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Oct. 4, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
James Taylor honored by hometown college
The Associated Press
James Taylor, who penned "Carolina in My Mind" while homesick for North Carolina, has been honored by his hometown university. Taylor, 58, performed the song with the North Carolina Symphony on Sunday when both were given 2006 Carolina Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/lifetime091406.htmJames Taylor joins symphony for awards
United Press International
The University of North Carolina has honored singer and songwriter James Taylor and the North Carolina Symphony with lifetime achievement awards. The Durham Herald-Sun reported that after the awards were received Sunday, Taylor and the orchestra joined forces to perform Taylor's classic hit "Carolina In My Mind."
Counting calories? Think before you drink
The Record (Ontario, Canada)
The first line of defence in the battle of the bulge has primarily focused on what we eat -- and on exercise, of course. ... Barry Popkin, a nutrition expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says, "One-third of those calories are from alcohol, and the rest comes from sugared beverages."
More and more Indian students get US visas
The Indo Asian News Service
There is a substantial growth in the number of visas issued to Indian students for studying in the US even as representatives of 17 American universities were camping in Delhi to woo more students. ... California State University, Indiana University, University of North Carolina, Webster University and Savannah College of Arts and Design were among those who participated in the fair.
National Coverage
Care vs. Constraints
The Wall Street Journal
Few settings in later life have more advantages, and raise more questions among would-be residents, than continuing-care retirement communities. ... Also taking part were Ray Auwarter, a retired marketing executive in the forest-products industry, and David Godschalk, 75, a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina -- both residents of Chapel Hill.
Note: Subscription required.Updates on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 24 Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The 24 American universities that are seeking to raise at least $1-billion collected a total of $416.4-million in gifts and pledges during the last month for which they had data available. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, $1.83-billion as of August 31 (increase of $19.9-million in the last month); the goal is $2-billion by 2007.
University Presses Set the Standard in Use of Recycled Paper
The Chronicle of Higher Education
When Deborah Bruner took the job of production manager at Cornell University Press, in 1996, she wanted to use recycled paper for its books. ... Thomson-Shore counts more than 50 university presses, including the University of California Press, the University of North Carolina Press, and the University of Michigan Press, among its clients.
Author sees more than pretty views on Blue Ridge Parkway
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution
On a postcard-perfect Saturday at the Heffner Gap Overlook, Anne Mitchell Whisnant reads from one of the scores of informational signs — known as "gun boards" for their frontier rifle logos — posted along the 470 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. ... Whisnant first visited the parkway as a child in the late 1970s, and her book grew out of her doctoral dissertation in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Note: Anne Mitchell Whisnant is the director of research, communications, and programs in the Office of Faculty Governance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Regional Coverage
Go outside the box in Camden (Editorial)
Courier Post (Cherry Hill, N.J.)
Vouchers are not a magical cure for the ills of Camden's struggling school district, as a policy expert told Camden parents and educators Saturday. ... And as Walter Farrell, the associate director of a policy institute at the University of North Carolina, told Camden attendees, schools that accept vouchers should be held to the same standards as public schools.
Sweeteners take the blame for weight gain (Question-answer)
The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (N.Y.)
... The problem with sweetened soda and sports drinks, says University of North Carolina nutrition professor Barry Popkin, is that they don't satisfy the appetite like solid food. Most people don't offset the extra calories they take in through sweetened beverages by eating less later on. Just a single can of soda each day can pile on 15 pounds in a single year.
Seminary closings are sad to see (Opinion column)
The Arizona Daily Star
They eliminated the parish where I was baptized. ... Professor Christian Smith of the University of North Carolina and now the University of Notre Dame was surprised in his research on denominations and teens that the commitment of resources and personnel to working with teens was lower in Catholicism than in any other denomination.
State and Local Coverage
The angel has a new home
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The university's ode to renowned author Thomas Wolfe was obscured by shrubbery and fixed to a dull concrete slab. It is a male angel sculpted of bronze, robe draped from his outstretched arm, a nod to the 1920 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate's crowning novel, "Look Homeward, Angel."
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/wolfemem092706.htmJames Taylor: Oct. 1, 2006
The Chapel Hill News
Audio slide show: Native son returns to Memorial Hall on the UNC campus to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Carolina Performing Arts and regale the audience with one of his signature songs.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/lifetime091406.htmLeader from real-world law
The Triangle Business Journal
Jack Boger may have been a professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Law for the past 16 years, but he knows what life is like out in the real world, too. Boger, the new dean at the UNC law school, has had experiences that thousands of lawyers can only dream about - and others that might induce nightmares. Sometimes, they all came in the same case.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun06/lawdean060706.htmUNC Researchers Study Cause Of Preeclampsia
WNCN-TV (NBC, Raleigh)
Preeclampsia is a life-threatening condition which can affect pregnant women. Researchers at UNC are one step closer to finding the cause of this disease.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/peptide091806.htmUniversity brings forth development updates
The Daily Tar Heel
The Chapel Hill planning board heard a proposal by the University on Tuesday to modify the development plan approved in 2001. The third draft of the development plan includes proposals for an expanded dental science building, the replacement of the psychology department's Davie Hall and improvements to both Boshamer and Kenan stadiums.
Task force to talk figures
The Daily Tar Heel
When members of the tuition and fee advisory task force meet today they will have a full agenda before them. ... Task force members will have only one more meeting after today to discuss tuition and student fee proposals. Following its Oct. 18 meeting, the task force will draft its recommendations and send them to Chancellor James Moeser.
