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March 18, 2003
Current National Coverage
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:
Chicken-Nugget Boom Leads To Worries About Kids' Health
The Wall Street Journal
Like many parents, Grace Beam of Oshkosh, Wis., is thrilled when her two sons
gobble down chicken nuggets, thinking they're far healthier than the burgers, fries
and other junk food kids love. ... Nutritionists aren't so sure. "People assume it's
all chicken, but there's been zero truth in advertising of that food by any fast-food
company," says Barry M. Popkin, nutrition professor at the University of
North Carolina School of Public Health in Chapel Hill.
Full story
(Note: The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription to access articles.)
Despite Harrick, Adams deserves cheers, not jeers (Commentary)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So the FireMichaelAdams Web page is already up and running. You just knew
that was coming. ... Thank heaven, things did change. Largely because of Adams'
leadership, Georgia finally has a public university with the stature of the University
of Texas (Austin) and the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) ...
Full story
Spending Soars in Gubernatorial Races: UNC Report
Stateline.org
Candidates in the 36 gubernatorial races in 2002 spent more than $833 million,
shattering all previous records for campaign expenditures in a non-presidential
race and increasing spending 41 percent over 1998, the last time these states
elected governors. In a report prepared by the University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, New York set the record for the most expensive governor’s race in
history at $146.5 million
Full story
(Note: Stateline is a national Internet news service. For more information on
the research, visit http://www.southnow.org/index.html)
Va. Study: Eyes on The Road
The Washington Post
A new study of traffic accidents conducted on Virginia roads has found,
unsurprisingly, that many car crashes are the result of driver distraction. ...
However the causes are ranked, the data likely underestimate the number of
accidents caused by distraction, says Jane Stutts, an associate director of
the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina.
Full story
Risks could blaze a trail to solutions
Indianapolis Star (IN)
Job losses, brain drain, lackluster incomes. Sound like Indiana? Actually, the
conditions were dragging North Carolina into an abyss in the 1950s when strong
and innovative leaders took it upon themselves to reverse the trends. ... "We feel
pretty good about it -- quite good about it, actually," says Bill Little, a retired
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chemist involved nearly from the
beginning
Full story
National News Note
John Thorp, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of
Medicine, was interviewed by NewsProNet, a multimedia service that provides
its content to more than 120 media markets with access to over 70 million
households. Its subscribers include major TV networks such as ABC, CBS and
NBC, as well as wire services including Scripps-Howard News Service. The
interview follows up on a UNC news release and
UNC Health Care pitching efforts. To view this video online via Windows Media
Player, click here.
State and Local Coverage
Tuition hikes melt Morehead funds
Daily Tar Heel
A weak financial market has forced one of the country's most prestigious
foundations to decrease the number of merit-based scholarships it offers to incoming
UNC-Chapel Hill freshmen. Despite this year's applicant pool being the most
competitive in the Morehead Foundation's history, the 52-year-old organization
offered the lowest number of scholarships since 1984.
Full story
Realistically, war will be costly (Opinion-Editorial Column)
News and Observer
The Bush administration believes that the war in Iraq will be short and cheap: the
Iraqi army will not put up a fight, the Iraqi people will rise against the dictator and
welcome the U.S. soldiers as their liberators, and Saddam Hussein might even be
overthrown and killed by some of his own generals.
Full story
(Note: Tony Oberschall is professor of sociology, emeritus, at UNC-Chapel
Hill. He teaches part-time in the Duke-UNC Rotary International program on
Peace and Conflict Resolution.)
J-school ranks top in nation
Daily Tar Heel
UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication has a reputation for
being great, but a recent accreditation report suggests that the school might be
the best in the nation.
Full story
(Note: A UNC news release about the ranking is available here.)
UNC med students await Match Day
The Herald-Sun
Forty-eight hours and counting. On Thursday, some 136 graduating medical
students at UNC will learn where they’ll spend the next several years completing
their residencies.
Full story
(Note: A UNC news release on Match Day is available here.)
Michigan cases throw specter on other colleges’ admissions
The Herald-Sun
The applications are pouring in -- nearly 18,000 at last count -- from prospective
students hoping to gain entry to North Carolina’s flagship public university. But
admissions officials at UNC this year are culling those applications under the
specter of dramatic change; the nation’s highest court will soon review admissions
practices at the University of Michigan, and the ramifications could send a
significant wave of change across American higher education.
Full story
Universities defend ‘legacy’ admissions
The Herald-Sun
As they decide which applicants to admit each year, admissions officials at
UNC designate about 80 spaces for the children of alumni living out of state ...
Full story
March is National Nutrition Month (Commentary)
Charlotte Observer
Each March, the American Dietetic Association focuses attention on the
importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and
physical activity habits. ... The N.C. Healthy Weight Initiative is working to
reduce the number of overweight North Carolina children. ... statewide partners
are ... UNC Chapel Hill.
Full story
Workshop to give tips on how to gather oral histories
Winston-Salem Journal
Staff members and graduate students from the Southern Oral History Program
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be in town Saturday to
present a free workshop on gathering oral histories. ...
Full story
(Note: For more information about the workshops, go here.)
UNC honors its 1st botanist with exhibits
The Herald-Sun
William Chambers Coker hated pruning. Fungi fascinated him - especially
mushrooms. He helped Chapel Hillians decide what to plant where in their yards,
identified plants for people all over the Southeast and - judging by his students'
letters - was one of the best teachers ever at UNC. ...
Full story
(Note: A UNC news release about the exhibit is available here. The Herald-Sun
requires free registration to access archives.)
Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina
Report sounds alarms on downtown
Chapel Hill News
Members of the Chapel Hill Downtown Commission say they're not just trying to
put a positive spin on things when they call a surge in vacancies downtown a real
opportunity for change ... The report, by Kenneth Kauffman of the Baltimore-based
University Retail Group, said that over the years the downtown has drifted away
from a healthy mixture of "quality retail" and student-oriented businesses and
toward a model that relies far too much on the student dollar.
Full story
Students add fuzziness to poverty calculations (Commentary)
Chapel Hill News
Add this one to your political nomenclature: poverty universe. ... The folks at the
Census Bureau confirmed that, for the poverty rate, students living in dormitories
are excluded from the equation. "They're out of the (poverty) universe," was the way
one bureau statistician phrased it. That drops quite a few of the students out of the
mix. But how the remaining 17,000 off-campus students -- not all of whom live in
Orange County -- affect the poverty rate is still a mystery.
Full storyNote: 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
Note: Web links on this page are time sensitive, so stories might not be
available after the day they first appeared source publication.