Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Sun, that we reset nature reset its clock in 2012, and this effected everything as far as our weather goes and as time goes on, the taps will rebuild themselves and it is natures way of resetting the clock in other words. Does he know anything about that . Thank you. You know, there are a lot of theories and there has been a lot of research and things like the orbital wobble of the earth the wobble on its axis, solar cycles, sun spot activity and so on. And i think clearly there is a huge natural variability in the earths climate and over long periods of time these big things, these big astronomical things and sun spots and earths orbit play a role. I would just say in terms of the data that we have we see natural cycles, over 100year periods and over roughly 1,000year periods and were in between the ice ages and the interglacial periods with 10,000 to 12,000 years an the ice age is 100,000 years an were late into the interglacial cycle and that is allowed human beings to develop and flourish since the last ice age but just looking at the data from where we are now the key thing is president obama and his allies in the Environmental Movement have been talking about all of the terrible effects of Global Warming that were already seeing but in fact global temperatures, the average temperature for about the last 18 years has been flat. That is according to both surface data, satellite data and balloon data. They all agree. The models say we should have seen warming. But they are claiming the effects of Global Warming precede the cause. We havent had warming for 18 years but we are seeingterrible effects. That is not my view of how science works but perhaps the people are in a post modern scientific world where the effect precedes the cause. Well you keep making up new facts to fit the extreme. You are trying to cast confusion on science because you are trying to protect the industries that do the most pollution. The real the reality is that nasa backed by millions of measurements, noaa and the National Academy of sciences and all science organizations have taken a careful look at the natural cycles. All of them. And compared them to the human fingerprint from the fast rate at which were pumped Carbon Pollution into the atmosphere. When you look at that, there is it is unequivocal that the pollution were putting into the atmosphere is the driving factor the Climate Change and it is just flat wrong to say the planet is not warming. Last year was the warmest on record. 14 of the last 15 have been the warmest on record. Tell the people dealing with a drought right now as a harbinger of the prog. Were not just talking about hot temperatures, were talking about a disruption of the rain patterns across this country and the world that brings drought where water is scarce and then dumps the water that is there in episodes that create huge floods, largely through the midwest and were looking at Sea Level Rise and the effects of that inundation taking place in cities like miami and charleston. That is not a future threat. It is here and now. And co2 in the level atmosphere are the highest theyve been in 800,000 years or more and this is here and it is now. And lets here from mike white plains, new york, democrats, go ahead. Am i on. Yes, go ahead. Ill put it this way. The problem is a lot deeper than this. Obama came in too late. He should have done this when he first became president. In 1981, when they gutted everything, they should have started then. [ inaudible ]. Cell power, Public Transportation too many people drive their cars to work singly like on the l. I. E. And now the gas that we waste and were using a barrel of earth oil and were using these and we have to cut back, we have to learn how to conserve, turn off our lights and were going to have to produce garbage for fuel and into solar power and start changing our habits and it may be too late or too little. Mr. Simons about his point of being too little and are we just creatures of habit when it comes to transportation and otherwise that we couldnt make a significant change any way . Well on the too late point, i think the dwe we have to ask ourselves is what are we doing on our watch in . It is not too late. Because all of the estimates of the Climate Change impacts as frightening as they are are conservative estimates. We dont know where the trigger points are from the impacts to much more severe ones and it is prudent for us to do everything we can to make the transition to low pollution and clean energy and as soon as we can. So we need to get going. I dont think this is about fundamentally less choices, i think this is an opportunity to embrace more choices. We feed more choices we need more choices on how we choose our energy. We have some Clean Energy Options. And some have that and some dont. And some have barriers on the books to have Companies Come in and put free solar panels on your roof and get a lower utility rate than the current utility is offering you. We need to break down these barriers and make sure that we have cars and fuel sources from transportation, and for our homes and our businesses that really unleash Clean Energy Options for us and the way to do that is to set the goal to clean and the way to do that is to put standards on for pollution and let companies innovate. That is what we did with sulfur dioxide and other filter problems. If we can set the goals, American Companies can get this done and lead the world. That is the good news. We may not be going as fast as we should and i agree with the caller on that, we need to go faster, the reality is were leading the world at this point. We are demonstrating we can get this done. That makes sense because our businesses are leaders across the world and if we can do it here, i think we can get it done globally and were seeing other Companies Respond to the president s leadership and that includes china for the first time it has agreed to cap its emissions emissions. So we are signs of progress. Dont give up hope. We can get it done. Mr. Ee bell. I do not share your callers view of the future. I think that the Environmental Movement has been proclaiming doom right around the corner since it was founded in the late 1960s. It is how they fund the Environmental Movement. It is how they attract political support, by saying that we have this crisis weve had one crisis after another and many of them were real problems but not crisis. Human beings with deal with things because were innovative and the reason that the United States is more innovative than most countries or really any country tan the history of the world is because we have the most freedom. We have free markets. What we have now is a federal government and in particular this administration that wants to control everything. We are driving innovation out of the u. S. Economy and that is why we are economically stagnant. I dont think it is too late to save the u. S. Economy, but i think were going to have to get going at it. Or were going to be in the same position as some of the southern European Countries that have huge debt, have no business startups because they are smothered by regulations and the socalled Clean Power Plants which are expensive power plants they are designed to limit innovation and to suffocate innovation and the u. S. Economy. So i think it is not too late to save the u. S. Economy but we need to get going. From new york, here is bob. Youre on with our guests. Go ahead. Hey thank you for cspan. Myron, you are notten titled to your own facts. You are entitled to your own opinion. You are notten titled to your own fact and i cant believe im looking at an elderly man like yourself and you look sophisticated but you talk childish. You are talking rhetoric, gloom and doom. Im a democrat, im not an environmentalist but the science is speaking and you are in denial. But you know better. Youre getting paid for your lips and your mouth so bob do you have a specific question for our guest . Yes. Look at germany. They are a landlocked country which is now approaching onethird of the energy use from wind and solar. So look at the rest of the world. So my question is how can this man try and disconnect the reality of wind and solar . Look at germany. Look at what is going on in germany. They have a 30 35 . They are ahead of the estimate. They were supposed to be at 25 . Of the total countrys energy use is coming from wind and solar and this man is telling this man is telling you it is no good. Bob thank you. Well, you know i try to look at the fakes, not at the the facts and not the dreams and the mod modeling modeling. The entire Global Warming is based on modeling and not data and i encourage you as a person who cares about reality and the facts to look at data and not what the computer models say and which have diverged wildly from the temperature data or the impacts, the heat wave data or the i pc c report the most recent one the chapter or Severe Weather events said there is no long term trend in Severe Weather events in intensity for frequency. As for germany, i happened to be there a couple of weeks ago and i talked to a lot of people about what is going on in germany and they are all shaking their heads because the electric rates are going through the roof and manufacturers are leaving as fast as they can to go to Eastern Europe this is still based on coalfired power. Germany can try to create this energy wonder land but it is harming the german people and the german economy. Those are the facts. Mr. Simons . I appreciate bobs call. And just picking up on germany last week germany set a record in one day, they got 74 of their electric power from Renewable Energy. And it just demonstrates that were not up against a Technology Problem were up against old institutions. There is no freedom, as you like to talk about, in old electric monopoly models backed up by regulations. We need to catch up with the rut weve been in and make sure the path is clean for the way in front of us. An the facts, and the facts you keep making up regarding there is no Climate Change impacts, go to Environmental Defenses website, defense funds website at edf. Org and get the fakes on what is happening to the climate system and the impacts out there. And mr. Simons there is a chart in the Washington Post that talked about the 14 states that produce coal saying is generated 50 of the electricity. Assuming the coal goes down because of the regulation what takes it place and is Clean Energy Ready to make up for the demands. It is a good question. Michael bloomberg the former mayor of new york has a piece out yesterday talking about what is happening in coal. And he rightly points out coal is no longer at 50 . It is declining. It is more like at 40 now. As clean energy has become more competitive and come online in greater numbers and people are choosing clean energy when they can and where they have that option available. So those options are out there, also big improvements in energy fishy. What is happening with coal is it is losing the competitiveness battle. Coal has very limited there is only so much Innovation One can do in pulling coal out of the ground and load the train cars and send it around the country. And whereas solar energy the smartphone has so much more Computing Power than the big maybe frames from 15 or 20 years ago at a fraction of the cost, right. That is what Renewable