There's a bit of a mess over at Winston-Salem State University this week related to a political message distributed through the university's email system.

Here's what happened, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education: a student sent an email about early voting  to an administrator, Michelle Releford, asking Releford to distribute it widely.

Releford did so, sending it to the entire campus community.

Problem: The email encouraged people to vote for Democrats. That's a no-no since public university resources aren't supposed to be used for political means. It's against the law.

The university tried to retract the message, sending a second email asking folks to disregard the first.

Kinda like trying to unring a bell.

That wasn't the end, however.

The state Republican party wanted equal time, so the university sent a similar email, once again to the entire campus, this time with materials promoting Republicans.

That too was a violation of state law.

Double whoops.

Here's the whole story.

It's a long and winding road to Division I athletics with all manner of obstacle along the way.

It's expensive. It's complicated. Did I mention it's expensive?

In North Carolina, two public, historically black universities have spent the last five years or so trying to make the big jump.

One, N.C. Central University in Durham, appears poised for a successful transition.

Another, Winston-Salem State University, has run aground in its quest for big-time athletics glory.

Read on.

Winston-Salem State University has abandoned its dream of becoming a Division I athletic program.

Why? Costs too much.

WSSU leaders decided late last week to stop pushing for an upgrade to D-1 status and remain competing in Division II. 

In a written statement, Chancellor Donald Reaves said in part: "If there were any reasonable way to complete this transition without diverting resources from competing academic resources, I would have recommended that we stay the course."

Here are a couple numbers that should illuminate the situation. From 2005-06 through last year, spending for the WSSU athletics program rose from $2.88 million to $5.58 million, according to that statement. 

At the same time, revenues increased from $2.07 million to $3.77 million and last year, the athletic program ran a deficit of nearly $2 million.

Winston-Salem State's desire to move to Division I athletics was dealt a blow recently.

The UNC system's governing board declines to approve a massive increase to the athletics fee the university wanted to charge its students - a fee that campus leaders said was critical to close a gap in the athletics budget.

WSSU wanted a 31 percent increase in the athletic fee, from $579 to $760 a year for each full-time student.

That was too much for UNC system leaders to stomach.

The details.