October 21, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current International Coverage

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

How to shut up your critics with a single word (Commentary)
The Independent (London, U.K.)
Thank God, I often say, for the Israeli press. For where else will you find the sort of courageous 
condemnation of Israel's cruel and brutal treatment of the Palestinians? Where else can we read 
that Moshe Ya'alon, Ariel Sharon's new chief of staff, described the "Palestinian threat" as "like 
a cancer... The University of North Carolina is being targeted – apparently because freshmen 
were required to read passages from the Koran – along with Harvard where, like students in 
many other US universities, undergraduates are demanding that their colleges disinvest in companies 
that sell weapons to Israel. In some cases, American universities – which happily disinvested in 
tobacco companies – have now taken the step of blocking all student access to their records of 
investment...
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=344510
(Note: This commentary was reprinted in The New Zealand Herald.)

Current National Coverage

A Christian Science Library Opens, in More Ways Than One
The New York Times
Whatever history makes of Mary Baker Eddy, one thing is undisputed: She liked to write, a lot... 
"The library is doing a lot more than opening books and manuscripts," said Laurie Maffly-Kipp, 
an associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina....
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/19/national/19RELI.html
(Note: The New York Times requires free registration to access articles.)

Kindergarten less playful as pressure to achieve grows
The Chicago Tribune
Blocks, dolls and the toy kitchen were banned from Mary Lauren Tenney's kindergarten classroom 
last year in Knoxville, Tenn. But Tenney kept the blocks in defiance, arguing that, "For years, we 
told parents that children learn through play."... The emphasis on early reading will be particularly 
detrimental to boys, who generally are slower to begin reading than girls, said Dick Clifford, co-
director of the National Center for Early Development and Learning at the University of 
North Carolina...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0210200395oct20.story
(Note: The Chicago Tribune requires free registration to access articles.)

Get on the bus
Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin
Hollywood's "CSI" producers would love the scene. On a chilly October morning Nathaniel 
Eckenrode stands outside his lab clutching his evidence bag, a ziplock filled with a gel mold he used 
to perform electrophoresis, the procedure scientists use to separate DNA to solve crimes and to 
test for genetic susceptibility to disease... Abby Demars, program coordinator and one of the staff 
scientists aboard the BioBus, said the idea originated at Boston University, where city traffic deemed 
a mobile science classroom more feasible than organizing individual field trips for all of the area's 
schools. The University of North Carolina followed soon after, and last year Connecticut's BioBus 
became the third of it's kind in the nation...
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/stories/20021020/living/327671.html

Rumsfeld renews debate on civilian control of military (Commentary)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set out this week on a path blazed almost two decades ago 
by predecessor Caspar Weinberger... Military historian Richard H. Kohn recently blew on the 
embers of that debate... So I called Kohn at his office at the University of North Carolina...
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/4bd7c0d0a064698185256a0f005f470c/86256a0e0068fe5086256c5700586b68?OpenDocument

Toxic Science
The Chronicle of Higher Education
If the microbe known as Pfiesteria had a brain -- and a set of vocal cords -- it would no doubt
laugh out loud at how scientists, universities, and federal agencies have been sniping at one another 
in recent months... Another paper pushed a similar argument in the June issue of the Journal of 
Physiology. R. Wayne Litaker, an adjunct professor of biology at the University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill and a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 
studied a species called Pfiesteria piscicida...
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i09/09a01501.htm
(Note: For more information about Litaker's research, please go to 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun02/pfiesteria061802.htm. The Chronicle of 
Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

A heavy burden
Denver Post
This is the meaty mantra of today's linemen. They've never been bigger. But all that bulk may be 
killing them, according to several studies that show the men in the trenches often face higher rates 
of fatal heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis after they retire... "The poor guys. 
If you've got any kids, don't bring them up to be linemen," said Kevin Guskiewicz, research 
director at the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina...
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E86%257E933120,00.html

Of Human Interest: News lite 
United Press International
... There's an old saying that if you know all the rules you have license to break them once in a 
while, and few people are going to challenge William Harmon when he decides to do so by making 
up a word or two. The humanities professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is 
poet with a bona fide poetic license to do whatever he wants with words. He also is longtime editor 
of the 66-year-old best-selling "A Handbook to Literature. ...
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021014-010830-9087r
(Note: This coverage was the result of a UNC news release
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct02/harmon101102.htm. The News and Observer 
also features a story about Harmon today on its campus page, 
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1849342p-1845855c.html.)

