North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-08-10

It's Tuesday, August 10th. Tonight, community colleges trying to meet the job demands of the future without dated equipment in North Carolina now. Welcome to North Carolina now for this Tuesday evening. So glad you could join us tonight. Many North Carolinians flocked to the coast during these summer months to experience the rejuvenation that comes from breathing in the salt air and listening to the pounding surf. Our own Bob Gardner has a real knack for searching out the best of the leisure locations. So tonight, he'll take us to Southport, a perfect destination for your next trip to the coast. And even though we are in the grips of summer, thoughts are turning toward the start of a new school year, which is just around the corner. Tonight's program focuses on the challenges facing higher education in our state will examine the problem community colleges are facing in teaching high tech job training courses without dated equipment. But first we turn our attention to the University of North Carolina and its flagship campus. UNC Chapel Hill is not only searching for a new chancellor to replace Michael Hooker who passed away at the end of June, but is also looking to hire a new provost and a new vice chancellor of finance.

In addition, UNC Chapel Hill is facing a budget crunch and is in dire need of funding to pay for repairs and renovations of its campus. Charged with addressing these demands is this evening's guest. He is the interim chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, William McCoy, Chancellor McCoy. Thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight with everything you've got going on over there at campus. My pleasure, Marita. Let me start by asking you with the start of this school year coming and with the recent passing of Chancellor Hooker, what is the mood of the campus there? Well, I would say that there is a feeling amongst all the members of the community that we have experienced a really big loss and the loss of a visionary leader who made a great contribution to the university. At the same time, there is a great feeling of pulling together, working together as a team to continue to move the university forward on the course that he had so clearly outlined.

There is currently a national search underway to find a new permanent chancellor for UNC Chapel Hill. In your opinion, what type of person should become the new chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill? Well, I think, again, I think the ideal chancellor would be one who understands the needs of the university of the students who has the vision of moving the university forward into the new century. That would include the ability to understand the needs and also translate those through good strategic planning and budgeting processes to make sure that the environment is set to be able to accomplish all that is needed. So in the interim, however, you are charged with the responsibility of holding down the fort, so to speak, and there are great many issues that you are having to address. Let's start with the newest of the information first and talk about the results of a study that were just released today about drinking on campus and the results have found some pretty encouraging results.

Well, that's very true. The results were based on a study made at the North Carolina Highway Center for Safety to determine through breathalyzer tests how much our students were drinking. This study was made in last October and November, around 1,850 students were asked if they would be willing to voluntarily take the breathalyzer test as they were coming back to the dorms or the sororities or the attorney houses. 1790 agreed to do it and the findings were quite interesting. There is much less drinking based on that study than had been anticipated. For example, in general, 72% of the students had no blood alcohol content throughout the test. Even on the Thursday Friday and Saturday nights that one thinks of as party nights, 66% of the students had no blood alcohol content.

And, of course, even more than that, 76% had none another time. So the great majority of the students based on that study were not drinking at that time. Let's move on to another issue now. Unfortunately, I'm just going to have to brush through these topics because there's so much to discuss. The financial stability of the university has a budget shortfall of under $7 million, but that's a pretty good chunk of change. What is the university doing and what still needs to be done to compensate for that deficit? Well, we ended up with a deficit of 6.8 million, as you've suggested. And I'd like to just emphasize that based on a $1.2 plus billion budget, that's around 6 tenths of 1%. But having said that, we studied all the revenue sources, all the expense sources as well. And what we have done is we've gone through, and now we've allocated those reductions in cost to the various units.

And so that's been done. What we're doing now is moving forward with the planning process that will enhance our planning, that will enhance our budgeting process so that we do not have this type of thing in the future. So you're looking at possibly improving upon the spending policies of the university to offset problems like this arising again. What we'll be doing to improve upon the process is basically refining it. We'll be taking a look at our planning process to ensure that any time we undertake a new project or program, it is ample provided for with respect to expense money. And our objective will be to continue to move on the course, on the trajectory we've been on for the last two or three years. One of the challenges that you faced when you were acting chancellor, when Chancellor Hooker was out seeking medical treatment, was the students sit in regarding the Nike contract and the so-called sweatshop conditions overseas. And there has been some news as of late, where you've entered into some sort of agreement with Nike?

Well, what we've done is we have been working through our committee to take steps to implement what was agreed to a couple of months ago. So we will be notifying the various licensees about our agreement to work with respect to this labor code and that includes Nike. And it provides for working with the Fair Labor Association or with a pilot group to learn a little bit more about how to be sure that we are able to understand the working conditions and that they comply with the code. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us tonight and good luck to you for the start of the new school year. Thank you very much. Good to be with you. Now, turning our attention now to the community colleges. In any given year, about 80,000 people, 800,000 people received job training at one of our state's 59 community colleges. New and existing businesses depend upon community colleges to train the state's workforce. But in recent years, funding for the system has not kept up with industry demand.

