Home arrow Carolina in the News arrow Carolina in the News: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008
Carolina in the News: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 E-mail
Monday, January 28, 2008
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

International Coverage

Nuclear Plant Workers Show Higher Cancer Risks
Reuters
Workers at one U.S. nuclear facility have suffered higher-than-average rates of certain cancers, a study shows—suggesting that on-the-job exposures are to blame. ...  Dr. David B. Richardson and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report the findings in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study included 18,883 employees of the Savannah River Site who were hired prior to 1987 and worked there for at least three months. When the researchers looked at deaths from all causes and deaths from all cancers as a whole, the workers had rates that were below the U.S. norm. However, as mentioned, there was an excess of certain cancers.

Making an impact
Financial Times (United Kingdom)
... At Kenan-Flagler school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, 15 graduates from the class of 2007 are working in positions that are significantly focused on sustainability issues, compared with eight students for the class of 2002. The Center for Sustainable Enterprise at Kenan-Flagler was established to help executives, organisations and business students understand the impact social and environmental considerations are having on business. Sustainable enterprise is part of the school’s MBA core and is taken by about 60 per cent of MBA students each year – the school allows flexibility in the core programme.

Markets cloud outlook
Financial Times (United Kingdom)
Michael Luger, a former academic at the Kenan-Flagler school at the University of North Carolina and now celebrating his first anniversary as director of Manchester Business School in the UK, believes that European business schools are still trying to emulate their US peers in their approach to rigorous research and to student satisfaction, in particular the relationship with alumni. “We haven’t gone nearly as far as many US schools,” he says, and believes this focus on alumni will continue to grow in Europe.

National Coverage

What Do We Know About Autism?
Parade
... Parents of autistic children should not despair. “Many kids do very well and adapt to their situation,” says Dr. Lee Marcus, clinical director of the pioneering TEACCH program in Chapel Hill, N.C. Since the 1960s, the program—now mandated in North Carolina—has been combining behavioral and developmental therapies, with parents as co-therapists. “There can be progress and optimism about the future. Society is more accepting. Many people do a good job teaching kids with autism.”

Regional Coverage

For more seniors, golden years are still working years
The Sacramento Bee (Calif.)
They are the great-grandparent work force. In recent years, the number of people 75 and older with jobs has grown. The trend is driven by love of work, the need for something meaningful to do and a Depression-era fear of poverty. ... Census numbers show that older workers' participation in the work force – those who either have or are looking for jobs – fell steeply between 1950 and 1985. Then the rate started climbing again. A variety of factors – some financial, but not all – come into play when people consider whether to keep working, said Victor Marshall, director of the  UNC-Chapel Hill Institute on Aging.

On the Job: Sharpening your skills key to keeping a job
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
No matter how secure you may believe your job to be, the economic news lately has been worrisome enough that even the most career-confident person is a little nervous.  ... Echoing that advice is Shawn Graham, a career adviser at the University of North Carolina and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (JistWorks, $12.95). He says that many of this year's graduates may find it tough to land their dream job on the first try.

Cambria kids part of rural education study
The Tribune Democrat (Jamestown, Pa)
What factors influence how children develop? That’s the question the Family Life Project study is trying to answer. The group will be spending years with local children and their families to better understand the process. The study, which began in November 2002, is spearheaded by the FPG Child Development Institute based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Penn State. They are conducting the largest study to date on how rural life affects the way a child grows.
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/
preschoolers-benefit-from-mental-health-screening.html

Hub loss could decimate economy; years to recover
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn)
John D. Kasarda, the University of North Carolina professor who coined the term aerotropolis, which focuses on building cities around powerful airports and has been assisting local officials in their effort to establish one in Memphis, said the loss of the hub would be a setback, but not a fatal one. "It would certainly be a blow to the Memphis aerotropolis were Memphis to lose its NWA hub status, especially for the continued development of business services and tourism complexes that are increasingly aviation-linked," Kasarda said. "However, it would not be devastating since most of the Memphis aerotropolis is driven by the FedEx World Hub and other logistics service providers."

State & Local Coverage

UNC exceeds lofty goal (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has just completed one of the more impressive fundraising efforts in higher education. Over the past eight years, the university has raised $2.38 billion, the fifth largest amount ever in higher education. The total exceeds the original $1.8 billion goal by $58 million. It is an astonishing accomplishment, and if university chancellors are graded these days by how much money they raise, then Chancellor James Moeser gets an A-plus.
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/
pharmacy-school-pledge-pushes-carolina-first-total-to-2.3-billion.html

Carolina green (Commentary)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
UNC-Chapel Hill has raised $2.38 billion in its eight-year fundraising campaign, Carolina First, which ranks as the fifth-largest campaign by a U.S. university ever. Among other things, Carolina First will pay for faculty positions, research, medical programs, scholarships and financial aid. This includes the Carolina Covenant initiative, which ensures that students from poor families can attend UNC-CH debt-free.
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/
pharmacy-school-pledge-pushes-carolina-first-total-to-2.3-billion.html

Notable numbers (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
$2.38 billion - The amount UNC-Chapel Hill raised in an eight-year fundraising campaign -- the fifth-largest campaign ever in the nation.
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/
pharmacy-school-pledge-pushes-carolina-first-total-to-2.3-billion.html

Setting the tone for Carolina North (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
... The university proposes to put the Innovation Center on a part of the Carolina North tract, and it wants Chapel Hill to grant a special-use permit for the center before the town has had a chance to fully review the master plan for the wider Carolina North project. The university hopes to move swiftly on the Innovation Center, partly because of concerns that a long delay might dissuade the developer it has been working with on the project.

