May 20, 2005

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

National Coverage

Excess and Longing
The Wall Street Journal
It's graduation time. As faculty and administrators dust off their fancy caps and gowns, twenty something student bodies -- literally -- are gearing up for what is typically a week-long pre-graduation riot known as Senior Week. ... More than four out of five high-school and college students identify themselves as religious or spiritual, to judge by the national survey of more than 112,000 students by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute and the investigations into the religious lives of teens by University of North Carolina sociologist Christian Smith. Among youth, interest in religion and spirituality is at an all-time high.
Subscription required

Life Support: Keeping up with changes at college (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Nearing the end of a decade paying enough college tuition to own one, my interest in the doings of higher education had started to wane, but several recent developments have piqued my interest once again. ... The $72 million student union at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has, according to the [Wall Street] Journal, "a sports bar with 40 videogames, including a helicopter simulator."

State & Local Coverage

Summer theater? Take it outside
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Twelve-year-old Delise Barnard learned about classical music in the best classroom a kid could ask for. It had no desks, no blackboards, no lecturers and no "Shhhhhh! Sit still! ... Outdoor theater's popularity appears to be growing, says Scott Parker, who heads the Institute of Outdoor Drama at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dorrance gets his due (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The N.C. Sports Hall of Fame is filled with the names of dozens of men and women who have excelled or coached in a wide range of sports. But until Thursday night, there wasn't a single person honored by the Hall for achieving excellence in soccer, either as a player or coach. We applaud the Hall of Fame for correcting that oversight Thursday with the welcome induction of Anson Dorrance, the legendary women's soccer coach at UNC.

Sheriff selective in playing 911 tapes
The Winston-Salem Journal
Sheriff Bill Schatzman fought in Forsyth Superior Court last year against releasing the tapes of 911 calls made in a violent attack on a 7-year-old Kernersville girl. ... North Carolina statutes don't deal with whether a public agency can selectively release information it sought to keep confidential by court order, said David Lawrence, a professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Government.

GOP set to elect chairman
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina Republicans gathering in Asheville this weekend will pick a leader in a contest that centers on whether the state party is keeping pace with the rest of the increasingly Republican-leaning South. ... [Vernon Robinson] criticizes the GOP for not projecting a clear conservative message -- especially on issues such as immigration, same-sex marriage and an end to what he calls racial quotas at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Flexibility for a fine university (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Controversy surrounding legislative proposals for tuition flexibility and out-of-state scholarships has distracted us from the real issues facing North Carolina's state universities. ... The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees is committed to creative thought, dialogue and action -- for we believe citizens and the state's economic climate demand new funding strategies, particularly for our research institutions.
Note: Richard T. "Stick" Williams is chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.
Related letter to the editor: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/2423274p-8800919c.html

An apology required (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
The chancellor and trustees of UNC Chapel Hill acted inexcusably when they worked covertly to slip two sneaky provisions benefiting that campus into the fine print of the state Senate budget bill.

Meddling With UNC (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
Politicians look at the autonomy granted to the University of North Carolina system and slobber in envy. They can hardly resist their desire to re-take control of UNC affairs and, thus, repeat the mistakes of the past.

UNC system on life support
The Wilmington Morning-Star
The trustees and chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill have once again demonstrated their belief that their school is better than every other campus of the University of North Carolina system – and that the rules that apply to every other campus shouldn't apply to Chapel Hill, or maybe to N.C. State.

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.

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