Ruralite Cafe: Published 11/02/00

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

Bond will translate to jobs, WCU chancellor says

"We never want to get complacent," he said when asked if he thought there was a chance the bond would fail to pass.

While the $3.1 billion state leaders hope to borrow will be spread among universities and community colleges across the state, Bardo is understandably most eager to talk about what WCU's share, $98 million, would do to improve life in Cullowhee and throughout Western North Carolina. While almost half of Western's allocation will go toward new construction, the other half will be spent on upgrades and renovations of buildings with a distinguished history of service, he said.

Of special interest to me, a history major in another life, is the $5.2 million earmarked for McKee, built in 1938 and named for North Carolina's first woman state senator. The grand old building, which housed several generations of Cullowhee-area children back when it was a public school, is suffering from foundation woes, the chancellor said.

"That's a building we want to save," Bardo said. "It's a beautiful building - a real landmark. It's well worth preserving, and we want to preserve it well."

I spent a lot of time in McKee, and I'm glad university planners recognize its value. The history department deserves a building with a past.

Money from this bond will also be used to upgrade my other favorite WCU classroom building. After I put in my time with the history department, I signed on as a biology graduate student. That was in the olden times when there was still a football field where that newfangled Natural Science Building sits today. Stillwell was old then, but it had (and still has) character. It was even named for a history professor.

One improvement on the list really stumped me, though. It said "Old Student Health Center - conversion to residential and academic space." Despite what I believed to be a fair knowledge of the WCU campus and its buildings, I had to ask the chancellor to help me out with that one. Turns out the "Old Student Health Center" is none other than Graham Infirmary, which was built in 1939 when WCU had an enrollment of some 520 students. Renamed the Student Health Center to emphasize a more recent focus on wellness (and to confuse us old-timers), the once-modern infirmary is inadequate to serve even today's 6,500-student population, let alone meet the needs of WCU's projected 9,000-plus. Graham will become a small dorm, and other bond funds will refurbish Bird (the old administration building) so it can become the health center of the future.

Some $7 million is included to modernize Forsyth. Though one of the newer structures on campus, the 25-year-old business building predates the Internet and personal computers, and needs to be re-configured to equip students for a changing economy, Bardo said.

Growth at WCU has already started with this year's 1,200-plus freshman class, Bardo said, and applications are up significantly. The chancellor pointed with pride to WCU's Honors College, which had 77 students just four years ago. Today it has 600, including 144 freshmen, from 47 counties. And the top three counties sending students to the Honors College, where the average SAT score is 1,222, are Jackson, Haywood and Macon.

"It has long been a concern that many bright young people are leaving our region," Bardo said. "Our Honors College is helping to keep them here."

Studies have shown that when students leave an area to attend college elsewhere, many don't return. The chancellor sees stopping that talent drain as one of Western's main goals.

The development of a "Millennium Campus," which will allow WCU and other campuses to act as agents of economic development and allow businesses to locate on university property is part of the master plan as well, the chancellor said.

If WCU grows as projected, more than 170 new faculty positions will be needed. And faculty positions generate staff positions, the chancellor said.

"The growth of WCU translates into jobs," Bardo said.

If he could speak with voters individually to ask them to support this bond, the chancellor said he'd talk of family and of the sad Appalachian legacy of young folks leaving home in order to find work somewhere else.

Passage of the bond will provide WCU (and Southwestern Community College) with the tools to influence the future of the community, Bardo said, and let the university lead a concerted effort to make changes in the economy so people can find work here and not have to leave.

Our Appalachian culture is roots-based and depends on families and churches, he said, and uprooting our young people is a problem.

"What this bond will do is help us move toward changing all that," Bardo said. "It can have a tremendous impact on the economic future of the region."

He's pretty eloquent, that Chancellor Bardo, but he didn't have to work very hard to convince me.

I voted early, and I voted for the higher education improvement bond. McKee and Stillwell mean a lot to me. My three teenagers and their future mean much more.

Back to Archive: 11/02/00.