North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-04-23

It's Friday, April 23rd. Tonight, the University at the Cutting Edge of Scientific Discovery. In North Carolina, now. Good evening, everyone. I'm Rita Matrey. Thanks for joining us for this Friday edition of North America. The first week of testimony has concluded in a Charlotte lawsuit that seeks to end a 30-year-old desegregation order in the Charlotte Mecklenburg school system. A bit later in the program, I'll be joined by North Carolina now's Charlotte Bureau Chief David Haynes, who will fill us in on what's transpired this past week and this historic court case, which could end three decades of court-ordered busing. Also on tonight's program, a look at how NC State Centennial Campus is a perfect marriage of academics and industry. But first up tonight, the University of North Carolina is facing a monumental challenge. How will it manage an influx of 48,000 new students by the year 2008?

And how will it fund the almost $7 billion worth of construction and renovation needed on the campuses to accommodate the burgeoning student body? I'm joined now by the President of the University of North Carolina, Molly Corbett Broad, President Broad. Thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. I'm pleased to be here. This $7 billion is a figure that is impossible to comprehend. You have brought along a graphic to illustrate for us exactly where that money is going to be going. So we've got the graphic there on the screen right now and maybe you can break it down for us. Indeed. The result of the Consultant Study indicates that $3 billion will be essential for modernizing, renovating, and rehabilitating existing facilities on the University campuses on all 16 campuses. That we will need an additional $1.6 billion for enrollment capacity and then finally $2.3 billion in special purpose facilities. I'd be pleased to talk about each of them, but let me just set the backdrop.

Okay. The General Assembly, believing that the University was facing serious problems with our capital facilities called upon us to retain an independent consultant and to actually produce building by building a 10-year capital plan that assessed the condition and laid out the plan for addressing the problem. None of us expected that the number coming from this study would be the staggering number that it is and it has left us all stunned. I'd like for you to go through each of the individual points that we have on the graphic, but before we do that, let me ask you, how did we get to this point that the University needs this much money? I think there are a number of reasons that explain how we got here. The primary reason is that North Carolina has always dealt with capital on a pay-as-you-go basis, as if you would go out and purchase a home with cash rather than to borrow it. As a result, the size of the capital budget always was defined by what remained after the operating budget was funded.

The accumulation of those amounts has been inadequate to meet the needs for capital, for buildings, for infrastructure on the campuses. That is a primary reason. Another reason is that particularly in science, the laboratory needs, the modernization requirements to meet current essentials for teaching students as we approach the new century have just caused us to completely change the way we use buildings and the kind of equipment that we need. So it's a combination of our own past and planning for the future needs of a university. Let's go ahead and put that graphic back up on the screen so then you can take us through point by point. Would you like to start at the top or the bottom? Let's start at the bottom because I think the most significant point of the study is to acknowledge that we have not invested in maintaining and renovating buildings. And for universities that grew significantly during the 1960s and the 1970s, when the baby boom hit university campuses, they are now experiencing significant problems with buildings if they have not been looking after them.

So that is a major issue. We have buildings that have not been renovated. The backlog of deferred maintenance is substantially greater than any of us was aware of. And then when you add this issue of modernization and updating to meet current requirements, it leaves us with a huge number for rehabilitation. Modernization does that mean putting in the infrastructure for computers and things of that nature? It means life science laboratories that have the new fume hoods and the new equipment and instrumentation. But there are huge differences in heating, ventilating and air conditioning requirements given the changes in technology. Certainly it includes infrastructure for wiring to take advantage of information technology. But it also includes fundamental things in the classroom. If you are going to be using computers in every class, you need access to electrical outlets to telephone lines if you are going to be hooked into the internet, things that just were not a part of classrooms in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Let's move up the bar graph now and take us through the next phase here. The next phase suggests that we are going to need about $1.6 billion to deal with capacity. Now capacity relates to the projected enrollment growth. And one of the major results of this is that the size of our capital plan is greater for rehabilitation than it is for enrollment growth. What this tells us is that we have space on a number of our campuses. It just is not in usable condition. And if we rehabilitate that space, we will be able to accommodate a significant part of the enrollment growth on those campuses without having to construct all new buildings. Which is less expensive indeed indeed.

