March 22, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Creating partnerships across the globe
Financial Times, UK
Business schools have long used informal partnerships to give their students a flavour of foreign markets and encourage faculty to widen the scope of their research....Five schools, including the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Rotterdam School of Management and Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, launched their OneMBA executive programme in 2002.

National Coverage

Blues Musicians Get Help Overcoming Hard Times
The New York Times
No one ever said the blues was any way to make a living...."It's an exciting time for indigenous music," said Mr. [Bill] Ferris, who is the associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After Buying Rubbermaid, a Deluge of Sorts
The New York Times
Sharpie's new metallic ink pen writes on glass, metal and other surfaces that are usually hard to mark....."Newell has yet to become a Category Captain,'' or most-favored supplier, said Neil A. Morgan, an assistant professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina.

An Inspired Strategy
The Washington Post
Here's a crazy idea: After all our ambitious child-rearing with Discovery toys, Suzuki piano lessons, conflict-avoidance classes, 4 a.m. swim practices, SAT prep classes, driver education and summer flights to study folk music in the Republic of Georgia, we might have done as well (and saved a lot of money) by just sending our kids to church, temple or mosque...."A substantial minority of American teens are quite active religiously," says Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Early Treatment Keeps Eyes Safe
Ivanhoe Newswire
About 15,000 premature babies in the United States have an eye disease that can cause blindness if left untreated. In fact, it's the leading cause of blindness in premature babies...."More and more of us began to believe that infants might benefit from treating with laser earlier and not waiting until threshold disease occurred," says pediatric ophthalmologist David Wallace, M.D., of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Getting a grip on risky behavior
Los Angeles Daily News
Just before moving to Los Angeles from a small farm town near Sacramento, 18-year-old Mario Sixto drew a self-portrait in his journal. In the pencil sketch, he looks lost and disconcerted...."Parents, keep the conversation going and don't make it a one-shot deal,' says Joan Cates, the project's principal investigator from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

UNC board boosts tuition
The Herald-Sun
Jeremy Engbretson and Justin Moore felt strongly enough about the dangers of tuition increases that they drove over to Friday's meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors -- from Boone.
Related link:
http://www.news-record.com/news/education/tuition_032004.htm
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=news&Story=6241353
http://newsobserver.com/nc24hour/ncnews/story/3433487p-3052163c.html

UNC system skimpy here, brimful there
The News & Observer
On the first day of English classes at UNC-Chapel Hill, it's not unusual for professors to tell students they can't afford to hand out photocopies anymore. State budget cuts have put the department's Xerox machine off limits.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/nc24hour/ncnews/story/3439074p-3056847c.html

Tuition package answers political pressure (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The members of UNC system's Board of Governors don't have much taste for another round of tuition increases. But given the current policies of the N.C. General Assembly, they don't have much choice in the matter.

A future here in biotechnology?
The Charlotte Observer
For decades, Gaston County's manufacturing jobs have been primarily in the textile industry....Seymour said biotechnology companies already have a strong presence in the Research Triangle Park in Raleigh largely because of the three research universities in that area -- UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and N.C. State.

UNC workers fired over misused funds
The News & Observer
The UNC-Chapel Hill medical school radiology department spent $43,000 more in state money than needed on 100 toner cartridges, nearly five times what it should have, according to an internal audit.
Related link:
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-460751.html

Changes to plan welcome, but more needed (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
After a round of revisions, UNC's plan for Carolina North is closer to being something actually worth building. But it's still not ready.

Carolina North changes are nod to critics
The Chapel Hill News
UNC has proposed changes to its draft plan for Carolina North to try to ease town residents' and leaders' worries about the large satellite campus slated for development on the 963-acre Horace Williams tract off Airport Road.

Low-tech scopes put away
The News & Observer
In some science classrooms, microscopes appear headed the way of turntables, eight-track tape players and granddad's corded phone....UNC-Chapel Hill biologists this year introduced a virtual scope that does things the originals could not, such as display differently magnified images at once.

U.S. fines often bypass victims
The Charlotte Observer
Had the record $675 million settlement that Bank of America Corp. and FleetBoston Financial Corp. agreed to pay for mutual fund misdeeds occurred two years ago, investors would have seen far less....No matter, the fines should act as a deterrent, said Lissa Broome, a UNC Chapel Hill law professor who heads the school's Center for Banking and Finance.

Posing of actors as reporters is on rise
The Charlotte Observer
It sounds just like a news report. A professional-sounding voice says transportation leaders are calling on Congress to spend more on transit, then introduces a sound bite from Charlotte transit chief Ron Tober....But prepackaged news reports are probably employed by TV and radio stations more than most viewers realize, said C.A. Tuggle, a former TV news reporter in Tampa, Fla., who is now a broadcast journalism professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

What s in a name?
The Kinston Free Press
Despite all that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for - unity, hope and equality, for instance - his legacy divided Kinston for years...."It's a matter of power," said M. Richard Cramer, an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina.

UNC order tried to ease frat-nonfrat enmity
The News & Observer
Scroll through the membership roster of the Order of the Golden Fleece, an honorary society at UNC-Chapel Hill, and you'll see the names of governors, senators, scholars, educators, lawyers, judges, scientists, writers, financiers, musicians, entrepreneurs, athletes and coaches.

Students have right to ideas (Commentary)
The News & Observer
Last year, when Carolina Students for Life tried to be included in the annual Women's Week at UNC-Chapel Hill, they were told they'd applied too late.

Issues and Trends

Downtown Commission plays important role (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Downtown revitalization efforts for Chapel Hill are on a promising track, following a final meeting last week of the mayor's downtown steering committee.

Council will hear public on downtown
The Herald Sun
The Town Council will take comments on Monday on a downtown market study compiled by an economics research firm that looked at what kinds of new development the downtown area could and couldn't support in the next few years.

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Russell Campbell at News Services, (919) 962-2091, russell_campbell@unc.edu, or Mike McFarland in University Communications, 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.