October 8, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage Note

This Sunday (Oct. 10), "The Today Show Weekend Edition" (NBC) will interview Dr. Mel Levine between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Dr. Levine will be discussing student assessments and ways to evaluate a student's struggle with learning as well as what parents can do to help a child learn effectively. A student who Levine has assessed and the student's mother will be a part of the interview segment. Levine is a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and the director of the Carolina's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning.

National Coverage

Business Week ranked UNC Kenan-Flagler's MBA Program 16th in its 2004 rankings of the top 30 U.S. business schools. Kenan-Flagler listed 18th overall in MBA programs were ranked..

UNC's Kenan-Flagler's overall ranking is based on three weighted rankings:

• 17th by corporate recruiters (45 percent)
  
  
• 17th by graduates (45 percent) in a composite ranking based on surveys of the Class of 2004 (50 percent) and the 2002 and 2000 student polls (25 percent each)
  
  
• 8th for intellectual capital (10 percent)
  
  The rankings and school profiles are at http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/04 and articles are at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/04_42/B39040442bschools.htm.
  Subscription may be required for some of the site.
  
  Updates on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 23 Universities
  The Chronicle of Higher Education
  The 23 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $548.3-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available....The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, $1.304-billion as of August 31 (increase of $25.6-million in the last month); the goal is $1.8-billion by 2007.
  Subscription required.
  
  Hedge funds grab more in fees as their popularity increases
  The Wall Street Journal
  Hedge funds are taking advantage of their growing popularity by boosting fees and grabbing a bigger slice of the high returns that made them so attractive in the first place....The University of North Carolina, one of the first endowments to plunge into hedge funds, says it will begin to trim its investments in hedge funds.
  Subscription required.
  
  Kerry's Plan to Rein In Outsourcing Has Holes
  Los Angeles Times
  Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry cites the shuttered steel plant in Massillon, Ohio, as a symbol of what's wrong with the economy under President Bush...."Traditional low-wage manufacturing jobs - the backbone of so many communities for so long - are fleeing," said Douglas Shackelford, a professor of taxation at the University of North Carolina.
  
  Support for Bush overwhelming at Marine Corps base
  The Boston Globe
  It is a measure of President Bush's unassailable popularity among the US Marines on this base that the only one who admitted that he supported John F. Kerry would say so only on condition of anonymity....Richard H. Kohn, formerly the chief historian of the Air Force and a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was one of the authors of that study and said the gap appeared to be growing.
  
  Bush Ability to Connect in Town Hall Faces Rare Unscripted Test
  Bloomberg News Service
  President George W. Bush's ability to connect with voters will be tested tonight in an unscripted town- hall setting that will be used for the second debate with John Kerry, the four-term Democratic senator from Massachusetts....Kerry's challenge will be to keep Bush on the defensive and limit his own tendency to wander, said Terry Sullivan, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina.
  
  Debate tackles legal reforms
  The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
  The country's civil justice system went on trial Thursday morning at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans, where lawyers packed a ballroom to hear a high-powered debate at the annual meeting of the DRI, a national organization of lawyers who defend corporate America....Thursday's session was not designed to resolve the issue. "This is a worthy discussion even if we can't assure that we'll work it out by 10:45," quipped moderator Gene Nichol, dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, as he launched the debate.
  
  State & Local Coverage
  
  Chamber hands out civic service awards
  The Chapel Hill Herald
  The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce has named Mariana Fiorentino its Citizen of the Year for her work in developing and promoting affordable housing....The group also gave community service awards to attorney Bob Epting, neighborhood activist Delores Bailey, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, UNC Vice Chancellor Nancy Suttenfield, University Mall, and the UNC Student Health Action Coalition.
  
  Issues & Trends
  
  UCLA Chancellor Calls for a Hefty Tuition Boost
  Los Angeles Times
  UCLA would have to significantly raise, perhaps more than double, the cost of its undergraduate program to remain a first-rate university, Chancellor Albert Carnesale said Thursday.
  
  Provost to get top NCSU job
  The News & Observer
  N.C. State University will welcome a new chancellor today with the expected promotion of university Provost James L. Oblinger.
  
  Annual tuition debate set to begin
  The Chapel Hill Herald
  UNC system leaders expect to take the first cautious steps in the coming weeks into their annual discussion of tuition at the system's 16 campuses, although a decision probably won't come until early next year.
  
  Campuses may be in line for more money
  The News & Observer
  Millions of dollars in additional annual funds could be on the way to UNC-Wilmington and Appalachian State University under a proposal to make budgets more equitable across the UNC system....In contrast, the state's two major research universities, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill, receive more than $10,000 a year in per-student funding from the state.
  
  

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/newsserv/clipsindex.htm.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.