uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Steve Jobs retakes spotlight to promote Apple's new iPod line
USA Today
Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned to the public spotlight Wednesday for the first time since taking a medical leave earlier this year, saying he "wouldn't be here" had it not been for a liver transplant. ...Dr. Richard Goldberg at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center says it usually takes liver-transplant patients about three months to fully recover. Jobs, however, "started in a pretty weakened position," he said. "He was acutely ill, as evidenced by the pictures of him." Goldberg thinks Jobs is looking at about six months for a full recovery.

State and Local Coverage

Literally victorious
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
For a state that has long boasted of its wealth of writers, it was a grim prospect to think the Triangle's major universities would have to let the biennial N.C. Literary Festival die on the vine because it had become too hard to organize. Yet that's what almost happened a year and a half ago, until UNC-Chapel Hill stepped up to salvage the event. Although delayed more than a year, the resurrected fifth edition of the festival kicks off today and runs through the weekend with a lineup of 100 authors, both famous and not so, local and from afar.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2816/73/

A weekend to celebrate books (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Triangle area, as might be expected with our concentration of universities and highly educated people, exhibits a tremendous attachment to literature and to books. It also is haven to countless authors, from writers of dense but path breaking academic prose to rhapsodic fiction, from niche novels to towering biographies and histories. What then, is a more appropriate event for us than a Festival of the Book - as it was called three years ago at Duke University -- or a North Carolina Literary Festival, as it will be called starting today at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Writers connect with readers, each other
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Marianne Gingher has a theory on why there are so many writers in North Carolina. “It’s a nice state to live in. A lot of writers have found teaching jobs, and teach the next generation and the torch gets passed,” she said. She’s one of them, a teacher and a writer who passes the torch. Gingher is a professor of English and comparative literature at UNC Chapel Hill, which is hosting the North Carolina Literary Festival that starts tonight.
Related Links:
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A401370
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/232/story/938141.html
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/chefs-of-the-triangle/view
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/weekend/story/52099.html

Authoritarianism and Politics
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
Is it more important for a child to be curious or to have good manners? Your answer to that question could predict your political views, according to Political Science professors Jonathan Weiler, from UNC-Chapel Hill, and Marc Hetherington, from Vanderbilt. They use psychological research on parenting styles to chart the deepening divide in American politics. They discuss their new book, "Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics" with host Frank Stasio.
Note: "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays.

We didn't start the fire (Opinion-Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
...But to combat the joint problem of revelers with nothing to do mindlessly destroying something we all love, this summer UNC's Executive Branch of Student Government began working on a plan to enhance Franklin Street celebrations by providing some additional creative and fun activities. We hope that, as welcome side effect, offering such activities will simultaneously reduce the destruction of Franklin Street and make celebrations safer for everyone involved. These celebrations are among students' most memorable Carolina moments. We want to make sure they're as memorable as they can be.

Issues and Trends

Campus May Hire Consulting Firm to Examine Operations
The Daily Californian (Berkeley, Calif.)
On the heels of similar actions taken by other universities nationwide, UC Berkeley is looking into hiring an external consulting firm that officials say has the potential to save the campus upwards of $40 million. ...When Kutz, the chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate, introduced the plan at the senate meeting last week, he referenced a similar effort to reduce costs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Earlier this year, the flagship campus of North Carolina's public university system hired consulting firm Bain & Company to conduct a review of the campus and suggest ways it could improve its operating-cost structure.

NCCU celebrates centennial with record enrollment
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
...Even with the tight economy, UNC-Chapel Hill officials said enrollment is up about 3 percent, and N.C. State officials said enrollment also is up on their campus. Two private schools, Meredith College and Peace College, both reported record enrollment.

Athletic scholarships (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
North Carolina taxpayers are being bilked when it comes to out-of-state scholarship athletes on UNC campuses. Taxpayers are subsidizing these students at a cost of $10 million a year, and, to make matters worse, the athletes are taking UNC seats that should go to in-state students.

NC probation officers ordered restored to posts
The Associated Press
An administrative law judge has ordered that two North Carolina probation officials demoted last year regain their supervisory jobs with back pay. ...The probation department was the focus of an internal investigation after two probationers were charged with killing Eve Carson, the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.