Now the next one up on the graph there at the very top, we have other special needs. Yes, and that includes a significant part is research facilities. You may know that the University of North Carolina has moved up quite dramatically in the past decade in the volume of research that we conduct. We were ranked sixth in the country 12 years ago. We are now ranked third in the United States in the volume of research that is conducted. For us to continue to be competitive in gaining those grants, we will need research facilities that meet the requirements of state of the art research. And so there is a significant investment in those facilities. And the special needs capital is also where the $66 million for the conversion to digital television comes in. It is exactly where the conversion to digital television comes in. Now let's talk about the efforts that you have been working with the state treasurer as to finding some creative ways to come up with this money because it's currently not there in the state budget. So we have to find it somewhere, right?

What we do is clear the pays you go is no longer going to be applicable. We've been working very closely with Harlan Boyle's the state treasurer. The person who knows the state very well and his financial acumen and his fiscal prudence have helped to bring North Carolina to have the highest rating of any state in the country. He has designed means by which we can borrow using bonds and take advantage in a fiscally prudent way of this strong credit rating which would give us access to capital at a relatively low interest rate. And so our plan working through the General Assembly is to gain authorization to build a response to this need over 10 years and begin systematically to address the problem. In addition to the capital needs for the university, we also have this huge amount of students that are going to be coming in and you're devising a plan in order to redirect to the students away from the largest campuses to some of your smaller campuses and hold down the growth at the two largest campuses and see state and UNC Chapel Hill. Tell us how that's going to work.

Exactly because we have access capacity at some of the small and mid-sized campuses, it would make a great deal of sense. If students would choose to attend those campuses, it would also produce economies of scale for those campuses that do not now exist. So a major part of our effort will be to align enrollment growth with a capital plan and it will mean that those campuses must aggressively pursue and recruit students if we're to be successful in accommodating the enrollment growth without adding campuses and without a significant number of additional new buildings. How are you hoping to accomplish that through marketing techniques? There are a number of strategies but clearly effective marketing, understanding your market, pursuing it, working with children and their families beginning as early as elementary school and in through the middle school. It will require a sophisticated communication strategy. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us tonight and good luck.

You are welcome. Thank you. NC State University's Centennial Campus scored another major tenant, Lucent Technologies announced last week, that it's locating a new optical networking research and development facility at Centennial Campus. This addition of Lucent is just the latest example of how research universities like NC State are in the business of creating new business. Shannon Vickery has more. This pond south of Kerry is like most small ponds throughout North Carolina, but as ordinary as it may look, its green surface coating commonly known as the tiny plant duck weed may prove to be quite extraordinary. In search lab at North Carolina State University, Dr. Ann Marie Stomp has found a new use for duck weed. What we're trying to do at this plant is turn it into the best protein production system in the world. Everybody's heard about the genetic revolution and genes and what genes really are, they're just blueprints for these great big molecules called proteins and proteins are what really are responsible for all of the diversity and function that you see in nature.

So if you can make and understand those proteins, you can recreate all sorts of very exciting biological diversity to get biological organisms to be all sorts of new than one of the things. Dr. Stomp has worked for four years to genetically engineer duck weed. She's found that by inserting specific genes into the plant, duck weed can produce a variety of biotechnology products. Consider for just a moment the insulin industry, the market for insulin is two and a half to three billion dollars annually. And over the next year, Biolex hopes to genetically engineer duck weed so that this tiny green plant is able to produce drug proteins like insulin. And while Stomp's duck weed discovery is cutting edge science, the NC State Professor is also a head of another trend, the race to turn academic research into a profitable business. Stomp has teamed up with two business partners to form a company called Biolex.

Our dream in the company is to make it the premier gene expression company for the future applications of all these exciting advances that are being made in genetics. Our university, like most universities, insists that any patentable inventions that are developed in our research programs are owned by the university. Mark Crowle monitors the research at NC State. He says that like many universities nationwide, NC State has seen the value of using research and technology created in its labs to build new businesses. The way that you reach people in our society and our economy, like it or not, is through the free market system. You get it into commerce, you make it and have it made into products. However, the university has also taken this idea further by establishing a one of its kind capital investment fund. Don't ask Centennial venture partners, the fund was created to help start between 10 and 12 new businesses. We have slightly more than $10 million under management and all that capital came from the private funds that are managed by North Carolina State University's endowments and foundations. We look to invest in opportunities that are commercializing intellectual property, either coming out of NC State, research activities or related to NC State.

