An Open Letter to The N.C. General Assembly
Posted on Jan. 14, 1995Congratulations on behalf of Carolina’s more than 200,000 alumni.
On Nov. 8, 1994, the voters in your district elected you to join 169 other North Carolinians in representing the public’s interest in the 1995 and 1996 sessions of the General Assembly.
Among your many challenges will be reconciling competing requests for much-needed public financial support to address our state’s needs and opportunities.
Hopefully, you already know much about the service provided North Carolina by our state’s greatest person-made creation — The University of North Carolina. No other public university devotes as much of its budget to direct forms of public service as does Carolina (presently estimated at 19 percent).
Regrettably, too few on and off our campus are as aware of our unparalleled public service as we would like. A campus group — the Public Service Roundtable — is working hard to expand the understanding and awareness of our public service.
We hope as you develop your areas of emphasis for the upcoming session, you instinctively will reach out to the many resources here in. Chapel Hill that can assist you in your committee work and other legislative initiatives. For almost any subject of interest you may have, Carolina has one or more faculty members presently doing research, teaching or service. In many areas we have longstanding collaborative programs with other UNC System campuses. If ever you need help identifying an appropriate campus contact, please call the chancellor’s office at (919) 962-1365, or if you prefer you may call me directly at (919) 962-7050.
As you might expect, we hope you will receive and act favorably upon a request from the UNC System for increased faculty and staff salaries. We make this request not selfishly for ourselves but on behalf of all North Carolinians.
Last year our University brought into North Carolina more than $244 million in externally funded research. With an estimated three times that amount generated into the local economies, our University is a major force for economic development for our state.
But Carolina represents more than economic development; we also train teachers, lawyers, doctors, dentists, research scientists, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others who add so much to the quality of life for all our people.
Beyond the importance of once again becoming nationally competitive with our peer Association of American Universities institutions (in 1980-81 we were in the top quintile for faculty salaries, and presently we’re in the third quintile as measured by the American Association of University Professors) we also need to become competitive in the fierce competition for graduate students.
It was the quality of our graduate program that propelled Carolina to our national and international reputation several decades ago. Unfortunately, we are no longer competitive and must play catch up if we are to attract the nation’s brightest graduate students. (More than 65 percent of these bright young people remain in North Carolina and represent a “positive brain drain.”)
Specifically, we need full tuition remission for out-of-state graduate students, health insurance and funds for fellowships if we are to become competitive again.
We realize that you will soon elect members for the University System’s Board of Governors. We are confident that you will again select individuals whose knowledge of, commitment to and experience with public higher education is unparalleled. The state’s much respected public university system is no place for partisan or regional politics.
Again, we are delighted that you have the privilege and opportunity of serving North Carolina. Please consider Carolina your University, for it has been our state’s University for more than 200 years.
As former UNC President Edward Kidder Graham once observed, “The boundaries of The University of North Carolina are coterminous with the boundaries of North Carolina.” Like you, we seek to serve all North Carolinians and hope we’ll become better acquainted in the weeks and months ahead.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