National News Note

Carl Ernst, professor of religious studies, appeared as a featured guest Oct. 14 on "The Jim Reith 
Show," broadcast on WSYR-AM (Syracuse, N.Y.) from 4 p.m. to 7 pm. The transcript is not 
available online.

Christian Smith, professor of sociology, and the recent research coming from the National Study 
of Youth and Religion based at UNC recently was featured in additional publications including 
Orthodoxy Today, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Youth Ministry News, Absolute News, The 
Bradenton (Fla.) Herald and MEDLINEplus.

Current Regional Coverage

Health beat: Good anti-terror news: pox immunity lingers 
Knoxville News-Sentinel 
The immune cells of people vaccinated against smallpox decades ago still react strongly to a related 
virus, suggesting that millions would still have some protection if smallpox were released in a biological 
attack, researchers report. "Resistance is waning but not rapidly. It is still substantial," said Jeffrey 
Frelinger, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill and lead author of the small study, detailed recently in the New England Journal of 
Medicine...
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/health_and_fitness/article/0,1406,KNS_310_1491993,00.html
(Note: This coverage was the result of a UNC news release
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug02/smallpox082302.htm)

BBQ lavishly analyzed, lovingly ingested
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)
The allure and lore of barbecue brought 200 people to the University of Mississippi this weekend... 
"You can't understand the South without understanding barbecue," said John Shelton Reed, professor 
emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of 1001 Things Everyone 
Should Know About the South...
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/food/article/0,1426,MCA_495_1490334,00.html

UDC's aim to put spin on history, expert says 
The Tennessean (Nashville, Tenn.)
The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded as much to pass down a pro-Confederate 
version of history as to keep alive the memories of the soldiers who fought for the South, a historian 
who has written a book about the organization said yesterday... Karen Cox, a professor at the 
University of North Carolina, spoke at a forum meant to illuminate the history behind the current 
controversy over Vanderbilt University's decision to change the name of Confederate Memorial Hall...
http://www.tennessean.com/education/archives/02/10/23992928.shtml?Element_ID=23992928

State and Local News Notes

Remarks by Chancellor Moeser about academic freedom delivered at the Oct. 11 Faculty Council 
meeting were reprinted as an opinion-editorial column Oct. 20 in The Chapel Hill Herald. (Not yet 
available online)

Excerpts from the University Day speech given by William Ferris, senior associate director of the 
Center for the Study of the American South, appeared Oct. 20 in The News and Observer's "Q" 
section and The Chapel Hill News. (Not available online from the newspaper. However, you may 
read the speech on the News Services site at 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct02/ferrisspeech101402.htm

State and Local Coverage

Which nursing homes will make the grade?
Charlotte Observer
Consumer guides in the newspaper? Report cards on the Internet? There was none of that when Mary 
Harkey was looking for a nursing home... "Many people have pointed to that as a watershed moment 
in the movement for improving quality in America's health-care system," said Dr. Bill Roper, the HCFA 
administrator at the time, now dean of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Public Health....
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/living/health/4331714.htm

Institute tackles Pre-K problems 
The Herald-Sun
Forty-two states currently have pre-kindergarten programs or are preparing to start them. But there 
is no single national source that offers information on how to plan these programs and gives direction 
on what policies they should follow. That should change this week. The UNC-affiliated FPG Child 
Development Institute expects to officially launch its National Prekindergarten Center, as soon as it 
officially receives grant money from the Foundation for Child Development. "States are starting all 
these pre-K programs, and there are billions of dollars being invested, but there’s little guidance out 
there about how to do it and how to do it well," said FPG researcher Kelly Maxwell, the co-director 
of the center... The center will focus particularly on three areas, said FPG senior scientist Dick 
Clifford, the other co-director. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-279056.html

