March 1, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Mapping Voyages Back in Time
The Wall Street Journal
Today and tomorrow mark the seventh year of the annual Humanities Advocacy Day campaign, which promotes federal support for scholarly research, education and public programs in the humanities, otherwise known as the liberal arts. ...The constant need to update information led to the establishment of Chapel Hill's Ancient World Mapping Center (www.unc.edu/awmc), of which Prof. Talbert is now acting director. The center is comfortably based on the fifth floor of the UNC library, and is open to all who are interested in the field. The Web site itself is very clearly organized, with existing and planned links to a variety of basic areas, as well as a very rich research page with further links of its own. In January, the center received a $390,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a multilingual online workspace for updating and expanding information about ancient geography.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/ancientmapping012506.htm

House Always Wins?
Entrepreneur Magazine
There are two schools of thought on last year's 12.02 percent rise in home prices: Either it means the market is healthy and mortgage rates are low enough that homes remain in high demand, or it means home prices are inflated and buyers cannot continue to support such increases. The uncertainty of whether a housing bubble even exists leaves many entrepreneurs hanging in the balance while they wait to see how changes in the real estate market might affect the economy and their businesses. To help sort out the dilemma are Bill Fleckenstein, president of Fleckenstein Capital in Issaquah, Washington, and author of the "Market Rap" column at www.fleckensteincapital.com , and James F. Smith, chief economist with Parsec Financial and a University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, finance professor.
Note: No link available.

Regional Coverage

Farrell, Pumphrey & Mathews: Voucher deal is about money, not education or hope for poor (Opinion-editorial column)
The Capital Times (Madison, Wis.)
The recently agreed upon voucher deal struck by Gov. Jim Doyle and state Assembly Speaker John Gard is about money and not quality education for the poor. Although heralded as the educational salvation of low-income minority, principally African-American, students in the Milwaukee Public Schools, this deal will increase the number of students eligible to participate, most of whom will not be poor and minority. ...Walter C. Farrell Jr. is professor of social work and associate director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Saving a Tooth
KPHO-TV (CBS, Phoenix)
According to the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation, 3 million teeth are knocked out yearly in the United States. If you suddenly see your child’s permanent tooth on the ground, hold it by the crown and briefly rinse it under cool running water, says Martin Trope, professor of endodontics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Don’t scrub the tooth or touch its root.

State & Local Coverage

University right to raise benchmarks (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Under the chancellorship of James Moeser, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has made no secret of its ambition to become "the leading state university" in the land. With programs like the Carolina Computing Initiative and the Carolina Covenant, it wants to set the pace for the other elite public universities in the nation and be the best among the Virginias, Michigans and the others.
Fortunately, the university's leaders are also smart enough to know that sometimes to lead, you have to follow.

Higher Education and Social Change
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
William Ferris, professor of history and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, and Jesse White, director of the Office of Economic and Business Development at UNC-Chapel Hill and former co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, were featured on today's (March 1) edition of "The State of Things." As the Navigating the Global South Conference gets underway at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Friday Center, Ferris and White discuss the role the state’s institutions of higher learning can play in effecting social change. "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 6 a.m. on Saturdays.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/navigatingsouth022006.htm

Tuition to be based on credit hours?
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The UNC system is considering having students pay tuition by the number of credit hours they take, instead of by an annual lump sum, but some administrators at the Chapel Hill campus say the proposed switch could discourage students from taking a varied and heavy course load. ... But Steve Allred, UNC's executive associate provost, said that benefit might be more relevant to non-Chapel Hill students. He said academic -- and not financial -- considerations should be paramount in making a switch. "Bookkeeping is not a good reason for changing," said Allred, who sat in for UNC Chapel Hill Provost Robert Shelton at last week's meeting of provosts.
Related Link: http://dwb.newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_news/story/2904134p-9357557c.html

UNC students to host symposium
The Chapel Hill Herald
In an effort to respond positively to the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina, UNC students are hosting a national policy symposium Friday and Saturday. Co-founded by three students in August 2005, the UNC chapter of the Roosevelt Institution has seven policy centers, as well as the Special Center on Emergency Preparedness and Relief. The centers focus on topics as diverse as education policy and urban development.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/roosevelt022206.htm

Exhibition held for 'UNC father'
The Chapel Hill Herald
An exhibition honoring the "father" of UNC is on display at Wilson Library through June 30. Nearly 50 artifacts, images, books and documents relating to William Richardson Davie can be seen in the library's North Carolina Collection Gallery. "William Richardson Davie: Soldier, Statesman and Founder of the University of North Carolina" coincides with the 250th anniversary of Davie's birth on June 22, 1756.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/davieexhibition022306.htm

