Carolina in the News Carolina in the News: Monday, April 21, 2008
| Carolina in the News: Monday, April 21, 2008 |
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| Monday, April 21, 2008 | |
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Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media: National Coverage The (Yes) Low Cost of Higher Ed The New York Times (Education Life supplement) On Oct. 2, 2003, board members at the University of Virginia filed into the Upper East Oval Room of the Rotunda, the centerpiece of Thomas Jefferson’s campus design, for one of their regular meetings. As usual, they were joined by the university’s top administrators. Just before the meeting began, a member of U.Va.’s public affairs staff walked over to John T. Casteen III, the university president, to hand him a clipping from that morning’s newspaper. The clipping described a sweeping new financial-aid program that the University of North Carolina had just announced. North Carolina was going to cover nearly the full cost of any student whose family made less than 150 percent of the poverty level or, for a family of four, about $30,000 in today’s dollars. Students would still have to work 10 to 12 hours a week in a campus job, but they would not have to take out any loans. The Endowed The New York Times (Education Life supplement) Congress is pressing the nation's colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments. Below are the richest of the institutions serving undergraduates - those with the largest endowment assets per student - according to the latest figures from the National Association of College and University Business officers. (Institutions that are primary medical schools are not included.) A comparison of the endowments at public and private institutions demonstrates the disparity within higher education. Real Housewives: Contagious? New York Magazine Last week, the first season of Bravo’s deliciously nasty The Real Housewives of New York City ended much the same way it began, with dinner and savagery. ... Studies suggest that this kind of nasty behavior becomes more prevalent as we age (and grow more cognitively sophisticated) and is especially common among people of high status. And whereas “most forms of aggression are associated with being disliked, relational aggression is also associated with being really popular,” says Mitchell Prinstein, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina. State and Local Coverage Changes in N.C. reflected in campaigns The Charlotte Observer When U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton visit North Carolina, they don't have to trudge through a tobacco warehouse or talk about guns. ... "If there's a North Carolina (presidential) debate, it will look and sound much like the debate in Pennsylvania," said Ferrel Guillory, founder of UNC Chapel Hill's Program on Public Life. Do salaries add up to living income? The Charlotte Observer Some of the city of Charlotte's salaries do not measure up well against poverty and living wage benchmarks. ... Experts say it is not unusual for cities to pay less than the private sector. And when setting pay scales, cities don't normally take living wage benchmarks into account, said Willow Jacobson, a professor of public administration and government at UNC Chapel Hill. They use comparisons with similar municipal governments or similar jobs in the private sector, she said. Coral Crisis: Global warming, trawling, pollutants threaten the world's coral population The News & Observer (Raleigh) If global warming accelerates over the next century, many scientists fear that the planet's biggest ecosystem could reach a tipping point with depleting nutrients in the oceans. ... A spike in global temperatures will inevitably affect the ocean's coral community, according to researchers at UNC Chapel Hill, in a recent issue of the journal Science. "Rising ocean temperatures are the most pervasive threat," the researchers report, "and almost half of the world's coral reefs have recently experienced medium- to high-level impacts." UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/ first-map-of-threats-to-marine-ecosystems-shows-all-the-worlds-oceans-are-affected.html Party labels hard to avoid The News & Observer (Raleigh) Officially, judicial elections in North Carolina are nonpartisan. ... Outside influences such as Fairjudges show that the climate of judicial elections continues to change in North Carolina. And the rules governing them also continue to change, said Jim Drennan, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Clinton works to sway black women The Charlotte Observer Hillary Clinton, running against a black candidate while trying to become the first female president, is working to attract one group of possible swing voters: black women. ... This year's choice highlights historic tensions between the movements for civil rights and women's rights, said Michele Tracy Berger, associate professor for women's studies at UNC Chapel Hill. "For some African American women, I think Clinton's role really brings up some longstanding challenges in terms of alliance-building," Berger said. Small Towns: Clinton, Obama fight for blue-collar vote in Northwest N.C., where times are hard The Winston-Salem Journal ... Small-town voters are more politically engaged than many people think, said Donald Nonini, a professor of anthropology at UNC Chapel Hill. "Most of them aren't apathetic, nor are they angry voters," said Nonini, whose book Local Democracy Under Siege profiled small counties in North Carolina, including Watauga. Vision vs. mission The News & Observer (Raleigh) What's the difference between a vision and a mission statement? The City Council tried to answer that question Tuesday during a discussion about a proposed city of Raleigh mission statement put forward by Councilman Thomas Crowder. Raleigh, as you might have guessed, does not now have a mission statement. Several council members said they learned of this travesty after attending a governing workshop at UNC-Chapel Hill where elected leaders were encouraged to adopt policies that aligned with their municipality's mission. Easley e-mail policy backed The News & Observer (Raleigh) A respected legal scholar said Friday that the Easley administration's policy of allowing workers to delete e-mail messages when their "reference value" ends is lawful. David M. Lawrence, a professor of public law and government at UNC-Chapel Hill, is a member of the