It's been a busy week for the Woodson family of West Lafayette, IN.

First, dad Randy Woodson, Purdue's provost got a new job, the chancellorship at N.C. State.

But that's not the most exciting family news this week. Woodson's son, Patrick, got engaged Thursday to his girlfriend, Aubrey Roberts.

Here's the thing: Patrick's proposal came after the couple arrived in North Carolina on the eve of dad Randy's hiring at NCSU.

The site of the proposal? The Old Well. At Carolina. You know, NCSU's chief rival? The sky's Carolina Blue, all that?

 "Patrick thought the iconic well would be a good setting," Randy Woodson told a room full of well-wishers Friday following his selection as NCSU's new chancellor. "I'm a little embarrassed by this, obviously. I would have much preferred this would happen in Raleigh!"

 It appears the younger Woodson is already a fan of the mixed marriage. He is a graduate student at Purdue studying environmental engineering and Aubrey is a nursing student at Indiana University.

Purdue and Indiana are that state's two largest public universities and are, of course, rivals. 

In other news, the sun still rises in the east.

UNC-Chapel Hill has defended one of its long-held titles, earning, yet again, the "best value in public higher education" tag from Kiplinger, a finance magazine.

UNC-CH has received this designation every year since 1998. 

This year, a twist. In its explanation about why UNC-CH is so affordable, Kiplinger makes reference to the university's hiring of Bain & Company, the private consultant that took a close look at the institution's administrative and financial functions to look for waste and inefficiency.

It was a controversial move at first on campus, but in the greater world of higher education, several big institutions took note and followed UNC's lead. 

NCSU is 10th on this list, by the way, and several other North Carolina colleges make the grade as well.

One cold evening in 2008, Jonathan Howes was going to a UNC basketball game with some friends. He was walking up the stairs towards the Dean Dome and collapsed. Massive heart attack.

Fortunately, there are lots of EMS workers at a basketball game, and Howes pulled through.

But the moment was sobering, for sure.

The brush with death gave the longtime UNC worker - and former Chapel Hill mayor - a new look at life and the benefits of retirement.

So he's called it a day.

Howes retired Dec. 31, bringing an end to a long tenure in Chapel Hill that began when he arrived here as a graduate student four decades ago.

You can read all about his career here.

A global drug maker has donated $2 million to the N.C. Cancer Hospital.

The gift comes from sanofi-aventis, a Paris-based drug manufacturer that has long funded cancer-related initiatives at UNC Chapel Hill. The N.C. Cancer Hospital is a new facility on the UNC-CH campus, a massive expansion of its clinical cancer operations. The $2 million will go into the hospital's endowment, to be used for new clinical programs, research and patient and family support services.

With the donation, the hospital's endowment is worth nearly $4 million. Generally, universities spend about 5 percent of their endowments each year, which means the sanofi-aventis donation will provide about $100,000 a year.

While endowment donations are often used to pay for facilities expansion, the new, $207 million cancer hospital was funded by the state. Thus, its endowment will be used solely for research and support programs.

"At a time of financial stress when other states are pulling back on health care, North Carolina is stepping up, and so is private industry," said UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp Monday during a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony at the hospital.

A high-tech conference room at the hospital is being renamed for the drug company.

For more on the donation, click here.

A UNC-Chapel Hill student has died from complications related to the H1N1 flu.

Lillian Chason, a freshman from Rhode Island, died Wednesday afternoon at UNC Hospitals, according to a post from her father, Eric, on Facebook.

"I'm sorry to have to tell everyone that Lillian died this afternoon at 5:20 PM," the post reads in part. "As you all know, she put up an incredible fight and if there was anyway she could have overcome this disease, she would have."

Chason's friends and family had set up the Facebook page as a way of giving regular updates. It chronicled the young woman's ups and downs after contracting the virus in November.

Laura Page, also a UNC-CH freshman, is left to remember the bubbly girl she met at fall convocation.

"She just came and plopped down beside me and we just clicked," said Page, a native of Gastonia. 

Chason planned to study dramatic art, friends said. Though a freshman, she had already scored the lead in a drama department play.

"She was so excited when she was cast," Page recalled.

Chason was also dedicated to exercise. She worked out each day, ate healthy and had considered joining the rowing team, an activity she did in high school, Page said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Lillian’s parents, the Chason family and their friends," UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. "We are so sorry for their loss. Lillian was a special person, and her Carolina family will miss her.”