Morelunberg explains. Here in the machine technology shop at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford, students are training to become the machinists and tool makers of the future. In another era, industry needed workers who could push, pull, carry and assemble. But in today's world, workers must know how to use highly technical, computerized equipment. Many of the jobs that workers are trained for are in high tech industries, but often community college instructors must teach their students on equipment that's 30 or 40 years old. Many of the colleges throughout the North Carolina are in desperate need. Really, they're training people on antiques. Although Central Carolina is in better shape than many colleges, the machine and tool die curriculum still uses some equipment made in the 1940s, like this horizontal milling machine, gang drill and this punching machine of 1945 vintage. We do have a lot of older equipment here, but we do have a lot of newer equipment too, so you learn a medium of both. But I'm kind of worried that some of the stuff is outdated and the new stuff is going to be a lot different to learn.

We need more and more of the computerized CNC controlled machines. This is what industry is buying today. The most all the machine tools being purchased today, 85% to 90% of the machine tools have a computer on them. We've got to continue to buy these kinds of these equipment to train our people to meet the market needs to be competitive globally. But state of the art equipment is expensive. This CNC vertical machining center was purchased by Central Carolina, the price tag, $70,000. The computer controlled turning center was bought at a cost of $80,000. So many community colleges just have to do without. Out of our colleges are training on the up to the minute kinds of equipment that industry is using. And so we give general skills, we give discipline, we give the language.

But unfortunately, many of those people that we graduate and send out into business and industry have to be trained further by their employer once they arrive. And we would hope that at some point we would be able to produce a graduate that could go straight to work. And that is our challenge. A challenge hindered by insufficient resources. For example, at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, many of the engineering technology programs are equipment intensive, especially those dealing with computers, like this course in PC Repair. It's very frustrating sometimes for the faculty and the students. The students come to us, warning the sod, the latest software, what's out in industry, what they see advertised. In a lot of cases, we don't have that yet. We don't necessarily stay on the cutting edge, but we try to stay current with what the general population is using in software and hardware.

But because of high replacement costs, some first-year students must use equipment that's 20 years old. One piece of equipment can be $35,000. But I need other pieces of equipment, $20,000, $10,000. So by the time I have one lab bench set up, I could have close to $1 million sitting right there. That's something that the community colleges can afford. Second-year students fare a little better with equipment that is newer, but often it still isn't up to current industry standards. Gary Dobson came to Wake Tech to receive additional career training. He praises the job instructors do with what they have, but worries about the discrepancy in quality of equipment. A lot of times when I go into a prospective employer's office or I go into a shop, managers are expecting me to know how to operate the equipment that they have, which is state of the art equipment. A lot of times the equipment here at Wake Tech falls short of those goals.

Unlike the majority of the state's community colleges, Wake Tech has one big advantage, and that is its location in the triangle, where many high-tech industries are based. Companies which often donate equipment to the school. The state of the art robots donated for this lab enabled the college to offer a program in automation robotics. But the biggest concern is that if community colleges continue to be underfunded and worker training suffers, new industries won't locate in North Carolina, and existing ones may leave, severely damaging the state's economy and its future workers. They are the ones that are going to build the new tools that will be used in the future. We would not be on Mars or the moon without machining technology or tooling die type people. We are the backbone of industry. The backbone is getting very weak. We do not want ever to have the reputation of not being able to meet the needs of business and industry, and we're getting awfully close to that right now.

This past session of the General Assembly lawmakers did take steps to put a dent in the community college's monetary needs. The state community college system received no less than $53 million in additional funds this year from the state legislature. Money that included tuition receipts and a general fund appropriation. President Lancaster says they will continue to stretch every dollar made available to the system. Well, still ahead on North Carolina now, a visit to Southport. But first here is Mitchell Lewis with tonight's statewide news summary, Mitch. Thanks, Marita. Good evening, everyone. North Carolina has won a court battle with sweepstakes firm American Family Publishers. The company has agreed to pay the state $1 million to avoid a contempt of court citation. In 1993, the state got a court order to keep the company from sending misleading sweepstakes letters to North Carolina residents. But in 1997 and 1998, American Family Publishers against and out the mailings.

The company was found in civil contempt for violating the court order. Money collected in the case will go to those who bought magazines from American Family Publishers, as well as North Carolina Public Schools. School systems around the state have been preparing their computers for the year 2000, but officials are also taking other Y2K precautions. Many of North Carolina's larger school systems are keeping students home a day longer for winter break, in case problems occur at the beginning of the New Millenium. Charlotte Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Bunkham, and New Hanover County school systems are all among those extending student vacation through at least January 3rd. The city of Charlotte is gearing up for the arrival of over 23,000 visitors. Promise keepers and all mail, religious ministry is holding an event at the Charlotte Coliseum this weekend. In addition to the thousands of attendees, the event will be filled with boost featuring sponsors products. The selling of corporate sponsorships has drawn criticism from religious leaders, but promise keepers say the sponsorships have prevented them from having to charge admission. This is the group's third visit to Charlotte since 1996.

If you're a pet lover, you could have a new choice for license plates next time you go to the DMV. The state division of motor vehicles may soon offer a new tag that includes a sketch of a dog and cat above the label I care. So far, more than 100 drivers have applied for the specialty license plate. The tags will go on sale later this year if at least 300 drivers apply for them. The plate will cost $20 with $10 of that money going toward funding for spay and neuter programs. The new plate is one of five approved by the legislature this year. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather, highs across the state will range from the low 80s to mid 90s. Skies will be partly sunny in most areas. In business news, the U.S. Forest Service has announced it will stop all ongoing and proposed logging in four western North Carolina counties. The move comes after an environmental group threatened to sue the U.S. Forest Service when the Indiana Bat was discovered in the Nantahela and Piscan National Forest. The bat is considered to be an endangered species and environmentalist feared the logging could threaten its survival.

Graham, Swain, Cherokee, and Macon counties are the areas affected by the logging freeze. Attorney General Mike Easeley's office, along with five other states and the Federal Trade Commission, are suing Equinox International. The plaintiffs have charged the company with using illegal pyramid schemes to cheat consumers out of $200 million. The lawsuit also claims the company misrepresented the potential profits to be earned by those who participated in selling its health and skin care products. Equinox International had offices in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Newton, and Fayetteville. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. As for the list, however, the rupees could be applied on several of the most costs only for the company to do so.

The start of the package receives finance funds in nearly every President will likely need the moveais' support to make it possible. At the mouth of the Cape Fear River south of Wilmington is a quaint little town tailor made to be explored on foot. It's Southport. Robob Garter takes us for a visit. Southport has spent most of its 200-year history as a sleepy little village. Now it's grown some and has moved up to unhurried. Even with the increased population, we still have a relatively slow pace. Our streets still wander off in all directions and we just don't push things too much.

Novelist in newspaper man Robert Ruarch spent much of his boyhood here and his novel The Old Man and The Boy is based on the time he spent with his grandfather in Southport. The Victorian style Ruarch House was a focal point of the 1986 film Crimes of the Heart, which was filmed almost entirely on location here. During the Civil War, blockade runners like the daring Thomas Mann Thompson were based in what is now Southport, but the village had a different name until 1887, as local historian Susan Carson points out in the book she wrote about her hometown. The original name was Smithville,ville sounded a little bit small for what their ambitious plans were to have a railroad come in and this become the port of the South. But although the name was changed to Southport, the plans for rapid growth never materialized and Southport became basically a destination for excursion boats from Wilmington traveling down the Cape Fear River, with overnight travelers enjoying places like the Old Brunswick

Inn. There are several islands just offshore from Southport. The lighthouse of Oak Island is clearly visible from the town's waterfront, while baldhead island lies further out. Southport is the terminal for the baldhead island Ferry, the only means of public transportation to and from the popular vacation destination, which allows no auto traffic. Hurricane Hazel wreaked havoc in 1954 and in 1996, Hurricane Bertha destroyed a large cedar tree around which was built a popular gathering spot, the Whittler's Bench. Because the men of the town gathered down there to talk politics and tell tales of the sea and argue in a whittle, they mostly whittled. One time they whittled so much they whittled the bench up and somebody had to replace the bench. Get the idea of what they mean by slow paced around here? Southport is best enjoyed at a stroll, whether you come for the fresh seafood or to enjoy the restored downtown area, with its heavy emphasis on antiques.

You'll also want to be sure to include a visit to the town's fine maritime museum, with its collection of artifacts and momentals of the town's seagulling heritage. Just don't come to Southport in too much of a hurry to do anything. And you can reach Southport from Highway 17 South of Wilmington by taking either Highway 87 or Route 211. And that wraps up tonight's abbreviated edition of North Carolina now. We're heading out if you're a bit early tonight to bring you Ask UNC TV. This is your chance to ask any question that you have about UNC TV of our staff members that will be here in the studio. That number to call tonight is 1-800-595-2200. In the meantime, have a great night. Bye.