Wayne Week — June 23, 2024

N E W OL D NORT H M E DI A PR E SE N T S A W E E K LY N E WS M AG A Z I N E

J U N E 2 3, 2 024

MIND GA M ES Dozens have graduated from the University of Mount Olive’s Master's in Counseling Psychology program, but because it is still not accredited, most are unable to find employment as therapists in North Carolina.

BY KEN FINE p. 1 4

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CONTENTS 4 Budd still working to save F-15Es JUNE 23, 2024 Volume 1, Issue 46

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EDITORIAL EDITOR Ken Fine EDITOR Renee Carey DESIGN DIRECTOR Shan Stumpf PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Casey Mozingo

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North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd has gotten a prohibition on F-15E divestments into the Senate's version of the National Defense Authorization Act before, but last year, his efforts came up short and the final version of the bill still allowed the Air Force to chop 31 percent of its Strike Eagle fleet. So, now, he's trying again.

9 Goldsboro tax increase passes

Councilwoman Beverly Weeks apologized to the community for what she characterized as a failure by the City Council. Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Matthews said she and her colleagues should have gone line by line through the spending plan to reduce — or eliminate — the rate hike. But Mayor Charles Gaylor's tiebreaking vote saw Goldsboro's budget — and a 9.5-cent property tax increase — pass Monday evening.

12 Our take

For some reason, when elected officials are playing with other people's money, they seem to make decisions most heads of families and businesses would not.

14 Cover Story

The University of Mount Olive made, according to students, promises that by the time Master's in Counseling Psychology graduates were ready to enter the workforce, the program would be accredited. Years later, it still is not.

20 Spectator

A little boy went on a fishing expedition at Lake Wackena and was overjoyed when he, after a few hours along the shore, reeled in a big one.

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NEWS +VIEWS

Budd still working to save SJAFB F-15Es

Thanks to the North Carolina Senator, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act reverses the Air Force’s decision to divest Strike Eagles. But it’s far from a done deal.

BY KEN FINE

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here is no victory to claim just yet, but the United States Senate will soon vote on a version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act — a spending plan that would reverse the Air Force’s previously approved measure to retire 4th Fighter Wing F-15E Strike Eagles — that made it through its Armed Services Committee via a 22-3 vote June 13.

And while North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd noted that he, his colleagues, and the public would still have to respect the process — one that would require the NDAA as it is written to pass the Senate, survive negotiations with the House of Representatives, and then gain President Joe Biden’s signature — he used the movement of the bill to take aim at what he characterized as a “misguided” decision to divest from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base’s fleet.

“The Air Force’s plan to divest F-15E Strike Eagles would harm our national security and shatter the Goldsboro community,” he said in a statement. “As was made clear in countless Armed Services Committee hearings this year, F-15Es are incredibly capable aircraft that are unmatched in the fleet. I am thrilled that my colleagues agreed with me that divesting these aircraft was a misguided decision by the Air Force. I’ll continue to fight to ensure that the future of Seymour Johnson is bright, and our military remains strong.”

This is not the first time Budd has fought to prevent Air Force brass from following through on their plan to “modernize” the branch’s fleet by beginning to phase out the Strike Eagle and replacing the dual-role fighters with newer, more advanced aircraft.

In fact, as previously reported in Wayne Week, the battle began back in July 2023 when then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown delivered a two-hour testimony before the Armed Services Committee and said, among other things, that backfilling the fleet with more than 100 F-15EXs and F-35 Lightning IIs was the most prudent path forward.

Budd saw the writing on the wall — understanding that the divestment could 4

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The Air Force's plan to divest F-15E Strike Eagles would harm our national security and shatter the Goldsboro community.

spell disaster for SJAFB and Wayne County — and attempted to derail the move by inserting language into the Senate version of the 2024 NDAA that stipulated “none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for any of fiscal years 2024 through 2029 may be obligated or expended to divest any F-15E aircraft.”

Ultimately, his efforts fell short, and

the final version of the bill — which was approved by Congress and signed by Biden — allowed for 68 Strike Eagles, more than 31 percent of the Air Force’s active fleet, to face the chopping block.

Still, local military advocates believed that “each individual jet retirement” would require “specific Congressional approval,” with Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base President Henry Smith expressing

“confidence” in a press release issued Jan. 10.

But less than a month later, news shared with Wayne Week by then-4th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Lucas Teel changed the game.

