March 29, 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

Obesity is caused by fructose
Pravada Russia
Fructose, the sweetener used in soft drinks, baked goods and juice drinks, might be the key factor for the increase in obesity across the United States, scientists said....High-fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper to produce than sugars from cane and beets, began being more widely used in the late 1980s and 1990s when Americans' weight started creeping up, says Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Fake blood's real issue of lifesaving against ethics
The Scotsman (Glasgow, Scotland)
Paramedics in five cities in the United States have started infusing experimental artificial blood into victims of car crashes, shootings and other life-threatening emergencies - without first getting their consent....But Dr Nancy King, who teaches medical and research ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, has several reservations about the study, including how valid it is to obtain "community consent" in the place of individual consent.

National Coverage

Office for Civil Rights to Investigate UNC Instructor's Conduct
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The U.S. Department of Education will investigate an incident at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in which an instructor sent an e-mail message to her class accusing a student of "hate speech." During a class discussion, the student had expressed objections to homosexuality.
The National Associated Press also distributed a story based on local media reports. See below for local coverage.
Subscription required.

Clean and Green Get a Head of Steam
The Chronicle of Higher Education
In 2000 students at the University of Colorado at Boulder voted to purchase alternative energy for three student-run buildings....Since the Boulder effort, students at Connecticut College, Eastern University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have voluntarily increased their activity fees to help finance green-power purchases.
Subscription required.

Emerging face of HIV
Chicago Tribune
The middle-age couple living in a trailer park in this small farming community have kept a secret from their friends and neighbors for more than five years: Both are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS...."We don't believe this is unique to North Carolina because these men are likely to travel to campuses all over the Southeast to meet partners," said Dr. Peter Leone, an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina who helped conduct the study.

New prescription-drug program fails to produce expected boost for Bush
(Orlando) Sun-Sentinel
Hit with accusations from the left and the right, the Bush administration's attempts to promote a new prescription-drug program are colliding with skeptical reactions from senior citizens and controversies about the way it was sold to Congress...."If you take what is happening with Medicare and add it to the credibility problems about the war, you've got this larger issue about the administration and truth-telling. No doubt that's a political problem," said Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina and author of The Political Life of Medicare.

Europe confronts weighty matter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An old man sat down to lunch the other day at a cafe along the Place du Capitole in the heart of this city in southwestern France....Dr. Barry M. Popkin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill headed a study last year that identified increased consumption of sugar -- mainly in soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks -- as a critical change in global diet since World War II.

Regional Coverage

Welcome economic news (Editorial)
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
Economists often disagree. But few economists now dispute the obvious fact that the U.S. economy is, at worst, on the rise, and at best, accelerating into a major boom....In his keynote address, Professor James F. Smith of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School hailed 2004 as "the best year for economic growth in the United States in the last 20 years."

State & Local Coverage

UNC's fraternity system needs fixing (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Every few years, a prestigious national university makes headlines in a way it would prefer not to....There are problems with the fraternities at UNC and the university owes thanks to members of its Board of Trustees for speaking publicly about those concerns.

'Dying' Greek system tries more changes
The Herald-Sun
It's called "brother kidnapping," and in the UNC fraternity world, it's something of an accepted practice...."The problem is how it happens," said David Gilbert, an assistant dean of students.

Trustees make right parking fee decision (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
It's not easy and it's not cheap to park on the UNC campus. Some of that is by happenstance; some of that is by design....There are nearly 1,000 UNC workers in that lowest economic tier who currently have campus parking permits.

Dispute at UNC spurs bias probe
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education, the result of a controversial classroom incident last month involving a student who expressed conservative views in class and a professor who criticized him for it.

E-mail sparks federal probe
The News & Observer
UNC-Chapel Hill is under investigation by federal authorities for an incident in February in which an English instructor singled out a student for "hate speech" after the student spoke out against homosexuality.

Full text of Chancellor Moeser's remarks to Faculty Council on intellectual freedom and the English class issue:
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar04/remarks032604.html

Guinier: Race can bare other problems
The Herald-Sun
The obstacles that black people face should be seen as symptoms of a larger problem, a civil rights activist and author said Saturday during a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that led to school desegregation....Guinier was one of two keynote speakers during the daylong symposium at UNC, called "The Quest for Equality in Education, Then, Now and Tomorrow: Brown v. Board of Education 50 Years Later."

Folk remedies still widely used in rural N.C.
The Charlotte Observer
They mix honey, lemon juice and whiskey. They make herbal tinctures and teas....Arcury and three colleagues at UNC Chapel Hill interviewed 1,059 adults in 12 rural, mountain counties in 1999 about access to and use of health-care resources.

New kind of pharmacy opens up in Belmont
The Charlotte Observer
Robert Barnhill's wholepharm is an ultra-hip Belmont pharmacy where he dispenses traditional prescription medicines alongside doses of natural and herbal products....Fred Eckel, executive director of the N.C. Association of Pharmacists and a professor at UNC Chapel Hill, said pharmacies and medical schools have begun to embrace a broader, holistic approach to health care.

Technology gets personal in NCSU classrooms
The News & Observer
It's difficult for some college students to imagine, but a long time ago -- three or four years at least -- everyone on campus did not have a cell phone....PDAs began working their way into graduate schools a couple of years ago and are now standard issue or highly recommended in some classes, such as the physician assistant program at Duke University and nursing programs at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mill's tales spin again
The News & Observer
Drew Lasater talked plenty with her grandmother, a former millworker, before the elder woman's death a few years ago....Decades ago, the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill ensured that these stories wouldn't be forgotten.

Town, UNC prepare for fight
The Chapel Hill News
If the town and university were boxers, it's safe to say they've been huddled away in a gym somewhere with their trainers, readying for a bout over Carolina North.

Town idles on parking plans; no firm answers, but no lost spots
The Herald-Sun
If the town pulls off its plan to turn two downtown parking lots into a mix of shops, homes and public gathering spaces, then bringing more people to shop, eat, live and play along Franklin and Rosemary streets would be one of the benefits.

UNC Employee Forum, Dell offer computer package
The Herald-Sun
With two children in college, money's tight around the Griffin household these days....Tommy Griffin, chairman of UNC's Employee Forum, recently bought his family a new Dell desktop computer, taking advantage of a new university program offering a basic, workable system for under $500.

Campus festival explores music made and re-made
The Chapel Hill News
Just as writers tinker with their sentences, composers also frequently revise and rethink their own creations...."Just hearing familiar music in an unfamiliar guise forces us to engage with that music in different ways," said Timothy Carter, musicologist and professor of music.

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.