TECHNICIAN
technicianonline.com
Raleigh, North Carolina
Budget woes continue to plague University
OFFICIALS AREN’T SURE HOW 18 PERCENT CUTS, INCREASED TUITION WILL IMPACT STUDENTS DIRECTLY Editor in Chief
The state’s struggle to balance its budget has simultaneously led to proposed cuts of colleges ranging from 10.7 to 13.4 percent and a tuition hike proposal from the Capitol that would increase tuition across the UNC system by 8 percent with a $200 maximum increase. The cuts and increases will mean departments will need to reduce their already meager budgets while striving to keep classes intact, and while officials say they’re doing their best to stave off cuts related to education, department heads can’t be positive how deep cuts will go.
New budget cuts announced A week after University officials announced the UNC system was asking for universities to prepare to absorb an 18 percent cut, departments are still unclear just how much impact the cuts will have. CHASS Dean Jeffery Braden said his college will definitely be cutting “seats and sections”, mostly because there’s not much else left to cut. “98.8 percent of our budget is personnel,” Braden said. “Almost all of those are either directly teaching or supporting instruction occupations. We’re being asked to plan for a 10.7 percent cut. We have already implemented a 1.7 percent
cut. If I’m going to have to come up with 9 percent more than what we’ve cut, I will lose seats and sections.” Braden said his departments have already made cuts, and said there will be more, but said the next phase will strive to keep the quality of education stable, from giving teaching assistants more responsibilities to raising class sizes. “We’re taking extraordinary efforts to increase the number of seats,” Braden said. “It’s a choice between no sections and big sections and most students would prefer big sections.” Associate Registrar Michelle Johnson said her division, which is made up of registration and records and admissions, is taking precautions to prevent
overcrowding in classes, especially as sections are cut. “There’s been a trend of constantly increasing the freshman class in recent years,” Johnson said. “This year we’re not doing that.” Johnson said while the University will be enrolling fewer students in the fall, current students will not be barred from registering. “We’re trying to control the number of new freshman coming in and keep it at or below what it was last year,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to experience that enrollment growth. It’s not a good year to have more students coming in look-
Merchants report low summer sales as street renovations limit traffic, parking
OVERHEARD BY AMANDA KARST
“How has Hillsborough Street construction effected you?”
Ty Johnson Editor in Chief
STREET continued page 3
insidetechnician
“Since it’s summer school I have to drive to school, which is a pain. But Hillsborough needed to be redone, it’s overdue, and worth the extra traffic.” Ryan McCann sophomore, textile engineering
“I’m a visiting student, so I haven’t seen how it was preconstruction. But I’ve been able to cross the street and get to restaurants. Sometimes I have to walk a couple of minutes but that’s the only hindrance. My parking space is on E Lot so I don’t have to worry about finding a space on Hillsborough Street.” Matt James unc senior, political major
“By the vet school, parking is horrendous. We park in a grass lot and it’s so muddy that sometimes people get stuck and have to pay to get towed. I know the benefits will pay off in the end and we’re getting a new hospital so it’s a necessary evil.” Jenessa Gjeltema doctoral candidate, college of veterinary medicine
Centers freeze won’t affect fee-funded Talley project Moratorium on new centers won’t affect Rally4Talley Ty Johnson & Chris Frederick Editor in Chief & Correspondent
‘Barrel Monster’ creates a stir on campus See page 6.
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LUIS ZAPATA/TECHNICIAN
Hamlett Construction workers tear up a part of Hillsborough Street at the Oberlin Road intersection. Construction has caused sidewalk closings between Oberlin and Gardner Street. All the business are feeling a hit in customers since the start of construction.
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Plans for the renovation of Talley Student Center have been in the works for some years now and have ramped up efforts to bring the plans for renovating the student center into fruition in the past months with the introduction of the Rally4Talley campaign. But given the University’s budget cuts and the overall state of the economy, the
project is more difficult to fund than organizers of the Rally4Talley campaign planned, especially now that the University has been asked to prepare for an 18 percent budget cut. Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies Terri Lomax announced last week the University is placing a moratorium on all new University centers and institutes, as “one of several strategic approaches the University is taking to help meet the state’s budget shortfall.” Lomax said the cuts were largely an effort to protect classroom activities from cuts as much as possible, but, according to Student Senate President Kelli Rogers, who is on the Rally4Talley
While you’re on campus, visit NC State Bookstores
Agriculture and Life Sciences: 10.9% Design: 11.6% Education: 11.9% Engineering: 12.2% Natural Resources: 12.0% Humanities & Social Sciences: 10.7% Physical & Mathematical Sciences: 10.7% Textiles: 13.4% Veterinary Medicine: 13.2% Management: 11.4% Total Colleges: 11.7% Total Provost and Colleges: 12.6% SOURCE: NCSU BUDGET CENTRAL
BUDGET continued page 3
Hillsborough businesses struggle as construction continues
Nathan Phillips stands behind the counter in Pearl Cafe bent at the waist with his elbows resting on the counter. It’s 5 p.m. but as he’s alone in his bubble tea shop staring past the empty chairs and tables at Hillsborough Street. He steps outside to sit on his store’s patio furniture at the corner of Hillsborough and Pogue streets. Despite the inactivity on his side of Hillsborough, the other side is bustling with activity as workers and machines dig away at the street as part of the street’s renovations, which have been over a decade in the making. “It sucks,” Phillips, co-owner of the cafe said of the construction’s impact on traffic to his business. “In all the meetings they promised me that would be the only place you could cross over here for three blocks in either direction. They built a fence, put up a concrete barrier. They took the signal down. You can’t cross there without taking your own life in your hands. They haven’t done one thing the way they said they were going to do it.” Phillips said beyond the lack of revenue during the summer months of construction is the looming notion that things may not get better when students return for the fall semester. “I don’t know if it’s going to change in July when the kids come back for the second semester. I don’t know if it’s going to change in August,” Phillips said. “They keep saying if everybody can wait a year and a half it’ll be great when it’s all over.” Phillips said the real issue he has with the construction is that it was planned to begin
CUTS BY COLLEGE
building committee, the renovations for Talley will go forth as planned because it will be largely fee-funded. “From my understanding on the freeze,” Rogers, a junior in political science, said. “It only applies to projects receiving appropriated funds.” Union Activities Board President Margo Sauter, who is also on the Rally4Talley building committee, said she wasn’t aware the centers freeze would have any impact on Talley’s renovation campaign. “I haven’t heard anything on the freeze affecting the Rally4Talley,” Sauter said. The Rally4Talley web-site says the University is doing its best
to secure funding for the expansion/renovation project through private donations and state appropriations but will be obtaining most of the funding through student fees, which will range from $150200 with the possibility of increase over the term of the project. “Like many other projects on campus, you are going to see the project evolve over time.” Suzanne Crews, a University Student Centers executive assistant, said of the project.
Easley scandal inspires debate among community Students and faculty react to bad publicity brought to University due to controversy involving former First Lady Emory Robinson Correspondent
Though the media firestorm circulating around Mary Easley’s position at the University has died down in recent weeks after the former First Lady said she won’t resign, the situation involving the former governor, Mike Easley, and its connections to NCSU have made the situation a divisive topic among students. Gregory Allen, a senior in forest management, said he believes Mrs. Easley should resign and said Larry Nielsen and McQueen Campbell’s decision to resign were good decisions as well. At least until the problem is solved, while Jordan Frith, a graduate student in communications rhetoric said she should resign, but out of respect for the University. “I don’t think she has to resign,” Frith said. “She should resign to avoid controversy.” While Allen and Frith followed the situation closely, many students still aren’t knowledgeable about the scandal the News & Observer revealed in early May. Travis Smith, a senior in accounting, was openly apathetic about the subject. Smith doesn’t believe Easley’s employment will affect the state of the University at all. “I don’t think she should be getting paid that much money,” Smith said. “Jobs should pay value of work not the value of the person doing it.” Josh McIntyre, a program assistant in Patterson Hall, said he feels that the situation hurts the school’s public image, but understood why Mrs. Easley was resisting calls from Chancellor James Oblinger and UNC President Erskine Bowles for her to resign. “I think she should have known better,” McIntyre said. Editor in Chief Ty Johnson contributed to this article.
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Ty Johnson