Energy there is no limit particularly in america there is no limit to how much power we can get from the sun and when if we can get the technologies out there to do it. So costs are coming down. The cost of wind power has come down by more than half and the cost of solar power has come down by more tan 80 but the big prize in the future on electricity is still figuring out how to get more efficient products in the market place so that the bills go down and the demand goes down over all. That potential still is largely untapped. That too is just there is no Technology Frontier were up against. It is just setting our sights on the right goals. And mr. Ebell the same charts talk about natural gas and is that a replacement for coal if Coal Production goes down. The United States has the Worlds Largest reserves of coal. It turns out because of Technology Revolution in the oil and gas industry called the hydraulic fractioning shale, we have huge reserves of natural gas. Groups like the Environmental Defense fund have been trying to wage war on natural gas and coal and so we see this reflected in the president s plan because the first proposal last year was to say that to force states to move from coal to natural gas the new plan said well force states to move from coal to wind and solar. If wind and solar are as competitive as always claimed by the wind and Solar Industries in their supporters in the Environmental Movement we should see this happening without a huge federal tax subsidy. Wind industry whenever the tax subsidy expires and it is currently expired the Republican Congress is busy, the senate is busy trying to renew it right now, but whenever it expired, windmill construction ceases. The solar credit has a longer term so we havent seen that up and down. But the fact is that the wind and Solar Industries depend on tate mandates that require a certain amount of Renewal Energy and the federal subsidy. If it we got rid of those we would still find that yes wind and solar have become cheaper, particularly solar but they are still more expensive than coal and natural gas. So were lucky we have the Worlds Largest reserves of the coal but huge reserves also of natural gas and that is the future because the Technology Revolution has not been in windmills, which are really a dead End Technology it has been in the free Market Companies in the oil and gas industry, small companies, becoming very large companies, by innovating and finding huge new resource that no one thought could ever be tapped. Can i clarify edfs position since myron misrepresented it. So we want to reduce pollution. That is what were about. And we want the market to compete to reduce that pollution. Pollution is not free. When you keep talking about the freedom of markets, the markets are wrong right now. The markets have not incorporated the fact that cash bon pollution is causing the damage. We want to make sure that businesses are making choices based on the total impact of the choices they make. Given that given the power of markets, we can get the kind of results on Carbon Pollution that we got on sulfur dioxide and 102 to deal with the other trading markets. So natural gas can and should compete with the clean energy. There is nothing that makes any state do anything in terms of picking winners or losers, it says the pollution needs to come down and the companies can pick out the way to get there. And natural gas does pollute less than coal in terms of Carbon Pollution when it is burned but it emits more than clean energy and the best option which is Energy Efficiency but there is one piece that needs to be dealt with and that is the methane emissions from the oil and Gas Production transportation sector. Menlain is a potent greenhouse gas, more important than co2 for methane. So we need to plug the leaks that with wasting natural gas throughout the system and stop the pollutant and it is Good Business and stewardship and so lets do that. Lets make sure that we get the markets right and let the technologies compete. Were not picking them. Jeremy symons, and myron ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Jim, from ohio, youre up next. Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I have a couple of comments i would like to make and the question i asked, number one, Gina Mccarthy herself admitted on her questioning the other day that if we do all this, we will not be effect the temperature of the Global Warming temperature any more than possibly one 100ths of a degree. Which is all pain and no gain. And i think it is ridiculous the condition the economy is in this country that we need to show the rest of the world how to do it, i think they laugh at us the rest of the world. China has made an empty promise to do a little bit by 2030. They are not bound by anything. Neither is india youve got all of those dirty charcoal burning countries that use that as an only fuel. I dont think that you are ever going to get third world countries to come around to this when they cant even afford to burn coal energy plants. Its just kind of what i would say a it is insanity again. Were trying to remake the world in our image and likeness and weve been doing it over and over and over again. And people just dont go along with us. Okay. Jim, well let our guest responds. Mr. Simons. I dont think anybody is laughing at the Clean Power Plan here in the United States or around the world. 90,000 asthma attacks avoided every year and that is nothing to laugh at. And the climate and the Carbon Pollution reductions from the Clean Power Plan were talking about over 800 million tons of reductions by 2030. That is equivalent to about from about 160 million cars. The over all benefits when it is monetized, which again is completely missing from the market place right now, over 50 billion. So these benefits are important they are real. I think we can do more. I think once we get on this path we will find that we can do more faster. But it is a great start. I appreciate what your caller said. He noted that Gina Mccarthy admitted that under the epas own modeling this plan of to reduce emissions from power plants will have no effect on the global climate. An unmeasurable effect it will be so small. But jeremy let the cat out of the bag. He said we need to do more. This is only the first step. And so when people say oh, well we can afford this, it is not that bad. Okay. Well have to sacrifice a little and pay a little more for our electricity, they ought to understand this is step one and as we go along each step is more and more expensive. So the Obama Administration and the Environmental Movement have big plans and this is only a small piece of it. It is a false choice though to say that not acting is going to protect electric bills. As i said, the price of coal is going up and up. No. Jeremy, the question you just make these things up. No. The eia said the price of coal will go up. And the Clean Power Plan the analysis that came out said it will save consumers 7 a month on electricity beales for 2030. So when you look at a comparison of the futures of energy, there is no way that increasing dependence on fossil fuels will save us money compared to the efficient technologies where the costs keep coming down. It is a nice story. From bella vista, arkansas charles, up next. Good morning. Jeremy. The gentleman from ohio that called was correct believe me. And you said china was following your footsteps. China is still opening one coal plant per week. Indy is doing their damnest to catch up with them. You are spending our money for no reason. I remember the ice age you folks had coming in the 70s. I want to tell you, you blew that out of the every paper and everything. It is gone. You were wrong on that. I remember your snail darter on the tennessee dam that you cost the dam a ton of money. Alar, the apple people up in washington, that put out of business because your facts were wrong. Jeremy, i think you better start reading. I think his name is tom bell, hes a professor up there and hell explain to you what hanson has done with his hockey stick figures. You have a good day, but im getting tired of listening to you people that have no economy sense in your head. We got you charles. Mr. Simons . Well i have to say, i wasnt part of those fights but ill tell you some of the fights that im glad that those before me were part of. Making america stronger by reducing the air pollution that was darkening our skies. That is a Success Story and that is the clean air act. The Cuyahoga River catching fire that was a symbol of the dismal state of our waterways but the clean water act has been very successful. I think we a apply the same principals here. It is not about sacrificing here in the United States for the sake of overseas. Far from it. We need an american plan that works for us. And that means Something Like the Clean Power Plan. Because the Clean Power Plan delivers on the Clean Energy Promise of our future. That will also have the benefits of showing leadership to countries around the world. We have a long way to go. No one no one is saying we dont have a long way to go in terms of the global progress that we need. But there is also no question that other countries are stepping up to do their fair share now there is leadership on the table. With that in mind ban kimoon was with the president and one thing that did come up was the climate plan and the effort on Climate Change and we want to show you what he had to say and get your thoughts on it. This is hugely important and additionally leadership. Us can and will be able to change the world in addressing a climate phenomenon. And we are the first generation as president obama rightly said yesterday, to put an end to global poverty. And we are the last generation who can address Climate Change fundamentally. I think this Clean Power Plan powers economies and generates a drive. And also it can help generate huge dividends here at home in the u. S. Economy and im sure that this will impact other countries. Make the case that possibly what we do here, other countries will play along like china and india and other countries mentioned by the callers. I think is makes a difference in a number of ways. First, a lot of the pollution in the atmosphere from past practices, we have a strong share of that. And we have a leadership role to go ahead and reduce that emissions. And people will take note. But i think the more important thing is that around the world the United States is recognized as innovative leader. In our ability to tackle big problems and the ability of companies in the private sector when the goals are clear to tackle big problems, that something that with new technologies and cheaper technologies that they can also export around the world. So people are watching very closely to see what we do. And they are responding. And the deal with china was a break through. For 20 years groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute have been trying to undermind Climate Change to create the argument that other countries arent acting. That era is over. Every country is stepping up and saying we have to do more and get the ball rolling and see how fast we can go. Mr. Ebell. I was interested by ban kimoons remarks because last time we were told this is the last time to change our world at the koppen hagen conference and that conference collapsed and we should say we no longer have a chance to save the world but this year were doing it in paris with the same actors. But in 2009 represent secretary of state Hillary Clinton flew in and saved the conference from total collapse by promising that the Development Countries led by the United States starting in 2020, that is after president obama was clear out of Office Nothing to worry about would start supplying 100 billion a year to poor countries. Now the president has asked for 3 billion over four years to get this going right now, before 2020. It will be the u. S. Contribution is going to be 20 billion to 30 billion a year. That is what secretary clinton committed for the United States and president obama said yes. The Congress Said no to the first 500 million so far. There is an amendment in the house bill that said no money can be given to the Green Climate fund. So i think this is going to be an interesting debate between those who think that we can get the support of the developing kushes by these countries by these massive wealth transfers and those who oppose that and think that that is not the way to help a developing country. The way it is to open their markets and to have investment in these countries, not to have wealth transfer. So this is a very interesting debate over the next few years. From mechanicsville, virginia, stewart, good morning. Good morning, good morning, ive learned we can learn from our elders and the last two gentlemen that just came in, i totally agree with them. Would like to expand on it though. If you were to transition to this during the transition period manufacturing would be a stand still or a lot lower. And with regards to a military and our national security, if we got into a very serious shooting war and we had to really gear up, would this with these would these new policies be as efficient and what would our tax run on on electricity and how would we fly our jets because you are not just going after coal, you are going after oil and it all. Lets be honest. And last point is this. Who are you going to hurt . A middle and lower income people. They are going to pay the price. Also, you know what sir, i havent heard you say anything about [ inaudible ]. What about the nuclear plant. Okay. Got a lot out there. Thank you for your comments. Of course nuclear is kind of the the unspoken part of our energy mix. We currently get 7 of our electricity from nuclear, our naval ships and submarines many of them run on Nuclear Reactors so the question about nuclear that i have is the same that i have about every technology, what is the cost. And the United States hasnt built a new Nuclear Reactor for so long because of political opposition and economic the economics, that we dont really know how much it will cost to building a new generation of Nuclear Reactors. Two are your construction and lets see how that goes an what the future of nuclear is. Mr. Simmons. Just finishing up on nuclear, we do know the cost. Again, all Energy Sources should compete. And nuclear is low carbon, but the economics is not a question mark any more because they are building those two plants and they are already sticking large bill increases to rate payers because the cost is starting to overrun. So i think nuclear is going to be an economic question that gets back to the first point. That the caller makes about manufacturing and the pace of this. Again, the Clean Power Plant is a very modest plan. 15 reduction in emissions from the electric sector for the last ten years. And there has been all kinds of flexibility built into the plan to make sure that transition doesnt happen. In fact, the plan doesnt take effect for seven years. Seven years for industry to anticipate these rules going into effect. And make sure they are on the right trajectory. And when it does take effect, again were talking about another 17 reduction in emissions over the next 15 years. Very consistent with the pace that weve seen lately when the Technology Options are getting more and more. And the one last thing i wanted to say because you brought up the military and i think the military is an important point of our transition to clean energy because i mentioned the private sector but the Defense Department has been at the leading edge of the transition to clean energy and theyve done that because of the dependency on fossil fuels, particularly oil, as a huge Security Threat and the amount of lives that have been lost in protecting oil convoys. So theyve been working quite extensively on fuel efficiency, on Energy Efficiency and on alternative energy sortss and leading that paradigm just as the military is leading some of the thinking on dangers of Climate Change and the joint chiefs have released points of how Climate Change is no longer a future Security Threat it is a threat multiplier today effecting our deployment and our actions actions. Andrew is up next from san diego. Good morning, andrew. Good morning. Would you like to comment on the idea that Companies Move to china because of high electricity rates. The company that move to china move to china because there were so many ways that they could exploit many facets of the chinese economy and the economy in china is one of the most regulated, if not the most regulated economy in the world and right now look at the beijing olympics where their air was so bad that we were worried our athletes would die running a 5 k. In california on my street, 15 houses out of 18 have solar on their roof. And guess what yesterday sdg and e and other electricity and utilities went to the p. U. C. To try to find a way to charge us more 280 installation fee and other fees that they are attaching to because they are afraid that people will become independent. If teslas battery comes in ill be able to generate electricity all day long and then the battery for 3,500 will allow me to use all of the electricity i want without being harnessed to the rates that the corporations want me to pay. And yesterday it was reported that the department of defense is doing huge studies on what to do when the water rises at norfolk, virginia, and the largest defense accumulation of bases will be in jeopardy and they have no place to put all of the ships and everything because the people will be flooded. So im hoping that the gentleman in washington is thinking of putting his house on stilts because hes going to need it. And then pain he can put solar on the roof and he can also survive the influx of water. Okay. Andrew thank you very much. Mr. Ebell. Thank you. Well im glad to see you up so early in san diego. I love san diego. Used to live there. You have a lot of sunshine and im not surprised that people have solar panels because they probably make good sense there. Particularly considering that you are being subsidized by the federal taxpayers and by other rate payers who dont have solar panels. So it is a good deal for you and im glad youve got that. We dont all have the amount of sunshine that you have and moreover i would point out in your state california used to have a vibrant manufacturing and Light Industry sector. California had an iron mine, a steel mill an automobile assembly, airplane manufacturing, arma meants manufacturing and all of that is gone because of the policies of your state through environmental and other regulations, one of the big factors was raising energy costs. So californians still buy close to 2 million cars a year. They used to is a semble in california 1. 5 million cars a year. You now outsourced all of that except for a few thousand teslas to places like kentucky, tennessee, indiana, that still have Affordable Energy and dont have the regulatory structure that you have in california. So you have outsourced your main Energy Intensive goods. What happens when there is no place to outsource them because everybody has californias policies. How are you going to afford to buy 2 million cars in california. The answer is youre not. Well thank goodness that we actually have sunshine in places more than san diego because your pessimism sometimes in terms of what we can do in technology in our future is daunting. But let me ask you something we might agree on and i dont know the answer. But the caller andrew mentions that the utilities want to put on prices to help block the installation of solar. You are a free market advocate. Can we agree that putting up new price structures and tariffs to make it harder for families and Small Businesses to put solar on the rooftops is a bad idea. We can agree on that if we can agree to get rid of the subsidies of people that put on solar panels that is paid for by people who dont have solar panels. So if we can get rid of all of that, yes, we agree. Did you if you still insist we need mandates and the tax subsidy that goes to installing solar panels an building windmills then im afraid we still have a disagreement, well. Well lets take the point of agreement as a small way of moving forward. But i do think that across party lines, across idealology and people come with the respect and people standing in the way of protecting businesses are going to swim up stream and it is time to get in line with creating the opportunities unless of course they want inexpensive power then they wont have that choice under the Obama Administrations plans because the pafrts of the country that enjoy Lower Electric rates will no longer have those rates. That is just not true. So the Clean Power Plan has state by state targets that entirely recognize and start with every state from where they are now so that no state is unfairly disadvantaged. And they have the option of figuring out the best path to get there. And it is going to be an affordable plan. So as we go on, this debate will go on but were out of time. Both of you gentlemen myron ebell, and Jeremy Symons thanks for coming by for the conversation. Thank you very much. On the next washington journal, Montgomery County Maryland Police chief tom manger on the recent rise in Violent Crime in cities. Hes president of the major chiefs association. Then miami Herald Correspondent Carol Rosenberg on the latest white house moves to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison. Join the conversation by calling in or posting to twitter and our facebook page. Washington journal is live each morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Reuters has reported that the state Department Office set up toin dependently grade global trafficking was sent into 14 countries and the results is that cuba and malaysia were upgraded and taken off the blacklist of countries that failed to combat modern day slavery. Members of the Foreign Relations committee will question sarah seawall live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Theodore roosevelt becomes president after the assassination of William Mckinley and to accommodate her family Edith Roosevelt renovates the second floor of the executive mansion thus the creation of a west wing to house the staff offices. By adding a social secretary to the payroll she creates the office of the first lady. And changes the name from executive mansion to the white house. Edith roosevelt, this sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan original series furs ladies, influence and image, examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency, from martha washingt michelle obama. Sundays at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan 3. Colleges and universities should be more proactive reaching