November 18, 2002

Current National Coverage

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

Yale and Stanford End Early-Decision Options and Defy National Group
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Yale and Stanford Universities will drop their early-decision programs next year, with
applications for the 2004-5 academic year, campus officials said this month... A few
colleges had already moved away from early decision. This year, Beloit College and
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced that they would drop
their early-decision programs this fall...
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)
Full story...

Early applications rise
The Daily Princetonian (student publication of Princeton University)
Despite recent questions about admission policies and procedures, the University
admission office saw an increase in the number of early applicants this year... The
early admission process has also come under the radar of higher education leaders,
including the University of North Carolina, Stanford University and Yale University...
Full story...

Exit polls probe innards of U.S. political process (Opinion-Editorial Column)
USA Today
The Election Night failure of Voter News Service (VNS) could prove a blessing if it
draws attention to the real value of exit polls...
Full story...
(Note: Philip Meyer holds the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of
North Carolina.)

Cell phone ban often ignored
Buffalo (N.Y.) News
One year after New York banned drivers from using hand-held cellular telephones,
people continue to steer with a phone held to one ear, though the extent of
lawlessness is debatable... But a 2001 report from the University of North
Carolina ranked cell phone use eighth among driver distractions, after things
including adjusting the radio, eating and drinking...
Full story...

Health Tips
United Press International
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a treatment for schizophrenia.
The new medication, called Abilify (aripiprazole), will be sold by Bristol-Myers
Squibb and Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals. A study of 1,238 patients with the
chronic mental disorder has shown the tablets to be effective and to cause few
side effects... "Abilify represents an important new treatment for schizophrenia,"
said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, vice chairman of psychiatry and professor of psychiatry
and pharmacology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill...
Full story....

North Carolina News Note

Bland Simpson, director of UNC’s creative writing program, was featured on a
segment about a his latest book, "Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery
of the Carroll A. Deering," on the Friday evening news cast on WRAL-TV (CBS,
Raleigh). This segment featured an interview with Simpson and footage of the
Deering Bell that was displayed during Simpson's reading and reception at
Wilson Library on Thursday. To view this segment online, go to
http://www.wral.com/ and scroll halfway down the page. On the right hand side,
click on "Learn more about ghost ship of Diamond Shoals" under the "Featured
Video" banner. For more information about Simpson's book, click here

Robert McMahan, adjunct associate professor of astronomy, was interviewed
on WUNC-FM's "The State of Things," on Monday about meteor showers. This
program is broadcasted on 91.5 FM at noon and rebroasted tonight at 8 p.m.
No online links are available.

State and Local Coverage

Medical tools often reused
News and Observer
Karen Carnegie-Fraser, a registered nurse in UNC Hospitals' surgical services
department, plucked a stainless steel saw blade and a fine drill bit from a supply
shelf and placed them on an instrument cart for an orthopedic surgery. Both
sealed items are labeled "single use.".. UNC, like many hospitals, doesn't think
it makes sense to toss out items that cost between $60 and $150 -- the range
for surgical burrs and bits. Instead, UNC collects certain single-use items and
sends them to be sterilized and reconditioned to like-new quality...
Full story...

Lawyer pay deal angers workers
News and Observer
UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and staff expressed outrage Friday about a two-year,
$376,000 salary guarantee for the university's attorney...
Full story...

Too sweet a deal (Editorial)
News and Observer
James Moeser is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill --
not the host of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"...
Full story...

An uncharitable mood at NCAA (Editorial)
Chapel Hill News
When did it become a crime to help a charity raise money? When the NCAA
found out about it. The “crime” involved UNC senior basketball players Will
Johnson and Jonathan Holmes, who were suspended for participating in an off
-season charity basketball tournament for Carolina Cancer Focus, a student
organization that raises money for cancer research...
Full story...

Raleigh takes note of our resegregated schools (Opinion-Editorial Column)
Charlotte Observer
They're talking about us in Raleigh. And -- surprise! -- they're saying they don't
want to be like us. Our neighbors to the east could list a whole host of ways
they don't want to be like us, but this time their subject was Charlotte-
Mecklenburg schools... And as UNC Chapel Hill law professor John Charles
Boger noted recently, such rulings have left many Southern school boards
feeling "effectively prohibited from using their local control to assure the
continuance of racially integrated public schools."
Full story...