The colonel confirmed that as a result of the 2024 NDAA, the 333rd Fighter Squadron would be deactivated — that the 335th Fighter Squadron “Chiefs” would lose its operational status and become the backbone of the 4th Fighter Wing’s future mission as a “Formal Training Unit.”

To make matters worse, the base would, in fact, lose dozens of F-15Es. Local leaders, from Goldsboro Mayor Charles Gaylor and Wayne County Board of Commissioners Chairman Chris Gurley to State House Majority Leader John Bell, were stunned — with Bell telling Wayne Week that he found it unacceptable that he was hearing about the development from a newspaper and not the community’s well-compensated lobbyist, The Roosevelt Group, or Friends of Seymour.

“I heard the news just like everyone else and I was surprised. It’s clear, in my opinion, that somebody was asleep at the wheel. That’s what I assumed happened,” Bell said then. “So, I want to go through and find out what, when, how, and why. That way, I’ll know how to use the resources — the contacts I have in Washington — to see if we can stop this from happening. And if we can’t stop this from happening, can we go on offense to pick up more missions to support Seymour Johnson? We can never fall asleep on protecting our base.”

And Gaylor said in light of the news — and how it was delivered — the city was going to have to “reassess who some of those downstream relationships are with.”

“We can’t be caught off guard on something this big,” he said, adding that he spoke with contacts at The Roosevelt Group, the lobbying firm the city and county had paid tens of thousands of dollars. “Their response was, ‘I haven’t heard that yet. Let me follow up.’ So yeah, that is incredibly frustrating when you are putting your assets in place to be able to get information that you need in order to be able to plan and support your Continued on page 6

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community, and those assets are not able to deliver. I don’t know the reasons why they were not.”

Soon after, the city and county parted ways with the firm — hiring Crossroads Strategies to replace it.

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Reversing the decision approved by Congress and Biden to divest F-15Es — and downsize SJAFB’s fleet — is not a foregone conclusion.

But Budd, U.S. Rep Don Davis, and others have used recent 335th Fighter Squadron battlefield successes to their advantage as they work to mitigate the fallout of the Air Force’s future plans.

In particular, they have pointed to the conflict raging in the Middle East as proof that the 4th Fighter Wing — and its Strike Eagle fleet — remain the choice of combatant commanders downrange.

And they have reminded their colleagues, and Biden himself, that on April 13, after Iran launched an aerial attack on Israel, it was Goldsboro-based F-15E crews who helped neutralize the threat by waging an assault on some 80 unmanned aerial vehicles and at least six 6

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ballistic missiles launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

After the mission, the president praised 335th aircrews.

“Hey, you guys are the best in the whole damn world, man. The whole world,” Biden said during a conference call with members of the squadron that he posted to X (formerly known as Twitter). “That’s not hyperbole.”

And Bell, one of the millions who have viewed the video since it went viral on social media, said the 335th’s success was, perhaps, an opportunity to save Seymour Johnson’s fleet.

“I think it’s time to remind the folks in Washington just who the president was talking to and the pressure their base and its community have just been put under,” he said.

Budd agrees.

“The Air Force plans to divest 26 Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson next year, even though aircraft from North Carolina’s 335th Fighter Squadron helped defend Israel by shooting down dozens of drones and missiles from Iran in April,” he said.

Whether pointing that out will matter — and result in getting a reversal of the planned F-15E divestment into the NDAA that just made it out of committee and onto the Senate floor — remains to be seen.n

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Goldsboro budget, tax increase passes — barely

City residents will see their property tax rate increase 9.5 cents and their utility rate jump 2 percent, despite the outrage expressed by three members of the City Council who called the process a “failure” by the board.

BY KEN FINE AND RENEE CAREY

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hree members of the Goldsboro City Council — again — argued that Interim City Manager Matthew Livingston’s proposed budget placed too much burden on city taxpayers.

Councilwoman Beverly Weeks said the spending plan was not “sacrificial,” arguing that if residents were being asked to take food off their tables as a result of tax and rate increases, department heads and city employees should have to make the same concession.

Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Matthews said she was not satisfied with the process — and was critical of the fact that the board had not gone “line by line” through the budget to figure out a way to reduce what will be one of the biggest tax increases in the city’s history.

And Councilman Roderick White, who was outspoken earlier this month about his resistance to taking money out of the General Fund to support a myriad of raises and bonuses, also put his hand up when it came time to vote “no” on approving the plan.