students when they are still in high school in order to make Higher Education a reality for more students from diverse backgrounds. That was the message from university of North Carolina chancellor carol folt when speaking at the National Press club earlier this week. This is an hour. Our guest today is carol folt chancellor of the university of North Carolina at chapel hill. The first woman to hold that post felt the appointment in 2013 after a nationwide search following the resignation of the former chancellor amid a scandal that put the schools accreditation and ncaa standing at risk. An investigation found that that 3000 students and many athletes took sham classes over two decades and received grades not based on academic reforms. And the acredible body and the ncaa have initiated inquiries. Sanctions are not out of the question and unc which ranks among the top 20 public universities an one of the best bargains in College Education is on a one year probation from the Southern School commission on clujs. Folt was a fak umt member and administrator and serves as interim president for a year before moving to unc chapel hill. Folt is keenly interested in boosting under graduate aggravation rate as marley among low income and first generation and underrepresented students. A covenants, a program that awards low income students a combination of grants, scholarships, and Work Opportunities to avoid Student Loans and graduate debt free. Today our speaker will address the importance of preserving access to an affordable College Education. Please give me in giving a warm welcome to chancellor carol folts. Thank you for introducing me. Its such a pleasure to be here. Im looking forward to this and also your questions. Be sure to put down a lot of good ones. I have to tell you i wouldnt have any other job in america. Yes, chapel hill people [ applause ]. If youre interested in Higher Education, i think this is the best time to be a president or a chancellor in Higher Education in america. What happens in Higher Education is so important for the nation. Our business is a very serious one. People take it very seriously. We have a huge impact on the individuals of the nation. It is a time when we have the opportunity to shepherd in the great changes taking place. So its a real pleasure to be here. Carolina itself has a bigfoot print. It was the first to graduate the only Public University to graduate students in the 1700s. And it has an extremely proud legacy. And we are as proud of what were doing to get past these issues that you raised. Were very, very proud of what were trying to do. I will say working in Higher Education, the new normal is to be facing some of the greatest issues of the day. We are trying to deal with Sexual Assault. We are all trying to help that country understand the Value Proposition of Higher Education. These are the issues that we face. These are the issues that those of you in the press cover all the time. So i think its really important that we have these conversations. Its exciting to be at the kickoff of the month of august speaking to you today particularly about the importance of preserving affordability, accessibility, and attainment in a Great College degree. I would also like to thank the National Press club members, everyone at the head table. Im looking particularly at mary cooper will be our speaker. First time to have a graduate speak. Welcome. Its wonderful all of you here. We have members from the North Carolina delegation. Staffs are here. Thank you all for coming. Of course carolina alumni, thank you for being here. I thought i would start by giving an overview of what the university of North Carolina chapel hill is. We rarely understand whats going on in a university. To understand the context of affordability and accessibility its good to know what are we trying to bring our students into. Unc or we call it carolina has a budget between 4 billion and 6 billion a year. It depends whether im including our hospitals or not. So its a major enterprise. It has more than a 3 billion endowment. We raise a lot of money through philanthropy. That is in a single year. That happens to be carolinas best year ever in philanthropy. So our alums are absolutely sticking with us through the times of trial. And i think that makes a really great statement. We also get a lot of money from research. Carolina has been increasing its research portfolio. Almost a billion dollars in research. Thats mostly washington based federal funding from the nih. Its the top seventh in nih. This is a Huge Investment in research that will save lives and change the world. We bring in more than 7 billion estimated in revenue to the state. More than 10,000 people employed in various aspects of our institution. We have more than 33,000 applications for less than 4,000 entry positions. And top 10, top one programs in so many fields, from medicine, Global Health, pharmacy, humanities, social sciences. And i think one of the points i want to make is accessibility and affordability, especially of low income, first generation should get them to the best universities in america. I think thats really important that we consider that part of that mission. Its important that they come in and understand whats happening in the world. We just recently had a number of stories you probably read about in the paper. Historic partnership with gsk for chapel hill to solve aids. That program is going to have a number of under graduates that will be working in it. We have a Population Center that got 185 million grant from usaid, the largest grant in history last year to basically look at the metrics for Global Health and gender relations throughout the world. We received a 100 million gift to build entrepreneurial through pharmacy. This is what we want students to learn about as they are going to college. So exactly two weeks from today, hard to believe classes are going to begin at carolina. Its clearly one of the best times of the year. You just cant beat the buzz that happens on the campus. It wakes up. Its exciting. There are people every place. And it is a school where people smile and they sing as they walk along. I think its the light blue. That helps. It is really exciting. But they also are scared to death. This is a big deal. Theyre coming to college. And it is our job when they come to make sure they can be successful. I think thats a part of everything weve got to think about doing. For many of them, at carolina, its over 20 . They will be the first generation to attend university. Were really proud of that. Thats so important. More than 14 of them are going to come from the lowest income families, Median Incomes on of 22,000 or 23,000 a year. We will have students coming from all reigns of the socioeconomic across the country. But thats what that place feels like. I tell students at the start of the year to try to remember the magical feeling they feel on that very first day. That anything is possible. Whatever they want is what they are going to really be able to find their work to do. And i think thats my message always to them. Feel as good on the second day as you did on the first. Or remember that there is no limit. Of course that first day on august 18th, between that day, there is another important day on the calendar. Thats friday, august 7th. Tuition bills are due. I dont know how many of you have students going to college right now. How many in here have students paying tuition bills . Okay. Well, im going to give you a number i think will shock most people. The tuition at unc chapel hill is about 8,300. It is among the lowest tuitions in the country and among the top peer institutions, peers in public universities. Its at the bottom. We have very low tuition. The debt for students at North Carolina has not changed in inflation scaled dollars for more than 15 years. So this is going to be a story about things that do work to try to do it. And i think its really important because we have to understand how to scale the parts of our institutions that are working to be more effective. We have about 20,000 under graduates. And of those 43 , even with that tuition, will receive a form of needbased aid. So there is still great need out there. The Median Income in North Carolina is less than 50,000 a year. So this can still be an important part of their experience. North carolina is one of possibly two public universities that still is need blind. Which means we dont consider Patient Income in the application and the only one that meets full need, which means after they fill out their equations, we cover the rest of that need. This is enormously important to obtain a degree. Students at carolina the start of the Academic Year is of great excitement. Less than half will be going to college. They dont have that same sense of optimism. Many selfselect and think they arent going to be able to do it. Theyre fearful they wont be able to afford it. And theyre afraid to assume a debt load that they think they will never be able to pay. New data show that the average grad debt at graduation is about 35,000 for students who do go to college. At carolina, its 17,000. So, again, keeping those costs low is a way to really help attract capability students to try. Its very important. If you look at the United States statistics, we have about 3. 2 Million Students graduating from high school. About 1. 8 million of them will apply to a fouryear university. But in the end, only about 900 million of them are going to graduate. So that means about 2. 3 million of our graduates right now, High School Kids that could do anything that are the town pool of america, arent even making it into college. More than 50 are on average not graduating. So theres a lot of work here. Many students who start dont finish. Its known to be a very negative cycle for them. We also know that Educational Attainment is one of the most prominent determinants of class status. It reinforces the socioeconomic gaps, the disparities i know everyone wishes we could eliminate. Applications are going down. At the very moment when we know the skills of college are more valuable. No matter what you read, we know the lifetime earnings of someone with a College Degree are considerably greater. We know the new knowledge economy, the one bursting and growing, the one the country wants to compete in, is requiring the skills of a college graduate. And its not just their stem skills and their programming. Its their writing skills. Its their critical thinking. Its their problemsolving. Without those, we will not bring the 2. 3 Million High School students every year back to be part of a flourishing national economy. So we know we have to do it. And im going to give you some examples of ways i think its working well at unc. Things i think can be scaled. First of all, you have to build universities that draw in the talent of people from all incomes and all backgrounds. If you are selfselecting for weight, youre going to get it. But thats hard. Most schools in the last five years when we had the pooling of funds from the state, most dropped their needbehind commissions programs. They couldnt believe they could afford it. We need to know we can get them directly into the fields that contribute to the knowledge economy to they can be part of that burgeoning growth area. We know it is a world of change. If we are not getting students into programs that teach people change, i dont believe you want to put people into single skill programs. Everybody knows the skill today will probably not even going to be the business hiring in five years. It is our job to be training them to get the diverse skills of the multifaceted learner. So our universities have to be the catalyst, the place where we nurture this type of energy. The question is are universities meeting that need. If we are great probably most say we are not. If we arent, we have to get on the ball fast. Thats 3. 