June 24, 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

Name Brands Embrace Some Less-Well-Off Kinfolk
The New York Times
Charmin has a new low-rent cousin, Charmin Basic. It's slightly less "squeezably soft" - but it's a lot less pricey than Procter & Gamble's other toilet paper. ...As Sridhar Balasubramanian, an associate professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, put it, "The premium that consumers were traditionally willing to pay for a brand name is under attack."

When the Sun Shines, Shady Characters Come Out
The Washington Post
Sometimes M&P Asphalt Paving goes by the name M&F Paving. On occasion, it's M&D Asphalt. But Montgomery County police call it something else altogether: a driveway paving scam. ..."It doesn't mean that it's more unsafe when you're out and about. It's just that there's more people," said John R. Hipp, a researcher at Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina.

Silver Collar Workforce
National Public Radio, "On Point"
Victor Marshall, Director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institute on Aging and Professor in the Department of Sociology, was featured on National Public Radio's program, "On Point," June 23 about the trend of people working to older ages. Marshall studies older workers and the changing transition to retirement, including directing the U.S. component of an international study examining human resources management issues and aging the information technology sector in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the European Union.

National Note

A 2-minute segment on the DESTINY Program was sent out to NBC affiliates nationwide and aired in 19 markets on June 21. DESTINY is part of UNC Chapel Hill's Institute for Science Learning. Through DESTINY, two traveling science buses visit schools across North Carolina to provide provide hands-on science curricula and teacher professional development.
http://isl.unc.edu/about_us/press_room/nbc.html

State & Local Coverage

UNC-Chapel Hill backers take on system
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill boosters have made a bold move that's nearly a declaration of war on the UNC system. Citizens for Higher Education, a big-spending political action committee led by wealthy UNC-CH supporters, has launched a Web site and letter-writing campaign asking alumni to push hard for three state legislative proposals.

PAC Web site urges alums to lobby for UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A free-spending political action committee formed three years ago to promote UNC Chapel Hill's interests has stretched its wings a bit this week with the introduction of a new Web site encouraging Carolina alums to lobby for their alma mater.

Pinehurst studying annexation of Jackson Hamlet
The Fayetteville Observer
This wealthy golfing village is studying the possibility of annexing Jackson Hamlet, one of three poor, black communities in Moore County that has asked for municipal services. ...Anita Earls, director of advocacy for the (University of North Carolina's Center for Civil Rights in Chapel Hill), said she was pleased with the village's recent response to Jackson Hamlet.

Professor: N.C. unaffected by Supreme Court condemnation ruling
The Associated Press (N.C.)
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that allows local governments to seize homes and businesses against the will of the owners for private development won't affect North Carolina, a professor said. ... But private development isn't on that list, said David Lawrence, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Government specializing in local government issues.
Related Link: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_Basic
Article&c= MGArticle&cid= 1031783473309&path=nationworld&s=103764550916

3rd party to break Burke impasse
The Charlotte Observer
Burke County commissioners, in passing their 2005-06 budget, said the county school system can make up for a budget cut with an expected rise in sales-tax money reserved for the schools. ...The third party, someone from the UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Government or the N.C. Attorney General's Office, will have to render a legal opinion on how the extra sales-tax money -- an expected $1.2 million -- can and can't be used.

Issues & Trends

U.S. Colleges Get Swanky: Golf Courses, Climbing Walls, Saunas
Bloomberg News (national business wire service)
Boston University Athletic Director Warren Dexter smiles as he surveys the scene in the school's new $100 million, five-level recreational center one morning in May. About 18 students soak in the heated whirlpool, while others jog against the current in the ``lazy river,'' a churning channel of water.

Universities gird for battle for bioscience supremacy
USA Today
Universities nationwide are racing to lure top biotech scientists and research dollars, resources that could fuel one of this century's most promising industries. Perhaps nowhere is the outcome more crucial than in the bicoastal battle pitting Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology against Stanford and the University of California in San Francisco.

House proposing cut in UNC distance education programs
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Public university officials say a proposed shortfall in money needed to teach new students who enroll in off-campus programs could hurt efforts to reach rural adults bound by their jobs and families....Distance education allows students to earn a degree without commuting or moving closer to a college campus, said Jim Sadler, the UNC associate vice president for academic affairs.

A 19th century lesson in harming UNC (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, under contract with the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, recently issued a report entitled "Governance in the Public Interest: A Case Study of the University of North Carolina System." The most important -- and the most unwise -- recommendation of that report is that the governor should mandate the policies and objectives of the 16-campus university and hold the governing authorities of those institutions responsible for executing them.

WFU med school grows stem cells
The Winston Salem-Journal
Researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine said yesterday that they have successfully isolated stem cells from human skin, expanded them in the laboratory and coaxed them into becoming fat, muscle and bone cells. ...Generally, adult stem cells do not replicate enough to develop usable tissue mass, said Jeffrey Fair, an associate professor of surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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.