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March 14, 2005
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:International Coverage
You can't beat soap and water
The Daily Mail (U.K.)
For ridding hands of viruses, nothing beats old fashioned soap and water, scientists say....The researchers, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, recommend that ordinary soap should be used in hospitals as well as waterless hand rubs and wipes.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/rutala031005.htmlMore women fat than underfed
The Daily Times (Pakistan)
Many more women around the world are overweight than underfed, even in poor countries and rural areas, according to a report....Michelle Mendez and Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina and Carlos Monteiro of Sao Paulo University collected data on body mass index, a measurement of height versus weight, from nearly 150,000 women aged 20 to 49 in the three dozen countries.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/popkin030805.htmlNational Coverage
Revised SAT Debuts
"All Things Considered" National Public Radio
For the first time in a decade, the SAT college entrance exam has been revised. The verbal analogy section was dropped, an essay segment was added and the math portion was changed to more closely parallel what's being taught in high schools. Two college admissions officers -- North Carolina's Dr. Jerry Lucido and Carleton College's Paul Thiboutot -- talk about how they'll use test results.
Scientist tracks mass cricket migration
The Associated Press (National)
Armed with a glue gun and radio transmitters the size of a penny, a University of North Carolina scientist is trying to stop mass insect migrations that devastate ranches in the mountain West.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb05/lorch021505.htmlResearch's benefits too late
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Kevin Guskiewicz arrived as a graduate assistant trainer with the Steelers the season after Mike Webster left. Their timing remains off a decade and a half later....Guskiewicz has become a University of North Carolina professor and director of the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes, where research on NFL retirees having an accelerated rate of dementia-related conditions might have benefited the Hall of Fame center of the Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, were he still alive.
As corporate taxes shrink, who pays?
The Christian Science Monitor
Outside in the parking lot, demonstrators held signs saying the federal income tax is unconstitutional. Inside, in a former furniture store turned software firm, President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform was holding a public hearing, this one on corporate taxes....This downward drift has resulted from three factors, says Douglas Shackleford, a tax professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Texas leads the nation in total home foreclosures
San Antonio Express-News
Texas has earned bragging rights in a dubious arena: Homeowners went to foreclosure in 2004 in total numbers that far exceeded any other state....Roberto Quercia, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill associate professor and expert on housing counseling programs, said the counseling industry is widespread but there is no research that proves it makes low-income borrowers less likely to default.'Body burden' tests are beyond reach for public
San Mateo County Times, CA
Want to know the level of environmental toxins in your blood?...."There's no advice you would give them about living their lives in any way as a result of giving them that test," said David Savitz, chairman of the University of North Carolina's Department of Epidemiology and president of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.
Fighting for their flag
Sun-Sentinel (Orlando)
For Erving Perez, a medic from Nicaragua, U.S. citizenship might be the gateway to a career with the FBI. For Vallon Guy, a mechanic from Haiti, it was a way to get a better footing in the country where he hopes to start a business one day.....Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina, said fast-track naturalization sends a powerful message.
Regional Coverage
Trade with Cuba is not letter-writer's real interest (Opinion-Editorial Column)
Naples Daily News (Fla.)
From time to time, articles appear in the Naples Daily News purporting to call for trade with Cuba, but more often then not they are rambling vendettas against the Florida Cuban-American population....James A. Van Fleet, J.D., Ph.D., is a professor emeritus from the University of North Carolina and a former dean and associate provost for academic and international affairs.
Weight? It's not so sporty for pro jocks (Commentary)
The Clarion Ledger (Miss.)
It has been my experience that there are two kinds of grocery store people in this world: Little Debbie people. Celery stalk people....Groceries have been much in the news the last week or two because of a study out of the University of North Carolina that claims 56 percent of National Football League players are gigantic fat guys.
Straight from the heart
Munster Times (Ind.)
As a reporter for the Panther Press at Griffith High School, Dave Lohse was one of those Type A personalities who spoke his mind and was not intimidated....Sunday's NCAA tournament draw once again had Lohse on the edge of his seat. For the past 15 years, he has served as the University of North Carolina's associate athletic communications director.
State & Local Coverage
UNC's health system is moving toward more effective medicine (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Recent media coverage has focused on several of the improvement initiatives the UNC Health Care System is implementing to help strengthen our institution. As the state's public, not-for-profit health care system, we believe it's important for North Carolinians to understand our motivations for improvement and the benefits that lie ahead for those we serve....William L. Roper, M.D. CEO, UNC Health Care System
UNC prescribes research growth
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
A $600,000, two-year clinical research agreement between Quintiles Inc. and UNC is kicking off a program that's expected to bring more experimental medicine to UNC patients, open doors to new funding sources and train more specialists to do medical research, officials said.
