TECHNICIAN
friday february
15 2013
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Chancellor calls cost comparison with UNC-CH invalid Sara Awad Staff Writer
N.C. State students often find themselves comparing much about the University and student body to that of UNC-Chapel Hill, but such comparisons aren’t always applicable. According to an article in the Triangle Business Journal, N.C. State spends half of what UNC-CH spends in regards to “education and related expenses.” Findings from a recent University
Occupy retains Raleigh ties
of North Carolina System General Administration report prompted the article. Last year, each degree issued cost the University $59,408 while UNC-CH spent $115,376 per degree, according to the report. In the past five years, N.C. State decreased the amount of money spent per degree by 13.8 percent as opposed to UNC-CH’s 6.8 percent decrease, the report stated. N.C. State also increased the number of degrees produced by 26.9 percent, while UNC-CH only raised this by 6.4 percent.
Though the Triangle Business Journal’s article compared the University’s cost cutting efficiency to our rivals, Chancellor Randy Woodson said he would rather compare these statistics with other universities that have similar programs. “UNC-CH has a lot of professional schools, so it is not a fair comparison to make because the degrees are very different,” Woodson said. N.C. State only has one professional school: the College of Veterinary Medicine. According to Woodson, the need
for cost-cutting stems from a lack of state funding combined with an increased number of graduates. With more graduates and less money available, the cost per degree naturally has to decrease, Woodson said. “We can’t afford to keep growing if we are not getting the money to keep growing.” NCSU has already had to decrease the number of incoming freshman it admits. Unlike UNC-CH, almost all of N.C. State’s programs depend on state funding. “It is not a good thing we have had
to cut costs because that means we have lost money … it is a good thing that we have been responsible to the fiscal environment,” Woodson said. The chancellor said he attributes the increased number of graduates to enrollment growth, especially in graduate programs. The 2006-2007 school year had one of the largest freshman classes the University had ever seen, so now many of those students are graduating.
COSTS continued page 3
UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS RAISE CROP DISEASE AWARENESS
Kevin Keller Staff Writer
In October 2011, a group that identified itself as Occupy Wall Street dominated headlines when its members took to the streets, protesting the national economic crisis. This event brought activists from across the country together in the hopes of pursuing social and economic justice for those who they felt were being oppressed. While many Americans knew about the occupation of Wall Street, many are unaware that the Occupy Movement is still in operation, with local branches meeting weekly. One of these branches is right on N.C. State’s campus. Occupy Raleigh meets on Tuesday and Sunday nights in the common area of the Royal Mall, located at 3801 Hillsborough St. This committee consists of locals dedicated to the same ideals and goals of the nationwide Occupy Movement. The topics of Occupy Raleigh’s meetings range from Decriminalize Poverty! to Veterans for Peace, and anywhere from 2 to 10 people attend the weekly meetings. With no real leaders within this local branch, these meetings are very casual and serve as a time for members to discuss issues they feel are relevant to the cause of the organization. “I saw too many people hurting, and I saw nothing getting done to prevent another collapse from happening again,” said Mike Harmon, who has been a participant of the Occupy community since its conception. “This organization seemed like it had the right ideas: separation of the banks from the government, and complete absence of a corporate government.” Harmon said one topic the organization discusses is the cutting of corporate and personal income taxes, which the group’s members say will hurt a lot of people. “We know things are going to collapse again, and we’re going to continue to be more active in light of the new state government. Raising the sales tax will also be detrimental,” Harmon said. The various local Occupy branches communicate with each other through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. With the nature of the Internet today, Harmon said he is able to talk with members of Occupy from across the nation on a daily basis.
TYLER ANDREWS/TECHNICIAN
Dr. Jim Dunphy, professor of crop science and soybean extension specialist, works to protect North Carolina soybean growers from Asian soybean rust, a disease which kills leaf tissue and defoliates the plant. Along with other efforts, Dunphy maintains contact with over four hundred NC growers to warn them of potential soybean rust moving into the area.
Faculty fights Soybean Rust Josué Molina Staff Writer
Two N.C. State professors helped create an education program that helps warn soybean growers about the threat of a deadly crop disease known as Asian Soybean Rust. Jim Dunphy, a crop science professor, and Steve Koenning, a plant pathologist and research associate professor, are well known for their work with the Soybean disease. Asian Soybean Rust is a plant disease that can cause significant losses in Soybean crop yields in many regions of the world. South American farmers first observed the disease in 2001, just before it began to spread throughout the continent. The International Integrated Pest Management Symposium awarded Koenning and Dunphy for their extension and education program in 2012.
Koenning and Dunphy have published information to help growers understand and detect Soybean Rust because it is a new disease to the soybeans of the United States. Researchers at various universities located in states including Georgia and South Carolina notify Koenning and Dunphy immediately upon detecting Asian Soybean Rust in their crops. Koenning and Dunphy traveled numerous times to Brazil and other South American countries to research Soybean Rust and learn how to track its movement. Scientists in South America taught Koenning a lot about the disease, which is relatively new to the United States, according to him. “There has been a lot of interaction with scientists in South America, and to some extent, they educate us more than we educate them about Asian Soybean Rust,” Koenning said. Researchers feared the worst when the disease first hit the United States
in 2005, because multiple tropical storms produced the optimal climate for the disease, which tends to thrive in warm, wet environments. Researchers expected growers to lose between 10 and 50 percent of their soybean crops. Some researchers feared farmers could lose as much as 80 percent of their crop if climate conditions reached those most conducive for the spread of the disease. Luckily for soybean farmers, the weather did not produce optimal conditions for Soybean Rust to spread to the predicted level, but the threat was real. Soybean Rust generally affects crops in Southeast states rather than Northern states because the cooler weather limits the disease’s ability to flourish. North Carolina is the largest producer of soybeans on the east coast, and in 2012, farmers grew about $790 million worth of the crop. Soybean Rust has been a problem for North Carolina and has prompted farmers to help finance research
because there are more acres of Soybeans than any other crop, according to Dunphy. “We have a lot of famers that have a lot of acres involved,” Dunphy said. “To lose yield to a disease is like taking a cut to their paycheck, and they don’t want to do that. I wouldn’t want to do that, but that’s what happens to a farmer if he loses a yield to disease like that.” Growers in North Carolina can use Dunphy and Koenning’s tracking information to find out when Asian Soybean Rust outbreaks may occur and how to protect their yields. The impact of Koenning and Dunphy’s research has been local rather than global, Koenning said. The two professors collaborate with other researchers located at other institutions, such as Clemson University, and they help educate and warn Soybean growers in Southeast states like Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia about the disease.
OCCUPY continued page 3
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