UNC system President Erskine Bowles has decided not to recommend a new pharmacy school at UNC-Greensboro.

The news shocked the folks at UNCG, which has put on a big push for the school, saying it would provide a big spark to the local economy.

The Greensboro News & Record reports.

It would have been the second public university pharmacy school in the state, joining the one at UNC-Chapel Hill. Officials there had worried that a new pharmacy school would have made it too difficult to find training sites for a larger number of students.

Bowles is recommending that UNC-CH go forward with a distance education satellite pharmacy expansion linking with UNC-Asheville.

That plan has a far lower cost associated with it and will be patterned after an existing satellite program UNC-CH runs with Elizabeth City State University.

UNC Greensboro is jumping aboard the 3-years-to-degree bandwagon.

The university announced today a new initiative to help highly motivated students get an undergraduate degree in just three years.

If this sounds familiar, it is because you recently read about such an initiative, at Mount Olive College, which became the first institution in the state to tackle the three-year program.

UNCG now becomes the first public institution to do so. The program will cater to those students who enter college with a load of Advanced Placement credits or other transferable college credits. At UNCG, you need at least 12 credit hours in the bank before hitting campus.

The UNCG program will start this fall and will save those students who successfully complete the program about $8,000 in tuition, fees, room and board, money they would have spent on that fourth year of college.

Unlike the Mount Olive program, students in the UNCG program will be required to take courses all year. Like Mount Olive, UNCG will offer priority advisor support and scheduling to make sure students get the courses they need and in the right order.

Here's a UNCG press release (below) that talks about some more of the program's specifics.

GREENSBORO -- If N.C. State can learn to finish like it starts, the Wolfpack will be in business.

State jumped out to another big, early lead on Thursday night against UNC-Greensboro but like Tuesday's win over Winthrop, State let up and let a lesser opponent back in the game.

The Wolfpack turned it back on in the second half for a 89-67 win over the Spartans but the pattern of starting quick, hitting a lull and then waiting to turn it back on is a concern for coach Sidney Lowe.

At UNC Greensboro, the quad has been saved.

Campus officials have decided to preserve seven historic dormitories that make up a residential quad rather than knocking them down and build anew.

Campus trustees have reportedly signed off on spending $53 million to renovate the dorms there. That should please the many students whose preservation push included this Facebook effort.

Longtime UNC Greensboro Chancellor Patricia Sullivan has died.

She was 69.

Sullivan died early Thursday after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Sullivan was UNCG's chancellor for nearly 14 years, from January 1995 to July 2008.

“Her leadership and dedication, and her fighting spirit, have made an indelible mark on the life of this university," said her successor, Linda Brady. "I feel the loss personally because Pat has been a source of advice and counsel during my first year as chancellor. She was a good friend to me as a newcomer to Greensboro. We shall miss her."

Under Sullivan's leadership, UNCG experienced a physical transformation. The campus spent $500 million on new construction and renovation during her tenure, including the creation of four new major academic buildings.

Enrollment boomed during Sullivan's tenure, a 36 percent hike from 12,644 in 1995 to 17,407 when she retired last year.

And UNCG expanded its programs as well, adding nine doctoral programs and establishing more than 15 research centers. One of particular note in Greensboro: the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, with North Carolina A & T University, which is also in Grensboro.

A native New Yorker, Sullivan came to Greensboro from Texas Woman's University, becoming UNCG's first female leader.

And the longer she worked at UNCG, the better she was liked in the community, said Jim Phillips, a Greensboro attorney and former chairman of the governing board overseeing the UNC system, of which UNCG is a member campus.

"She had a real way about her, saying her piece and being forceful without being offensive," Phillips said. "Pat wore very well in this community. The longer she was here, the more her stature grew."

UNCG has some more information here.

At UNC Greensboro, Tuesday's installation for Chancellor Linda Brady is being scaled back significantly to save money.

To that end - there will be no fancy cake made by some fancy cake-maker. The campus cafeteria will take care of it. Also, a planned buffet lunch for 1,600 will instead be punch and dessert.

And student government will distribute daisy seeds - the school flower - rather than commemorative mugs and T-shirts.

The bash should run about $22,000, according to this report in the Greensboro News & Record. 

By comparison - At UNC Chapel Hill last year, the installation for Chancellor Holden Thorp ran $162,000, paid for by non-state funds.

Gov. Beverly Perdue will give this year's commencement speech at UNC Greensboro.

The event will be held at Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m. at Greensboro Coliseum.

As you may recall, we reported here recently on UNC Greensboro's desire to create a new pharmacy school. It would be just the second public pharmacy school in North Carolina.

It looks like UNCG's proposal is gaining momentum in Greensboro, where civic boosters think a new pharmacy school will give the local economy a needed shot in the arm. 

In an editorial, the Greensboro News & Record urges the city to get behind UNCG's plans, which require the approval of the UNC system's Board of Governors - no sure thing. And it appears some local foundations are lining up behind the idea.

Of concern to some at UNC Chapel Hill - which has the state's only public pharmacy school - is how a new school would amp up the demand for a limited number of spaces where students would get their clinical practice experience.

But in the News & Record article, Tim Rice, who runs the Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, believes there are enough sites available.

At UNC Greensboro, students will no longer be required to own laptops.

Why? It's too expensive, not for students but for the university, which has subsidized the venture to the tune of $700,000 a year in grants.

The laptop requirement has been in place since 2005.

Read more here.