Sept. 14, 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

Eat Your Way to a Better DNA
The Scientist (UK)
The approaches to nutrigenomics are diverse. One of the core components of nutrigenomics is nutrigenetics, which focuses on how genetic variation affects the interaction between diet and disease. For example, Steven H. Zeisel and colleagues at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill have studied how specific polymorphisms in genes that mediate folate metabolism can make people more or less susceptible to deficiencies in the nutrient choline. Another team of researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, has investigated the association between specific alleles in the gene for the enzyme myeloperoxidase and reduced breast cancer risk - but only among women who ate high amounts of fruits and vegetables.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct05/choline101705.htm

Expensive, Drug-Coated Stents Offer Modest Benefit
HealthDay News
Two new studies fail to answer a burning question for heart patients and cardiologists: Are high-tech, drug-eluting stents worth the added expense?...Even then, "I don't think that these studies should be used to try and compare one (drug-eluting) stent to another," said Dr. Sid Smith, a former president of the American Heart Association and a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

National Coverage

What Works Best to Expand Disadvantaged Students' Access to College? Aid Officials Share Ideas
The Chronicle of Higher Education
To succeed, any program intended to increase the number of low-income students attending a college needs the buy-in of faculty members, fund-raising officials, and political leaders. And the program managers' job isn't done once the students have arrived on campus; they need additional attention...Those discussions occurred during one of the final sessions of "The Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads," a three-day conference at the University of North Carolina's flagship campus here that focused on increasing access to higher education for disadvantaged students.
Related Link: http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/09/2006091403n.htm
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2006/politicsinclusionadvisory082906.html
Note: This article is available through subscription only.

Harvard slows admissions rat race; will others follow? (Opinion)
USA Today
Harvard and its elite peers don't need to worry as much about their yield factors: 80% of all those accepted by Harvard say yes. But colleges with far less certainty of filling their freshman classes — and smaller endowments to fall back on if they don't — will be hard-pressed to follow Harvard's lead, even if they believe it's the right thing to do. History proves the point. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a top public school, dumped its binding early decision program in 2002. There has been no stampede to emulate UNC.

Gates Targets Three Diseases Plaguing the Developing World
The Wall Street Journal
A grant of $21.3 million will go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is heading a consortium to develop better, cheaper drugs to treat late stages of both leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Also known as sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis is transmitted by the tsetse fly, killing some 300,000 people a year and rendering vast regions of Africa uninhabitable to people and cattle.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/gates091406.htm

UNC's Business Undergrads Look Abroad (Question-Answer)
Business Week
A program that launches this year is a collaboration among Kenan-Flagler, Copenhagen Business School, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The three partners each selected 15 students. They're at their home schools and, about halfway through the fall, they will link together virtually and begin working on cross-management teams.

N.C. Cohabitation Law Struck Down
The Associated Press (National)
A Superior Court judge has issued a formal ruling declaring that the state's law barring unmarried couples from living together is unconstitutional and blocked state officials from enforcing it...Dan Pollitt, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said he wasn't sure whether Alford could stop district attorneys, sheriffs and elected judges outside of his judicial district from enforcing the law.

Regional Coverage

Colleges eye ways to open their doors wider to poor
San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
Everyone's heard some version of this classic tale. The underdog works hard and triumphs over adversity. It's the American dream. But it's not reality, according to statistics presented at a conference this week at the University of North Carolina. About 150 educators and policymakers from around the nation, including Texas, gathered here to talk about why family income — not brains and elbow grease — is a better indicator of who goes to college in America. And why that has to change.

Expert helps teachers speak to Fellsmere students
Fort Pierce Tribune (Palm Beach, Fla.)
With most of Fellsmere Elementary's children speaking two languages, the school's student support specialist Tony Adkins went to class Wednesday at St. Edward's School to get help from an expert on learning differences."Many of our (exceptional student education) kids don't fit in the box," he said during a break from an all-day seminar by Mel Levine, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill. "We have to look at more advanced ways of learning."

State and Local Coverage

Affordability is key to accessibility (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The three-day conference on the accessibility of higher education that concluded Wednesday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was significant for a number of reasons. For one, it highlighted UNC's leadership and vision in critical areas. The very fact that it convened the conference, "The Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads," speaks to that leadership.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2006/politicsinclusionadvisory082906.html

College education affordability analyzed
News 14 Carolina (Raleigh and Charlotte)
Education leaders from across the nation are in North Carolina talking tuition and access..."I think the concern for us here goes right back to our tradition and the fact we were a pubic university that was anticipating that it was important to the welfare of the state to keep higher education affordable," UNC-Chapel Hill's Shirley Ort said. UNC-Chapel Hill has started the Carolina Covenant. It promises a debt-free education to qualifying low income students.

Finding ways to scale education barriers (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The conference hosted by UNC that ended Wednesday was called "The Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads." It could just as easily have been called "The Politics of Exclusion."...Yes, the cost of attendance at our public and private institutions -- in the nation and here in North Carolina -- has risen at a dizzying clip in recent years, far outpacing inflation. At UNC Chapel Hill itself during the past decade, tuition has nearly doubled as state financial support has dwindled. That's become a familiar scenario across the nation.

College access conference draws to close
The Daily Tar Heel
About 150 of the nation's most prominent higher education leaders traded ideas for the past four days at a politics of inclusion conference at UNC. The event concluded Wednesday with a four-and-a-half hour practicum aimed at tackling the event's overarching question: How can college be more accessible and more affordable to students?

