June 21, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current National Coverage

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

Tilting at Windmills (Column)
The Washington Monthly
Why do cell phone users tend to shout? The question has long mystified me, but now that I have 
finally succumbed to progress and acquired one of these devices, I understand...
...We're happy to report that in April the University of North Carolina abolished early admissions. 
The previous month the same step was taken by Wisconsin's Beloit College. This is good news 
because early admissions, as we have pointed out, favor the well off at the expense of the poor
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0206.tilting.html

Why champions eat breakfast
The Record (New Jersey)
If you don't eat breakfast, you risk weight gain, sluggish work or school performance, and a 
host of health problems down the road. If you do eat breakfast, but it's usually doughnuts and 
coffee or sausage and eggs, you're no better off...
...But if Barry Popkin's research is correct, many people aren't getting this message. Popkin is 
a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. In 1999, he used U.S. Department 
of Agriculture data (and funding from breakfast giant Kellogg) to group adults according to 
their breakfast-eating patterns...
http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=104&page=3590972

Reports Highlight Importance Of Caregivers' Education 
Education Week Magazine
Child-adult ratios are not nearly as important in family child-care settings as they are in center-
based programs...
..."The policy implications of these results suggest as parents and policymakers make decisions 
about child-care homes they should rely more heavily on characteristics such as licensing and 
caregiver education and training than on child-adult ratios," write the authors of one of the papers. 
They are: Margaret Burchinal, a senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child 
Development Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Carollee Howes, an 
education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles; and Susan J. Kontos, a professor 
of child development and family studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=40care.h21

Bus ride is safest means to school
The driver may be ornery and the seats may squeak, but riding that big yellow bus is 
the safest way to get to school -- even safer than walking -- a study says. The most 
dangerous way? Riding in a car with a teenager behind the wheel...
...A lot of effort has gone into making bus travel safe for children, but more attention 
should be given to making walking and biking safer, said Doug Robertson, a transportation 
engineer at UNC Chapel Hill and chairman of the independent National Research 
Council committee that wrote the report for the Department of Transportation.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/2002/06/19/news/3497962.htm
(Note: Other continued pick-up of this national Associated Press story known to date includes: 
Tulsa World (Oklahoma), Bangor Daily News (Maine) and Charleston Gazette.)

National News Notes

Peter VanDoren, adjunct associate professor of public policy, was featured on the CNN 
program, "Talk Back Live," in a segment about the state of public transportation in the 
U.S. To read the transcript, please visit:
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0206/20/tl.00.html

State and Local Coverage

Dean: Tuition raises hurt UNC school 
The dean of UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School created a stir five years ago 
when he asked the legislature for special permission to raise tuition because the school wasn't 
competitive enough. The plan apparently worked a little too well. After four straight years of 
big tuition increases, the current dean said Thursday that the highly ranked school has priced 
itself out of the market. Applications for its master's of business administration program are 
down this year -- despite a national surge -- and Dean Bob Sullivan asked the UNC Board 
of Governors to roll back a planned tuition increase for fall.
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1479125p-1509932c.html

Business dean: Cut tuition plan
Faced with rising college costs that threaten to deter the brightest prospective graduate students, 
the dean of UNC’s business school has asked to suspend a tuition-increase plan that his school 
originally endorsed. Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Robert Sullivan wants to scale back 
dramatically tuition increases for out-of-state students of $1,500 in a master’s degree program 
in business administration and $1,200 for a master’s in accounting. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-239679.html

Pfiesteria under the microscope 
Five years after Congress granted millions of dollars to investigate a fish-killing microbe wreaking 
havoc in waters off North Carolina and Maryland, questions persist about its traits and dangers.
A genetic study published Thursday says the fish-killing Pfiesteria piscicida may not display the 
exotic life cycle that N.C. State University researchers documented years ago. "We don't have 
definitive proof," said Wayne Litaker, a marine microbiologist affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill 
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All I can say is that sure does look 
funny."
http://www.newsobserver.com/front/News/story/1479074p-1509855c.html
(Note: This story originated as a UNC news release:
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun02/pfiesteria061802.ht)

More in N.C. say ancestry is American 
Richard Ellington's family has lived in central North Carolina for more than two centuries. His 
European forebears are distant history to him. "I'm very cognizant of my background, my 
heritage, but I don't think of myself as being English," said Ellington, who works in the computer 
services department at UNC-Chapel Hill and is head of the Durham-Orange Genealogical 
Society of North Carolina. "My family is of English origin, but I would consider myself American."
..."People are losing touch with that European genealogy," said Harry Watson, director of 
the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC-CH. "Instead of calling themselves 
Scotch-Irish, and they don't know what that means anymore, they say, 'Well, I'm just American.' "
http://newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1476078p-1507118c.html

Less is more 
Bob Cavanaugh used to hate broccoli. But that was then. "Eating broccoli now is like candy -- 
God, is it good!" He put on his glasses and typed the word "BROCCOLI" into his computer so 
that a bar chart of nutritional information popped up on the screen. "Boom! The vitamin C 
skyrockets. You get 30 percent of your vitamin A. Thirty percent of your folacin. A nice hit 
on the vitamin E. And just 25 calories!"
..."Any time you go from animal studies to human studies anything could happen," said Dr. 
Joyce Harp, assistant professor of nutrition and medicine at UNC Hospitals. "You might live 
longer, but how long, and what type of quality of life will you have? Will it do things to your 
bones? Will you live to 100 but have such bad osteoporosis that you can't stand up? There's 
a whole host of questions that remain unanswered." 
http://newsobserver.com/features/story/1476092p-1507160c.html

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

N.C. Senate budget cuts deep, gives teachers raise
Charlotte Observer
The state Senate passed a $14.2 billion budget on Wednesday that cuts government jobs and 
scales back health programs to dig the state out of a record revenue shortfall. Senate Democrats, 
who pledged to avoid deep education cuts, managed to find money to give teachers an average 
1.8 percent pay raise. The budget also pays for enrollment increases at public schools, colleges 
and universities -- but would impose tuition increases on in-state University of North Carolina 
system students -- and puts money into a state mental health trust fund.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/3506285.htm

Coming up short. . . (Editorial)
The state budget passed by the North Carolina Senate cuts into the bone of needed programs, 
does little if anything to stem long-term budget problems, and is a textbook example of what 
happens when legislators bow to what they see as self-preservation. It is the work of politicians 
who seem to fear, more than anything, a defeat on election day -- a fear that has smothered 
notions of new revenues.
http://newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1478890p-1509956c.html

Rx for disaster 
The state health plan is in a three-way fight over fees with pharmacies and the company it hired 
to run its prescription drug benefits. But it's state employees such as Jimmy F. Garner, a 
correctional officer at Johnston Correctional Institution, who feel as if they're taking it on the 
chin.
http://newsobserver.com/business/rtp_nc/story/1478956p-1509978c.html

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, 
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, 
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu