Tutoring rule proposed

Bill would make all undergraduates help out in schools

RALEIGH -- Those seeking a bachelor's degree in the state's public and private colleges and universities would be required to spend 20 hours a semester tutoring or mentoring students in public elementary, middle or high schools if legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand becomes law.

Rand's legislation seeks to honor two students recently killed by gunfire in the Triangle: UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato. The community service program would be named after them.

Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, said the legislation would serve a twofold purpose: to instill a sense of community and responsibility in college students and to provide help to struggling public school students.

"In our public schools, we always say if we could get the family involved how much better everything would be," Rand said. "Well, some of our children in public schools don't have families. Sometimes the family doesn't want to be involved. And so programs involving these college students in the schools would be a real boost."

The legislation would require colleges to begin the program quickly. By Jan. 1, 2012, all bachelor's degree recipients would have to have completed the community service requirement.

The state's private colleges and universities would have to impose the same requirement if they wanted to continue participating in two financial aid programs that the state provides to North Carolinians attending those schools. One is a grant given to any North Carolinian who attends an in-state private college or university; the other is a need-based scholarship fund. Both funds bring millions of dollars to the private colleges.

Rand said he has talked to UNC and Duke University officials about the legislation but did not say whether they support it.

The 16 UNC-system schools have community service programs, said Andy Willis, the system's lobbyist. But he said few require community service to graduate.

Willis said N.C. Central University in Durham may have the most rigorous program. Students there are required to perform 120 hours of community service to graduate.

NCCU officials recently announced plans to reconfigure the program to direct most NCCU students toward assisting public school students within two miles of the campus.