By Holden Thorp EDITOR’S NOTE: Former UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp is now Editor-in-Chief of the Science Family of Journals. He posted this yesterday. WASHINGTON (February 11, 2025) – Late last week, the Trump administration set off a frenzy in the US scientific community when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that indirect… READ MORE
UNC-CH trustees: More listening, less talking
RALEIGH (February 12, 2025) – UNC Chapel Hill’s trustees have been warned before. But they obviously didn’t listen. • After repeated bouts of micromanagement and two trustees appearing in pre-arranged interviews with Fox & Friends and The Wall Street Journal to claim credit for establishing the School of Civic Life and Leadership, UNC System President… READ MORE
Green on nixing Ed Department: “A dramatic negative impact”
RALEIGH (February 12, 2025) – State Superintendent Mo Green doesn’t know what forms Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate the federal Department of Education might take. But he does know it won’t be good. “There’s been lots of variations on what might happen, and so we don’t really know at this point,” Green says in the… READ MORE
Teachers Talk: Erin Walsh
JACKSONVILLE (February 5, 2025) – Our latest installment of Teachers Talk features Erin Walsh, a math teacher at Onslow Early College High School. Walsh explains how she retired from teaching after 29 years and returned as a part-time teacher to make more money. (She is a math teacher, after all!) “Sadly, our pay stops increasing… READ MORE
UNC board moves to clarify rules on campus protests
RALEIGH (February 5, 2025) – After raucous demonstrations by pro-Palestinian protesters last spring at UNC-Chapel Hill and, to a lesser extent, other UNC System campuses, System officials are moving to clarify the rules for student protests. The UNC Board of Governors is scheduled to vote on a new policy when it meets Feb. 27. When… READ MORE
Hans: Leuchtenburg ‘lit up the lecture halls’
By Peter Hans President, University of North Carolina System RALEIGH (February 5, 2025) – Great teachers are great storytellers, and no one spun a scholarly yarn better than Bill Leuchtenburg. When I took one of his courses as a junior at Carolina, it seemed perfectly natural for a room full of awed undergraduates to burst… READ MORE
UNC System signals flat tuition for 9th straight year
RALEIGH (January 30, 2025) – Contrary to a national narrative of skyrocketing tuition costs, the UNC System signaled clearly this week that it intends to hold tuition flat for the 9th straight year in 2025-26. System President Peter Hans told the UNC Board of Governors this morning that low tuition is part of the UNC… READ MORE
Teaching Fellows build their numbers
RALEIGH (January 30, 2025) – In a state with a severe teacher shortage,1 the NC Teaching Fellows made substantial gains this year, with 107% growth to a total of 575 students who want to become teachers. “We’re very excited about that. That’s a huge celebration for our program,” Dr. Bennett Jones, Director of the Teaching Fellows… READ MORE
The Assembly: The reading wars go to college
ASHEVILLE (January 23, 2025) – When Carson Bridges entered the classroom, she unknowingly joined a long-running fight about how to teach children to read. For decades, most elementary schools across the country, as well as colleges that train aspiring educators, followed a method called “balanced literacy.” The practice de-emphasizes phonics instruction, or lessons on the… READ MORE
New Trump directive to federal health & research agencies could hit NC in the pocketbook
By Rose Hoban NC Health News CHAPEL HILL (January 27, 2025) — Medical and biomedical researchers across North Carolina are used to pondering some of the most vexing questions in health and biology, but a directive issued last week by President Donald Trump left many without answers when it came to the future of their… READ MORE