Our neighbors in Tennessee invented “free” community college. In 2014, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam launched the Tennessee Promise – two years of tuition-free community college for Tennessee high school graduates. Tennessee uses lottery money to create a “last-dollar” scholarship that pays a student’s tuition after federal and other aid have been tapped.1 More than 33,000… READ MORE
UNC’s ‘uncommon education to the common man’
CHAPEL HILL – In June, a foundation established by the late owner of the Washington Redskins awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $1 million for its efforts to enroll low-income students and support them through graduation. Carolina beat out Brown, Rice, Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley to win the 2017… READ MORE
Giving middle-schoolers a First Look at college
CHAPEL HILL – Thinking about college doesn’t start when you’re a senior in high school. It starts in middle school, if not sooner. Or – especially if no one in your family has been to college – sometimes not at all. Part of the reason UNC Chapel Hill won the $1 million Cooke Prize for… READ MORE
NC Promise: $500 a semester tuition at WCU, UNCP, ECSU
CULLOWHEE – It was a bold move by the 2016 General Assembly – reducing tuition at three state universities to $500 a semester for in-state students, starting in the fall of 2018. Once room, board, books and fees are taken into account, Western Carolina University Chancellor David Belcher says, the NC Promise program should reduce… READ MORE
Spellings: “Make higher education our higher expectation”
CHAPEL HILL – It seems so simple – yet not everyone seems to get it. “A better educated state benefits us all,” begins Higher Expectations, the University of North Carolina System’s new strategic plan for 2017-22. “That basic truth has guided North Carolina for centuries. It drives our commitment to public education, including our constitutional… READ MORE
Spellings: Advising Corps breaks down ‘college isn’t for me’ myth
CHAPEL HILL – First-generation college students face so many barriers: Standardized tests, applications, financial aid forms, deciding which schools to consider – even knowing how a college campus feels. For many, the process can be formidable. That’s where the College Advising Corps comes in, University of North Carolina President Margaret Spellings says in the accompanying… READ MORE
WCU keeps its access and affordability promise to WNC
By DAVID O. BELCHER CULLOWHEE – While Western North Carolina’s mountains attract millions of visitors from around the world, beneath the beauty of the majestic peaks and long-range vistas exists a threat to the region’s economic viability. That threat is the low level of higher education attained by those who call these mountains home and… READ MORE