FORUM
Power of
' _ "W - . .
VOTE)
Dr. Gary
Green
Guest
Columnist
On March 15, North
Carolina residents will go
to the polls to vote on a
bond referendum - the
Connect NC bond. This
referendum will allow the
state to make crucial
investments in important
areas, including the univer
sity and community col
lege systems, the National
Guard, state parks, and
water and sewer systems.
Two-thirds of the
Connect NC bond will
fund improvements in
higher education, including
a $50 million Sciences
Building at Winston-Salem
State University, $10.9
million for repairs and ren
ovations at the University
of North Carolina School
of the Arts, and $5.8 mil
lion in campus improve
ments at Forsyth Technical
Community College. These
and other projects funded
by the bond would come
Elwood
Robinson
Guest
Columnist
with no tax increase for
North Carolinians.
For our region, the
laigest project included in
the bond is the new
Sciences Building at
Winston-Salem State
University. Designed to
provide open, interactive,
and flexible learning and
collaboration spaces, the
Sciences Building will
facilitate collaboration
across disciplinary bound
aries to advance the fron
tiers of scientific knowl
edge. This project repre
sents a significant invest
ment in STEM-H (science,
technology, engineering
and math - health) educa
tion for under-served and
minority students..
Investment in our STEM-H
infrastructure will have a
lasting impact on the state's
ability to attract and retain
companies offering high
paying jobs.
Lindsay
Bierman
Guest
Columnist
Further, this building
responds to a national heed
for greater diversity among
STEM-H professionals.
Women and minority pop
ulations continue to be
under-represented, so it
will become increasingly
difficult to provide an ade
quate scientific workforce.
State-of-the-art science
facilities will help make
these fields more appealing
to students as they choose
majors while also ensuring
they receive the education
they need to be successful
in the workforce.
UNCSA adds an "A" to
STEM to produce
STEAM, which recognizes
the arts and creative indus
tries as a powerful driver of
economic growth - to the
tune of $700 billion for the
U.S. economy, and $40 bil
lion for the N.C. economy.
The state's conservatory
for the arts is designated to
receive $10.9 million of
repair and renovation fund
ing for repurposing its old
library ($8 million), and
partial renovation of
Performance Place ($2.9
million). Performance
Place is the university's
largest on-campus per
formance venue and annu
ally hosts hundreds of cam
pus and community events
for the public.
The repurposing of
UNCSA's now-vacant old
library will reclaim 30,000
square feet in the heart of
campus and will literally
transform the school. The
building will become an
arts laboratory; plans call
for spaces designed for cre
ative incubation, innova
tion, and collaboration
across disciplines. The
addition of 21st-century
practice and rehearsal stu
dios will support the evolu
tion and prototyping of
breakthrough artistic works
to drive the state's creative
economy. UNCSA also
looks to the renovation to
address critical space needs
across campus due to
enrollment and program
growth, ranging from arts
based instructional plat
forms to faculty and staff
offices necessary to foster a
quality .workplace. Both
are goals of the school's
strategic plan, which is
designed to propel UNCSA
to the forefront of perform
ing arts and media educa
tion in the country.
Forsyth Tech will apply
its designated $5.8 million
to renovate the college's
Forsyth Building on Main
Campus, upgrade utility
and technology infrastruc
ture, demolish obsolete and
unsafe structures, and con
struct a technical education
center in Stokes County.
These projects, some of
which are overdue, are
essential to helping the col
lege meet growth expecta
tions by providing the best
possible facilities and edu
cation to residents of
Forsyth and Stokes coun
ties.
All of the projects at
these three institutions are
of critical importance to the
region and the state. It's
been 15 years since the last
general obligation bonds
were authorized to upgrade
our state's infrastructure.
North Carolina's rapid
growth has made us the
ninth most populous state,
but we have not been keep
ing up with the needs of
our citizens. All of us in
higher education realize
that we are preparing our
students to compete in a
global economy, so it's
imperative that North
Carolina continue its
progress and invest in its
future. The Connect NC
bond will help infuse capi
tal to provide critical
investments that drive
innovation and collabora
tion - both key to the con
tinued growth of our econ
omy.
