NEWS

The Safe Ride Program, a late-night, off-campus bus service overseen by UNC students, will resume operations Friday (Jan. 9) for the new semester. Service will no longer be offered on Thursdays; hours on Fridays and Saturdays will be 11:15 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Fewer riders on Thursdays and budget cuts led to the decision to stop Thursday service, said student Anup Dashputre, program director. However, ridership overall was up 49 percent last semester over spring 2003, when students started the service. Another change from last semester is that Friday and Saturday service will begin an hour later.

The fare-free buses, available to anyone, will still run 30-minute round trips on two routes originating at the Varsity Theater on Franklin Street:

· The Safe Ride J Route, mapped on page 44 of the 2003-2004 Chapel Hill Transit Route Guide, covers Merritt Mill and Smith Level roads to Rock Creek Apartments, then serves areas in Carrboro and along the N.C. 54 Bypass.

· The Safe Ride T Route (page 45) proceeds from Franklin Street north on Airport Road to Weaver Dairy Road, then south on Airport and Hillsborough Street back to Franklin.

Service is provided through a contract with Chapel Hill Transit. Funding comes from student fees devoted to safety and security, allocated through UNC Student Government; a grant from the Carolina Parents Council; and UNC’s Division of Student Affairs and Department of Public Safety.

Details about Safe Ride and other nighttime transit options are posted at www.unc.edu/saferide and http://www.dps.unc.edu/dps/alternatives/point2point.htm. For more information about Safe Ride, contact Dashputre at (919) 260-1711 or anupd@email.unc.edu.

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Candid moments of parents raising their autistic son, an inside look at a South African township 10 years after the end of apartheid, and a vibrant montage of images from the N.C. State Fair are among dozens of photographs in a new exhibition by students in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"The 37th Frame: Best of Carolina Photojournalism 2003" collects more than 50 images produced in 2003 by photojournalism students. The free, public exhibition will run today (Jan. 8) through Feb. 4 at the Horace Williams House, 610 East Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 1-4 p.m. Saturdays.

A reception for the photographers, student curators, their families and friends and the public will be from 6-8 p.m. today (Jan 8).

"Our students are producing compelling, real-life photojournalism," said Assistant Professor Pat Davision. "In many cases, the stories told through their images are not being told in any other medium. The students’ images reflect humanity in a unique and intimate way, and we are pleased to share their work through this exhibition."

Supervised by Davison, student curators chose images showing extraordinary scenes from the mainstream to the margin highlighted by the photographers’ understanding of light, moment and composition. The show includes picture stories and single images.

For more information, contact Davison at 962-4073 or pdavison@email.unc.edu.

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Arias by Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and other composers of his era will be performed in a concert featuring soprano Penelope Jensen on Jan. 17 at UNC.

The free public performance, "Handel’s Cellists," also will feature harpsichordist Elaine Funaro, violinist Ruth Johnsen and cellists Stephanie Vial and Brent Wissick. Vial and Wissick are faculty member in UNC’s music department, which will present the concert at 8 p.m. in Person Recital Hall.

Jensen is a faculty member at the Baroque Performance Institute of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. She has soloed with the Atlanta Symphony and performed locally with Ensemble Courant, the Durham Choral Society and the North Carolina Symphony.

Funaro, formerly of Ensemble Courant, has given solo performances at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress and Spivey Hall in Atlanta. Johnsen conducts the Piedmont Senior Youth Orchestra of Chapel Hill.

Paid parking ($1 per hour) will be available in the Swain lot off Cameron Avenue. For more information, call 962-1039.

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Images and music of Israel and the surrounding region will comprise a free public photo exhibit, lecture and piano concert Jan. 20 at UNC’s Wilson Library, presented by Friends of the Library and the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.

Raphael Magnes, the Israeli Photography Association’s 1998 Photographer of the Year, will speak about his collection "Holy Land Tapestry." About eight images from the collection will be on display for a week afterward in Wilson’s Pleasants Family Assembly Room, site of the Jan. 20 program.

Born in Tel Aviv, Magnes worked for the Jerusalem Post and was an officer in the Israeli army before becoming an independent photographer, said Liza Terll of the Friends group. In "Tapestry," Magnes layers together his photographs and such archival material as maps from a British Palestine survey, text and family material.

Magnes has had solo exhibits in locations including Jerusalem, Copenhagen, Denmark, Berkeley, Calif. and Brooklyn, N.Y., Terll said.

His wife, pianist Liz Magnes, integrates her varied musical heritage with jazz interpretations. She will play a selection from her "Jerusalem Tapestry" album, plus other music from her repertoire of Latino, Israeli and Turkish music and the songs of Gershwin. Her other recordings include "Moroccan Moods" from Consolidated Artists Productions of New York.

A reception and exhibit viewing will begin at 5 p.m. Raphael Magnes will speak at 5:45 p.m., after which Liz Magnes will perform. For more information, contact Terll at 962-1301 (mornings) or lterll@email.unc.edu.

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Murphy presides at summer
session association meeting

Jim Murphy, dean of UNC's Summer School, presided over the 40th annual meeting of the North American Association of Summer Sessions, a 400-member association of colleges and universities, on Nov. 16-19 in Mesa, Ariz. Before his election as president, Murphy served the association as treasurer for four years and as chair of various standing committees. He also was the recipient of a Creative and Innovative Program Outstanding Award for our summer focus programs.

Murphy is also professor of economics. He served as chair of the department of economics for 10 years beginning in 1975. He has previously been elected and served in every officer position of the North Carolina Association of Summer Sessions and received from that group a Meritorious Service Award in 1999. In 2001, Murphy served as president of the Association of University Summer Sessions, which is composed of some 50 research universities.

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News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu