John W. Bardo
Chancellor
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, N.C. 28723
Jbardo@wcu.edu
North Carolina is two states: one rich, one poor. One with the best medical, high tech research universities in the nation and one with some of the highest adult illiteracy rates in the nation. One with a median income that is growing toward the national average, and one that is falling further and further behind. One that is central with rolling hills and growing cities; one that is peripheral and failing.
We serve a region where some of the most beautiful mountains and valleys in the eastern United States hide some of the nation's worst poverty. A region that has for the last hundred years suffered waves of out-migration as industry after industry stagnated and failed only to be replaced by a dominant single industry that itself went through this cycle. WCU's region, southern Appalachia, provided much of the labor that built the automobile after World War II and today we are exporting our young people-the very people we need to lead this region's future-- to the high tech industries in the Research Triangle and Atlanta. Lincoln knew that a "house divided against itself could not stand" and North Carolina is blessed with a Governor and Legislature that understand that North Carolina can ignore its "second state" only at its peril. Both the center and the periphery must prosper if North Carolina is to remain among the nation's fastest growing economies.
In 1996, Governor Hunt appointed me as one of two co-chairs of a task force on the economic development of the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the five surrounding counties. The task force report was completed in August 1998. Its conclusions are clear. Western North Carolina is a region typified by:
- A population that is undereducated and under-skilled. The adult illiteracy rates, high school completion rates and college going rates are among the worst in the state.
- An economic base that is highly dependant on a few relatively low-wage industries. Many of these industries are reaching the ends of their life cycles.
- A poor infrastructure to support economic development. The region does not have natural gas in most areas; piped water and appropriate sewer facilities are limited in many rural areas. Many commmunities do not yet have high-speed data transmission lines to support the "new economy" and there are few plans to bring such capacity to the region as an infrastructure investment.
- A road network that was significantly improved, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, but one that needs a great deal more attention. And, while there is improvement to the I-26 corridor across North Carolina from South Carolina to Tennessee, there are significant areas of the region with no four-lane highway access to the rest of North Carolina.
- In an area where travel among many small towns and communities is still relatively difficult, there is little support for small-scale, local business development including the ability to incubate business and assist with financing.
To understand the economic development needs of this region, it is important to grasp the magnitude of the issues. To most North Carolinians, Appalachian State University and Western Carolina are similar institutions serving the same population. Yet, it takes three hours to drive between the two campuses. Tri-County Community College, which serves Cherokee, Graham, and Clay counties in the extreme western tip of the state is 110 mountain road miles west of Asheville-which to most people defines the western-most edge of North Carolina. In fact, Western Carolina University [and some areas of the region] is closer to the state capitals of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and even to Kentucky than to our own capital at Raleigh. The Appalachian section of North Carolina, like the far eastern periphery of the state is rural but with relatively little arable land. Traditional subsistence farming and extractive industries have given way to an economy largely based on small-scale tourism. With the exception of the corridor running between Asheville and Hendersonville, the region's two largest cities, most Appalachian counties have not greatly benefited from North Carolina's role as a lead player in the world's "new economy." Average wages in the region are currently $2,500 below the state's average and projections are that this difference will only increase. Of the 23 counties in this region, twelve have median incomes that are less than 75 percent of the national median. For all counties in this region, the median income is 19 percent below the national average and 9.9 percent below the state average. In some counties, as many as 25 percent of the population over age 25 is functionally illiterate and nearly 37 percent of the ninth graders in 1991-92 did not graduate in 1995-96. Of the 23 counties in the region, fourteen are considered "economically distressed" and one, Graham County, is among the three most economically distressed counties in the state.
There are signs that the problems associated with North Carolina's "second state" can be overcome. The Asheville-Hendersonville metropolitan area is making major progress. Moreover, significant leaders of this urban area have been engaging in real dialogue on how to continue to work toward solutions. And, in this metropolitan area, we are seeing increases in income, business diversification, and rising expectations. However, the benefits of the Asheville-Hendersonville urban area are not reflective of changes in the 21 rural counties of the region. If the data from Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties were eliminated, the degree of difference between the first and second states of North Carolina would be much more striking.
Though I will focus here on the problems of the Western part of North Carolina, the eastern periphery has similar conditions. It also should be noted that North Carolina's "second state" is racially very diverse. Citizens of this second state who live in the West are predominantly white or Native American; those who live in the east are predominantly African-American. The issue is not so much one of race as it is location; in traditional economic development terms, North Carolina must deal with a "center-periphery" dichotomy. The center is prospering while the periphery is, for the most part, failing.
