The
Body
Politic
by Karla
Holloway
A
M
U
ECHO
EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE
Inside
New treatment
for sickle cell
anemia - pages
Issue 44
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
Durham, NC
January 20,1995
Review threatens 27 programs
By Geraldine Ndiforchu
Campus Echo co-editor
A broad review of academic
programs in the University of North
Carolina system threatens 27 pro
grams at N.C. Central University.
The UNC board of governors
will decide by the end of the year
which of 350 academic programs
across the 1 6-campus system will
be cut. The board is concerned that
many programs are not producing
enough graduates to justify their
existence.
“The quality of students will be
UNC board to make decision by year end
reduced because people interested
in Modem Foreign languages will
not come to NCCU. It will also on
the advanced foreign language
courses,” said Thomas Hammond,
chairman of the Modem Foreign
Languages department.
The programs at NCCU includ
ing music, Spanish and Speech
pathology will be evaluated. In the
1994-95 school year, several un
dergraduate programs have ma
jors with fewer than ten students.
Chancellor Julius Chambers is
quoted in The Herald Sun as say
ing that he has no problems with
the system-wide review because
he wants to evaluate the programs
as well. Chambers has already ini
tiated an internal review of NCCU
academic programs to identify ar
eas of weaknesses.
The mandate of the system-wide
review is to identify programs low
Blues
In The Night
Drama
season
opens
The N.C. Central Univer
sity Department of Theatre
opened its 1994-95 season in a
refurbished University Theatre
with Sheldon Epps’ musical re
vue, Blues in the Night.
The play, which rans from
Feb. 16-19, opened withaFeb.
15 invitation-only gala and re
ception hosted by the Triangle
Park Chapter of the Links, Inc.
"It was fantastic. Itwas great
seeing our actors perform on
the remodeled stage with new
lighting and sound," says
Sandra Brunson, administrative
assistant for the department of
theatre.
The cast included Chris
Lewis, Syvilla A. Liles, Nikki
Yelverton, Ayeje L. Feamster
and Sara Buchanan.
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Ayeje Feamster belts out a sassy blues melody
from Blues in the Night, playing through Sunday.
Trip to Ghana forges closer ties
in productivity and priorities and
which are redundant. The board of
governors is using the number of
students who graduated in the past
two years as a criterion to deter
mine which programs will be evalu
ated.
They have established a cut-off
rate of 20 students in undergradu
ate programs and 16 students in
graduate programs. Some pro
grams that will certainly make the
STATE BUDGET
list include French, Spanish phi
losophy, music, physics, business
economics and general social sci
ences.
Only five degrees in French
have been granted since the 1984-
95 school year, and philosophy
granted only four degrees for that
same period.
“The review will force us to do
some introspecuon, that is look at
our curriculum and method of
teaching” says Hammond.
Continued on page three
Governor proposes
hike in tuition costs
By Geraldine Ndiforchu
Campus Echo co-editor
Students in the University of
North Carolina system are expected
to see their tuition rise by 3.1 per
cent next year.
Gov. Jim Hunt’s 1995-97 state
budget proposals, released this
UNC system by 9 percent for Narth
Carolina residents and by more
than 30 percent for out-of-state
students over the next three years.
Out-of-state students at N.C.
State University and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are
hardest hit. They would have to bear
a 30 percent increase in tuition over
the next three years.
Hunt’s two-year $36 billion bud
get calls for $34.5 million in cuts
across the 16-campus UNC system.
The budget proposals now have
to be adopted by the state legisla
ture. C.D. Spangler Jr., president
of the UNC system, said Monday
the proposed increase amounts to a
tax on students.
The proposals also require UNC
officials to cut 250 to 350 of the
system’s clerical, service, mainte
nance and skilled positions to save
$10.4 million.
Another 75 nonteaching admin
istrative positions would be cut to
save $4.7 million. Noninstructional
equipment would also facecuts. gi v-
Hunt's budget proposes that
teachers and state employees get a 4
percent pay increase. In the 1994-
95 budget, faculty received a 7
percent raise.
Other initiatives in the 1995-97
budget would eliminate the visiting
artist program (saving $175,656)
and rcducce state aid for adminis
trative and instructional support po
sitions (saving $1.2 million).
Eliminating outcome-based
education pilots would save $3 mil
lion; and transfering the driver edu
cation from the general fund to the
highway fund would saave $23.2
million.
Hunt't proposal would also cut
the budget of the community col
lege system by $700,(X)0.
By Shelvia Dancy
Echo staff writer
A delegation from N.C. Cen
tral Univerisity made a two-week
pilgrimage to Ghana last month.
Mickey Bumim, provost and vice-
chancellor of Academic Affairs,
two students —Kipchoge Ryan,
senior and Keitra Musgrave, jun
ior—^joined 55 students and fac
ulty from North Carolina State
University to the West African
country.
The tour was organized by the
North Carolina Consortium forln-
temational/Intercultural Educa
tional, established in 1989.
It’s just an absolute blessing for
anyone to go to Africa,” said
Musgrave, a Biology major from
Fayetteville. “It was overwhelm
ing, more than overwhelming.”
Musgrave and Ryan were se
lected at the suggestion of Profes
sor Eaves, Dean of University Col
lege at NCCU.
“We were looking for students
who would be good ambassadors
for NCCU—students who would
be able to communicate what the
experience meant to them to groups
of students on campus,” Eaves said.
The group visited the Univer
sity of Science and Technology in
Kumasi and the University of
Ghana at Legon. The village of
Bonwire (home of the world-fa
mous Kente cloth), the W.E.B.
DuBois Center for Pan African
Culture, and the Mehu Shrine in
Akosombo were also included in
the tour.
This trip to Ghana was not the
first for Professor Bumim, who
had already visited the Swaziland
on two other occasions.
Continued on page three NCCU students with elementary school pupils in Ghana