ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard speaks during a Ceremony of Unveiling for a statue serving as a memorial to students who passed away while attending ECU on Friday afternoon. (Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector)

By Katherine Ayers

ECU sophomore fine arts student Trey Martin designed the scuplture and said it includes stone from a quarry in Mount Airy to symbolize a strong foundation, a broken disk to symbolize the circle of life that got interrupted and three doves “which have lots of symbolism.” The statue stands 12 feet high, and Martin said it is designed to feel as if the doves are looking down on those who pass by.

Martin’s sculpture was chosen by ECU students from three finalists.

Virginia Hardy, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, said she thought of the idea of a sculpture garden after she realized the school had no way to honor students who had died.

“Two or three years ago, we actually had a young man who was killed in battle,” Hardy said. “I realized we didn’t have a place on campus for students to congregate and talk with each other about their (feelings).

“We needed a sculpture that would fit with this memorial garden,” she said. “We needed it to give the message of serenity, meditation and reflection.”

Matt Paske, Student Government Association president, said the memorial garden reminds people that once they become part of the ECU family, they will always be remembered.

“Every day we go to class here and during orientation, we’re told that once you’re a Pirate, you’re always a Pirate,” he said. “We’re blessed now that we have that memorial garden outside that we really can say we’re forever Pirates.”

Nancy Ball is the parent of a Geography Department masters student, Katie, who died five years ago from cancer.

“When you look at the sculpture you see two images, one depicting lost of life and one representing hope and life and beauty,” Ball said. “The garden is a tribute to the students we have lost, but it’s also a place of refuge for all our students and faculty.

“It’s a great comfort for the families who have lost loved ones to know that the Pirate Nation remembers them in this very special place,” she said.

Hardy said the university also is in the process of developing and “emergency fund” to assist the families and friends of students who die while at ECU. The fund could help parents travel to ECU from other states or help campus friends of a student travel to attend a memorial service or funeral for that student.

Contact Katherine Ayers at kayers@reflector.com and 252-329-9567.

Follow her on Twitter @KatieAyersGDR.

Zachary “Zack” Grey Willets

Obituary

Mr. Zachary “Zack” Grey Willets, 23, died Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. He was a National Guardsman and volunteered to serve in Afghanistan. He attended East Carolina University and was a student at Pitt Community College.

Memorial service at later date. Arrangements by Smith Funeral & Cremation Services. Online condolences at www.smithfcs.com.

via Zachary “Zack” Grey Willets Obituary: View Zachary Grey Willets’s Obituary by The Daily Reflector.

StarNews Online

One of Vicky Smith’s work in “Collected Clay,” on display at the 621N4TH gallery in Wilmington.

© The Washington Post Company

Richard Perry/The New York Times
Pilar Mercedes Foy of New Jersey earned a Thomas Edison State College degree mainly through classes at her job.

February 24, 2013

In September, Jennifer Hunt of Brown County, Ind., was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey without ever taking a Thomas Edison course. She was one of about 300 of last year’s 3,200 graduates who managed to patch together their degree requirements with a mix of credits — from other institutions, standardized exams, online courses, workplace or military training programs and portfolio assessments.

Years ago, fresh out of high school, Ms. Hunt had finished enough advanced work to enter the University of Texas at Austin with sophomore standing. But after a year, homesick, she returned to Virginia. Then she married and eventually moved to Indiana. She had 10 children, whom she home-schools, and worked in her husband’s business.

About a year ago, at 39, she resolved to complete a degree. In a kind of a higher-education sprint, she took a number of college equivalency exams, earning 54 credits in 14 weeks.

“I tried to do an exam a week at the University of Indianapolis test center,” where the exams could be proctored, she said. “Each test cost about $80.”

Ms. Hunt estimated that her degree in business administration, plus a simultaneous associate degree in applied science, had cost her $5,300, including books and fees. There are almost as many routes to a Thomas Edison degree as there are students. In a way, that is the whole point of the college, a fully accredited, largely online public institution in Trenton founded in 1972 to provide a flexible way for adults to further their education.

“We don’t care how or where the student learned, whether it was from spending three years in a monastery,” said George A. Pruitt, the college’s president, “as long as that learning is documented by some reliable assessment technique.”

“Learning takes place continuously throughout our lives,” he said. “If you’re a success in the insurance industry, and you’re in the million-dollar round table, what difference does it make if you learned your skills at Prudential or at Wharton?”

