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Feb. 2, 2006Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:National Coverage
Controversial issues will set tone for Alito's term
Newsday
When Samuel Alito slips on his new black robe later this month, he will face a quick test on how he will rule on two of the most controversial issues before the Supreme Court: the reach of Congress' law-making power and the extent of the president's executive authority. ... William Marshall, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, also sees the formation of a new bloc, but one that might differ on some issues. Marshall, a board member of the liberal American Constitution Society, said a Kennedy swing vote shifts the court to the right.
UNC News Tip: http://www.unc.edu/news/newstips/2005/supremetip103105.htmlEnron's Hairy Deal (Commentary)
The Wall Street Journal
In the Go-Go '90s, Enron used off-balance-sheet entities with names like Talon and LJM to inflate profits and lower debt. These helped Enron hit ambitious growth targets and please Wall Street, but later led to the company's collapse. ...Robert Bushman, forensic accounting distinguished professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Telegrams go the way of dialing telephone
Bloomberg News
STOP: After 155 years in the telegraph business, Western Union has cabled its final dispatch. Faster and cheaper technology will inevitably replace older methods of communication, said Arvind Malhotra, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "I'm surprised it's lasted this long'' Malhotra said of Western Union's telegrams. "Communications have moved from snail-mail time to real-time.''
Honorary Sunshine Week Chairman Named
The Los Angeles Times
Former journalist and chief State Department spokesman Hodding Carter will be the honorary chairman of a weeklong campaign for government openness. ...Carter is now a professor of leadership and public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Reporters often not prepared to write about religion (Opinion-editorial column)
Scripps Howard News Service
It's a law. Whenever the Vatican issues a papal encyclical, journalists have to figure out what the pope was trying to say. ... In a scathing Books & Culture essay entitled "Religiously Ignorant Journalists," sociologist Christian Smith of the University of North Carolina said he is tired of calls from journalists who don't know that Episcopalians are not "Episcopals" or who confuse evangelicals with "evangelists" or even, God forbid, "evangelicalists."
Regional Coverage
Ohio State updating student housing for fall
The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
Here’s news that will gladden the hearts of incoming Ohio State University freshmen: More "pods" are on the way. ...Dr. Aysha Akhtar, a neurologist and researcher at the University of North Carolina, spoke briefly to Holbrook before she was asked to leave. Akhtar said after leaving that the group has asked to discuss the class with Holbrook but has been rebuffed.Helicopter parents concern of higher education
The Beacon News (Hopewell, N.J.)
College and university administrators have voiced concern about parents who are overly involved in their child's higher education. ...Dr. Mel Levine, the noted professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, has written extensively on the topic. He describes children born between 1982 and 1995 as "over-managed," "very pressured" and treated by their parents as pieces of "Baccarat crystal or something that could somehow shatter at any point."
Professors' textbook proves to have shelf life
The Shreveport Times (La.)
One would be hard-pressed to find a textbook from the late 1960s that could, or would, hold its own against slick, digital products of the 21st century. But make way for "A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature." ...The book is in use at such schools as Colby College, Dickinson College, Fordham and Marquette universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Air Force Academy.
State & Local Coverage
UNC No. 11 on Peace Corps list
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC has moved up three spots to No. 11 on the top 25 list for large schools with 59 alumni currently serving as volunteers in the Peace Corps. Since the program's inception, 921 university alumni have joined the ranks of the corps, making the university the No. 25 producer of volunteers of all time.
Art sale to send nurses to Miss.
The Chapel Hill Herald
The UNC School of Nursing will host an art fundraiser to benefit a student-faculty trip to the Gulf Coast. The art sale will be held at the school on Tuesday to raise funds needed to send UNC students and faculty to help Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricane Katrina. The sale is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the first floor of Carrington Hall.
UNC News Brief: http://www.unc.edu/news/briefs/2006/013106.htmEye docs? 'They got their cut'
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Well, I hate to say I told you so. But ... I told you so. ...Dr. John Wright, a pediatric ophthalmologist at UNC-Chapel Hill, assessed the exam requirement curtly: "It's a waste of time and money." In other words, it benefits the optometrists, not children's vision.
