For the first time, a Meredith College graduate will lead it.

The private women's college has named Jo Allen to be its 8th president. Allen, a 1980 graduate of Meredith, takes over July 1, succeeding Maureen Hartford, who retires after a 12-year tenure.

Allen was introduced to faculty, students and staff today in a mid-day ceremony in Jones Auditorium.

An English scholar, Allen is the current provost and executive vice president at Widener University, located in Chester, Pa., with branch campuses in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

A native of LaGrange, N.C., - between Goldsboro and Kinston - Allen earned her master's degree from East Carolina and her doctorate from Oklahoma State and taught at ECU and N.C. State prior to moving to Widener.

Allen, 53, was lauded for visionary leadership at Widener, where she helped craft a 10-year strategic plan.

She'll have a similar charge at her alma mater.

"We wanted someone who could bring the world to Meredith and bring Meredith to the world," said Elizabeth Triplett Beam, who chaired the search committee.

A prominent UNC-Chapel Hill researcher has settled a dispute with the university, re-gaining her credentials and full salary while agreeing to retire at the end of the year.

Bonnie Yankaskas, a noted epidemiologist, had been demoted, her pay cut essentially in half, after a hacker infiltrated a computer server that she, as the principal investigator for a massive breast cancer study, oversaw.

Yankaskas has overseen the Carolina Mammography Registry, a federally funded project that compiles and analyzes mammogram data submitted by dozens of radiology offices across North Carolina to improve breast cancer screening.

The university held her responsible for the breach and first tried to fire her before later recommending the demotion from full to associate professor and the pay cut.

Under the terms of a settlement announced Friday, Yankaskas has regained her status as a full professor and her full salary of $175,000 has been restored.

She agreed to retire Dec. 31 of this year, according to a news release issued late Friday.

Under the terms of the agreement, the university will not comment on the settlement’s terms. Nor will Yankaskas, according to her attorney, Raymond Cotton.

It wasn't a hate crime. In fact, it wasn't a crime after all.

That's the takeaway from the false police report filed by UNC-Chapel Hill freshman Quinn Matney, whose claim that he was assaulted apparently due to his sexual orientation sent the campus into a brief frenzy.

But here's a question I haven't yet answered: why even use the "hate crime" classification? To what end?

Here's the deal: North Carolina has no specific law dealing with hate crimes. That means had Matney's claim been true and police had made an arrest, that person could not be charged with a hate crime under state law.

But universities that receive federal Title IV student financial assistance money must conform to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, one requirement of which being an annual report of crimes identified in the Clery act, which requires universities to report crime statistics.

A hate crime on the UNC-CH campus would have met the Clery crime definition of a hate crime and as such would have been included in the university's annual report, said Jeff McCracken, the campus police chief.

Reporting it as such doesn't automatically trigger any action, McCracken said, but would allow local police to request FBI assistance in investigating the situation, and federal charges could be filed.

Of course, it's all moot now.

McCracken said Thursday his agency will likely charge Matney with filing a false report. It isn't clear when Matney will be charged, though. For now, the student has returned home to Asheville to be with his family.
 

UNC Wilmington is closing in on selecting its next chancellor, and predictably, the search has been tight-lipped.

As is the custom when public universities in this state search for chancellors, those doing the searching are sworn to secrecy. Passwords, secret meetings and everything aside from Cold War-era spy techniques are employed to throw reporters off the scent to maintain the anonymity of candidates.

This is done, university officials always say, to insure that the institution gets the best possible applicants, since some top candidates are scared off if they know their interest will be made public.

As the Wilmington Star News reports today, UNCW faculty, staff and students involved in the process have signed confidentiality agreements. That's not unusual.

The search committee at N.C. Central University that sought a replacement for departed James Ammons did so and communicated partly in code.

UNCW is looking for a replacement for Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, who is retiring.

UNC Wilmington is closing in on selecting its next chancellor, and predictably, the search has been tight-lipped.

As is the custom when public universities in this state search for chancellors, those doing the searching are sworn to secrecy. Passwords, secret meetings and everything aside from Cold War-era spy techniques are employed to throw reporters off the scent to maintain the anonymity of candidates.

This is done, university officials always say, to insure that the institution gets the best possible applicants, since some top candidates are scared off if they know their interest will be made public.

As the Wilmington Star News reports today, UNCW faculty, staff and students involved in the process have signed confidentiality agreements. That's not unusual.