In the groove
The Chapel Hill News
Chapel Hill rhythms will be syncopated this weekend as hundreds of jazz musicians convene for the annual Carolina Jazz Festival, a four-day event that starts today on the UNC campus. The event will permit jazz players of every caliber to swap notes in the performances, competitions, clinics and workshops, highlighted by a performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. The 18-piece orchestra, directed by pianist Arturo O'Farrill, will perform at Memorial Hall on Friday night. Among the other artists slated to perform are the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, the UNC Jazz Band and Charanga Carolina.
UNC News Releases: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/jazz021706.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/jazzschedule021706.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/jazzbios021706.htm

Poet Tom Sleigh to discuss work
The Chapel Hill Herald
Poet Tom Sleigh will read and discuss his work at the spring Blanche Armfield Poetry Reading at 3:30 p.m. March 23 in UNC's Greenlaw Hall's Donovan Lounge. The reading is sponsored by the UNC English department's Creative Writing Program and is free to the public.
UNC News Brief: http://www.unc.edu/news/briefs/2006/022106.htm

Gay film will kick off discussion
The Chapel Hill Herald
A special screening of the new historical documentary "Gay Sex in the 70s," which is currently playing in theaters across the country, will be the focus of a screening and panel discussion at UNC's Carroll Hall on March 8. Following the screening, director Joe Lovett and producer Sean Kaminsky will participate in an audience Q&A and a panel discussion with UNC, Duke and N.C. State faculty.

Health care costly for immigrants
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Mac Pannill was moving fast on a recent round at the WakeMed Raleigh Campus. Within an hour, he needed to see six mothers and their newborns. ...In a report in January on the economic impact of Hispanic immigration in North Carolina, researchers at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill estimated the state's 2004 cost for health services provided to all Hispanics, legal or otherwise, at $299 million. That includes hospitals' uncompensated care -- costs not paid by patients or insurance plans -- as well as costs covered by Medicaid, the joint local-state-federal health insurance program for the poor.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

SunCom pitches new call plan
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
SunCom Wireless, promoted for the past year by the ubiquitous Harry Connick Jr., has gone incognito to pitch its newest calling plan. ...The rationale behind the brandless ads is to build curiosity and suspense. It's form of interactive advertising, to get the public engaged in a guessing game. But it's anyone's guess whether such ads succeed or get tuned out, said Bob Lauterborn, a professor of advertising at UNC-Chapel Hill. Lauterborn hasn't seen the SunCom ads, but he says their effectiveness is dubious. "There's this dopey assumption that people are watching your campaign and eagerly awaiting your next ad in the series," Lauterborn said. "C'mon, people are too busy. In today's world, people are not breathlessly waiting for your bloody ad."

Talk touts intelligent design (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Intelligent design isn't dead yet despite a federal judge's ruling that prohibits it from being taught in a Pennsylvania school district's biology classes. ..."All ideas deserve to be in the marketplace of ideas, and only the fittest survive," said Arnold Loewy, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Law. "Can you imagine the delicious irony of saying that applies to everything but Darwinism?"

Trip offers snapshots from India (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Last week I had only one photo in my head I wanted to share; but after a two-week fact-finding trip to India, I have a whole album. So can I do a PowerPoint here with words alone? Click: Sunrise over Mumbai's massive arched Gateway of India. This country, roughly one-third the size of the United States but more than three times its population (almost 1.1 billion), is beating at China's heels to become economic powerhouse of Asia. ...Jock Lauterer teaches at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Note: No link available.

Hello, my name is karma
The Fayetteville Observer
Emily Whittle has never seen “My Name is Earl.’’ In fact, she doesn’t own a television. ...Thomas A. Tweed, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in Buddhism in America, said Western depictions of karma usually oversimplify the concept, suggesting immediate consequences for good and bad actions.

Green's floral folklore (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
The more I learn about Paul Green, the more I wish I'd known him. He grew up on a Harnett County cotton farm at the turn of the last century, survived a childhood a daughter describes as "hellish" and became one of the country's most famous writers. ...The book was produced by the Botanical Garden Foundation, which promotes the North Carolina Botanical Garden at UNC Chapel Hill. It's especially appropriate not only because Green was a careful recorder of native plants, but also because the little log cabin where he did so much of his writing was moved to the garden.

