Governor's Commission on Education beyond High School

The Governor's Commission on Education beyond High School, [3]commonly referred to as the Carlyle Commission, published a report in 1962 that led to legislation in 1963 establishing the state's community college system and public universities at Asheville [4], Charlotte [5], and Wilmington [6]. The commission was appointed in 1961 by Governor Terry Sanford [7] to plan for the higher education of the rapidly increasing baby boom high school graduates and to consider other issues relating to the state's change from an agricultural to a technology-based economy. Irving E. Carlyle, attorney and former legislator from Winston-Salem [8], was chairman of the 20-member panel of educators and citizens, and W. Lunsford Crew, president pro tem of the North Carolina Senate from Halifax County [9], served as vice chairman.

The commission's report contained 61 recommendations for higher education on statewide planning and coordination, the University of North Carolina [10] and public senior colleges, comprehensive community colleges [2], students, faculties, finance, and extension and public service. The commission also initiated a comprehensive demographic study, titled Community Colleges for North Carolina: A Study of Need, Location, and Service Areas (1962) [11], led by C. Horace Hamilton [12] of the Department of Rural Sociology [13] at North Carolina State College (modern North Carolina State University [14]). The Hamilton Report documented the great need for additional institutions of higher education in North Carolina.