group appointed by Gov. Mike Easley to review his administration's handling of e-mail. Resident cries foul over yard sign challenge The Durham News Acting as a citizen in an active election season, David Terrenoire of Durham put a sign out in his yard to support a favored candidate. ... The First Amendment prohibits governments from restricting free speech -- which includes the posting of political signs -- but a homeowners' association is not a government agency, said Charles A. Szypszak, an authority on real-estate law at the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill. Beats won't stop The News & Observer (Raleigh ) North Carolina wasn't exactly a hipster haven during the 1950s and '60s. As the Beats thrived and the hippies flourished, the Tar Heel state seemed anchored in Mayberry. We were more Gomer Pyle's "Golly" than Allen Ginsberg's groovy. Still, it makes perfect sense that the Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill starts its sweeping new exhibition, "The Beats and Beyond: Counterculture Poetry, 1950-75," in North Carolina. In vital ways, tiny Black Mountain College outside Asheville was an epicenter of avant-garde poetry and art during its brief life (1933-57). Related Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-944241.cfm UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/ exhibit-programs-to-examine-counterculture-poetry-1950-1975.html UNC to team with Hamner Institutes on research Triangle Business Journal The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached an agreement to perform research with scientists from Research Triangle Park's Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, it said Friday. The deal, established with UNC's schools of medicine, pharmacy, public health and business, will involve collaboration in areas such as drug development, drug safety and public health, UNC says. "Think about the university and the outstanding faculty and great scientists we have," says Tony Waldrop, UNC's vice chancellor for research and economic development. "The Hamner also has great scientists. We're bring these together." Related Link: http://wral.com/business/local_tech_wire/biotech/story/2756295/ UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/ unc-hamner-institutes-announce-partnership-to-accelerate- basic-translational-research.html Earth for all The News & Observer (Raleigh) Within five minutes Saturday afternoon, four people stopped by George W. Danser's stand at the Earth Day Festival in Durham. ... Students involved with the group painted rain barrels at the Durham festival as part of a fundraiser. "It's been extremely popular," said Smith-Nonini, an adjunct professor of anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill. The art aside, the barrels might not be bad investments. UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/ earth-day-celebrations-kick-off-early-at-carolina.html Students speak up for apparel makers The News & Observer (Raleigh) About 40 UNC-Chapel Hill students gathered inside South Building on Friday to press Chancellor James Moeser to sign onto a Designated Suppliers Program for logo apparel, most of which is made in developing countries. UNC Fact Sheet: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr08/licfacts041508.html Geriatric care faces crisis The News & Observer (Raleigh) East Carolina University's geriatrics program stopped taking new patients this year. ... Common diseases often show up differently in older people, said Dr. Laura Hanson, a geriatrician and assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. A heart attack might be painless, or an infection can take hold without the patient's temperature rising above 99 degrees. UNC gets science education funds The Herald-Sun (Durham) GlaxoSmithKline has awarded a $367,172 grant to UNC's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center to support creation of the Science in the Summer program in North Carolina. The initiative will target science education through summer camps for second- through eighth-grade students and teacher workshops at libraries in six counties across the state. The program follows the model of GlaxoSmithKline's Science in the Summer program in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, which is now entering its 22nd year and has introduced more than 92,000 children to science. UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/ glaxosmithkline-morehead-planetarium-and-science-center-launch -library-based-summer-science-program.html Phi Beta Kappa inducts 125 The Herald-Sun (Durham) Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most honored of all college honorary societies, has inducted 125 UNC students as new members. Phi Beta Kappa membership is open to undergraduates in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences and professional degree programs who meet stringent eligibility requirements. Related Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-944446.cfm UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/ 125-at-unc-inducted-into-phi-beta-kappa.html 67 UNC students win awards The Herald-Sun (Durham) Sixty-seven of the brightest and most dedicated students at UNC Chapel Hill have been honored with academic, service and leadership awards. Standouts included dual award winner Sarah Alice Bull of Durham, who won the Robert B. House Memorial Prize in Poetry, to a senior for distinguished work in poetry, and the Louis D. Rubin Jr. Prize in Creative Writing, to the outstanding fiction writer in the senior class. UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/ 67-unc-students-receive-academic-service-leadership-awards.html Possible elementary school sites down to three The Herald-Sun (Durham) The city school board has narrowed its search for sites for new elementary schools down to three. After considering more than 29 different possibilities, the Long-Range Facilities Task Force has recommended a site in the downtown Northside neighborhood; a location in the Greene Tract, in the Rogers Road area; and a site in Carolina North, where UNC plans to build a research campus. ... UNC has committed a site at Carolina North for a school, but residential development on the campus is not expected to be sufficient to support the need for a school during the 10-year window for which the district is currently planning. UNC teaching honorees named The Herald-Sun (Durham) UNC students have honored four faculty members, three teaching assistants and two staff