March 28, 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

Media industry grapples with commuter dailies
Toronto Star
If you can't join them, meet them on their terms.....Milking every bit of profit out of repurposed content is "the rational thing" for newspaper executives to do today, suggested Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina Knight Chair in journalism and author of The Vanishing Newspaper, in a recent interview with Leonard Witt (pjnet.org/weblogs).
Registration required.

Soap and water still best way to get rid of viruses, bacteria
The London Free Press (London, Ontario)
In an era of SARS, when consumers are inundated with new personal cleansing products, it seems plain old fashioned soap and water is the best way to get rid of disease-causing viruses and bacteria....."The best thing to use against interrupting the transmission of bacteria and viruses is soap and water," said Dr. Emily Sickbert-Bennett, a public health epidemiologist with the University of North Carolina Health Care System and the UNC School of Public Health.

National Coverage

Campus life now tethered to gadgets
USA Today
The American college campus, long an oasis of scholarship and coming-of-age, is being transformed by a more palpable force: an armada of laptops, cell phones and perpetual connectivity.....Dan Reed, UNC's IT chief, says focus on technology prepares students for a wired world. "You have to keep up with the Joneses," Reed says. "Students expect high-bandwidth information, and if you can't deliver it, you're at a competitive disadvantage."

Regulation Has Curbed Abuses, But Experts Say Diligence Is Needed
The Washington Post
A mass-marketed tax-shelter industry that exploded in the boom years of the 1990s appears to be in retreat, driven by congressional action, a government crackdown and economic factors that have pushed major accounting firms back to their core businesses....The largest accounting firms, including Ernst & Young International, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd. and KPMG International, have scaled back their shelter creation and marketing divisions and moved back to their core business of corporate auditing, said Douglas A. Shackelford, an accounting professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Edwards Tosses His Hat Into . . . Podcasting
The Washington Post
John Edwards may be out of office, but that doesn't mean you still can't hear him.....Edwards, who is running a poverty center at the University of North Carolina and is believed to be pondering another run for the White House, wasn't known for his tech savvy during his 2004 campaign.

Eye off the Ball
Scientific American
Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Concussion, Arthritis, Torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament and The Pile.....Researchers look at the effect of these forces at the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes, a joint (perhaps the only intact joint in football) project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Football League Players Association.

A bold venture: creating an "electronic town square" with blogs
The Associated Press (National)
It's a journalist's job to ask questions, but they're usually aimed at outsiders....."It's a wonderful idea," said Phil Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Family factors into return to religion
Arizona Republic
Marcelo Olibarria said it all began when his children started to ask tough questions.....Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, contends that kids with religious backgrounds are better able to handle life's challenges.

Celeb and their Causses
The Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Tx.)
What's a glamorous superstar like Cybill Shepherd doing here in Fort Worth, early in the morning, talking about constipation before she jets off to Toronto to film a new two-hour CBS television movie about Martha Stewart?...."It's not that it is difficult to diagnose, but people don't talk about their bowels much with their primary care physicians," says Dr. Stephen Furs, a gastroenterologist who participated in a double-blind clinical study on Zelnorm at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Whose life is it?
The Orange County Register (Calif.)
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, rejecting an appeal by her parents to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive. Here are excerpts of recent opinion columns about the case.....Martha Henderson, retired faculty member and geriatric nurse practitioner who has joint appointments in both the Schools of Nursing and Medicine at the University of North Carolina. She also serves on the Ethics Consult Committee at UNC Hospital.

Teens turn on to fresh veggie taste
Contra Costa Times (Calif.)
The teens on hand to work the Richmond EcoVillage garden wanted no part of it - not the mud, the mess, and certainly not spreading manure.....Generally, the more supermarkets a neighborhood has, the more fruits and vegetables its residents eat, say the authors of a 2002 University of North Carolina study.

A Ruth-less way of giving Bonds his due (Commentary)
The Daily News (Los Angeles)
Some brave reporter is going to approach Barry Bonds very soon and dare ask: Considering you're pretty much finished, where would you rank yourself among baseball's all-time greats?....Now, consider Michael Schele, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina who just published "Baseball's All Time Best Sluggers: Adjusted Batting Performance from Strikeouts to Home Runs."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at The Post
The Washington Post
The following is a transcript of an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's by Post editors and reporters in the Post newsroom on Friday, March 25, 2005.....And whenever we go to a foreign country, one thing that I think the president finds really impressive is the foreign government is seeing that side of the table, and at least half of them have been to Texas A&M or the University of North Carolina or Harvard or some place, because that student exchange and foreign exchange and visitor exchange is just an extremely important part of getting our people there and people back.

Hail, Fellows, Well Met (Opinion and Editorial Column)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Six years ago in these pages I described an unusual fellowship program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ("Why Professors Should Learn to Be Fund Raisers," November 13, 1998). At the time, I thought the program was a valuable one, but I had no idea how much it would influence my views on how students learn and the extent to which students are capable of teaching themselves.....Robert C. Allen is a professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former director of the university's honors program.
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State & Local Coverage

The path to wealth (Editorial)
News & Record (Greensboro)
The path out of poverty begins with a paycheck. It ends with the accumulation of assets....Good initiatives are under way or on the table and should be expanded. UNC-Chapel Hill's "Carolina Covenant" promises that qualifying students from poor families can attend at no cost, equipping them with the ability to climb the economic ladder.

UNC's expanded money pool to give 4-year scholarships to students of merit
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
The expansion of UNC's merit-based scholarship program will make life considerably easier for 60 more students next fall....."Clearly, we want to attract more top high school graduating seniors," said UNC Chancellor James Moeser. "We want to keep more of North Carolina's best here at home."
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/merit032405.html

UNC-CH bids to keep best
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill will offer new merit-based scholarships in an attempt to keep more of North Carolina's brainiest kids from leaving the state for college.

