December 9, 2002

Carolina in the News

UNC senior honored as Rhodes Scholar 
The Herald-Sun
Karine Dubé, a UNC senior, has won a 2003 Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford 
University in England ... 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-296827.html
(Note: Other coverage resulting from UNC's reporting efforts Sunday include 
the News and Observer, 
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/2010053p-1945304c.html. 
To see a UNC news release about Dube, go to 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec02/dube120802.html. )

Current National Coverage

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

Early decision: a college quandary 
Buffalo News (N.Y.)
Sarah Graham trekked all over New England searching for the perfect place to 
spend the next four years. She found that place on the Yale University campus 
in New Haven, Conn. ... Some colleges, including Yale, Stanford, the 
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a few smaller schools, have 
decided to drop their early decision programs in favor of a nonbinding ...
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20021208/1033635.asp

Journalists losing touch with the man on the street
The Los Angeles Times
In an era when network anchors in tailor-made suits sign multimillion-dollar 
contracts, and some of their talking-head, syndicated columnist colleagues earn 
more from one speech than the average American earns in an entire year ... 
Writing in USA Today last summer, Philip Meyer, who teaches journalism at 
the University of North Carolina, said this necessary professional detachment 
by journalists can lead to "a haughty indifference to all they survey." ... 
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-shaw8dec08.story
(Note: The Los Angeles Times requires free registration to access articles.)

Caution over much-touted test
The Los Angeles Times
A new blood test that may be a better predictor of heart disease and stroke 
than cholesterol measures catapulted into the headlines recently after a study in 
the New England Journal of Medicine. ... "The CRP story gets more interesting 
every day," says Dr. Sidney Smith, chief scientific officer for the American Heart 
Assn. and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill ... 
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-sense9dec09.story
(Note: The Los Angeles Times requires free registration to access articles.)

Trust issue rears its head again in medical research (Commentary)
Rocky Mountain (Col.) News
Nearly 80 percent of blacks and 52 percent of Anglos believe they might be 
used as guinea pigs for medical research without their consent. That's the 
conclusion of a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. ... 
"Since the Tuskegee syphilis study, we've known that large numbers of African-
Americans distrust the research community," said Dr. Giselle Corbie-Smith, the 
study's lead author and an assistant professor of social and internal medicine at
the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. ...
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/lifestyles_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_4537_1593092,00.html
(Note: A related article regarding Corbie-Smith's research was featured in 
yesterday's edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. A News and Observer report 
appears at http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2005694p-1943813c.html. To 
view a UNC news release about Corbie-Smith's research, go to 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives//nov02/corbie112002.html)

A wide, wide world 
San Antonio Express-News
McDonald's opens a bit later in this impossibly busy city, and by the time the 
doors open, there's already a line forming outside. Not that there's not another 
McDonald's down the street, or still another a few blocks beyond that ... "Even 
in the low-income, sub-Saharan African countries with HIV and malnutrition 
dominating, there are still 10 to 15 percent of the adults overweight," said Dr. 
Barry Popkin, an economist and professor of nutrition at the University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ...
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=889620

Plenty are in Fat City contention 
San Antonio Express-News 
Pound for pound, Memphis, Tenn., has the highest percentage of overweight and 
obese adults among the 55 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to federal 
survey data analyzed by the San Antonio Express-News. ... A lot of time your 
cultural and physical environment also sends you messages which change the 
way you decide to live your life," said Dr. Hugh Tilson, clinical professor of 
epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ...
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=888872
(Note: This Web page also features a link to download a streaming video of the 
Grand rounds from the CDC and Carolina. To download, go to the above url 
and on the right sidebar, click on "Grand Rounds" under "San Antonio's 
obesity problem.")

National News Note

Lynn Shapiro, a respiratory therapist at the University of North Carolina 
Hospitals in Chapel Hill, was featured on a segment about labor shortages in 
the nursing field on National Public Radio's "Weekend All Things Considered," 
on Saturday, December 7. To list to this segment online, go to 
http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.jhtml?prgDate=12/07/2002&prgId=2 
and scroll down to "Unemployment Rate Rises, Yet Many Jobs Remain Open."

