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Hello reader! Welcome back to Higher Stakes, your source for higher education news in North Carolina. I’m reporter Jane Winik Sartwell.
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It’s back-to-school season! Yesterday marked the first day of classes at NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and NC Central. Next week, students at Duke will start their fall semester. Read my colleague Renee Umstead’s story on how much it costs to decorate a dorm in Raleigh this year.
I’m personally pretty excited about the school year getting into swing. It’s my first August on the higher ed beat, and it’s been a couple of years since I’ve had those end-of-summer jitters. I’m glad to have them back.
By fall 2028, graduate students will have no designated housing on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus. The school is converting its only residence hall for graduate students — Baity Hill — into undergraduate housing.
Baity Hill will house graduate students and their families until May 2028, then transition into undergraduate housing by fall 2028.
“The transition of Baity Hill to undergraduate housing is part of a broader effort to ensure first-year students have access to on-campus housing, which is an important factor in helping students build community, access campus resources and successfully transition to Carolina,” a spokesperson for the university told me in a statement.
“More than 95% of UNC graduate students already choose to live off campus. Repurposing these units allows the University to better meet the significant demand for first-year student housing.”
The university plans to build graduate housing at Carolina North, it says, and “remains committed to being among the universities that continue to offer housing for graduate students.”
There is currently no timeline for when housing at Carolina North may be available for students. Early estimates suggest groundbreaking could occur in the summer of 2027, according to the university.
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Elon University has launched Roberts Academy a private day school for third- and fourth-graders with dyslexia. By fall 2028, it hopes to welcome kids in grades one through six.
Instructors will introduce students to the Orton-Gillingham method, which is a “multisensory and immersive approach to reading instruction.”
The idea is that students spend two or three years at the Roberts Academy, then head back to their “home schools” with improved reading skills. It’s now one of four university-based schools for dyslexic kids — the others are at Vanderbilt, Mercer, and Florida Southern.
North Carolina A&T State University was awarded a five-year, $16.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create a Health Disparities Research Center.
It’s the largest NIH award the Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences at N.C. A&T has ever received, the school says. It’s a step toward the university’s stated aspiration of reaching Research 1 status, or being among the schools with the most federal research funding.
This funding comes through the NIH’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions, or RCMI, mechanism, according to the school.
“The RCMI will advance N.C. A&T’s community engagement efforts, positioning us to partner with community organizations to lower the burden of chronic and infectious disease in underserved communities,” said Elimelda Moige Ongeri, dean of the Hairston College.
Thank you for reading Higher Stakes. See you back here next week.
— Jane Winik Sartwell
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