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April 4, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:International Coverage
Study: Media influence teen sex habit
United Press International
A North Carolina study finds teenagers with a heavy diet of sexually oriented music, television and movies are more likely to be sexually active by 16. But University of North Carolina researchers say their survey also found that parents are more important, that teens are less likely to have sex when their parents discuss the issue with them and let them know they prefer them to wait, the Charlotte Observer reported.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmNational Coverage
Moussaoui eligible for death row
The Washington Post
A federal jury Monday found Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty and will now decide whether he should die for his role in the deadliest terrorist strike in U.S. history. ...Eric Muller, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said the coming testimony "will be cathartic, draining and emotionally riveting. It's going to be a tremendously significant moment in the lives of anyone who was directly affected by that day."
Related Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aMVfMRmsBM70&refer=usOlder Drug Is Best for Schizophrenia
The Los Angeles Times
Despite the development of numerous modern drugs to treat schizophrenia, the older, less expensive option, clozapine, is still the most effective treatment, according to a new study released today. ...Dr. T. Scott Stroup of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues reported that 74% of the patients stopped taking their drugs before the end of the study.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/CATIEeffectiveness032906.htmMass Media May Prompt Kids to Try Sex: Study
HealthDay News
Exposure to sexual content not only in movies and TV but also in music and magazines speeds up the sexual activity of white teens, increasing their chances of early intercourse, a new study contends. ..."The unique part of this study is, we're finding this effect not only for television but for all four media content -- TV, movies, music and magazines," said Brown, the James L. Knight professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmA Log of Notes and Observations
The Washington Post
Obese people are less likely than those in other groups to place themselves in the proper weight category, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A survey of 104 men and women showed that obese people did reasonably well at gauging their own weight, but did less well than slimmer folks at knowing whether their body mass index, or BMI, classed them as normal weight, overweight or obese.
Pouring on pounds: Calorie-laden drinks contribute to country’s weight problem
The Boston Herald
It’s not just food that is adding unwanted pounds. About half the excess calories consumed daily by millions of Americans come from drinking too many calorie-filled beverages. According to research conducted at the University of North Carolina, the consumption of sweetened beverages, such as juice and soft drinks, has climbed threefold, from an average of 50 calories per day in 1977 to nearly 150 calories per day in 2001. That’s enough to pile on as much as 15 pounds per year.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/healthybeverage030806.htmThe debate over B-12 deficiency
The Detroit Free Press
Tired and run down? No appetite? Trouble walking? Depressed or irritable? Do your hands or feet tingle? ...Among vegetarians or vegans, B-12 deficiency “is a viable concern,” says Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a registered dietitian with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a well-recognized writer on vegetarian issues. She and others say there’s now good information about the deficiency.
The preschool 'spin' (Opinion-editorial column)
The Los Angeles Times
Conservatives are often accused of putting ideology before evidence on issues ranging from global warming to evolution. ...No additional gains are detected when the preschool teacher has a four-year degree, although labor costs skyrocket, a finding newly replicated by UCLA and University of North Carolina researchers.
Veteran Publisher Osnos Launches On-Demand Nonfiction Book Venture
The Wall Street Journal
At a time when book publishers are aggressively exploring new distribution opportunities, publishing veteran Peter Osnos has launched a new venture aimed at producing electronic and audio versions of serious nonfiction books. ...The first books are expected to go on sale in spring 2007. Publishers participating include the University of North Carolina Press, where Caravan is based; Yale University Press; the Council on Foreign Relations Press; the University of California Press; Beacon Press, and the New Press.
New Book Formats
The New York Times
...Several thousand titles will be available for the Reader. In a separate deal, a consortium of nonprofit publishers, booksellers and a print-on-demand publisher announced that it was starting a project called Caravan, scheduled for spring 2007, to make 24 forthcoming titles simultaneously available in hardcover, paperback, print-on-demand, digital and audio formats. The idea is that no buyer should ever go into a bookstore and be turned away because the book is out of stock, said Peter Osnos, publisher of PublicAffairs and executive director of Caravan. Participating publishers include University of North Carolina Press, Yale University Press and the Council on Foreign Relations Press.
ASU gives free ride to poor students
The Arizona Republic
Arizona State University is being hailed as the first college in the West to jump on a trend of offering a free education to low-income students. In 2001, Princeton University became the first university to implement such a program, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill became the first public university to offer a similar program in 2003.
College Athletic Scholarships Tap Public Till, Riling Carolina Lawmakers
Bloomberg
College athletics in North Carolina, home to powerhouse basketball teams and booster clubs, now has direct access to a vital resource: the public till. A 2005 state law allows the University of North Carolina system to treat the cost of a full scholarship for an out-of- state student at the lower in-state tuition rate. The accounting change will save athletic departments as much as $14,648 per student, and taxpayers will be asked to make up the difference.
