January 12, 2004

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

International Coverage

Sewage nutrients fuel coral disease
The New Scientist, U.K.
Nutrient-rich water damages Caribbean corals by encouraging
the spread of infections, a marine study has found. This is the
first experiment in the ocean to show how agricultural run-off and
sewage may destroy coral...."We've found pretty convincing
evidence of a nutrient effect. It's really happening," says John
Bruno of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who
was lead researcher on the study.

National Coverage

U. of North Carolina Picks Computer-Institute Leader;
The Chronicle of Higher Education
RENAISSANCE MAN: The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill's Institute for Renaissance Computing, which hopes
to bring together scientists, engineers, and artists to solve technological
and social dilemmas, has hired its first director, Daniel A. Reed.
(Subscription required.)

Humanities Endowment Returns to 'Flagging' Nontraditional Projects
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Flagging is back at the National Endowment for the Humanities, for
better or for worse....Mr. [Bill] Ferris, who now holds a chair in history
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that under
his watch, projects that received high marks from the peer-review panels
and staff recommendations were rarely flagged.
(Subscription required.)

U.S. Urged to Monitor Global Labor Policies
The Washington Post
Even globalization's biggest advocates admit that while the phenomenon
is unstoppable, it would be nice to control it a bit more....Fiorito and Moats
chaired a study group late last year that came up with 18 recommendations
of things the federal government could do to help ensure better treatment of
workers producing raw materials and finished goods for U.S.-based
multinational companies. Assembled by the Frank Hawkins Kenan
Institute of Private Enterprise, part of the University of North Carolina's
business school, the panel included executives from Starbucks, Toys R Us,
the AFL-CIO, the Fair Labor Association, the Sierra Club and numerous
academic and nongovernmental organizations.
(Registration required.)

Hispanic People on Campuses, Today and Tomorrow (Letter to the Editor)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Many members of the majority cannot understand the reality of being a
member of a minority group in academe.....M. Cookie Newsom Director of
Diversity Education and Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, N.C.
(Subscription required.)

State and Local Coverage

Cautious look at out-of-state tuition merited (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Tuition throughout the UNC system is likely to rise sharply again this year,
and for out-of-state students on the Chapel Hill campus, any such move
could be the first in a series that could ultimately raise the cost of their
education by $6,000 a year.

Excessive demands (Editorial)
The Daily Tar Heel
Tuition. It's a dirty but inescapable word, and it's now once again on the
tongues of UNC -Chapel Hill trustees. In the world of higher education,
financial need is a beast that must be pacified periodically at almost every
college and university. Increases in the price of a UNC-CH education are
necessary evils, as the University works to remain in competition with its
academic peers while meeting operational costs.

UNC looks to add to students' costs
The News & Observer
Students in the UNC system should prepare for a jolt when the tuition bill
lands in the mailbox this fall....Students at UNC campuses have paid sharp
increases in the past five years. In the Triangle, tuition and fees have shot
up more than 70 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill, about 65 percent at N.C.
State and 48 percent at N.C. Central.

University tuition hikes in works
The Herald-Sun
Every state university except for UNC Chapel Hill wants to raise tuition for
campus-specific reasons -- and a similar request from Carolina is expected
by the end of the month.

Lawmakers react to tuition debate
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
State budget writers are offering mixed reviews of UNC-Chapel Hill's tuition
debate. Campus trustees are considering a $300 in-state tuition hike and
they're talking about a $6,000 increase for out-of-state students.'

50 qualify to get raises at UNC-CH
The Herald-Sun
About 50 UNC Chapel Hill employees are eligible for pay raises from funds
provided by Gov. Mike Easley's office....UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James
Moeser said there was important symbolism in Easley's decision. "It can't
[affect] very many people because of the amount of money, but it's an important
step," Moeser said. "The more important part is that this is the first time the
governor's salary reserve has been used for staff salaries."

U.S foreign policy plays right into Castro's hands (Question & Answer)
The News & Observer
THE N&O: Cuba has had a rough year, with the incarceration of 75 dissidents
and deteriorating relations with the West. What is the state of the nation as
Fidel Castro marks 45 years in power?....Louis A. Perez Jr., a history
professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, is an expert on Cuba.

The height of biases
The News & Observer
If you think you're underpaid, maybe you should consider high heels or lifts
in your shoes....New research shows that the taller you are, the more money
you earn -- with each inch of height worth an astonishing $789 more a year.
The study, co-authored by Dan Cable, an associate professor at UNC-
Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, will be published in the
spring issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

It's costly to drink and drive in N.C.
The News & Observer
James Robert Davis Jr. is out several thousand dollars, with bigger expenses
still ahead, and he has lost his driving privileges for a year. But he wore a smile
of relief one morning last week as he awaited judgment on his July 3 drunken-
driving arrest....More effective than strict penalties, a UNC-Chapel Hill safety
expert says, is a semi-annual enforcement effort to sweep up drunken drivers
at thousands of security checkpoints across North Carolina.