2 Million Students a year that could be going where we want to go. The hamilton project released a report that showed that Family Income is maybe the strongest predictor of Graduation Rate. That is a very sad statistic. Because they can even control for s. A. T. And other levels of attainment. So that is something we are constantly trying to think about. The likelihood of a student from high income bracket graduating is five times greater than students from the lowest income bracket, all other things being equal. So these disparities are growing and they play out even more in under represented populations. The trends are even greater. I have spent my whole life in higher ed wanting to fight these trends. I have actually found that southern part of heaven in North Carolina. Because i actually was able to come to the Public University that really is doing this in such a deep and strong way. 14 times kiplinger named carolina the best value in American Public universities. New york times recently ranked carolina the third most economically diverse top universities. And to be on that list you had to have Graduation Rates above 70 . Ours are much higher than that. Only three public universities were on the list. Yet public universities educate more than 70 of students in america. So im proud of what we accomplished. Im going to use some examples. That doesnt mean its all right. We have a ways to go. How did carolina get here . You have to go back to 1789. I wont make you go that far back with me. When carolina began as a great experiment. It came out of the revolutionary war. It was an idea if were going to have freedom, we better have education. It was actually founded the same time we had our first president was inaugurated. It said we were going to give education to improve the life of North Carolinaens at the lowest price practicable. It is in the dna of the institution. That has been part of it from the get go. The First Student walked 133 miles to get to that university. But we still pride ourselves to reaching out to everybody in the community, not only in the state but across the country. And bringing people from every kind of means to the university. How do we do it . Well, its important that we think i have to start by saying we do it in part because we still have a very generous state. North carolina is still supported well. We have had more than 30 cuts in the last five years. But we are still generously supported. That is important. All of the future has to find a way to continue to get some public dollars. If we care about this, public dollars are going to be important. Even though we supplement with philanthropy and all sorts of other ideas. That is a Real Advantage for us. Americans have a 1 trillion National Student debt. They see tuition rising. So we have to be able to counter that. We have low tuition. That helps counter that. But to keep our tuition low, we have to make choices all the time. And some of those are not fun, are not very they hurt. In fact, we havent been able to give faculty raises to the level we would like. Yet faculty is bring anything a billion dollars in research. It is a very competitive environment. Youre dealing in your university with very tough decisions because this accessibility and affordability is probably at the heart of everything that still tends to be our default position. But it wont exist if we dont continue to have that great faculty. So with affordability, keeping tuition and debt low is a top priority for us. So is need blind and meeting the demonstrated need. And i think those ill come back to in a minute with an example from the carolina covenant. How that has had a huge influence on student success. And ill come back to that. Accessibility has been the next part. That means we do a lot of action going out and going into all 100 counties. Carolina still has almost 82 of the undergraduates come from the state of North Carolina. So that covenant with the state has been very important. I think thats why the state still supports that at such a high level. Thats a very strong relationship. Lots of interNational Students at the graduate level. Very global campus. But thats important. We have also developed a lot of programs to go right out into high school. If you want to solve these problems, you cant start with the applicant. You need to get into the high schools. Ill give a clear example of that in a moment. You also have to focus when theyre on campus very much on the advising, especially what take place in the first year. And if you dont put the money into that first year and the money into getting them ready no matter how much money you spent on getting them to start, they arent going to be successful. The third area we do is try to make sure that were doing it in an institution that is still at the highest level of excellence. I dont believe affordability and accessibility without strength of Program Means much. I dont think low income students should be put in less than great education. I think thats completely unfair. And i think you need these three working together to really solve these problems. Our Graduation Rates are 80 at four years and over 90 at six years. Putting carolina right up there with the best of the privates. And when a student is accepted to a school where they believe they are going to graduate, there is a lot of information coming out. Some good data i think you collected that shows believing in them, investing in them is a major factor that will determine their success. You heard a little bit about the carolina covenant. Thats this program that brings students in from very low income. The big thing about that program, not only do we work to get them in, they graduate with no loan. And they do work study, they get grants. But that complete belief in those students has been so important. The Program Began in 2006. Looking at students from the exact same income and similar numbers and comparing Graduation Rates preand post covenant, its been extraordinary. Precovenant low income students in that program graduated at best at 57 . Africanamerican males were graduating down in the 30 . Since the covenant has been in, the entire programs average of Graduation Rate is just 3 lower than that 80 . It has skyrocketed. And the africanamerican males has doubled. So this investment and the advising that goes along with it, is very important. I could tell you stories of students. They come in with extraordinary records. Their average gpa coming in is over 4. 0. They are very talented students. Yet they have families back home that need them. They dont have the advising. And they frequently lack the confident. We have so many who say im going to drop out. Yet if they get that advising they stick with it. The stories are amazing. I met three covenant scholars recently. All three told me stories about their lives. And two of them graduated, had great jobs. One already bought a house. Two of them were putting their mothers through college. Because their mothers had been so instrumental in what they were doing. So these pay forward for society in an incredible way. We also have programs that reach directly into the high schools. In North Carolina, the low income high schools, about 65 of them, we are part of a program called the carolina advising core. It is probably one of the best programs in america right now. It started in virginia and was housed at unc and now has branched out. They take recent graduates, the most dedicated students you could ever meet, and put them into high schools. Were in 65 of the 90 poorest schools in North Carolina right now. The time in those schools that can be given to any student that wants to apply to college, can you guess how much time they have to spend talk to go them about college . Less than five minutes a year. They dont have parents, families, people to get them in they cant possibly do it. Since they have gone in with the advising program, they have seen application rates about 12 to 15 just in the first couple of years. I went to one of them and i talked to the students there. A number of them will go to Junior College. And another from Junior College to carolina. I went as a Junior College as part of my own background. I had no idea how meaningful that would be. The students had a couple on tape afterwards and said the chancellor at unc went to Junior College. So i dont think we can underestimate how few touches can have such an impact. The students come in and get that advising with a young, amazing North Carolina graduate. And it just changes the world. Then we built another program to work with the Junior Colleges and carolina in about the last six years started to really can admit students. If they get selected in their first year and they achieve a certain level of success, first of all, they graduate from the twoyear school. And the Graduation Rates are extremely low. They get automatic guarantee to get into unc chapel hill. It has been phenomenal. And if you meet some of those students, you would be blown away. One of them i met grew up in nigeria from a very poor family, wartorn area. Saw is a poster of unc and dreamed about being at unc. How she ever made it, i cant tell you. Went to unc, head of her class in nursing, going to medical school. So we have to keep remembering not all students will do the traditional path. But if were going to make accessibility, affordability the brand for our nation, we need to do this. We need to start before. We need to give the support they need. We need the advising on the ground. And we need to continue to draw from such a broad range that we dont miss so many students who are out there. If we start doing that and we have programs that can help universities do this and we have programs that can do it in places where graduation is what they do, i think we have a real chance to change things in the next three to five years. So i look at whats happening in the news right now. And i hope youll ask me a lot of questions on any of these subjects. How are we going to make the dream of Higher Education really the dream of this country and reverse the trend that really has been taking over our nation, fewer people applying higher expense i think is one of the greater challenges. I hope in the next decade we really do achieve that. I wouldnt be standing here if i didnt go to college and work as a waitress and pay my way through college. I did it years ago. Couldnt be done now. I wanted to make sure all the other people like me and probably like you out there have that chance. And i think we have some good ideas about how to do it. So thank you for listening. And looking forward to answering questions. [ applause ]. Thank you, chancellor. We have quite a few questions. Im glad youre ready for this. The 20152016 tuition, i think you mentioned the price is 33,644 for out of state. And 8,562 for instate. While thats still a good deal, the growth and tuition since the early 1980s has increased six times rate of inflation. Instate students it is five times the rate of inflation. What has caused this huge increase . Will we ever see the costs slowing down even dropping below it . Thank you. Its a really great question. Well, i mean, i am in a great Public University. And i am part of a university where the state tax payers do really expect the majority of the support to go for instate students. What we have been doing, and so in times when there was a retrenchment, we didnt always choose those. A lot of times those were legislated for us where to take the increase. That 30,000, as you said, is still compared to our peers. Right now i think its hard tore get into unc chapel hill from out of state than any school in america. It is a great place to go. They want to go. So what we have been doing to counter that is using philanthropy and nonstate targeted dollars. Theyre eligible for the covenant, which i think is great. Some of our covenant scholars do come from out of state. It is 50 of our covenant scholars are first generation out of state. 