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Sept. 27, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Right to an education bound in a Covenant
The USA Today
The offer of admission from the University of North Carolina was wonderful, of course, but it was the letter from the financial aid office that made all the difference for Canada Steele. Her mother, Lori Brown, a single parent of seven in Hickory, calls it "a blessing." Steele, 18, her oldest, calls it "a miracle." The miracle's name is the Carolina Covenant, a UNC program that promises low-income students such as Steele that their college costs are paid off and they can graduate debt-free. Now in its third year, the Covenant serves about 950 students and has become a model for other public universities.
Why a diminished regard for the First Amendment? (Opinion)
The USA Today
Every organized society, from the most libertarian to the totally repressive, shares one goal: raising its children to believe in its institutions and ideology. If our values matter, they need to be passed on. It's getting harder to do. One of the problems is the breakup of mass media that has been taking place since World War II. They are being replaced by many specialized messages aimed at small, targeted audiences...Philip Meyer is a Knight Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research for his book The Vanishing Newspaper was supported by the Knight Foundation.
Regional Coverage
End early admissions at Virginia Tech (Editorial)
The Roanoke Times
When two of the top universities in the nation change long-standing admissions policies, people take notice. Harvard and Princeton recently abandoned binding early admissions programs because they favor wealthy applicants. In the commonwealth, the University of Virginia announced this week that it will do the same...Harvard and Princeton will therefore end their early admissions, joining a growing minority of schools that includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and now UVa.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr02/eardec042502.htmEmory, others keep 'early admissions'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Students applying to Emory University and the University of Georgia can still seek early admission despite changes in application procedures at some of the nation's elite schools...Critics say they fuel the college arms race over elite students and benefit higher income students who can take early offers rather than wait to compare financial aid offers later. The University of Delaware also dropped early decision earlier this year, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did away with its program in 2002, although it kept a nonbinding version.Chapel Hill takes a field trip
Wisconsin State Journal
More than 100 academic, government, community and nonprofit leaders from Chapel Hill spent the past three days in Madison, strolling down State Street, exploring the Overture Center, touring the UW-Madison campus, visiting University Research Park and talking with their local counterparts. "Our similarities are quite striking," University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser said. Both communities have growing, urban campuses focused on research and technology; both are redeveloping downtown areas.
State and Local Coverage
Officials draw ideas from Wisconsin
The Chapel Hill Herald
Officials left this college city on Tuesday with the seed of an idea for improving town-gown relations when new UNC Chapel Hill construction projects are on the table. The notion is to set up some form of a standing committee or committees, appointed by both the community's elected boards and the university. Members might include residents near campus, along with elected officials and representatives of the university.
Related Link: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=1848Madison musings
The Chapel Hill Herald
Along with newspaper and radio reporters, the Orange County group in Madison had Eldon Himsel keeping an eye on them. Himsel, one of the bus drivers who hauled the group around in a "Badger Bus," has a grandson, Josh Strasburg, who attends UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Carrboro. Himsel joked he was going to give his grandson a full report on how all the elected officials and UNC folks behaved in Madison.
Luncheon planned to discuss economic impact of Hispanics
The Asheville Citizen-Times
A luncheon meeting will held tomorrow at noon at the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville to discuss the economic impact of North Carolina’s growing Hispanic population. It will include a review by one of the co-authors of “The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on the State of North Carolina.” John D. Kasarda and James H. Johnson Jr. of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise of the Kenan Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill produced the report.Quorum lacking for N.C. judicial nominee
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
he nomination of Terrence Boyle to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit remained in limbo after Tuesday's U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, where a quorum needed to hold a vote was not reached..."It has encountered almost every problem a nomination can encounter," said Michael Gerhardt, law professor at UNC Chapel Hill.
Teachers reassess value of homework
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Dwight Rogers, who teaches introductory classes at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, agrees that too many homework assignments are meaningless. "It's a skill practice on a set of, in some ways, inane problems in math or vocabulary," Rogers said. "But teachers, who are under pressure to help kids do well on tests, don't have enough time in the school day," he said. "So they give out homework."
Pandemic flu tips to be given
The Chapel Hill Herald
Public health experts predict that a new pandemic flu would impact every community and every citizen. On Friday, experts from the UNC School of Public Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will examine how communities can prepare for pandemic influenza.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/grandrounds092006.htm
Watching our words (Opinion)
The Chapel Hill News
The tar baby I wrote about recently will not me let loose. Instead of a useful term to describe a sticky situation, "tar baby" has become a symbol of our country's lingering racial divide. "So what do we do about the tar baby?" I asked UNC-Chapel Hill professor Randall Kenan, author of "Walking on Water," an exploration of what it means to be black in America.
Annexation Battle Lines Drawn
The Pilot (Southern Pines)
Some Moore County towns have areas next to, or (in some cases) surrounded by the towns, but not part of them. The Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is helping residents of five predominantly black Moore County neighborhoods organize to pressure county or town governments to provide basic services they lack -- such as water and sewer.
Local student participates in a special program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Cherokee Sentinel (Murphy, N.C.)
Colton Tyler Mathews of Murphy, North Carolina has completed the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Mathews was one of 26 students in the program. A student at Murphy High School, he is the son of Arnold and Trish Mathews of Murphy and the grandson of Dean and Anne Mathews of Canton, North Carolina and Louise Edwards and the late Noel Edwards of Campeche, Campeche Mexico.
A forest of camellias
The Chapel Hill News
Kai Mei launched Camellia Forest Nursery 27 years ago from the Chapel Hill area home she shared with her husband at the time, Clifford Parks, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill whose plant breeding has produced more than 100 new varieties of camellias. She and Clifford, now a UNC professor emeritus, had moved from Los Angeles to Chapel Hill in the 1960s with thousands of camellias that Clifford was breeding and testing for cold hardiness and other favorable characteristics.
Issues and Trends
Secretary Vows to Improve Results of Higher Education
The New York Times
Saying she hoped to jolt American higher education out of a dangerous complacency, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings vowed Tuesday to help finance state universities that administer standardized tests, establish a national database to track students’ progress toward a degree and cut the red tape surrounding federal student aid.
Previous Turnaround Efforts
The Charlotte Observer
This summer, principals at all four schools started taking special UNC courses in Chapel Hill, part of a state effort to improve leadership at low-scoring high schools. The state also has leadership consultants working with all four schools.NCCU one state university with low graduation rate
News 14 Carolina (Raleigh)
Out of the 16 university campuses across the state, some schools are graduating less than 25 percent of students after four years while others have a much higher rate...Leef says schools like UNC and N.C. State are able to attract students who are more ready to handle college life. "Students who are admitted to, let's say Chapel Hill, have a much higher level of academic preparation and motivation than the typical student who is admitted to Fayetteville or Pembroke," Leef continued.
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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