Nov. 23, 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

Doctors, not race, key to blood pressure
United Press International
Ongoing access to the same doctor is more important in controlling high blood pressure than the doctor's or patient's race, North Carolina researchers say. ..."We believe these findings are important because, despite progress in hypertension management, African-Americans still are less likely than whites to know that they have the illness, be treated for it and have their blood pressure controlled," said researcher Thomas Konrad.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/konrad111705.htm

National Coverage

Definition of South, Southern Is Changing
The Associated Press (National)
The joke around here is that this town's name is really an acronym for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees." As far as Vernon Yates is concerned, they haven't been contained well enough. ...The poll, conducted this past month, found that 63 percent of people living in the region identified themselves as Southerners. That mirrors a trend from a University of North Carolina analysis of polling data that found a 7 percent decline on the same identity question from 1991 to 2001, to 70 percent.

Many Blacks Proud to Be Southerners
The Associated Press (National)
Blacks have a complicated love affair with the South. Their ancestors were enslaved in the region for generations, then Jim Crow laws pushed them to the back of the bus. From inner-city slums to old plantation counties, being black too often still means a second-class existence. ...Twice-yearly polls from 1991 through 2001 that were analyzed by the University of North Carolina found 78 percent of blacks in the region claimed the label "Southerner," compared to 75 percent of whites. The results punched a hole in the long-held assumption that only whites are proud to be from the South.

Carpetbaggers' No More
The Associated Press (National)
At first, state Sen. Don Balfour couldn't understand why other Georgia lawmakers were having such a fit over the governor's call to remove the Confederate fighting banner from the state flag. ..."As more transplants have moved in, then the election of transplants doesn't become odd at all," said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina.

State & Local Coverage

Wachovia signs up UNC
The Charlotte Observer
Under an eight-year, $9.1 million deal announced Tuesday, Wachovia Corp. will be the first corporate sponsor to hang permanent signs in the basketball home of the UNC Chapel Hill Tar Heels. ...The university has been exploring ways to add on-site sponsorships with quality companies in a "tasteful, Carolina way," UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour said in an interview. "Clearly, Wachovia exceeded all of the specifications."
Related Link: http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2005/11/21/daily20.html
UNC News Release: http://tarheelblue.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/112205aaj.html

At UNC, sign of the times
The News & Observer
A pair of bright blue, 6-foot by 8-foot "Wachovia" signs were hung on two of the four video boards at the University of North Carolina's Smith Center on Tuesday, ending a tradition that up until now has kept that venue free of fixed commercial advertising. ...This year's $1 million payout will go to one-time facility improvements, such as the new, larger video boards, athletics director Dick Baddour said. In the future, the money will go toward everything from venue improvements to other department needs.
Related Link: http://www.dailytarheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/11/23/4383f8d64eac4

Wachovia pays $9.124M for Smith Center ads
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Permanent signage in the Smith Center? ..."The Smith Center has been home to Carolina Basketball for 20 years, the same length of time the men played in Carmichael Auditorium, and the building is due for a number of upgrades and repairs that have been delayed for financial reasons," said Dick Baddour, UNC's athletics director.
Related Link: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/13234926.htm

UNC nets $9.1M, gives Wachovia signage in Dean Dome
The Triangle Business Journal
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said Tuesday that Wachovia has become the first company to score permanent corporate signage in the Dean E. Smith Center. The Charlotte banking giant and the state's flagship university have signed an eight-year, $9.1 million athletic sponsorship agreement. The deal also extends the 2003 agreement that made Wachovia official financial services sponsor for UNC athletics.
Related Links: http://www.wral.com/sports/5383767/detail.html
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/2844041p-9296545c.html

UNC gets $1M for Jewish studies center
The Triangle Business Journal
A Greensboro family has donated $1 million to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to establish a new distinguished professorship in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. The gift will enable the university to recruit a well-regarded professor and scholar in modern Jewish religious thought.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/kaplanprofessorship112305.htm

State cites faculty members for arts achievement
The Chapel Hill News
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley presented North Carolina Awards, the state's highest civilian honor, to two faculty members in the UNC creative writing program on Monday. Bland Simpson and Randall Kenan, members of UNC's English department, were recognized with the awards for their outstanding lifetime achievements.
Note: No link available.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/ncawards111605.htm

Officials to develop walking program
The Hendersonville Times-News
At age 83, Ellen Hobbs likes to walk everywhere she can in Hendersonville, but it's not always easy or safe. ...Starting in the spring, the Highway Safety Research Center of the University of North Carolina will survey residents such as Hobbs on ways to improve safety for older pedestrians. It is the most recent of several efforts to improve sidewalks and pedestrian facilities here.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/fedped110905.htm

Young actors take the stage
The Chapel Hill News
How Cyndy Blackburn manages to keep all the kids playing all the parts in all the plays straight is something of a mystery. On Tuesday the fourth- through sixth-graders in her Act One, Act Now community children's theater will perform "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at Gerrard Hall on the UNC campus.

Avoid droughts with dual water systems (Letter to the editor)
The Chapel Hill News
In this water-rich region, we should never need to be restricted in our use of water. Arid areas of our country in the southwest have little rain for 10 months a year and their annual rainfall is a small fraction of ours, yet they do not have droughts and their population growth leads the country. ...North Carolina has been very slow in adopting dual systems. Cary recently introduced a dual system to a new area of the city. Chapel Hill's OWASA, along with UNC-CH, is planning a dual system by reclaiming wastewater being discharged to Jordan Reservoir and using it for cooling towers on campus, saving a half-million gallons per day of drinking water.

Group would have liked the publicity (Letter to the editor)
The Chapel Hill News
Thanks for the coverage that you gave to James Carnahan's and Patrick McDonough's presentation on Carolina North in The Chapel Hill News ("An alternative vision for Carolina North," Nov. 20).

Issues & Trends

Bowles' way (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
If the heads of the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina system were listening closely, they didn't just hear what they wanted to hear from the man who in a few weeks will become their boss. ...Set to take office in January from the retiring Molly Broad, Bowles finished his visits earlier this week at his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill. He has called the tour homework, a way of familiarizing himself with what folks on the campuses are thinking. And he's made some early comments about what he is thinking.

Looking and listening (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
It's still more than a month before Charlotte businessman Erskine Bowles succeeds UNC President Molly Broad, but he's using the run-up time wisely. Mr. Bowles has toured each of the university's 16 campuses and evidently spent more time listening and asking questions than offering up his vision for the system.

A way for us to recover
The Charlotte Observer
Business, government and education officials this week announced the launch of a technical and engineering training center that they said would help the region recover from manufacturing losses. ...The center, which will be run under the auspices of the UNC system, will be housed in Corning Cable Systems' former research and development building off Tate Boulevard. Classes could start in February.

UNC budget cuts reported inaccurately (Letter to the editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Recent media reports on the University of North Carolina's 2005-06 Budget Reductions Report ["UNC system loses $31 million in funds"] gave the erroneous impression that budget cuts imposed by the 2005 General Assembly had dropped UNC's current operating budgets some $31 million below 2004 levels. That simply isn't true.
Note: No link available.

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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