Time running out to control runaway growth
The Charlotte Observer
Lincoln County commissioners see it coming: more growth. But they haven't settled on a way to manage it. ...David Owens, a faculty member with the UNC Institute of Government, told me officials face painful choices. None of the options will make them feel comfortable. Certainly not property tax hikes. Or impact fees or a ban on new development. Owens said that when Florida officials kept approving new developments even when they outstripped services, the legislature made adequate public facilities ordinances a state mandate.

Who are vegans, and what makes their diet so healthy? (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
Ever eat a cheeseless pizza or dunk a cookie into soymilk? For about one out of every 100 people, avoiding all animal products -- meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy products -- is second nature. They do it every day. ...Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.

Outpatient care at core of battle
The Triangle Business Journal
When WakeMed lost its bid to build an outpatient surgery center in the growing south Wake County town of Apex, it wasn't just a setback for the hospital system's strategic vision. It was a setback for the hospital system's competitive edge. ...At University of North Carolina Hospitals, spokeswoman Karen McCall says, "... five years ago, outpatient surgery was a blip on the screen. Now it's between 5 and 10 percent of our total revenue." UNC's Ambulatory Care Center is just a few doors down from the main hospital campus in Chapel Hill and is the only freestanding outpatient care center the UNC system operates. But it did about $84 million in gross revenue in fiscal year 2005. So far in fiscal 2006, it has brought in $44 million.
Related Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2006/02/27/tidbits1.html

Expansion of beach access system among state options
The Sun Journal (New Bern)
There are several steps the state might take to encourage preservation of access to fishing waters along the coast. ...The Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center is a cooperative agreement between Sea Grant, the University of North Carolina School of Law and the UNC Coastal Studies Institute that formed in 2004 to provide planning information to coastal communities and local and state policymakers.

Principal plans to step down
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
After less than eight months as Stanford Middle School's principal, Michael Gilbert wants a different job. ...In a telephone interview Tuesday, Gilbert said the principal post was taking too much time away from his autistic son. The Chapel Hill area is a magnet for parents of autistic children thanks to the nationally known UNC-Chapel Hill autism treatment center called TEACCH.

Reaching toward high C's
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Robert and Margaret Galbraith took an outside table one morning last week at a coffee shop near downtown, relaxing two days after their invention -- the Opera Company of North Carolina -- staged a production that was considered a commercial risk in an untested market. It turned out that "Salome," performed in the newly renovated Memorial Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill, did better than expected at the box office and might have stirred up broader interest in the Raleigh-based company the Galbraiths created nine years ago.

Father: Son's Fatal Fall AT UNC A Tragic Accident
The Associated Press (N.C.)
The fall from a dormitory window that killed one student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and injured another was a tragic accident, says the father of the student who died. ...Smith, an economics major at UNC-Chapel Hill, had lived in Newark, N.J., until he was school age, when Gloria Smith moved with her son to Greensboro.
Related Link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/opinion/story/2903620p-9357225c.html

UNC student robbed on campus
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A UNC-Chapel Hill student told police a man stole her laptop computer early Tuesday morning as she was walking on Stadium Drive. Neither the woman nor a friend saw a weapon, and neither was injured.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb06/robbery022806.htm

Jennings, distill ads nab 'Addy' Awards
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Advertising agencies Jennings and Distill were the big winners in this year's Addys competition, each taking home 11 awards. ...The agencies can brandish the awards to impress potential clients. Jennings of Chapel Hill bagged the most gold Addys -- seven -- and also nabbed a "Judge's Choice" and two "Best in Show" awards. The latter included an interactive DVD used to recruit nurses to UNC HealthCare and a brochure for the Carolina Performing Arts Series. "It's very pleasing to the eye, with a lot of warm, rich colors to it," Karchner said of the brochure.

Donate Your DNA To Database, Get $20
The Associated Press (N.C.)
With little more than a tablespoon of her blood and her DNA, Sarah O'Donnell is hoping to give scientists a chance to make kids healthier. ..."How useful is this database for scientists?" James Huff, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences said. "It's tremendous because I don't know of anyone else who is doing this." Hundreds of researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina will have access to the database being built by the NIEHS.

Issues & Trends

PPO option added to state health plan
The Triangle Business Journal
Most North Carolina state employees will have more than one option when it comes to their health insurance this fall. The North Carolina Health Plan on Tuesday unveiled a preferred provider organization plan that will give state employees, teachers and other eligible members an alternative to the state's traditional indemnity plan. ... The North Carolina State Health Plan covers more than 590,000 people. Those eligible for coverage under the state plan include teachers, state employees and state retirees, current and former lawmakers, University of North Carolina system and state community college system employees, state hospital staff and dependents who elect to enroll in the program.

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/news/clips/index.shtml.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.