By Michelle Hines , University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 10-5-06
Erskine Bowles.
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNC system President Erskine Bowles had a crystal clear message Thursday as he addressed a breakfast crowd at UNCG: In order to compete in a global marketplace, the state’s universities must turn out more graduates in fields such as teaching, science and nursing, and make education more affordable to all students.
“North Carolina is the state where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,” Bowles said. “And today, the strong better also grow smart.”
Bowles, a Greensboro native, was on campus to celebrate UNCG’s 115th Founders Day, and dedicate two new academic buildings on campus. He was also on hand to help kick off the public phase of UNCG’s $100 million Students First Campaign, which extends through 2009.
The campaign money will go toward student support, faculty recruitment and research, goals Bowles fully supports. The initial fundraising goal was $78.2 million, but campaign volunteers urged UNCG Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan and other administrators to raise the cap.
Bowles said he is doing his best to keep tuition down even if it means administrative cuts within the system. He also cited some alarming statistics, urging potential donors to the university system to recognize the need for increased education funding.
Less than 34 percent of the state’s eighth graders are proficient in reading, math, science or writing, he said, and less than 20 percent of people living in rural North Carolina have college degrees. “If we don’t wake up and get more of our people better educated we are going to be a second-rate power in North Carolina and in America before we know it."
Sullivan.
Bowles said he and Sullivan are at a “dead run” today to find ways to train more people in the fastest growing sectors of the economy so that the state can compete with markets like India and China. Rapidly growing sectors of the economy include information systems and environmental sciences.
The world is changing at “warp speed,” Bowles warned. “When you’re in a crisis you don’t take it easy, you face up to it.”
UNCG has taken Bowles’ message to heart, Sullivan said. “Now is the time and UNCG is the university …. We’re going to be ready for the economic tsunami that Erskine is talking about.”