UNC Chapel Hill lands Albright for graduation
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will be the keynote speaker during spring commencement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the school announced Wednesday. Chancellor James Moeser selected Albright after she was unanimously recommended by a selection committee made up of students and faculty, the school said. Moeser said Albright's expertise in international affairs makes her an excellent speaker for students entering an increasingly global work force.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/commencement091306.htm

Albright to deliver UNC commencement address
The Triangle Business Journal (Raleigh)
Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright will deliver the spring commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007, Chancellor James Moeser announced Wednesday. Albright served as the 64th secretary of state from 1997 until 2001 and was the first woman to hold the position, a distinction that makes her the highest-ranking female in U.S. government history.
Related Links: http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-769518.html
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=1734

Diaspora Film Festival
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
The theme of this year's Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film at UNC-Chapel Hill is social relations between African-Americans and South Asian-Americans. Host Frank Stasio is joined by three festival filmmakers who explored the cultural differences in these two communities through their films.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug06/stonefall06082806.htm

EPA, UNC, NCSU to put on air emissions summit
Triangle Business Journal
The EPA, along with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, will hold the Environmental Partnership Summit in Research Triangle Park from Sept. 26-27.The summit is designed to gather businesses, economic development leaders and investors together to discuss turning publicly funded research on air emissions into new products related to improving air quality and reducing health risks.

UNC asks Senator to explain earmarks
WCHL-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC Chapel Hill was one of ten schools that asked a Republican Senator for more time explaining the use of Congressional earmarks. Allison Rosenberg, Vice Chancellor for Research and Federal Affairs says UNC doesn’t try to circumvent the usual channels. As an example of something UNC would request through an ‘earmark,’ she cites large pieces of scientific equipment.

Flu Vaccine Abundant This Year, Health Experts Say
WRAL-TV (Raleigh)
September means the start of fall and getting ready for flu season. The last couple of years included vaccine shortages and a problem with vaccine distribution, but health experts believe this year will be different. "We're not anticipating any shortages of vaccine this year. All the lots have already been approved by the (Food and Drug Administration) and they're all in the pipeline. None have been rejected," said UNC infectious disease expert Dr. David Weber.

Cohabiting no longer illegal in N.C. (Opinion column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At the time of Alford's preliminary ruling, legal scholars said the ruling would not apply statewide. One of those scholars was Dan Pollitt, a constitutional law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Pollitt said then that the ruling would not apply statewide unless upheld by the state appeals court. But on Wednesday, Pollitt changed his mind after reading the following language in the injunction: "All of the defendants' officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys and those persons in active concert or participation with the defendants are hereby permanently enjoined from enforcing" the law.

Immigrants can save, not threaten, the U.S.
The Charlotte Observer
Pat Buchanan asserts in his book "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America" that immigrants, "mostly uneducated and poor, get more back in government benefits ... than they ever pay out in government taxes." But according to a Jan. 3 news release from the University of North Carolina, North Carolina's rapidly growing Hispanic population contributes on average $14,977 per person to the state's economy through its purchases, taxes and labor, while costing the state $102 in health care, education and correction services.Hispanics' impact on the economy will increase as the U.S. population ages.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

Issues and Trends

Bowles taking charge
The Independent Weekly (Raleigh)
Call him Erskine, everybody else does. That's how he wants it and that's how it is now between the new UNC system president, his staff and the UNC Board of Governors, the 35-member body that guides the university system. In a linguistic contrast to the administration of former President Molly Broad, who stepped down last year after nine years on the job, the formal titles are gone. Like the language, the feel is very different. To the Board of Governors and the vast majority of the superstructure of North Carolina, Erskine Bowles is one of their own.

Campuses target greater efficiency
The Daily Tar Heel
Like a true businessman, UNC-system President Erskine Bowles knows how to delegate. He has organized working groups to research methods of improving efficiency and effectiveness across the system. The groups are expected to finish their reports by the end of September. The academic administration working group is focusing on improving the system's libraries, said Tim Burwell, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Appalachian State University.

Web Access: Georgia follows N.C. model in creating site to help parents with college applications
The Winston-Salem Journal
North Carolina's Web site, cfnc.org, which began in 2000, has been credited with helping increase the state's college-enrollment rate from 57 percent to 68 percent of high-school graduates. "What we were trying to do is level the playing field," said Bobby Kanoy, a senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs with the University of North Carolina system. "We had to get that information in the hands of students and parents who otherwise wouldn't have thought about going to college."

City ready to give out development grants
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
City officials are poised to award four groups -- among them Mayor Bill Bell's employer -- $412,428 in revitalization grants it is hoped will promote new development in several downtrodden parts of Durham...Another grant, for $75,107, is earmarked for Union Baptist Church and would help pay for the development of a 38,000-square-foot school on a tract between Roxboro, Dowd, Corporation and Gurley streets. The $6 million school is supposed to serve grades K-8 and be designed by a team of researchers from UNC Chapel Hill, according to the church's grant application.

Carolina Inn works to resolve immigrant delimma
WCHL-AM (Chapel Hill)
Illegal immigrant labor is the lifeblood of several sectors of the local economy. That’s how Chamber of Commerce director Aaron Nelson describes the importance of local undocumented employees. As a result, Nelson says he’s not surprised the Carolina Inn received federal notification that 11 percent of its workers may be illegal.

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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