The university plans to use the fund to provide capital to start up companies like Biolex, which received about $150,000 from the fund. Companies that would otherwise have a hard time finding an initial investor. Our technology is extremely early, it's embryonic. A lot of times we may have a prototype, but we really haven't done any production scale up, for example, or we haven't done all the proof of concept testing that needs to be done. And according to Stomp, that makes putting together a new business a challenge. It's like getting a whole other PhD degree. You have to learn, you have to be able to think like a scientist, then you have to take that hat off and you have to learn how to communicate and think effectively from a totally different perspective, which is commercialization. But if the company is successful, it can be profitable for both the scientist who initiated the research and the university, which owns the technology's patent. Like any other venture manager, you hear the people at Centennial Venture Partners talk about a 10-fold return, so they're looking for investments that have the potential to have a return on investment in that range.

But this new marriage of academics and business also poses the question. Are we pursuing research because of its academic and scholarly interest, or are we pursuing it because of its dollar potential? And I believe part of the emphasis in doing the Centennial Fund and focusing on new business development as a priority also has to do with our belief that that's one of the best ways to grow this campus, to get companies working here with our faculty, giving students access to real world science and technology opportunities. I guess first and foremost, I'm a teacher, so I really feel that this is just not a money making endeavor to promote my own career, but I really feel that we need a same way. So our students will win, and our university and our citizens will win, as well as our company being able to move ahead and create jobs and opportunity here in North Carolina. Opportunities which at least for Biolex seem endless.

I'm a pragmatic idealist, and what I would say is the potential for BioTank is as great if not greater than the potential of microelectronics. So if there is a Microsoft, there can be a violence. NC State's 1,000 acre Centennial campuses quickly emerging is one of the fastest growing research parks in the nation. Well, coming up on the program and update on the Charlotte Mecklenburg School desegregation trial. But first, here's Mitchell Lewis with a summary of today's statewide headlines. Hello, Mitch. Hi there, Marita. Good evening, everyone. The State House rejected a bill to expand North Carolina's hate crime law to include attacks on homosexuals and the disabled by a 58 to 48 vote. State law allows tougher sentences for crimes involving race, religion, or national origin. If it's proven that hatred for people in those groups motivated the crime. The defeated bill would have added homosexuals, the elderly, women, and the disabled to groups covered by the hate crimes law. Conviction under the hate crimes law would have become a felony, and penalties increased.

Democratic leaders are calling for a two-year extension of the state moratorium on new hog farms and a comprehensive study of how to reduce water pollution sources. Governor Jim Hunt is endorsing the moratorium extension and has outlined a 10-year plan to phase out hog waste lagoons and convert to new technology. Although the hog industry feels government should pay for most of the conversion, Governor Hunt suggests the cost should be split between farmers, integrators, and processors. And that the state should help small farmers who can't afford the conversion. The highway patrol and other state law enforcement agencies are now required to record information on the race, age, and sex of all drivers pulled over. Governor Hunt has signed the measure into law. The bill was pushed by blacks who argued troopers pull over more black drivers than whites. Crime control secretary Richard Moore says hard data is needed to determine if the perception exists. North Carolina is the first state in the nation to have such a law. A state senate committee has approved a plan to end the election of judges to the state court of appeals and justices to the state Supreme Court. Under the plan, appeals court judges would be appointed by the governor.

A nominating committee selected by lawyers and state officials would be able to nominate three to five people for any vacancy on the state court of appeals or Supreme Court. But the governor would have the option to choose from the list or make his own appointment. If the proposal is approved by the full senate and house, it would go before voters in 2000 for their approval. A researcher at North Carolina State University has discovered some important information about prostate disease in humans. Dr. C. Lee Robinette, a veterinary scientist, has spent year studying rats and prostate disease. Robinette's ass stress can create excess production of a hormone called prolactin that appears to implement the prostate in rats. His ass stress may lead to the same effect on the human prostate. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather, cooler weather is on the way for the weekend. Highs will mostly be in the mid to upper 60s across the state. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast for most areas for Saturday. The number of complaints about pharmacists received by the state board of pharmacy jumped significantly in 1998.