But Mayor Charles Gaylor — acting as the tiebreaking vote — ultimately supported Goldsboro’s proposed 2024-25 budget, which includes both a 9.5-cent property tax increase and a 2-percent utility rate hike, after more than an hour of back and forth between the elected officials June 17.

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At the beginning of the budget process, when members of the council got their first look at Livingston’s proposed plan, Gaylor characterized it as a “bold move” that would see millions of dollars invested into, among other things, increasing pay for city employees, Goldsboro police, and firefighters.

But the manager noted that the raises — particularly those approved for the GPD earlier this year in response to the department’s inability to recruit new officers to fill its depleted ranks amidst a dramatic rise in gun violence inside the city limits — would come at an unprecedented cost to taxpayers, a 15-cent property tax increase and 7-percent water and sewer rate hike.

“That compared against the challenges we are trying to address with this budget —

“I just want to look at the public and tell you, ‘I am so sorry.’ I believe personally that we as a council have failed you.

As a city, I believe we could have gone back to our departments and made this budget much … tighter.

We are going to you, as the taxpayers, and we’re asking you to sacrifice.

This is not a sacrificial budget. It’s not.”

“What is and will always be a deal-breaker for me — and this is not to negate the hard work staff has done to get this budget to where it is now — I just do not feel that this city has gotten down to its bare bones to ensure that the burden is not placed on our residents to take care of our bills.”

BRANDI MATTHEWS

BEVERLY WEEKS

with policing, with fire, with inspections, with code enforcement — it’s a bold move, and I respect the team for being willing to put this out there,” Gaylor said at the time.

“Now, we’ve got to figure out the right way to balance this thing.”

The mayor has been transparent with the council — and the public — since the board agreed to drastically increase police and fire pay.

And while he noted that a 15-cent increase was “a big number that I don’t

think anyone is happy about,” he vowed that as he and other elected officials went through the plan line by line, nothing would be off the table if it meant lowering the burden on taxpayers.

“I don’t know what the final number is gonna be,” he said of the tax increase. “But this is a big amount, and while I absolutely understand the economics around our effective rates — I absolutely understand that concept — the simple reality is it’s still more money coming out of taxpayers’ pockets. It’s

still more money coming out of their wallets and their checking accounts, and that’s not lost on me. So, while I think that overall, this is a very reasonable budget, getting there is going to be an expensive endeavor for a lot of our citizens, even though when you look at that monthly amount, you’re looking at $11, $15 or less (property owners will pay as a result of the tax increase).”

A few weeks later, an updated proposed budget still saw residents being forced to absorb one of the biggest property tax increases in the city’s history and a 5-percent water rate hike.

And while the majority of the money raised from the tax increase would be used to finance police and fire salary increases, the board also seemed poised to give all city employees a 2.5-percent cost-of-living raise and a $400 bonus, despite the fact that Weeks urged her peers to remember that local residents were hurting, too.

“I love the staff. I appreciate them,” she said earlier this month at a budget work session.

“But this is a critical time, and I believe that we can defer that for another year.”

And if the council were to decide to move forward anyway, she suggested asking each city department head to make cuts as painful as the tax increase the city was about the inflict on its residents.

“They can find a way to do it,” Weeks said. “I am confident they can find a way.”

Fast-forward to Monday.

Another hour-plus of discussion was had — and Livingston presented no additional cuts of significance.

But on the fly, thanks to Councilwoman Hiawatha Jones and Councilwoman Jamie Taylor, a cap was placed on the cost-ofliving raises — one that would ensure no employee, regardless of their current salary, would receive more than a $2,000 bump.

And then, when it came time to vote, Gaylor broke a 3-3 tie to pass the spending plan which, in the end, included a 9.5-cent property tax increase and a 2-percent utility rate hike.

The mayor warned that such a low utility rate increase would hurt residents more years down the road.

“I want to choose between the worse of two evils. I want to see some movement, and here’s why. Because I don’t want to see this council making the same mistakes some Continued on page 10 newoldnorth.com

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previous councils made, where it was zero, one, two, eight, zero, one, one, one, zero, zero, zero, in increases and then, all of a sudden, it’s a 20-percent increase in one year,” he said. “If we don’t want to do five, let’s do four. But let’s do something so that folks are not hit two, three years from now with some massive increase. Let’s phase these things in … because we do need to be able to build a fund balance because we do need to make some investments.”

