Western Carolina University leaders bucked concerns of faculty when they voted last week to create a free enterprise center funded with outside money from politically-charged mega donors.

A firestorm over the outside private funding of academia and its potential to undermine intellectual freedom has erupted in recent weeks at Western Carolina University.

Faculty and university leaders have been embroiled in a debate over whether to take $2 million from the Charles Koch Foundation, a funding arm tied to the conservative Koch brothers. The money would be used to establish a Center for the Study of Free Enterprise.

SEE ALSO: WCU leaders, faculty at odds over Koch-funded free enterprise center

With the school year nearing its midpoint, sixth-graders at New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee are starting to ask an increasingly urgent question: Will I have to change schools next year?

It’s the most important job outside of the home. Teachers. Those folks in front of the classroom trying to make sense of the world around you, trying to push you into new realms of your thought process, all while balancing common sense, critical thinking and camaraderie with your peers.

Operating a new charter school can be a learn-as-you-go process, and the Shining Rock Classical Academy board of directors is already adjusting to the expected growing pains as it moves into its second month of classes.

Southwestern Community College is in the business of dreaming big as it works through the preliminary stages of a master plan to guide its development over the next five to 10 years. 

This is one tradition that could just die and I don’t think many will care. I’m talking about the recently announced plan by Haywood County Schools to do away with the time-honored ritual of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian.

Haywood joins many school systems across the nation in going this route. Some want to argue that this is more evidence that we are dumbing down our schools and finding ways to tell all students that they are all fantastic and that everyone will succeed.

What should the future of Southwestern Community College look like in Swain County five to 10 years from now?

It isn’t often students in the creative arts program and the high-tech machinery program get to collaborate on a project, but Haywood Community College’s 50th anniversary has brought them together to create one-of-a-kind commemorative pieces.

SEE ALSO:
• 50 years forward: HCC invites community to ‘Big Day’ of celebration
• HCC graduates find success
• History in the making: HCC grows to meet community needs
• HCC President Parker looks forward 50 years

What better way to celebrate 50 years of education at Haywood Community College than to invite the community for a firsthand look at what the school has to offer?