Sept. 25, 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

Tyranny of convenient numbers
The Star (Toronto, Canada)
The media numeracy problem isn't limited to Canada. In the U.S., the Statistical Assessment Service, based in Washington, D.C., operates as a numbers "truth squad," keeping tabs on journalists and politicians. In the U.K., Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" column in The Guardian newspaper regularly exposes numbers malfeasance in the media and names individual reporters. And it's a big problem. After studying a 150,000-circulation newspaper for three months, journalism professors at the University of North Carolina concluded that "an example of blatant misuse of numbers could be found, on average, in the newspaper every other day."

National Coverage

Scrapping early admissions sparks debate
The Associated Press (National)
The recent decisions by Harvard and Princeton to drop early admissions have reignited a spirited debate: is ending the practice a recipe for making the college application process better, or worse?...The University of Delaware also dropped early decision this year, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did the same in 2002. But many of Harvard and Princeton’s immediate peers – including Yale, MIT, Stanford (early action) and the University of Pennsylvania (early decision) – have indicated they will keep current policies. Less selective universities are unlikely to follow because they use early decision to hit class size targets and identify which applicants most want to attend.

Hitting The Books
Business Week
Entrepreneurship is fast becoming the hottest ticket on campus. The field has grown explosively in the past few years, with successful business owners and alumni pouring $250 million into the creation of chaired positions in entrepreneurship and related fields between 1999 and 2003...The Kauffman Foundation has been giving grants to help establish entrepreneurship programs and initiatives in engineering schools, medical schools, and even liberal arts colleges. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, has established a minor in entrepreneurship for students in its College of Arts and Sciences. Even without Kauffman prodding, plenty of schools are expanding the reach of entrepreneurship education.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec03/kauffmangrant121503.html

Pointing to Tomorrow
Newsweek
At the University of North Carolina, English majors can minor in entrepreneurship, non-business-school freshmen take seminars in starting companies and faculty members can get money to create new business classes...In 2003, the Kauffman Foundation awarded $25 million in grants to eight universities that pledged to make entrepreneurship education available across campus. It's currently taking proposals from eight more schools for a $35 million second round. The next crop of Arts and Sciences majors may not just have a diploma to show for their parents' fat tuition payments; they may have a business plan to roll out, too.

Nature Or Nurture
Business Week
No matter how much that degree in entrepreneurship costs, even the purveyors of these expensive educations readily admit that there are key skills that just can't be taught...There is even evidence that some traits important to entrepreneurs, such as likability and risk tolerance, appear to be inherited or at least influenced by an individual's surroundings at an early age, says Howard Aldrich, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Genetics appear to play some role in entrepreneurial behavior," he says. "But it's not clear just how much."

Lung Patients See a New Era of Transplants
The New York Times
For lungs, figuring out how to measure medical need and rank patients with different diseases took time. “Our concern was that if we used just severity of illness, we might waste a lot of lungs on patients who were so sick they were unlikely to survive anyway,” said Dr. Thomas Egan, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who led a UNOS panel that spent several years developing new rules for lung allocation.

State and Local Coverage

Five UNC schools rank in top 50 "best values"
WWAY News Channel (Wilmington)
Gov. Mike Easley announced Thursday that five UNC campuses are ranked in top 50 "best values" by Kiplinger's Personal Finance report. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is ranked No. 1 for the sixth consecutive time. N.C. State University, UNC-Asheville, Appalachian State University and UNC-Wilmington also ranked in the top 50. Gov. Easley says the $12 billion the State has invested in the UNC system is clearly paying off, helping our State universities provide quality instruction, while keeping tuition affordable.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/kiplingers010906.htm

Final Word (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The issue of access to higher education is finally getting its chance on the nation's educational stage, as demonstrated by last week's "Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads" conference hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill and covered in last Sunday's Q section. A large round of applause should go to UNC-CH for helping lead such an important national conversation concerning the future of American education.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/poiconf091906.htm

Leaders embark on learning journey (Guest Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
I leave today with a delegation of 100 community leaders from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and Orange County to visit Madison, Wis. We will spend three days there meeting with our Madison counterparts, exchanging ideas and learning from their community's experiences with many themes and issues we have in common.

