N.C. State University has snared a $50,000 grant for a program aimed at increasing retention and graduation rates of incoming and current Latino students.

NCSU is one of 20 colleges and universities to receive the grant, which comes from the non-profit Excelencia in Education organization and supported by the Walmart Foundation.

The program "aims to accelerate Latino student success by refining and replicating model educational programs that are proven to advance Latino achievement in two-year and four-year colleges," according to a press release. "The long-term goal of the project is to increase the use of these effective programs for the country’s fast-growing Latino college age population."
 
Semillas is the Spanish word for seeds.  It also stands for Seeding Educational Models that Impact and Leverage Latino Academic Success.
 
According to the US Census Bureau, Latino young adults are less likely to have earned an associate degree or higher than other young adults. In 2008, eight percent of Latinos 18 to 24 years-of-age had earned a degree, compared to 14 percent of all young adults, according to the news release.

Latino adults, 25 years and over, were also less likely to have earned an associate degree or higher than other adults, with 19 percent of Latinos earning a degree, compared with 29 percent of blacks, 39 percent of whites, and 59 percent of Asians.  Meanwhile, census projections estimate that Latinos will be 22 percent of the nation’s college-age population by 2020.
 

If you have an opinion about who the next chancellor should be at N.C. State, today would be a good day to head to campus.

NCSU is holding a series of forums today to gather input on the chancellor search. The university is seeking a replacement for James Oblinger, who as you may recall, stepped down earlier this summer as questions arose over his involvement in the hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley.

Forums for faculty, students and staff will be held starting at 12:30 today at Stewart Theatre.

An evening forum for alums and other folks interested in the process will be held at 6 p.m. at the McKimmon Center.

Here's more information.

Over at N.C. State, some folks were shooting new commercials for the university, and they had the good idea to also put together a short video about what happens behind the scenes.

It features director Sasha Levinson, actor PJ King and NCSU alum Geoffrey Hunter.

Check it out.

Former N.C. State University Chancellor James Oblinger just got a pay cut.

Oblinger, who resigned in early June amid revelations over his role in the hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley, had until today [Friday] been earning his full administrative salary - $420,000 annually, or $35,000 a month.

Under an agreement he forged with UNC system President Erskine Bowles when he resigned, he was to receive that full salary for six months before returning to the faculty at a lower wage.

But the UNC system's Board of Governors voted Friday to scale his pay back immediately. He will now earn $173,000 annually, a salary commensurate with other members of the NCSU faculty. He will teach food science.

"This is absolutely an appropriate salary, and after such a careful process I am completely comfortable with it," said James Woodward, NCSU's interim chancellor.

The UNC system board's vote was split, with 17 members voting for the change and 10 voting against it. Many who opposed the change said they did so in support of Bowles' decision.

The change in salary over the four months that Oblinger would have received his full pay amounts to about $82,000.

"I think the board acknowledged [Oblinger's] enormous contributions but felt there needed to be consequences for some things that went terribly wrong," said Hannah Gage, the UNC system board's chairwoman. "I think everyone is glad to put this behind us."

Oblinger resigned as chancellor in early June after admitting to Bowles that he had played a role in the university's hiring of former state First Lady Mary Easley in 2005.

Oblinger had long maintained that he wasn't involved, and in his resignation letter wrote that he had simply forgotten his involvement and hadn't intentionally done anything wrong.

Oblinger could not be reached Friday.

For more on this story, read Saturday's News & Observer.

At N.C. State, a move is afoot to bring back the Color Wall.

The art display in the windows of the D.H. Hill Library was long one of Hillsborough Street's coolest sights, a shimmery scene that just screamed "1970s!"

It's gone dark though, due to mechanical problems, and a move is underway now to raise the $6,000 needed to fix it.

Jay Price reports.

For years, top brass across the UNC system have received a tidy perk at the time of their retirement - a year's pay at their full salary.

Under a UNC system policy formalized several years ago, the heads of public university campuses and an array of other administrators have received this pay - all public money - with very few strings attached. And in some cases, campuses violated policy and gave it to people who shouldn't have received it.

In the News & Observer today, we explore this issue, which has tapped the North Carolina taxpayer for about $8 million over the last five years.

For a brief summary of many of the high-profile folks who benefitted from this policy - including former UNC system President Molly Broad and others - click here.

And for a look at what one former university leader - former UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser - did after stepping away from the job - check out this story.

The Raleigh-based John William Pope Foundation has given $700,000 to N.C. State to support teaching and research related to public policy, politics, economics and the law.

The five-year grant is an extension of previous funding from the Pope Foundation and will continue funding NCSU's "Economic, Legal and Political Foundations of Free Societies" project.

The grant will also continue to support The Society for Politics, Economics and the Law, a student group.

The new money will provide new funds for visiting scholars, project enrichment materials and administrative support, according to this news release from NCSU.

The Pope Foundation is a nonprofit organization that has long supported conservative causes. Its name will surely ring a bell at UNC Chapel Hill, where back in 2004 some faculty objected to a foundation proposal to give at least $500,000 a year for five years to create a western studies program.

That initiative was abandoned, but the foundation later donated $2.3 million to UNC-CH, much of which was used to create an investment fund to raise the salaries of assistant football coaches.

But $300,000 from that gift created new study-abroad and summer programs for undergrads studying western cultures.

For a better idea of where the Pope Foundation puts its charitable donations, click here.

An e-mail hoax fooled at least a few people with N.C. State e-mail accounts last week.

E-mail
scammers on a "phishing" expedition sent phony messages to 800 NCSU
e-mail accounts with the subject line "Mandatory Security Update: July
2009." It claimed to a help desk directive asking users to sign in with
their name and password.

In reality, it was a "phisher," which is someone who sends messages
trying to fool e-mailers into divulging passwords and other personal
information.

Just a handful of people fell for it, and no personal information was lost, according to an IT official at NCSU. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story here. You may need a password to access it.

And here's the warning NCSU issued related to the hoax.