- UNC Maintains Tree Campus USA Designation
The Arbor Day Foundation recognized UNC as a Tree Campus USA for its commitment to effective urban forest management. The Tree Campus Higher Education program is in its 12th year, and UNC has earned recognition every year since 2014 by maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and a student service-learning project.
Take a self-guided tree tour on campus: Campus Tree Tour
- Professor Contributes to State Health care Plans
Professor Thom Dunn helped lead the state of Colorado in developing its first set of health care plans addressing ethical standards of care in times of crisis, from natural disasters to pandemics, when health care systems are at risk of becoming overwhelmed.
Dunn served on Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment committees to create crisis standards — such as how to manage scarce medical resources during surges in demand — as a resource for hospitals and emergency medical services as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“Our first task, and it was tense, was to help create crisis standards of care for hospitals and how they would triage, and how they would treat the most people possible,” Dunn said, noting the difficult compromises imposed by certain scenarios in which some patients would be unable to get access to life-saving devices such as ventilators.
- Entrance Exams Optional for UNC Applicants
High school students graduating next spring will not be required to submit a college entrance exam when applying to UNC. A statewide exemption allows colleges and universities to make the ACT and SAT optional for students graduating in spring 2021 and entering college in fall 2021.
“We have data to support that students’ achievement in their high school courses is a very strong indicator of success from the time they enroll to graduation at UNC, and we support this change,” said Kim Medina, UNC assistant vice president of Enrollment Management.
- UNC Tuition for 2020-21 Remains Unchanged
UNC remains the state’s most affordable research university with in-state tuition for the current academic year staying at the previous year’s rate. The Board of Trustees approved an interim budget in June for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
UNC President Andy Feinstein said that holding tuition flat
was the right call, and trustees were in full support. Trustee Steven Jordan noted the effort to “ameliorate the effect on students” given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. An outgoing Student Trustee added that “it sends a really positive message to the students that their financial well-being is of importance to UNC.” - State Reauthorizes UNC Teacher Education Programs
The Colorado State Board of Education approved reauthorization of UNC’s 34 teacher-education programs with an extension of conditions in literacy instruction for two endorsement areas offered at the university.
A state review team issued the recommendation to the board, noting UNC’s adherence to state standards and progress in the two conditional areas following the previous site visit in 2018. While the programs, Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education, significantly revised their courses dedicated to literacy instruction with textbook changes to ensure better coverage of content aligned to the science of teaching reading, they must further demonstrate that their curriculum conforms with state standards for scientific-based reading instruction practices.
For more UNC News stories: News Central
