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Students discuss future of UNC system |
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
The Raise Your Voice committee met Thursday evening to discuss state-wide issues facing North Carolina today and in the future.
The committee looks at issues on four different levels: college, state, national, and international, said Frank Bobbitt, a senior finance and banking major and Student Government Association committee member.
“We try to pick out themes and topics that will interest students and get them to come out and talk,” Bobbitt said.
Thursday’s meeting focused on a needs-assessment video prepared by the University of North
Carolina Tomorrow Council.
“The UNC Tomorrow video breaks up the future of the state into subcategories, and we picked it apart,
focusing on the biggest categories,” said Brooke W. Loftis, a freshman marketing major.
Some of the biggest points of discussion at the meeting included lack of room at universities, lack of
students in the maths and sciences, North Carolina environmental impacts, a break down of
government spending, and university students’ lack of preparation for the real world.
“One of the most interesting points was hearing from a student perspective on how unprepared they
feel for the career world, as well as statistics on how employers feel on student preparation out of
college,” Loftis said.
According to the UNC Tomorrow video, 63 percent of employers nationally think most college
graduates lack skills needed to succeed in today’s global economy and 61 percent of college
graduates agree that their college education did not prepare them.
“It’s not necessarily the university not preparing students as much as students needing to involve
themselves in school and take advantage of the opportunities… It’s about personal determination,”
sophomore elementary education major Madalyn R. Alexander said.
The committee also discussed the need for more students in the fields of math and science.
In China, more than 50 percent of the undergraduate degrees are in the field of science, technology,
engineering and math. However, in the United States, only 16 percent of degrees are awarded in these
fields, according to the UNC Tomorrow video.
Some students said they thought it was because children are pushed towards more artistic careers.
Alexander said she thought it was sad and telling how much the government spends on things outside
education, and how little people in the teaching profession are paid.
“I joined because I thought it was an effective group to get involved with, and people can’t do much to
help if they don’t know anything about the problems,” she said.
Both Loftis and Alexander joined Raise Your Voice as part of their involvement with the Impact Team
at Appalachian State University.
“It’s a new experience. You can bring awareness to an issue, but it gets to a point where you have to
act on it,” Loftis said.
Bobbitt said Raise Your Voice’s previous meeting discussed the smoking ban and they are working on
having two sweatshop workers from South America come share their experiences with the committee
in the near future.
“This committee’s goal is to raise awareness for social issues and help students self educate,” he said.
Raise Your Voice’s next meeting will be held March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in room 421 of the Belk Library &
Information Commons and will be an international theme discussing the election.
Students can view the UNC Tomorrow video on You Tube under the title: University of North Carolina
Tomorrow – Needs and Challenges.
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