At a time when student debt has passed $1 trillion, such institutions seem to have, at the very least, impeccable timing. Thomas Edison, New Jersey’s second-largest public college, and two like-minded institutions — Charter Oak State College in Connecticut and the private, nonprofit Excelsior College in New York — are all growing. Thomas Edison’s graduating class last fall was a third bigger than the class five years earlier. And the idea of measuring students’ competency, not classroom hours, has become the cornerstone of newer institutions like Western Governors University in Utah.

At Thomas Edison and the other such colleges, almost all students are over 21, many are in the military, and few have taken a direct path to higher education.

Pilar Mercedes Foy, 31, a Thomas Edison graduate whose parents did not go to college, said after she got an entry-level job at PSEG, the New Jersey energy company, she realized that she would need a degree to advance. She earned the bulk of her credits through heavily subsidized evening classes offered at work, supplemented by classes at Union County College and 12 credits from the CLEP Spanish exam. For her, earning a degree without taking on a penny of student debt was enough of a milestone that she invited her husband, parents, siblings, in-laws and nieces to the September graduation ceremony.

Thirty years ago, when Dr. Pruitt became president, the Thomas Edison approach was controversial. Some academics, in particular, were skeptical, he said, almost believing that “if we didn’t teach it to you, you couldn’t have learned it.”

Results have quieted most naysayers, Dr. Pruitt said. For example, Thomas Edison graduates had the highest pass rate on the exam for certified public accountants in New Jersey, in the latest national accounting-boards report. Still, the approach raises real questions about the meaning of a college degree.

“If I’m giving you a degree, I’m vouching for you, testifying to your competence,” said Clifford Adelman, a senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington. “With these nomad students in higher education, whose students are they? There are questions of ownership and ethical responsibility.”

Most Thomas Edison students arrive with some credits, at times earned many years earlier. Others get credits by submitting a portfolio of their work or passing standardized exams like the College Level Examination Program, administered by the College Board. Many complete online college courses from Thomas Edison or “open courseware” sources like the Saylor Foundation. Many bring transcripts from the American Council on Education’s credit recommendation program, certifying their nontraditional programs.

Arthur C. Brooks, a former economics professor at Syracuse who heads the American Enterprise Institute, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Thomas Edison in 1994, at age 30, after a decade as a musician. He took correspondence courses, he said, “at the cheapest places I could find.”

Mr. Brooks believes he did the same homework, wrote the same papers and took the same tests as on-campus students at other colleges, without meeting a single professor. To get his degree, he had to prove mastery of economics in a two-hour telephone conversation with a professor at Pace University.

“It was like a field exam,” said Mr. Brooks, now 48. “He asked about Adam Smith, John Keynes, supply and demand, macro and micro — everything an economics major at any university would be expected to know.”

David Esterson, 45, of Whittier, Calif., started taking college classes while in high school, attended the University of Washington for a year, was a photographer in Los Angeles, then started a music business. About three years ago, when his nephews began talking about college, Mr. Esterson decided he should complete his degree.

He took online courses at the University of Minnesota and the University of Phoenix before trying a couple of California community colleges and an acupuncture school. He finally earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Thomas Edison in September.

“It sounded like a scam, but the fact that it was a state school, and accredited, made it more real,” Mr. Esterson said.

And it has been real, he said: “Nobody I contacted about graduate programs seemed to look down on the Edison degree, and I got into every grad school I applied to.”

Now enrolled in two graduate programs — an online master’s in leadership at Northeastern and a dual-degree executive M.B.A. program from Cornell University and Queen’s College in Canada — Mr. Esterson is a booster for his alma mater. “I’ve never been there, but I did buy a sweatshirt,” he said.

By Wesley Brown

Monday, February 25, 2013

A $2.5 million Medical Research Park and $10 million in street resurfacing projects will be on the table tonight when the City Council convenes for a specially called meeting to continue planning Greenville’s economic future.

Also on the agenda for the meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall is a motion to host two city-funded early-voting sites for the 2013 municipal election at the Pitt Area Transit System Conference Room at 1717 W. Fifth St. and on the campus of East Carolina University.

The medical research park and resurfacing investments are seen as major infrastructure improvements needed to propel the city into becoming the economic and medical hub of eastern North Carolina.

While road repaving may be seen by some as less glamorous, the immediate needs on Greenville streets are well-documented. Approximately 100 miles of city roads are in poor condition, a deterioration staff estimates that at $100,000 per mile, could cost $10 million to resurface.

New roads could help a medical research park in Greenville — the only economic development initiative that gained majority support from the council during its planning session in late January, with four members selecting it as one of the city’s most important needs.

