February 2, 2004

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

International Coverage

'It's my backyard'
Toronto Star
He's the Democratic wild card, the man with the southern drawl, the boyish good looks and the sunny political disposition once thought to be so out of step with these angry political times...."He exudes the persona of the new modern metropolitan south," says political analyst Ferrel Guillory, who has watched Edwards rise from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

National Coverage

Rebel Y'all
The Washington Post
At first glance, the sprawl surrounding this town looks just like the rest of America.
Out by the interstate, the chain hotels all huddle together, near Office Depot and
Walgreens and Radio Shack and Winn-Dixie....William Ferris, a leading cultural
historian at the University of North Carolina, evokes William Faulkner. "No one can
comfortably dismiss the past in the South," says Ferris. "It lives in a vivid and haunting
way in the present."

Test Score Drop Raises Doubt
The Washington Post
Less than two years ago, Moten Elementary in Southeast Washington celebrated a
sharp rise in standardized test scores that placed its students among the most
accomplished in the school system....Gregory J. Cizek, who teaches educational
measurement and evaluation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
said he suspects that answer sheets were changed. "My hunch is there's some point in
the handling of these documents that they've been altered," said Cizek, who is the
author of the book "Cheating on Tests: How to Do It, Detect It and Prevent It."

Too much weight tugs at kids' hearts
USA Today
Need more proof the U.S. childhood obesity crisis may be a ticking time bomb?...But the
real culprit is obesity, says study leader Joanne S. Harrell, director of the Center for
Research on Chronic Illness at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary A. Gardner, Professor of Journalism, Is Dead at 83
The New York Times
Mary A. Gardner, a journalism professor whose teaching had a strong influence on
contemporary journalism in Mexico and Latin America, died Jan. 22 in East Lansing,
Mich., her sister-in-law, Donna Gardner, said. She was 83...."She had an enormous
influence on the quality of journalism in Mexico, and in Latin America as well," said
Richard Cole, dean of the University of North Carolina journalism school and
another former student of Dr. Gardner's.

What the NIH Bought With Double the Money
The Chronicle of Higher Education
When Congress started a five-year effort in 1999 to double the budget of the National
Institutes of Health, leaders of the agency and many researchers said the money
would set the stage for a golden age of biomedical research...."I think when the budget
gets better, the NIH will move back to the top of the Congress's priority list," says
Robert M. Cooke-Deegan, a professor of public-policy studies and medicine at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

America's favorite game isn't football
Chicago Sun-Times
Some people watching the Super Bowl today will find the game fun to watch, and will
be curious about who wins....Of course, Root makes a living on gamblers. But illegal
gambling expert Koleman Strumf, associate professor of economics at the
University of North Carolina, also doesn't see how sports leagues can suggest they
aren't boosted by gamblers' money.

Sierra Club under siege? Yes (Opinion-Editorial Column)
Denver Post
Last year, more than 750,000 people joined or renewed their membership in the Sierra Club, presumably because they believe in its historic mission to protect America's public lands and wilderness for future generations....Robert Cox is a former president of the Sierra Club, a current member of its board of directors and professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina.

For Edwards, it's all about S. Carolina (Column)
Orlando Sentinel
Thanks to the big revelations of this presidential campaign, we know not only the name of the mill town where John Edwards lived in a three-room house as a boy, Seneca, S.C., but also the name of the place where he was born, Oconee Memorial Hospital....."He certainly is generating energy," says Ferrel Guillory, director of Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mystery surrounds increase in rate of premature births
The Seattle Times
When Morgan Thomas arrived in this world - red, fragile and on the edge of survival - it was almost too much for her young parents to comprehend. ....A recent University of North Carolina study of nearly 2,000 women, for example, showed the risk of early delivery increased up to 200 percent if the woman was anxious about the pregnancy, was dealing with disturbing life events or believed she was the subject of racial discrimination.

Sex and the Super Bowl
The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)
Advertisers have long used sex to sell their clients' wares, from laundry detergents to automobiles....Another study by Cully Carson, chief of urology at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, found Levitra worked for many men when Viagra didn't.