60 are students of color. We really do try to use these banner programs to attract them. For me in the future a lot of our money that is not already targeted will be going to try to keep those levels down. I think many states dont understand truly the benefit of the influx of students from out of state. First of all, all the students want to meet people from everywhere. When students move to a place like chapel hill, they want to stay there forever. But they do come. They are important parts of building a state. And i think other institutions handle that differently. Thats something we think about a lot. A host of students now coming to universities that are undocumented immigrants but spent most of their lives in the country. Many cannot afford the pay the high out of state tuition. Is there anything the university can do to help the students in this situation. You are hitting the really big issues i was saying earlier. Im wearing the pin from our Latino Latino organization. It is a growing part of the population in North Carolina. We are not one of the institutions that forgives for out of state. So we use philanthropy to be able to cover out of state rates. Its huge if they cant get the out of state rate. We have recently had our state now makes it possible for all active duty military personnel to have instate rates. That is another under served population we want to get actively involved. So were moving in that direction. There are about 30 states. Werent you saying earlier that might actually do that. I think beyond that what we have to do right now is continue to find resources that can be used in the areas of most critical need. Until you can get that if you can forgive it at the state level, it would really help in that area. Some have argued making college more accessible can be a decrease in academics for the university students. Do you agree . This one i would have paid for you to ask me. Thats such a great one. This is great. I have a figure, we dont show tables and figures here. Good thing. Academics will never leave the stage. It shows a diagram of all the students who come in on the carolina covenant. It imposes them on the quality of the entire unc entering class. If you were to pull out the covenant and the needbased aid students, every single metric, valedictorian, gaap, goes down. So i am absolutely i dont buy into the argument that it has anything to reducing quality. I do also realize, though, being part of a Great Institution you do get to draw the students who have is that capacity. And so part of the issue is what do we do then for the next tier of students who dont have that . How do we get them performing at a level they could . But we are really drawing an incredible population. So their ability to graduate and lead the world in many different ways is is absolutely there. We have to make sure they can graduate. A lot of questions in the United States now about testing. How do you monitor the quality of your education . Some of the factors you mentioned, problemsolving, critical thinking, et cetera. How do you monitor that . How do you the grade that in some form . I think i have an english professor with me. She might tell you how hard it is to grade a paper and even feel like it is absolutely perfect. Universities have many ways of assessing individual performance. We give tests and grade papers and give lots of feedback. What we arent so good at doing is the emergent hole when you finish. We dont give final exams for a byo major to understand what they developed throughout their entire time at the university. Most schools, and through accrediting, many of us have been leading in this way. There is a lot of effort put through every major to understand that very clear skill sets, critical thinking, problemsolving, are increasing. Again, im most concerned if we move to an educational system that starts looking like mass production, we will lose the critical piece of feedback, experimentation, risk taking that are the great thinkers that cannot only take a job but create new jobs. There was a great chapel hill study in the New York Times recently where they redid all of their intros. T. E. M. Courses. We want the population to be able to take science, technology, engineering and math. They did two separate classes. One where everything was discussion based, handson learning. They still had to take the same tests. Another more traditional. The gap between low income students in those two ways of teaching completely closed. So there are ways that we can change the way we educate that will have really measurable progress. But thats kind of in the infancy. Im sure metrics are part of that. But its not always something easy to measure. Lets talk politics for a second. Higher education seems to be bearing the brunt of fierce political attacks across the country. As we have seen, for example, in wisconsin. As head of a major Public University, what message do you want to send to politicians to have greater accountability and faculty who want to keep their tenure and Academic Freedom . This is when i turn to you. You probably have the answers to that question. I think one of the big problems right now about Higher Education is we tend to talk about it as monolithic. Everything is different. Im talking about carolina. I told you what it was like to begin. To make clear, its the same as many other institutions. We need to be much more knew nigh nuanced and we need to understand what Community Colleges do and look at our historic black collages and universities. We need to find what the Great Research universities do. We need to Start Building in the metrics of success based on what they are, their mission and what theyre actually doing. I think thats one of the problems. Second, everyone is quite willing to do efficiency. It is a big it isnt true i mean, yes, universities are like herding cats. But they are innovation centers. Every single invention that makes your life better has actually come from a university. Some beginning of that innovation. Our industry right now in america used to be 70 r d and industry 30. It has moved to less than 30 in industry and all in university. So to be that innovative you have to be flexible. Again, we need to talk about the specifics. Its important to understand that where economies come in, you should allow universities to feed it back in to the innovation. I think theres a lot of misunderstanding there. The biggest misunderstanding is what they bring value. I saw the university of wisconsin did this study. We did one in North Carolina. And thats 7 billion, about a 7 return for every dollar. Well, its more than that for every dollar given to us by the state. We just arent i think in part we arent giving the nuance. Answer. The last thing, tenure and Academic Freedom, i think you would destroy america. If you destroy american universities by eliminating Academic Freedom. I think that is at the core. What it is exactly might be misunderstood. It may be abused. It may be things like that. But in general the idea that what people study and the work they do has to be held to a standard that is not bound by the mores of the day is really important. Tenure still serves an important purpose. Although i understand i dont think tenure means no accountability. Thats another mistake. Even ten euroed professors go through posttenure review. They have to achieve levels of accountability that are important. I think we need to make those things understood. By your answer im going to guest that you supported president barack obama back in all of his plans to have government rate government higher institutions. Yes. Well get through a lot of these if the answers are like that. Speaking of college costs, do you think the trend of colleges, including public universities, having nicer and fancier dorms, fitness facilities, buildings, contributes to the problems of the Rising College costs . It does. It does. You know, people try to figure out what are the main drivers that have increased cost. Facilities are part of it. Most of americas great universities were built in the 20s and 30s. We have an aging infrastructure. We are going to be building buildings and they do cost more money now than they used to because we have to comply with all sorts of standards that are very different. To say its its a tiny fraction of what it really is. There is also a race for better facilities for students, where they live. And i understand that. I do think though, we are part of the times. I used to send my son to a camp that didnt believe in having mosquito netting. I wanted him to be tough. You they arent coming out of that. Thats not what theyre looking a lot. He didnt like that either. That was a New Hampshire thing. But, you know, i do think we are sort of working with the student generation. And i think whats actually more important than fancy facilities is that they feel they are part of a place where the facilities will allow them to be part of the great things that are happening. So, for example, if im going to put something in at unc, i want to put in maker space. You might say we shouldnt do that. They are just rooms you build into dorms. They might have a 3 d printer new expensive digital equipment. In the basement in a dorm of North Carolina last year, a young student in his junior year had been working with a disadvantaged child in the region who had to have an artificial hand. As he was growing, they couldnt afford the 100,000 to build the hand. For 20 with a 3d printer in the basement of a dorm, he built him an artificial hand. Thats what students want. Access to stuff that will let them do great things. They want to be fit and feel part of the action. But they are really still looking at things that we want to give them. And thats really where i think we get the best return. Thank you. Now to a little bit more controversial question. Recent events, including campus shootings and Campus Police use of weapons of pepper spray and guns put a spotlight on the Law Enforcement powers of the police officers. What do you consider to be the role of Campus Police and what limit should be place on them with when dealing with students or citizens . Should they be allowed to be armed with live ammunition and should students be allowed to carry guns on campus . Well, the idea of whether you carry guns in a public institution, i dont