William, William, wherefore art thou, William?

Well, he's not in about half the colleges and universities in North Carolina.

A new report from the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy found that nearly 50 percent of North Carolina colleges and universities no longer require their English majors to take a course in the work of William Shakespeare.

Within the UNC system, seven campuses do not require English majors to study Shakespeare. UNC-Chapel Hill maintains the requirement, while N.C. State does not.

Of 34 private institutions surveyed in the state, 17 require English majors to take a course in Shakespeare; 17 do not.

The Pope Center says its report, “To Be or Not to Be: Shakespeare in the English Department,” is based on information from the Web sites of 49 four-year universities in North Carolina. When clarification was needed, university personnel were contacted.

The full report is available here.

Some of the state's top political leaders have cracked open the high-school yearbook for an arts documentary.

The 10-minute film, "Arts Education=More Than You Think," extols the benefits of classes in art and music for young children. It features former Govs. Jim Hunt and Jim Martin, State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee and others talking about their experiences.

The video, produced by Minnow Media, is for ARTS North Carolina.

Martin brags, tongue in cheek, about his time on the school band.

"I played for five years, as I like to say, first chair in tuba," he recalls. "Of course, you only have one chair. But I was it."

In other parts, Lee credits his lessons in singing and oratory for giving him self-confidence, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker reminisces about playing a street urchin in the opera "Carmen," and Rep. Rick Glazier notes his mother's disappointment that he didn't become a pianist.

State Rep. Becky Carney says theater taught her about politics.

"All the world's a stage, as we all know," she says, quoting Shakespeare. "What I do now in lawmaking, it is like being on stage sometimes, it is performing."