UNC wants to expand program for new professorships
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
State legislators saw fit a year ago to give the UNC system $8 million for a fund to create professorships, a whopping sum that helped the university clear out a massive backlog of private donations awaiting matching money.
'Societal norms' work against women in science (Question and Answer)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It was January when Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers gave the now infamous speech in which he suggested that "intrinsic aptitude" was one reason fewer women than men make it to the top in mathematics and science.....Laurie McNeil, chairwoman of the physics and astronomy department at UNC-Chapel Hill, often speaks out about women in science and the stereotypical images of scientists.
Bigger isn't necessarily healthier in NFL
The Charlotte Observer
Mike Rucker remembers, early in his Carolina Panthers career, holding his nose as he ate because he was so tired of stuffing himself with food....Obesity among NFL players was the focus of a recent University of North Carolina study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Related link:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/football/nfl/carolina_panthers/11124316.htmWinners: A full ride to UNC
6 Triangle students win Morehead awards
The Charlotte Observer
Nine Charlotte-region high school students are among 43 from across the United States and Great Britain to receive the prominent Morehead scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/morehead2005.html
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Forty-three winners of UNC-Chapel Hill's prestigious Morehead Scholarships were announced Friday, including 24 from North Carolina and six from the Triangle.
Related links: http://www.shelbystar.com/portal/ASP/article.asp?ID=14751
http://www.reflector.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/02/13/20050213GDRmorehead.htmlWhat brings teens to God, to church? (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
I've always thought that a lot of teenagers hang out at a house of worship for the same reason a lot of other teenagers hang out at the mall.....The National Study of Youth and Religion based at UNC-Chapel Hill found that teens generally say they feel close to God.
Mormon teens cope best
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It's still dark when 16 Mormon teenagers file into a Durham church classroom at 6:20 a.m. and take turns reading a chapter from the Gospel of Luke....A groundbreaking study of American teenagers and religion conducted at UNC-Chapel Hill finds that of all the religious groups surveyed, Mormons fared best at avoiding risky behaviors, doing well in school and having a positive attitude about the future. Conservative Protestants came in second.
Rock of ages
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In a cramped lesson room at Harry's Guitar Shop, teacher and student sit face to face with acoustic guitars to pick a little history. "You have a good week?" asks the teacher, Scott Miller, 40, sitting under an AC/DC poster. "How'd it go with the Zeppelin?"....John Covach has taught rock-history classes at UNC-Chapel Hill for a decade. Classic rock's 1967-75 heyday remains a consistent favorite era of his students.
People
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-CHAPEL HILL
KATHERINE ANN ESCHELBACH of Chapel Hill has won the 2005 Walter B. Jones Memorial Award for Excellence in Coastal and Marine Graduate Study.
MARK CROWELL, UNC-CH's associate vice chancellor for economic development and technology transfer, was recently named president of the board of trustees for the Association of University Technology Managers.
ERIC W. HIRSH, son of Donald and Lisa Hirsh of Carrboro, a junior with a double major in music and physics, has received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award.
Note: These briefs were not available online.Right to reject a lottery (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The most compelling reason for not having a state lottery in North Carolina is precisely the same argument its proponents give for why we need one -- education.....Nationally acclaimed UNC-Chapel Hill economist James Smith is candid in his assessment of where lottery spending comes from.
Info on incentives elusive
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Mike Pate wanted to know why state officials handed a $5.2 million tax break to the top competitor of his Goldsboro restaurant supply business, Pate Dawson Co....Michael Luger, director of the Center for Competitive Economies at UNC Chapel Hill's business school, said that although state subsidies are largely symbolic for many companies, they value them for improving their ability to compete and boosting their bottom line.
Charlotte woman witnesses political change in Uruguay
The Charlotte Observer
Emily Vasquez, a former Observer intern and Charlotte resident, was in Uruguay this month when Tabare Vazquez was inaugurated as that country's first-ever left-wing president. Vasquez was there as part of her public policy studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. She submitted the following article based on what she observed.
New Bern man to receive national advertising honor
Sun Journal (New Bern)
With Harry Jacobs, you get what is advertised -- literally....He is a lecturer and has served on eight university boards, including East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina School of Journalism.
