Jan. 17, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

1 in 6 suffer from overactive bladder
United Press International
A study says an estimated one in six Europeans over the age of 40 suffers from an overactive bladder. ...Lead researcher Debra E. Irwin from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina said 32 percent of the people interviewed said that their condition made them depressed and 28 percent reported feeling stressed.

National Coverage

John Edwards' New Job: Fighting Poverty
"Talk of the Nation," National Public Radio
Former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards was featured on today's "Talk of the Nation" discussing his work as the director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He's touring the country in an effort to drum up support for the plight of the nation's poor.

Hoops rule on North Carolina's 'Tobacco Road'
The Chicago Tribune
The college basketball court is 90 feet long and 50 feet wide. The hoop is 10 feet from the floor and 15 feet from the free-throw line. Here's another number: 9. That's the mileage down "Tobacco Road" from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to Duke University in Durham, a few minutes drive separating America's reigning basketball powerhouses.

Teams Attempt Longest Basketball Game Ever
"Good Morning America," ABC News
As of this morning, Duke was leading the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1,500 to 14,000. If the score seems a little high, it's because it's not a typical game. It's a charity event in which teams from the two schools are attempting to raise money for Hoop Dreams Basketball Academy. The teams are hoping to break the record in the Guinness Book of World Records and play for 58 hours straight.
Note: Reports on this student initiative also aired on CBS-TV's "Early Show" and ESPN2's Cold Pizza.

State & Local Coverage

We're No. 1! (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
Tar Heels, don your colors. UNC Chapel Hill is No. 1 again -- not in hoops but as the best value in undergraduate public colleges, according to Kiplinger's, a finance magazine. Rankings are rankings, but this one is worthy of note. It's the fifth-straight best in show for Chapel Hill, and four other N.C. campuses also made the top 50 -- N.C. State, UNC Wilmington, Appalachian State and UNC Asheville.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/kiplingers010906.htm

More students studying abroad
The Chapel Hill Herald
For the third consecutive year, UNC Chapel Hill had a higher rate of students going abroad than any other public research university nationwide, according to an annual report published by the Institute of International Education.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/opendoors011206.htm

UNC begins new safety campaign
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC will begin a new campaign next week designed to increase safety on campus by encouraging pedestrians to use signalized intersections and marked crosswalks. On Wednesday, university police will start the two-week preliminary phase of the campaign, during which pedestrians crossing campus roadways in violation of state statutes will receive verbal warnings. This will be followed by a two-week period of written warnings.
Note: No link available.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/crosswalk011306.htm

Triangle law professors offer views on Alito
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When all was said and done this week -- after Judge Samuel Alito had explained why he should serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, after Democrats and Republicans had given their opinions, after the votes were pretty much predicted -- a couple of law professors from the Triangle offered their views. Neither Michael Gerhardt of UNC-Chapel Hill nor Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke University expect their opinions to change votes.
UNC News Tip: http://www.unc.edu/news/newstips/2005/supremetip103105.html

UNC's 3 finalists vie for dean slot
The Chapel Hill Herald
The search for a new dean at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication has been narrowed to three finalists. The school's Dean Search Committee has named Laurence Alexander, Jean Folkerts and Charles Self as the remaining contenders for the post. Each will visit the campus to interview in the next few weeks.
Note: No link available.

Duke, UNC students attempt new chapter in rivalry: a world record
The Associated Press (N.C.)
It's nowhere near the kind of intensity Mike Krzyzewski or Roy Williams would like in a Duke-North Carolina matchup. There are no aggressive defensive traps beyond the 3-point arc. The offense isn't flowing at never-stop-running speed. And while there are some fast breaks, ball handlers often walk upcourt while defenders allow plenty of room to breathe.
Related Link: http://rdu.news14.com/content/your_news/durhamchapel_hill/?ArID=79240&SecID=42

Bid to bust hoop record ends
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Duke led Carolina by 247 points Monday night with just 10 minutes left in the nationally televised game. ...Twelve Duke students and 12 UNC-Chapel Hill students completed the longest basketball game in human history Monday night, with Duke pulling out a 3,684 to 3,444 win in 57 hours, 17 minutes and 41 seconds.
Related Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-690321.html

Mother and daughters, bound by art
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Had Los Angeles artist Betye Saar accomplished nothing in this life but her challenging mixed-media assemblages, she would be credited with a potent statement about race and identity. But Saar also raised three daughters, two of whom have amplified and spun out her themes in art that attaches the word "dynasty" to the Saar family name.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/familylegs121205.htm

