Nov. 12, 2007

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Diabetes 'revolution' is cutting both ways
USA Today
Diabetes expert John Buse recalls looking into his office's waiting room in the early 1990s and seeing it filled with people suffering the long-term complications of the disease...This knowledge, along with simpler, more accurate blood tests and better drugs, has improved treatment, says Buse, an endocrinologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A Not-So-Simple Plan to Keep African Girls in School
The New York Times
THEY call it the Map of Africa...Lisa Jones Christensen, an assistant professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, who is familiar with Procter’s philanthropy programs, says that Procter receives special treatment when its containers hit Kenya’s docks.

Presidential Pay Is Increasing Fastest At the Largest Institutions
The Chronicle of Higher Education
At the top echelon of higher education, boards have to pay to play when hiring a president...Almost all of the largest and best-known research institutions topped it, but there were exceptions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of California system.
Related Link: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i12/12b00501.htm
Related Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111200648.html

Regional Coverage

KU’s Murphy Hall celebrates 50 years
The Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, Kan.)
A good building can facilitate good art, according to James Moeser, the man largely responsible for the expansion of the School of Fine Arts in Murphy Hall at Kansas University. Moeser, who was dean of the School of Fine Arts from 1975 to 1985, spoke to about 170 people at a dinner in Murphy Hall as part of the building’s 50th anniversary rededication ceremony Saturday, 50 years to the day after its original dedication.

Organ donors really can change lives (Column)
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
Cornelia Kimmell was born with kidney disease in 1935. She wasn't diagnosed until 1986...Organ donation received increased national attention a few months ago after dozens of people were helped because a student who played the mascot at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sporting events was a donor.

State & Loval Coverage

Medical school branch in Asheville moving closer to reality
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
A strategy presented by UNC officials for the expansion of its School of Medicine includes a planned branch campus in Asheville. The plan, which the UNC Board of Governors heard about at their meeting Friday, requires the approval of UNC-Chapel Hill trustees before coming back to the board.

Black student group marks 40 years at UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Will Mebane remembers fearing for his life during the days when he headed UNC-Chapel Hill's Black Student Movement in the early 1970s. A loud and visible student leader, the Durham native led campus protests, brought students to Raleigh to march at the governor's mansion and generally pushed a civil rights agenda at a time of race riots and smoldering racial tension.

In rivalry, every last drop counts
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sometimes you've got to get a little dirty to save the Earth. That's the idea behind the new grudge match between the Wolfpack and Tar Heels: Who can trim hygiene to a minimum, save the most water and best fight the Triangle's drought?
Related Link: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=5092
Related Link: http://wunc.org/news/archive/SDD1109afor_web.mp3/view

Transfer tax goes winless in N.C.
The Charlotte Observer
A proposal to pay for growth has failed. And strained counties in the Charlotte region are resigning themselves to other methods for balancing the books: property taxes, spending cuts and growth control rules...Rich Ducker, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill's school of government, said the transfer tax's failure at the polls also could point more counties toward slow-growth ordinances.

City won half of annexation suits
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Residents angry over being absorbed into the city against their will might take heart from Asheville’s track record in annexation lawsuits...“In general, cities do pretty well,” said (David) Lawrence, a professor with the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government.

Transportation issues shouldn't delay project (Opinion Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill News
While returning from vacation, we traveled around Washington, D.C., on the beltway...And yet transportation issues, fear of traffic and too many parking spaces, dominate the talk about plans for Carolina North and our community in general.

Home sweet home (Editorial)
The Daily Tar Heel
As one of the top public universities in the country, UNC has some pull when it comes to a national chancellor search. We certainly want the search firm to find the best candidate for the job. However, the firm needs to ensure that it doesn't overlook the number of qualified candidates right here in Chapel Hill.

Scenes for sale
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Forget the claw-foot bathtub. You can't have it...At PlayMakers Rep, the resident professional company at UNC-CH, designers are forbidden to sell set pieces, even if the pieces are no longer useful. Because the company is based at a state institution, everything it acquires or creates belongs to the state.

If you were a fly on the wall ...
The Fayetteville Observer
If you were allowed to go back in time to a moment in history, what would you choose? Byron Hollinshead asked this question of 20 historians, and the essays of “I Wish I’d Been There” are the result...The last essay is by William E. Leuchtenburg, professor emeritus of the University of North Carolina. He wants to be present at a volatile meeting between President
Lyndon Johnson and Gov. George Wallace of Alabama.

Nurse midwives give moms another option
The Chapel Hill Herald
Joy Clark of Durham is planning to deliver her third child at UNC Hospitals -- a common-enough event. What's a little more uncommon: It will be her third delivery with midwives...Kathy Higgins, director of the UNC nurse midwifery practice, said UNC took a big step when it began its program nine years ago.

Jail ID program stirs fear (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
What kind of effect can we expect from Wake County's new program to identify and deport illegal immigrants from the local jail? ...(Hannah) Gill, assistant director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been gathering deportation stories since Alamance began a program similar to Wake's earlier this year.

AARP of 2 minds on private plans
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The nation's largest senior advocacy group, AARP, is warning North Carolina seniors about enrolling in privatized Medicare insurance while also earning money for endorsing three of the plans...Jon Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the relationship presents a potential conflict of interest.

Assessing bias in campaign coverage (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
I've heard a good bit recently from my friends toward the starboard tip of the political spectrum, alerting me to a new study of the media and the 2008 presidential campaign...Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, said any bias in the coverage stems from the "narratives" that have taken hold in the campaigns and in the press coverage at any given time -- such as Clinton and Obama being seen as the first woman and African-American with a good chance to win.

21st-century church: vast, plain, informal
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
On a two-lane country road near Clayton, a huge brick and steel edifice is rising out of the earth. It's not a shopping center or a school, though it resembles a little of both. It's a church, minus most of the trappings...Functionality is the goal of many of these churches, said UNC-Chapel Hill art historian Dorothy Verkerk.

When profits rule (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Why don't our elected officials appoint these progressive thinkers -- John Morris, director of the state Division of Water Resources; Allan Williams, Greensboro's director of water resources; and Jeff Hughes, director of the Environmental Finance Center at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government -- to the state Utilities Commission? (Richard Leber, Chapel Hill)

Issues & Trends

Accountability System Launched
Inside Higher Ed
A new way for students and their families to compare colleges — and for legislators and others to evaluate them — was unveiled Sunday with the start of a campaign to get institutions to sign up to use it...At the NASULGC meeting, in New York City, organizers noted that they had pledges of participation — even before Sunday’s official invitation for participations — from such prominent and large higher education systems as the California State University, University of North Carolina and University of Wisconsin systems, as well as the Universities of Iowa and Tennessee.
Related Link: http://www.charlotte.com/education/higher_education/story/358923.html

Grant will establish high school 'learning laboratories'
The Chapel Hill Herald
A $1.7 million grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to UNC will help four high schools become "learning laboratories" of best practice, enabling educators from other North Carolina schools to observe transformed teaching and learning that leads to higher education rates and higher performance among all students.

UNC officials honor Ruffin
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The late Benjamin S. Ruffin of Winston-Salem is the 2007 recipient of the University Award, the highest honor given by the Board of Governors of the UNC system. UNC President Erskine Bowles and awards committee chairman Brad Adcock of Cary presented the award, which recognizes illustrious service to higher education in North Carolina, to Ruffin's widow, Avon, and daughters, April and Benita, during a banquet Thursday on the UNC Chapel Hill campus.

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.