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Jan. 24, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:National Coverage
Scribes of the Digital Era
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Brewster Kahle is mobilizing an army of Internet-era scribes who are fastidiously copying books page by page. Unlike the monks who slowly copied ancient tomes by hand, though, these scribes make digital reproductions, and they zip through hundreds of pages each hour. ...José-Marie Griffiths, dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that her school has joined the project to experiment with how to better scan manuscripts and documents that are not in book form.
Heart Tests, Treatments May Be Overused
HealthDay News
Doctors are using more and more tests and procedures to help detect and treat heart disease, even though the incidence of the illness isn't rising all that much, new studies show. ...However, these two studies don't show whether the procedures are overused or done on patients who don't really need them, said Dr. Sidney C. Smith Jr., professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
Dig Adds to Cherokee "Trail of Tears" History
National Geographic
Archaeologists working in the rugged mountains of southwestern North Carolina are adding new details to the story of a tragedy that took place more than 160 years ago. ...Brett Riggs, an archaeologist with the University of North Carolina's Research Laboratories of Archaeology, is leading the excavations. He said the relocation of the Indians was a form of ethnic cleansing.
State & Local Coverage
Carolina is number one where it counts (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
There has justly been much talk in recent years over the escalating cost of tuition at the University of North Carolina. That's not surprising, of course. After all, the cost of attending the UNC system's flagship campus here in Chapel Hill has risen dramatically by any standard since the beginning of the decade. Since the 2000-01 academic year, tuition is up by 72 percent. Tuition and fees together have gone up two thirds, and now total more than $4,600 per year for an in-state student.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/kiplingers010906.htmUNC hires consultant to guide forums
The Chapel Hill Herald
"Difficult Dialogues" -- the university's new plan to promote discourse on controversial topics -- may be so challenging, UNC is hiring a consultant to help figure out how to proceed. The Ford Foundation awarded UNC $100,000 in December to look at how religion affects debate on campus and to come up with ways to increase dialogue on sensitive subjects, such as politics and sexuality. ..."If people don't engage, they don't grow," faculty Chairman Judith Wegner said at a faculty council meeting Friday.
Note: No link available.UNC to respond to town's report
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill could issue as early as today a much-anticipated response to a two-year-old report compiled by town residents regarding the proposed Carolina North research campus. The set of principles -- protect the environment, keep increased traffic to a minimum, etc. -- were offered to university officials as guidelines for how the town would expect Carolina North to be designed. UNC was criticized for failing to acknowledge the committee's work.
Public input on UNC panel vowed
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Members of the public will be able to attend the meetings of a new Carolina North feedback committee and likely will have the chance to make comments during committee hearings as well. "I wouldn't have it any other way," said Ken Broun, asked by UNC Chancellor James Moeser to help create the committee and lead it over the next year.
Utility President: Nuclear Could Best Meet Growing Energy Needs
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
With an estimated 500,000 new energy customers in the next 10 years, Progress Energy officials say they need an infrastructure that will serve the expected growth -- and the best solution could be nuclear energy -- which could also have an impact on customers' bills. "We don't know exactly what the impact on your bill will be," said Progress Energy President and COO Bill Johnson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Energy and Global Climate discussion.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/ceppanel010506.htmPuuuuush! ... if you're ready
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A woman's birth story rivals a man's war story. She loves to recount the details. How much time she spent in labor. Where she was when she first felt a contraction. And the biggie: How long she pushed. ...Tom Ivester, an assistant professor of maternal and fetal medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, called it a learned skill that provides "meaningful feedback."
SEC action clips high-flying stock
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Smart Online, a small-business software company in Durham, is burning through cash. It expects to run out of money in April unless it raises new funding. ..."The risk would be through the roof," said Robert Bushman, an accounting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Wilkes County asks institute to review rules
The Winston-Salem Journal
Wilkes County leaders are asking the University of North Carolina Institute of Government to review the county's proposed rules governing sexually oriented businesses. The rules would require that sexually oriented businesses be at least a half-mile from homes, churches, schools, day-care centers, playgrounds, parks and swimming pools.
Jet fuel spills from hospital
The Chapel Hill Herald
About 50 gallons of jet fuel spilled into Meeting of the Waters Creek on Sunday following a pipeline failure at UNC's Neurosciences Hospital. The spill will have no effect on drinking water but may have some "negative impacts" on insects in the creek, Mel Hurston, senior vice president of operations at UNC Hospitals, said Sunday.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/712/story/391944.htmlIssues & Trends
Peer review
The Chronicle of Higher Education
...Four finalists have been named as possible replacements for Peter W. Likins as president of the University of Arizona. They are: Tom Campbell, dean of the University of California at Berkeley's business school; Deborah A. Freund, provost at Syracuse University; Yash P. Gupta, dean of the University of Southern California's business school; and Robert N. Shelton, provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Arizona's Board of Regents is expected to announce its choice this month.
A Losing Strategy?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Veronica Woodlief has always wanted to study marine biology but is not too enthusiastic about the landlocked programs offered by colleges in her home state, Pennsylvania. ...The University of North Carolina System's out-of-state enrollments have climbed, but the growth is driven almost entirely by increases on its main campuses, at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
Swelling Textbook Costs Have College Students Saying 'Pass'
The Washington Post
A line twisted through the aisles of the bookstore at the University of the District of Columbia, students pushing their heavy baskets full of textbooks along with their feet, some adding up the prices in their heads as they waited. "Whooooo, it's bad," said Kisha Warren, who's studying art at UDC. "A lot of people don't buy the books," she said, because they're too expensive.
Burr: Colleges should seek grants
The Associated Press (N.C.)
N.C. community colleges need to follow the lead of the state's public universities in aggressively seeking more grants as more federal money is tied up in entitlement programs, Sen. Richard Burr said Monday. ...More than 10 percent of the University of North Carolina system's total revenue of $6.7 billion this past fiscal year came from federal grants, a UNC spokeswoman said. UNC-Chapel Hill's health schools rank among the nation's leaders in research money from the National Institutes of Health.
School of medicine has a chance at life
The Fayetteville Observer
The Observer’s Jan. 13 article, “Vital connections,” on the physician assistant program at Methodist College was accompanied by a wonderful picture of one of the program’s students with his patient. ...This is not the same as Sen. Tony Rand’s proposal to have the University of North Carolina take over Cape Fear Valley Health System as an affiliated teaching hospital.
Are colleges trying to be too nice? (Opinion-editorial column)
Freedom News Services
Can niceness be codified? Can you actually make a policy requiring politeness and only politeness? ...Lukianoff cited as an example a previous "nondiscrimination" policy at UNC-Chapel Hill which led to a Christian fraternity losing its campus recognition because, well, it required its members to be Christians. The policy, Lukianoff said, violated the fraternity's freedom of association - the freedom to associate with people of like beliefs.
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.
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