Educational support for military
June 29,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI 
DAILY NEWS STAFF

CAMP LEJEUNE — A tour through Camp Lejeune’s urban combat training village gave University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles a firsthand look at the intense training Marines receive before heading to battle.

Later, he met with local education and military leaders to discuss other challenges just as important: giving Marines and sailors and their families the educational support they need to better themselves.

“To be in the Marines and be able to advance, you’ve got to be educated,” Bowles said. “These are great young men and women here. What we are trying to figure out is what can we do to better train them.”

Bowles, a former White House chief of staff under President Clinton and a two-time U.S. Senate candidate, was a “guest of honor” along with Martin Lancaster, the president of the North Carolina Community College Sytem. They met in a roundtable format with officials from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Coastal Carolina Community College and educators from Camp Lejeune and Jacksonville.

There, they discussed the successes of their decade-plus collaboration in the Onslow County Extension program, one designed to help military personnel receive a college education through Coastal and then at classes offered by UNCW locally at Camp Lejeune, Coastal or even online.

Currently, there are three undergraduate programs offered in elementary education, criminal justice and nursing. Two graduate programs — in elementary education and liberal studies — are also offered.

For the future, the program is hoping to add a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s in psychology with an emphasis on military issues such as substance abuse counseling, domestic violence and stress reduction.

Beth Barton, UNCW’s extension director and military liaison, said the extension program is just a portion of what’s offered by the UNC system. UNCW is also involed in Project CARE and Sturgeon City.

“Our extension program is just one small part of everything UNCW is doing in Onslow County,” she said.

During the seminar, Bowles heard from local educators about the successes of the extension program. They stressed that the partnership at Camp Lejeune can be used as a model for other military communities across the state.

And the role of the military in the state should not be taken lightly, said Ron Lingle, the president of Coastal Carolina. The economic impact of the state’s military bases exceeds $18 billion per year.

But to have an effective relationship with the military, educators must earn their trust.

“This is a meeting of enormous potential significance,” Lingle said. “We have learned a lot in the past 12 years or so on how to build a working relationship.”

UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo said that in many ways the meeting was “showing off” the partnership between the various institutions.

“This is a pretty historic moment,” she said. “I don’t think there’s another collaboration like this in the state. And as the base grows, our involvement must grow as well. And we’re ready for that.”