January 6, 2004

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

National Coverage

The Hall of Fame And the Price Of Admission
The Washington Post
Say the Pete Rose commercialized legacy tour doesn't deliver him to the promised land of Cooperstown...."There's a need for the kind of structuring of life that our society doesn't have, with those rigid categories of birth and where you live and class," says William Ferris, the former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and now a history professor at the University of North Carolina.

Doctor's group calls for ban on soft drinks at schools
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Soft drinks should be eliminated from schools to help tackle the nation's obesity epidemic, and pediatricians should work with their local schools to ensure that children are offered healthful alternatives, the American Academy of Pediatrics says....The NSDA also said a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina shows that "a lack of physical activity, not changes in caloric intake, is responsible for increases in childhood obesity rates since 1980."

Routing Rust-Out
Fast Company
If burnout was the disease of the dotcom era, rust-out may be the epidemic of this more sober decade. The term has been used since the 1980s to describe workers who waste away, unchallenged and uninspired, at their desks. But today, the phenomenon is rampant. Amid downsizing and delayering, most employees face both fewer opportunities for promotion and little hope of escape to some new employer...."There's a lack of fit between education and the workplace," says Arne Kalleberg, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina.

More of us are sitting instead of sweating
Newhouse News Service
This is what we did before: weeding, swimming, biking. Back then, we were slender....Rich Killingsworth, an associate public-health professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said society is roughly divided in three groups. About 25 percent stay fit, faithful to regular exercise. Another 25 percent are slugs, leading lives absent of physical activity.

Area man gives 2 siblings stem cells
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, N.Y.
As publicist for the Eastman School of Music, Martial Bednar tries to infuse life into the story of colleagues' achievements. Until now, he has never told his own story.... All that will change this morning. Martial will be honored at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, for a unique contribution. He's believed to be the only American to have given stem cells, the building blocks for the immune system, to two siblings.

State and Local Coverage

Let UNC's needs power Carolina North (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
I expect the University of North Carolina to use the state-owned property (Carolina North) to fulfil its mission as a major world-class university. Carolina North is not another Meadowmont. Whatever is developed at Carolina North should be facilities that are needed by various departments and perhaps new initiatives in appropriate research.

A step forward, but more needs to be done (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Chancellor James Moeser last summer pushed for the formation of the Chancellor's Task Force for a Better Workplace. Spurred by growing discontent among the campus rank-and-file, the task force was designed to look into ways to make the work experience at Carolina better -- even if you couldn't give folks more money.

Lowest-paid workers deserve salary boost (Editorial)
Greensboro News & Record
There's no excuse for employees of North Carolina to live in poverty, unable to make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck. Yet some workers on the state payroll actually live below the federal poverty level. Others may earn a little more, but their salaries do not provide what's needed to cover the costs of such basics as food, housing, child care and transportation....It's no small irony that Easley's decision comes on the heels of a protest organized by UNC housekeepers, faculty and students in November to urge adoption of a living wage. According to a study by Penn State University, North Carolina's living wage (the actual amount needed to cover necessities) is $27,870 for a family of three. A task force at UNC-Chapel Hill found that 237 campus employees earned less than $20,000 a year.

Workers at UNC await pay hike news
The Chapel Hill Herald
Universities and other state agencies should soon receive details about an increase of salaries for low-paid workers, a spokeswoman for the state personnel office said Monday...."I just don't know so I'd hate to speculate," said Laurie Charest, UNC Chapel Hill's associate vice chancellor for human relations. "We haven't heard anything yet."

Everyone should do their part to help prevent spread of flu (Medical Column)
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
On average, each year 114,000 Americans are hospitalized and 36,000 die from
influenza, more commonly called "the flu."...David J. Weber, MD, MPH, is a professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases in the schools of Medicine and Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and medical director of Hospital Epidemiology (infection control) for the UNC Health Care System...William A. Rutala, PhD, MPH, is a professor of epidemiology in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of both the Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology and Hospital Epidemiology (infection control) for the UNC Health Care System.

Fits, faints, funny spells can be sign of serious health problems (Medical Column)
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
Fainting or "syncope" is a common ailment that refers to the loss of consciousness
usually due to loss of blood flow to the brain....Ana Felix, MD, is an assistant
professor of neurology and co-director of the Stroke Treatment and Prevention Unit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Genetic counselors help parents make sense of prenatal testing, treatment options (Medical Column)
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
Many couples have questions and concerns about the health of their unborn child....
Rachel Baughman, MS, CGC, is coordinator of the Perinatal Genetics Program in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Recent hepatitis A outbreaks underscore importance of prevention (Medical Column)
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
Last September, an outbreak of hepatitis A infected at least 16 people in Asheville,
N.C. and prompted about 4,000 others to get shots of immune globulin as a precaution.....Steven Zacks, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Long-term effects of low-carb diets remain cause for concern (Medical Column)
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
If you are like 90 percent of Americans, you made a New Year's resolution this year.  Were you one of the nearly 40 percent who resolved to lose weight in 2004?
Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD, is chair of the Department of Nutrition in the schools of Medicine and Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the UNC Clinical Nutrition Research Center.

How we learned the facts of life
The News & Observer
Everybody learns about it sometime. But sex education, whether at home or school, is a tough subject for many to handle....Chuck Stone, 79, teaches journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He learned about sex from a book, but was rebuffed when he tried to spread the word.

Piracy ruling is music to ears of 2
The News & Observer
A recent opinion by a federal appeals court may bring relief to two Triangle college students whose identities are being sought by the recording industry as part of its crackdown on music piracy. In November, the Recording Industry Association of America served N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with subpoenas seeking information on two students suspected of sharing copyrighted music over school computer systems.

UNC magic takes work (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun
Believe it or not, there was a time, many years ago, when some among the UNC basketball faithful honestly believed that a Carolina blue jersey held some kind of magic. Many fans were convinced that victory was a foregone conclusion when the Carolina players walked on to the court in those jerseys.

New UNC residence halls a good idea (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Where UNC students sleep is of interest to more than just their roommates. Whether their beds are on-campus or elsewhere in the community has an impact on, among other issues, traffic, air quality, the integrity of local neighborhoods and even on the availability of affordable housing.

Botanical Garden building to be very 'green'
The Chapel Hill Herald
Spurred by a $2.7 million gift, the North Carolina Botanical Garden plans to spend 2004 raising money to build the most environment-friendly building in the state....Garden Director Peter White said construction on the new Visitor Education Center could begin in 2005, but fundraising still needs to net half of the center's $7.5 million projected cost.

Web site connects bus riders to ways to travel Triangle
The Herald-Sun
If you want to figure out how to get from downtown Franklin Street to north Raleigh via public transportation, you now have a new tool....Users of the GoTriangle.org site can plug in where they're starting, where they want to go and the time and date, and the service generates a list of the best routes, including details like exact times and fares.

Issues and Trends

Economists Fault Tuition Information, Saying Reports Overstate Increases and What Students Pay
The Chronicle of Higher Education
American consumers and policy makers suffer from a lack of reliable information about college tuition and financial aid for students, two economists said last weekend at the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations.

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