January 13, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Joint-Venture Couples Live by Special Marital Rules
The New York Times
Eric Cohen and Joyce Shulman of Long Island were sharing a pizza with friends several years ago when they realized they had never seen independent advertising on cardboard pizza boxes...."You get the stress of two people living together and the additional stress of trying to run a business and making it grow," said James Lea, a professor of family medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a consultant on family businesses.

Selling Statins Over-the-Counter
The Wall Street Journal
Should cholesterol-lowering statins, the biggest selling drugs in the world, be available to consumers as easily as aspirin -- on drugstore shelves without a prescription?..."We would not want people who had heart disease that required very aggressive treatment to think that all they need to do is take a low-dose statin," says Sidney Smith, a cardiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Subscription required.

Closely watched media humbled
USA Today
Some of the chattering heads on television would have you believe that journalism in the USA is falling apart...Philip Meyer is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cheating in the Classroom
People Magazine
If nothing else, Elizabeth Paige Laurie learned this at college: Wealth has its privileges...."Young people have seen their parents cheat on income taxes, they've heard about coaches who lied on their resumes, they know major athletes who have taken drugs to perform better," says Gregory Cizek, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assistant professor who has studied the phenomenon.

State and Local Note

The Chapel Hill News ran a pair of photos on its cover about the Good Neighbor Initiative that teams UNC-Chapel Hill fraternities and sororities with the Chapel Hill Police Department and Empowerment Inc.

State & Local Coverage

NC, Western identify 'opportunities for synergy'
The Sylva Herald
Representatives of Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified several "opportunities for synergy" between the two institutions, including possible partnerships through which engineering and technology professors and students at Western would test theories developed by researchers at Chapel Hill.

Courageous choice (Editorial)
The Daily Tar Heel
Chancellor James Moeser showed a good amount of courage in his decision to retire the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, which had honored achievements by women at the University. His action prevented the further use of an award that future recipients would have had to consider rejecting.

Award winners support Moeser
The Daily Tar Heel
After the recent controversy over Chancellor James Moeser's move to retire the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, past award recipients said they respect the decision but continue to value the honor's importance.

Spotlight shines on Southern history
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Asked to choose one piece from UNC's massive Southern Historical Collection to put on display as a "staff pick," Laura Clark Brown selected a letter written in 1911 by a New Orleans resident describing the frivolity of Mardi Gras....."It's really important to us, as a society and a culture, to have a healthy sense of our past," said Tim West, the collection's director.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan05/southernsources011105.html

No other meningitis cases found at UNC
The Chapel Hill Herald
No further cases of suspected meningitis have surfaced on the UNC campus since a student was hospitalized Tuesday, local health officials say.

Meningitis measures taken
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill health officials handed out more antibiotics Wednesday to those who may have come into contact with a student who has a suspected case of bacterial meningitis.

Tuition talks aren't glamorous, but they are vital (Commentary)
The Daily Tar Heel
Jan. 27 and 28 might be a fairly nondescript pair of days for most students....Without too many projects or tests to manage this early in the semester, a number of students probably will start the weekend early by taking to Franklin Street and drinking and dancing the night away.

Asian students identify with tsunami victims
The Chapel Hill News
When Andrew Chen saw television footage of tsunami destruction in Malaysia and Thailand, he thought of the people he had seen in Southeast Asia last summer....The UNC sophomore from Chapel Hill studied abroad in Singapore and Bangkok for six weeks, taking weekend trips into Malaysia and a side trip to an island in Thailand.

Hillsborough water system violates standards
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
New lab results show that Hillsborough's water system is violating a federal regulation that's supposed to limit the number of chlorine byproducts that make it into the town's drinking water...."It's very important that the wording is 'associations' and 'linkages' and 'potential,' " said Phil Singer, the director of UNC's Drinking Water Research Center.

Barber-Scotia considers heading in new direction
The Charlotte Observer
Angelina Wakefield would like to start day-care centers on the campuses of historically black colleges....He said UNC-Chapel Hill offers a degree in entrepreneurship, but there isn't a school in the Charlotte area that offers the degree.

Issues & Trends

Panel to discuss freezing UNC tuition for a year
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
A committee of the UNC system's Board of Governors will discuss this week whether public university tuition should be frozen for a year, as the board's chairman has recommended.

Board agrees to open meetings
The Chapel Hill Herald
The downtown development board formally agreed Wednesday to keep its meetings and records open to the public, in keeping with state laws governing public bodies....All the board members were eager to avoid any future misunderstandings about how the board was supposed to operate, said Nancy Suttenfield, vice chairwoman of the board and UNC's Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/orange/chapel_hill/story/2019916p-8404347c.html

College Degree Still Pays, but It's Leveling Off
The New York Times
Ever so gradually, the big payoff in wages from a college education is losing its steam, which calls into question the emphasis that the White House, under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has placed on a bachelor's degree as a sure-fire avenue to constantly rising incomes.
Registration required.

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.

Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/newsserv/clipsindex.htm.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.