The search committee at N.C. Central University that sought a replacement for departed James Ammons did so and communicated partly in code.

UNCW is looking for a replacement for Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, who is retiring.

It's been quite a week for the gay community at UNC-Chapel Hill.

First, word trickled out that a gay student had been viciously attacked because of his sexual orientation.

Then, last night, the stunning news: Freshman Quinn Matney invented his story about being attacked in the middle of the night by a man who pressed a scalding piece of metal to his wrist.

Now, more questions than answers, said Jeff DeLuca, co-president of the university's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance, a student organization.

"It was certainly shocking, almost as shocking as hearing a hate crime could have happened on this campus," DeLuca said Wednesday, a day after hearing that the student he'd sought out and supported had made up the story. "People put a pretty emotional investment in this, trying to find out what happened. Though this didn't turn out to be be what we thought it was, the roller coaster ride was real. People are shocked and confused."

But DeLuca's student group is moving forward with a previously scheduled campus forum Thursday night - at 6:30 in Gardner Hall - where the issue will be discussed.

And DeLuca still wants to reach out to Matney.

"We have to keep supporting Quinn," DeLuca said. "Even if it's a different type of support we have to give him."

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a leading activist of the civil rights movement, will give the undergraduate commencement address at N.C. Central University on Saturday, May 14.

As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn, according to a university news release. In 1961, he participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Despite being beaten by angry mobs and arrested by police, Lewis continued to defy and fight Jim Crow legislation.
 
In 1963, he was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) the release continues. Though just 23 years old, he was considered one of the “Big Six” leaders of the movement, along with Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer and Roy Wilkins. He was an organizer and speaker at the historic March on Washington in August of 1963.
 

The leaders of the UNC system and its campuses turned precisely zero cartwheels Tuesday upon getting a look at the spending plan proposed by the House.

It calls for cuts of more than 15 percent to public universities. That's far too much, UNC President and others said.

Systemwide, that would lead to the elimination of 3,200 jobs, many of them filled, Ross said.

N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson said the cuts would force "large and dramatic change" to the entire system.

Stay tuned. The Senate budget, expected to be more friendly to universities, comes out next.

A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report, the university says.

In a message just released to the campus community, Chancellor Holden Thorp says: "The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime."

"It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur," Thorp continued. "When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.

Freshman Quinn Matney told police he was outside his South Campus dorm April 4 when he stopped to speak with an acquaintance. As he stood on a foot bridge near his Craige Residence Hall, he had said another college-age man nearby approached him, called him an anti-gay slur, and pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist.

The university planned to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government. The assault was apparently motivated by Matney’s sexual orientation, Thorp said in a statement Monday. “As a university community, we condemn this act of violence,” Thorp wrote. “Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker.”

But police had little to work with. Matney could not identify his attacker or the person he stopped to speak with just before the attack, said Jeff McCracken, UNC’s police chief.

Efforts to reach Matney today were unsuccessful.

Authorities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigating an assault on campus last week as a hate crime.

"As a university community, we condemn this act of violence," said UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp in a statement on Alert Carolina, the campus website that disseminates safety-related information to students, faculty and staff. "Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker."

The attack, which was reported to police April 5, occurred on the foot bridge between Craige Residence Hall and the intersection of Ridge Road and Manning Drive. Police said the student was treated for burns at the student health center. The student, freshman Quinn Matney, told police a person he recognized but did not know pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist, scalding it and doing tendon damage.

The burn left an imprint that looks something like a figure 8.

Police have no suspects yet, Chief Jeff McCracken said Tuesday. Matney said he stopped to speak to another acquaintance just prior to the attack, but didn't know that person by name, either, McCracken said.

Thorp said in the statement that the aggravated assault "appears to have been motivated by the sexual orientation of a male student."

Thorp said the university intends to report the assault as a hate crime to the federal government.

"Everyone in our community has the right to a safe, inclusive and welcome living and learning environment," Thorp said. "And all of us have a responsibility to stand against acts of violence, harassment, bullying and intimidation and to treat each other with civility and respect."

Outside of a bare bones incident report on hand at the police station, the attack was not made public by the university until Monday, a week later. That lag time has bothered some members of the gay community at UNC-CH.

"It's troubling when the only way we find out about a hate crime on campus is by word of mouth," said Jeff DeLuca, a sophomore and co-president of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance.