uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Test Scores
The New York Times
...Of all the forms of academic cheating, none may be as startling as educators tampering with children's standardized tests. But investigations in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia and elsewhere this year have pointed to cheating by educators. Experts say the phenomenon is increasing as the stakes over standardized testing ratchet higher - including, most recently, taking student progress on tests into consideration in teachers' performance reviews. ...Gregory J. Cizek, an education professor at the University of North Carolina who studies cheating, said infractions were often kept quiet. “One of the real problems is states have no incentive to pursue this kind of problem,” he said.

NC House panel clears wide incentives bill
The Associated Press
Boosters of an economic development package that cleared a House committee Wednesday said it will help bring good jobs to the state and perk up the ailing tax base -- even though a university study argues a portion of the tax breaks that woud be extended are no longer effective. ...The North Carolina Center for Competitive Economies, an organization linked to the UNC-Chapel Hill business school, presented a report to lawmakers in early 2009 arguing that incentives previously under the state's William S. Lee Act should be allowed to expire. The center found the credits worked well in the 1990s by giving firms a slightly higher employment growth rate than those that didn't get them.

Stay on target
The Economist.com
...The problem with working on a computer, after all, is that computers provide so many appealing alternatives to doing anything useful: you can procrastinate for hours, checking e-mail, browsing social-networking sites or keeping up with Twitter. ...Freedom’s author, Fred Stutzman, a graduate student in information science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the social demands of the internet led him to create the software. “Just being online means you have this continuous partial attention, or this sense that at any point in time, you can dip into the stream,” he says.

CDC Warns of Ecstasy Overdose 'Clusters' at Rave Events
HealthDay News
What seems like a carefree night of revelry at a "rave" can quickly turn tragic when the club drug ecstasy is involved, finds a new report on one such event from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...Ecstasy -- an illegal synthetic amphetamine also known by its chemical acronym MDMA -- "can be a very dangerous drug and occasionally people die, usually from a hyperthermic state with muscle breakdown and kidney failure," noted Dr. James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the report.

Can smiling improve your health? (Blog)
ABC.com
Improving your diet takes some planning. Getting fitter might involve some sweat. Smiling, however, can be spontaneous and in the right circumstances, doesn't hurt at all. But could smiling regularly leave you with more than just a warm inner glow? Could it actually make you healthier? American positive emotions expert Professor Barbara Fredrickson thinks it could. So long as your smile is genuine rather than faked. (Professor Barbara Fredrickson is principal investigator at the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

State and Local Coverage

Eve Carson Carolina Way Scholarship Established
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
The Morehead-Cain Foundation gave $400,000 to UNC-Chapel Hill to establish the Eve Marie Carson Carolina Way Scholarship. Foundation executive director Charles Lovelace says the scholarship will be given to an out-of-state student who exemplifies Eve Carson’s qualities. Carson, UNC-CH body president and Morehead-Cain Scholar, was killed in March, 2008.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3687/75/

Debate shows Senate candidates' similarities
The Fayetteville Observer
While U.S. Senate candidates Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham sparred over some issues, they agreed more often than not during their Thursday night debate. ...Ferrel Guillory, who teaches southern politics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the televised debate had the potential to boost turnout and swing the race, but it's unlikely. "This Senate race is an example of not enough money, not enough advertising, not enough intensity, not enough public interest," Guillory said. "A debate could help boost interest, but I suspect not a lot of people (watched it)."

... our oil defenses (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...So now let's talk about man-made disaster. Specifically, in terms of a what-if, suppose there is a large oil spill from an offshore rig in the Gulf region, and oil from that spill drifts up to North Carolina. How would we respond? Which agencies of state government would be called together to coordinate that response? Who among our experts in residence (looking especially to our universities such as Duke, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill) would know what to do?

Tightening cybersecurity (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
In an embarrassing revelation with potentially serious real-life identity-theft consequences to tens of thousands of people, UNC announced last September that a hacker had infiltrated a computer server on which the personal information of 236,000 women was stored.

Issues and Trends

'Josie' Robertson, co-founder of scholars program, dies at 67
The Chapel Hill Herald
Mrs. Josephine "Josie" Tucker Robertson, co-founder of the Robertson Scholars program at UNC and Duke, died Tuesday in New York after a long battle with breast cancer. Mrs. Robertson was 67. Mrs. Robertson, a native of San Antonio, and her husband, Julian Robertson, a Salisbury native and UNC alumnus, started the Robertson Scholars program in 2000 to give students at Duke and UNC a chance to take classes on both campuses.

Former UNC Library Sciences Dean Leaves Legacy
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
A memorial service to honor former Dean of UNC’s School of Library Science Dr. Edward Holley will be held in Gerrard Hall on the university’s campus. Holley passed away in February due to extended illness. He worked at UNC from 1972 until his retirement in 1995. Barbara Moran, a professor at the School of Library Science, says he served as a mentor to students and faculty.

'Draconian' UNC cuts to be avoided?
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC President Erskine Bowles believes state budget cuts to the university system will look more like those proposed by the Senate than the "draconian" cuts being pushed by the House. Bowles made that observation Thursday during a UNC Board of Governor's work session. He said he reached that conclusion after recent meetings with leaders from the House and Senate. "The results of these meetings is that I am under the impression from the leadership in both houses that this is going to be worked out, that the university will not end up with the draconian cuts ... we won't end up where we are in the current House budget, however that remains to be seen," Bowles said.
Related Links:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7490607
http://wake.mync.com/site/Wake/news/story/52547/unc-president-calls-house
-budget-cuts-draconian/
http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/7755714/
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/11/526505/bowles-i-pray-budget-cuts-wont.
html?storylink=misearch

Universities say proposed cuts will damage higher education
The Fayetteville Observer
Budget cuts and tuition increases proposed in the state legislature will keep students out of college and force some to leave school, leaders of the state's 16 public universities said Thursday. ...The proposals include putting a limit on the number of students the schools can enroll, which Bowles said has not happened before. Tuition could rise as much as $750 per semester. "If we end up where the House budget is, it will be devastating, devastating to the quality of education that we can offer our students," Bowles said.

UNC Board of Governors leadership unchanged
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC Board of Governors has decided not to make any changes in its leadership for the next two years as it grapples with massive budget cuts and a national search for a new president to replace Erskine Bowles. Re-elected Friday by the other members were chairwoman Hannah D. Gage, vice-chairman Peter D. Hans and board secretary Estelle "Bunny" Sanders.