Note: No link available.Updates on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 22 Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The 22 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $266.6-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available. ...The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, $1.679-billion as of February 28 (increase of $22.1-million in the last month); the goal is $2-billion by 2007.
Researchers Raise Concerns About Secrecy in Company-Sponsored Clinical Trials
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Nearly six years after a company pulled the plug on a clinical trial in which 10 patients suffered heart attacks and two of them died, the medical professors who ran the multisite study are still struggling to obtain all of the data so it can be analyzed and published. ...The authors — Kenneth Kipnis, a philosopher at the University of Hawaii-Manoa; Nancy M.P. King, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine; and Robert M. Nelson, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine — argue that the use of the blood substitute can be justified when blood is not available, but should be stopped once donor blood is matched in the hospital.
Rejiggered U.S. Advisory Panel gets rolling
Federal Computer Week
Some heavyweights from the information technology industry will join the president's foremost advisory committee on science as the Bush administration seeks to boost an initiative to ensure that the United States remains competitive in global IT innovation. ..."Computing has become a peer with theory and experiment as the way of doing science. It's an enabler for scientific discovery," said (Dan) Reed, who is also vice chancellor of IT and chief information officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Biomedical Research With Animals (Letter to the editor)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is to be commended for accepting full responsibility for and correcting all deficiencies identified. As your article noted, the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International inspected the UNC animal facilities after PETA's first complaint and renewed the university's accreditation. ... Research institutions volunteer to participate in the association's program, in addition to complying with the local, state, and federal laws that regulate animal research.
Biomedical Research With Animals (Letter to the editor)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
I want to thank The Chronicle for its ongoing and balanced coverage of the debate about the use of animals in university laboratories. Your piece about the use of an undercover activist to document the atrocities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was especially good ("Undercover Among the Cages," The Chronicle, March 3).
State & Local Coverage
Teen study: Media use, sexual activity linked
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina teens drawn to sexually-charged music, magazines, movies and TV are about twice as likely to have intercourse by age 16 than those with less exposure. A major study at UNC-Chapel Hill, to be published this month in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, tracked 1,017 teens from Durham, Orange and Granville counties over two years, surveying them on their sexual behavior and media use.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmTeens, parents and sex (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
So, teens drawn to sexually charged media are more likely to have sex than those less exposed -- and at younger ages. But parents who talk to their teen children about sex have more influence than the media and can affect their child's decision whether to have sex. That's what a major study at UNC-Chapel Hill has found. Surprised?
Child Care in North Carolina
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
Steve Reznick, director of the Development Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, was featured on today's (April 4) edition of "The State of Things" to discuss the changing landscape of child care, and how different situations affect a child’s development. Over 200,000 children in North Carolina spend time in a regulated child care facility. The number of homes with two working parents or a single-working parent is growing, which means that even more children will require some sort of out-of-the-home care option in the future. This is particularly true here in North Carolina, where the North Carolina Division of Child Development says the state has one of the highest rates of working mothers with young children.
Study: Family Activities Keep Teens Safe
WNCN-TV (NBC, Raleigh)
A family that plays together stays out of trouble, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina. ..."The kids who had parents who encouraged them by being active with them in sports -- participating in sports with them -- were more likely to be protected from engaging in smoking, drinking, being truant, being delinquent," said Penny Gordon-Larsen, who coordinated the study. "The kids who watch a lot of TV and video, those kids had the worse profiles."
Related Link: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=eye_on_health&id=4050170
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/adolescentped033006.htmOfficials want beer sales at UNC golf course
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Golfers at UNC-Chapel Hill's Finley Golf Course may soon be able to enjoy a cold beer at the end of a long round. ...UNC Athletics Director Dick Baddour said the move would help the course compete with other golf clubs that have long sold alcohol.
Progress Energy grant creates sustainable energy program
The Asheville Citizen-Times
Progress Energy has invested $150,000 to create the Center for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economic Development at the UNC-Chapel Hill. The center, housed in the Carolina Environmental Program, will use the funds to carry out the Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economic Development initiative. The initiative will focus on the ways society responds to growing needs for energy associated with economic development, while also improving the environment.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/progressenergy031606.htmGoing after bilingual workers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At the Wendy's on Creedmoor Road in Raleigh, Jorge Vasquez is more than a boss to the Hispanic workers he supervises. ...After taxes, Hispanic workers in the state earned about $8.3 billion in 2004, according to a recent report from UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. That's money that companies don't want to miss, but they can maximize only by accommodating language differences.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htmEven in bright limelight, writer toils on
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Let's say that strangers dropped $500,000 on your lap because they thought you were good at your job. ..."He's in the vanguard of young African-American writers, maybe at the pinnacle," said Randall Kenan, an associate professor of creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill. "You have to go back to Thomas Pynchon or Saul Bellow to come close to what he's creating."
