January 25, 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

Prep your child to become an adult
"Today Show" NBC
Most parents wonder if their child will be prepared to tackle adulthood when they grow up. Now, after decades of observing children grow into young adults, nationally known pediatrician and author Dr. Mel Levine addresses why some youngsters make a successful transition into adulthood while others do not in his book, "Ready or Not, Here Life Comes."
Note: Levine is the director of UNC's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning and a professor in the department of pediatrics at the School of Medicine.

State & Local Coverage

Moeser works toward honorable compromise (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The only sure thing about a compromise is that in an attempt to please everyone, it almost surely will not fully satisfy anyone....That history deserves respect, and the chancellor is showing it that. He deserves credit for the attempts he has made at honorable compromise.

Right thing to do (Editorial)
The Daily Tar Heel
Compromise is a beautiful thing. Cornelia Phillips Spencer's descendents realized that when they withdrew their request that UNC officials remove Spencer's name from a residence hall and redirect $70,000 in donated funds.

High building costs trim dorm project
The Chapel Hill Herald
The rising cost of steel and concrete has forced UNC to get creative with its plan for a new residence hall complex on south campus.

Triangle universities lagging on tech transfer
Triangle Business Journal
The Triangle's three largest universities each spend more than twice as much on research than Wake Forest University but generate less than 25 percent of the Winston-Salem school's annual license revenue....Mark Crowell, director of the Office of Technology Development at UNC, says the AUTM survey is "a snapshot of activity" in the tech transfer process.

Should you pack off your kids to preschool?
The Charlotte Observer
It's that time of year when parents troll classrooms to determine which school is right for their child. They quiz their friends. They agonize over applications and then pray they get their first choice...."I think there's no one thing that's a must for children to be successful for school," said Kelly Maxwell, a research scientist at UNC Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Laws improve loan practices, but foreclosures still going up (Commentary)
The Wilmington Star-News
Despite a state law that has reined in predatory lenders, foreclosures have risen sharply in recent years....In June 2003, the Center for Community Capitalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pronounced the law a success, deterring the worst predatory practices without preventing people with marred credit from obtaining "subprime" loans, where the interest rate is higher because the risk is greater.

A shift in how shifts are filled
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
To fill hard-to-staff shifts at night and on weekends -- and cut down on costly temporary nurses -- WakeMed is allowing its own registered nurses to "shop" online for work when they want to pick up extra hours....For example, to attract more nurses, UNC Hospitals is recruiting a "float pool" of nurses who want to work part time.

Uncertainty hangs over 'Copenhagen'
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Copenhagen, 1941. The Nazis are on the verge of conquering Europe. Two giants of nuclear physics, the Dane Niels Bohr and his German protege Werner Heisenberg, meet at Bohr's house....What happened that night? That is the question asked by playwright Michael Frayn in his Tony Award-winning play, "Copenhagen," which PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional arm of the UNC-Chapel Hill drama department, has brought back to the Triangle after its brief appearance in a touring production at Raleigh's BTI Center in 2002.

Issues & Trends

N.C. colleges work to improve low retention numbers
News & Record (Greensboro)
Graduation rates at North Carolina's public colleges and universities are below the national average -- and some private schools in the Triad rank even worse....Only two of the state's 16 four-year public schools -- UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State -- exceeded the national average of 63 percent.

Some folks want to quieten leaf blowers
The Chapel Hill Herald
From a snakebite to an urge to stand outside and scream, speakers at a Monday forum attributed a host of negatives to the use of gas-powered leaf blowers....UNC's Linda Convissor said the university had problems with limiting their use on campus. Describing it primarily as a safety issue, she said blowers were important in part for keeping walkways clear, and that blowers also were used elsewhere.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/2053355p-8438632c.html

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.