Gov. Beverly Perdue’s budget proposal, unveiled Thursday, includes $23 million for enrollment growth at UNC system campuses.

That’s about half of what the UNC system requested, even though Perdue and the university each base their dollar figure on the same projection of 2,337 new students next fall.

Here’s the discrepancy: Perdue’s $23 million is based on her staff’s calculation of what it costs strictly to provide classroom instruction to each of those students. The UNC system’s projection is based on the cost of classroom instruction as well as other services provided to students like the registrar’s office, financial aid and public safety, according to Joni Worthington, a UNC system spokeswoman.

“The funding formula has multiple components and [Perdue] funded a piece of it,” Worthington said. “It would be up to the other institutions to fund the rest.”

Perdue also proposes sending $34.8 million to the UNC system for need-based financial aid. Here too, Perdue and the UNC system are far apart; UNC requested $71 million.

Overall, Perdue proposes a 9.5 percent cut to the operating budgets of the UNC system and its campuses. She said that cut would actually scale back to about six percent once the revenue from a series of tuition increases approved last week is factored in.

Perdue's math there assumes campuses would receive 75 percent of the revenue from those tuition hikes, because she stipulates campuses use 25 percent for financial aid to help offset the extra financial burden created by those tuition increases.

But on some campuses, tuition revenue will be significantly less than what Perdue projects because they already use more than 25 percent of tuition increase revenue for financial aid.

At Fayetteville State University, for example, campus leaders this year plan to use 70 percent of all tuition increase revenue for financial aid.

For more on Perdue's higher education funding plan, click here.

A longtime college administrator at UNC Chapel Hill and other state universities has died.

Hayden Bentley Renwick was 74 when he died Sept. 2 at Presbyterian Medical Center after suffering heart failure.

The Statesville native was a Johnson C. Smith University graduate and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity member who spent three decades in education.
He began as a teacher and coach at Horton High School in Pittsboro, taught physical education at N.C. A & T University and was an assistant principal at Guy B. Phillips Junior High School in Chapel Hill.

After getting a master's of education degree from UNC Chapel Hill, Renwick began a career in higher education. He was first an assistant director in undergraduate admissions at UNC-CH, then assistant dean in its College of Arts and Sciences, eventually moving up into an associate deanship there.

From 1988 to 1991 he served as associate vice chancellor at Fayetteville State University and later as special assistant to the chancellor at Winston-Salem State University.

 He leaves a wife, Sandra Medford Renwick, a daughter, Beverly Renwick Pappy, a son, Michael Lewis Renwick, and a host of other family members. 

Click here for more information.

At Fayetteville State University, a four-year-old nursing program saddled with problems has been suspended.

Chancellor James Anderson has announced that the program, plagued by infighting, low test scores and a poor public image, needs restructuring.

No new students will be admitted to the four-year program. Students who will be seniors in the fall will be allowed to finish the program and graduate.

For more, read the Fayetteville Observer's coverage here.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles said today that T.J. Bryan, the former chancellor at Fayetteville State University, was not a victim of discrimination, as she claimed earlier this month in suing Bowles and the university system.

Bryan was the FSU chancellor from 2003 until 2007, when she stepped down amid a financial mess at the university and struggles with its nursing program.

Bryan, who received her chancellor's salary until the end of 2007, has since taught online courses for FSU from her home in Maryland.

Bowles was asked about the lawsuit today following a meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

"We're very limited in what we can say," he said. "We categorically deny that there was any race or gender discrimination whatsoever."

NOTE: Click the attachment below to read the lawsuit.

Documents:

I reported yesterday on a lawsuit filed by T. J. Bryan, the former chancellor at Fayetteville State University suing the UNC system for gender and racial discrimination.

This morning, a Fayetteville Observer columnist contends that, in filing her lawsuit, Bryan has essentially set fire to her professional connections.

Here's how Myron Pitts starts his column:

"Rarely have I seen someone burn bridges as thoroughly as T.J. Bryan, former chancellor of Fayetteville State University.

Usually when people take a torch to their personal or professional connections, they are either totally in the right or completely reckless. Perhaps time will tell.

To read the entire column, click here.

The former chancellor at Fayetteville State University is claiming she was discriminated against by the UNC system on the basis of her race and gender.

T.J. Bryan, FSU's chancellor from 2003 to 2007, alleges in a complaint filed Feb. 5 she was wrongfully terminated; she was the sole female, black chancellor at the time, a distinction she claims helped lead to her termination, according to this Fayetteville Observer report.

Bryan was hired by now-former UNC system President Molly Broad but left the position after current chief Erskine Bowles took over. She claims she was forced out, according to the news report. She gave her resignation as audits revealed widespread financial mismanagement at the university.

Since January, Bryan has been teaching online courses at FSU from her home in Maryland.

Her lawsuit asks for a jury trial and at least $20,000 in damages.

Historically black colleges and universities are, like the rest of higher education, taking a beating right now. Some are laying off workers. Others are struggling to even pay their utility bills.

But those that persevere could end up thriving in this ragged economy, argues Kim Clark in this article in U.S. News & World Report. The reasons: Affordability and accessibility.

As my colleague, Jane Stancill, reports, two debate teams from universities in North Carolina will take part in the inauguration festivities for Barack Obama in January.

Read it here. 

At Fayetteville State University, new chancellor James Anderson is offering a day-in-the-life opportunity to lucky students.

It's called the "Chancellor for a Day" program. Students will shadow Anderson for a day to understand how a university operates.

Glamorous? Perhaps not. The program's goals are to give students a chance to be part of the administrative process, emphasize the role of the student at the university, give students decision-making experience, and let students get a feel for the leadership skills required to manage a large organization.

This being academia, students must write an application letter of no more than 500 words, which will be reviewed, naturally, by a committee.

Universities love committees.

Applicants must have a 3.00 grade point average, demonstrate leadership abilities through involvement in student or community organizations, and "give compelling factors about themselves to prove they are the best person to be Chancellor for a Day," according to a press release.

Students will be selected bi-monthly. Applications should include name, address, phone number, e-mail address, academic major and classification and be sent via email to Dr. Bertha H. Miller, Special Assistant to the Chancellor, bmiller@uncfsu.edu.