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Opinion
Smoky Mountain News
Budget passage critical for Western Carolina ou often hear that North Carolina’s public universities are the “crown jewel” of the state. While this is indeed true, the deadlock in Raleigh over funding for a new budget continues to hamstring our state’s public institutions. Some of the most urgent needs can be found at Western Carolina University, where the lack of funding is beginning to negatively affect students and faculty. Western Carolina is absolutely crucial to the health and vitality of Western North Carolina. Its students go on to become effective leaders in business and government, and members of the university’s faculty are nationally recognized experts in their respective fields. The budget deadlock’s negative impacts on daily life in Cullowhee largely concern campus infrastructure, tuition and faculty salaries. Without the $16.5 million in capital funds included in the yet-to-be-enacted budget, WCU is unable to repair its century-old and failing steam plant, which is one harsh winter or mechanical failure away from a complete campus shutdown. We saw this scenario nearly unfold in 2016, and recent winter weather reminds us of how important the steam plant is to campus. Four years after this near miss, the steam plant is living on borrowed time. While the steam plant is Western Carolina’s most critical need, the fight over the budget affects the university in other ways. The opening of the Tom Apodaca Science Building will be delayed if operations and maintenance funding continues
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to be tied up into the next legislative session. Although Moody’s recently reaffirmed WCU’s credit rating as Aa3, with a stable outlook, a lingering budget impasse has the potential to negatively affect the institution’s rating later this year, which could limit the ability to finance planned projects. Western Kelli R. Brown Bill Roper Carolina, along with two other institutions in the UNC System, has seen sustained growth due in part to the NC Promise tuition plan, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2016 and implemented during the fall of 2018. Since the effective date of our current budget on July 1, 2018, WCU has added 1,133 new students with a population that currently exceeds 12,100. Additional growth is expected in fall 2020. The lower NC Promise tuition generates a $4 million funding shortfall for WCU, which is supposed to be covered
There is no defense for hypocrisy O
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save for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is unredeemable; and that we are all God’s children with one nation or people or race not having a step up or special seat but all with equal access to salvation and Grace. And of course, while cautioned to love our neighbors we are warned about the perils of usurping God’s judgement. The Guest Columnist prescription offered in Micah 6:8 seems a succinct prelude to the gospel message to come: He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? But putting all of that aside, if one really can, the question persists: Has Mr. Trump really promoted life both of the unborn and those already here? I suppose an answer, although in reality quite narrow in scope, is that the appointment of federal judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade is sufficient proof. Never mind that those same judges hold theories of
Mark Jamison
ne of the defenses I have heard most often offered for support for Mr. Trump is his defense of unborn life, a term that seems oxymoronic or possibly contradictory but can at least be appreciated when offered with sincere spiritual commitment. The contradiction, I sense, attaches less to the term itself than in its rather narrow application. This, combined with a worshipful elevation of Mr. Trump to a pedestal his life and words almost certainly don’t support and which seems almost blasphemous when accompanied by tortured explications of scripture and motivated reasoning that stands in for solid theology. One might think there is but only one sin described in the Bible or at the very least that that one sin is worse than all of the others combined. But even a cursory examination of scripture finds far more attention paid to the treatment of the stranger or alien, the importance of truth, kindness, mercy, and charity than reference, even tangentially, to unborn life. The New Testament, particularly and especially, would seem to harbor the solid principle that the ends cannot justify the means; a poisonous tree does not bear good fruit; that all sins are equally troubling to God
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by NC Promise buy-down funding for fall 2018 and 2019. If the budget impasse continues, we will be unable to account for that shortfall and forced to limit enrollment growth potentially as early as fall 2020 and extending into fall 2021. Without resources to provide competitive compensation, our ability to attract talent and, more importantly, retain key faculty and staff is threatened. We have already lost faculty to other states, and we may lose more. Experienced professors with years of service are earning lower salaries than some new faculty at other institutions who have only recently emerged from their doctoral programs. The lack of competitive salaries will be felt in the faculty-to-student teaching ratios, which are critical to provide high-quality education with a high level of faculty engagement. If North Carolina wants to support Catamount country and keep it thriving, the new budget needs to be enacted immediately. Our concern is not a partisan one. It is, pure and simple, a desire to see our state’s institutions fully supported and fully funded. At Western Carolina, the need for an enacted budget is as critical as it has ever been. We urge leaders in Raleigh to find a solution as quickly as possible for the good of this proud university and for the people of the state. (Dr. Bill Roper is interim president of the University of North Carolina System. Dr. Kelli R. Brown is chancellor of Western Carolina University.)
jurisprudence that promote wealth and property over life unless we are discussing the life imbued in the corporate structure. I would submit though that cutting programs that provide access to healthcare for the poor and uninsured including those carrying the unborn is not supporting life. Cutting programs that support nutrition, an essential element in a healthy pregnancy and a necessity for the development of children, does not support life nor does it speak to Christian values of mercy and charity. And if one argues that charity is not the place of government, then doesn’t that undermine the argument that government ought to be righteous with respect to other elements espoused in our faith? Some of those wishing to enter our country are surely pregnant. Is their treatment consistent with the precepts of protecting the unborn? But then I might ask if God considers anyone illegal solely on account of their place of birth? Does the separation of families fulfill any commandment? For those who would argue that “those folks” (which fundamentally ignores the injunction that we are all one under Christ) ought to wait in line, I can only wonder if Jesus designated where the line formed or if “Come to me” was suffi-
cient. Are those who are refugees as a result of our country’s meddling and hubris owed consideration or recompense for our geopolitical sins? But, when I see a multitude of those who preach a perverse prosperity gospel arrayed in their expensive finery and hovering around the seat of power as so many sycophants seeking earthly riches while praying as the hypocrites who sought notice of men, I am reminded more of the descriptions in Revelations foretelling the Beast than anything holy. In at least some of Mr. Trump’s followers I see a cult-like mob who behave with an almost rabid contempt for their neighbors. We arrive back at the healthy, spiritually prosperous, even blessed tree, the one that yields good fruit. If you believe in the sanctity of life then act like it, not with lip service to one narrow aspect but thoroughly and fully, just as we are encouraged to submit our souls. Violating several commandments while questioningly serving one does not seem like sufficient justification for the prevarication, the lack of humility, the insults, or the policies that harm so many. (Mark Jamison retired as postmaster in Webster and lives in Jackson County. markijamison01@gmail.com)
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