UNC system may face 4% cuts
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
With the state still saddled with a billion-dollar budget shortfall, North Carolina's public universities are being asked to explain how they'd go about shaving 4 percent from next year's operating budgets....On the Chapel Hill campus Thursday, Chancellor James Moeser said that while the university will lobby legislators heavily, the cuts could come -- and would be painful.

Universities, legislators wringing hands over potential cuts
The Associated Press (N.C.)
State officials are already wringing their hands over potential spending reductions that would go beyond Gov. Mike Easley's budget proposal....University of North Carolina system leaders say the latest round of spending reductions could be worse compared to previous years, leading to faculty layoffs and larger class sizes.

Budget cuts would slash UNC's faculty, classes
The Daily Tar Heel
They've embarked on an extensive capital fund-raising campaign and tried their hand at hiking tuition.....The potential cuts - which amount to more than $16.3 million - would force the University to shave away 65 filled and unfilled faculty positions, to lose 50 to 60 faculty members to competing institutions and to cut 200 class sections.

Trustee bashes board's tuition freeze
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
An influential UNC-Chapel Hill trustee blasted the state's top higher education governing board Thursday, saying a recent decision to freeze in-state tuition was unfair to North Carolina's flagship university.

This campus is not just one of many (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
A good ol' boy from Walnut Cove, N.C., who flourished in boardrooms and rose through the ranks of a variety of industries before returning to academia, Paul Fulton never lost touch with his downhome roots. All the years in corporate suites never cured him of a plain-spokeness -- some would say outspokenness. He still calls it like he sees it.

Hyde named to Board of Trustees
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The UNC system Board of Governors has appointed Barbara Rosser Hyde of Memphis, Tenn., to a four-year term on the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/trustee032405.html

UNC fans rally, save firepower
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Franklin Street was a cacophony of blaring car horns and hooting fans Sunday evening, as Tar Heel basketball fans celebrated their team's trip to the Final Four.l
Related link: http://tarheelblue.collegesports.com/

State honors UNC's campus green efforts
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC has been recognized by the state for its environmental efforts...."This award is particularly gratifying because it reflects a successful collaboration on the part of our entire community: faculty, staff and students," Douglas Crawford-Brown, director of the Carolina Environmental Program, said.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/sustainability032305.html

Frank Porter Graham officials map out First School plans
The Chapel Hill Herald
For most 4- and 5-year olds, the step to kindergarten is a pretty big one.....Now, building on the theory that attending preschool is key to future academic success, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is launching a plan that researchers think might ease that transition.

Morehead scholar takes a stand against hate
The Chapel Hill Herald
When UNC sophomore Win Chesson heard what had happened on Franklin Street, he was shocked...."I was really surprised when I first found out that a fellow student had been attacked on Franklin Street," said Chesson, a Chapel Hill native and Morehead Scholar.

Pearls from Wall Street
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Carla Harris has some pretty fierce financial chops. And she can sing too.....She is scheduled to speak on leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler business school Tuesday.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar05/deanspeaker030105.html

A state of changes (Editorial)
News & Record (Greensboro)
North Carolina's population is changing in two dramatic ways. It's getting older, and it's increasingly infused with immigrants....[James H.] Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, says the issues of aging and immigration "have to be joined at the hip if we are to deal with economic challenges."

Money woes push some to reconsider state lottery
The Associated Press (N.C.)
For years, North Carolina has held out against the nation's lottery boom, making it the largest of just 10 states in the nation without government-run gambling....."There is that strain in our state genetic makeup, that we're a fiercely independent state, a state that doesn't just follow the crowd, a state that just follows its own impulses," said Ferrell Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Future drugs might prevent Alzheimer's
The Charlotte Observer
Researchers have made great progress in understanding Alzheimer's disease, but the "magic bullet still eludes us," says Virginia neurologist Dr. David Geldmacher.....The next generation of drugs is being tested by Geldmacher and others, including researchers at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Region's connection to rest of the world (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
How do you describe in a few words the dramatic post-World War II changes to our Southern region? We are no longer the segregated, inward-looking "backwater" of our country, as many of our fellow Americans viewed us until recently.....One important change is our growing connection to the rest of the world. UNC-Chapel Hill professor Bill Ferris, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, makes this point by telling about an American business leader traveling to London.

Ethics are 'a few steps above the law'
The Winston-Salem Journal
The grumbling started in the courthouse hallway right after trial of Commissioner Fred Sink of Davidson County....But when you start bringing home boxes of pens for your kids to take to school, said Richard Myers, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, you're crossing a line.

Future: It's certain that it is uncertain (Commentary)
The Winston-Salem Journal
A National Football League tryout camp led a network sportscaster to utter one of the most annoying phrases afield today in the Land of Babble....One exception: Phil Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, implied fairly strongly that there'll be a newspaper industry still functioning when I retire in 2016. But maybe not much longer than that.

Will newspapers outlast Social Security? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Philip Meyer is a newspaperman who thinks he can measure anything. He claims, for instance, that love is quantifiable....It's not a 'fer stretch, therefore, for Meyer, Knight professor of journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, to presume that he can measure the quality of journalism at newspapers.

Orange's school systems seek more money
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At the outset of what could be a bruising budget season, both of Orange County's superintendents are preparing to request millions in increases for new and ongoing school projects....This year, the county district may have extra leverage with commissioners. A study by a UNC-Chapel Hill education professor has catalogued disparities between the city and county schools and encourages commissioners to help fund more specialists and find better transportation for after-school programs.

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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