April 28, 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

Light on their feet
The Economist (United Kingdom)
Business school deans are on the move. In the 1980s and 1990s it was not uncommon for them to stay in the same job for a decade or two. ... Steve Jones, for instance, the current dean of the Kenan-Flagler School at the University of North Carolina, worked for financial-services firms in Australia for 15 years before taking over from his predecessor, a business academic.

Students create two animated films
Gulf Times (Doha, Qatar)
Graphic design students of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUQ) have produced two animated short films with the guidance of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Prof Francesca Talenti. ... Prof Talenti teaches animation, screenwriting and narrative production in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

National Coverage

The Best Undergraduate B-Schools
BusinessWeek
UNC Kenan-Flagler’s BSBA program has been ranked No. 11 in BusinessWeek’s first-ever ranking of the top 50 undergraduate business programs. To identify the best undergraduate business programs BusinessWeek used five distinctive measures, including a survey of more than 100,000 business majors at top schools and a poll of undergraduate recruiters. … Students said: "Resources and teaching get a thumbs-up at UNC."

Red flags can indicate that dieting is out of control
The Associated Press (National)
One morsel of junk food, and Erica Esper would beat herself up over it the rest of the night. ..."Starting a diet should be taken as seriously as having the first beer — (diets) have to be monitored with equal concern," said Cynthia Bulik, director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Health care's nanotechnology hopes
MarketWatch
Health-care companies are thinking small, extremely small, to develop what they hope will be the next big thing. ...Nanotech has been around for several decades but has been concentrated in industrial products such as automotive coatings, said Joseph DeSimone, a chemistry and chemical engineering professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Regional Coverage

Forum focus is on economy, Katrina
The Sun Herald (Gulfport, Miss.)
The United States economy will probably continue to grow at a steady pace, but inflation and changing demographics could slow it down, Robert Eisenbeis, director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said Thursday night. ... A former professor of banking at the University of North Carolina, Eisenbeis oversees the research, public affairs and statistical reports departments at the Atlanta Federal Reserve.

Who's educating our children?
Long Island Press (Long Island, N.Y.)
It amazes me to sometimes see the kind of teachers and teacher's aides that work one-on-one with our children. ... Then there is the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-Handicapped Children (TEACCH) method, developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

Students' site-specific art adorns Coker Arboretum
The Chapel Hill Herald
Along the wisteria-hung arbor on the southern boundary of UNC's Coker Arboretum, an array of fabric in yellows, oranges, reds and purples billows from the overhead timbers. Dappled with light and shadow, lifting in the breeze, the installation "Gradashe" is one of several site-specific sculptures created for the 103-year-old garden by Lauren Rosenthal's undergraduate art students.

What goes round comes round: No square planets
The Charlotte Observer
Why are all planets round? There is never one that is square. -- Walter Irwin, Mannheim, Germany ... Planets are so massive that they have a kind of "self-gravity," explains Wayne Christiansen, a UNC professor of astrophysics and director of the Morehead Observatory in Chapel Hill.

Schools’ BRAC worries remain
The Fayetteville Observer
Cumberland, Hoke and Harnett county school officials expressed concerns Thursday about the effects of Fort Bragg growth on their systems. ... Dr. Spencer Cowan told the group that he hopes to have an initial study completed within three weeks on the impact on the community. He works for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Regional and Urban Studies.

Turn off the TV (Editorial)
The Robesonian (Lumberton)
Ready for a challenge that is tougher than Double Jeopardy? Try not watching it. ... “Television cuts into family time, harms our children's ability to read and succeed in school, and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity,” said Dr. Suzanne Lazorick, a pediatrician with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Issues & Trends

Public financing pilot for N.C. legislative races endorsed
The Associated Press (N.C.)
The General Assembly should approve a pilot public campaign finance program for some legislative races patterned after the one popular with appellate court candidates, a House subcommittee recommended Thursday. ... The committee appears poised to consider a uniform ethics statute that would cover the executive branch, Council of State members, state boards, top University of North Carolina system officials and community college leaders.

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day
The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
Millions of kids across America will skip school today. And they'll get away with it, thanks to mom and dad. ... At the University of North Carolina, the current freshman class is 60 percent female.

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.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.