Visit to Wis. a lot like home
The Chapel Hill Herald
It was the first afternoon in Madison for about 100 elected officials, UNC representatives, non-profit leaders, business owners and others from Orange County. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, the chamber's Foundation for a Sustainable Community and Community Leadership Council are putting on the three-day visit, with more tours and panel discussions today and Tuesday.

Madison musings
The Chapel Hill Herald
The vagaries of flying through Chicago's O'Hare Airport struck again Sunday when 18 members of the Orange County group learned their flight to Madison was canceled because the airplane had an electrical problem. It wasn't an important part of the group or anything, only including UNC Chancellor James Moeser, UNC Health Care CEO Bill Roper, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy and Aaron Nelson, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, along with several others. l
Related Links: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=1827
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/106/story/2513.html

Leaders head to Wisconsin to learn
The Chapel Hill Herald
Barring an early Wisconsin snowstorm, some 100 local business people, officials and UNC leaders expect to arrive today in the capital city of Madison to learn how their counterparts there deal with similar challenges. Keeping a strong economy and protecting the environment, creating affordable housing in an often-pricey real-estate market, maintaining a thriving downtown and enhancing relations between local officials and the flagship university in the heart of the town -- those are all issues Madison has in common with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County.

Why so aggressive about bills at UNC? (Question-answer)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC Health Care System CEO Bill Roper, a pediatrician, has come under fire for the medical center's aggressive billing practices toward many poor patients. Roper met last week with N&O editors and writers to discuss billing reforms he recently announced and to explain the financial pressures his $1.6-billion-a-year nonprofit organization faces. Staff writer Matthew Eisley prepared excerpts of Roper's remarks.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/489879.html

Local universities ranked in sexual health survey
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In the "Trojan Sexual Health Report Card," Duke got an A for six of seven categories, including condom availability, contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, services for sexual assault victims and educational programs. UNC-Chapel Hill was ranked 14th and N.C. State University 37th.

UNC Dental Clinic Offers Experience, Savings
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Jane Koontz, 56, wasn't hugging "her" student, but she clearly was happy to see him, in spite of the fact he soon would be sticking a plastic form in her mouth filled with goop like wet plaster to get a mold of her teeth. And considering she was more than twice his age, the student was just "Tyler" to her, as in Tyler Collins, a third-year student at the UNC School of Dentistry who grew up in Pembroke as the son of a dentist.

Hooking up
“The State of Things”, WUNC-FM
For many young adults in Generation Y, dating is just an awkward ritual that was popular when their parents met. Instead of dinner and a movie, they prefer to skip the romance and "hook up." Host Frank Stasio explores modern female ideas of sex, love and relationships with Amber Madison, author of the new book, "Hooking Up: A Girl's All-Out Guide to Sex and Sexuality,” (Prometheus Books/2006 ) UNC-Chapel Hill psychiatrist Samatha Melzer-Brody, and feminism historian Paula Kamen.

Battles with cancer become victories
The Fayetteville Observer
A routine mammogram caught it early, and a lumpectomy removed the poisonous tissue. ... Doctors aren’t sure why it happens, but two recent studies by researchers at the University of North Carolina have shown that black women diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to die than white women who have the disease.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun06/breastcancerjama060206.htm

Paying to own a pet
The News & Record (Greensboro)
"Licensed pets make you money," she said. But enforcing the licenses can be a problem. Forsyth County, for example, licenses only about 28 percent of dogs and 4 percent of cats, said animal control chief Tim Jennings. And a 2002 study that surveyed 11 North Carolina municipalities and counties with licensing programs found that only one -- New Hanover, at 71 percent -- licensed more than half of its estimated dog and cat population. UNC-Chapel Hill's Popular Government magazine published the study.

Debate ponders force, liberty
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The free event, titled "Should the U.S. use force to establish democratic governments?" was sponsored by American Diplomacy magazine and the International Affairs Council. The purpose: Explore possible options for fostering Western-style democracy, from diplomatic "moral suasion" to all-out military invasion, with the war in Iraq as a backdrop. The panel included U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill; James Lee, retired lieutenant general for the U.S. Army; Joseph Glatthaar, chairman of the Peace, War and Defense program at UNC-Chapel Hill; and Robin Dorff, executive director of the Institute of Political Leadership. Here's some of what they said about the event's main question:

Try Imagining the region without RTP
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Back in 1965, I was a high school junior in Mt. Airy... Last week, a panel convened by the Historical Preservation Society of Durham recalled the early days of the park, and what it has become. Pearson Stewart, who served for many years with the Reaearch Triangle Foundation, reclaled the roles of visionaries such as Howard Odum, a sociology professor at UNC, and John Wheeler, a physicist who taught at UNC and later at Princeton.
Note: This article is available through subscription only.

Where does The N&O spot the ball? (Opinion)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The question, from an area college football fan, was all too familiar: Why is it that you guys give great coverage to the other schools and not to (fill in the blank)? In this case, the complaint came from Duffy Heath of Raleigh, an East Carolina University partisan: "Granted ECU's program is weak now, but even when it was clearly the best program in the state during the '90s and nationally ranked, its results were most often reported in the inside pages of the Sports section while State's and UNC's games (and weaker programs) consistently received front-page coverage.

Hands for others, heart for UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In a town where athletic loyalty runs deeper than bedrock, Jesse Basnight walked a precarious path. A devout Tar Heels football fan, Basnight could be found at every game on the visitors' sideline. He was there to make sure the other team felt at home. As host to visiting teams, Basnight embodied the athletic essence of Southern hospitality...He kept hearing the visiting team ask where stretchers were kept for hurt players, where the water was. So he approached UNC athletics with a suggestion: We need to treat visitors better.

TV host sees who has clout
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Chapel Hill Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt and his partner and former Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson recently appeared on the satellite television program "U.S. of Ant" on Logo, a network for "Gay America" that airs locally on DIRECTV..."You're like a political dynasty," he told Kleinschmidt, who led him on a tour of downtown Chapel Hill. Ant was impressed that "Brokeback Mountain" was playing at the Varsity Theater. He also thought Silent Sam, the statue of the Confederate soldier at McCorkle Place at UNC-Chapel Hill, was cute.

Big-band sounds will fill Frank Liske Park on Friday
The Charlotte Observer
The concert will bring an 18-piece big band to the park. The ensemble is directed by James Ketch, a music professor and director of jazz studies at UNC Chapel Hill. "By 1940, over 300 big bands were crisscrossing the United States, playing music in ballrooms, concert halls and gymnasiums," Ketch said. "Not only were the names of the bandleaders known to millions of Americas like our `American Idol' TV show, but people spoke of the great soloists in the bands with an understanding and recognition more akin today to talk about one's favorite ACC basketball team."

Magic between the lines at frame shop
The Chapel Hill News
People who visit frame shops know when they walk inside that they're looking for something special. At Yesterday and Today Frame Shop in Hillsborough, they frequently find more...She had much to learn when she became the third owner of the store in Daniel Boone Square and concentrated as much on the business aspects as the hands-on framing process in her education. She credits the UNC Small Business and Technology Development Center in Chapel Hill for helping her grow her business.

Berendt's book a delightful gem
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Michael Shuman, author of "Going Local" and "The Small-Mart Revolution" will discuss how to build locally owned, self reliant businesses and economies - at two events. He will speak at 3 p.m. Wednesday at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Stident Union Auditorium.
Note: This article is available through subscription only.

Issues and Trends

States offer one-stop websites for would-be college students
The Associated Press (International)
North Carolina's cfnc.org, which launched 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 Kano, 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."

Tuition increases flirt with state law (Opinion)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Two recent studies have given the state fair warning. The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a respected, independent think tank, warned last month that the state is flirting with a lawsuit over its recent explosion in tuition rates at the state's 16 university campuses. Seven times in the past eight years, the state has increased tuition... UNC's great national reputation was built on a system that held in-state tuition so low that it was practically free.
Note: This article is available through subscription only.

Proposed dental school hits snag in use of funding
The Daily Reflector (Greenville)
Planning funds for a proposed dental school will have unexpected limitations for East Carolina University. University of North Carolina system officials will allocate ECU's share of $7 million for construction planning only, an ECU official told a gathering of university trustees last week. The General Assembly included the planning money, to be split by ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill, in its budget.

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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