Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the percentage of in-state freshmen at UNC-Chapel Hill. The correct figure is 82 percent. For a lot of students in the University of North Carolina system, North Carolina is the place they call home well before they begin college. In 2018, roughly 82 percent of … Continue reading “Did You Know? Most UNC System Grads Stay in North Carolina”
The era of the four-year bachelor’s degree is over; today, only top students graduate within the traditional college timeline. Few North Carolina colleges can graduate the majority of their students within four years—the average four-year graduation rate is only 35 percent. Even so, that rate is better than the national average of 33.3 percent. The … Continue reading “Why Do So Many North Carolina Colleges Have Such Low Graduation Rates?”
Flagship universities such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other public universities were created by their states primarily to support the higher educational needs of in-state students. Increasingly, however, in-state colleges are enrolling more out-of state students because they bring in more revenue. The Washington Post highlighted this trend and showed … Continue reading “Did You Know? UNC System Bucks Trend Favoring Out-of-State Students”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke The continued employment of an unhinged, violent anarchist as a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says a whole lot about the university system’s standards when deciding who should influence the next generation. … Continue reading “UNC-Chapel Hill: A Sanctuary Campus for Antifa on the Taxpayer’s Dime”
Campus protests started in the 1960s, but protests on today’s college campuses have a different vibe. While protests in the past pitted students against university leadership, protests in the present are supported and accommodated by presidents and administrators. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, college officials waste resources on political … Continue reading “Why Is UNC Funding a ‘Hub for Social Justice?’”
Traditionally, higher education introduced students to life’s most fundamental questions: “What is good?”; “What is true?”; “Do our lives have meaning beyond the material?”; and so on. The focus used to be on developing the whole person: To lift students morally and ethically, to pique their curiosity in all things, and to instill, as Cardinal … Continue reading “Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning”
In 2017, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 527 (now State Law 2017-196) to foster open inquiry in the state’s public colleges and universities. One of the provisions ordered the University of North Carolina system Board of Governors to produce an annual report on two categories of intellectual freedom: free speech and institutional neutrality. … Continue reading “Commencements Show the UNC System’s Struggles with Political Neutrality”
Faculty pay can vary greatly across universities and even within the same university system. Among University of North Carolina schools, the type of institution can matter as much as a professor’s job title. Yet, for even the most highly paid professors, their salaries are eclipsed by administrators. A Martin Center analysis of salary data from … Continue reading “The High Price of Faculty and Administrative Salaries in the UNC System”
College meal plans can help students avoid buying groceries and cooking for themselves—but they can also cost thousands of dollars each semester. In the University of North Carolina system, some students get a relative bargain, but others pay 60 percent more with fewer spending options. Even though some UNC campuses take in hundreds of thousands … Continue reading “UNC System Schools Profiting Off Unused Student Meals”
As March Madness hits and the public’s attention is on college basketball’s NCAA Tournament, few spectators know just how much the public subsidizes college sports. Within the University of North Carolina system, funding can range from $8 million at UNC-Asheville to an eye-popping $96 million at UNC-Chapel Hill. Revenue from broadcast agreements, ticket sales, and … Continue reading “March Madness Means Skyhigh Athletics Spending”