Growing D.E. Is A Sign of Economic Troubles

According to WRAL, the University of North Carolina's Distance Education enrollment has shot up over 20% during the past year. This is evidence that many people are trying to "shift careers or try make themselves more marketable" (STORY). More evidence of our current economic trouble is record enrollment at North Carolina's community colleges for the Spring '09 semester. What is troubling, however, is that many of those community colleges are short on faculty because state budget cuts created hiring freezes and temporary layoffs of adjunct faculty. The result is that many community colleges in N.C. are trying to meet higher demands with less faculty. At a time when more people in the state need community colleges, the colleges are struggling with funding.

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