.

"[My son] is a very kind hearted young man. One who will make a difference in whatever he does. Barely can go unnoticed because of his vivacious character, happiness and joy in life. He is very much in tune with his fortune and often helps the less fortunate."

Wow. I guess I too would be filled with happiness and joy if mom solved all my problems for me.

Several Duke University professors have weighed in on the effect Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama will have as the presidential campaign nears its conclusion.

Here are some of their thoughts, via a Duke press release:

• Political scientist Kerry L. Haynie says Obama has been unable to broach the topic of bias against Muslim Americans the way Powell did in his endorsement.

"No candidate wants to be seen openly courting Muslim votes, although they very much want and need them," says Haynie. "There is a long history of white Democrats behaving in a similar way toward blacks. For example, they never wanted to be photographed with Jesse Jackson, but they wanted all the black and brown voters he registered to vote for them."

"Muslim Americans may be the new African-Americans in American politics. Both political parties are afraid to embrace Muslim-American voters like they are afraid to reach out for black voters. Statistics show that if political parties rely on or reach out to black voters, they ultimately lose white voters."

• Jen'nan Read, an associate professor of sociology and global health at Duke, argues that Powell’s comments about Muslims could be a turning point for the negative rhetoric that has marked the campaign.

“Colin Powell is the first voice on either side of the aisle to articulate a point that is long overdue by decisively stating that it is un-American to use the term ‘Muslim’ to discredit and slander a presidential candidate," says Read, a Carnegie scholar who is currently studying the political integration and activity of U.S. Muslims.

“Since 9/11, Muslims have been vilified and generalized as a monolithic group tied to Islamic extremism. The reality is that Muslims are very much like the rest of the American public -- generally diverse and politically integrated, and in step with the rest of the American public on today’s most divisive political issues. It is important to know the facts about Muslim Americans before lumping them all into one group.”

• Paula D. McClain, a professor of political science, public policy and African and African American studies, finds some of the recent media commentary to be offensive.

"What it says is that if a prominent black American -- one who is of the opposite political party and has served two Republican administrations -- after a great deal of deliberation comes out in favor of the black presidential candidate, that it has to be racial," says McClain.

 

"What all of these people have done is to racialize Colin Powell and his endorsement, essentially saying that regardless of his stature and past accomplishments and prominence, his skin color is the explanation, regardless of the long and eloquent argument he laid out for his endorsement."

Ken Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation in the late 1990s led to the impeachment of President Clinton, will speak Wednesday at N.C. Central University's law school.

A Duke graduate, Starr is now the dean of the law school at Pepperdine University. He will speak at 3 p.m. in the Moot Court Room as part of the law school's Discourse on Contemporary Legal Issues Speaker Series.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Marcia Thomas at 530-7723 or Sharon Alston at 530-5386.

Sorry for the clunky headline on this post, but I frankly don't know how to succintly summarize this story.

A dead, 75-pound bear cub was found at the entrance to Western Carolina University plastered in Barack Obama campaign signs. It was shot, apparently.

The local newspaper has all the details.  

The state auditor is questioning the way N.C. A&T University used a state procurement card to buy clothes for student leaders to wear at homecoming.

Our Under the Dome blog has the scoop. 

I love a good online petition story, so here's another one.

Up at the University of Virginia, some enterprising students have come up with this genius idea: time off to vote on Election Day.

Crazy, you say? Well, an online petition there has more than 2,700 signatures and this very convincing plea:

 "By expressing an understanding of the students' desire to part take in this election, the administration and faculty of UVA will be sending a message indicating the significance of students' actively participating in the electoral process. We do not wish to undermine the importance of attending classes; however, we are in fact acknowledging through formal means the necessity of requesting leniency towards students missing attending classes in the name of our civic duties."

I'm no expert in the electoral processes of county voting boards in Virginia, but here in North Carolina, voting seems pretty easy to me. There's the early voting option, going on now. Many campuses have polling sites for students, and for those who vote off campus, student governments often arrange free shuttle to and from the polls.

And I suppose public university students, particularly those that draw heavily from their own communities, may have a better argument than private colleges who students come from all over.

"I don't know how successful having a day off would be," said Jordan Giordano, Duke's student body president and a native of New Jersey. "So many students here are registered at home or vote early."

There is no campus push similar to the one going on at UVA at either Duke or UNC Chapel Hill. 

There is some Virginia precedent for the UVA idea. At the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, classes are cancelled on Election Day.  

Election Day is Nov. 4.