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Feb. 28, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:National Coverage
DuPont Looking to Displace Fossil Fuels as Building Blocks of Chemicals
The New York Times
Nestled away in a small room on DuPont's 150-acre research center in Wilmington, Del., robotic arms fill tiny tubes with gelatinous material that was extracted from corn and soybean plants. ...Then, again, so is the prospect of relying on foreign oil. Albert H. Segars, professor of technology management at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, notes that against the backdrop of political instability in so many oil-producing regions, DuPont's biotechnology strategy seems almost safe. "If a war breaks out with Iran," he said, "your biology-based fuels will look at lot better than your petro-based ones."
Crucial but Costly Treatment Is Drying Up With Funding
The Los Angeles Times
Jim Hill's world is closing in around him as his strength slips away. Until a few months ago, the 80-year-old led an active life, but lately he's been forced to spend much of the day in a hospital bed. ... "We warned the government," said Dr. Mark Brecher, a University of North Carolina medical school professor who until recently headed an advisory committee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "The committee advised them a major problem was imminent, and to the best of my knowledge, I have seen no real action other than checking on the inventory [of IVIG]."
College Aid Stratagems
Forbes
Private schools are counting inflated home costs when assessing how much to give your kid. Here’s how to deal with this and other traps. ...But when hundreds of private schools (and a few leading public ones, such as the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) parcel out their own funds for aid, they do ask about houses and other assets, in addition to income. (Some also count stepparents’ and noncustodial parents’ income and assets; Sarah Lawrence College even extends that to homosexual partners.)
Regional Coverage
Watch that temper
The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
From inane political commentary to incompetent drivers, there are plenty of reasons to be hot under the collar these days, and no one seems immune. ...In a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, participants who were most prone to anger were 2.69 times more likely to have a heart attack or to die suddenly than those who ranked at the bottom of a 40-point anger scale, the American Heart Association reported in 2000.Believe It or Not: Some People Like Meetings
WTOP Radio (Washington, D.C.)
Meetings. Who hasn't had a complaint about sitting in a meeting? It was too long. It rehashed what you already knew. You can't get anything done because you're always in meetings. Sound familiar? While those meetings can be the bane of your work existence, privately some people actually find them helpful, a study out of the University of North Carolina finds. "People's private reporting of meetings was much more positive than what's expressed publicly," says organizational psychologist and UNC professor Steven G. Rogelberg.
Sparks fly at forum on prophet cartoons
The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
During a heated discussion Monday night, the editor of IPFW’s student newspaper was taken to task by people angry at her staff’s decision to publish the controversial 12 cartoons featuring caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. ...The Philadelphia Inquirer published the caricatures, as did college newspapers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Illinois. Two editors at the University of Illinois’ newspaper, the Daily Illini, were suspended from their duties after the backlash the decision caused.
State & Local Coverage
N.C. Biotech Center makes $300,000 in grants
The Triangle Business Journal
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center said Monday it has doled out more than $300,000 in 11 grants to improve biotechnology education throughout the state. The grants, which stem from the Biotechnology Center's Education Enhancement Grants Program, will pay for education programs focused on biotechnology at high schools, universities, community colleges and museums in North Carolina. ...The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill will use a $20,000 grant to plan a nanoscience exhibit, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will allocate more than $70,000 in two separate grants to fund a biotechnology instrumentation training regimen and a study aimed at determining the effectiveness of the state's biomanufacturing training program.
A tragedy without any answers at UNC (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The natural inclination is to try to identify a villain -- somebody or something on which we could place the blame. When tragedy strikes in our midst, the immediate response is to try to identify why it happened and most urgently who and what were responsible for it happening. ...It happened on the UNC campus the other day. According to all the accounts, two students -- Keith Shawn Smith and Tyler Joseph Ely Downey -- were just fooling around on the third floor of Stacy Residence Hall. They were not drinking. They were not on drugs. They were not students known for breaking the rules or breaking the law.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/stacyhallfall022406.htmTBS ex-executive to join UNC business school
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
William H. Grumbles Jr., former president of worldwide distribution at Turner Broadcasting System, was named executive in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. While at Turner Broadcasting's headquartered in Atlanta, Grumbles headed sales, marketing and distribution for news and entertainment networks in the United States and Canada, and he was a member of the company's executive and finance committees.
What's going on at Triangle universities and colleges
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Children's author to visit: Avi, an award-winning author of more than 35 books for children and young adults, will give a free public lecture at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History off South Road.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/avi022006.htmAppointment: John McGowan has been appointed the Ruel W. Tyson Jr. distinguished professor and director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/mcgowaninsta&h022006.htmHoward Hughes grant The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded the School of Medicine a graduate student training grant totaling $800,000. The institute, a nonprofit organization, was founded by aviation pioneer Howard Hughes.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/hhmigrant022106.htmAuthor Joan Didion: Joan Didion, author of the best-selling memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking," will present a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Memorial Hall.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/didion011706.htmFormer Times critic: Frank Rich, op-ed columnist and former theater critic at The New York Times, will discuss art, culture and politics at 7 p.m. March 6 in Hill Hall Auditorium.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/frankrich021006.htmDance Marathon earns most so far
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's Dance Marathon raised more money for the North Carolina Children's Hospital this year than it ever did since its inception seven years ago. Students who participated in last weekend's marathon raised $201,141.90 for the hospital, bringing the eight-year fundraising total to more than $1-million.