Scholar sorts out Biblical confusion
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
If you've ever gotten bent out of shape over a minor typo in the morning newspaper, maybe you shouldn't read Bart Ehrman's new book, "Misquoting Jesus." It might send you right over the edge. If you believe, as the author once did, that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, you may find portions of this book uncomfortable or offensive. Be forewarned; but if you skip this book, you'll miss out on learning some worthwhile biblical history and miss out on meeting some important people who were brave enough to ask hard questions of their faith.
Note: Ehrman was also a guest on Monday's "The State of Things" on WUNC-FM.

A bow for the bass
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Is there anything lower than the bass? Not in pitch, there's not. Nor, quite frankly, in status. In an orchestra, the double basses are in the last row off to the side, so as not to block the dandy violins and cellos as they soar through their trebly melodies.

Smith Center turns 20
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Smith Center was not designed for elephants or ice shows. It was built for college basketball and kids like Cole Ray. That's why, as it reaches its 20th birthday Wednesday, it likely will be UNC's home for decades to come.

Smith Center Turns 20
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
Host Frank Stasio talks to Dave DeWitt about the Dean E. Smith Center on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. The building opened on Jan. 18, 1986 and has become home to one of the most successful programs in college athletics. But the way the building was financed, and the recent decision to allow advertising inside the Smith Center, has drawn criticism.

Bob Woodward to speak at UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Bob Woodward, best-selling author and assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, will kick off the spring season of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School's Dean's Speaker Series Tuesday.
Related Links: http://www.newsobserver.com/697/story/388635.html
http://rdu.news14.com/content/headlines/?ArID=79279&SecID=2
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/woodward010906.htm

Two campus roads closing some nights
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Demolition of a walkway over Manning Drive on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus will require overnight closures of sections of Manning and East drives.
UNC News Brief: http://www.unc.edu/news/briefs/2006/011306.htm

Issues & Trends

State calls for more nurses
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As baby boomers start turning 60 and the average life span increases, health-care officials around the nation are hitting nurse-call buttons. ..."We have not seen the dollars yet," said Linda Cronenwett, dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing since 1999. "We are very hopeful that we will start seeing them."
Related Link: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13642199.htm

States hunt N.C. companies
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
They come here to shop. But no slacks, shoes or shirts will do. ..."We have never explored those options," said Christy Shaffer, Inspire's CEO. "We are a company that grew out of technology at UNC-Chapel Hill and certainly intend to stay in North Carolina."

Retirement rules add to teacher shortage
The Associated Press (N.C.)
When the State Board of Education agreed to loosen licensing standards for less experienced teachers in November, school districts said the changes alone wouldn't solve North Carolina's annual shortage of 10,000 teachers in the classroom. Now, add community colleges and the University of North Carolina system to the chorus of educators complaining about how hard the state makes it to hire and keep teachers.

UNC's CEO (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
UNC President Erskine Bowles sounds like a broken record. Every time he opens his mouth, the same words come out: efficiency and results. Those ideas may not make Mr. Bowles popular on campus, but they will improve the state's system of universities.

Bowles tolls a bell but offers hope for education
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC President Erskine Bowles said Friday the state and the public university system face an "economic tsunami heading our way." With manufacturing jobs vanishing, North Carolina will have to better educate more residents to compete in a global economy, the new president said in his first speech to the UNC Board of Governors. At the same time, he said, educating more people will be costly in a time of squeezed state and federal budgets.

Freedom, ugly and ungodly (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It is ironic that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which stood tall against the nefarious "Speaker Ban Law" more than three decades ago, finds itself being raked over the coals this week by a conservative think tank for restricting the speech of others. But that's the way freedom works. What's offensive to some may be poetry to others.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/690/story/388600.html

Civility on campus (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Regarding your Jan. 11 news story "Report blasts UNC's 'speech codes'": So the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education question "speech codes" at University of North Carolina campuses. As a taxpayer who also pays tuition to the UNC system, I hope and pray we keep policies on our campuses that prohibit "abusive language, insults, taunts...vulgar language...statements of intolerance...obscene, vulgar, loud or disruptive language...sexually explicit jokes or anecdotes..."
Related Link: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/13625164.htm

 

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/news/clips/index.shtml.

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