The Quad: Gone in a SNAP

Gone in a SNAP

Tens of millions of Americans, including roughly 1.5 million college students, are expected to miss out on their federal food assistance benefits for November as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), on October 11 directed the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to delay issuing benefits for November. And last Friday, USDA told states the department could not use contingency funds to keep benefits flowing next month.

“During the shutdown, students are going to be forced to make really hard choices between eating, things like paying their rent, or putting gas in their car to get to class that week,” said Paige Swanstein, an N.C. State University alumna and cofounder and co-executive director of the Student Basic Needs Coalition. 

How are North Carolina colleges preparing for the SNAP pause? And what resources do they have available to support students?

My Assembly Network colleague Dasia Williams and I asked around at a handful of schools: Durham Technical Community College, Wake Technical Community College, and Robeson Community College.

Staff at Durham Tech told me they have about 130 students enrolled in a workforce training program for SNAP recipients. That’s in addition to roughly 30 students on the waiting list, and an unknown number of additional students who receive SNAP benefits.

Many colleges, including RCC, offer food pantries that are likely to see increased demand during the SNAP hiatus.

“Students share that the cost of groceries and basic necessities has made it increasingly difficult to keep up with household expenses while attending college,” said Samantha Oxendine, RCC’s director of advising, counseling, and career services. “Many express appreciation for having access to the pantry as a resource that helps them stretch their budgets and stay focused on their studies.”

— Korie Dean

Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Korie Dean and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Assembly’s weekly higher education newsletter.

Who’s Your Daddy?

The architect of the legal challenge to UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University’s admissions policies—which resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling race-conscious affirmative action unconstitutional—is back in the headlines.

The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Students for Fair Admissions president Edward Blum, along with two scholars who served as expert witnesses in the cases against UNC-CH and Harvard, sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Education to take a look at legacy admissions, or giving children of alumni a boost in their applications.

“Legacy applicants have done nothing meritorious to earn this advantage,” read the letter from Blum, Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, and education researcher Richard Kahlenberg.

While the proportion of colleges considering legacy in the admissions process has declined over the past decade, several still do—particularly private and “elite” schools. There is growing, bipartisan opposition to the practice, but it’s not clear whether the Trump administration will seek to end it.

We checked in with a handful of N.C. universities this week to see whether, and how, they consider applicants’ legacy status.

UNC-Chapel Hill was the only campus that responded that it still considers legacy in some way.

All students applying to the university are given the option to indicate whether they are children of alumni. But only out-of-state legacy students—not in-state ones—“receive additional consideration by the admissions committee during the process,” a statement from the university read. 

“This does not guarantee they will receive admission,” per the statement.

The university said roughly 13 percent of this year’s first-year class are in-state students who are children or stepchildren of alumni. That’s compared to roughly 2 percent of the class who are out-of-state legacies.

Some other schools that previously considered the status have removed it as a factor in recent years.

Davidson College, the private liberal arts school north of Charlotte, does not ask students about, or reward them for, their relationships to alumni, spokesperson Jay Pfeifer wrote in an email to The Quad. The college in 2018 removed a question from its application in which students could provide such information.

“When a prospective student applies to Davidson, we work to get to know them as an individual—the experiences that have shaped them and the ideas that guide them,” Pfeifer wrote. “Our personal, holistic reviews look for what they will bring to our community and how they will benefit from the Davidson experience as we prepare people for leadership and service in the world.”

N.C. State removed the legacy factor from consideration in its admissions process two years ago, university spokesperson Mick Kulikowski told The Quad.

“Otherwise, N.C. State conducts a holistic review of applicants based on a variety of factors; the most important is an applicant’s academic record,” Kulikowski wrote in a statement.

Elon University spokesperson Eric Townsend said the university does not consider whether an applicant is related to alumni, though it does consider the interest a student shows in the school.

“While we enjoy and appreciate seeing applications from the children and grandchildren of our alumni, which we view as a reflection of pride in the university, an applicant’s legacy is not part of admissions criteria at Elon University,” Townsend wrote.

— Korie Dean

Class Introductions

I’m not the only new face around these parts. We have a few class introductions—and departures—to share from colleges around the state.

Shannon Campbell is the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at N.C. A&T State University, effective October 15. Campbell was most recently provost of Columbus State University in Georgia, and previously served as dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Appalachian State University and as an associate professor at High Point University.

Also at N.C. A&T, Tamara Michel Josserand will start as vice chancellor for university advancement in mid-December. Josserand is currently vice president for development at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Brad Cooper started October 6 as chief financial officer for App State. He was previously with the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Auburn University, and also worked for the Alabama Housing Finance Agency.

N.C. State Provost Warwick Arden will step down from his role and return to the faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine once his replacement is hired, Chancellor Kevin Howell announced last month. Arden has served in the role for more than 16 years. N.C. State announced a search committee of administrators, faculty, and students to find his successor.

Cecile Hinson, N.C. State’s chief audit officer, also retired and a search for her replacement is ongoing.

Mike Hill is out as UNC Charlotte’s athletic director as of October 16. Jesh Humphrey, the university’s vice chancellor for institutional integrity and general counsel, is filling the AD role on an interim basis.

— Korie Dean

Assigned Reading

Jury of Your Fears: The UNC School of Law last week held a not-so-typical mock trial using three artificial intelligence bots, instead of humans, as jurors. Per the law school, the simulation imagined a future legal system “where AI jurors replace humans to minimize bias and cognitive errors in criminal proceedings.” But the technology is missing some important aspects of human deliberation, including the ability to see and decipher body language, Futurism suggests. 

With These Hands: A new memorial dedicated last week at Davidson College pays homage to the enslaved Black laborers who built the university, as well as other workers who have served the campus throughout its history. The memorial’s creation stemmed from a recommendation of the liberal arts college’s Commission on Race and Slavery, established in 2017.

Thank You to the Academy: Debra Barksdale, dean of the UNC Greensboro School of Nursing, is the new president of the American Academy of Nursing. She will oversee the implementation of the organization’s new strategic plan and serve the group’s more than 3,200 members. Barksdale has been dean of the UNCG nursing school since 2021.

Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.