get to make that choice. That is a decision by the state legislature. Of course we know across the country there are different decisions by different legislatures. A lot of them do want guns to be allowed on campus. Usually they have to be locked up. Its rare. I dont see a campus where people walk around with pistols and are doing that. I think every College President and chancellor is deeply worried about that. Our Campus Police, what you saw and what has been in the news, i do not think reflects the majority of Campus Police. Most Campus Police, and im not speaking directly from my police, but i knew every single officer at dartmouth. I met so many of them when we had our recent tragedy and we worked together. Most of the Campus Police officers are Campus Police officers because they love students. I think there is a huge role for Campus Police to play as a liaison and safety coordinator on campuses and to interface with their towns. We have to get those partnerships to be very strong. We need to keep them really working. But students often really like their Security Police if they developed a relationship that is positive and strong. So i think theres a lot of work to be done there. But there are many great examples where they do it. Our police just recently voluntarily decided to get cameras together with the local towns in part so they could stay to the students, we want to do this because we will do anything to make you more comfortable. These tragedies are highlighting it. Every time something happens we go back and ask ourselves again, i have meetings with the police in all of our towns and the Security Police on our campus the next day. Saying what can we do better . Are we prepared for making sure this would never happen . But i think its a tragedy. I dont think it reflects most Security Forces on campuses. Sticking with the controversial for a minute. On the periphery of the campus is the silent sam memorial. In july, it was vandalized to say kkk, murderer, and black lives matter. As chancellor, should the statue remain. If so, should any changes be made to the signage accompanying it . Well, weve been through a major year our campus was really looking at not just the memorial but also names on buildings, and the issues associated with that. I think this is a very national issue. It isnt just the confederate flag. Im very happy to have my friend sam here. We have been thinking about it as an institution. And the aborted of trustees took action. They decided to rename one of the houses that had been named in honor of a person known to have been the leader of the kkk. They changed the name. It is now called carolina hall. At the same time they said we are not going to go down the road of changing every name. Our state actually said you cant change memorials unless you know, so sometimes youre working in a very changing environment. So i have to adjust and work with whatever is happening around me. But what we really said we were going to do is spend a lot of time understanding how to contextualize history. That is a big job. And that is going to require voices from throughout the community to come together to have those conversations what does it mean to be from the oldest Public University in america. Peoples names are on buildings from a time in the past to a time in the present. How do we honor the past, learn from the past, and then respect the dialogue that shapes today. So i cant give you the answer. But that is probably one of our Top Priorities Going Forward in this year. And i think that that memorial to silent sam is really just one of the pieces i think were going to end up with much broader conversations that talk about the role of race in the south. I think were going to be talking about the role of race in america. So these arent confined to any one campus. These are some of our biggest issues of the day. Recent revelations at such places as the university of oklahoma have cast a spotlight on the system of fraternities and sororities on campus. Do you see it as a help or hindrance to your efforts to make college more accessible to a more diverse population of students. He is going down the list of all the hard issues. You really did mean it. You know, theres a great article actually the chronicle of Higher Education and a lot of the journals have been covering a lot of issues surrounding this. Chapel hill is is less than 20 fraternities and sororities. So it is not a numerically that large. They are influential. They have a real place there. I think that the scrutiny that has been coming to campus starting with Sexual Assault but also binge drinking, hazing, this is extremely healthy for universities. We need that kind of conversation. I will tell you as someone in higher ed for 30 years, and a woman in higher ed. When i started in higher ed nobody would go talk to anybody except the woman in the biodepartment. Students suffering from Sexual Assault felt very little opportunity to talk. And most of the people driving these issues, especially with gender, would have been women. This is really changing. We are seeing a lot more men and women talking about things. So im looking at the way the councils are changing our institution. The fraternities were the first to put in a whole program of Sexual Assault training. Im not saying it is all perfect. But i am saying we need to continue to turn to the students themselves to involve them in the process. Social engineering is a very difficult idea. And if youre going to really change people, you have to work with people. That does still mean you have to have very serious consequences when people are doing the things that we believe they should do. I think that the National Organizations have started to be more active. I think youre starting to see a much Bigger Movement towards getting people spaces that are not just associated with so errorities and fraternities. Thats the big issue on a college campus, is they own houses. And students want to be part of a place that has separate spaces. So to really make this work, we have to give alternatives where students can still have spaces so they dont necessarily find their only alternative in a greek system. They can find other things to give them that richness and experience. Thank you. What would you like to see high schools do differently to improve the College Readiness over incoming students . And along that line, of questioning North Carolina is reviewing its commitment to the common core state standards, most states have adopted them. Do you think adopting common core will help the readiness of Incoming College students . I feel like i have an answer to the last one. I have not gotten that involved in the common core debate. Although we spend a lot of time in education. The big focus for our university and the whole unc system is actually to get more ready teachers to really improve the pipeline of teachers and also improve the success of teachers in the classroom and the retention. And they have recently been really trying to deal with that issue. Its very important. I think we need to teach students in high school how to write and critically think. I think those are skills. I know every one of my generation is going to agree with that one. But it is something that we do see. The online world has done some positive things. Some students read more because of the online world. Ive never been a purist and said you have to read only one kind of book and write only kind of to be learning those skills. So we have things a lot our fingertips to engage students. A lot of evidence shows if you can get a student to read anything, you can probably start directing them to read more and more of what you want. But the online world has probably not helped very much in good writing. People can use the online world to completely ignore critical analysis. In high schools, if given the right amount of help, they could take advantage of the age these students are, their excitement about this online world and use that in new and exciting ways to improve their skills. We need to make sure we schools have class sizes small enough to have engaged learning. Theres not anything the same in being in a class of 60 or class of 30 no matter how super human that teacher is. I tend to believe we need to pay our k through 12 teachers more if theyre going to be held to a standard thats absolutely right. We need to make it a viable career because we want great thinkers bring those 3. 2 Million Students through high school that does prepare them. Writing. Im going to say math, too. Thats an important skill. If we let them say i dont like algebra or geometry, were allowing them to cut themselves off. Two questions. How have uncs athletic recruiting processes changed and are there other lessons other universities can take from your experience particularly regarding the athletic integrity issue . More than 70 reforms. I think some of those reforms are cutting edge. Reforms not only in the way we monitor classes. The event that happened really that we talk about all the time should have been stopped. There should have been a process in place almost instantly that evaluated that chair every year and could have stopped it. Its the great tragedy to say, my goodness. We could have stopped it. We would stop it now. The better parts of it, why were a much stronger institution coming out of it than we might have been is weve redone our advising. So for example all this that i was telling you about the covenant scholars and that advising program we have a Pilot Program to share that exact same advising with all of our students, including all of our athletic advising. We developed programs to make sure theyre not being tracked into a few majors. This is not just carolina but its really important. Its true for many students. Many who work or may have other outside activities. May find themselves with a narrow subset of majors because they cant get the courses at the right time. Were changing all of those sorts of things. These are the types of programs that help us recruit. Most athletes that come to carolina are going to be great. Theyll be on absolutely outstanding teams but theyll graduate and go on to careers that are not as active playing their sport. It is our job to recruit them to get a chance to play on a great team and go to a great university. Its putting our effort increasingly on that duality. We of course you can come here and do both and then you have to make it real. Unc students have put issues of race and diversity high on their priority list. How do you facilitate the conversation about these tricky topics as chancellor . When we have the death of the three muslim students, it was the most terrible moment you can imagine for anybody to wake up or to hear that thats going on. What i saw then was the beginnings of real opportunity. We saw that in charleston, too. The families of the slain students were incredible. They came forward and they, too, said we want to talk about the love, the hope of these students and how our families produce wonderful children, how they grow and nurture a community. The community almost as a whole turned toward the celebration of life. And it had a big impact on the way people started talking about these conversations. It doesnt mean people werent extremely angry. But the anger was not the driver. We immediately put in a program were calling carolina conversations and invited students to help