September 25, 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:

Old smallpox vaccination may still protect 
British Medical Journal
Smallpox vaccination given more than 35 years ago may still offer important protection, says a new 
report based on laboratory studies by immunologists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel 
Hill, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine... Dr Jeffrey Frelinger, professor and 
chairman of the Department of Immunology at the University of North Carolina, and postdoctoral 
researcher Dr Mohammed Garba looked at the CD8 T lymphocyte responses to vaccinia virus...
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/325/7363/513/c

Brain Drain Remedies
Scottish Daily Record
The results of a new study shows it takes just 10 units of alcohol in one sitting to kill cells in your brain... 
"You just aren't as clever after a binge night out as you were before it," says Dr Fulton T. Crews, 
director of the Centre for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, who carried out the 
research...
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/vital/healthbeauty/healthfeed/page.cfm?objectid=12227598&method=full&siteid=89488

Current National Coverage

Princeton and Brown Stick With Early-Decision Policies That Bar Applications Elsewhere
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Princeton and Brown Universities will not allow their early-decision applicants to apply to other 
institutions' early-action programs this fall, despite a recent policy change by the National Association 
for College Admission Counseling that was intended to eliminate such a restriction... "It's problematic 
if some institutions don't comply," said Jerome A. Lucido, associate provost and dean of undergraduate 
admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which dropped its early-decision 
program this year...
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002092502n.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

A New Way to Read, Not See, Maps 
Wired.com 
Jason Morris uses a trackball to move a cursor across a map of ancient Britain dotted with Roman forts 
and cities... The software, developed as part of an undergraduate computer science class project, could 
give Morris, a graduate student in the classics department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill, access to maps that sighted students take for granted... BATS began as a software engineering 
class project last spring. Computer science professor Gary Bishop had been looking for a blind student 
to help with accessibility projects when he met Morris on a street...
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54916,00.html
(Note: For more information about BATS, please go to 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jul02/jason072502.htm)

State and Local Coverage

UNC-CH changes reflect PETA charges 
News and Observer
Responding to an animal-rights group's accusations that lab animals were mistreated at UNC-Chapel 
Hill, the university has disciplined scientists, changed managers and expanded training. While many of 
the charges by a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spy were unfounded, some were true, 
Vice Chancellor for Research Tony Waldrop said. "Were there things that came to our attention that 
we corrected? Absolutely," Waldrop said...
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1762557p-1772660c.html
(Note: A related story appeared in The Herald-Sun 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-270435.html)

UNC needs to compromise on Estes Drive facility (Editorial)
Chapel Hill News
Folks who are interested in the long-term development of UNC’s 970-acre Horace Williams tract 
might take a look at a current UNC project that could foretell how the development will affect 
surrounding neighborhoods...
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/opinion/story/1760423p-1770401c.html

Horace Williams harbinger
Chapel Hill News
Claire Lorch and Fred Stang's withering tomato plants are just a few feet away from their property line, 
now the leading edge of a thick stand of hardwoods and pine trees. They fear that one day, instead of 
the present bucolic landscape, they may be staring at the edge of a UNC fueling station, printing facility 
and vehicle maintenance lot... Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for facilities at UNC, said the 
UNC Board of Trustees would look over the site plans at today's meeting and staff members would 
apply for a special use permit from the town soon after...
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/story/1760448p-1770678c.html

Neighbors, UNC-CH spar over zoning 
News and Observer
Elkin Hills residents have uncovered a zoning rule that they hope will prevent UNC-Chapel Hill officials 
from proceeding with plans to build maintenance, fueling and storage buildings on a wooded parcel of 
state-owned land abutting their 1950s-era neighborhood... Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor 
of planning and construction, disagrees with the neighborhood interpretation of the zoning rules...
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1762560p-1772663c.html

Roses and Raspberries
Chapel Hill News
... Raspberries to the N.C. General Assembly for forcing UNC to keep Horace Williams Airport open 
until 2005. The budget passed on Friday keeps the airport open until Jan. 1, 2005...
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/opinion/story/1760419p-1770402c.html

UNC task force encourages students to conserve water
News 14 (Time-Warner, Raleigh)
State officials have renewed their call for continued conservation measures in the areas most affected by 
the drought. The state's department of environment and natural resources said North Carolinians should 
remember that recent rainfall in the state has not eliminated the drought... 
http://rdu.news14.com/content/top_stories/?ArID=14931

Town is a leader in public transit (Letter to the Editor)
Chapel Hill News
If the author of “All those empty buses” (CHN, Sept. 18) had actually ridden a few, I’m sure her 
perspective would be quite different... 
http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/opinion/story/1760420p-1770404c.html

Restrictions Keep Cuban Jazz Pianist Off Stage at UNC
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
An October performance at U.N.C.-Chapel Hill by Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Chucho 
Valdes has been cancelled. The reason is a new federal law enacted after the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks. 
It prevented Valdes from getting the proper travel visa needed to embark on his American tour. He 
was to be in Chapel Hill next Friday...
http://www.wral.com/news/1685786/detail.html

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Academia becomes target for new security laws
The Christian Science Monitor 
When William Stwalley got word this summer about what had happened to his foreign graduate students, 
the usually mild-mannered physics professor could barely keep himself in his chair. He was livid...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0924/p11s02-lehl.html

Restraint on UNC (Editorial)
Winston-Salem Journal
With all the jobs and benefits in the University of North Carolina system, it's no surprise that legislators 
find it difficult to stay away from decisions best left to the board of governors and the university's 
professionals. In the budget just completed by the General Assembly, however, legislators resisted the 
temptation to make important decisions for which they are not qualified...
http://www.journalnow.com/wsj/opinion/MGBJYI4SI6D.html

Bill to create jobs is incentive-laden 
News and Observer
It began as a modest piece of legislation to reward businesses for creating jobs during a period of
economic distress... The list of new incentives includes $15 million per year in job-creation grants; 
$20 million in annual grants to travel and tourism projects; a reduction in the corporate income tax; 
$45 million for a biotechnology training center at N.C. State University; and $130 million for a cancer 
treatment center at UNC Hospitals...
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/1762478p-1772613c.html

Council moves to stem concern 
News and Observer
Mayor Kevin Foy took a moment this week to try to temper concerns that the Town Council had 
gone rule-crazy and was about to put in place a new land-use management ordinance that would 
potentially rob many people of the significant investments they have made in their homes... There 
also is a proposal to prohibit new duplexes in most Chapel Hill planning zones. A consultant offered 
the idea as a way to curb multibedroom duplexes that are being built for student renters in vulnerable 
residential areas near UNC-Chapel Hill...
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1762525p-1772536c.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