Scads of N.C. Central University students ousted from their dorms by infestations of toxic mold now are making do as guests of various Durham hostelries -- not a bad deal in creature-comfort terms, but still a losing proposition when it comes to campus access and ambience.

For years, building maintenance and repair on the campus has been a study in neglect -- not because university officials haven't known it was needed, but because they couldn't afford it. Now students are paying the price. Along with the university, that is, which has to put the students up in rented quarters, while still having to go back and remove the mold and fix the problems that let the mold grab hold.

At least it's a safe bet that the displaced NCCU students, wherever they're living, have had air conditioning to make the heat wave slamming us of late more tolerable.

What if you're a freshman who's been lured to that beacon of enlightenment over in Chapel Hill where the athletic facilities, at least, are deluxe, only to find that your accommodations amount to a sweat-box in a featureless, soul-deadening high-rise? Well, buck up, champ -- the heat won't last forever. And with a window fan, you might be able to cool off enough at some point during the night to catch some sleep.

At UNC-Chapel Hill, just to pick on the UNC system's top-ranked school, the assumption seems to be that lab-animal living conditions are quite acceptable for someone who didn't luck into an air-conditioned room, or who doesn't have the money to opt into the private housing market.

It's a bargain in any case, goes the conventional wisdom, and there's a good deal of truth to that. But the bargain factor is shrinking as tuition costs go up while academically about the best that can be said is that the university is holding its own. U.S. News & World Report, for example, now pegs UNC-CH as the 29th best national university, down a notch from last year; among public universities in that category, it seems to have settled into fifth on the magazine's depth chart despite ambitions to be the best of the lot.

What's the hang-up? Using the U.S. News methodology, two categories stand out as weak spots. Both are budget-related.

In the category of faculty resources, UNC-CH is ranked 71st among all the national, doctoral-granting schools, public and private. Its public peers clock in between 44th (University of Virginia) and 55th (University of Michigan). It also trails in the share of classes with fewer than 20 students (40 percent). The same measure shows the University of California at Berkeley with 54 percent, UVa with 48 percent, Michigan with 49 percent and UCLA with 49 percent.

Ironic, perhaps, to see our school lagging in quality measures of this sort behind campuses in California and Virginia, where budget troubles have been especially vicious. In fact, North Carolina has done a relatively good job of keeping the higher education money flowing despite its own budget miseries.

It had better. Because the demand and the need for what our universities have to offer are on their way up the express escalator.

A good snapshot comes courtesy of the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board. Its annual Fact Book on Higher Education lays out the stats and the trends.

Our traditional college-age population is on the high side: North Carolina, as of 2000, ranked 17th among the states in the share of residents age 18 to 24. And the number of people graduating from high school in 2011 is forecast to be 23 percent greater than the number in 2001. Will the General Assembly provide enough money for the university system to do right by all those folks?

North Carolina has a disturbingly high rate of high school dropouts. But among high school grads in 2000, 61.8 percent enrolled in college -- higher than the national average of 57.6 and the fourth highest among Southern states. The demand is there, without a doubt.

Yet: There is lots of ground to make up. Again using 2000 figures, North Carolina trailed the national average with 22.5 percent of its adults holding at least a bachelor's degree. As the state sheds the kind of old-line manufacturing jobs that long have provided decent livings to people with only a high school diploma, it couldn't be plainer that the knowledge, skills and habits of mind acquired on campus -- whether a research institution or a community college -- are becoming indispensable for those who want to claim a ticket into the great American middle class.

None of this comes as much of a surprise. But it's not been simple to muster the resolve to invest enough in our campuses so that young people -- and older ones repositioning themselves in a dog-eat-dog economy -- can acquire the educational tools they need to succeed. The SREB notes, for example, that from 2001 to 2002, per-student funding at North Carolina's four-year campuses dropped by 4 percent, adjusted for inflation.

Broken buildings shot through with mold. Stinking hot dorm rooms. Crowded classes. It's hard to live with our university system at times. But we surely can't live without it, so we'd better love it and take good care of it.