Current Regional Coverage

Average UT undergrad takes light class load
Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman
Austin's youthful slacker image isn't getting any help from University of Texas 
undergraduates, who take a lighter course load than their counterparts across 
the country ... This fall, UT students took an average of 13 hours compared with 
14.4 hours at the University of Michigan; 14.8 credit hours at the University of 
North Carolina ...
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/sunday/news_5.html
(Note: This story was picked up by the National Associated Press and was 
featured in The Houston Chronicle, 
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1694459.)

State and Local Coverage

Hurricane on ice (Editorial)
Chapel Hill News
Raspberries ... to Mother Nature, for sneaking up and swatting us with an icy 
ambush that put an untimely freeze on the early holiday season. ... We're 
appreciative to UNC and Chancellor James Moeser, who opened up Woollen 
Gym as a shelter and provided hot food to residents out of student cafeterias. ... 
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/opinion/story/2002594p-1942094c.html

Storm whittled away at town's famous trees
Chapel Hill News
From the early morning hours on Thursday, the damage being done was obvious. 
The sound of loud cracks and pops as well as ice-covered limbs and trunks 
falling earthward at times drowned out the relentless background hiss of the 
freezing rain ... "It heartbreaking to see the damage," Chancellor James Moeser 
said Friday. ... 
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/snapshots/story/2002906p-1942227c.html

Weather keeps toppling records
Charlotte Observer
The worst ice storm ever glazes the Carolinas. It follows Charlotte's driest year 
on record ... Peter Robinson, a UNC Chapel Hill professor who was North 
Carolina's first state climatologist in the late 1970s, acknowledges that the 1990s 
served up a diverse menu of nature's fury. ... 
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/4692655.htm

Moeser tried to correct a Catch-22 (Commentary)
The Herald-Sun
I have decided to come to the partial defense of UNC Chancellor James Moeser 
in the so-called Ehringhaus affair. ... 
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/columnists/hawkins/

Moeser appeals to Faculty Council 
News and Observer
In his third public apology this week, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser
told faculty members Friday that he was sorry about the handsome severance 
package he gave the university's legal counsel. ... 
http://newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1999812p-1941607c.html

VC fees spur revolt
Triangle Business Journal
The Triangle's oldest and largest venture capital firm is cutting its management fee as 
a din of criticism by limited partners spreads across the nation. ... It was such a 
situation that recently prompted Mark Yusko, head of UNC Management Co., the 
nonprofit entity that manages the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's $1 
billion endowment, to add his voice to those criticizing fees. ...
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2002/12/09/story1.html

Neighbors discover old-fashioned camaraderie
Charlotte Observer
Maureen Schild grew up in northern Kentucky, in an old-timey neighborhood, the kind 
where everybody knew everybody well. ... "I think it hearkens back to an earlier time," 
said Bill Rohe, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at UNC Chapel 
Hill. ...
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/4692507.htm

Rural doctors bring medicine home
Fayetteville Observer
For Dr. Michael Brooks, writing a prescription used to be as simple as scribbling a note 
and sending the patient to the pharmacy. ... That higher poverty rate is one of the many 
challenges rural doctors face. Lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, longer 
hours and fewer resources have made recruiting and retaining rural doctors difficult, said 
Bob Konrad, director of health professions and primary care at the N.C. Rural Health 
Research and Policy Analysis Center. The center is part of the University of North 
Carolina Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research in Chapel Hill. ...
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=region&Story=5322488

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Diversity's Precarious Moorings
The New York Times
The United States Supreme Court's decision last week to revisit whether and how public 
colleges and universities may consider race in their admissions decisions will require it to 
address difficult constitutional questions. ... 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/weekinreview/08LIPT.html
(Note: The New York Times requires free registration to access articles.)

UNC pushing tuition freeze for next year 
The Herald-Sun
Hoping to put an end to an unpleasant trend, UNC system officials are pushing a plan to 
freeze tuition for next year. ...
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-296220.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