Is North Carolina bound to the bond?

expedition around North Carolina

We talked to a fisherman, an engineer, a dentist, a businessman, a farmer. They live in cities, port towns and rural communities. Some of them live far from any UNC school. Others feel disconnected from the UNC system.

Most of the people to whom we spoke supported the $3.1 billion higher education bond once we explained it to them, but they said the UNC system would have to do a massive advertising campaign to get the campuses' needs across to the rest of the state.

In the weeks before the election, the UNC system and North Carolinians for Educational Opportunity, the group managing the campaign, have stepped up their efforts to publicize the bond. The increase in television and radio ads has been noticeable. But has it been enough?

Earlier this month, I called several people we met on last year's trip to see whether the bond campaign had met their specifications and to see whether any of them had changed their minds.

The bond's advocates are still pulling for it.

"I support it heavily," said John Dudley, owner of Dudley's Marina in Swansboro. "I would like for it to pass. The state's greatest asset is the university system."

And those who didn't support it haven't come around.

Eddie Harrill, the Lattimore farmer, said last year that he was against the bond, mainly because he thought N.C. State University had done little for farmers in his part of North Carolina.

As Harrill sat in his one-story house surrounded by fields of cotton, soybeans, wheat and barley last October, he said he realized the value of education. He even tried going to college three times, for a total of 50 days, before heading home.

Harrill hopes his grandchildren will consider attending college, but he said earlier this month that he thinks the system is too inefficient to receive additional funds from the state.

While his reasoning might have changed, Harrill's opposition to the bond remains. "They spend all that money to build them schools, pay them teachers, then a fella gets out of college and quits when he can still work 10 to 15 more years and we've got to support the schools to educate them," he said. "I don't believe in that."

While I wasn't surprised that these folks' opinions hadn't changed, I was amazed to find that, a month before the election, these mostly working-class people had heard very little about the bond.

It's not a topic of conversation, they said. In fact, a lot of people just don't care. Some said they don't have time to think much beyond the day-to-day. Bruce Cederquist, the Beaufort fisherman, said life gets in the way of bigger issues.

When we met him last year, he was trying to earn seaman's papers allowing him to fish on large boats around North America. He said then that every child deserved the chance to go to college, so he bought a $50 U.S. Savings Bond every week to save for his stepson's college education.

But Cederquist's plans have changed since last year. He's staying close to home because Edward William Cederquist, "Eddie", was born three months ago. "With an infant son, the only thing is trying to decide a way to save him some money for college," Cederquist said. "Between fishing and trying to spend time with my family, I haven't given (the bond) much thought."

But at the Oct. 13 Board of Governors meeting, the last before the election, the board seemed content it was successfully planting the bond in the minds of working-class people.

"Wherever two or more are gathered, from the barbershop to the business meeting, we are (pushing the bond)," said system President Molly Broad. "People are understanding the need, and that's why we're all optimistic."

At the meeting, Broad encouraged members to continue speaking at meetings and writing letters to the editor for their local newspapers.

But even residents of communities where UNC-system schools are located don't recognize the universities' impact.

Ed Leezer, the Fayetteville termite treatment salesman, was adamantly opposed to the bond when we met him last year. His experience partying at UNC-Charlotte showed him that the system's facilities were in good shape, he said.

Earlier this month he repeated that he doesn't think the bond affects his community, the home of Fayetteville State University, which the system touts as being among the schools with the greatest need for capital repair.

"It's not much of a conversation piece among the people I associate with and the community in general," he said. "The community here, in my opinion, is really removed from the UNC system. Most people around here are worried about $5-an-hour job, and education is not a big issue."

Leezer said perhaps the bond was more well-known and supported by professional people.

But not Kyle Roth, a dentist now practicing in Raleigh. Roth recently graduated from UNC-CH's School of Dentistry and told us last year that the UNC-system has been good to him. When we met Roth, he was trying to talk Leezer's wife into attending the dental school.

He recently said he hopes to teach there someday, but he stopped paying attention to University news since he started his own practice.

"I don't hear people talking about it," he said. "Then again, I can tune out things I'm not particularly interested in."

Roth said he didn't think the general public was all that interested in the UNC system either.

The key, then, is to show the public why they should be interested in the bond. The BOG has taken a multi-pronged approach, placing television and radio ads, writing letters to newspapers and asking local political candidates to endorse the bond. In interviews last week with The Daily Tar Heel, system representatives said they're intensifying grassroots efforts to target undecided or uninformed voters before the election. This is key. Some system initiatives have aimed above the heads of working-class voters.

Jim Phillips, chairman of the BOG Public Affairs Committee, told me the public could find out about specific projects at the UNC-system's Internet site. "Then, of course, there's a UNC-TV program documenting what the problems are. I'm pretty sure that show lays out (the needs)."

But it's unclear whether these messages are reaching people like Ed Leezer or Bruce Cederquist. In the week before the vote, the system should continue to get the word out to the nonprofessional segment of the state's population. The UNC Alumni Association presidents had the right idea. They ran a "bond booth" at the state fair, in which fairgoers were invited to shoot free throws. The catch: When the shooter missed, he or she had to vote for the bond. What a perfect way to spread the word to people who might otherwise be overlooked.

There's no denying it's a tough job. Even a professional salesman like Dudley said he doesn't know how to inform the people of the state. "It's a marketing issue," Dudley said. "I don't know how to make them understand the importance of it."

But Dudley and others said they will be talking to their friends and neighbors in the next week.

The system's grassroots efforts should run along those lines - a campaign in which supporters call registered voters and explain the University's needs to them, then ask them to tell their friends. However the University decides to close the bond campaign this week, officials should keep Bruce Cederquist's words in mind:

"It's getting closer, and it's either now or never."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.