Weeks and White disagreed.

“I don’t think you should raise it any more than two cents,” Weeks said. “We’ve already asked our constituents to pay for a 9.5-percent tax increase, which I was totally against.”

And White said residents deserve to see results if large increases are passed.

“Our services haven’t gotten any better but we’re continuing to charge a higher rate.

That’s my issue. If the services were getting better or we were getting a shovel in the ground building something … it would be different,” he said. “But right now, what we’re doing is just stockpiling money in a year where we are asking our constituents to dig deep into their pockets for money that some of them don’t have.”

As for the property tax increase, Matthews said the budget process itself was a failure — that

she could not justify voting for a hike when, in her view, the board had failed to do its job.

“What is and will always be a dealbreaker for me — and this is not to negate the hard work staff has done to get this budget to where it is now — I just do not feel that this city has gotten down to its bare bones to ensure that the burden is not placed on our residents to take care of our bills,” she said. “That is why it is a “no” for me. And it has been a “no” for me because that has been my request. I wanted the city to show good faith and say we were willing to really sacrifice — whatever that looks like — to forgo some of those wants.

Not the needs and the necessities. Just some of those wants to show good faith and relieve some of the burden off our residents. I think we are giving them a bill they shouldn’t be paying.”

Weeks agreed.

“I just want to look at the public and tell you, ‘I am so sorry. I believe personally that we as a council have failed you,’” she said.

“As a city, I believe we could have gone back to our departments and made this budget much … tighter. We are going to you, as the taxpayers, and we’re asking you to sacrifice.

This is not a sacrificial budget. It’s not.”

Regardless, the new budget will take effect July 1.n

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{our TAKE }

SHOULD'VE SAID NO

W

e said it the last time we addressed Goldsboro Interim City Manager Matthew Livingston’s proposed budget, and we’ll say it again.

It isn’t easy saying, “No.” If you are parent, you know exactly what we are talking about.

Sometimes, you have to ignore tearful eyes or wild tantrums as you explain why what your child wants is not what’s best — or what’s possible — for your family.

But you do it because it is important, not because it is fun.

The same is true when you lead a company.

Of course, you appreciate your employees.

Of course, you want to give them raises every year and to recognize those who do exceptional work.

You might even want to expand your building or to get a new piece of equipment or to add more staff, but you cannot just wave a magic wand and make it happen.

So, if it isn’t in the budget this year

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— or it would require a huge increase in prices and endanger your company’s market share — you don’t do it.

Even if you want to — desperately.

The same should be true in government.

Of course, you want to give everybody in the city or county offices a raise. You know how hard the last couple of years have been — and you also know that in the city’s case, there was a big raise approved for the city’s police and firefighters.

And it isn’t easy to look into the faces of the men and women who ensure City Hall functions and to say that perhaps this year is not the year that a raise is in the cards for them.

It is more fun to do the opposite.

And, yes, it might be difficult to explain why one department should get priority over another, why there are very important issues in the city that need immediate attention, no matter what the cost — that when you have that kind of emergency expenditure, you have to make sacrifices elsewhere.

But when you are the leader of a family, a business, or a community, you have to be able to say those things and not worry about whether it makes you look “mean” or if you make a few people uncomfortable.

You have to be able to look someone in the eye and say, “No.” Unfortunately, that is a skill some Goldsboro leaders have not quite mastered yet.

For some of them, it is understandable.

They are new to the game.

But when you are the mayor of the city — the boss — you cannot afford to sit back and do the easy thing.

There is too much at stake — and a rather daunting battle ahead to make sure that Seymour Johnson Air Force Base remains a thriving economic engine for this community.

So, here is the bottom line when it comes to the city budget, employee raises, and the coming fiscal year.

And we are well aware, by the way, that the votes have already been cast and this budget train is already barreling down the tracks, but we’re going to say it anyway — because dozens of you have emailed and messaged us about what you see as an unforgivable spending plan.

There is no department head or supervisor who should have received a salary increase this year.

That’s also what real leaders with hefty salaries do, by the way. They look out for those who work under them first and make a personal sacrifice because they are already getting paid big bucks.

So, we applaud Councilwoman Hiawatha Jones and Councilwoman Jamie Taylor for speaking up and getting a salary increase cap “across the line” for those who already make a pretty penny.

It sends an important message.

Here’s another.

