Should UNC limit enrollment? Reduce it, even?

Gasp!

This isn't the sort of idea that has ever gotten much serious consideration in North Carolina, a state that prides itself on providing an affordable and accessible education to its citizens.

But these woeful economic times are changing the minds of decision-makers. In today's paper, a story about why this may not be the worst time for the state to consider scaling back enrollment.

One note: There's an error in the story that will be corrected. There are 58 community college campuses in North Carolina, not 56.

In today's paper, a big story about the rising cost of college and the impact legislative decisions may have, in particular, on financial aid and debt levels.

In reporting the story, I ran across an interesting student at N.C. Central University, William Anyu. He didn't make the story, but his tale is worth telling here. A version will likely also appear in the Durham News at some point soon.

William Anyu is so tuned in to his finances that he can  tell how much he spent on the clothes he’s wearing.

That gray cardigan was $15 from the clearance rack at J.C. Penney.  The sweatpants? Ten bucks at Walmart.

The N.C. Central University sophomore is proud of his financial  smarts. But ask him about the rising costs of college, and a brief  storm cloud shadows his sunny disposition.

“It’s a depressing thought,” he said one recent evening during his  graveyard shift manning the front desk of a NCCU residence hall.  
“I can’t do anything about it.”
 

N.C. Central University is dipping deeper into its endowment than is customary to help its cash-strapped students cope with the rising cost of college.

The university will spend about 8.5 percent of its $19 million endowment next year, a  jump from the standard 5.5 percent it usually takes each year. Doing so will yield an extra $142,000 that the university will use for scholarships.

(image courtesy citytown.com)

At a university where more than 90 percent of students receive financial aid, the extra money is expected to benefit 142 students who will receive grants of $1,000 each.

A committee of the university's trustee board approved the unusual move Tuesday, and the full board will likely give its blessing Wednesday.

NCCU and most universities generally take 5 or 5.5 percent of its endowment each year, based on a three-year rolling average, for scholarships and other uses. But mounting budget cuts and rising college costs prompted the move, officials said Tuesday during meetings of the university's board of trustees.

Read Wednesday's News & Observer for more.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a leading activist of the civil rights movement, will give the undergraduate commencement address at N.C. Central University on Saturday, May 14.

As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn, according to a university news release. In 1961, he participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Despite being beaten by angry mobs and arrested by police, Lewis continued to defy and fight Jim Crow legislation.
 
In 1963, he was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) the release continues. Though just 23 years old, he was considered one of the “Big Six” leaders of the movement, along with Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer and Roy Wilkins. He was an organizer and speaker at the historic March on Washington in August of 1963.
 

A N.C. Central University professor has been appointed chairman of the state's African-American Heritage Commission.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has named Freddie L. Parker to the post. Parker, currently the interim chair of NCCU's history department, joined the commission at its formation two years ago.

The General Assembly established the commission to advise and assist the Secretary of Cultural Resources in preserving, interpreting and promoting African-American history, arts and culture.

An NCCU alumnus, Parker has lent his time to a number of organizations related to history. He is past chairman of the North Carolina Historical Highway Marker Commission and currently is chairman of the African American History Project Advisory Board at Tryon Palace in New Bern.

Last fall, he was elected vice-president of the Historical Society of North Carolina and will become its president this year.
 
In January, Parker won entry into the North Caroliniana Society, a nonprofit group that selects as members North Carolinians who meet the strict criterion of "adjudged performance" in service to the state's heritage.
 
Parker received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from NCCU in 1975 and 1977 respectively, and the Ph.D. in American History from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1987. He is the author of “Running for Freedom: Slave Runaways in NC, 1775-1840,” and “Stealing a Little Freedom: Advertisements for Slave Runaways in NC, 1791-1840.”

Charlie Nelms has little patience for the 15 percent cut to Pell Grant funding proposed by House Republicans.

The proposed spending bill would cut millions in federal research and financial aid funding and would reduce the maximum Pell Grant - the primary source of federal need-based aid for college - from $5,500 to $4,705.

The $845 in lost potential funding per student could have a significant impact, Nelms said Wednesday.

"It would just decimate the whole notion of access and opportunity," he said. "We cannot afford to go backward."

At NCCU, 65 percent of students - more than 3,000 in all - receive Pell funding. The reduction would surely keep some from college, he warned.

"It is the base of our financial aid package," he said. "The people who are impacted are the people who can least afford to be impacted."

The House proposal is part of a budget-cutting plan that would trim $100 billion from President Obama's spending request for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

Julianne Malveaux, president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, is the first scheduled speaker in N.C. Central University's Leadership Initiative Program Series.

Malveaux will speak from the topic, “What Language is OK in Leadership,” on Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m. in the Whiting Criminal Justice Building. The event is free and open to the public.
 
A labor economist, noted author and commentator, Malveaux's writings have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Charlotte Observer, the New Orleans Tribune, the Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Examiner.

Malveaux has hosted television and radio programs and appeared widely as a commentator on networks including CNN, BET, PBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, C-SPAN and others.

In today's paper, the full story on new UNC President Tom Ross's desire to seek out duplication within the UNC system.

This should be an interesting process. On individual campuses, faculties aren'g generally programmed to think first about working collaboratively with their counterparts at other public institutions. It happens, but it isn't as high a priority as it's going to become.

Ross's first big venture will seek out what he calls "unnecessary duplication" among academic programs, an endeavor sure to result in some hurt feelings and turf wars.

Here's the story.

The N.C. Central University marching band's triumphant trip to the Tournament of Roses parade ended up costing a bit less than expected.

Still, the university wasn't able to raise the total sum through private donations. Thus, it used about $130,000 from a student fee account to cover the difference.

(photo courtesy nccueagles.smugmug.com)
The total cost was $430,950, far less than the $500,000 university officials had estimated after learning in late 2009 that it had earned the coveted invitation to the Jan. 1. parade in Pasadena, Calif.

NCCU then went on a huge, frantic fundraising drive, since sending hundreds of band members across the company with their uniforms, trumpets, flutes and tubas isn't cheap.

The university raised about $300,000 towards that effort. The difference, $129,345, was paid through student activity fees. That's a fee each student pays that funds a variety of student organizations and efforts like the band, student groups and intramural sports.

The $129,345 is a lot to shell out from that fund for one event, but Chancellor Charlie Nelms said its a perfectly suitable use of the money.

"There's a range of things it supports," he said of the student fee fund. "It's like your household budget. You might spend a little less on something and a little more on something, depending on your needs."

At N.C. Central University, a Martin Luther King march and rally scheduled for Tuesday has been pushed back a week due to the winter weather.

The rally will be held Tuesday, Jan. 18. Participants are asked to meet at 10:40 a.m. that day in front of the student union.

Evening classes tonight (Monday) have been canceled and classes resume Tuesday at 11 a.m.