Governor's Commission on Education beyond High School

The Governor's Commission on Education beyond High School, 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, Charlotte, and Wilmington. The commission was appointed in 1961 by Governor Terry Sanford 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, 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, served as vice chairman.

The commission's report contained 61 recommendations for higher education on statewide planning and coordination, the University of North Carolina and public senior colleges, comprehensive community colleges, 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), led by C. Horace Hamilton of the Department of Rural Sociology at North Carolina State College (modern North Carolina State University). The Hamilton Report documented the great need for additional institutions of higher education in North Carolina.