September 8, 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

Kodak Switches to Business Focus
The New York Times
By now it is old news: the Eastman Kodak Company is struggling to reinvent itself as digital technology encroaches on its sales of film. "They should already be doing road shows for investors and running consumer ads that stress quality, not emotion," said Neil A. Morgan, a marketing professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
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State and Local Coverage

Medical school leads way as UNC research funding jumps 10%
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC faculty continued to bring in vast quantities of sponsored-research money in fiscal 2002-03, topping the $500 million mark for the first time.
(UNC News Services release can be found here.)

UNC-CH touts its grants
The News & Observer
Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development at UNC-Chapel Hill, has crunched the numbers and wants to crow about it. He figures that with $537.4 million in sponsored research funding coming to the UNC-CH campus, that, on average, each faculty member brought $187,383 into the system. "In today's economy, that's an impressive number, and it signifies the overall excellence of our academic work," Waldrop said in a prepared statement. Sponsored research funding jumped 10 percent in fiscal year 2003 -- from $488.3 million in 2002 to $537.4 million. The new totals, released by the university's Office of Sponsored Research, showed increases in all categories of research grants. Federally funded research, which accounted for the biggest gains in the 2003 total, rose to $397 million from $356.3 million from 2002.Among the federal agencies included in this category are the departments of defense, health and human services, and education; the National Science Foundation; and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
(Note: This brief appeared today as part of the News & Observer's regular Campus page. No online link available.)

NIH's vote of confidence (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun
The federal government's decision to locate a regional biodefense research center at Duke University Medical Center is another endorsement of the Research Triangle's high standing in the scientific community. … The Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense will coordinate research at UNC Chapel Hill, Emory University, University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of Florida and Vanderbilt University.

UNC innovations assist companies
The Daily Tar Heel
Micell Technologies started as an experiment in a UNC laboratory. In 1995, two chemistry graduate students and their professor discovered how to make detergent using micelles, better known as scrubbing bubbles.

UNC starts design process for cancer hospital
The Herald-Sun
The state Senate and UNC Hospitals have been pushing for years to build a state-of-the-art cancer hospital and research center they say would serve as a research hub and also would nurture a biotechnology economy that has taken root in the Triangle.

UNC faculty want input on ACC
The News & Observer
After the chaos and rancor of this summer's Atlantic Coast Conference expansion process, UNC-Chapel Hill professors say they want more input into major athletics initiatives -- before those decisions are made.

Cherishing dissent (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer
In an Aug. 20 Point of View article responding to conservative students who say their ideas are not taken seriously at UNC-Chapel Hill, assistant professor Andrew J. Perrin wrote that the students are making "silly accusations." … Together they've shown how a great university treats criticism and differences of ideas.

The call's on us (Editorial)
The News & Observer
So in the grand scheme of things, perhaps it's not a big deal. Still the fact that UNC-Chapel Hill would be so slack with regard to telephone calling cards -- some employees have been using old cards with high rates -- doesn't say a lot for the much-discussed fiscal caution that state universities are having to exercise these days … .

Ten Commandments, one controversy, many lessons (Opinion- Editorial Column)
The Charlotte Observer
The current Ten Commandments brouhaha in Alabama has spawned enough lessons to support the major part of a curriculum in either a Sunday school or civics class. … Arnold H. Loewy is Graham Kenan Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Colleges' Admissions Policies to Be Studied
The Washington Post
The national organization that oversees college application practices has decided not to sanction Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities for violating early admission rules and will instead launch a two-year study of the increasingly controversial and confusing higher education application process.

SAT, ACT Math Scores Aren't Adding Up
National Associated Press
First, the maker of America's second-most popular college entrance exam releases this year's test scores and declares incoming freshmen largely unprepared for math and science classes. A week later, results from the nation's No. 1 test show math scores at a 35-year high.

Techie tuition grant irks others
The Herald-Sun
A recently passed law, created to pay the tuition of N.C. School of Science and Mathematics graduates who attend state universities, has raised concerns among some students now attending public, four-year institutions….Matt Tepper, student government president at UNC Chapel Hill, said he understands the desire to keep qualified and talented students in the state, but he wonders if enough Science & Math graduates were going to out-of-state schools to justify the tuition grants.

Mayor, council voted to serve community (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
I agree with editor Ted Vaden that the Chapel Hill Town Council vote Aug. 26 in favor of UNC's proposals with negotiated "compromises on both sides" was "a reasonable compromise" (CHN, Aug. 31). I applaud Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy's courage when he notes, "It would have been easier and more popular to say no, but I don't think it would have been right."

Path of Mason Farm Road under study
The Herald-Sun
Although actual construction might be several years away, the state Department of Transportation has begun a feasibility study on a possible "relocation" of Mason Farm Road between South Columbia Street and Fordham Boulevard.

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.