May 8, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Jury out on cell phones
The Leader (Surrey, British Columbia)
Calls are growing for a ban on cell phone use while driving, after a crash killed a cyclist in Chilliwack this week. ... A 2001 study of driver distractions by the University of North Carolina put cell phone use well down on a list of driver distractions – after adjusting radio or CD controls, passengers, objects sliding around in the car, climate control or other adjustments, and eating or drinking.

National Coverage

Ten Commandments judge trails in polls
The Boston Globe
Roy Moore's unsuccessful fight to display the Ten Commandments and keep his job as Alabama's chief justice made him a national hero to religious conservatives three years ago. ... 'There's nothing like Alabama politics," said Ferrel Guillory, a specialist in Southern politics at the University of North Carolina.

Fewer and fewer colleges requiring swimming test to graduate
The Associated Press (National)
On a recent Friday morning, a line of bathing-suit clad students stood beside a campus swimming pool, waiting to jump in. They had come to persuade the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill they were worthy of a college degree — which they were not, in UNC's eyes, until they could swim 50 yards and tread water for five minutes.
Note: This story also appeared in The Washington Times, The Charlotte Observer and other newspapers around the nation.

Cancer institute void criticized
The Chicago Tribune
The government's principal cancer-fighting agency has been without full-time, presidentially appointed leadership for almost eight months, agitating oncologists and advocate groups who say the country needs strong management to combat, treat and prevent a disease that kills more than half a million people every year. ... "I think everyone would feel better with a permanent appointment in that position," said Dr. H. Shelton Earp, who is director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina.

Two Disinfectants for Cleaning Eye Exam Equipment Not Effective
Ivanhoe Newswire
A new study finds two of four disinfectants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for cleaning eye exam equipment don't work. The University of North Carolina Health Care System study reveals the two disinfectants -- 3 percent hydrogen peroxide and 70 percent isopropyl alcohol -- do not stop adenovirus type 8, a common cause of pink eye outbreaks in eye clinics.
Note: Ivanhoe has a syndicated television series and its reports are broadcast in 250 markets reaching 80 million U.S. households.
UNC Health Care Release: http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2006/May/adenovirus.html

Leader's illness clarified
The Associated Press (National)
Booker T. Washington died of high blood pressure, a review of his medical records has determined, erasing a cloud that one of the educator's doctors left over his death more than 90 years ago. ... "The cruel irony is that he would be killed by a disease which is a particular threat to African Americans," said Fitzhugh Brundage, a UNC-Chapel Hill history professor who spoke at the conference.

Limited Victory for Christian Fraternity
Inside Higher Ed
The latest in a series of federal court rulings on the rights of Christian groups at public universities to discriminate has all sides claiming victory — and many expecting more litigation.
UNC Statement: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/aiostatement050406.htm

Regional Coverage

We love a conspiracy
The Daily Record (New Jersey)
The Rev. Eric Hinds of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Mountain Lakes refuses to see the forthcoming movie version of "The Da Vinci Code," but his reasons are far from theological. ... Vallilo was probably referring to the Nag Hammadi "Gospel of Philip" which Brown cites as evidence of marriage, said Bart Ehrman, religion chair at the University of North Carolina.

State & Local Coverage

Local MBA grad pay pierces $90,000 threshold
The Triangle Business Journal
Graduates of MBA schools in the Triangle are being welcomed with open arms by corporations that are paying north of $90,000 for top scholars. Officials with the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say two-year MBA grads are being offered an average salary that's more than 8 percent above what 2005 graduates were paid. The 2006 average is $91,510.
Related Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12684255/

Moeser to talk to Rotarians
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
As part of its higher-education speaker series, the Downtown Durham Rotary Club will host UNC Chancellor James Moeser as its guest speaker at the club's regular meeting today.

UNC's trustees make the right decision
The Chapel Hill Herald (Editorial)
The saga of West House appears finally to be over. It's a sad ending, perhaps, but it was also foreshadowed. This was the only way the tale could finish.
Note: Not available online. For a copy, email Todd at tvinyard@dev.unc.edu.

Kids in college? Don't ask; just pay
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
So you scraped together the money to pay tuition for your child's first year in college, and you would like to see a report card when spring semester ends this month. ... Sheila Hrdlicka, assistant director for parent programs at UNC-Chapel Hill, said many students just give their online passwords to their parents.

Researchers: Keyboards Can Be Breeding Ground For Germs
WRAL-TV (Raleigh, CBS)
Do you know where your keyboard has been or who has been using it? Researchers at UNC Hospitals wanted answers to those questions, so they studied how often bacteria is passed around by computer equipment.
UNC Health Care Release: http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2006/Apr/keyboards

Cross words regretted
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
FAUX PAS? You'd think le maire of a town nicknamed "The Paris of the Piedmont" wouldn't be given to, uh, how you say, defensive outbursts.

