Education

College and university endowments are growing again. But as Dave DeWitt reports, the gains are not enough yet to cover losses over the last five years.

The Duke family and hundreds of their closest friends and supporters filled Duke Chapel yesterday in Durham to say good-bye to Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans.   Duke President Richard Brodhead described Semans as the university’s principal link to Duke’s founding generation.  Leoneda Inge produced this audio postcard from Semans’ funeral.

Music performer:  The Ciompi Quartet

The Rev. Dennis Campbell:  When Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans was born Duke University was no more than a twinkle in her great uncle’s eye.”

Wake Schools Superintendent Tony Tata has been on the job one year today. As Dave DeWitt reports, Tata has overcome a rocky start to earn the respect of former critics.

Dave DeWitt: The former Republican School Board majority hired Tata, and in the hyper-partisan atmosphere of the past several years, that means everything. In his introductory press conference last year, Tata tried to dispel the notion that he was there to do anyone’s bidding.

A new nursing program at East Carolina University and four area community colleges aims to train new nurses in their home communities. The goal is to increase the number of nurses with bachelor's degrees - to meet the growing demand for highly-trained clinicians and administrators. Kelly Cleaton is recruiting students for the program. She says qualified applicants will pursue their associate's degrees at their local community college, and eventually get their baccalaureates from ECU.

A well-respected civic and philanthropic leader died yesterday in Durham.  Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans was the great grand-daughter of Washington Duke - for which Duke University is named.   Family ties also include The American Tobacco Company and what is known today as Duke Energy.  Semans will be remembered for her role in growing the arts in North Carolina, preserving health care for others and her fight for equality for women and African Americans.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will hear arguments today in a case involving desegregation in Pitt County, the district that includes Greenville.

Dave DeWitt: Pitt County is one of just a few school districts in North Carolina still under a federal desegregation order from the 1970s. Because of that, the district must consider race when assigning students and teachers. Mark Dorosin is an attorney with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Civil Rights. He says Pitt County's latest student assignment plan did not do that.