Antique shop is selling a rare find
The Greensboro News & Record
The Lions' Crown Antiques on South Elm Street carries the usual collection of clocks, chests. china, curios and assorted curiosities. ..."What are those things doing there?" said Jeroslav Folda, an art history professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, when told about the paintings. "I'm kind of amazed. It strikes me as a totally unusual thing to find in an antique shop."
Zoning Transfer Policy Set
The Southern Pines Pilot
In the southern end of Moore County, municipalities snuggle so close together that territorial growth is not easy to achieve. ...Liles told the Planning Board that a recent survey by the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill revealed that 93 percent of respondents did not have written policies pertaining to ETJ requests.
Fanatics build, view creations at Morehead
The Chapel Hill Herald
Nine-year-old Dane Ali stared intently at the moon base at the Morehead Center Saturday afternoon. ...Dane and his father were among those who visited the LEGO-palooza Saturday at the Morehead Center on the UNC campus. The palooza included a display of things made of LEGOs and also the opportunity for kids to try building a few things of their own.
Note: No link available.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/lego032806.htmStudents bring hope on alternative spring break (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill News
"I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey" That line from the old spiritual sums up my feelings about "Alternative Spring Break 2006." I was asked to drive one of the three vehicles that students from UNC and Duke Lutheran Campus Ministry needed to get to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery work during their spring break.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/helpothers030806.htmUNC panel takes on war in Iraq
The Chapel Hill Herald
"The War in Iraq: Challenges and Opportunities" will be the focus of a free panel discussion from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday at UNC's Friday Center. The event will be sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, an interdisciplinary consortium of faculty members at UNC, N.C. State University and Duke University.
Franken airs live Friday from UNC
The Chapel Hill Herald
News Talk 1360 WCHL will host "The Al Franken Show" live from the UNC campus Friday. The broadcast takes place from noon until 3 p.m. in the Carolina Union Auditorium on the UNC campus. Admission is free, and seating is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
Issues & Trends
Fourteen states want US bio-agro lab
The Scientist (United Kingdom)
...When asked which applicants most deserve the NBAF, agricultural experts The Scientist interviewed mentioned the California combination, because it includes the state’s university system and DOE’s Lawrence Livermore lab; the Athens, Georgia group, partly because it is near USDA labs; and the North Carolina Research Triangle consortium, because it includes Duke, the University of North Carolina, and the vet school at North Carolina State University.
A New Carnegie Classification Arrives
Inside Higher Ed
Over the last six months, the Carnegie Classifications — for decades a definitive way to group colleges — have been undergoing radical change. A new approach unveiled Monday by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching marks the first time that some classifications will be strictly voluntary and be open to institutions whose traditional classifications would never group them together.
ECU, UNC agreeable on dental school bid
The Greenville Daily Reflector
ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill officials have agreed on the creation of a dental school in Greenville. ...To accommodate the second school, Lewis said, UNC has reduced the number of students it wants to add. Originally, the UNC proposal called for adding 40 students to the 80-seat school. Cutting the enrollment increase will accommodate the new dental school, Williams said.
Housing students (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Superior Court Judge Dennis Winner is to be commended for his sane and reasoned ruling that seven unrelated UNC-Chapel Hill students living together fail to constitute a family (news story, March 28). It is insulting to all families, traditional and non-traditional, for these students to attempt to circumvent the neighborhood covenant by making such a claim to begin with.
NCSA may ban pets on campus
The Winston-Salem Journal
What's spring on a college campus without a panting, Frisbee-catching Labrador retriever? ...NCSA is relatively dog-free on its 67 acres, but with its long, green quads, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a haven for dog lovers and their canine companions. Technically, the dogs are not allowed - unless you have permission from Peter Reinhardt's office.
WFU approves a new budget of $286 million
The Winston-Salem Journal
The board of trustees at Wake Forest University has approved a $286 million budget for 2006-07 for the university's Reynolda campus, the university announced last week. ...Faculty members have long complained that their salaries weren't equal to those offered by the university's peers, such as Duke University or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nathan Hatch, the university's president, had promised that he would take on the salary issue.
Football players get community service
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Four Duke football players will have charges stemming from a large fight in downtown Chapel Hill dismissed if they complete community service requirements and pay fines. A UNC football player who was also involved in the melee outside the Chi-Hi Club on West Rosemary Street also received the same deal when he appeared in court on March 13.
Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time - often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.
Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.
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