A couple months back, I ran into a UNC employee who asked me if I had been sick the previous week.

I had, and I asked him what made him suspect as much.

Well," he said, "There wasn't as much stuff on the blog last week as there usually is."

This was encouraging news, since it meant that Campus Notes was gaining some sort of foothold. It was flattering that at least one person followed it regularly enough to notice an occasional gap in service.

I've tried to use this blog to bolster my higher education reporting for the News & Observer in print and online. The blog and its twitter feed, @campus_notes, have helped me reach new audiences. They've also taught me what's popular on the web. For example, people seem to like videos of silly college kids engaging in what I like to call "planned spontaneity" in the campus library.

And blog posts about controversial Muslim leaders headed to town are popular too. And of course, the Granddaddy of all Twitter Trash Talk, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp's Krzyzewskiville blast. That was an amusing day.

I'm really going to miss it all.

It's bittersweet for me to report that I'm leaving the News & Observer, my third newspaper in a 15-year journalism career, for a new job with the news office at Duke University.

My last day is Friday.

These are tough times for newspapers, which struggle to make money. (You're probably reading this on your computer. For free.) But the News & Observer is committed to its coverage of higher education here in the Triangle, one of the nation's most complex and dynamic higher education markets.

And the blog will remain as well, with contributions from a number of reporters and editors.

I've spent most of the last dozen years writing about universities here in the Triangle. I've learned a lot and I hope my reporting has been useful. I'm leaving this beat just as it's getting interesting, with sweeping changes to public universities beckoning on the horizon.

I'll follow all the twists and turns in the newspaper. I hope you will too.

Thanks for reading.

N.C. Central University Provost Kwesi Aggrey today issued a statement regarding Preston Mitchum, the NCCU law graduate who admitted that he copied a speech from a YouTube video for his remarks at last week's commencement.

"We are deeply saddened and disappointed that our student engaged in plagiarism," Aggrey's statement said. "At North Carolina Central University, we completely disavow this behavior by any of our students in any capacity.  To our knowledge, this is the first time someone has replicated remarks for one of our Commencement exercises.  We hope this incident will serve as a teaching moment for our students."

Mitchum said Monday he meant to credit Binghamton University graduate Anthony Corvino for his original speech last year. Read the story from today's N&O.

North Carolina Children’s Hospital at UNC Hospitals has been ranked in six of 10 U.S. News Media Group’s “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” categories. The hospital nabbed its second Top 10 ranking in pulmonology -- the only top 10 ranking achieved by any children’s hospital in North Carolina, according to a news release.

N.C. Children’s Hospital ranked 10th in pulmonology, 37th in diabetes and endocrinology, 39th in gastroenterology, 42nd in orthopaedics, 43rd in cardiology and heart surgery, and 44th in neonatology, the release said.

The new rankings recognize the top 50 children’s hospitals in 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology. Seventy-six hospitals are ranked in at least one specialty.

Now in its fifth year, Best Children’s Hospitals pulls together data from a lengthy survey completed by the majority of the 177 hospitals asked to participate for the 2011-12 rankings. The survey asks hundreds of questions about survival rates, nurse staffing, subspecialist availability, and other areas.

Should UNC limit enrollment? Reduce it, even?

Gasp!

This isn't the sort of idea that has ever gotten much serious consideration in North Carolina, a state that prides itself on providing an affordable and accessible education to its citizens.

But these woeful economic times are changing the minds of decision-makers. In today's paper, a story about why this may not be the worst time for the state to consider scaling back enrollment.

One note: There's an error in the story that will be corrected. There are 58 community college campuses in North Carolina, not 56.

In today's paper, a big story about the rising cost of college and the impact legislative decisions may have, in particular, on financial aid and debt levels.

In reporting the story, I ran across an interesting student at N.C. Central University, William Anyu. He didn't make the story, but his tale is worth telling here. A version will likely also appear in the Durham News at some point soon.

William Anyu is so tuned in to his finances that he can  tell how much he spent on the clothes he’s wearing.

That gray cardigan was $15 from the clearance rack at J.C. Penney.  The sweatpants? Ten bucks at Walmart.

The N.C. Central University sophomore is proud of his financial  smarts. But ask him about the rising costs of college, and a brief  storm cloud shadows his sunny disposition.

“It’s a depressing thought,” he said one recent evening during his  graveyard shift manning the front desk of a NCCU residence hall.  
“I can’t do anything about it.”
 

Senate budget writers would offer $87 million more to the UNC system than their N.C. House counterparts have proposed.

But K-12 and community colleges would take a bigger hit, according to new spending targets released Tuesday by Senate officials.

As Lynn Bonner and Craig Jarvis report in today's paper, the Senate would spend about $40 million less overall on education than the House would, while apportioning that spending in different ways.

K-12 education would receive $106 million less than the House's version, while community colleges would get about $21 million less.

If you're not sure what sort of silly hat your kid was wearing Sunday at UNC-Chapel Hill's commencement, we've got you covered.

Navigate your way over to this super-fantastic, interactive panoramic photo of the graduation ceremony, zoom in and find your child in all his or her silly glory.

Have fun.

UNC Wilmington has a new leader.

He is Gary L. Miller, who since 2006 has served as provost and vice president for academic affairs and research at Wichita State University.

He was named chancellor at UNCW Tuesday by the UNC system's Board of Governors.

Miller, 57, starts work no later than July 1, succeeding Rosemary DePaolo, who is retiring after an eight-year tenure.

One of three research universities in the Kansas Board of Regents System, Wichita State University is an urban doctoral research university enrolling approximately 14,500 students at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels.  

From a UNCW press release: As provost and vice president for academic affairs and research, Miller is WSU’s chief academic and research officer.  In that role, he has been responsible for the overall vision, mission, and operations of all undergraduate and graduate academic programs on WSU’s main and satellite campuses, as well as providing leadership for academic support, research, strategic planning, outreach programs, and international programs.

Last year, Miller was a finalist for the presidency of Binghamton University.
 
A native of Dayton, Va., Miller graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in anthropology.  After completing a master’s degree in biology (1979) at William and Mary, he earned his doctorate in biological sciences from Mississippi State University in 1982. He also has attended programs in educational leadership at Harvard University and Yale University.
 
Miller began his academic career in 1983 as an assistant professor of entomology at Mississippi State and two years later joined the faculty of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. 

In 1989, he began a 14-year tenure at the University of Mississippi, where he rose through the academic ranks and served for seven years as chair of the Department of Biology.  In 2002, he was recruited to serve as dean of arts and sciences at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., where he was helped expand in expand programs in the sciences, organize a full revision of the general education program, and increase enrollment. 

He left California in 2006 to join WSU as provost and vice president for academic affairs and research.

The American Association of Universities, an elite organization of institutions that excel in research, has taken the rare step of kicking out one of its members.

The group, of which Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are members, has expelled the University of Nebraska, the first time the group has kicked out one of its own, according to this coverage in Inside Higher Ed.

The move has drawn a great deal of attention within the higher education elite. Membership in AAU is coveted, and the group rarely adds or removes members. It expelled Nebraska a year after revising its membership criteria and focuses largely on the level of biomedical research and research funding.

Members voted on Nebraska's fate last week, and the university would have remained in the group had two fewer universities voted to expel it, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Vote details are not public, but presumably, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp and Duke President Richard Brodhead cast votes representing their respective institutions.

A spokesman for Thorp declined to comment Monday, deferring to AAU itself. I haven't heard definitively yet today from Duke, though it will likely decline to comment as well, I'm guessing.

A second university is leaving AAU under pressure. Syracuse University, whose credentials are also receiving scrutiny now from AAU, has announced plans to voluntarily withdraw.

The AAU's newest member is Georgia Tech, added in 2010. It has 62 members in all; Duke joined in 1938, while UNC has been a member since 1922.

N.C. State is not a member, though some feel it carries the necessary credentials. When Georgia Tech joined last year, NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson told the Chronicle of Higher Education he'd like his institution considered.

"The AAU is the pre-eminent research-intensive membership group," Woodson told that publication. "To be part of that organization is something N.C. State aspires to."

Annual dues are $80,500, according to that same Chronicle story.

We reported this week how the Town Council is considering different ideas for the former Chapel Hill Museum building at 523 E. Franklin St., including turning the building into a permanent arts venue. (See previous blog post here) We will have a fuller story in this Sunday's Chapel Hill News.

This morning we received a copy of professor elin o"Hara slavik's proposal, in which the UNC Arts Department offers to partner with the town in running the space, including offering slavik's services as a coordinator at no cost to the town. Here is a copy of that proposal for the program she suggests calling CHART (Chapel Hill Art).

After reading it, tell us what you think of it? Should the town make 523 E. Franklin a permanent arts space? Do you support a different use for the building, or do you think the town should sell it, as a citizens budget advisory committee recommended a few years ago. Tell us here or at editor@nando.com by Wednesday, May 4, and we'll publish your responses in the Sunday, May 8, issue of the Chapel Hill News.

CHART
(A Cultural Arts Space in Chapel Hill)

Proposal by elin o’Hara slavick
Distinguished Professor of Art, UNC, Chapel Hill
and Jeff York, Public Arts Administrator for Chapel Hill

March 14, 2011

523 East Franklin will be named CHART to be able to promote, brand and support the space as a location to be visited. It will be a collaborative project space between the town of Chapel Hill (Jeff York, Public Arts Administrator) and UNC’s Art Department (Professor elin o’Hara slavick), with a 3-year renewable contract/lease with an "out clause" for both parties