October 23, 2003

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

A Nice Place to Have a Snack or Catch Up on Your Reading
The New York Times
CELL PHONES are everybody's favorite example of a distraction that is most likely to cause a car crash....Dr. Stutts, the associate director of social and behavioral research at the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that a goal of the study was to develop a taxonomy of distractions, but that her group did not actually measure which distractions were worse than others.

Words of Faith
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS-TV)
Gen. William Boykin, U.S. deputy undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, has drawn fire for referring to the American war against extremist Islamic terrorists as a struggle against "a spiritual enemy called Satan."...To explore this controversy, we turn to Richard Kohn, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina.

Poll: Most still prefer boys over girls
Scripps Howard News Service
In the 1940s, when men took the lead in the workplace and on the playing field, the Gallup Organization asked Americans what gender they would want if they could only have one child - most chose boys....Ronald Rindfuss, a sociology professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that contrary to the Gallup findings, the United States has not become like some Asian countries that historically have had a strong son preference.

The merger proposal
The Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, N.J.)
The complete text of the report of the University Committee-South of the Review, Planning and Implementation Commission on the Proposed Restructuring of New Jersey Research Universities....North Carolina's Research Triangle is a perfect example. Anchored firmly by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University, the Research Triangle is home to 100 companies employing 50,000 workers.

UNC first to give needy students full scholarships
The Daily Northwestern
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier this month announced it would
grant full scholarships to students coming from a low-income background -- a move
that has generated national attention but that few other schools, including Northwestern,
will be able to follow.

State and Local Coverage

A boost for all (Point of View)
The News & Observer
As a native North Carolinian who graduated from Broughton High School (1976) and UNC-Chapel Hill (1980), I will forever be grateful for the fine education I received. It has served me well in my over 20-year Wall Street career. ...I am troubled by the tone of the debate over lifting of the out-of-state student quota at UNC campuses from 18 percent to 22 percent.

Home folks first (Point of View)
The News & Observer
If the UNC Board of Governors wants to make the university more effective for the people of our state, it should abandon the idea of increasing the out-of-state admissions cap from 18 percent to 22 percent. It is a bad idea. A better idea would be to lower it, say to 15 percent.

North Carolina School Ranked Best Value in Higher Education
WTVD-TV (ABC, Raleigh)
Gov. Mike Easley today boasted top rankings for five North Carolina colleges and universities as possessing the best educational value as public secondary education institutions according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.
Related story:
Tuition Hike Recommended At UNC-Chapel Hill
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)

College costs keep soaring . .(Editorial)
Wilmington Morning Star
The cost of college continues to rise beyond the reach of an increasing number of Americans. As a new study by the College Board points out, much of the blame falls on state legislators, who've been yielding to the temptation to balance their states' budgets by cutting spending for public higher education....A shining exception to that trend is UNC-Chapel Hill, which recently announced a program to help low-income students work their way through school without going into debt.

. . . and speaking of extravagance (Editorial)
The Wilmington Morning Star
Roy Williams is out of the doghouse and on his way to the bank. Pushing a wheel barrow.... Few UNC basketball fans are likely to fret about the new coach's eight-year, multi-million-dollar contract, but fans of the university and common sense should find it unsettling.

Williams draws crowd
The News & Observer
When new North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams first read the articles about the
eight-year, $12.9 million contract he signed last week, he said he thought it was a ridiculous
amount of money.

Judge's handling of cases under scrutiny
Asheville Citizen Times
A Buncombe County District Court judge faces allegations today that she acted inappropriately in four family cases....Having a judicial code of ethics helps to guarantee that people have the opportunity to present their case before a decision-maker who hasn't made up his mind beforehand, said Jim Drennan, a faculty member of the Institute of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dual degree makes social work divine
The Daily Tar Heel
Officials from the UNC School of Social Work and the Duke University Divinity School announced last week that they will offer a dual degree program to benefit students seeking careers in both fields of study.

Divinity, Carolina collaborate
The Chronicle, Duke
Officials at Duke's Divinity School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Social Work announced a new dual degree program between the two schools that will prepare students for "a unique kind of social service."

Issues and Trends

Price controls and tuition
The Washington Times
Rep. Buck McKeon, California Republican, has proposed the first-ever federal price controls on college tuitions. While seeking to address a very real concern for America's students and families, this measure threatens them with an unwritten law as old as mankind: the law of unintended consequences.

Ivory Tower
The News & Observer
U.S. Rep. Walter Jones this week sent a warning shot across the bow of the University of
North Carolina system that it needs to be fair to conservatives.

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Russell Campbell at News Services, (919) 962-2091, russell_campbell@unc.edu, or Mike McFarland in University Communications, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu

Note: Web links on this page are time-sensitive, so stories might not be available after the day they first appeared.