June 7, 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

In County Made Rich by Golf, Some Enclaves Are Left Behind
The New York Times
Golf has made Moore County rich. There are spas, country clubs and new $2 million homes....According to figures provided by the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights, which is helping the black communities, the actual cost to these families could decrease because they would no longer pay for septic tank maintenance, private garbage pickup and other expenses that their municipal taxes would cover.

Keeping guns safe
U.S. News & World Report
Safe storage of guns is essential for anyone who owns them-especially those with children in the house....Researchers from the University of North Carolina and several other universities gave men and women a quiz.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may05/coyne052705.html

Black enrollment at U. of I. rebounding from last year
The Chicago Tribune
African-American enrollment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign appears to be bouncing back after a sharp decline last fall, according to preliminary admissions figures....The University of Michigan reported Monday that preliminary commitments to attend the university for African-American students has climbed 20.1 percent. Ohio State was up 1 percent, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill increased 4 percent and the University of Georgia was up a whopping 40 percent.

Southern migration fuels gains for blacks (Opinion-editorial column)
USA Today
Troy Robinson stood on the first tee at the Eagle Creek Golf Club and said that for him, there's no going back....The seeds of this economic success were planted by political leaders such as former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry and one-time Atlanta mayors Maynard Jackson and Bill Campbell, who led the way in promoting black business development in the region, said James H. Johnson Jr., who heads the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina.

Dolphins Protect Their Snouts With Sponges
The Associated Press (National)
A group of dolphins living off the coast of Australia apparently teach their offspring to protect their snouts with sponges while foraging for food in the sea floor...."This study provides convincing evidence that the behavior is transmitted via social learning," commented Laela Sayigh of the University of North Carolina Center for Marine Science.

State & Local Coverage

Umstead Act shouldn't be rewritten (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
At the top of the UNC Student Stores Web page, there is this information: "By law our sales are limited to students, faculty and staff of the University of North Carolina."...A new piece of legislation, already passed by the state House, would essentially give UNC system campuses a blanket exemption from the law. Overwhelmingly endorsed, H1539 would allow UNC system campuses to sell merchandise and services in competition with the private sector when doing so would further the teaching, research and service mission of the university.

Pact affects Vietnamese
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
An agreement between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Vietnam Education Foundation will allow top science and technology scholars from Vietnam to attend UNC-Chapel Hill for graduate studies. The U.S. Congress created the VEF to promote closer bilateral relations between the United States and Vietnam through scholarships and educational exchange programs. Currently, more than 100 VEF fellows are attending 37 U.S. graduate institutions, mostly for doctoral degrees. All VEF fellows are required to return to Vietnam after completing their academic programs in the United States.
This article was not republished online.
UNC News Brief: www.unc.edu/news/briefs/2005/Vietnamese_scholars.htm

Chatham votes to pay volunteer
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Chatham County commissioners voted 3-2 Monday to pay a member of the Chatham County Economic Development Corp. $10,000 for legal work she previously agreed to do for free....David Lawrence, a professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, said neither contracts nor invoices were required to do county work. "That may well be an internal control, but that's a practice issue rather than a legal issue," he said.

Struggle in downtown's shadow
The Fayetteville Observer
The promotional video shows downtown successes: City Hall on a sunny day, a hip coffee shop and quaint brick sidewalks....William M. Rohe, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said Fayetteville was not unusual in concentrating its housing projects in one place or in focusing urban renewal efforts on a poor, minority community.

Knob safe - for now
The Winston-Salem Journal
Referring to legal advice, the town has terminated an agreement that would allow a mining company to remove the top 200 feet of a mountain that locals call Gobbler's Knob, Wilkesboro officials announced yesterday....Mayor Norman Call said that the board will not make a decision until it gets further advice from the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Blood drive today at UNC
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's 17th annual summer blood drive, the largest single-day drive on the East Coast and the second largest in the nation, takes place today.
Note: WUNC-FM also ran a story this morning on the blood drive during local cut-aways of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

School briefs: 12 teachers to study in Belize
The Chapel Hill Herald
Carolyn Inselmann, a teacher at the UNC Hospital School, is one of 12 educators selected to participate in the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences Tropical Ecology Institute in the Central American nation of Belize, from July 19 to 27.

Issues & Trends

Study suggests smaller board, autonomy for UNC campuses
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC system's Board of Governors should tackle the state's broad higher education needs but delegate more decision-making to individual campus trustee boards, a new study recommends....Earlier this spring, the state Senate approved as part of its proposed state budget a measure that would give N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill trustees the authority to raise tuition.

Study: Let governor appoint UNC Board of Governors
The Chapel Hill Herald
A study by a national higher education group recommends that members of the North Carolina's higher education governing board be appointed by the state's governor and not through elections by the General Assembly....The study -- commissioned by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a conservative Raleigh think tank -- suggests that the UNC system board, as well as campus boards of trustees at the 16 UNC institutions, would be better served if the governor were to appoint all members.

In-State Tuition Bill Misses Key N.C. Legislative Deadline
The Associated Press (N.C.)
The General Assembly's crossover deadline served to extract what is likely the last breath from a bill that would have allowed the children of some illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at public universities....The measure would have given in-state tuition for University of North Carolina and community college campuses to students who attend North Carolina high schools for at least four consecutive years before graduation.
Related link: http://www.wral.com/news/4577833/detail.html

Towns face limit to power of zoning
The Chapel Hill Herald
The N.C. Senate has voted to repeal a 9-month-old law that gave Chapel Hill and other communities more power to control the development of state property...."All 16 campuses are very supportive of this," system lobbyist Mark Fleming said, adding that the initial request for a repeal drive came from officials at UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.

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.