AHEC planes must find a home
The Chapel Hill Herald
If UNC has its way, the Horace Williams Airport has another year to go before
the university closes it and starts turning the property into the Carolina North
campus....UNC Chancellor James Moeser formally announced the university's
intention to close down the airport in 2002. But later that year, the North Carolina
General Assembly decided to require UNC to keep the airport open until January
2005, via a provision in the state's 2002-03 budget.

Tantalizing peek at future (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Last week's Orange County Economic Development Summit must have been
music to the ears of Carolina North' designers....UNC's planned development
for the Horace Williams Tract wasn't on the agenda of the Wednesday confab
of business, government and non-profit leaders. But much of the imported
wisdom and discussion at the conference highlighted Carolina North's potential
as an engine for Orange County's future economic well-being.

UNC goal is to increase and improve on-campus housing (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Regarding the recent editorial, "New UNC residence halls a good idea" [Dec. 30],
I write to share facts that Herald readers should know about student housing:...
Christopher A. Payne, Chapel Hill, January 10, 2004, Director, UNC Department
of Housing and Residential Education

Mason Farm project plans gaining steam
The Daily Tar Heel
A couple hundred feet after turning onto Mason Farm Road from U.S. 15-501,
motorists are met with an "End Work Zone" construction sign. It won't be
accurate for much longer. Site preparation has begun for the construction of
nine buildings for student family housing -- one of the most controversial
projects in UNC's Master Plan for campus growth -- after the town of Chapel
Hill issued a site development permit early last week.

Apartheid's end +10
The News & Observer
Kristin Goode saw light and color for the first time in a township outside
Grahamstown, South Africa....It was not difficult to find such compelling
stories, said Patrick Davison, an assistant professor of photojournalism
at UNC, who supervised and edited the students' work.

Bright shards of lives
The Chapel Hill News
A hard-hatted member of the crew of a Chilean icebreaker strains to repair
a winch before the ship departs for Antarctica, matching his muscles against
the machine's....The photographs on exhibit this month at the Horace Williams
House reflect bright shards of lives lived in cultures familiar and foreign. Many
of the images are extraordinary - and they were all shot, edited, printed and
selected by students in the photojournalism sequence at the UNC School of
Journalism and Mass Communication.

Affinity for fish
The Chapel Hill News
When Nancy Hardison was 10 or 11 years old, she recalls, her father presented
her mother with the gift of an aquarium, complete with gravel, pump, filter and
decorative features....Some time within the next few weeks, Hardison and McGee
will install their biggest aquarium thus far: a monumental 410-gallon tank in the
newly renovated Frank Porter Graham Student Union at UNC.

Duke group looking into 'what is a very complicated case'
Salisbury Post
The North Carolina Center for Actual Innocence, a group associated with the
law schools at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, has agreed to look into L.C. Underwood's assertion that he did
not murder Viktor Gunnarsson.

So long, Caroline: UNC phone registration a thing of the past
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's telephone information system, which ushered students out of the "stand-
in-line-all-day-to-drop-a-class" era and into the age of push-button automation, has died.

Issues and Trends

Low taxes mask soaring tuitions (Editorial)
The Virginian-Pilot
Shame on us that the Virginia General Assembly sends the University of Virginia
about $9,700 for each in-state student while the University of North Carolina
gets $22,484 for each Tar Heel youth.

Accepting money from tobacco may not pay off
Associated Press
Ohio State University's decision to accept research money from tobacco
companies because it doesn't want the anti-tobacco restrictions that come
from federal grants has some colleagues angry....Among the schools
protesting the prohibition are Boston University, the California state university
system, Michigan State University, Teachers College in New York, the
University of North Carolina, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and
Yale University.

Leaders urge new street for King
The News & Observer
As the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. approaches, there is a movement
to name or rename a major roadway for the slain civil rights leader. Chapel
Hill already has a Martin Luther King Jr. Street....Horace Williams Airport,
which Airport Road goes past, is scheduled to close next January. UNC-
Chapel Hill, which owns the airport property, plans to build Carolina North,
a research park, on the land.

Cam Hill moves to Rosemary Street
The Chapel Hill News
A controversial property exchange cleared another hurdle last week when it
gained the approval of the UNC Board of Governors.

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.