There are some employees who have performed really well. They held Goldsboro together through the pandemic and beyond. They should be recognized — with merit bonuses.

The city has already approved Christmas bonuses — $400 for everyone — but spreading a portion of the $700,000-plus it is going to cost to fund 2.5-percent cost-ofliving increases would have been far more meaningful.

Because the truth is, there are some whose

And for those who buy into the notion that Livingston sold the council — that he had already made "millions of dollars in cuts" to the budget before he presented it — we call B.S.

work really doesn’t meet the above and beyond category — or who are too new to be eligible for any increase.

And there are others who should be glad they still have a job.

One of those is the city finance director, whose dilly dallying and exhaustive excusemaking with completing city audits for the last few years has cost this community grant opportunities, a solid bond rating, and respect from the Local Government Commission — no matter what her cheerleading section has to say.

Rather than, as she said, cleaning up the subpar work her predecessor left behind, it is looking more and more like Catherine Gwynn

was fixing a mess of her own making.

And while former City Manager Tim Salmon was the sacrificial lamb in this audit story — and make no mistake, it’s a good thing he’s gone — we can guarantee you that others should have been shown the door.

But they weren’t.

Accountability is a must this year — and a thorough examination of who carried the load and who did not would have been refreshing.

So, while it would be nice to give everybody a raise, hold hands, and dance around the mulberry bush, the truth is we can’t afford it.

And there are still a whole lot of ludicrous expenditures in that budget — $100 tickets to fancy dinners among them — that you, the taxpayer, are going to fund.

That’s one of the reasons why the city’s finances are in such disarray.

The little things add up.

Right now, the city should have three priorities — the safety of the residents, their wallets, and making sure Goldsboro is staged for a bright and prosperous future.

Forget cost-of-living increases for employees.

Because the truth is, we asked for, and received, the average salary of a city employee.

It’s just more than $48,000 a year.

If you do the math, that means before taxes, the average employee will see an extra $100 a month. And once you factor in deductions, that number shrinks considerably.

But there are some people who will see substantial bumps.

Livingston, Gwynn, and other department heads who, as Councilwoman Beverly Weeks pointed out Monday, did not show this community any evidence that they had endured any of the painful cuts they are now asking you to make.

Is a tank of gas a month for the average employee worth placing more of a burden on taxpayers?

Will it lead to a flood of applications or prevent current employees from jumping ship?

Not a chance.

So, what they got was nothing more than a PR stunt — at your expense.

And for those who buy into the notion that Livingston sold the council — that he had already made “millions of dollars in cuts” to the budget before he presented it — we call B.S. There is a difference between not funding pie-in-the-sky wants and forcing department heads to figure out a way to make a painful, but necessary cut.

So, now there is a whole city of people who will have to bear the burden of property tax increases in Goldsboro and Wayne County as well as utility rate hikes — also caused by bad planning by city governments of the past.

And, in case some of those people in City Hall need reminding, there are a lot of people

struggling in this economy. They don’t know if they are going to be able to eat or to put gas in their cars, let alone how they will manage the increased insurance rates hitting homeowners across the state and other shocking bills and fees.

So, this budget should not have included a “let’s grab some votes from the city employee bloc” maneuver.

It should have been about making some tough decisions to lessen the burden on the people who pay the bills — even if you can take money out of the general fund and lessen the blow, and even if you think you have found a way to make everyone happy.

Because when you have to take money out of the general fund to make ends meet, you are heading down a very dangerous and unsustainable rabbit hole.

Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Matthews said it.

So, too, did Councilman Roderick White.

And they hit the nail on the head.

Matthews was correct to suggest the city needed to look for every possible way to cut back — even if it meant that the budget was gone over line by line.

Because you can bet that every single business in this community is poring over its bottom line to see if there is any wiggle room — to see if there are expenses to be cut or capital purchases that can wait.

They are doing it because it is the responsible thing to do.

And making deep cuts, the kind that finance capital expenditures, allow for raises or hiring more people — or that minimize the impact on taxpayers — requires sacrifice.

Weeks was right to point out that the budget passed 4-3 Monday was not a “sacrificial budget” — that we need to scrutinize, to challenge, and to ask questions.

But instead of listening to her, Matthews, and White, the majority gave you a 9.5-cent property tax increase without taking another crack at a line-by-line budget review or sending Livingston back to his department heads to recommend additional cuts that could have softened the blow.

