August 5, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current National Coverage

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina 
people and programs cited recently in the national media:

For Every Child, Success in Learning (Question and Answer)
The New York Times. Education Life special section
In recent years, researchers have used advances in understanding how the brain works as 
a catalyst for understanding how children learn or, sometimes, do not learn. In the current 
bestseller ''A Mind at a Time'' (Simon & Schuster), the author, Dr. Mel Levine, surmises 
that each child's brain is ''wired'' differently, with its own set of strengths and weaknesses in 
learning... As a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Levine 
works with children to help them learn to bypass those weaknesses. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/edlife/04QAT.html
(Note: The New York Times website requires free registration to access articles.
"The Oprah Show" will repeat a special program with Levine on Monday, August 19, that 
first aired live in March.)

Assigned reading of book on the Koran spurs rights lawsuit against UNC 
USA Today
Three incoming freshmen are suing the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill over being 
assigned to read a book about the Koran. The lawsuit argues that a summer-reading program 
that requires all new students to read Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations (White 
Cloud Press, 1999) by Haverford College professor Michael Sells, violates their constitutional 
rights. 
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020805/4333151s.htm

Government Asked to Act on Teenagers' Job Safety
The New York Times
With nearly four million teenagers at work across the nation this summer, many health safety 
experts say it is time for the government to revise its 60-year-old list of jobs barred to young 
people because they are too dangerous... "Teens sometimes do things in an effort to please 
their employers that they shouldn't be doing because those things are dangerous," said Carol 
Runyan, director of the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/national/05TEEN.html

Heatstroke Remains Culprit in Most Gridiron Deaths, Study Finds
The Chronicle of Higher Education
No college football players died during the 2001 season. But 22 players at other levels did, 
including high schoolers, "sandlot" leaguers, and pros. And three collegiate players died during 
preseason conditioning drills: Eraste Autin, of the University of Florida; DeVaughn Darling, of 
Florida State University; and Rashidi Wheeler, of Northwestern University. The usual culprit 
is the same as has been for the decades that researchers from the University of North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill have done a yearly study of sports-related fatalities: heatstroke
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i48/48a03903.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

Killing by elite soldiers hits home
The Christian Science Monitor 
In the middle of a protracted war on terrorists abroad, the Army is responding to a deadly kind 
of collateral damage emerging on an unexpected flank: the home front... "People who rise up in 
[Army] leadership are people selected by their not bucking the culture," says Catherine Lutz, an 
anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has studied the base's 
culture. 
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0805/p03s01-usmi.html

Supreme Discomfort 
The Washington Post
It was 8 a.m. when the phone rang in his Westin Hotel room. Clarence Thomas had finished 
breakfast and had several hours to burn before his luncheon speech to the Savannah Bar 
Association... This spring, five black law professors boycotted his visit to the University of 
North Carolina. Though the professors had not protested visits by Justices Scalia and Sandra 
Day O'Connor in preceding years, they noted that Thomas was more than just a jurist with 
whom they disagreed. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23641-2002Jul30.html

Study: Many drug programs ineffective
Charlotte Observer
The top three programs used by schools to keep students away from drugs are either ineffective 
or haven't been sufficiently tested, new research suggests. In a study being published today in 
Health Education Research, a journal for educators, researchers from UNC Chapel Hill say many 
schools are using popular programs such as DARE, Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's 
Drug Prevention and Child Protection, which haven't shown the results schools should expect, 
despite years of use.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/3791111.htm
(Note: Other pick up of this national Associated Press story includes the Wisconsin State 
Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 
the Star-Ledger (New Jersey), the Commercial Appeal (Tennessee), the Detroit Free 
Press, the Duluth News-Tribune (Minnesota), The Bradenton Herald (Florida), the 
Deseret News (Utah), and The Philadelphia Daily News.)

National News Notes

Richard Kohn, professor of history and chair of the curriculum in peace, war and defense, 
was featured this morning on the National Public Radio program, "The Connection," about 
the prospect of the United States attacking Iraq. "The Connection" airs locally on WUNC-FM. 
To listen to the program via the Internet, please go to 
http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2002/08/20020805_a_main.asp

North Carolina News Notes

Harry Watson, professor of history and among the faculty members involved in helping plan 
this year's summer reading program, appeared Sunday (Aug. 4) as a guest on "At Issue," a 
public affairs program airing on WNCN-TV (NBC-Raleigh). He discussed the current 
controversy about the reading program.

Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor of research and graduate studies, was featured in a profile 
column in the August 2 edition of The Business Journal. (The story is not available online 
at this time.)

Fleming Bell, professor, School of Government, was quoted Aug. 1 in The Charlotte Observer 
about a controversy involving Charlotte Housing Authority board member Eric Douglas. Bell 
specializes in government ethics.

State and Local Coverage

Too many co-pilots (Editorial)
Horace Williams is a general purpose airport, but the small facility is owned by UNC-Chapel Hill 
and exists mainly to serve the campus. Which raises the question of why state Rep. Pryor Gibson 
of Troy would press a budget provision stalling UNC-CH's plan to close the local airport. 
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1612437p-1640296c.html

Legislature should leave airport to UNC (Editorial)
UNC made an appropriate decision on closing the Horace Williams Airport. The Board of 
Trustees came up with a deadline that would have given AHEC times to find a new home, yet 
by being a deadline, it would have forced a prompt search...
(Note: The Chapel Hill Herald does not publish all editorials online. To view the entire 
editorial, please scroll down to the bottom of today's edition of Carolina in the News.)

