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Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

The cultural symbolism of the noose
"Talk of the Nation," National Public Radio
Many blacks in Jena, La. were outraged when white teens hung nooses from a tree — and the superintendent of the school characterized it as a "prank." Joseph Jordan is the curator of an exhibit of photographs called "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America." He discusses the symbolism of the hangman's noose. He is an associate professor of African and Afro-American studies, and director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History at the University of North Carolina.

Librarians and publishers try out a plan to simplify negotiations over electronic resources
The Chronicle of Higher Education
For many college librarians, the annual process of placing orders and negotiating licenses for online journals and other electronic resources is far too cumbersome and time-consuming. "Part of the problem is that libraries often negotiate different license agreements with each entity that provides them electronic content," says Deborah R. Gerhardt, copyright and scholarly-communications director of libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Best graduate schools of 2008
Cox Television
U.S. News and World Report used a variety of determiming factors to tabulate a list of the 50 best graduate schools of 2008. The schools were ranked according to their performance in categories such as: average starting salary for graduates, percentage of employment after graduation, enrollment and rate of acceptance. ... 18. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Regional Coverage

Be careful on the field
The Baton Rouge Business Report
A recent report cited on ESPN.com finds that from 1977-2002, 222 high school football players suffered spinal cord injuries that caused permanent disabilities. The report, compiled by Dr. Frederick O. Mueller of the University of North Carolina, also shows that Louisiana had a high rate of spinal injuries, with 14 athletes suffering cervical spine injuries from 1989-95.

USC to guarantee free tuition for low-income students
The State (Columbia, SC)
USC will guarantee debt-free tuition for some of South Carolina's poorest students beginning next year, officials said Thursday. ... Earlier this year, Davidson College, an elite private college near Charlotte, announced it would pay the tuition for any student who was admitted but could not afford the cost of college. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina's flagship state university, has a similar program.

Augustana receives $25,000 nursing grant
The Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Augustana College is one of 15 schools nationwide to receive grant money in a project to boost nursing education. Each school will receive $20,000 this academic year and another $5,000 a year from now in the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses project. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation donated $1.09 million. An advisory board led by a dean at the University of North Carolina chose Augustana and the other pilot schools from 53 applications.

State & Local Coverage

Sophisticated science lab on wheels visits Salisbury High
The Salisbury Post
Salisbury High School biology students packed into a modified tour bus Wednesday and donned goggles, aprons and blue gloves to help solve a crime based on DNA evidence. The DESTINY (Delivering Edge-Cutting Science Technology and Internet Across North Carolina for Years to Come) traveling science learning program from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill visited Salisbury High, giving one group of students the opportunity to experiment with science equipment not normally available at school.
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2007/destinyolinmocks091407.html

"Hammerin'" Hank Greenberg
"The State of Thigns" WUNC-FM
"Hammerin’ Hank" Greenberg was professional baseball’s first Jewish superstar. As a Detroit Tiger in the 1930s and 1940s, he became a national celebrity by closing in on Babe Ruth’s record as the game's most powerful hitter. The little-known legacy of an early American sports hero. ... Filmmaker Aviva Kempner will screen her documentary “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” Sept. 23 at 4 p.m. at the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building, School of Social Work.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug07/events082707.html

Jena 6 protest resonates in Triangle
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
The largest civil-rights demonstration in decades resonated with some Triangle residents, prompting them to demonstrations and legal actions of their own. Tens of thousands gathered in Jena, a small town in central Louisiana, to protest what they saw as racial injustice in the prosecution of six black teens. Known collectively as the Jena 6, the six are charged in the beating of a white teenager in the Jena High School cafeteria. ... "The noose is a powerful and very frightening symbol, especially in the black community, because it's a symbol of lynching to many people," UNC-Chapel Hill history professor Harry Watson said.

Annexed area pays police taxes twice
The Charlotte Observer
When residents of the Shannamara neighborhood got their tax bills last month, a few realized something strange: They'd been billed for police services in both Mecklenburg County and Stallings. Now, there may be nothing they can do about it. The Union County town of Stallings annexed about 100 homes in Shannamara in December. But those houses, just over the line in Mecklenburg County, had already been taxed for police protection in Charlotte-Mecklenburg for the fiscal year, which ran July 1, 2006, to June 30. ... The issue isn't unique, said David Lawrence, a public law and government professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

Lovely paintings show ugliness of war
The Chapel Hill Hearld
"The public, as was true of me, does not understand -- I mean really understand -- what bombs do to people," wrote historian Howard Zinn in his Foreword to elin o'Hara slavick's newly released collection of protest paintings, "Bomb After Bomb: A Violent Cartography." ... The UNC art professor used various sources -- newspapers, military Web sites including the U.S. Department of Defense's site, and maps and battle plans in history books -- to make aerial-view drawings of places targeted by the U.S. military.

Issues & Trends

Worth every penny (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
I never ceased to be amazed by the naivete of your editorials -- for example, the one on the raises given to the leaders of the state's two largest universities ("UNC's big bumps," Sept. 17). These two chancellors oversee businesses (yes, they are businesses and very diverse and complex ones at that) that each has revenue in excess of $1 billion. Neither has had annual raises of any significance in the past and both have done an extremely good job in leading their respective institutions.

Murdock to detail Duke collaboration, donation
The Charlotte Observer
Billionaire Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock on Monday will detail the collaboration his Kannapolis biotech campus will have with Duke University. Murdock claimed the announcement will involve a "scientific first." He also will present what he claims is a "record gift" to Duke President Richard Brodhead during the event at the North Carolina Research Campus' Core Lab.The $1.5 billion campus is being developed by Murdock in collaboration with several N.C. universities, including UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte and N.C. State University.