They did not do what you do when you understand the burden you are about to pass on to people who depend on you to make sure their money is spent wisely.

Raises for employees beyond the necessary ones going to the GPD and GFD? They would be wonderful.

So, too, would the prospect of increasing industrial and residential development in the city.

But to make all that happen — all while doing battle to keep our Air Force base thriving, without creating undue hardship on city taxpayers — requires more than gladhanding and making the easy calls.

It takes leadership.n newoldnorth.com

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Dozens have graduated from the University of Mount Olive’s Master's in Counseling Psychology program, but because it is still not accredited, most are unable to find employment as therapists in North Carolina.

MIND GA M ES

BY KEN FINE

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oments after she fielded a question about all she has lost after working for more than two years to secure what she now considers a “useless” master’s degree from the University of Mount Olive, Savannah Denton places a hand on her baby bump and looks down.

She thinks about the $30,000 it cost to complete the program and her inability to work to help provide for her son and his soon-to-be little brother during a required unpaid internship.

She reflects on the job she ultimately secured as an elementary school guidance counselor — how, as much as she has tried to fall in love with the profession, it is “not what I want to be doing.”

And she remembers “how excited I was” when she got to see, firsthand, the impact therapists at places like Pride in North Carolina make in the lives she hoped, when she set out to pursue a future in the field, she, too, could change for the better.

“You would think they would offer some kind of solution or at least give us our money back. But no. They just keep saying it’s not their fault,” Savannah said. “And you would think that they’re so worried about their reputation.

Wouldn’t you be embarrassed if all of these students are graduating with this degree and none of them have a license?”

She is not alone.

But to understand where Savannah and dozens of others who have completed UMO’s MS in Counseling Psychology program since it was announced in April 2020 are coming from, it’s necessary to turn back the clock.

S

tephanie Beverly remembers when her alma mater revealed it would soon be offering the degree.

“SUPER BIG EXCITING ANNOUNCMENT!!” a June 3, 2020 university Facebook post read.

“We wanted our students and alumni to be the first to know! UMO announces MS in Counseling Psychology.”

Stephanie was ecstatic.

After being a member of the first UMO graduating class — during her previous three years, the university was still Mount Olive College — she decided to pause her education to raise her children while her husband went back to school.

But when, right around the time the announcement was made, her work as a newborn photographer was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw the developments as fate because being a therapist had always been a part of her plan.

“My kids were older. I had always wanted to do this. The time was just right. That’s why I chose UMO. I went there before. I loved the experience,” she said. “Most people that go into counseling, they are that friend — the friend that everyone comes to. You’re the helper. You’re the mom. Well, I’ve always been the mom of my friend group. I’ve always

been the person people come to for help and advice. So, this was a very natural fit for me.”

So, she consulted with some of her former UMO professors.

“One of (them) told me to be careful of this program and to ask a lot of questions. He even told me what questions to ask,” Stephanie said.

“So, I did my research and asked a bunch of questions. I was aware of the fact that UMO was not accredited yet. So, I went in knowing all this.”

But her skepticism went away after several people — from officials inside the university’s Admissions Office to the man in charge of the program — “assured” her that by the time she graduated, the program would be accredited

by CACREP. And that was an important factor in her decision-making because North Carolina law — the law was amended in 2015 to “upgrade” licensure requirements to ensure uniform training standards existed for graduate counselor education programs — would require, effective July 1, 2022, that licensed therapists have degrees from accredited universities.

“So, again, I was aware of this and did my homework. I asked all the right questions,” Stephanie said. “And I was assured, you know, you have seen the emails, that by the time we graduated, this was going to be taken care of.”

An email sent by then-Assistant Dean Dr. C. Ray Taylor about UMO's goal to have the Master's program accredited before the first graduating class walked across the stage.

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Continued from page 15

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, provided emails that substantiate Stephanie’s claim.

One of them was sent by UMO Admissions Representative Jennifer Ovanna.

“Just so you are aware, the current plan is to be CACREP accredited by the time the first class graduates, and that most likely will be backdated once the site visit is completed,” the email read.

And another, sent by then-Assistant Dean Dr. C. Ray Taylor, made the same claim.

“UMO will begin pre-application process for CACREP accreditation immediately.

The goal is for program accreditation prior to the first graduating class,” it read. “Upon completion of all coursework, post-graduate clinical supervision hours, and other board requirements, graduates will be eligible to apply for Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist.”

