May 4, 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

U.S. report finds no benefits from episiotomy
Reuters International Wire Service
Women who undergo an episiotomy to aid childbirth or to prevent tearing below the vaginal opening often get no benefit from the procedure and they may be harmed by it, researchers said on Tuesday.....Lead author Dr. Katherine Hartmann of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wrote that episiotomies could be reduced sharply to fewer than 15 percent of U.S. births if confined to cases of fetal distress.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may05/hartmann050305.html

National Coverage

Review: Episiotomies May Bring More Risks
The Washington Post
For years, some doctors believed that an episiotomy, an incision to enlarge the vaginal opening during childbirth, would prevent spontaneous tearing that would be harder to repair...."This review puts together in one place all the evidence that we're not getting the results we want," said Dr. Katherine Hartmann, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of North Carolina.
Note: Dr. Hartmann was invited to an on-line chat hour today for the Washington Post as a follow-on to their article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/liveonline/
Related link: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111518256345924255,00.html

Vast majority of episiotomies unnecessary
The Associated Press (National)
For years, some doctors believed that an episiotomy, an incision to enlarge the vaginal opening during childbirth, would prevent spontaneous tearing that would be harder to repair....."This review puts together in one place all the evidence that we're not getting the results we want," said Dr. Katherine Hartmann, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of North Carolina.
Related local links:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/health/050305_NH_episiotomy.html
http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-603852.html

National Academy of Sciences Elects Record Number of Women as Members
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The National Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday that it had elected 72 new members, of whom 19 are women, the largest group of women ever elected in one year.
Note: Aziz Sancar, Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry, was named to the National Academy of Sciences.

Drug-coated stents to open arteries found superior
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Drug-coated stents, the coil-like metal devices that prop open blocked arteries, appear to be superior to older, bare-metal stents for treating heart attacks, according to a new study....Even though the Italian trial is relatively small, it provides encouraging evidence that a drug-coated stent is superior to a bare-metal stent in treating heart attack patients, said E. Magnus Ohman, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who co-authored an editorial accompanying the study.

Seniors on edge as colleges play wait-listing game
USA Today
Andrew Shao is in the top 3% of his high school class and has an SAT score of 1500, yet he has found himself in what his high school counselor calls "wait list hell."...There are exceptions. Three years ago, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill offered spots on its list to 3,300 students.

A paper dupes an unsuspecting racist: 'You had to be there' (Opinion-Editorial Column)
USA Today
J.B. Stoner, the nastiest racist I ever met, died last week without ever learning about the joke that Miami news media and the school board played on him in 1959....Philip Meyer is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

Plan lets schools set tuition
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University officials could gain the power to set their own tuition levels -- a prospect that some fear would be a dangerous step toward dismantling the historic UNC system.

Officials blast UNC, N.C. State tuition proposal
The Associated Press (N.C.)
A state Senate proposal to allow two North Carolina universities set their own tuition levels could dismantle the historic system, critics charge.....A component in the Senate's budget proposal released Tuesday would give the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and N.C. State University officials the power to set their own tuition levels - without going through the UNC Board of Governors.

Zoning must be agreeable to town, UNC (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The university and the town worked together to create the Office-Institutional (OI)-4 Zoning District, which governs construction on central campus.....Nancy D. Suttenfield is vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Note: This article is not available online. Details about the university's clean-up plans appear at www.unc.edu/community, a new website focusing on Chapel Hill, Carrborro and Orange County. Featured topics also include the university's position on proposed changes to the Town of Chapel Hill's Office-Institutional (OI)-4 zoning district, which governs development on the main campus.

Town and gown get set to jawbone zoning
The Chapel Hill Herald
Fireworks or feel-good? The latest town-gown discussions tonight could have a bit of both. In a meeting billed as informal, the Town Council and UNC representatives will gather at Town Hall starting at 7 p.m. to talk about possible changes to the "Office/Institutional-4" zoning district that covers much of the current development on UNC's main campus.

Town, UNC to join in 'community dialogue'
The Chapel Hill News
Few local issues are as explosive as campus growth....On their own accord, UNC staff members have met with neighborhood groups about impending projects, said Anna Wu, director of facilities planning.

Student overcomes injuries to earn scholarship
News & Record (Greensboro)
What's so remarkable about Stephen Vance isn't the academics - No. 1 ranking in his senior class at Southeast High School.....It's not even the coveted Morehead Scholarship - a four-year, free ride to UNC-Chapel Hill - that he won recently.

Students to begin weighty research
The Wilmington Star News
By definition, school subjects are weighty matters to students....The Destiny Traveling Science program, already in place for a year in Brunswick County high school science classrooms, is adding a science course titled "Weigh to Go," focusing exclusively on weight as a study area for students in new biotechnology courses, said Lauren Hunt, director of communications for Destiny.

Duplicating their DNA
The Wilmington Star News
It's not exactly cloning, but getting there....The partnership with the Traveling Science Laboratory program from UNC-Chapel Hill once again brought the Destiny Bus to the county.

Issues & Trends

Privatizing Trend Among Public Universities Could Hurt Smaller Institutions, Credit-Rating Agency Says
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Public universities' growing assumption of some characteristics of private institutions may create uncertainty for those institutions' credit quality, according to a report released on Tuesday by the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's.
Subscription required.

$17 billion budget released
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
If you're wealthy or own a business, you could see your income taxes drop. If you smoke, you might have to pay another 35 cents per pack. And if you need a driver's license or new car title, you can expect to shell out a few more dollars to get it....."We are extremely grateful that the Senate budget keeps reductions in the university's operating budgets as low as possible, and that it provides the university with the flexibility to make required cuts in a manner that minimizes harm to each campus," UNC President Molly Broad said.

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.