Please join us March 15
in voting "yes" for Connect
NC.
?y
Elwood Robinson is
chancellor of Winston
Salem State University.
Lindsay Bierman is
chancellor of University of
North Carolina School of
the Arts.
Gary Green is presi
dent Forsyth Technical
Community College.
Yet another absurd Burr blockade
regarding the courts
It proba
bly shouldn't
come as any
Schofield great su/_
prise that
Guest North
Columnist Carolina
Senator
Dir*horH Rurr
?? 1MVUU1U U1 X
has thrown
in with the obstructionist hard right when
it comes to the consideration of any nomi
nee that president Obama might put forth
to fill the Supreme Court seat of the late
Antonin Scalia. It is, after all, an election
year and right now the Senator has primary
challengers from his party's extreme right
wing.
Still, for a man not known as a tea
partier (Burr at one point this year was
quoted by credible sources as having said
he'd favor Bernie Sanders over Ted Cruz
in the 2016 election), the senator's official
statement issued just hours after the dis
covery of Scalia's body and a full 341 days
prior to Inauguration Day 2017, is notably
hardline. Here's the conclusion:
"In this election year, the American
people will have an opportunity to have
their say in the future direction of our
country. For this reason, I believe the
vacancy left open by Justice Scalia should
not be filled until there is a new President."
Not much wiggle room there.
As the Greensboro News & Record
noted in a pair of editorials in recent days,
however. Burr's statement is a substantive
and, quite likely political, mistake.
This is from last Tuesday:
"There is no precedent for denying
presidents the chance to appoint justices to
the court in the final year of their presiden
cy. They have done so several times, most
recently in 1988 when the Senate unani
mously confirmed President Ronald
Reagan's choice of current Justice
Anthony Kennedy.
"Someone could just as credibly argue
that Burr, who's running for re-election
this year, should leave important votes to
whomever the people of North Carolina
choose for his seat in November. But that's
absurd. Burr was elected to a full term; so
was Obama. They shouldn't stop doing
their jobs just because their terms are run
ning out. Obama will be in office for 11
more months ? plenty of time for the
nomination and confirmation of a
Supreme Court justice, and too long to
leave a vacancy." j
And this past Sunday, in an editorial
titled "Burr walks into a rap," the N&R
noted that the full blockade stance will be
hard to defend in the months ahead:
"... Burr should reconsider. Last year,
he voted against the confirmation of
Greensboro native Loretta Lynch as attor
ney general. Now he's saying np to anyone
nominated for a Supreme Court seat,
"Sight unseen."
He could be embarrassed if Obama
nominates a compelling or popular moder
ate judge, such as Albert Diaz of North
Carolina, who was confirmed without
opposition to a seat on the 4th Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals in 2010. Burr strongly
supported Diaz, a former military judge in
the Marine Corps. On what grounds could
Burr object now?
The idea that a president with 11
months left in office shouldn't get a
Supreme Court appointment doesn't wash.
There's no precedent or constitutional
authority for such a position. The next
president will have his or her appoint
ments when other seats come open. If Bun
snares, himself in the trap of obstruction
ism, voters will have reason to elect a new
senator."
A familiar pattern
Perhaps the reason Burr jumped so
quickly to embrace the obstructionist posi
tion is because it feels so familiar to him.
As N.C. Policy Watch readers will no
doubt recall. Burr has a long history of
summarily and without explanation block
ing nominees to the federal judiciary. This
has been most notable in the United States
District Court for the Eastern District,
where due to Burr's longstanding road
block, the court (and the citizens it serves)
have now been short a judge for more than
a decade.
As reporter Sharon McCloskey
explained last March (and in numerous
other articles), Burr blocked President
Obama's nomination of federal prosecutor
Jennifer May-Parker for so long that the
nomination has lapsed and the White
House has given up on naming an alterna
tive.