The fatal shooting of a UNC Chapel Hill fraternity president was justified, Randolph County District Attorney Garland Yates said today.

In a news release, Yates said the Archdale police officer who shot and killed Courtland Smith in the early hours of Aug. 23 did so because he believed he faced "an imminent use of deadly force."

Police pulled Smith over on Interstate 85 in Archdale because he had called 911 saying he wanted to kill himself. He told the 911 operator he was drunk and had a gun.

"It is clear from all the evidence that Officer J.P. Flinchum reasonably believed that he and Officer Jones were in imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury when [Flinchum] shot Courtland Smith," Yates said in the release.

Yates said that Smith acted aggressively towards the two officers, leading them to assume he had a weapon behind his back.

"Mr. Smith aggressively advanced on the officers, forcing them to retreat to the rear of their patrol cars twice," Yates said. "He ignored officers' repeated and clear orders to stop advancing on them and to show his hands."

Smith was a junior studying biology. He was president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, where he was partying before driving to Archdale. The fraternity has been sanctioned for the party because alcohol was present.

In case you missed it...

I reported last week on a scheduling quirk that will require employees at the local state universities to burn their own vacation time on days when their universities close.

Here's the link.

In fiscal 2009, UNC Chapel Hill's endowment lost nearly 20 percent of its value. In real numbers, that's $440 million, from $2.2 billion to about $1.8 billion.

"That's a painful, significant loss," John King, of the UNC Management Co., told campus trustees this week. "It's something we'll be dealing with for a while."

Though tough to stomach, the endowment loss is not unusual. Universities everywhere have struggled this year with significant decreases in the value of their endowments. A study by Cambridge Associates shows that the average loss in fiscal 09 by a group of 163 colleges and universities is 20 percent - so UNC-CH is right at the average.

"Fiscal 09 was the worst college endowment year in decades - I'd even say years," King told trustees. "It's going to take a lot of time to repair the damage that occurred last year."

For more on the university's annual endowment fund report, click the document attached to this blog post.

Documents:

Don't like today's decision by trustees at UNC Chapel Hill to increase tuition and fees?

Try going to UCLA.

 At Carolina, trustees approved a plan today that would raise tuition and fees for in-state students by 5.2 percent.

At UCLA, all you-know-what is breaking loose as that campus ponders a 32 percent increase to its sticker price.

Yes, 32 percent.

Read more here.

At UNC Chapel Hill, trustees have signed off on a tuition and fee increase package for the next academic year.

The plan, which will now be submitted to the UNC system's Board of Governors, raises tuition $200 for in-state students. Out-of-state undergrads would get a $1,127 rate hike, while out-of-state grad students would pay $732 more in 2010-11.   Fees would go up $96.01 for all students.

Under the plan, in-state undergraduate students would pay $5,921.42 in tuition and fees next year, and out-of-staters would pay $24,736.42.

Those numbers do not include room, board, books and other expenses.

There's a catch to all this. The 2009 General Assembly has already set rates for 2010-11 that will raise in-state tuition $200 or 8 percent, whichever is less. That decision trumps anything on the campus or UNC-system level.

So the tuition rates the UNC-CH campus trustees approved today include that $200 increase for in-state students.

But last UNC system President Erskine Bowles said recently that legislative leaders  are willing to listen to alternate proposals.

If the General Assembly's edict holds, all tuition revenue raised would go into the state's general fund. If it decides next year to adopt a university tuition plan instead, revenue raised would be used for campus needs, and half of it would be set aside for financial aid.

Campus officials would very much like to keep that $200 that the General Assembly has targeted for the General Fund.

The increase for nonresident students has created some discontent, but campus and UNC-system leaders have long viewed those students differently than North Carolinians. Tuition for out-of-state students has often been set with market and competitiveness data used as guidelines.

Ryan Morgan, a UNC-CH student representing 5,000 other non-resident students, told trustees prior to Thursday's vote that the cost of an out-of-state education is forcing some students to withdraw.

"I myself am graduating one year early because I can't afford to stay here an additional year," said Morgan, who is from Alabama. "Out-of-state students are imperative to the quality of the university. What good is the best university in the country if you can't afford it?"

Read more on this issue in Friday's News & Observer.