Category — Updates

North Carolina State University will increase tuition by an additional $750 for the 2010-11 academic year to help offset state budget cuts of almost $20 million.

The university had raised tuition by $150 for in-state undergraduate students and $200 for all other students.  The total tuition increase will be $900 for in-state undergraduates and $950 for all other students.

“The need is immediate and the options are few,” NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson said.  “This is the second consecutive year of deep budget cuts.  With generous state support, North Carolina universities have historically held their tuition as low as possible while providing a quality education.  But low tuition without quality is no bargain and without this tuition increase, academic quality will continue to erode.”

The new state budget takes $99 million from universities.  In the last three years, the state’s universities have taken a budget cut of $575 million.  This year, the state legislature gave universities the option of raising tuition by as much as $750.  Budget projections indicate NCState could lose up to 200 course sections and 6,500 classroom seats without the tuition increase.

“At some point, we have to stop the erosion or risk long-term damage to one of the state’s greatest assets: its higher education system,” Woodson said.  “But even a tuition increase of this size is no silver bullet.  NC State will still see about a $3 million shortfall.”  NC State will use the tuition increase to restore some of the classroom seats and course sections lost in recent budget cuts, and support faculty and research that have consistently contributed to North Carolina’s economic development, the chancellor said.  Consistent with its historical mission, NC State will set aside 20 percent of the tuition increase to support need-based financial aid.

“Our promise is to continue to protect the academic core and do all we can to ensure students have the opportunity to make steady progress toward graduation,” Woodson said. [Read more →]

The artists of the future will make up new things and different nomenclatures and they’ll stand amongst their pictures and they’ll sing and laugh and quote from scriptures and when they go home they’ll dream of brilliant paintings.

Crash Test Dummies

Our News Services Group has been hard at work tweaking the Bulletin and our new science blog, Abstract, and I thought everyone would be interested in some of the changes.  Here are a few comments from Keith Nichols about what’s happening with Bulletin and Abstract.

We made a couple of changes last week that give us new ways to reach our audiences.  And before going any further, thanks to the web team for the technical and design help.

The biggest change is that the Bulletin now has a real home, which will allow us to update the site daily.  It also gives us some additional flexibility and options in our story treatments.  This is new enough to us that we’re still working out some processes – like what happens to the idea of our weekly email outreach to faculty and staff alerting them to the newest edition.  Your suggestions on that point are welcome, as are story ideas.

Here’s a more detailed report from David Hunt (David and D’Lyn Ford are our e-newsletters editors:) [Read more →]

I get my share of anonymous comments on the HiceSchool blog and they really don’t bother me.  They tend to be at least somewhat informed and contribute to the discussion.  I’ve noticed that a number of other real “news outlets” receive far more outrageous comments on their message boards.  Check out the comment section following many N&O stories and you’ll know what I mean.

It has gotten so bad that some publications are talking about requiring registration and no longer allowing anonymous comments.

The other thing that gripes me is the “fictitious” source.  You know, the friend of a friend of a friend that some bloggers use to promote their view of a particular issue…and they always support the viewpoint of the blog.  Fortunately fake sources are generally contained to the blogosphere and don’t appear in the formal news media.

A friend with Curley & Pynn communications in Orlando provides his thoughts on anonymous sources in the following contribution.   Right on Dan.

Passion Rules!

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Check back later today for more news about . . .

By Steve Townsend, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences:

Chancellor-elect Woodson recently stressed the importance of science and engineering in addressing “the grand challenges of society,”  such as water, climate and energy. At NC State, we believe this goes beyond educating those who will work directly in science and technology fields. It’s also important that we develop a strong scientific knowledge base among the general public and those who frame public policy.

Our elected and appointed officials need solid scientific information to make sound policy decisions, and citizens need the background and tools with which to evaluate those decisions. That’s why it’s important that our faculty take an interest in explaining their work outside their disciplines and that our colleges work together to prepare students not just to enter the workforce, but to be well-rounded, participatory members of society. [Read more →]

Met with students at the kick off to Communications Week today.  Had a good discussion around social media; it’s advantages and disadvantages.

As suspcted, only two students in the audience were not on Facebook. More were not on Twitter, but that’s not a surprise. Stats show that Twitter is a mid-30s phenom.  The biggest surprise is iPhone usage.  Few students have an iPhone and fewer still think the iPad will be necessary on campus.   The feeling is that if you have a laptop, and almost everyone does, why to you need an iPad.  Time will tell.  I think the iPad will revolutionize the way we communicate, but then I’m not a student.  Who knows.

Anyway, it has been a very busy day so I’m going to just post my powerpoint presentation here (8MB) for your review…and comment.  Don’t let the opening mislead you.  I intentionally try to make people uncomfortable with the Web and the “don’t tase me bro” video does a great job of doing that.  It still chokes me up 18 months later.  If you haven’t seen it, please watch.  It demonstrates the dark side of social media.  Eight million page views in 24 hours!

Passion Rules!

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The HiceSchool Blog is under attack by Russian spammers.  Fifteen messages today from .ru addresses.  So, do I merely delete or classify them as spam.  My experience has been that when you classify as spam, they just change one letter or number and come at ya again.

This kind of thing almost put the Gator Grotto out of business back when I was blogging for UF.  Unfortunately, after I left Gainesville there was no one left to manage the Grotto so it closed anyhow.  Too bad.  This social media stuff can be a very effective tool in building the network and talking to each other.

From The Bulletin Editor.

In our Oct. 8 issue, we ran an article on changes to the State Health Plan that may reduce coverage for people who smoke or have a high body mass index, and in our Oct. 15 issue we ran the first round of letters from faculty and staff members responding to the changes. This week the conversation continues with more letters from Bulletin readers. Next week, we’ll continue our examination of this topic with a look at a wellness program developed by employees in the College of Natural Resources. And in subsequent weeks we’ll attempt to get answers to more of the questions raised in your letters.
More on BMI

BMI idex has to take into consideration bone density for some groups of people. It paints a broad stroke when that is not considered. Higher bone density means more weight or muscle.

Sakinah S Abdal-Rafi
Infrastructure, Systems & Operations
Legislature Unable to Manage Plan

Governance of the State Health Plan should be insulated from the corrupting influences of political control to the maximum possible extent. The legislature has proven itself unable both to manage the plan effectively and to resist business groups’ influence to hamstring the plan with favorable subsidies. We have a situation where employee benefits are cut to fund unnecessary fee increases to medical providers. North Carolina’s ability to compete for employees has been severely damaged by the legislature’s poor management of the State Health Plan.

[Read more →]

Here’s the draft outline for a slightly more directed NC State Communications Network (on the NING page). I need everyone’s input to help make this work for everyone on campus. If not everyone, at least for the largest number of people then. Please pay close attention to the committee recommendations in light of the strategic planning process we’re about to embark upon. Like I said, much of the unit planning has already been done by the communicators at the college- and unit-level and our goal will be to create a university-wide “master plan” if you will. The college and unit plans will play directly into the master plan.

I’m also interested in your feedback on the Sevier workbook around Integrated Marketing. There’s another CASE book we’re looking into as well. Let me know if you have the “perfect” solution for this. In any case, I think it’s important that we all talk the same talk so a workbook like this will help us frame our work in terms and phrases we’re all familiar with.

So, please review the plan on the NING site and comment.

All for now.

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