members for teaching excellence and service to undergraduate students. Winners of the 2008 Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards were Lisa Jones Christensen, assistant professor of entrepreneurship in the Kenan-Flagler Business School; Gregory Flaxman, assistant professor of English and comparative literature and adjunct professor in communication studies; Joseph Lowman, a psychology professor; and Yi Zhou, a lecturer of the Chinese language. UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/ unc-students-honor-teachers-and-staff-for-excellence.html Former war correspondents to speak at UNC The Herald-Sun (Durham) Triangle-based former war correspondents Dick Gordon and Jay Price will kick off a series of informal dialogues sponsored by the Journalism Alumni and Friends Association at UNC on Wednesday. Gordon, host of American Public Media's "The Story," and Price, a reporter for The News Observer of Raleigh, will discuss their experiences covering conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan at 6 p.m. in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The free public talk will be in the Freedom Forum Conference Center in UNC's Carroll Hall. UNC News Brief: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/ local-journalists-to-discuss-reporting-on-military-conflicts.html Art from the bottom of the world The News & Observer (Raleigh) Seafarers have for centuries navigated frozen climes by avoiding distant clouds that are illuminated from below, a signal that treacherous ice is reflecting sunlight upward. The mariners call the phenomenon "ice blink," which tells them to steer toward darker skies and safety. Adventurer and flutist Brooks de Wetter-Smith, a music professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been intrigued by the beckoning iceblink of Antarctica since he was a boy. He finally found his way there a little more than a year ago after dreaming up a project that combined his love of music and nature into an unusual concert. UNC Event Brief: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/ unc-professors-to-present-sights-and-sounds-of-antarctica.html Actor-playwright turns on the light for honest discussion The News & Observer (Raleigh) Mike Wiley knows how easy it is for the mind to distort things. ... This week he will portray people involved in the execution of death row inmates in Huntsville, Texas, and elsewhere in "Witness to an Execution," the final installment in UNC-Chapel Hill's yearlong Creative Campus project, "Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined." UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/ death-penalty-project-to-feature-performances-multi-media-exhibit.html 7 people will tell true stories before live audience The Herald-Sun (Durham) New to the area, unemployed (until a teaching job starts in the fall) and being a stay-at-home dad gave Jeff Polish time to think about "new avenues," he said in a telephone interview earlier this week. What he came up with debuts Tuesday with seven people tell true stories before a live audience. Called The Monti, the first event takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Spice Street in Chapel Hill's University Mall. The lineup features a number of novelists: Clyde Edgerton, Daniel Wallace and Joanna Catherine Scott as well as mystery writer Katy Munger; musician and poet Dasan Ahanu; UNC law professor Michael Gerhardt; and Polish. Note: No link available Morehead offers interactive archaeology The Herald-Sun (Durham) Before the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome, before the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall of China were built, the ancient Carolinians thrived in North Carolina's piedmont on the banks of the Yadkin rover, near the present-day town of Badin. ... Today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Morehead planetarium and Science Center, in collaboration with UNC's Research Laboratories of Archaeology, will host a free "Anthropology Family Science Day" to enhance the current interactive exhibit "The Ancient Carolinians." Note: No link available Issues and Trends University inventions' cash value unrealized The News & Observer (Raleigh) New York University hauled in $157 million in 2006 by charging licensing fees to use faculty inventions. Stanford University, a distant second that year, collected $61 million. ... The modest returns haven't stopped universities from seeking new markets. NCSU, Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill have negotiated more than 1,000 active licenses combined. Businesses spun out of those efforts, such as Cree in Durham and Biolex Therapeutics in Pittsboro, are well known locally. Hillary, Bill Clinton returning to N.C. The News & Observer (Raleigh) The Democratic presidential campaign is pushing ahead in North Carolina with visits this week by former President Bill Clinton and next week by Sen. Hillary Clinton. ... Actor, director and producer Sean Astin, a Clinton supporter, will start a three-day tour of the state today to encourage people to take advantage of early voting. Astin starred in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Rudy." Astin will speak at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Caldwell Lounge at N.C. State University and at 4:45 p.m. in the Student Union at UNC-Chapel Hill Related Links: http://www.heraldsun.com/person/12-944451.cfm http://wunc.org/programs/news/Isaac-Hunters-Tavern/ sun-update-hobbits-for-hillary/?searchterm=unc Concert to benefit Carson memorial The News & Observer (Raleigh) Heels4Hire, a Triangle service company, and Kappa Sigma fraternity at UNC-Chapel Hill will sponsor a benefit concert Tuesday at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. All proceeds from the event, "An EVE the Carolina Way," will be donated to the Eve Carson Memorial Fund. Then, fix it (Editorial) The News & Observer (Raleigh) It's no surprise that Theodis Beck, secretary of the N.C. Department of Correction, turned to the National Institute of Corrections for help in assessing problems in the probation and parole offices that are under his department's purview. ... The investigation was made after two young men, under the supervision of the offices, were charged with killing UNC-Chapel Hill student Eve Carson. One had had no contact with his probation officer for a year. The other man's probation officer had been on the job seven months without receiving basic training to make home visits. |