Hospitals to banish smoking
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
For years, medical staff, patients and visitors have clustered around hospital entryways, dragging on cigarettes before returning to the clean air inside. ... Hospitals have recognized for decades that they should ban smoking throughout their facilities, said Mel Hurston, the senior vice president for operations at UNC's health system.
Related link: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/15673810.htmDuke Medicine will ban tobacco
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Duke Medicine has joined with UNC Hospitals, Rex Healthcare and WakeMed in pledging to make all their facilities tobacco-free beginning July 4, 2007. This change will eliminate the use of tobacco in all facilities of Duke University Medical Center and Duke University Health System.
UNC, NCSU athletics breathe 'rarefied air
The Triangle Business Journal
A touchdown is still worth six points, and a free throw is still worth one. ... "It has grown so much," says Martina Ballen, a senior associate athletics director who has rode shotgun over the department's finances for 19 years.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet to read at Wilson Library
The Chapel Hill News
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon will read from his most recent work at 6 p.m. Monday in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Wilson Library. The reading by Muldoon, one of Ireland's leading poets, will mark the opening of "Nobel Times Four: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, and Heaney," an exhibit presented by the Rare Book Collection in Wilson.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct06/irish100206.htmTriangle hums with new construction
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sanjay Mundra couldn't get financing to build hotels or condominiums in 2001. "What financing?" he said recently. "There was none available." ... "If you have 80 percent of your goods in one basket and things turn, you might be in trouble," said economic forecaster James F. Smith with Western Carolina University and the Center for Business Forecasting at UNC.
Directory offers breast cancer patients places, people to turn to
The Asheville Citizen-Times
October is here, wrapped in pink ribbons. But for women with breast cancer, every month is Breast Cancer Awareness month. ... Davidson authored the book in conjunction with fellow cancer survivor Elizabeth Mahanna, a public health researcher with the University of North Carolina.
For a healthier lifestyle, start changing your habits (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
Reader Ken L. from Cary asks: "We want to begin a coordinated plan to improve our nutritional habits, create exercise routines and manage our weight. Can you direct us to resources to help us?" ... Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.
Words turn into threat at meeting
The Charlotte Observer
There was a threat of rear-end whipping, and at one point someone asked for the sheriff. ... Union County is dealing with tough growth issues, so it's not surprising the meetings get emotional, said John Stephens of the Public Dispute Resolution Program at UNC's Institute of Government.
Forsyth land deal may run afoul of state law
The Winston-Salem Journal
The government agency in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County that runs water-sewer service bought 119 acres of land in Stokes County for a proposed demolition landfill last month without informing the Stokes government. In buying the land without first getting the consent of the Stokes County commissioners, the City-County Utility Commission may have violated state law, according to Fleming Bell, a government-law expert at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Government in Chapel Hill.
Life without a net (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It was distressing to read Rick Martinez's Sept. 29 column about the Jerry Ansley family and his lack of concern with their plight. Suppose UNC Hospitals were to take $185,000 out of the Ansleys' house, the nest-egg they were hoping to use for retirement. Who takes care of things when they need long-term care?
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/720/story/494129.htmlIssues and Trends
Lower the ceiling (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
Consider: Under new guidelines for tuition and fee increases proposed by UNC system President Erskine Bowles, the basic cost for residents to enroll at the state's largest campus -- N.C. State -- could rise $1,314 in five years. At UNC Charlotte, the price could go up $1,078; at Appalachian, $923.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/494138.htmlBalancing act on UNC tuition hikes (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
In unveiling a proposal to cap tuition increases at UNC campuses at 6.5 percent a year on Monday, UNC President Erskine Bowles expressed the mixed emotions that are common when tuition is the subject.
Related link: http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/chhedits/57-775439.htmlBowles Proposes Affordable, Predictable Tuition With Cap
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
Tuition increases for the University of North Carolina's 16 campuses would be capped at 6.5 percent for each of the next four years under a plan released Monday by system president Erskine Bowles. ... "President Bowles is trying to keep the university system accessible to all people in the state of North Carolina," said Brian Phelps, student body vice president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Carrboro may put brakes on projects
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The town's Planning Board asked the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday night to consider suspending development in the Northern Study Area, 3,787 acres north of town where many developers are looking to build. ... So, the board decided Tuesday that it needs to refer the proposal to these two committees first, along with the Town of Chapel Hill, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and UNC-Chapel Hill since they each have a stake or interest in the designated area.
How high is too high?
The Chapel Hill News
In five years or so, nine-story condominium buildings could replace church steeples as the tallest structures downtown. ... Historically, height limits were created for health and safety reasons, including making sure occupants would have time to escape from a burning building. Later codes considered limiting height to allow more sunlight at street level, said Emil Malizia, chair of UNC's department of city and regional planning.
A model for town-gown relations (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill News
The group that participated in the public-private inter-city visit to Madison, Wis., last week was treated to a very well-managed program that sought to pack a great deal of information into few precious hours. ... Bill Strom is a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council.
The case for East Meck (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
In response to the recent sensationalistic news coverage regarding an altercation in a parking lot next to East Mecklenburg High School following the East-Myers Park football game on Sept. 22, several points should be made. ... Recent East Meck graduates have been undergraduate teaching fellows at Appalachian and other state institutions, and Morehead Scholars at UNC, and are currently enrolled at Harvard, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill and other places where the educational and social foundations gained at East Meck are serving them and our society well.
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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