Senators should support UNC on airport closing (Editorial)
Just when you think common sense rules in the setting of public policy, along comes the North 
Carolina legislature to dispel that silly notion. UNC Chancellor James Moeser in April ordered 
the closing of Horace Williams Airport for reasons that were in the best interest of the university 
and the town.
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/08/04/opinion00.html

Finding a market for UNC technology
Business Journal
A young company called 3rdTech has established an unusual business model, so far successfully 
taking three hardware/software products developed at the University of North Carolina through 
development and into the marketplace. 
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2002/08/05/newscolumn1.html

UNC-Chapel Hill off-target with Qu'ran requirement (Editorial)
Asheville Citizen-Times
Without regard for the wisdom of having discretion accompany valor, UNC-Chapel Hill made 
"Approaching the Qu'ran: The Early Revelations" required summer reading for its incoming
freshmen and transfer students. 
http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/editorial/17674

Waste site should be cleaned quickly (Editorial)
The university needs to commit to a prompt timetable for cleaning up the chemical waste site 
on the Horace Williams property. The dump covers about half an acre and lies next to the town’s 
public works yard. It holds waste from UNC’s chemistry department and hospital that was 
buried there between 1973 and 1979. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/opinion/chhedits/57-253690.html

Greensboro woman converted, cut ties and moved to Israel 
Greensboro News & Record
Dina Carter, one of seven people killed Wednesday in a bombing at Hebrew University in 
Jerusalem, grew up Catholic in Greensboro but was drawn to Judaism while at Duke University 
during the mid-1980s. By 1990 she had moved to Israel, cut ties with her family and created a 
new life. She later learned Hebrew, converted to Judaism and was granted dual U.S.-Israeli 
citizenship.
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/carter03rk.htm

Hospital alters rules for reporting emergencies
UNC Hospitals' officials say they are changing the hospitals' policy on when they will contact the 
town about campus emergencies following a fuel-oil spill last week. "As far as the formal policy, 
we're reviewing that right now, but it just hasn't been written down yet," said Tom Hughes with 
UNC Hospitals' public affairs office. "Informally, we have promised the town that we will notify 
them right away if another incident occurs." 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/08/04/news06.html

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Privacy vs. Security on Campus
The New York Times
When the news broke a week ago that a Princeton admissions officer had used the Social Security 
numbers of applicants to his school to view Yale University's Web site for admissions, privacy 
advocates were aghast not only at his act, but also at the Yale site's lack of security. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/weekinreview/04SCHW.html

Moving them along (Editorial)
Students known as chronic undergraduates are fixtures on many college and university campuses. 
Moreover, four-year graduation rates are so bad for N.C. State University and almost all the 16 
campuses of the University of North Carolina system that NCSU, for one, is ready to tag those 
students as "lifelong learners." That's the designation given to adults in non-degree programs.
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/editorials/story/1605873p-1632792c.html

Slow economy aids UNC growth 
At the same time the state's lagging economy is forcing the University of North Carolina system 
to trim faculty, raise tuition and pare classes, the system is saving millions of dollars in construction 
costs because of low interest rates and a flat building industry.
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1605753p-1632845c.html
(Note: A related Associated Press story was featured in the Charlotte Observer 
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/3796384.htm.)

State's raises are in limbo 
For the first time in a decade, state workers face the prospect of no pay raises this year. And for 
the first time ever, the state could contribute nothing to the state pension fund.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1612471p-1640252c.html

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, 
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, 
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu
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Legislature should leave airport to UNC (Editorial)
Chapel Hill Herald
August 4, 2002

UNC made an appropriate decision on closing the Horace Williams Airport. The Board of 
Trustees came up with a deadline that would have given AHEC times to find a new home, yet 
by being a deadline, it would have forced a prompt search. 

And then the General Assembly had to muck about with a process it doesn't need to be involved 
in, one that abrogates the school's ability to decide on its own priorities should be. Instead of 
spending time seeking a solution to the state's budget woes, House Speaker Jim Black has 
decided to dabble in the affairs of a tiny airport in a community he doesn't represent.

This capricious exercise of power could keep the airport open indefinitely. At Black's behest, 
a rider was asses to the House education committee's budget proposal. Its wording instructs 
UNC to keep the airport open for the Area Health Education Centers program "and as a local 
public access airport, until the General Assembly otherwise provides."

The language goes beyond merely ensuring AHEC has a home before the Horace Williams 
Airport's closing. Even when AHEC finds a new home, it would still take legislative action to 
close the airport. The decision would be removed from the university's purview.

Thought in the past the university has insisted the airport needed to remain open for AHEC, a 
medical extension service that service rural North Carolina by ferrying doctors and other 
personnel from Chapel ill to meetings around the state, once the decision to close was made by 
Chancellor James Moeser and endorsed by the trustees, the medical school seems surprisingly 
sanguine about a likely move of its six planes to RDU.

So if the program isn't troubled, why did the legislators take the trouble to slow the closure? 
Pilots must have effective lobbyists, and apparently, that more important than the university's 
opinion or the community's wants and needs. 

At least this will only be in the House version of the budget bill, meaning the state Senate will 
have to agree to it before it comes to pass. We hope state senators have more respect for the 
university's decision.

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