The Raleigh News&Observer continues it's 'love-in" with illegal aliens:

Editorial:
Published: Dec 10, 2007
The state, tomorrow
Overshadowed to some extent by the unfortunate tempest over illegal immigrants' access to North Carolina's higher education network is a useful report by a panel called the UNC Tomorrow Commission. Formed by University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles, the panel was asked to make recommendations on how 17 public campuses (the state's 16 universities and a public high school, the N.C. School of Science and Math) should respond to North Carolina's changing needs.
The fact that Bowles, who has a reputation for getting things done, formed the commission offers promise that its work won't just collect dust somewhere.

UNC Tomorrow's major recommendations won't surprise anyone paying attention to the obvious challenges facing the state.

The commission determined that the public institutions must better prepare students for the global economy. They need to throw open their doors to more students, particularly underserved ones and those less likely to seek a college degree. (Count illegal immigrant youngsters among that number, despite the flack that the community college system is catching from some quarters for reaching a similar conclusion.)

Universities should help public schools address stubborn problems such as gangs, teenage pregnancy and dropouts. They should take the lead in studying health trends, and in attracting and graduating more doctors, dentists, nurses and other health care professionals in short supply.

In some cases, universities already have joined the battle. The UNC system is trying to increase the number and competence of public school teachers, and schools with medical facilities have created programs to produce more doctors and dentists willing to serve rural parts of North Carolina that have no providers. Those efforts likely could use a boost. The panel's recommendations may be refined before the report is presented to the UNC Board of Governors, which oversees the campuses.

But the greater value of the 48-page report is its ability to focus the board and the state itself on the big issues. It can help set the state on a more unified approach to dealing with its problems. And it's a given that North Carolina's universities ought to be leaders in working to improve the state's quality of life.
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/edi ... 20201.html