Our open door (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina can't send the National Guard down to the Mexican border -- or to the South Carolina border, for that matter -- to stop desperate people from coming here. People need to work when there are families to feed, and a $6-an-hour job in North Carolina beats a dollar-an-hour job in Mexico. ...In the context of immigration, education too often is equated simply to public cost. Granted, the cost is huge: for example, $467 million to educate Hispanic immigrants in 2004, estimates the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill. Illegal immigrants account for some $210 million a year of those education outlays, the institute says. English-as-a-Second-Language instruction costs extra millions for bilingual teachers and extra training for other classroom teachers.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htmCost of educating children of illegal immigrants in N.C. rising
The Associated Press (N.C.)
The cost of educating children of illegal immigrants in North Carolina is more than 20 times what it was 10 years ago, and some argue the money would be better spent on other students. A study by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed educating illegal immigrants' children costs the state an estimated $210 million a year. Ten years before, the figure was less than $10 million. ..."It's peanuts in the scheme of things," said James H. Johnson Jr., co-author of the Kenan Institute study. "What would we rather do, leave these people uneducated? It's a form of enlightened self-interest to invest in these kids."
Related Link: http://www.wsoctv.com/news/7536976/detail.htmlAthletes earn points - with first-graders
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill women's soccer player Jennifer Perkins and UNC wide receiver Jesse Holley read to clusters of first-graders from Ephesus Elementary School. For the past three years, elementary students in Chapel Hill have visited the UNC campus for readings from children's books by UNC athletes and coaches. This year, nearly 70 first-graders from Ephesus Elementary gathered on the grass outside Wilson Library and listened to two soccer players, five football players and two coaches, including head football coach John Bunting, right, who read from 'Where the Wild Things Are,' by Maurice Sendak. The activity is part of the annual Children's Rights Week at UNC.Women's basketball falters in cash game
The Greensboro News & Record
he women's Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament -- four days of heart-pounding, revenue-generating basketball madness -- arrives in Greensboro this week dripping in success. ..."The men have been playing for decades and the women for a much shorter time," said Dick Baddour, UNC-Chapel Hill's athletics director. "And a lot of that time the women haven't been ignored, but they haven't been treated equally, either. Now that they are getting better funding it just isn't fair or realistic to expect women to (make money) so quickly."
If we were serious about ports' security (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Current political hyperventilation over the acquisition of a British company that operates six U.S. ports by a state-run company from Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, is irrelevant to the national security. If our greatest security vulnerability resulted from foreign ownership of port operators, we would actually be in fairly good shape. ...David Schanzer is director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
Sharper lines between news, advertising (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
GlaxoSmithKline got a lot of attention in last Sunday's N&O. ...Lois Boynton, who teaches ethics at the UNC School of Journalism, says newspapers should employ cues to readers to help them distinguish between advertising and news content. Advertising sections with "advertorial" copy should be clearly labeled as advertising. She recommended using devices such as distinct typefaces and even reader notices on the front of advertising sections. "The more transparent you can be, the better," said Boynton, who said she had been surprised by the Classified GSK story. "I don't think the line between advertising and editorial is as clear in your readers' minds as it is in your offices."
Guru explores state's fickle climate, diverse geography
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
That tricky, nasty, wintry weather last weekend? Right after a beautiful and balmy Friday? It didn't surprise Peter Robinson. Our weather never does. "By now I cease to be amazed by the weather here," says Robinson, a geography professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and a former state climatologist. "But it's still always new. We've got a very variable climate -- there's always something different going on. We never have a chance to get bored with the weather."
Issues & Trends
Proof of Learning at College (Editorial)
The New York Times
Americans generally accept on faith that this country has the best higher education system in the world, and presume that everything is going just fine when it comes to student achievement. The business community has long disputed this view, citing the large numbers of college graduates who lack what should be basic skills in writing, problem solving and analytical thinking — the minimum price of admission to the new global economy.
All States Will Face Budget Shortfalls by 2013, Hurting Spending on Higher Education, Report Says
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Despite improvements in state budgets this year and a rosier economic outlook, states face strained budgets over the long term that will hamper spending on higher education, according to a report released on Monday. The analysis -- prepared by Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, and released by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education -- is based on projections of revenues and expenditures through 2013.
Note: Subscription Required.Downtown plans shape up
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Not to compare Franklin Street to "Sunset Boulevard," but proposals to redevelop two downtown parking areas are now, finally, ready for their close-up. Town leaders have spent about four years and more than $1 million taking plans from vague brainstorms to the detailed drawings shown Monday night. ...Malecha talked about designing a modern structure that didn't seem out of place among the Colonial Revival buildings prominent in Chapel Hill. They've designed what he calls a "soft modern expression, contextual modernism." He called the design at lot 5, which is bordered by Franklin, Church and Rosemary streets, "a building that has a lot of stories to tell."
ECU trustees agree to seek dental school
The Daily Reflector
ECU took the first steps Friday to bring a dental school to the region.
The university's Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution calling for the development of such a school. If approved by the UNC Board of Governors and funded by the Legislature, the school could admit its first class in three years. The Board of Governors could give approval as early as the spring, Dr. Greg Chadwick, East Carolina University associate vice chancellor for oral health, said. The dental program would take at least three years to develop once funding is approved, Chadwick, a former president of the American Dental Association, said. ... "This is not something to compete with the dental school of Chapel Hill," said Mike Lewis, vice chancellor of health services. "It's something, in many ways, that can coordinate, at least we hope so."
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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