School Solutions: DESTINY Traveling Science Program
WFMY-TV (Greensboro)
Most teachers have to be creative and teach students with limited resources. That's where a lab on wheels comes in very handy. WFMY News 2's Erica Taylor shows us how a traveling science program is a school solution. ... The 40-foot bus parked on Eastern Guilford High School's campus is one of two traveling science laboratories created by UNC-Chapel Hill. Since 2001, 27,000 students have boarded the traveling laboratories. This year, that includes close to 100 students at Eastern Guilford. "One of them had an airtight alibi and the fourth suspect's blood type did not match, so you're only going to be working with two suspects today," Cathy Price, an education specialist with the DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program, tells the class.
UNC Media Advisory: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/
gibsonville-students-board-uncs-destiny-science-bus.html

Changes preparing UNC for the future (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The new year has brought some important changes at Carolina, changes that affect students, faculty and staff as well as the community. These changes will improve health and safety on campus and will prepare us to meet the challenges of the future. (James Moeser is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

Moeser honored with MLK award
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Martin Luther King University/Community Planning Corp. has honored UNC Chancellor James Moeser with its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Citizenship Award. Moeser was recognized during the group's 23rd memorial banquet, part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration at the William and Ida Friday Continuing Education Center. The award goes to citizens in "recognition of enduring service to humanity by word and by deed."
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/mlk-university/
community-planning-corp.-honors-moeser-for-uncs-accessibility-diversity-achievement.html

Campuses compete over who can save most water
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Daily water use in residence halls has dropped by four gallons per student per day on average at both schools. But because NCSU students used less water to begin with, their overall consumption has dropped by 14 percent, compared to 12 percent at UNC. UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser told his trustees Thursday that there are different theories why his school trails. "One reason we're behind is that we have more female students -- that was N.C. State's take on it," Moeser said with a laugh. But as the head of a university that is nearly 60 percent women, Moeser, wisely, distanced himself from that hypothesis. Brian Sugg, UNC-CH president of the Residence Hall Association, said he would not get into a debate about whether women spend more time in the shower than men.
Related Link: http://news14.com/content/headlines/592196/
schools-battle-for-water-conservation/Default.aspx

Future M.D. says no to handouts of drugmakers (Tar Heel of the Week feature)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As a medical student, Anthony Fleg is at the center of the latest wave of rebellion against the pharmaceutical industry's cozy ties to doctors, hospitals and medical schools. Fleg, in his fourth year of training at UNC-Chapel Hill, is national coordinator of the American Medical Student Association's effort to wean medical schools from their pervasive relationships with drug companies. And he's had quite a year.

Tar Heels consider new parking deck
News 14 Carolina (Charlotte/Raleigh)
As Pamela Garcia talks with her friends in front of UNC Chapel Hill's Student Union, she says it’s a great school that lacks one thing -- plenty of parking. ... Now school officials may be answering that call. As part of what school officials are calling its “Bell Tower development,” a 710-car parking deck could be in the works. Plans call for a walkway to be constructed in front of the parking deck to the campus’s new central park and Medical Drive.

Hospitals putting stroke data on file
The Triangle Business Journal
Aiming to improve the quality of care provided to stroke patients, about half of North Carolina's 100 hospitals on a daily basis report monitoring information to a state-funded online database - data that is then used by hospitals to improve care. The North Carolina Collaborative Stroke Registry collects stroke-related data from 51 of the state's 100 hospitals as a way to monitor the delivery of care to stroke patients, explains Wayne Rosamond, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health and the registry's principal investigator.

Issues & Trends

Teach-ins focus on climate
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Universities in the Triangle are joining more than 1,000 colleges around the country in a nationwide teach-in Wednesday and Thursday on solutions to global warming. As part of Focus the Nation, teachers at all the university campuses will integrate global warming topics in their lesson plans. ... It's a Web cast produced with support of the National Wildlife Federation. It will be screened Wednesday at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and Duke University, launching Focus the Nation. The title refers to the suggestion that people should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent a year through 2050 to minimize projected temperature increases by the end of the century.
UNC News Brief: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/
unc-joins-national-teach-in-to-support-solutions-to-global-warming.html

Campaign finance debate set
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Here's an event involving national politics that will appeal to local political types: UNC-Chapel Hill will host "Money, Politics and the First Amendment: A Debate on Special Interest Advertising in Elections." The event will be 5 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at Alumni Hall III, George Watts Hill Alumni Center. It is free and open to the public. ... The debate will be moderated by UNC School of Law Professor William Marshall, currently serving as solicitor general of Ohio.

Public transit could be N.C.'s future
The Burlington Times News
A former state transportation secretary is making a pitch to make public transit a bigger part of the state’s mobility system over the coming decade.
Sam Hunt of Burlington said that transit systems in the state need about $5 billion for trains, light rail and buses over the next decade, with about 25 percent of that money coming from state coffers.  ... In one North Carolina community, Chapel Hill, fares pay for nearly half (48 percent) of transit operating expenses. David Hartgen, professor emeritus at UNC Charlotte, said that was because of an unusual situation in Chapel Hill. College students, who have limited parking on the UNC Chapel Hill campus, make up a large portion of the transit riders there.

Bowles wants to free UNC from state personnel laws
The Triangle Business Journal
Erskine Bowles, who built his reputation in investment banking and as right-hand man to a United States president, is aggressively seeking to gain more control over personnel decisions within the University of North Carolina System he now heads. To do so, Bowles would have to gain approval through legislation to free his office and staff from provisions of the State Personnel Act and the policies set by the State Personnel Commission.