The biotech facility is being promoted as a way for the council to achieve its strategic economic goal of “diversifying the city’s tax base and increasing general revenue” by attracting support businesses to the medical district and the campus of East Carolina University.

Community Development Director Merrill Flood said in a memo to the council last week that such an endeavor might offer expansion space and development-ready sites for private businesses wishing to locate in a collaborative environment with a focus on the life sciences.A medical research park is not a new idea for Greenville.

The city’s original Medical District Development Plan was adopted and implemented in October 1974 and created the supportive environment necessary to facilitate the hospital and medical complex.The plan has been updated several times and has served the city well, expanding the city’s boundaries more than 11,500 acres to promote a vibrant, efficient and sustainable medical core, consisting of a hospital, medical school, residential neighborhoods and a commercial district to serve the local population, daily visitors and area employees.

For the projects, Greenville’s Financial Services Director Bernita Demery has said the city could afford $420 million in debt if it explored a mixture of potential revenue sources, such as limited obligation and special revenue bonds, installment purchase agreements and a one-time contribution of $4.2 million from the general fund.

Contact Wesley Brown at 252-329-9579 or wbrown@reflector.com. Follow him on Twitter @CityWatchdog.

via The Daily Reflector.

By Wesley Brown

Friday, February 1, 2013

Early returns from the Greenville City Council’s annual planning session last weekend show a possible Medical Research Park as the only economic development initiative to gain majority support, with four council members selecting it as one of Greenville’s “most important” needs.

“Medical research just seems like a no-brainer in Greenville and I think to build around it with a corporate park, can really help us become a true medical hub,” At-large Councilman Dennis Mitchell said on Thursday.

The $2.5 million Medical Research Park proposal received the highest number of mentions of the 45 needs or initiatives the council said it would be like to fund, possibly as early as next year’s budget, to improve the city’s economy, infrastructure and parks system.

No other item was selected by three or more members. Fourteen projects received approval from at least two members and only seven received significant support, City Manager Barbara Lipscomb said.

Behind the Medical Research Park came a request from District 3 Councilwoman Marion Blackburn to “preserve the Town Common as an open park.”

Conceptual drawings released by the city on Monday call for significant development on the 12-acre park along the Tar River, including mixed-use housing, a museum and gift shop.

Blackburn said on Thursday that the Town Common is “essential” to quality of life in Greenville.

“We have plenty of noisy crowded places,” Blackburn said. “We need to keep the Town Common as a quiet, uncrowded place where we can come together as a community and I hope that this will continue to be the city’s ideal.”

The top priorities identified by the council were selected last weekend during a brainstorming session facilitated by David Long, a professional planner who has led retreats and goal-setting sessions for more than 60 companies and communities since 1995, most of them in North Carolina.

As part of the exercise, Long asked each of the council’s seven members to provide what they considered to be the city’s most pressing issues, in alliance with the five presentations made by staff on Greenville’s finances, its future and its needs.

Of the 45 given by the council, each member chose seven and ranked each on importance. The remaining top five were requested by Greenville Mayor Allen Thomas, District 4 Councilman Calvin Mercer and District 5 representative Max Joyner and each received 10 votes. They included:

Further enhance and develop the city’s Economic Development Office (Thomas).

More lighting and security cameras in the city (Thomas).

Diversify potential revenue sources (Mercer).

Consider a “Park, Arts, Recreation and Infrastructure” bond (Mercer).

Identify goals and provide for recreation and parks (Joyner).

Consider a separate transportation bond (Joyner).

Long said most boards, commissions and councils generally stick to achieving the goals through which some consensus is reached.

Mitchell said it may be difficult to accomplish a Medical Research Park in Greenville because of funding.

Greenville’s Financial Services Director Bernita Demery said the city could afford $420 million in debt if it explored a mixture of potential revenue sources, like limited obligation and special revenue bonds, installment purchase agreements and a one-time contribution of $4.2 million from the general fund.

Mitchell speculated the park would require a partnership between East Carolina University, Vidant Health and possibly a private developer, and was not something a bond could cover.

He said a city investment into its road system — 100 miles of which is in poor condition — would help influence the project and is an item he plans to lobby his fellow council members to support.

Contact Wesley Brown at 252-329-9579 or wbrown@reflector.com. Follow him on Twitter @CityWatchdog.

via The Daily Reflector.

Friday, February 1, 2013

When the Greenville City Council turned its attention toward the improvement of the Tar River-university neighborhood, many in the community contended that more rigorous enforcement of existing city code would help address the problems there. It was a position endorsed by, among others, East Carolina University, which even offered to help fund an additional enforcement officer.