Many of us in universities have spent our careers supporting the economic development of our states and regions. The seven universities in North Carolina's Research Triangle, along with Stanford University in the Silicon Valley, may be the most well-known, but hundreds of universities across the nation have been involved directly in supporting economic development.
In the mid-1980s there was a national effort to engage state universities in economic development. EDA in conjunction with AASCU and SRI held a series of national and regional conferences focused on sharing the work of various universities in economic development. SRI (1986), in summarizing this work suggested that the work of universities in supporting economic development could typified in the following categories:
- Human resource development
- Advanced technology development
- Applied research
- Technology transfer, and
- Business development.
There are scores of examples of universities working in each of these areas in ways that have promoted regional economic development. For those of us who serve primarily rural regions, however, the choices were relatively limited. Traditional means of communication and production assured that we would always remain on the "margin" of economic development and that, for the most part, the occasional successes would define the exception and not the rule.
Today, the communications revolution holds the prospect of significant change in that pattern for possibly the first time this century. Because of the Internet, World Wide Web, and their likely successors, geography no longer needs to play a determining role in the economic future of a region. As has been noted by many others, in the current communications revolution locations that have historically been peripheral and "on the edge" are in a position, with the right set of actions, to become part of the center of economic activity. The virtual elimination of geography as a barrier in a variety of businesses that are in the very early stages of their life cycles provides the prospect for the first time in the history of these peripheral rural regions of reversing the cycle of out-migration, economic dependence, and business stagnation. But, taking advantage of these opportunities will require some significant policy decisions on the part of universities, the states, and local governments. It also could be greatly enhanced by support from such federal authorities as EDA and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
At Western Carolina University we are acting on a variety of fronts to be an engine for economic development of the western region. Moreover, we believe that the fundamental nature of the "new economy" provides for the first time in history an opportunity to solve the "center-periphery" economic development problem suffered by so many rural areas. However, for this development to be successful it is going to require a strong partnership between education, business and other branches of government. I would like to focus the remainder of my comments on some of the specific actions we are taking at WCU as well as highlighting some of the most important actions that we believe are yet to be taken. Specifically, I will focus on 1) curriculum reform; 2) educational linkages; and 3)direct support for economic development.
Curriculum Reform
The literature on education for the 21st century tends to have several common themes. Most of these themes revolve around the notions of integrating technology across the curriculum; development of a technologically competent workforce; and preparing workers who are educationally, psychologically, and socially prepared for a world that will be defined by very high rates of change. These social and psychological dimensions are as important as specific skill development in that they focus on the worker's readiness to adapt to change; ability to work collaboratively and in groups; a sense of values that supports life-long learning and a strong work ethic; and an understanding of cultural differences and diversity. On the technical side, there is a strong need for people with specific technical skills, but there is an even greater need for people who can apply the traditional educational skills that are the hallmark of a strong liberal arts and sciences-based education. These include the ability to communicate well both orally and in writing; the ability to problem solve and think critically; and the ability to use technology in communication and problem solving. Although I don't believe that economic development literature in general speaks well to the point, an education that integrates the sciences, humanities, social sciences and the professions with a strong emphasis on skill development (as opposed to knowledge acquisition) and collaborative learning is critical to any region, state, or nation's competitiveness in the "new economy."
At Western we are taking this set of skills very seriously. Last academic year our faculty voted to require all entering freshmen to bring a networkable computer with them as a condition of admission. We are being told by representatives of other universities and consultants that Western's approach is unique. We have tied this computer requirement to a specific set of learning outcomes that are themselves tied to humanities and communications courses. To pass the required freshman composition and oral communications classes (that are part of our general education curriculum) students must demonstrate that they can use Microsoft Word, Netscape, Daedalus critical thinking software, and they have to make a PowerPoint presentation. Students also must demonstrate that they can access the library and its databases. In addition, starting with the class of 1999, all freshmen, regardless of major, will have to demonstrate that they can create a web page. Western has had a fully networked campus for more than two and a half years. Students are given access in their residence halls to all the software that they need to complete their requirements.
No curriculum will work unless the faculty have adequate resources and support. To date, Western has developed nine multimedia teaching classrooms and we have allocated 3.5 FTE staff for faculty training. Last spring, in preparation for our computer requirement, more than 250 of our approximately 500 full- and part-time faculty took training (many faculty were already using electronics technologies in their teaching).
We also have created a program of "learning communities" where freshmen can live and work with a group of up to 23 other students during their freshmen year. Through its structure, this program encourages collaborative learning and study. The results of these changes, though preliminary, have been significant.
