Excuse my ignorance on this subject but what road blocks/hurdles is App having issues with? Please be more specific than saying Chapel Hill or Raleigh.
Can someone please give examples from the past where we've had issues trying to improve our academic profile? What can be done to clear these hurdles? If we were able to privately fund a program or at least a large percentage of the program, would the roadblocks be the same? Could private funds lead to public funding if the program(s) showed viability?
With the move to the Sun Belt coming next year, I feel most here are satisfied. This is not to say we should be complacent and stop trying to improve donations and facilities (ie. consistently breaking and increasing upon the $3mil in Yosef contributions and the $200 mil campaign) but I believe the next focus needs to be an academic profile improvement campaign.
As stated earlier in the the thread, increasing doctoral programs should lead to higher contributions across the university from future alumni. Bring in several more medical programs via our partnership with Wake. Roll out a handful of legal programs through another possible partnership with Wake Law. I'd really like to see some engineering programs up on the mountain. Increase the computer science/information program's profile and get Walker College of Business ranked in the top quartile across the nation (if it isn't already).
All these sectors could lead to a much higher return for the university in the future. If we have to do it ourselves, so be it. The time of outside influence controlling what we do needs to come to an end. Mountaineers "mount up" and if marching on the capital or even Chapel Hill's campus is necessary for the betterment of our university, then that's what we must do. Just imagine 20k+ Mountaineer alumni and students rolling into the capital or UNC's campus asking for the shackles to be removed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKoZD-sFi4