Five cohorts of students later, UMO has still not received CACREP accreditation for the program — rendering, at current, their degrees “virtually meaningless,” Savannah said.

And after months of being “ignored” by UMO leaders, her mother, Lara Landers, got involved.

“I get it. They are young adults, and they

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should be able to handle it. But you know, they were getting the runaround,” Landers said.

“So, I decided to get involved because that’s not acceptable. They can try to ignore these young people because they don’t think they know how to fight, but I’ve done a lot for Wayne County, and I was going to get some answers.”

Because what Savannah, Stephanie, and dozens of others had been told was “a bunch of unacceptable excuses,” Landers said.

“One of the girls asked the (current) head of the department, ‘What do you suggest?

What if you don’t get the accreditation in time?’” Savannah said. “She said, ‘Send positive vibes or move to another state.’ That was her solution.”

Stephanie, after Taylor and the university parted ways, was told the same thing.

“They kind of cleaned house. I think they saw this coming. The first meeting after that, they told us, ‘Well, you guys could have gone to any university. You chose to be here.’ That got a lot of us heated,” she said. “We said that we had done the research and asked the questions but we were told — we were promised — that we would be taken care of. So, their initial stance was, ‘Put out positive vibes and apply for outof-state licenses.’ And they also said, ‘We can’t do anything about what was said before we got here.’ That was when I knew that the cleaning of the house was probably very planned.”

None of that matters to Landers.

“I don’t care if the people who started this program are no longer there,” she said. “It’s common sense. None of these (students) would have signed up for UMO. Why would you willingly spend $30,000 to go to this school and spend two years to get your master’s if it was going to mean nothing? You can’t blame this on the students.”

And when she called UMO President Dr. Edward Croom, she told him that.

“He said, ‘Well, the problem is that everybody who started this program at UMO is no longer here,’” Landers said. “I said, ‘Well, that’s not my problem.’ None of these students would have signed up to go to UMO if they knew this was going to be the case. It makes no sense.”

Then, she said, Croom blamed CACREP. “When his first line didn’t work on me, Dr. Croom said it’s no longer in their hands,” Landers said. “He said, basically, that it was CACREP’s fault because they were so far behind.”

Now it appears that come November, Savannah’s degree will restrict her ability to pursue the career she went to graduate school for. (As it stands, graduates have 18 months after they receive their degree to gain certification, or they are forced to restart the program.)

She, her classmates, and her mother are enraged.

“You always want your kids to do better than you did. So, I want my kids to have a Master’s and make way more money than I have ever had the chance to make in my life.

And now, she can’t,” Landers said. “Dr. Croom was so disappointing. And now you want her to move to another state because you (expletive) up? Her husband’s job is here. Her family is here. She has one child and another on the way. My daughter is not moving because you screwed her over.”

Stephanie is frustrated, too — despite the fact that she has been able to navigate the situation more successfully than many of her peers.

“It’s not worthless for me, but the issue is that, for a lot of people, they went to school for a certain license that they were promised, and they cannot get that license. Out of the three licenses we were promised, we’re only eligible to get one of those,” she said. “I like working with people with addictions, but just because that works for me, doesn’t mean that should be my only option or my classmates’ only option. A lot of them never intended to work with people with addictions.”

And since, without a degree from a university with CACREP accreditation, they cannot be a general therapist or a marriage and family therapist, most are at a loss.

Continued on page 18

It's a bold move and I respect the team for being willing to put this out there.

Now, we've got to figure out the right way to balance this thing.

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FOR BOARD OF EDUCATION AT-L ARGE No candidate or candidate’s committee is responsible for the content of this advertisement. Paid for by Mark and Lauren Metzler. newoldnorth.com

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Continued from page 16

“We all communicate all the time. They’re upset,” Stephanie said. “There are some, like me, who have kind of made it work. There are some who are doing addictions because they have no other choice. And there are some who are doing absolutely nothing. They went back to what they were doing before. But none of them are happy with this situation.”

And it appears that their next step is litigation — a message Stephanie not-sosubtly delivered to Dr. Deborah Buchanan, the woman who now oversees the program.

“I told her, ‘UMO taught us to advocate for ourselves and that’s what we’re going to do now,’” she said. “That was more than two weeks ago. I’ve heard nothing back.”

O

nce Buchanan took over — and former members of the MS in Counseling Psychology program began challenging her and the university — changes started appearing on the UMO website.

