Posts from — February 2011

NC State ranks #9 on this year’s Best Value list, based on a number of factors, including cost of attendance, financial aid availability, and academic quality.

100 Best Value Colleges 2011: Princeton Review, USA Today Ranks

www.suite101.com

On February 22, 2011, the Princeton Review and USA Today published the list of Best Value Public Schools and Best Value Private Schools.

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Passion Rules!

With the all the concerns over budget issues throughout higher education, I was surprised to read the report on job openings.  Apparently we’re having a boom!

Advertised job openings in higher education surged 44.4 percent in 2010 compared to a decline of 27.2 percent in 2009, according to the newly released Higher Education Employment Report from HigherEdJobs.

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Passion Rules!

Leading attorneys in the U.S. now charge as much as $1,250 an hour. See a ranking of the top billers: http://on.wsj.com/gEmvYj

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Dollars Rule!  Not.

Passion Rules!

Thank the Wolfpack for the snack most of us enjoy on airlines, the honey-roasted peanut.  Yep, the sweet legume was invented by NC State researcher Bill Hoover.  Read more at the News & Observer.com.

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Passion Rules

UNC President Tom Ross today issued the following statement on Governor Beverly Perdue’s proposed 2011-13 state budget:

Given the economic climate and the size of the projected revenue shortfall, Governor Perdue had to make some very difficult decisions in order to balance her proposed state budget.  All of us in the University appreciate the challenges she faced and are grateful that she identifies potential ways to avoid even more severe cuts that certainly would cause permanent damage to our institutions. We are particularly thankful that she recognizes the critical importance of our enrollment growth funding and need-based financial aid, although those needs would be only partially met, as well as operating reserves for new buildings.  In addition, revenues from tuition increases would stay on the campuses to provide more need-based financial aid and help reduce the impact of proposed budget cuts.

As our state struggles to work its way out of this recession, affordable access to higher education has never been more important to North Carolina’s economic recovery and long-term competitiveness.  That’s why I am deeply concerned that additional cuts of the magnitude proposed would place academic programs across the University in jeopardy and require the loss of more than 1,500 jobs.  With fewer faculty, staff, and course sections, many more students would not be able to obtain the courses and academic services they need to graduate on time.  [Read more →]

According to the data, NC State has 180,630 living alumni.  We are in contact with (or can be in contact with) 95.4% of the group either by mail, email, or phone.

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Passion Rules!

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors has approved a package of tuition and fees that will raise costs by an average of $401 for in-state, undergraduate students next fall. While all 16 campuses sought to increase tuition by the 6.5 percent maximum set by the governing board, the impact differs based on the size of fee increases and whether administrators elected to spread out an increase approved last year.

The largest jump next fall will come for undergraduates at Fayetteville State University, where the combination of higher tuition and fees will raise costs by about 18 percent to $4,084 next fall. Tuition and fees will go up $606 at UNC Asheville, $481 at N.C. State University, and $189 at Elizabeth City State University. [Read more →]

Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956), the pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, challenged the artistic tradition of using an easel and brush by pouring and dripping paint onto canvases. His groundbreaking works had a childlike quality which belied their stunning complexity and sophistication. Driven by inner torment which compelled him to paint, Pollock attached large canvases to the floor, densely pouring, dripping and flinging paint embedded with sand or glass onto them with intense physical movement. Influenced by Picasso, Miró, and the Surrealists, Pollock also revolutionized a style of painting in which the work has no identifiable parts or point of emphasis, and is painted with a stream-of-consciousness technique called psychic automatism.

As reported by Inside Higher Education, “The chair of the Iowa House Appropriations Committee has introduced a bill to force the University of Iowa to sell Jackson Pollock’s “Mural” and to use the $140 million that the painting is worth to set up a trust for scholarships, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

The bill states that the terms of the sale would have to allow “Mural” to be back on campus for three months every four years, so students could continue to learn from it.

In the past, when the idea of selling the famous painting has come up, university officials have noted that art museum ethics bar such sales, and that auctioning off the painting could endanger the reputation of the university and its art museum, while depriving students and faculty of an important work of modern art.”

I was surprised when I read the report, but it got me thinking.  Let’s play a little Devil’s Advocate.  Why would the Iowa Legislature even consider something like this.

The $140 million scholarship endowment would generate $4.2 million annually if the fund returned 3 percent.  It could generate $7 million annually if it generated a return of 5 percent.  Think of how many students could benefit from that kind of investment in scholarships. [Read more →]

Krispy Kreme Challenge Co-Chairs Sudeep Sunthankar ‘12, Rachel Turner ‘12, and John Yanik ’12 along with Chancellor Randy Woodson present a check to Chief of Pediatric Surgery Dr. William Adamson of the North Carolina Children’s Hospital.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge hosted a record 7,500 participants this year and raised $100,000 for the North Carolina Children’s Hospital.

Participants departed from the NC State University Belltower and had one hour to run two miles to the Krispy Kreme store on Peace Street, consume a dozen doughnuts, and return to the finish line at the Belltower. In order to supply the event, doughnuts were shipped to the Peace Street location from over ten Krispy Kreme stores across the state. [Read more →]