us do it. Its going to be starting this year. The very first conversation was on race. In setting that up, we went around to all the student groups. I invited students from every organization. Students from across the political spectrum and every one of them committed to bring people to that meeting. One of the most meaningful conversations that i heard at that was between two young men, different races, talking and one of the students going, were supposed to talk about race. This is really hard. Im not sure why i even came. This is so hard. And the other student said you came because this is the first time and maybe the only time you would have ever talked to someone that looked like me. You dont have to worry about getting everyone in the conversation as much as starting the conversation and bringing students in and building these conversations out with real action items that people can try. The more experimental on these issues, the better. If we think every time we meet we have to change the entire curriculum, we wont make progress. But if we have an incremental idea, try it and test it and back it back in place, students will come and start believing in that process. I think that carolina conversations is one step, and stay tuned. Ill come back next year and tell you about the rest of them. Almost every campus in america is going to be doing something or trying Something Like that. I hope they are. Before i ask the last questions, i have a few announcements. The National Press club fights for a free press worldwide. For more information about the club visit www. Press. Org and to donate to our nonprofit journalism institute, visit www. Press. Org institute. I would like to remind you about upcoming programs. Tomorrow were hosting the commandant of the United States coast guard and the john reverend bryant. And on august 18th, Mitch Landrieu will speak from this podium. And registration is open for the beat the deadline 5k. Go to press. Org for more information. Id like to present our speaker with the National Press club mug which im sorry is not in carolina blue. Thank you. Its great. Its not duke blue either. So for our last question, the last question, unc duke basketball score this season, and were going to hold you to it. Oh, my gosh. Its going to be a really good game. A high scorer. Im giving carolina 96, duke 88. You heard it here first. Thank you, chancellor folt. Id also like to thank the staff and the Broadcast Center for organizing todays event. If youd like a copy of todays event go to press. Org. Thank you. We are adjourned. Sunday night former emergency manager of detroit talks about Financial Issues and the job overseeing the largest municipal bankruptcy in u. S. History. If detroit had taken the 1. 5 billion it borrowed when the stock market went down to 6,600 and invested it in an Index Fund Stock market is trading at 18,000 almost three times what it was they not only would have tripled the money they could have paid pensions in full and got into business of the 13th check getting pensioners a 13th check at the end of the year in addition to the 12. It could have fixed itself if there were sober management Going Forward just like any organization in the United States, as well. If you have strong leadership and some focus leadership you can resolve these problems but it takes a lot of effort. Sunday night on cspans q a. The leaders of canadas four major parties participate in a televised debate scheduled with all four party leaders. The participants are steven harper, new Democratic Party leader, liberal party leader and Green Party Leader elizabeth may. The debate hosted by macleans magazine will be on cspan and cspan radio. President obama was greeted with a round of happy birthdays as he took the stage to speak to some 500 people attending the Young Leaders summit identified as most promising Young Leaders. The president visited africa last month with stops in kenya and ethiopia. At the summit he repeatedly said in gay discrimination is the same as racial discrimination. This is just over an hour. [ applause ] thank you. Well, hello, everybody. Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you thank you. Thank you. Everybody, sit down. Thank you so much. Well. This is a good crowd here. First of all, can everybody please give grace another big round of applause. You know, not only does she do incredibly inspiring work in nigeria, but i have to say following grace is a little bit like following michelle. You know, shes so good that you kind of feel bad when youre walking out. Because youre thinking, im not going to be that good. But shes just one example of the incredible talent thats in this room. And to all of you, i know that youve been here in the United States for just a few weeks, but let me say on behalf of the american people, welcome to the United States. Were thrilled to have you here. And your visit comes at a perfect time. Because yes, its soon my birthday. And thats a very important thing. But thats not the main reason its a perfect time. The main reason is because as many of you know, i just returned from africa. And it was my fourth trip to subsaharan africa. More than any other u. S. President , and i was proud to be the first u. S. President to visit kenya, the first [ cheers and applause ] the first to visit ethiopia. The first to address the african union, which was a great honor. And the reason i have devoted so much energy to our work with the continent is as i said last week, even as africa continues to confront many challenges, africa is on the move. Its one of the Fastest Growing regions in the world. Africas middle class is projected to grow to more than 1 billion consumers. With hundreds of millions of mobile phones and surging access to the internet. Africans are beginning to leap frog old technologies into new prosperity. The continent has achieved historic gains in health, from fighting hiv aids to making childbirth safer for women and babies. Millions have been lifted from extreme poverty, so this is extraordinary progress. And young people, like you, are driving so much of this progress. Because africa is the youngest continent. I saw the power of youth on my trip. In kenya. Richard ruuto helped build yes youth can, one of the countrys most Prominent Civil Society groups with over one million members. At the Global Entrepreneur center in nairobi, they spoke about how they started Brilliant Footsteps Academy in nigeria, which uses education to fight religious extremism and provide more opportunities for young muslim youth. I met judith, an entrepreneur who cofounded a nonprofit that trains young women living in the slums of nairobi in Computer Programming and Graphic Design and helps place them in tech jobs. So i saw the talent of young people all across the continent. And as president , i want to make sure that even as were working with governments, were also helping to empower Young Africans like all of you. And thats why i launched yali, Young African leadership initiative, to help you access the resources to help you access the resources and training and networks you need to become the next network of leaders in all areas, in Civil Society and business and government, and the response has been overwhelming. So far, more than 140,000 young people across africa have joined our yali network. So Young Africans with new ideas can connect with each other and collaborate and Work Together to put their plans into action. I want to welcome all of the yali Network Members across africa who are watching this town hall today. Im proud of all of you. Im proud that weve made so much progress together after just a few years. And last year, i said we would launch a new set of tools for our yali network. So today, weve got more than 30 online lessons available on everything from public speaking to how to write a business plan, mentoring. New ways to Network Across africa, around the world. New training sessions. Meetings with experts on how to launch a startup. And were launching three new online mandela fellow washington Fellowship Institute courses so that all members of the yali network can access some of the great ideas you have been sharing. Last year, i said that we would create yali Regional Leadership Centers across africa to provide skills, networks, and opportunities to even more Young African leaders. And in kenya, i had a chance to visit the Regional Leadership Center in nairobi. This morning, we opened a new center, and two more will be open by the end of the year. [ cheers and applause ] last year, i said we would do even more to support young entrepreneurs with grants. To help you start a business or nonprofit. And with new training for thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs in small towns and rural areas. So at the recent Global Entrepreneur summit in nairobi, i announced we secured more than 1 billion in new commitments from banks and fill anthropistes to support emerging entrepreneurs around the world, including in africa, with half the money going to support women and young people. And last year, i welcomed our first class of mandela fellows. This year, the response was overwhelming again, nearly 30,000 applied. And today, i am honored to welcome you, the second Mandela Washington fellows class. Were on track to double the Mandela Washington Fellowship Program to 1,000 fellows by next year. And i know youve been busy. Over the past few weeks, schools and businesses all across america, you have been taking courses, developing the skills youll need to make your ideas a reality. So that youre able to continue the great work that youre already doing, but take it to the next level. Thats what brian plans to do. Where is brian . Where is he . There he is right there . So brian uses music to advocate against things like genderbased violence and to educate youth on hiv aids. So while in the u. S. , hes learned about our health care system, met the founder of an american hiv aids organization, and now he plans to start a record label for music about social change. Brian, were proud to be your partner. Or weve got kadijah diallo, where is kadijah . There she is. So, she helped lead unicefs Media Campaign to stop the spread of ebola. With the management skills she gained at wagner college, she wants to work on improving the lives of women and girls back home in guinea. Were proud to be your partner. Or weve got Jamila Mayanja of uganda. Are you posing . She is posing. Jamila is not a fashion model. Thats not shes started a doortodoor Laundry Company to employ more youth and teach them entrepreneurial skills and she hopes to take what she learned at her time at Dartmouth University to meet her goal of getting 1,000 youth to work in or run their own business. Were proud to be your partner. So thats just a sampling of the incredible projects that are being done by fellows all across africa. So this programs going to help all of you make a real difference back home. But fatou from senegal, where is fatou. She wrote me a letter and said if the real value of yali is for young people to learn for mothers, maybe we should start sending Young Americans to africa also. She made the point, not just to help poor communities as they usually do, but to learn from other societies with humility. And which i thought is absolutely true. So i have good news. From now on, well give americans an opportunity next summer, up to 80 american leaders will join