Muslim Students Strive to Dispel Stereotypes
WTVD-TV (ABC, Raleigh)
A number of Iraqi-born students are in the Triangle getting an education at
NC State, Duke, and Carolina. They are thousands of miles from home-- a
home they hope is still there months from now. Eyewitness News wanted
their take on the showdown with Iraq. A quiet movement is underway at
UNC Chapel Hill. Muslim students are trying to build bridges with students
of other faiths during Islamic Awareness Week...
Full story...

Heart care 'recipe' works
News and Observer
Surviving a heart attack depends, in large part, on whether the doctors at the
hospital follow simple treatment guidelines that call for prescribing aspirin
within 24 hours, and counseling patients to lose weight or quit smoking, a
Duke University cardiologist reported Sunday... Dr. Sidney Smith, chief
science officer of the American Heart Association and a cardiologist at
UNC-Chapel Hill, said such concerns are unfounded. The recipe works...
Full story...

More teens in love with marriage
News and Observer
Working as a waitress at a pancake house in Garner, Tiffany Loveless is
accustomed to customers staring at her wedding band. Some even chide
her... "It's a Southern thing," said Dennis Orthner, a professor in social
work at UNC-Chapel Hill and associate director of the Jordan Institute for
Families...
Full story...

Trickle theory: One-way or two? (Editorial)
Charlotte Observer
On learning of the Bush administration proposal to shift hundreds of
thousands of federal jobs into the private sector, we began to think about
the way money trickles down -- or up.... Guess what? Residents of
neighborhoods without many supermarkets eat fewer fruits and vegetables.
A recent New York Times story reports on a study done at UNC Chapel
Hill that links access to supermarkets with healthful eating...
Full story...
(Note: This study was the subject of a UNC news release)

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Easing Early Applications (Editorial)
The New York Times
he decision by Yale and Stanford to make their early application programs
for prospective new students less restrictive will give eager-beaver high
school seniors some welcome flexibility and make the whole process
much fairer. But it will do little to ease the college applications frenzy that
sets in increasingly early at many high schools...
(Note: The New York Times requires free registration to access articles.)
Full story...

Admissions Survey Finds Long-Term Decline in Yield Rates and Higher
Minority Enrollments
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Despite a decline in the number of high-school graduates over the last two
decades, total undergraduate enrollment has grown substantially, and
increased competition for students has not lowered admissions standards,
according to a new study by five national groups...
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access
articles.)
Full story...

New teachers leaving at faster rate
News and Observer
Virginia Hunsberger started her career in public education in 1997, one
of more than 8,000 teachers new to North Carolina's schools that year.
Fresh from Meredith College in Raleigh, Hunsberger came better prepared
than most to teach her new kindergartners at Swift Creek Elementary
School near Cary... "We have thought of teachers as replaceable cogs,"
said Barnett Berry, director of the Southeast Center for Teaching Quality,
based at UNC Chapel Hill...
Full story...

Mentors, more time are part of solution
News and Observer
Andrew Lupien holds a master's degree in teaching from Duke University,
but as a new teacher, he knows he can use all the help he can get...
"There are things that principals can do to help people stay," said Ken
Jenkins, director of the Principals Executive Program, a professional
development program run by the University of North Carolina...
Full story...

Colleges caught in middle
News and Observer
As many as five or 10 times a week, Cary Levow at N.C. State University
is contacted by some of the biggest film makers and recording companies
in the country... In North Carolina, all 16 UNC campuses as well as Duke
University and Wake Forest University use the same Internet pipeline run
by the N.C. Research and Education Network... "It's sort of hard for a
student to plead ignorance," said Jeanne Smythe, director for computing
policy at UNC-Chapel Hill...
Full story...

Rain staves off OWASA rate increase
News and Observer
The drought that had drained area water supplies and threatened to do
the same to OWASA's bank account has fizzled on both counts now...
Full story...

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News,
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services,
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or
mike_mcfarland@unc.edu