May 3, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Quite an Admission
The Washington Post
When Alex Whitnall, a senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, received an e-mail from the University of Maryland at College Park congratulating him on his admission, he thought it was a prank....That's the way it's done at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and many other places. "If an application is incomplete at the time of decision, we tell them it will be withdrawn unless we get the information we need," says Jerry Lucido, UNC's vice provost for enrollment and director of undergraduate admissions.

Can only the rich afford to be thin?
USA Today
Like millions of Americans, Christine Davies would like to lose a little weight. The 37-year-old paralegal from Tacoma, Wash., says she's 30 pounds heavier than she should be...."The rich can afford to be thin in America, and the poor can't," says Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the school of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Spring Commencement Speakers Are Announced by 10 Colleges
The Chronicle of Higher Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Julius Chambers, a pioneering civil rights attorney and director of the Center for Civil Rights at the university's law school
Subscription required.

UR will make its own power
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY
The University of Rochester produces numerous doctors and musicians and political scientists every year....Neither the technology nor the concept is new, but "cogeneration" - simultaneous production of thermal and electrical energy - is of increasing interest to colleges nationwide, said Ray DuBose, director for energy services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

Brunswick steers course to biotech
The Wilmington Star News
An educational partnership announced Friday in Brunswick County aims to turn the county's high schools into a steady source of science-savvy graduates moving to biotechnology businesses and educational professions....UNC Chancellor James Moeser said the Destiny partnership is the first of its kind in the state and echoes the state's economic plans.

Brunswick-UNC team up to bring science courses
The Sun News, Myrtle Beach (S.C.)
A new partnership has set the goal of improving science education in Brunswick County, N.C., high schools and developing an associate degree in biotechnology through the local community college....The Brunswick Destiny Partnership, announced Friday at West Brunswick High School in Shallotte, N.C., includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brunswick County Schools and Brunswick Community College.
Note: Other coverage of Friday's announcement included WECT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Wilmington that featured Chancellor Moeser and Professor Bollenbacher live on its noon news show. Print outlets with coverage pending include two community newspapers: the Brunswick Beacon in Shallotte and the State Port Pilot in Southport.

UNC seeks go-between for workers
The Herald Sun
The primary suggestion of a UNC task force on workplace improvements has been put in motion.

State projects revenue surplus
The News & Observer
Gov. Mike Easley has money in his pockets for the first time since he took office three years ago....Other priorities include four major research initiatives for the University of North Carolina system, including a cancer research center at UNC-Chapel Hill and a heart and stroke center at East Carolina University.

Storm water puts UNC, town at odds
The Herald Sun
The forecast could be stormy for town-gown relations, with the town manager saying Friday he might recommend asking a court to decide UNC's legal obligation to the new storm-water fund the town is setting up.

Speakers line up for Carolinas grads
The Charlotte Observer
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Habitat for Humanity International Founder Millard Fuller and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are among the speakers at dozens of college graduation ceremonies in the Carolinas this spring.....Mother's Day weekend, May 8 and 9 this year, has become a traditional graduation time for many Carolinas schools, including Barber-Scotia College, Duke University, Johnson C. Smith University and UNC Chapel Hill.

Graduations set at area schools
The News & Observer
UNC-CHAPEL HILL -- Speaker is Julius Chambers, civil rights attorney and former N.C. Central University chancellor.

Colleges gain acclaim by saying 'no' to more students
The Herald Sun
Brad Hoelscher figured he was just the sort of applicant who would make UNC Chapel Hill look good....The head of undergraduate admissions at UNC Chapel Hill, [Jerry] Lucido concedes that competition for slots at his university is fiercer than ever.

Grade inflation diminishes diploma's value (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
It's not easy to get into Carolina, and it's getting more difficult every year. As staff writer Eric Ferreri pointed out in a story on the front page of the Herald-Sun Saturday, the state's flagship university continues to turn down more and more seemingly qualified applicants.

Report's findings raise more questions about grade inflation at UNC
The Herald Sun
Philip West is open to the possibility that he may not have earned all the good grades he's received while a student at UNC...."I think it's something the university should address," said Peter Gordon, a psychology professor and chairman of the faculty's education policy committee, which produced the latest report.

Grade inflation growing
The News & Observer
Scott Cassata, a UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore, finished his Portuguese exam with a smile. He had studied only a half-hour for it. ..."No one likes to have, you know, all these people mad at you," said Peter Gordon, a psychology professor at UNC-CH who led the most recent grade analysis.

Report embraces sound policy prescriptions (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Sustainability -- the idea that we should manage our affairs in a way that doesn't compromise the ability of future generations to manage theirs -- isn't the exclusive domain of any single interest group....Then there's the passage on Carolina North, which joins this newspaper in calling for endowing the satellite campus with a beefier housing component than UNC has proposed.

Clearing the state of syphilis
The Charlotte Observer
Frank Smith sat in the back of a Charlotte homeless shelter cafeteria Wednesday morning, listening to a health department worker warn him and 15 other men about the disease that killed Beethoven and Al Capone....[Peter] Leone, a UNC Chapel Hill researcher, co-authored a recent study that reported an outbreak of HIV among N.C. college students.

Laptops lap at blue book's domain
The News & Observer
If Jocelyn Neal could get rid of college blue books tomorrow, that wouldn't be too soon for the assistant professor of music at UNC-Chapel Hill....The program, made by a company called Software Secure, was used by several hundred students this year at UNC-CH, said Charlie Green, associate director for academic technology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Moreau's life was not short on achievement
The Charlotte Observer
Honors and offers continued to follow Cabarrus County's esteemed Daniel Moreau Barringer in the mid-1800s, even after the Civil War began....According to his biography, a portrait of Moreau hangs at Ackland Art Center at UNC Chapel Hill.

Issues & Trends

U.S. Is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences
The New York Times
The United States has started to lose its worldwide dominance in critical areas of science and innovation, according to federal and private experts who point to strong evidence like prizes awarded to Americans and the number of papers in major professional journals.

Wanted: Good chancellor (N.C. roots a plus) (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
Should North Carolinians be given first shot when top jobs open up?...The campus at Chapel Hill got N.C. native Bill Aycock, for example, whom Friday has long regarded as among the best chancellors anywhere.

East N.C. deserves a chance
The News & Observer
I suspect that if some folks had their way, North Carolina would end at I-95....Because of the engineering and scientific talent at N.C. State, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, a company from New York called IBM decided to move down here, and Research Triangle Park blossomed.

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.