Undaunted, the council plowed ahead with its plans to eliminate the rule limiting to three the number of unrelated tenants living in a dwelling, claiming that it would somehow reduce the concerns about trash, parking and crime endemic to that neighborhood. It is more likely that better code enforcement will prove a more effective solution, and the city should provide the resources needed to see that done.

Listed as the last action item in the neighborhood preservation section of last year’s list of City Council goals, a review of the so-called “three-unrelated” rule sparked a lively discussion about the future of the unique neighborhood between the East Carolina University campus and the Tar River. Inhabited by a mixture of college-age renters and older homeowners, it became a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over how to best protect and manage the city’s residential areas.

Opponents to a proposal that would allow four unrelated people to occupy homes in a specific overlay district argued that what the neighborhood needed was more vigorous enforcement of existing city codes. They pointed to problems with trash in yards and on streets, the congestion of having too many vehicles for limited parking and the rate of noise and crime in that area — and contended that the city should be proactive in addressing it.

East Carolina weighed in shortly before the council’s vote, calling the existing rules sufficient and pointing to a need for additional code enforcement officers to address specific concerns in that neighborhood. University officials offered to provide half the salary for an additional officer and to take a more aggressive role in holding students accountable.

Though the council would ultimately push through the overlay district on a 4-2 vote, the university’s points remain salient. More aggressive enforcement of existing rules would improve the quality of life for homeowners and renters alike. East Carolina is pressing forward on that issue through its Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities. The city should follow suit by bolstering its enforcement efforts with the resources needed to make progress in that unique neighborhood.

via The Daily Reflector.

Sgt. Ryan Quay shares a moment with his wife, Nicole, and his 3-year-old son, Blake, before leaving for Afghanistan on Monday morning. (Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector)

By Wesley Brown

Friday, February 1, 2013

As the nation’s unemployment rate remains below 8 percent, joblessness for post-Sept. 11 veterans has climbed to nearly 10 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It is one of the most staggering statistics in the job market’s slow recovery, economists say.

However, there is some good news locally for veterans expected to leave the armed forces during the next four to five years.

City officials announced this week that they plan to invite one veteran to come work in its economic development office as a paid intern, saying they value the interpersonal and cross-cultural qualities service officers have inherited in leading some of nation’s top security missions.

“This could be our chance to work with The Greatest Generation 2.0,” Greenville Economic Developer Officer Carl Rees said, characterizing the opportunity — an extension of Operation Reentry North Carolina — as one of the “most exciting workforce development programs he has ever seen.”

Operation Reentry North Carolina was created in 2011 as part of a national partnership to address the “resilience, rehabilitation and reintegration” of veterans, their families and the health providers that care for the service personnel.

Under a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command, East Carolina University is leading the operation, funded in its first year through $2.4 million from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The city recently joined the initiative, reaching out to ECU to help build the concept into a “working model” that provides long-term research opportunities for active service men and women.

Rees visited Charlotte on Monday with ECU officials to learn from the Queen City’s veteran workforce transition program — called the “Bridge Home” — and said he expects to have an intern onboard at City Hall in the next one to two months.

The plan is to actively recruit an exiting officer every six months from the Joint Special Operations Command Center in Fayetteville to Greenville to complete an internship paid for with federal defense funds.

The intern will work directly under Rees and have regular contact with Mayor Allen Thomas and City Manager Barbara Lipscomb to assist staff in “aligning the city’s economic goals.” Job responsibilities will include:

Engaging the business community to recruit job opportunities for veterans and spouses of disabled veterans.

Collaborating with area economic development partners to provide business opportunities that will lead to job creation for local veterans and residents.

Working with area recreation, parks and cultural arts organizations to build policies and programs supportive of a high quality of life in Greenville.

Rees said there may be some veterans who require mental health services, physical therapy and basic workforce training, all of which he said the city could provide through the help of ECU, Pitt Community College and Vidant Medical Center.

Dr. Ted Morris, ECU’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Economic Development, said the university plans to recruit a paid intern as well to “identify, recruit and integrate resources” from within and outside the community to provide peer-to-peer support services and employment opportunities for veterans and their families.

With Greenville being within a one to three-hour drive of 10 military installations, including two naval stations in Norfolk, Va., a Coast Guard port in Elizabeth City, and six Marine Corps air stations and bases along the Crystal Coast, the hope is for the interns to be local.

“These veterans and many of their family members are dedicated leaders that represent what could be fantastic talent to the local workforce,” Morris said. “We are absolutely excited to further develop this concept.”