The divide between black families and schools 
News and Observer
For its recent series, "The Parent Gap," The N&O spent six months interviewing almost 100 parents, 
teachers and education leaders about the relationships between black parents and the public schools... 
Research published this year from the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill shows the gap in 
some areas grows with startling speed...
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1848295p-1845295c.html

Serving underserved well 
News and Observer
Young doctors had come and gone like the rotation of crops in the fields surrounding this Eastern 
North Carolina community, so Dr. Art Apolinario had some suspicion to overcome when he arrived 
three years ago... Even when considering population growth, the ratio of doctors has improved, 
according to statistics just released by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research... 
"North Carolina is a story everybody in the country knows about," said Gordon DeFriese, president 
of the N.C. Institute of Medicine...
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1849252p-1845903c.html

Anti-DWI group takes on underage drinking 
Asheville Citizen-Times
John Williams drank his first beer at his brother's fraternity house when he was 14 years old. And 
throughout his adult life, he's struggled to overcome alcoholism. Now, he's working to make sure 
judges in Buncombe County crack down on underage drinking and the people who sell alcohol to 
minors... In North Carolina last year, 13 percent of all fatal crashes involving drivers younger than 
21 were alcohol-related, according to the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research 
Center...
http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/news/22178

Ears open, tape on, professor edits book 
News and Observer 
William Harmon, an English professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, keeps a tape recorder within close reach 
when he reads many books and articles. A poet with a passion for new words and rare phrases, he 
tapes a voice note to himself whenever he comes across something out of the ordinary...
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1849342p-1845855c.html
(Note: This coverage was the result of a UNC news release
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct02/harmon101102.htm)

Tale traces mysterious shipwreck
Charlotte Observer
A Coast Guardsman spotted the ghost ship at dawn stuck on deadly Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras... 
N.C. writer Bland Simpson's new book "Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: the Mystery of the Carroll A. 
Deering" (University of North Carolina Press, $24.95) is the first full-length account of the haunting tale. 
Simpson, who teaches creative writing at UNC Chapel Hill, reconstructs the Deering's final voyage from 
Rio de Janeiro to Norfolk, Va., and the aftermath of the wreck...
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/living/4326284.htm
(Note: This coverage was the result from a UNC news release 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct02/simpson092402.htm)

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Deal-maker drawn to duty 
News and Observer
Erskine Bowles has always described himself as a "creature of the private sector" -- a direct-speaking,
no-nonsense guy who has spent his adult life putting together million-dollar deals in Charlotte or on Wall 
Street... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the Bowles stamp. Skipper Bowles led 
the fund-raising effort to build the Dean Dome... When Bowles was a student at Chapel Hill, few saw 
him as Senate material...
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1848322p-1845161c.html

Notes to Democrats: Come to session ... if you can 
News and Observer
...In recent years, the General Assembly has given UNC campuses more autonomy in setting tuition 
and salaries. Campus lobbyists often can be seen on Jones Street, and UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. 
State University are seeking big donations for their political action committees. Now, UNC system 
leaders want to limit lobbying by the 16 campuses...
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1849257p-1845913c.html

Water limits eased 
News and Observer
Orange Water and Sewer Authority customers may water their gardens and lawns with cans and hand-
held hoses this weekend...
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1828959p-1827328c.html

Council to consider ordinance changes
Chapel Hill News 
Probably the only thing everyone agrees on in the latest version of the town's new development 
ordinance is the appropriateness of the word "draft" in the title. The plan, now about two years in the 
making, has begun to gel, but in recent work sessions and public hearings it has become clear that the
final edition is still a ways off...
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/story/1822934p-1821537c.html

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