If only President Barack Obama were here today to talk about a real solution to the cost of a college education. I don’t mean to suggest that the interest rate on student loans isn’t a big deal — it’s huge.
Stanford University offered Introduction to Artificial Intelligence online for free last fall, with graded assignments and statements of accomplishment on offer for non-Stanford students. More than 160,000 people signed up. So it’s not too much of a stretch to say technology is going to transform higher education — probably even UNC.
David Baron is creating a couch. “It’s going to be 100 percent biodegradable — technically sustainable, in a way that furniture, when it’s called sustainable, is not actually,” he tells me proudly.
“The struggle continues!” That’s what Terri Houston had to say to anyone who might suggest that now that America has a black president, minorities have arrived at an even playing field.
If you’ve wandered by South Building without a clue about what goes on inside, Bruce Carney would forgive you.
“What if” — these words defined Saturday’s TEDxUNC conference.
Remember the $800 in-state tuition increase announced last fall, with thousands more in increases planned over the next five years?
There’s no doubt that UNC has a history of activism. Last year, we celebrated 150 years of the Campus Y, and in October, a commemorative plaque was laid for the fight against the 1963 Speaker Ban Law. So I’ve been surprised by the muted campus response to the Occupy movement.
This Saturday would have been Eve Carson’s 26th birthday. Though the community will honor her at the memorial 5k in her name, almost all the students with whom she shared this campus have left.
This university is ultimately accountable to those who fund it. So if we shift the burden for funding from the state to solely the students who attend, we’re threatening the essence of the institution.
