Dec. 28, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Lenders Target State Laws
The Los Angeles Times
A booming industry that makes home loans to people with fragile credit is lobbying Congress for nationwide rules that regulators and consumer advocates warn would roll back tougher state protections. ... Still, University of North Carolina professor Michael A. Stegman said his research showed that much of the initial drop in lending to poor minorities was for loans with features that had become illegal. Major lenders have remained active in the state, and there is little evidence that borrowers have been pushed out of the market, Stegman said.

As suburbs grow, so do environmental fears
USA Today
With low population densities, green lawns, big houses and quiet streets, suburbs are some of the fastest-growing areas in the USA. ...Lawrence Band, a professor of geography at the University of North Carolina, says his research shows that septic tanks are more responsible than previously believed for the nitrogen runoff that fouls the nation's lakes, streams and waterways.

B-Schools Promote Better Learning Through Technology
Business Week
Arv Malhotra, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, is a self-proclaimed gadget geek. He owns seven iPods and subscribes to several podcasts, audio files which are automatically transferred to his computer for listening on his digital music players. That's why Malhotra began thinking about how he could use podcasts in his teaching.

Summoning the Will to Chill
Business Week
B-school (and modern life in general) can be filled with anxiety, from stressing out about grades to finding a job that will help you build the career of your dreams and pay the bills. The pressure is probably never greater than right now with final exams quickly followed by the holidays. So B-school students have to find a way to relax. ..."When you're working, you don't always bring your work home with you," says Adam Cogley, a second-year student at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "At B-school, we have work all the time, and if you don't have a way to de-stress, you're going to crack."

State & Local Note

Life in UNC Hospitals' ER featured
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
As New Year's Eve approaches, producer Alex Granados will document the trials and tribulations of the UNC Hospitals emergency room staff on Halloween 2005, a night of drunken debauchery. The program will air Thursday (Dec. 29) at noon with a rebroadcast that evening at 9.

State & Local Coverage

Community part of successful year (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The holiday season offers an opportunity to reflect on the successes of the past year since so many wonderful things have happened at Carolina. Students, faculty and staff are grateful for the pride our local community shows when the UNC campus achieves excellence. Many of our most recent accomplishments have been among the year's most important. ...James Moeser is the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Note: No link available.

Teaching students the spirit of giving (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill News
As the year draws to a close, the usual flurry of seasonal activities coincides with the end of the semester here at Carolina. While studying, review sessions, exams and papers demand attention, students, faculty and staff are also immersed in numerous efforts to address community need during the holidays. ...Last fall, 302 new students enrolled in the Public Service Scholars program, bringing the total to 623 participants. These students, representing 64 out of 100 North Carolina counties as well as 33 other states, the District of Columbia and four foreign countries, contributed more than 51,000 hours of service during 2005, 23,275 of which were in Orange County. Lynn White Blanchard is director of the Carolina Center for Public Service.

UNC-led assistance group gets $3 million
The Chapel Hill Herald
A UNC-led program that supports families of North Carolina soldiers in the National Guard and Reserves received $3 million in federal funding Thursday under the 2006 Department of Defense Appopriations bill. The Citizen-Soldier Support Program, which began in March with $1.7 million in federal funding, works with parks, libraries, congregations, schools and other organizations in local communities throughout the state to help them support the families of soldiers activated from civilian life.
Note: No link available.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/csspfunding1205.htm

Schools reach out to suicidal
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
College students' e-mail in-boxes are filled with mundane chatter, but a subject line that asks, "Are you depressed?" gets attention -- and could save a life. ...UNC also has increased its student fees to hire more psychiatrists and counselors, and the campus is looking for ways to make sure students know how to get help, said Melissa Exum, associate vice chancellor and dean of students. Freshmen often don't use the university's counseling service because they don't know about it.
Related Link: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13489940.htm

N.C. public health detection system honored
The Asheville Citizen-Times
A computerized system developed by UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. Division of Public Health experts to detect bioterrorism and infectious disease outbreaks has received a national award for excellence. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society recently announced that the N.C. Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiological Collection Tool was one of two recipients of the 2005 Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence in the public health category, which honor health care organizations for their use of health information technology.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/daviesaward120105.htm

Top 10 of 2005
The Chapel Hill Herald
...On the night of April 4, it was difficult to remember that just three years earlier, the UNC men's basketball team had won just 8 games and lost 20. It was difficult to remember how far the mighty Carolina program had fallen because this was a night to rejoice in how far Carolina had come back. ...For two years, it was a construction site on Cameron Avenue. Now it is the focal point of UNC's long-planned Arts Common and an attraction in the middle of town that is drawing performers from across the world and audiences from across the Triangle. Memorial Hall, renovated and refreshed to the tune of $18 million, reopened this fall with a splash. Tony Bennett, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman headlined a gala weekend of performances designed to show off the splendid new hall and the university's big-time commitment to the arts.
Note: No link available.

