September 13, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Strange race for U.S. presidency
The Toronto Star
From a distance, the U.S. presidential election looks like a jumble of mismatched puzzle pieces...."People of means build solid structures and people without means live in frail ones and hurricanes have a way of finding the people without means," historian Louis Perez of the University of North Carolina told the Christian Science Monitor.

National Coverage

Nearly 2 million Cubans get out of hurricane's way
The Dallas Morning News
Hurricane Ivan rumbled toward western Cuba on Sunday as authorities evacuated the last of nearly 2 million people in its destructive path...."Historians focus a great deal on what people do together, but now and then, the forces of nature overwhelm a culture and affect how cultures become what they are," University of North Carolina professor Louis Perez Jr. told an interviewer in June.

How dangerous a sport?
The Seattle Times
In the early morning quiet of Sept. 4, a worker at the University of Washington put the finishing touches on a tribute to Curtis Williams on the sideline at Husky Stadium: a purple number 25 that will forever memorialize one of the most tragic stories in the school's 115-year football history...."It's probably safer than kids getting in a car and driving on the highway," said Dr. Frederick Mueller, who heads the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

Is well water linked to cavities?
The Miami Herald
Horse farms, starry skies and quiet roads are among the rural trappings that distinguish Southwest Ranches from the rest of suburban Broward County....''Fluoride continues to be an effective tooth decay preventive measure,'' said Dr. John Stamm, dean of the University of North Carolina's School of Dentistry.

In a Class of Their Own
Hispanic Business Magazine
In a challenging time for universities around the country, this year's Hispanic Business ranking of the nation's top MBA programs and law schools for Hispanics shows strengthening commitment to diversity at institutions that are playing an increasingly critical role in advancing the U.S. Hispanic economy....The key to increasing Hispanic enrollment even further, says Earl T. Granger III, senior associate director of full-time MBA admissions at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (No. 5 on this year's list), is to reach students early through programs such as the Diversity Pipeline Alliance, which takes potential management students from middle school to business school.

State & Local Coverage

In absence of state funding, private donors make big impact at UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
At UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, everything from the plush, wood-paneled library to the coffeepot in the faculty mailroom has a financial sponsor....James Moeser, UNC's chancellor, knows his university is increasingly reliant on the generosity of private industry. That's OK, he said, as long as UNC does things the right way.

Faculty endowments pick up the slack
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Dennis Rondinelli is the Glaxo Distinguished International Professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School....In mentioning his interest in beefing up the number of corporate professorships recently, UNC Chancellor James Moeser spoke of the caution the university must take in its relationships with private industry.

UNC raises top-level salaries
The News & Observer
The UNC Board of Governors doled out raises for chancellors and top system administrators Friday, but members lamented their inability to push some salaries as high as they had hoped....After the board unanimously approved pay increases Friday, UNC-CH was the only school still below the minimum.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/saturday/city_state/story/1625428p-7840586c.html

Board approves raises for UNC workers
The Fayetteville Observer
The Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina on Friday approved raises for President Molly Broad, and most of the 16 chancellors in the state system. Some senior staff members in the president's office and the individual schools got merit raises as well.
Related link: http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-520985.html

Scrimping campuses raise pay of well-paid
The News & Observer
Many employees at North Carolina's top research universities got a pay increase in the past two years, even though the legislature did not approve across-the-board raises....Universities are only as good as their people, said Robert Shelton, the provost and executive vice chancellor in Chapel Hill. "We've worked hard to keep people, and in some cases that meant scraping together money."
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/sunday/front/story/1628764p-7846023c.html

Equal access for every student (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer
The University of North Carolina -- like many public institutions -- applies a nondiscrimination policy to campus-endorsed student organizations....Gene R. Nichol is dean and the Burton Craige professor of law at the UNC School of Law.)

UNC study links weight to length of hospital stays
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC epidemiologists, mining thousands of hospital records, have found people who are obese or very underweight stay hospitalized longer than people with healthy weight -- but they can't say why.

Parents push for autism help
The News & Observer
Sixth-grader Daniel Combs has dreams of being president one day....Having TEACCH, a respected program for teaching autistic children, based at UNC-Chapel Hill, has helped draw families to the Triangle.

Vietnam bound - to learn, not to fight
The Daily News (Jacksonville, NC)
Aaron Catrett knows his father, Ed Catrett of Jacksonville, fought in the Vietnam War and survived five injuries, including a gunshot wound to the head.....Aaron received a $5,500 Francis L. Phillips Travel Scholarship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which will fund his exploration of Vietnam and the places where his father was stationed while he was a Marine fighting in the war.

Models scarce for library
The News & Observer
A library inside a museum?...."You have to think bigger," said UNC-Chapel Hill professor David Carr, who has written about the links between museums and libraries.

Expert: Mower loan lawful
The Courier-Tribune (Asheboro)
A Liberty commissioner recently loaned fellow townspeople $8,000 to purchase a new mower for the recreation department, a transaction that raised eyebrows among some residents who thought there might be something amiss about James Lee Humble earning 4.5 percent interest on the two-year promissory note.....The deal was OK, according to David Lawrence, an expert on municipal financing who works with the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a William R. Kenan professor of law and government.

The swinging cats of Chapel Hill
The News & Observer
When several hundred members of the last pre-World War II class (1941) returned to Chapel Hill for their twenty-fifth reunion in June 1966, they were surprised by the burgeoning growth of the place...From "Light on a Hill: A History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" by William D. Snider.

Legacies of 9/11
The News & Observer
In a way, every day since Sept. 11, 2001, has been Sept. 11....UNC-Chapel Hill students Margaux Escutin and Julia Buckner organized a 5K race in Chapel Hill early Friday as part of their studies in peace, war and defense.
WUNC-FM link: http://www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/news/index.php?p=48
Related link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/

Triangle offers tributes to peace, safety, life
The News & Observer
Khadijah Salaam was reminded of how the world was changed on 9/11 by a single image recently on the national news: her baby brother, a New York City police officer, clad in protective gear and clutching a high-powered rifle, helping guard the Republican National Convention against the threat of terrorism....In Chapel Hill, a student group called the Committee for a Better Carolina planted flags in a main campus thoroughfare, one for each victim of the attacks. The small flags will remain through today, with students standing by to collect donations to benefit Sept. 11 survivors, said Trey Winslett, a UNC-CH sophomore.

Web sites offer insight into area colleges (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
If you have a high school senior this year, as I do, chances are you've discovered college Web sites....The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened to students on Jan. 15, 1795. It's about 2 1/2 hours away from Charlotte.

Issues & Trends

Panel caps tuition increase at most universities to 2.8 percent
The Associated Press (MI)
Most of the state's 15 public universities could increase tuition and fees by 2.8 percent, the rate of inflation, and still avoid a significant cut under a deal approved Wednesday by a legislative panel....After considering tuition rates in the last school year, Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm agreed to limit increases for the current school year to 2.4 percent at three universities - Michigan State, Saginaw Valley State and Grand Valley State.

Apartments may get new life as condos
The Chapel Hill Herald
The owners of an apartment building on East Franklin Street want to convert it into condominiums and dub the building McCorkle Place, a name borrowed from the grassy, tree-covered quad just across the street on the UNC campus...."We don't think it's appropriate to take a name from one of the university's historic quadrangles and give the name to an apartment building," said Nancy Davis, UNC's associate vice chancellor for university relations.

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.