263 complaints were filed last year compared to 219 in 1997. At least 80% of the complaints concerned incorrect medication or directions. Board officials say pharmacists are working longer hours, attending to more customers and wrangling with insurance companies. Some drug stores have started giving pharmacists more scheduled breaks as a way to relieve some of the pressure. State regulators have issued an air quality permit for a proposed new-core steel recycling plant in Hurtford County. Officials with the state division of air quality say the permit sets limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead, and toxic air pollutants. The permit was issued after the EPA determined the plant's emissions would have little effect on visibility at a nearby wildlife refuge. Other permits are still needed before construction of the $360 million mill can begin. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. For more information, visit our website at www.webebebebebebebebebe.com

The plaintiffs in a historic school desegregation lawsuit have concluded they are a first week of testimony in a Charlotte federal courtroom. The lawsuit, which was filed by a group of parents more than two years ago, challenges a 30-year-old desegregation order for the Charlotte Mecklingberg school system. Because of the order, the school system has been using forced busing and magnet schools to integrate as 133 schools.

But the parents who filed the lawsuit object saying the race-based method of pupil assignment is unconstitutional. David Haynes has been covering the trial for North Carolina now and he is here with an update. David, thank you for making the drive out from Charlotte. We appreciate you being here. Good evening. So what points have the plaintiffs scored so far this week? Well, they have been repeatedly making their point that the school system uses a race-based student assignment approach in all of its student assignments for all 100,000 or so students. But interestingly, what they have been doing is they have been using former and really interesting present members of the school board in order to make that point. The current school board members have been testifying, they have been subpoenaed by the plaintiffs and have been testifying and saying, yes, we do have a race-based student assignment plan to kind of put some in a difficult place. So the school board members have been getting up on the stand criticizing school board activity? Yeah, that's a really interesting part of it. The school board is charged with integrating the schools and adhering to the original court order and they are put in the position of criticizing the activity of the school board.

And now these are people that have strong feelings, particularly for neighborhood schools, but it's one thing to kind of for a politician to get on the stump. And to say that sort of thing, it's another thing for the politician to have to testify to that in court. It is a measure of accountability that seems to make them very uncomfortable. Now, if these race-based assignments are required by this court order, then how do the plaintiffs have a case here? It's a really good question and it really kind of gets to the heart of it. Their contention is that the school system has really held on to the desegregation order of the swan case in 1970 for far, far too long. The original swan case, Bayfield was never intended to last for the 30 or so years at the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board has been finding holding onto it. They're asking this court to essentially declare the school system unitary and let them use something other than race to assign students to the schools. And I understand that Bill Capacheon actually testified this week. What was that like?

Well, it was strange in a way because Bill Capacheon now lives in California. He moved there in 1998. And here is a guy who is going to bring a tremendous amount of tumult to the largest school system in the Carolinas. It's not really his problem anymore. His child goes to school in Torrance, California. And he had kind of a flippant California laid-back attitude about the whole thing. It was very strange. And we should say that he was the one that really got this whole ball rolling a couple of years ago. His daughter got denied a seat in a magnet school because she is white or she is not black. And she would have gotten a seat in the school or he presumed she would have gotten a seat in the school if she had been another race. And that's what originally triggered the lawsuit. So what can we look forward to next? What's coming up? Oh, next week should be the most interesting in this part of the trial for sure. The former superintendent, Dr. John Murphy, is going to testify now. I worked in the Murphy administration. I was a spokesman for the school system. Murphy is the one who put the magnet school program in that really triggered the lawsuit. He is a very Macavellian kind of a guy and it is no secret. He hates several members of the school board.

But because he is so Macavellian, it's really kind of hard to say what he is going to say on the stand because it's a very complex issue that he's dealing with until he actually testifies. He is testifying for the plaintiffs against his old employers of the school board. And you will be back next week and you will fill us in on how that testimony transpires. All right, thank you for your time, David. Appreciate it. And that wraps up North Carolina now for the evening and the week. Thanks for having me on a part of it. We'll see you back here on Monday. Good night. .