“They changed everything. They went in and updated the program listing. They put a CACREP disclaimer on every piece of information that went out about this program,” Stephanie said.

And a memo dated June 4, 2024, called “Master of Science in Counseling Professional Licensure Disclosure” was published — one that notes that UMO is “actively pursuing program accreditation,” provides a spreadsheet of “other states who also require a license to engage in the practice of professional counseling of any type,” notes that “licensure to practice professional counseling in North Carolina does not guarantee reciprocity as licensure requirements will vary from state to state,” and encourages prospective students to “contact the state professional counseling practice board to obtain the most up-to-date and accurate information on licensure requirements.”

An email about the program — and plans for it to be accredited — sent by an Admissions officer.

And instead of repeating claims that the onus is on no-longer-employed UMO staff, those who are communicating with members of the first cohorts are now blaming CACREP. “Everything that they’ve sent out recently has been, ‘We can’t help it. It’s CACREP. It’s CACREP. It’s CACREP,’” Stephanie said. “So, my last email to (Buchanan) said, ‘I understand that CACREP is

running behind. I do understand that. The issue is the promises that were made and that many of us, if we were given the information that is being put of there about the program now, many of us would not have chosen to go to UMO. Myself included.’”

In a phone interview Wednesday morning, Croom told Wayne Week that he is “still fighting” to ensure everyone who has completed the program will be made whole.

That fight, he said, includes everything from having conversations with CACREP officials to instructing the university’s lobbyists to engage with members of the Legislature.

“We’ve been working every avenue we know to work to make sure these students get accredited,” Croom said.

But the students have not been made aware of those measures, he added, because “I don’t really need them to be.”

“Well, I didn’t need them to be up to this point because you’re dealing with the North Carolina Mental Health Licensing Board, with CACREP, and I needed to keep this quiet until I had enough votes up there to pull this thing off,” Croom said.

That “thing” is getting the Legislature to add, into its budget, language that would allow the students to gain accreditation before their future careers are impacted — and, if that doesn't happen, working with accredited universities to allow nonaccredited courses from UMO to transfer to their campuses so UMO students could gain degrees that are not negatively impacted by state law.

“Sometimes, the more attention you bring to it, the people who don’t want it to happen fight against it,” he said.

Croom added students “were given some options” and “some of them took it” — referring to those who, whether it was their preferred path or not, decided to become addiction counselors.

“The bummer is that we’re in this situation, but I can guarantee you we are working everything we know to do to make sure these

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students, indeed, are CACREP certified. And at this point, we don’t feel like giving their money back is an option,” he said. “You have to start the program before you can begin the accreditation process. … Understand that there is a level of risk.”

But he also said the school never made promises — that the emails from Taylor and Ovanna never guaranteed anything and Buchanan’s alleged directive to “send positive vibes or move to another state” was not the official stance of UMO. “You may have documentation saying that we expect it to be fully accredited. Well, we expect to be fully accredited. I still expect to be fully accredited,” Croom said. “How anybody can feel that that’s a guarantee, that’s not forthright thinking. There’s always a gamble when you try to start a new program. … Our assurance is … I would pull every power I have, which includes going to the Legislature, to get it corrected.

That’s what I’ve done. But I still can’t sit here and say, ‘I assure you it’ll get done.”

For Stephanie, Croom’s words will mean nothing unless she and her classmates receive the opportunities she contends they were promised.

Because for this particular 32-year-old — one who was raised and educated in Mount Olive — this is personal.

“I graduated in 2014. I was in the first graduating class of the University of Mount Olive. It was Mount Olive College my freshman, sophomore, and junior year. So, it was really important to me. I wanted to be a part of this first cohort,” Stephanie said. “I wanted to do this here in a place I love. I wanted to be a part of something special. So, it’s awful. I don’t even think disappointing is the word.”n Note: At the end of our conversation with Dr. Croom, he said he would attempt to set up a Zoom meeting with those who have been impacted by the university’s lack of accreditation to unwrap for them the steps he is taking to try to rectify the situation.

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the SPECTATOR Hook. Line. Sinker.

Gunner Guay, 8, spent some time trying to catch a fish from just off the boat dock at Lake Wackena in Walnut Creek Wednesday.

And with his grandfather's wife, Tristin Williams, by his side, the little boy did just that.

Photos by Casey Mozingo

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