State and Local Coverage

Tuition hikes aimed at faculty pockets
The News & Observer
North Carolina's public universities have dug deep into students' pockets in the past few years, with much of the money going toward professors' paychecks....The legislature, for better or worse, is simply not going to sustain the salary base at the university at the competitive level we find ourselves facing," said Richard Soloway, acting dean of UNC-Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences.

UNC chancellors to receive bonuses
The Fayetteville Observer
UNCP Chancellor Allen Meadors is one of 11 chancellors in the University of North Carolina system who will get a one-time bonus soon....UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser declined to accept his bonus, said UNC system spokeswoman Joni Worthington.

3 UNC professors up for William and Mary post
The Herald-Sun
Going simply by the numbers, the odds are pretty good that Carolina will provide the next dean of arts and sciences at the College of William and Mary....The three finalists from UNC are Linda Dykstra, a psychology professor and current dean of Carolina's Graduate School; Bernadette Gray-Little, a psychology professor and associate provost; and Daryl Gless, an English professor and senior associate dean in UNC's own College of Arts and Sciences.

Leaders spotlight diversity
The Daily Tar Heel
Seven of UNC's top officials, including Chancellor James Moeser, attended a diversity conference last week to discuss ways of educating students for living in a multicultural society.

DESTINY'S top priority is Brunswick County
Brunswick Beacon
"If we want to be the number one biotechnology state, we have to have students who are educated," Skip Bollenbacher of UNC-Chapel Hill told the Brunswick County Board of Education last week....Bollenbacher is a biology professor who works with DESTINY, UNC-Chapel Hill's traveling science learning program, which is now collaborating with Brunswick County to improve science education in order to attract new industry and,
ultimately, improve the quality of life in the county.

Sex education: What difference does it make?
The News & Observer
More than half of high school students in North Carolina say they have had sex, but in Wake County, the typical teenager will spend fewer than eight hours this year learning about the consequences...."We don't have a real open discussion about sexuality," said Dr. Peter Leone, an associate professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill and medical director for the HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch of the state DHHS.

Who killed Allen Ray Jenkins?
The News & Observer
On Monday, Alan Gell will go on trial a second time for the 1995 murder of retired truck driver Allen Ray Jenkins...."There is very little evidence of guilt, and what there is is questionable," said Rich Rosen, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and director of the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence.

UNC should look to lower athletic costs (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The committee charged with investigating whether Carolina should allow permanent advertising at its major sports venues did exactly what it should be doing the other day. It watched demonstrations of what Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center would look like with massive promos for supermarkets and car companies.

Sources: Baddour to gain extension
The Herald-Sun
UNC athletics director is likely to receive a contract extension soon, despite a tedious evaluation process and divided opinion in various circles.

UNC house raised for 1 now set to fall
The News & Observer
Back in 1935, when textile magnate Kenneth S. Tanner sent his son to Chapel Hill for a college education, the wanted something more pleasant than the dorms and fraternity houses of the day....Jeffrey Beam, a science librarian at UNC-Chapel Hill and a singing poet, hopes to save the quirky brick structure and incorporate it into the Arts Common design.

Storied house becomes home for storytelling
The Chapel Hill News
The Center for the Study of the American South calls itself the front porch for UNC's immense resources in Southern history, culture and politics. Soon the center will have a front porch of its own, a broad wrap-around porch just perfect for storytelling.

Issues and Trends

Envisioning a New World of Admissions
The Washington Post
Clifford Sjogren, former chief admissions officer at the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California, has called for a radical overhaul of the college admissions system -- including reduced emphasis on standardized test scores and elimination of required recommendation letters and student essays.

Town officials may discuss details of new utility in coming months; public hearing set
The Herald-Sun
The idea of creating a storm-water utility in Chapel Hill has been percolating for several years, and the prospect of creating such a utility by July 1 may get serious discussion by town officials in the coming months....A key issue will be whether UNC-Chapel Hill sticks with its current position of not taking part in the town's storm-water utility. Vice Chancellor Nancy Suttenfield said in a November letter that the university did not plan to participate.

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Russell Campbell at News Services, (919) 962-2091, russell_campbell@unc.edu, or Mike McFarland in University Communications, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu

Note: Web links on this page are time-sensitive, so stories might not be available after the day they first appeared.