January 28, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Better subprime borrower laws needed?
United Press International
Is predatory lending causing more subprime borrowers to lose their homes? A new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study says yes, blames prepayment penalties and balloon payments included in the terms of many subprime home refinance loans, and calls for new laws to protect borrowers.

National Coverage

Shape-Shifting Catalyst Lights Way to New Strategy for Detecting Chemicals
Science
Protein catalysts--or enzymes--are master shape changers...."This is very novel and interesting work," says Wenbin Lin, a chemist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Social Security debate may herald a new era
Knight Ridder News Services
When he delivers his State of the Union address Wednesday night to Congress and the country, President Bush will call for a radical change in Social Security that ultimately could reshape the relationship Americans have with their government...."It would change the basic assumption that there is a contract between the American people and the federal government," said William Leuchtenberg, a historian and scholar of the New Deal era at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Songwriter brings energy, depth to her arrangements
Mercury News (San Jose)
`Tambourine,'' the title of rootsy singer-songwriter Tift Merritt's second album, says much about her music....Born in Texas and raised in North Carolina, Merritt performed with other like-minded musicians while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Note: Merritt will appear on NBC's "The Tonight Show" tonight at 11:30.

State & Local Coverage

Tuition increases further reduced
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC trustees began Thursday by considering a series of fairly basic, if unpopular, increases to tuition and fees.

UNC-CH seeks big increases
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill's trustees approved an elaborate plan Thursday that uses increases in tuition and fees in part to subsidize sports programs and create new merit-based scholarships.

Trustees pass hikes, athletic fees
The Daily Tar Heel
With two separate votes Thursday morning, the University's governing board set into action a pair of proposals that would tack an extra $1,000 for nonresidents and $250 for in-state-students onto the bill to attend UNC.

Absolute failure (Editorial)
The Daily Tar Heel
The primary duty of The Daily Tar Heel's Editorial Board is to advocate for the students of this University....In that spirit of advocacy, we feel compelled to condemn explicitly the Board of Trustees' Thursday decision to raise out-of-state tuition by $950 and to pass an athletic fee increase of a total of $150 over two years.

UNC-CH Trustees Approve Tuition Increase
WTVD-TV (ABC, Durham)
Some things always seem to remain the same at UNC-Chapel Hill. The elegance of the Old Well, the looming presence of the Bell Tower and the shuffle of students across the quad. But time marches on, and modern-day costs and competition are likely to cause yet another

UNC-CH trustees expected to approve tuition increase
News 14 (Time Warner, Raleigh)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students may have to fork over more funds to go to school next year.
Related links: http://www.nbc17.com/education/4135585/detail.html

2 new deans named to head UNC schools
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC has named new deans for two of its professional schools. John Williams has been named dean of the university's School of Dentistry, while Barbara Rimer will be the new dean of UNC's School of Public Health.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/orange/story/2062727p-8446807c.html
UNC news releases:
Rimer: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan05/publichealth012705.html
Williams: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan05/dental012705.html

Writer's life leaves imprint
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
When Louis Rubin Jr. first heard he had received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, he said with a smile, "It just goes to show they'll give you an award for anything these days."...But his colleagues in the publishing world, the writers that he nurtured and his former UNC students said his achievements are most definitely worthy of recognition by the nation's largest, most prestigious group of book reviewers.

Tactics of sex abuse change
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The arrest of a Cary computer programmer on charges of manufacturing child pornography and publishing it on the Internet reveals that society still wrestles with the complexities that arise from the sexual abuse of children....Marcia E. Herman-Giddens, senior fellow at the N.C. Child Advocacy Institute and adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, said a sexually abused child often does not have any marks on the body, and a child welfare official must rely upon a child's description of what happened.

Commissioners debate tax hike for courthouse
News & Record (Greensboro)
At a work session to plan for the upcoming fiscal year, Rockingham County commissioners seemed in agreement that the county must build a new courthouse, but appeared divided on how the county will pay for it....The commissioners spent part of their session learning about results-based management and hearing from William C. Rivenbark about how the county could institute it. Rivenbark is an assistant professor at the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Your fitness plan goes wireless
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The newest gadget to help you stick to your diet, get fit and quit smoking may already be in your pocket. It's your cell phone....UNC Health Care has teamed up with 2ThumbZ Entertainment, a Cary company best known for its $2 downloadable ringtones, wallpapers and other cell phone extras.

Members of gospel music legend guests at UNC series
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Blind Boys of Alabama have that kind of traditional gospel sound that seems to come straight from a country church....But first, Blind Boys Billy Bowers; Carter and Clarence Fountain will stop Monday at UNC's Hill Hall for the Carolina Union Performing Arts series.

 

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.