Tracking the obstacles minority voters face (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Meat Inspectors. That's how some in Washington are referring to the federal administrators of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. It's a very useful analogy. Section 5 requires certain "covered" jurisdictions to get federal clearance, either from the Justice Department or from federal District Court, before implementing new election laws. ...Anita S. Earls is the director of advocacy for UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for Civil Rights.

Finalists for law school dean
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The law school at UNC-Chapel Hill has announced the three finalists to become its next dean: Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Dave Douglas, and Duke law professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

Family legacies
The Chapel Hill News
A child's frock, old photographs, plastic fruit, tin ceiling tiles, lace handkerchiefs, a lady's white glove, a leaf, a feather, a washtub, a bottle, a stone. These are just a few of the materials used in the 50 works that make up "Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar," a new exhibition at UNC's Ackland Art Museum.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/familylegs121205.htm

Diet changes can help with heartburn, diarrhea (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
Question: What sends more people to the doctor than any other gastrointestinal complaint? Answer: The big two -- gastroesophageal reflux disease -- GERD, for short -- and irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS. ...Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.

A murder draws attention to the Web
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Yet another sensational murder case in the Raleigh area last week raised new issues for The News & Observer about covering news in the Internet era. ...One journalism professor who studies online publishing sees personal blogs as a perfectly appropriate information source for newspapers. "I think it's fair to use it," said Phil Meyer of UNC-Chapel Hill. "This is a bizarre case, and you need to get into the motivations of these people." He added, "I don't see the difference between (the information) being in the newspaper and being on the Internet, except it's more permanent on the Internet."

Blog 'secrets' anything but
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The personal musings on blogs usually are relevant only to -- and intended only for -- the blogger's inner circle. ..."Most people don't see any value to privacy until it hits them," said Paul Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who teaches a course on blogging and virtual communities. "My so-called life, there it is."

New hog-waste treatments might prove too costly
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina's search for cleaner, less smelly ways to dispose of hog waste is nearly over. Now comes the hard part: paying for it. ...Richard B. Whisnant, a professor at the UNC School of Government and chairman of the economic advisory panel, said if the swine herd shrank by 12 percent, it would be about the same size as in 1997. That year, state lawmakers imposed a moratorium on new hog farms but didn't cap the number of hogs that could be raised.

Ellen Foster returns with wit and wisdom (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Little Ellen is back, spunky as ever. And who could not love her. As Dickens, Twain and J.K. Rowling have shown -- put an orphan on the page and you grab the reader by the eyeballs. ...Ruth Moose teaches English at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Cleaveland, ex-UNC leader, dies at 90
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Frederic Cleaveland, praised for his wisdom and calm handling of a campus strike at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the tumultuous 1960s, died Wednesday of kidney failure. He was 90. Cleaveland, who was chairman of UNC-s political science department from 1958 to 1970, also helped integrate his church, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, and served on a committee that worked to integrate the area's public schools.

Flawed oversight (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As a physician serving on one of the University of North Carolina's human research oversight committees, I was disturbed to read the wholesale defense of the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation for Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) in a Dec. 21 People's Forum letter.

Grandfather Mountain owner faces cancer
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Grandfather Mountain owner Hugh M. Morton Sr., who has promoted North Carolina projects for half a century, is being treated for cancer of the esophagus. ...Morton said he has confidence in his doctors. He also said he was following advice of friends, including former UNC President William Friday, who said a determined outlook was the best way to deal with cancer.

Issues & Trends

Loan-free year in cards for low-income freshmen
The Union-Leader (Manchester, N.H.)
New Hampshire college officials say a new $700,000 financial aid program could help up to 200 New Hampshire freshman avoid taking education loans in 2006. The University System of New Hampshire's Affordable College Effort, or ACE, will give up to $4,625 to low-income first-year state students who enroll in a New Hampshire public college in fall 2006.

Business '06: Biotech research a symbol of changing N.C. economy
The Associated Press (N.C.)
It's hard to envision the huge piles of demolished brick, wood and metal at one end of downtown Kannapolis as a beacon of hope for North Carolina's economy. ... Murdock will invest about $700 million in the site and establish a $100 million fund to help entrepreneurs get started. In addition, the University of North Carolina system plans to invest $16 million in the project and to seek about $25 million annually in state funds for ongoing research work at the center.
Related Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2005/12/26/editorial2.html

Demand, longevity create pay spike for Triad's public officials
The Triad Business Journal
When Pat Sullivan began her tenure as chancellor of UNC-Greensboro in 1995, her school was just beginning to contemplate the impact of an educational tool called the Internet. ...Chancellor salaries are set by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors in consultation with the university system president, according to Joni Worthington, a UNC spokesperson in Chapel Hill.

N.C. apartments part of $50.3M sale
The Triangle Business Journal
Apartment Investment and Management Co. has sold five university community properties, including at least one in North Carolina, to the California State Teachers Retirement System for $50.3 million. ...Aimco is one of the largest operators of student housing in the country. It manages apartment communities at more than a dozen universities, including Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

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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