"The federal courts in eastern North
Carolina have been operating under a state
of judicial emergency for years now,
though you wouldn't know it given the
lack of a sense of urgency exhibited by the
state's United States senators.
"Down a judge since December 2005,
the courts in this
largely rural part
of the state have
managed one of
the heavier dis
trict caseloads in
the country ?
relying in large
part on help from
three senior
judges: James C.
Fox, age 86; W.
Burr tarl britt, age
83; and Malcolm
Howard, age 75
..." May-Parker would have been the first
African-American to serve in the Eastern
District - a milestone certainly given the
large black population in that part of the
state and the otherwise all-white and over
whelmingly male composition of the fed
eral district courts there.
"But U.S. Senator Richard Burr, who
for years took his senate colleagues to task
for holding up judicial nominations, inex
plicably blocked that nomination by refus
ing to submit the 'blue slip' evidencing his
support - a critical step to moving a judi
cial candidate to a senate hearing."
Burr's blockade of May-Parker was
rendered all the more outrageous by the
fact that he literally refused to explain it.
When cornered by a reporter more than
two years ago on the matter, Burr simply
refused to talk, saying: "1 don't talk about
any recommendations I make to the White
House. All my conversations are with
them .... I just don't share anything about
the judicial nominations process."
Now, thanks to Burr and several other
senators of the Right, it looks like all
Americans can look forward to the kind of
dysfunction on the U.S. .Supreme Court
that has afflicted the Eastern District of
North Carolina for years.
Tillis tries to have it both ways
The one thing that can be said about
Burr's outrageous and destructive stance is
that, at least, it has been unmistakably
clear. The same cannot be said for the posi
tion of Burr's colleague. Thorn Tillis.
Last week, some observers credited
Tillis for being among the first GOP sena
tors to disavow Burr's brand of blanket
obstructionism. As was noted in this post
on The Progressive Pulse, however, Tillis'
position differs from Bun's only in tone,
not substance. ? ,
First of all, though he says he's open to
a presidential nomination, Tillis says he
will "use every device available" to block
it unless Obama, effectively, submits the
second coming of Scalia. And second,
Tillis has done absolutely nothing during
his tenure in Washington - a time in
which, unlike Burr, he has actually sat on
the Judiciary Committee that is supposed
to review all judicial nominees - to stop an
ongoing GOP blockade of virtually all
Obama court nominees.
The bottom line: Perhaps Tillis' state
ment heralds a real change in the senator's
behavior and that of his colleagues, but
given his record and absent genuine action
anytime soon, it's safe to assume that the
new stance is all for show.
Going forward: Bucking public
opinion
Whether Burr and Tillis will stick to
their obstructionist and obstructionist-light
positions is anyone's guess, but there are
growing signs that they may risk public ire
by doing so. The latest Elon University
poll of likely North Carolina voters found
that 57.3 percent of likely North Carolina
voters want President Obama to nominate
someone now, while only 34.8 percent
think he should leave it to his succ ;c,sor.
Like, at last count, 178 editorial boards
across the nation, these average North
Carolinians do not understand why offi
cials elected to office should not simply do
their jobs in the nine-plus months that
stand between now and the next general
election. It is a thoroughly reasonable and
understandable position. Let's hope
Senators Burr and Tillis wake up to this
reality soon.
Find Sen. Richard Burr's official state
ment at
http://www.burr.senate.gov/press/releas
es/statement-on-the-death-of-supreme
court-justice-antonin-scalia-.
Rob Schofield, director of research at
N.C. Policy Watch, has three decades of
experience as a lawyer, lobbyist, writer,
commentator and trainer. At N.C. Policy
Watch, Rob writes and edits frequent opin
ion pieces and blog posts, speaks to vari
ous civic groups, appears regularly on TV
and radio and helps build and develop
movements for chtmge. Contact him at
rob?ncpolicywatchcom or 919-861
2065. Follow him ?RobJschofield.