I was surprised to read this headline in the Daily Tar Heel today: "University closed Stacy and Everett due to low housing enrollment." But maybe I shouldn't have been.

Stacy and Everett residence halls combined house 189 students, but this year, only 135 signed up to live there. The two dorms will be repurposed for the 2015-16 school year.
 

Rick Bradley, associate director of housing and residential education, cited the expansion of new apartment communities and a lack of desirable amenities in student housing for the loss in enrollment.
 

“It’s not uncommon for a 9,000-bed operation like us to have 200 or so vacancies. That became our standard: 98 percent occupancy. In fall 2014, that 300 became 500, so the concern rose,” Bradley said.
 

“When that 500 empty spaces last fall now looks like it’ll be 800 this fall, we are opening at about a little over 90 percent occupancy. Our awareness has now been heightened.”

Education is a critical enabler of individual success and community growth. The CHCCS board serves an important role in setting policies and creating an environment that enables learning.  I would like to be one of the seven board members who influence public education in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district. 

What do I bring to the table?

Frances Henry wasn’t really welcomed to Hillsborough with open arms when his upset bid topped other contenders in the foreclosure auction of the Colonial Inn back in 2001. Around the same time he had acquired Chapel Hills’s Rathskeller, or “The Rat” as we all knew it, as well as the Martin-Dey House next to UNC’s Delta Upsilon fraternity, of which he was a member in his university days. The Rat continued its downward spiral and the Martin-Dey house was a subject of much press because Henry intended to tear it down, while preservationists wanted to, well, preserve it. Mr Henry’s name in Chapel Hill circles was becoming questionable. I guess the Old Guard in Hillsborough was worried about what this interloper might do to the historic Colonial Inn in their fair town. Egads – maybe he simply enjoys destroying history!