Script tickles; actors charm
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Plays about show business are a regular commodity, their peeks inside the dramatic lives of actors, directors and writers continually fascinating to the public. Temple Theatre offers yet another in "Callback," a breezy almost-love story that explores the sacrifices of success. Bill Svanoe, now teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill, combines his long experience creating film, TV and stage scripts with circumstances in the career of his wife, actress and Emmy-winning director Joan Darling.
DA to review case of ex-boss, judge
The Charlotte Observer
Union County District Attorney Michael Parker will review allegations of felonious conduct by his former boss and a sitting judge, and then decide "what further action, if any, is appropriate." ...UNC Chapel Hill law professor Richard Rosen said Parker's links to Honeycutt and Brewer are an obvious conflict of interest. He said Parker should have asked the N.C. Attorney General's Office, if not federal investigators, to take the case.
Chatham loans raise ethics questions
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A Chatham County commissioner is calling for two planning board members to resign because the chairman of the county commissioners co-signed their personal loans. ...According to Fleming Bell, a UNC-Chapel Hill law professor who specializes in ethics of public officials, a financial deal between a county commissioner and a planning board member is not illegal.
Citizens want city to plan, grow, beautify
The Roxboro-Courier Times
Roxboro citizens see planning for growth, economic development, better housing opportunities, beautification and fighting the drug problem as high priorities for their city. The groups were led by trained facilitators from the University of North Carolina's School of Government.
Issues & Trends
Budget Measure Increases College Loans and Rates
The New York Times
With the narrow passage of the spending bill by Congress yesterday, students and their parents will be able to borrow more money to pay for higher education but will face higher interest rates on these federal loans beginning in July.
House Gives Final Passage to Legislation That Would Cut $12-Billion From Student-Loan Programs
The Chronicle of Higher Education
In a party-line vote of 216 to 214, the U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to a huge bill that would slash about $12-billion from the government-backed student-loan programs to help slow the growth of federal spending over the next five years. The cuts, which are the largest in the loan programs' history, account for one-third of the bill, a $39-billion deficit-reduction package. The measure (S 1932), which was approved by the Senate in December, will now go to President Bush, who has said he will sign it into law.
Note: Subscription required.As Congress Considers Steps to Cut Earmarks, Colleges' Quest for Academic Pork Grows More Challenging
The Chronicle of Higher Education
After years of providing a skyrocketing number of earmarks to colleges and other entities, members of Congress are mulling over a menu of changes meant to rein in the practice, or at least to bring more accountability to how the noncompetitive, directed grants are awarded. ...The earmarking of research funds has been especially controversial because it circumvents the competitive, merit-based reviews that federal agencies typically use to distribute research funds. But supporters of the practice say it is the only way to finance certain worthy college projects.
Note: Subscription required.Rare Accord on Need to Compete
The Los Angeles Times
By calling for new education and research programs to bolster U.S. competitiveness, President Bush achieved a surprising thing in his State of the Union address: He won bipartisan praise, a rare accomplishment in today's polarized climate in Washington.
After the State of the Union
Inside Higher Ed
A day after President Bush proposed a huge expansion of federal support for physical sciences research, federal officials provided a few new details about the plan but also gave indications — vaguely worrying to university officials — that the funds might well come at the expense of other kinds of academic research.
Teachers Wanted: Recruiters from far and wide flock to WSSU's annual education-job fair
The Winston-Salem Journal
It was hard not to notice the recruiters from Delaware. ...It's recruiting season for school districts across the country. The circuit includes North Carolina, where the battle cry to recruit teachers often gives way to a moan about the shortage of qualified teachers and future teachers graduating from the state's universities and colleges. About 2,300 new teachers graduated from the state's public universities in 2002-03, according to a 2004 report by the University of North Carolina system.
KU names 1st female law dean
The Lawrence Journal-World (Kansas)
Gail Agrawal was the first in her family to finish high school, the first to go to college and the first to go to graduate school. Now the New Orleans native is Kansas University School of Law’s first female dean. “I’m thrilled,” Agrawal said Wednesday from Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is interim dean and professor at the University of North Carolina’s School of Law.
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.
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