The N&R digs into the sudden resignation of N.C. A&T Chancellor Stanley Battle, but doesn’t come up with much.
There is this bit of insight, though:
In his short tenure, Battle pushed to raise A&T’s admissions standards by seeking students with higher grade point averages and higher SAT scores.
The SAT scores of incoming freshman have risen in each of the past two years, narrowing the gap between A&T and UNC’s systemwide average. The gap — and the high number of A&T students on academic probation when Battle arrived — had been a source of criticism in the past.
However, according to some interviewed Wednesday, the improvements put Battle at odds with those who believe A&T, as an historically black university, should accept and work to improve all students who want a college education.
Campus officials said the conflict started soon after Battle arrived. The board apparently gave Battle a list of mandates; accomplishing them, he told staff, would require raising standards.
In addition to cleaning up the mess left behind by his predecessor James Renick, Battle was apparently looking at a fight with the board to bring more marginal students to A&T, a policy that no doubt would be encouraged by the Obama administration’s crusade to send even more Americans to college. As I said earlier, I think Battle just decided the enormity of the situation wasn’t worth, well, the battle.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but notice the way N&R editor John Robinson is talking tough about A&T. Good for him. But then he follows up with a post talking about how his newspaper is going around pissing people off, citing as an example the story (big whoop) on the U.S. Ice Skating Championships coming to Greensboro, adding that was “not the way city fathers wanted the news to roll out.”
Since Robinson seems to be proud that he’s pissing people off, you have to wonder why his paper’s so reluctant to upset Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson, especially in the wake of the Scott Sanders trial. A commenter asks that very question; note that he gets no response.