Contact Wesley Brown at 252-329-9579 or wbrown@reflector.com. Follow him on Twitter @CityWatchdog.

via The Daily Reflector.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Cassandra Deck-Brown, who has been serving as interim police chief for the Raleigh, will retain the role permanently, making her the city’s first black female police chief.

Deck-Brown, 49, a 25-year veteran of the Raleigh Police Department, was one of three finalists in a nationwide search that drew in 48 applicants to replace former Chief Harry Dolan, who retired last year after leading the department for more than five years.

The two other finalists for his job were Chief Bryan Norwood of Richmond, Va., and Deputy Chief Malik Aziz of Dallas, Texas.

“Cassandra, knowing Raleigh and having served her whole career here, that certainly is an advantage, when you can step up and bring that to the table,” Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen said Thursday. “In this case, that certainly turned out to be an advantage.”

In a statement, Allen praised her professionalism, commitment and dedication to the citizens of Raleigh as well as the police department.

“I am confident she will both continue and build upon the department’s record of public safety effectiveness and community outreach,” Allen said in the statement.

Deck-Brown’s promotion takes effect Friday. Her annual salary will be $136,891.

In a public forum last week in which she and two other candidates were interviewed, Deck-Brown talked about some of the challenges facing Raleigh, including a growing population, budgets and violent crimes involving youth. She also said she would lead the department, which has an $88.4 million budget, and its 777 sworn officers with integrity, accountability and commitment.

Deck-Brown also won the endorsement of the Raleigh Police Protective Association, which represents nearly 600 police officers.

“Interim Chief Deck-Brown exhibits the characteristics that are essential in the next police chief: experience, knowledge, expertise and integrity,” RPPA President Eric DeSimone said in a statement Tuesday. “We are confident that Chief Deck-Brown will continue to lead this department and the community forward.”

Former RPPA president Rick Armstrong said police officers are glad to have her as chief.

“The majority of our members have worked beside her, know her well and respect her greatly,” Armstrong said.

Deck-Brown, who is from North Carolina, graduated from East Carolina University and received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from North Carolina State University.

She joined the Raleigh Police Department in 1987 and worked her way up the ranks as a detective in 1994, sergeant in 1997, lieutenant in 2002, captain in 2003 and major in 2006, when she assumed leadership of the police department’s Administrative Services Division.

She was promoted to deputy chief in June 2011, after temporarily commanding daily operations of the department’s Internal Affairs Unit and several other operations.

She took over as head of the police department upon Dolan’s retirement on Oct. 1.

“My goal was to hold the highest attainable position on the Raleigh Police Department,” Deck-Brown said last week at the candidate forum. “I have served in every supervisory capacity the Raleigh Police Department has had.”

Reporter: Adam Owens

Photographer: Mark Simpson

Web Editors: Kelly Gardner, Bridget Whelan

via Raleigh interim chief gets permanent nod :: WRAL.com.

Jessie “Bud” Anderson Jr.

Mr. Jessie “Bud” Anderson Jr., 79, was born on June 11, 1933. He passed away on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. He was the son of the late Jessie Sr. and Lucy Teel Anderson.

He was born and raised in Pitt County. He lived in Tinton Falls and Red Banks, N.J. for a number of years. After returning to North Carolina he was employed with the City of Greenville and Blount Fertilizer Company. He later retired from the department of Environmental Services at East Carolina University, Greenville.

Bud was a man who loved people; he would strike up a conversation with anyone who crossed his path. He spent most of his days at the McDonald’s on 10th Street conversing with the staff, regular customers (whom he befriended) and of course the new faces he encountered.

He is survived by his wife, Sarah Anderson of Asbury Park, N.J.; two sons, Kenneth Anderson and wife, Pamela, of Edgewood, Md. and Jerome Anderson of Asbury Park, N.J.; five daughters, Ethel Pearl Anderson, Lezeila Anderson, Barbara Pruitt and husband, Ovester, Jessie Mae Anderson, all of Long Branch, N.J. and Delone Anderson of Neptune, N.J.; brother, Harvey Anderson and wife, Carrie, of Danbury, Conn.; two sisters, Christine Anderson and Eunice Mae Battle of Greenville; 24 grandchildren; and 25 great grandchildren.

Funeral service will be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 at Whichard Chapel Church, Stokes. The family will receive friends at the church one hour prior to the service. All other times the family will receive friends at 3143 Cleere Court Greenville. Interment will follow at Homestead Memorial Gardens.

Arrangements by WE Flanagan Memorial Funeral Home.

via Jessie “Bud” Anderson Jr. Obituary: View Jessie Anderson’s Obituary by The Daily Reflector.