unc.edu/news

International Coverage

Put the cellphone down, mon ami, or pay the price!
The Ottawa Sun (Canada)
When crossing the Macdonald Cartier bridge into Quebec, drivers watch for red lights, weave in and out of traffic and keep their eyes on vehicles around them. ...According to a University of North Carolina study in 2001, radios, CDs and passengers are 10 times more likely to be the cause of car collisions than phone use.

National Coverage

UNC schools, graduate programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appears on multiple lists of schools, programs and specialty areas newly ranked in 2008 by U.S. News and World Report magazine for its 2009 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-schools-
graduate-programs-ranked-by-u.s.-news--world-report.html

Regional Coverage

Go online, get in shape
The Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio)
...In today's virtual world, you can find love, friendship and, now, the support of a personal trainer and workout buddy online. ...In a study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, participants who received weekly e-mails from a counselor lost an average of 16 pounds.

Robert Rector: 2 hands better, but what about the brain?
The Pasadena Star-News (California)
A friend and I were driving the other day when we came upon a car whose driver was doing a pretty fair imitation of the proverbial drunken sailor. She sped up, slowed down, weaved in and out of lanes. And that was all in the span of one block. ..."There's a common misperception that hands-free phones are safer when the research clearly suggests that they're both equally risky," Arthur Goodwin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, told the Associated Press.

Ex-W & M chief to give TV interview
The Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
Former College of William and Mary President Gene Nichol is scheduled to appear on a new television program tonight, in what's billed as his first public interview since resigning last month. ...Nichol's Feb. 12 resignation ended a tenure that lasted less than three years and was marked by controversy. He intends to return to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to teach law in the summer.

State and Local Coverage

Duke, UNC receive high marks for their graduate, professional schools
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Duke University's schools of medicine, law and business all rank among the top institutions in their disciplines, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best graduate and professional schools in the country. UNC Chapel Hill's schools of medicine, business, education and law all received high marks as well.

Growth challenges UNC-CH
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...UNC-CH has long taken a measured approach to enrollment growth, increasing its freshman class size at a much slower rate than many other state universities. But a new mandate from the UNC system, which expects 80,000 additional students to enroll at its 16 university campuses in the next decade, has UNC-CH leaders looking for ways to accommodate extra growth.

UNC trustees discuss future growth
The Chapel Hill Herald
Two preliminary studies presented to the UNC Board of Trustees Thursday outline some of the challenges associated with an increase in enrollment that is expected over the next decade. Chancellor James Moeser said the two studies -- a report on undergraduate growth and an analysis of space needs on the main campus -- should be seen in the context of the UNC Tomorrow Commission report, which estimates that the state university system will absorb 80,000 additional students over the next 10 years.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Oliver Smithies, UNC-Chapel Hill
The Triangle Business Journal
Kumar Pandya, a research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, remembers the first time he visited Oliver Smithies' lab. ..."Smithies' work has transformed medical research," says Terry Magnuson, chair of the Department of Genetics at UNC. After embryonic stem cells were discovered in 1981, Magnuson says, Smithies figured out how to target cells of interest and manipulate embryonic stem cells to breed mice that are missing a certain gene.

Transcending Borders
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
From Andean folk to Mexican baroque, Chapel Hill will vibrate with the sounds of Latin America this weekend at a conference hosted by the UNC-CH Department of Music. The conference will showcase the wide variety of musical styles that immigrants from Latin America have contributed to North Carolina’s cultural landscape. Host Frank Stasio discusses why music is an important currency in this cultural exchange with David Garcia, assistant professor of music, and Maria DeGuzman, director of Latina/o Studies.
Note: "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays.
Related Link:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/holy-samba/view

Presidential campaigns draw crowds in WNC
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
A visit today from former President Clinton could mean the Democrats racing for the White House aren’t far behind. ...Obama or Clinton might pay a visit to Asheville, but WNC lacks a large enough population of Democratic primary voters to make the pair spend much time there, said Ferrell Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC Chapel Hill.

Training proposal casts a wide net
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's proposal to increase funding for worker training is a fine idea, say those who help workers and track the economy in North Carolina. ..."This notion of dislocation is not limited to traditional manufacturing," said Jim Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at UNC-Chapel Hill's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

Theatre to present musical rivalry
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theatre in residence at UNC Chapel Hill, will present "Amadeus," the tale of a rivalry between 18th-century composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from April 2-20.

Show probes all sides of punishment
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The March 5 murder of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson has brought this year's campuswide, organized discussions of the death penalty close to home. "I'm sure it's on everybody's mind now," said Joseph Megel, a local director and lecturer in UNC's Communication Studies department. "We all have a personal stake in it."

Finally, spring gives us a dose of hope (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The thermometer is supposed to hit 80 degrees today (let's forget, for a moment, that the mercury may struggle to top 60 tomorrow). The Bradford Pear trees have been turning white and the red buds pink. ...And worst of all, of course, we've had to suffer, as well, through an uncharacteristic outburst of violence -- a series of shootings and murders -- that culminated in the slaying of Eve Carson, the UNC student body president. Even today, weeks after the news of Carson's death, it seems unreal, an event that surely couldn't have happened here.

Don't use tragedies to justify flawed gang law (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The state of North Carolina has been shaken in recent weeks by the horrific murder of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, Eve Carson. The terrible circumstances under which such a vibrant and promising young life was so senselessly ended in such a gruesome and (what appears to be) random fashion have stunned and saddened North Carolinians across the state from all walks of life.

It takes a village (Letter to the Editor)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
I am in awe over all of the outraged letters to the editor I have read over the past few weeks. I am not enraged over the anger felt by the residents over the deaths of the two students from Duke and UNC because I am just as angry. (Tasha Melvin, Durham)

Issues and Trends

Economic development and a liberal education
The Toledo Free-Press (Canada)
Higher education has changed so much that today's educational institutes are not just limited to such traditional responsibilities as teaching, learning, research and academic services. ...Many colleges and universities in America are embracing economic development as a central mission. Recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Feb. 29), Leslie Boney, associate vice president of economic development research, policy and planning at the University of North Carolina system, strongly advocated a blending of liberal education with economic development.

Murders ignite her passion (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It was 15 years ago that a shooting death in broad daylight in Chapel Hill turned Lisa Price into The Enemy. ...It was with a heavy heart that Price learned of the slaying of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson, whom Price and her congressman husband David met at the chancellor's home over Christmas this year.