May 31, 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

Study: Hurricanes cause ecological harm
United Press International
The spate of hurricanes that hit North Carolina during the past decade produced ecological effects that lasted long after flood waters receded. A study by marine scientists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and other institutions suggests effects such as enhanced growth conditions for potentially harmful algae, low oxygen levels in bottom waters, and declines in some fisheries lasted as long as three years after a storm such as 1999`s Hurricane Floyd.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/hurricanepaerl052606.htm

National Coverage

Beyond Philanthropy
Forbes.com
As the emphasis on "philanthropy" has shifted to a focus on "social responsibility," companies ... have lent executives to nonprofit organizations--often at no charge--for as long as three years. ... they’ve been on the rise in the post- Enron era, says Steven May, a professor of business communication and ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Knowledge Of Infection May Prevent Spread Of Herpes Virus
Medical News Today
A new study suggests that the risk of transmitting the virus that causes most cases of genital herpes could be cut in half by more testing and informing sexual partners of infection. ... The importance of this finding is described by editorialists Edward Hook III, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Peter Leone, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as one of three effective tools to prevent the spread of this sexually transmitted disease (STD).

State & Local Coverage

Stretch, move, lift are trifecta
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
They seem unlikely health-care revolutionaries, these 60- and 70-year-olds in constant motion for a hot half-hour in a senior center near downtown Wake Forest. ... "There's a good deal of research on interventions that are proven to work," said Mary Altpeter, associate director of UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute on Aging.

Roses & raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Roses to Robert Connolly, an associate professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, and to everybody who has gotten on board the project he's launched to send supplies and gifts to the military men and women serving in Iraq. ... That small act snowballed. Neighbors, colleagues, students and people Connolly had never met got in on the act.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/conolly052606.htm

Art exhibition spans 300 years
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's Ackland Art Museum will present an exhibition featuring representations of artists -- musicians, composers, writers, poets, playwrights, actors and dancers -- spanning 300 years in "Up Close and Personal: Portraits of the Artist." ... The museum will host an opening reception from 7-9 p.m., June 9, for the exhibition, to be displayed from June 4 to Sept. 24.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/briefs/2006/052506.htm

Raising awareness through art
The Chapel Hill News
Earlier this month, The ArtsCenter sponsored a 10-day residency for several members of the Publik Kreativity Drama Krew troupe, which uses dance to raise awareness and focus attention on the problem of AIDS and HIV, which are rampant in Alexandra, South Africa. ... The PKDK members stayed with local families, performed, taught children in after-school classes and participated in a panel discussion about AIDS in Africa at the UNC School of Public Health.

GlaxoSmithKline makes donation to planetarium
WCHL-AM (Chapel Hill)
Morehead Planetarium will get a booster shot in the bank account from pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. Planetarium communications manager Karen Kornegay says the drug manufacturer has pledged just under $100,000 to fund the science center’s next show.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/gskmoreheadgrant052606.htm

NCCU to host talks on health disparities
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Black women are more likely than white women to get breast cancer, and more likely to die from it. Infant mortality rates are higher for blacks than whites or Hispanics. ... Michelle Manning, project manager of the Ethnicity, Culture and Health Outcomes program at UNC, has collaborated on organizing the conference.

Art Pope shaping debate, N.C. GOP
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina's most influential Republican is a balding policy wonk, a former back-bench lawmaker who lost his only bid for statewide office. But Art Pope has two things going for him -- money and a mission. ... "What Art has done is to create some institutions at the intersection of the press and politics," says Ferrel Guillory, who heads the Southern politics program at UNC Chapel Hill.

Issues & Trends

New Gateway center offers promise (Editorial)
The Rocky Mount Telegram
The $2.98 million, almost 17,000-square-foot Gateway Technology Center opened Thursday on the campus of N.C. Wesleyan College. ... For Wesleyan — which has been mentioned as a possible member of the University of North Carolina system — the Gateway Technology Center's opening reaffirms the college as a leader in Eastern North Carolina.

West Franklin crosswalk OK'd
The Chapel Hill Herald
A harried dash over the four lanes of West Franklin Street is the method of choice for many pedestrians to get across the busy stretch of road between Mallette and Graham streets. ... The new crosswalk could end up being in the general vicinity of UNC's information-technology center at 440 West Franklin.

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.