During the 1997-1998 academic year only a third of our residential students had a computer hooked to the campus network; today more than 74 percent are connected. Nationally, somewhat over one third of undergraduate students use e-mail. At Western over 90 percent have active e-mail accounts. Over 17 percent of our course offerings on the main campus were taught using multimedia-based pedagogies including all English composition and oral communications classes. We understand that we may also be the only university in the country to require all freshmen to develop skill with "critical thinking" oriented software.
We believe that these actions can have significant impact on the base competencies of the work force in the region and that this approach to integrating technology across the curriculum-one which is getting a great deal of attention from other universities and consulting firms-is the core action that the University can take to push this region forward. But, we are pressing on a number of other fronts as well.
With the support of Congressman Charles Taylor, Western is developing a technology-based "workforce development center." We will break ground on this center this year. The purpose of the center is to bring together the institution's faculty, regardless of field, who can contribute to developing advanced educational programs that support emerging "new economy" industries. For example, the center will have facilities to support integrated multimedia-based programs that include digital sound recording, digital video, and media production. There will be a center for professional selling-the only one of its type east of the Mississippi-to help focus our marketing program on business-to-business sales. There are applied engineering facilities to support our engineering technology programs. These facilities include demonstration labs specializing in technology-based manufacturing, three dimensional CAD-based epoxy modeling, and information network design. A team of faculty representing such disciplines as music, electronic media, marketing, and engineering technology is developing the center.
Through state funding, WCU also has created a Regional Outreach Center. Recently, UNC consultants informed the Legislature that this center defined "best practice" in the UNC system for applying electronics technology to support educational development. About a third of the center, as planned, is completed and operational. It includes full-motion distance education facilities that are used for adult "just in time" training and enriching the traditional curriculum through distance education. This center also has produced in collaboration with the College of Business our first Internet-based master's degree in Project Management. Western is only one of a handful of schools nationally to have a masters certified by AACSB and the Project Management Institute. As the new economy continues to evolve, we believe that this will be an increasingly important program.
Educational Linkages
A final element in this approach that should be mentioned involves the recognized importance of collaborative development if rural regions are to prosper. WCU at 6,500 students is the largest four-year institution in a 17-county region that includes Asheville and Hendersonville. In fact, it is larger than all other four-year institutions combined. In the 23-county service region, only Appalachian State is larger. It is clear, therefore, that no one institution can alone be the engine that propels this region forward. The resources simply are not here. However, because North Carolina has invested heavily in developing an extensive community and technical college system (and there are 10 community colleges in this primary service region) there is great potential for developing collaborative programs that magnify the resources available. Congressman Taylor recognized this potential and was the impetus in forming the Western North Carolina Education and Research Consortium, which is composed primarily of three small private colleges and WCU. In addition, WCU and nine of the community colleges are actively engaged in developing collaborative programs based on communications technologies. To date, the community colleges and WCU have explored sharing educational and training resources, on-site four-year degree completion, shared certifications, joint admissions, guaranteed transfer, and special-technical degree articulation. In addition, there is an emerging vision for a shared high-speed communications infrastructure that would allow community colleges, universities, and private colleges to directly provide education and "just in time" training across the mountain region and to support emerging communications-technology businesses. However, this network and vision will require all of us to think "outside the box." It also will require a real concerted examination of educational and public policies that support economic development.
In addition to developing higher education networks, the community colleges and universities in the western section of the state are working closely with school districts to develop a "seamless web" of education. Community colleges and the school districts have active "school to work," apprenticeship, and basic adult literacy programs. WCU's College of Education and Allied Professions is actively engaged in out-reach across the region and we have adopted a local elementary school as a "professional demonstration school." Aside from a broad array of outreach programs to the K - 12 sector, WCU is beginning to work with community colleges on developing non-traditional articulation agreements to allow students who have completed a "tech-prep" curriculum in high school and a technicians program at the community college to transfer to Western to complete an appropriate baccalaureate degree. Workers with this type of education will be a critical part of the workforce backbone that will make this region a player in the new economy.
Direct Support for Economic Development
Aside from workforce development, there are some very significant steps that can be taken with public/private partnerships to enhance the economic viability of the region. I will summarize some of the most significant below.
Support for tourism.
This region currently has tourism as its core economic base. Unfortunately, the region only has a handful of major tourist businesses to encourage more than transitory sight-seeing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. As a result, tourists on average only spend two-tenths of a day in the region. Estimates are that if this were increased to one overnight it would mean hundreds of millions of dollars in additional income per year to the region. Development of tourist destinations and support for professionalization of the numerous small locally owned tourist businesses would be of significant benefit.
