Citizen-Soldier Program Gets Scathing Internal Review
With $7.5 million spent on a pilot pro- gram run by the University to pro- vide the families of deployed
National Guard and military reserve personnel
with support services similar to those offered to
families of regular military, the results are meager,
the efforts are entangled in red tape, and relations
with the military are far less than satisfactory.
That is according to the report of an internal
review ordered by Tony Waldrop ’ 74, vice chancellor for research and economic
development, four and a half years
after the start of the program known
as the Citizen-Soldier Initiative.
Backed by North Carolina’s congressional delegation, chiefly Rep.
David Price ’ 61, the program sought
to provide many of the family support benefits
regular military families have by virtue of their
proximity to military bases. Guard and reserve
personnel are dispersed across the state — in 37
units in 92 communities at the time the program
started in 2004. The program was designed to
work with Defense Department programs by
bringing employers, schools, child-care providers,
health professionals and faith-based organizations
into a network of family support.
Price, of Chapel Hill, a member of the House
Appropriations Committee, wrote the initiative
into legislation and secured the funding. The program was intended to serve as a national model.
Price said that the program is worthy of federal funding and that he still supports its goals.
In July 2008, Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte
received an anonymous letter complaining that
the program was providing none of the intended
benefits and was mired in a bureaucratic morass
that spent most of its time trying to ensure that
its federal funding would be continued. Myrick
The resulting report stated that ‘in its first several years,
the CSSP has struggled to overcome challenges related
in part to its ambitious and ill-defined mission and
to a complex and challenging operating environment.’
forwarded the letter to Erskine Bowles ’ 67, president of the UNC System.
The resulting report stated that “in its first
several years, the CSSP has struggled to overcome challenges related in part to its ambitious
and ill-defined mission and to a complex and
challenging operating environment.” It cited
funding delays, leadership turnover and changes
in objectives in the first three years.
The report also said that at some point the
Citizen-Soldier continued on page 7
Buchanan Speaks on Immigration, Free Speech; Protest Subdued
The latest chapter in UNC’s recent free speech debate started with a touch of the bizarre but, for the most part, was as
quiet as an 8 o’clock math class.
In the minutes before a speech by former
U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan on Oct. 8, senior
Haley Koch walked into the lobby of the Carolina Union auditorium. She was seized by mock
thought police, handcuffed and forced to listen to
hate mail she’s received since she participated in a
protest of another speaker in April.
About 15 people looked on as photographers
and cell phone videographers circled the scene.
The 10-minute pageant included Koch being
dragged “reluctantly” into the auditorium, where
about 65 people and nine campus police officers
heard a 40-minute speech by Buchanan.
Koch, a Morehead-Cain Scholar, was arrested
in April after a protest shut down an anti-illegal
immigration speech by former U.S. Rep. Tom
Tancredo. Others, none of them students, were
arrested a week later as they protested another
speaker. The incidents led to a public outcry that
the University was not protecting the free speech
rights of speakers invited to campus. Another
protest was anticipated when the student group
Youth for Western Civilization, which sponsored
the talks last spring, brought Buchanan to speak.
Buchanan, who has chaired a committee
founded by Tancredo and appeared as a commentator on issues such as illegal immigration,
talked more about free speech than immigration.
She told the mostly student audience that they
had to condition themselves to listen to all sides
of an issue before engaging in debate. “Free
speech forces the government to come more in
line with the will of the people,” she said.
The charge against Koch was dismissed in
September in Orange County District Court. Six
others — none UNC students — also appeared
on charges of disorderly conduct. Charges in four
cases were dismissed; a fifth case, in which a man
held up a profane banner during the speech, was
not dismissed; and a sixth was deferred.
The Class of 2013,
By the Numbers
For a fourth straight year, a record number of students
applied to be undergraduates at
Carolina. Over the past five
years, applications have
increased 21 percent.
The March/April issue will feature the Review’s annual in-depth
report on admissions. Here are
some quick facts from the
offices of Undergraduate
Admissions and from
Scholarships and Student Aid on
the freshman class of 2009-10:
n 23,047 students applied.
n Of those, 7,342 were
admitted.
n And of those, 3,960 enrolled.
n 692 members of the class
of 2013 are children of alumni.
n Among North Carolina residents: 9,537 applied, 4,496 were
accepted and, of those, 3,117
enrolled.
n The average SAT score was
1303.
n 19 percent of this year’s
entering class represent the first
generation in their families to go
to college.
n The male-female ratio is
unchanged — about 60 percent/
40 percent, women/men.
The number of students who
qualified for need-based aid in
2009-10 rose dramatically from
last year:
n 17 percent increase from last
year in applications for need-based aid.
n 23 percent increase in the
number of students with need.
n 26 percent increase in freshmen with need.
n 28 percent increase in
Carolina Covenant Scholars.
n 34 percent increase in federal
Pell Grant recipients.
Tuition is expected to increase
in 2010-11, and health insurance
will be added to the cost of
attendance. More families are
unemployed in 2009 than were in
2008 (eligibility is based on the
prior tax year’s income), which
means that more are expected to
need assistance in 2010-11.