UNC Planetarium director named
The Chapel Hill Herald
Todd Boyette, president and chief executive officer of The Health Adventure in Asheville, has been named director of UNC's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. His appointment is effective July 10.
Related Link: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/
NEWS01/60507006&SearchID=73243938603658
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/boyette50506.htm

What's Going On
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Todd R. Boyette has been named director of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center .... Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have awarded $200,000 to a fishing boat repair center and pier project in southern Thailand proposed by the UNC's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. ... Low-intensity therapy offered by medical doctors, combined with either medication or specialized behavior therapy, can effectively treat alcoholism, making treatment more readily available to people who need it, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and numerous other sites nationwide. ... The first woman elected principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a longtime benefactor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an award-winning poet and novelist, and one of the nation's most prominent theologians will receive honorary degrees May 14 during UNC-Chapel Hill's spring commencement. ... Paul Swartzel, who attended UNC-Chapel Hill, has won a Morton Gould Award from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation.
Note: Not available online. For a copy, email Todd at tvinyard@dev.unc.edu.
UNC News Releases: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/boyette50506.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/instituteasia050506.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/combine050206.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/honorarydegrees050106.htm

UNC amends funding request
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC officials are amending a controversial request to a conservative philanthropic foundation for money for Western studies programs, following claims by some faculty members that administrators did not consult with them enough before submitting the proposal.

UNC school is first overall
The Chapel Hill Herald
Led by strong showings in broadcast news and photojournalism, UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication finished first overall in the 2005-06 Hearst Journalism Awards.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/hearst050506.htm

A rare look at printing's early masterpieces in Chapel Hill
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, the first work in color by an English printer and other rare items from the earliest years of movable type are on display at UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/incunabula050506.htm

Treat mom to meal at smoke-free restaurant
The Charlotte Observer (Commentary)
As Mother's Day approaches, any restaurateur will tell you it's one of the biggest eating-out days of the year. Members of Union County Public Schools TRU (Tobacco Reality Unfiltered) Clubs encourage their peers and other citizens to protect their mothers' health by taking them to a smoke-free restaurant this Mother's Day. ... The UNC Chapel Hill Department of Family Medicine has information on smoke-free dining as well, including a link to smoke-free dining lists from all over North Carolina, at its Web site: www.smokefreenc.org.

Pittsboro Street reopens for all traffic
The Chapel Hill Herald
The Big Dig on Pittsboro Street is done. The stretch of Pittsboro Street that runs between Cameron Avenue and McCauley Street and past the Carolina Inn reopened on Saturday to both normal and emergency traffic, UNC reported.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/pittsborostreet050606.htm

Students of style
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Yunah Ko had options. She could have gone the easy route and taken a semester in a fashion merchandising class. Instead, she did the work of a dozen people, putting on her own full-blown fashion show with models, music, invitations and a run of show -- all the behind-the-scenes production work to show off the collection of clothes she spent a bulk of the semester designing and sewing. ... At UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school last month, the Alliance of Minority Business Students put on a charity fashion show with students and faculty modeling styles from around the globe. The show, in its fifth year, sold 307 tickets -- 25 percent more than organizers needed to break even.

Ruling: UNC changes make suit by Christian frat moot
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A U.S. District judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday brought against the university by a student religious fraternity, ruling that Alpha Iota Omega's claim UNC discriminated against it had become moot.
Note: Not available online. For a copy, email Todd at tvinyard@dev.unc.edu.
UNC Statement: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/aiostatement050406.htm

Durham honors 'inspirational' teacher
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The honor is almost embarrassing to Stuart Albright. ... The English teacher realized he wanted to teach after his sophomore year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when he spent a summer helping inner-city kids in New Jersey learn math and science.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC to air in-depth news series on high schools' challenges, reform
The Lincoln Tribune (Lincolnton)
Picture 20,000 teenagers - but don't picture them in classrooms. The State Department of Public Instruction has reported that that's how many students dropped out of N.C. high schools last year alone. Some studies say as many as a third or more of students who enter high school are leaving without a diploma. ... For two weeks this month, North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC (91.5 FM) will air a documentary and expanded news series that will explore the changing role of high schools and how to make secondary education more valuable and relevant for students.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/highschool050406.htm

Issues & Trends

Elite Colleges Lag in Serving the Needy
The Chronicle of Higher Education
In 1940, James Bryant Conant, then president of Harvard University, laid out his vision of an egalitarian society, a classless culture based on educational opportunity, not chance of birth. ... College leaders are beginning to act. In the last few years, some two dozen top public and private colleges, including Harvard and Princeton Universities and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have announced efforts to expand financial aid available to low-income students and to more actively recruit them.

Bowles talking cooperation within N.C. education; will it last?
The Associated Press (National)
The three branches of public education in North Carolina are getting along well for a change, and everybody points to the arrival of Erskine Bowles.

Colleges find drinking deeply rooted
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
They'd been drinking since the afternoon, the group of college students hanging out under their screened-in porch in Chapel Hill. ... A first offense at UNC-CH requires a visit to an alcohol counselor. Penalties get steeper with each violation and can include expulsion from campus housing.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/436763.html

UNC varies strategies, slogans, keeps trying
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Jenna Bridger and Amber Featherstone recall walking into their dorm room at UNC-Chapel Hill four years ago and finding a poster. The seniors, now both 21, are fuzzy on the details, but "it was about BAC [blood-alcohol content] or something, and it was advocating not drinking, whatever it was," Bridger 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.