Western is working on a variety of traditional and non-traditional fronts to further this segment of the economy. The most significant initiative involves the development of a major performing and fine arts center on the campus both to support professional development of artists and performers to work in the region and to create a major destination for higher end cultural tourists. We are working to implement a plan that brings together the university's resources, the regional arts and crafts community, the state, and private donations to create a very high- level summer performance series on the order of Tanglewood or Spleto to create an additional strong tourist destination. We are seeking legislative funding for the facility and private support to assist in underwriting programming. To date, the state has funded design and site development costs and the current university system budget requests construction funding. We also have obtained a million-dollar endowment for a distinguished professorship in music performance.
Support for business development.
The University has a long tradition of supporting business development in the region through its Mountain Resource Center, Office of Regional Affairs, Regional Outreach Center, and branch of the state's Small Business and Technology Development Center. These offices have helped thousands of business people over the last twenty years, but there is so much more that we can do.
Through some modifications in state policy, it is possible for universities that serve North Carolina's "second state" to have real impact on the economic future. There are three areas that seem especially important: 1) incubation of small business; 2) support for public/private partnerships; and 3) use of electronics infrastructure to support economic development.
It is time for state policy to explicitly recognize that for the rural peripheral regions of North Carolina, educational institutions (universities and community colleges taken together) have sufficient size, scope, and presence to drive significant economic development. The state needs consistent policies that allow and encourage higher education to press these issues. Most significantly:
- Universities need to be given clear authority to incubate and provide support for small businesses using university facilities. This is especially critical in the area of applied technology. The technological needs of the university system alone currently exceed the capacity of the state to provide funding. If, however, universities had the authority to rent time on advanced equipment to business to promote competitiveness, and if those receipts could be placed in a local sinking fund for equipment replacement, universities could both serve the region's economic development needs and extend the availability of high tech equipment for the students. While this approach cannot replace state funds, it does explicitly authorize universities to promote business development in their regions.
- Universities (and the community colleges) need to be given explicit authority to develop public/private partnerships that promote economic development in the region. This authority has already been provided to North Carolina State University through its "Centennial Campus" and there will be a proposal for a similar development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, these proposals only affect the Research Triangle and have no impact on the Second State of North Carolina. This authority needs to be explicitly extended to all universities to encourage sustainable economic development in their regions.
- The universities need to be encouraged to utilize any excess capacity in their high-speed data transmission systems to encourage small business development. This is especially critical in rural under-served areas where there is not enough volume to encourage private providers to develop electronics communications capabilities as an infrastructure investment.
These policy changes will require the state to clearly articulate the role of higher education in economic development for the peripheral areas that constitute the "second North Carolina." But there is another basic policy regarding the distribution of economic development-relevant academic programming that also needs to be reviewed.
Location of Academic Programs
North Carolina, like most states, has a long-standing policy of reducing or eliminating unnecessary academic program duplication. While in principle this is a laudatory and important state policy, often the definition of "unnecessary duplication" is based on fairly narrowly defined cost/benefit criteria. What has happened in North Carolina as a result is that most programs that are critical to support regional economic development can be found in the Piedmont (with the exception of the medical school at East Carolina). The people of North Carolina are justifiably proud of the impact that education has had on developing many sections of the Piedmont as an engine of economic strength for the state. However, this policy has not produced equivalent economic benefit for the periphery of the state.
It also is expected that communications technologies will reduce the need for the state to distribute these programs more broadly, but this may not be the case. Much of the value for economic development purposes of an academic program is not just in the graduates. It is in the local availability of the faculty with their more advanced skills. Professionals who are located four or five hours away from a business that needs support simply are not as likely to establish the depth of relationship with that business (especially if the business is small) that is necessary to meet the local need. Moreover, placing programs in peripheral institutions brings students to the area who have appropriate educational skills to support economic base development. Many students want to make their homes where they go to school. So, they become a workforce base around which businesses can evolve.
This is not to say that distance education and programming are irrelevant. Many educational and shorter-term consultation needs can indeed be met by distance programming. However, in many other arenas the state recognizes the importance of local person-to-person interaction. The state does not operate its SBTDC centrally, agricultural extension officers are not being recalled to the main campus of North Carolina State, and the state is maintaining and strengthening the regional AHECs to support medical education. The same logic could be applied to the actual distribution of academic programs. Given the history of the state and the importance of educational institutions in the new economy it is critical that a broad view of the distribution of academic programs as a means to encourage economic development be created.
These, then, are some of the most crucial issues in direct support of economic development by universities in the UNC system. Technology provides many opportunities for finally creating one State of North Carolina. And, the state is in a position to leverage that transition to take advantage of the major opportunity that electronics and communications technologies bring for more evenly developing this great state.
Reference
SRI (1986). Allies for Enterprise. Washington, DC: AASCU.
Paper presented at the National Forum on Economic Development, Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., January 25, 1999. |