Board of Adjustment to get hearing Monday
The Charlotte Observer
When the Union County Board of Adjustment last fall approved a permit Wal-Mart needs to build a store near Marvin, members knew their ruling would be controversial....N.C. legal precedent gives the commissioners the right to dissolve boards, said Richard Ducker, a public law and government professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government.
Carteret reels in research
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Year after year, sailors scrape a nuisance that looks like scraggly moss off the bottom of boats moored in Bogue Sound.....So UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, N.C. State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tend coastal outposts strung along U.S. 70 from Morehead City to Beaufort.
The class acts in NCAA tourney graduate athletes (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
So, who should win the National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament? The nod should go to UNC-Chapel Hill -- on academic performance.
Dream catcher
The Chapel Hill News
The ones P.J. Disclafani feels sorry for are the ones who tell him that, as far as they know, they don't dream at all...."The most common response I get is that they don't remember what they dreamed last night," said Disclafani, a student at UNC and a DJ on the university's WXYC-FM radio station.
First-string fiddler
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The new technology that was to air an award-winning documentary film about Joe Thompson showed only a terse "No Input."....UNC-Chapel Hill professor of folklore Bill Ferris, who moderated the historical society's celebration of Thompson's life and music Sunday, said Thompson is one of the few remaining links to a little-known chapter in America's musical heritage: rural African-American string bands.
Related link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/our_town/snapshots/story/2205688p-8586787c.htmlCharlie Poole gets his due
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It's only right that Charlie Poole's hometown should be in on the new box set of the storied banjo player's music....Poole will also be in the spotlight next month at UNC-Chapel Hill in a conference called "Dynamic Legacies: Charlie Poole and the Evolution and Transmission of the Southern String Band Tradition." Sapoznik will be there, too.
Exhibit reaches beyond Bearden
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The image is familiar, the vividly colored scene of a piano teacher and student, "Homage to Mary Lou (The Piano Lesson)," a signature work by Charlotte-born Romare Bearden.....The Hewitts, whose collection was tapped for a show at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, were a middle-income couple who over a lifetime bought the art they loved and could afford, eventually amassing more than 50 pieces by some of the premiere names in early African-American art.
Issues & Trends
Ante Up at Dear Old Princeton: Online Poker Is a Campus Draw
The New York Times
For Michael Sandberg, it started a few years ago with nickel-and-dime games among friends. But last fall, he says, it became the source of a six-figure income and an alternative to law school....In December, for example, a sorority at Columbia held its first, 80-player poker tournament with a $10 buy-in, a minimum amount required to play, while the University of North Carolina held its first tournament, a 175-player competition, in October.
Leadership as Layup?
The Wall Street Journal
Last October, Tim Jeffries, chief operating officer of a small Scottsdale, Ariz., firm that develops and markets mobile accessories, found himself in an unlikely place in search of management tips: Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of Duke University's men's basketball team....Meanwhile, Dean Smith, former men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina , co-wrote "The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life In Coaching," with Gerald Bell, a leadership expert at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Related link: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110986963239969603,00.html
Subscription required.Giving key to colleges' success
News & Record (Greensboro)
Those letters you get every so often from your alma mater are more than notes to see how you're doing....Both public and private colleges and universities rely upon fund raising -- both annual gifts and donations to the institution's endowment -- to provide funding for a little bit of everything, from scholarships to light bills, and to ensure the financial health of an institution.
Open meetings
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Most meetings of state and local government bodies must occur in the open, and anyone can attend. So when a majority of your town council or school board meets to discuss or act on official business, they must do it in public....These laws apply only to government agencies, not to private organizations. At the college level, for example, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and N.C. Central University are bound by openness rules.
Some question school study
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Nine months, an intense election and $25,000 later, was a study into disparities between Orange County's two school systems worth it?...The Orange County Commissioners will review it at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Chapel Hill's Southern Human Services Center with the UNC-Chapel Hill team they paid to create it.
Related links: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/saturday/city_state/story/2206184p-8587206c.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/print/saturday/city_state/story/2206184p-8587204c.htmlHere we go again, downtown
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Monday morning at inner Durham's Bare Square, a parking lot on Corcoran Street where the Jack Tar Hotel once stood, our town's luminaries plan to break ground to revitalize downtown....In 1949, UNC geographer Coy Phillips described downtown as "complicated and confused," with "dead-end streets, traffic bottle-necks, and wedge-shaped business blocks."
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/newsserv/clipsindex.htm.
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