Three issues from 1999 to watch in 2000

The beginning of a new year is really only the progression of one day after the next, natural and mundane, but human custom has made it so that we note it as the crossing of a threshold. This customary observance is heightened now as the upcoming threshold is especially (but only) numerically significant (from year 1999 to year 2000). Here Clarion Call bows to custom to mark this crossing by presenting three higher-education issues of 1999 that will bear watching in 2000.




UNC, Public College Students Post High Family Income

On average, students at the “flagship” universities of state college systems have a higher family income than their counterparts at private colleges and universities, according to a recent Washington Post report. The University of North Carolina is no exception.

A growing percentage of students are opting out of graduate school in order to stake their claim on the booming Internet business, according to a recent New York Times report.


UNC’s Partnership Raises Questions

Sam Houston, executive director of UNC’s Center for School Leadership Development (NCCSLD), who had earlier told Clarion Call that NCCSLD was not in partnership with the International Center for Leadership in Education and its leader, Dr. Willard Daggett, went back on his word this week. In a report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on Tuesday, Houston said that NCCSLD’s relationship with Daggett’s firm was, indeed, a “partnership.”


UNC Consultant Gets Big Bucks for Small Bang, Report Says

Education consultant Willard Daggett lies about his resume, gives false information, and charges an exorbitant amount for his speeches — triple what most education scholars charge — according to an Oct. 22 Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) report. School systems across the country, however, believe in Daggett’s message and gladly pay the $7,000 to $10,000 a day that it costs to hear him speak. Among them is the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.



Professors make case for tuition increases – with “string” attached

Two department heads at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took their case for tuition increases to cover faculty salary increases to the students last week. David Guilkey, professor and chairman of the Department of Economics, and Ed Samulski, professor and chairman of the Department of Chemistry, wrote an editorial in the student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, Oct. 28 in favor of a five-year plan to raise tuition at UNC-CH by $1,500.

A new study challenges the assumption that an education from an elite college translates into greater earnings than an education from a less prestigious school.


Apocalypse at UNC

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in crisis, according to professors and students who squared off in a debate this week over a plan to increase student tuition. The tuition increases would be used to boost faculty salaries. The debate was sponsored by UNC-CH’s Dialectic and Philanthropic societies.