December 6, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current International Coverage

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

Wary `guinea pigs' hindering research
Toronto Star
Clinical trials are essential to medical progress — they're the only way
of testing whether new drugs, surgical techniques or experimental devices
actually work. But U.S. researchers are finding it increasingly difficult to
find volunteers. ... "We expected to see differences, but we didn't expect to
see such high levels of distrust across the board," said Corbie-Smith, an
assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035775212688&call_pageid=968867505381&col=969048872038

SOCIAL STUDIES
Globe and Mail (Canada)
Oprahism: "Is Oprah Winfrey the next L. Ron Hubbard?" asks The New York
Post. "The touchy-feely talk show titan is the leader of a new American religion,
says University of North Carolina professor Kathryn Lofton. Oprah's 20 million
followers seek spiritual transformation by following a way of life and rituals
designed by her -- including reading specific texts, writing and shopping, Lofton
says. The professor defines Oprahism's primary tenets as 'self-indulgence and
relaxed reflection.' "
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current_row=1&tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=social+studies&option=&start_row=1&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1&query=social+studies

Current National Coverage

Science Panelists Are Picked For Ideology, Not Expertise
Wall Street Journal
Blame the media. When reporters write about controversial subjects, we have
this bad habit of portraying science the way we do politics, except with more
polysyllabic jargon... Think how much easier life would be, at least for industry
and its friends, if no one had ever studied the effects of lead on the brain. Or if
a panel of the National Academy of Sciences hadn't concluded in 2001 that
levels of arsenic the administration wanted to permit in drinking water would give thousands
of us cancer. The threat, says epidemiologist Dana Loomis of the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who chairs the NIOSH study section, is that
ideology rather than scientific merit will shape the research agenda. "A free
society cannot be afraid of knowledge," he says.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1039125182936802713,00.html?mod=at%5Fleisure%5Fmain%5Feditors%5Fpicks%5Fdays%5Fonly

Herpes vaccine has promise for stemming spread
Washington Times
The news this fall about herpes was startling: If nothing was done to stop
it, virtually half of all young women in America were projected to contract
genital herpes by 2025..."I'm very optimistic" about the herpes and HPV
vaccines, said Dr. Peter Leone, associate professor of medicine at the
University of North Carolina.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021204-88170608.htm

Religion linked to positive outlook in teenagers
Washington Times
Teenagers who attend worship and rate religion as important have positive
self-images, are optimistic and enjoy school, a study released yesterday said...
"The more religious the kids are, based on its importance to them or their
attending worship, the greater their positive outlook on life," said sociologist
Chris Smith of the University of North Carolina, where the National Study of
Youth and Religion is being conducted.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021205-16184008.htm

Gates elects to remain on faculty at Harvard
Boston Globe
In a display of both fence-mending and power politics at Harvard University,
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman and star professor of the Afro-American
studies department, announced yesterday that he had made peace with president
Lawrence H. Summers and would not follow two former Harvard colleagues to
Princeton University, which hired the scholars this year after one of them clashed
bitterly with Summers...Gerald Horne, a professor of African and African-American
studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the black studies
controversy was striking to many scholars because of Summers's role.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/339/metro/Gates_elects_to_remain_on_faculty_at_Harvard+.shtml

National News Note

Dr. Joanne Harrell, professor in the School of Nursing, appeared on OPEN/net TV
on December 3, 2002, with other state experts to discuss North Carolina's Healthy
Weight Initiative. They spent the hour discussing healthy weight for NC's
children and answered calls from viewers.

North Carolina News Note

Earl Dotter, a photojournalist whose photos depicting worklife and the hazards of
work in America are currently exhibited at The School of Public Health , was
interviewed on WUNC's "The State of Things" on December 4. No online links are available.

State and Local Coverage

Storm takes toll on UNC’s trees
Chapel Hill Herald
Trees on the UNC campus, the source of much pride in the UNC community,
took the brunt of the damage from this week’s ice storm. The damage was so
extensive, in fact, that some on campus Thursday were already comparing the
storm to another harsh lesson dealt by Mother Nature -- Hurricane
Fran in 1996.
http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-295850.html

Higher pay cuts turnover (Opinion-Editorial Column)
News and Observer
The U.S. living-wage campaign started in 1994 in response to growing economic
inequalities, increases in poverty, declines in worker benefits and a growing gap
between the minimum wage and the real cost of living. ...
http://newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1985805p-1932725c.html
(Note: Judith R. Blau is a professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she
coordinates an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in social and economic justice.)

If we cared about fairness (Opinion-Editorial Column)
News and Observer
America's foremost political philosopher, John Rawls, died last week in Lexington,
Mass. An unassuming Harvard professor, Rawls was "recognized as the most
important English-speaking philosopher of his generation" ...
http://newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1985802p-1932711c.html
(Note: Gene R. Nichol is Burton Craige professor and dean of the law school
at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Small gain in fairness to investors (Opinion-Editorial Column)
News and Observer
On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally fined the first company
found violating rules meant to give small investors the same type of information used to
buy and sell stocks that the big-time Wall Street pros get ...
http://newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1978124p-1927804c.html
(Note: Chris Roush is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass
Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

UNC doctor, prof gets Fuller Award
The Herald-Sun
Tim Carey, a UNC physician and professor who spends much of his free time doing
volunteer work, is this year’s recipient of the H. Fleming Fuller Award ...
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-295042.html

2005: A Space Odyssey (Commentary)
Chapel Hill News
According to a rather unscientific review of projects, decision points and half-baked
ideas, 2005 promises to be a year when we'll see an extraordinary convergence of events
... It starts out on New Year's Day with a hot-button issue -- the airport ...
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/opinion/story/1960203p-1915305c.html

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Tuition freeze proposed
News and Observer
Citing North Carolina's weak economic conditions, UNC system leaders proposed
a moratorium on tuition increases at the state's 16 campuses for 2003-04.
The move Thursday comes after three straight years of sharp tuition increases
that have met wide criticism from students and parents around North Carolina.
UNC President Molly Broad and UNC Board of Governors Chairman Brad Wilson
agreed on a freeze, they said, because families are hurting and the economy isn't
rebounding.
http://www.newsandobserver.com/front/story/1997568p-1940101c.html

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please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services,
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu