uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Changing Climate Means Changing Oceans
"Talk of the Nation" National Public Radio
Scientists who study the oceans say the effects of climate change are already being seen in the world's oceans. From acidification and warming temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice loss, Ira Flatow and guests look at how the oceans are changing with changes in climate. (John Bruno, marine ecologist and associate professor in the department of biology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill was a guest on this show.)

Walmart Joins Push For Healthier Foods
"Morning Edition" National Public Radio
...Nutritionist Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina says the company can use that same leverage to make food makers cut down on salt and sugar. ...Popkin adds it will be important to monitor Wal-Mart's actual results. Over the last 30 years, he says, the cheapest calories have often come from sugary soft drinks and salty snacks. Wal-Mart could encourage customers to eat better simply by making healthy items more affordable.

Distrust of Health System Keeps Black Males From Getting Care
HealthDay News
...But men who said they were highly mistrustful of the medical system were more than twice as likely to delay routine check-ups and cholesterol screenings and three times more likely to delay having their blood pressure checked than men who were more trusting, said the researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "What we found is that mistrust of the medical system accounts for delays in using health care, especially among older African-American men," study author Wizdom Powell Hammond, an assistant professor of health behavior and health education at UNC, said in a university news release.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4197/107/

Regional Coverage

Rules offered to curb youth head injuries
The Boston Globe
...While it is rare for high school athletes to die from head injuries, (Dr. Robert) Cantu said, he encounters two to four such fatalities each year as medical director of a research center at the University of North Carolina that investigates catastrophic sports injuries. Those deaths, he said, illustrate the importance of making sure that clear guidelines exist about the assessment and treatment of head injuries in sports.

Abandoned crab traps become homes for oysters
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
Old crab pots from the Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico sounds could become new homes for oysters and bolster the sought-after-but-struggling species. Marine scientists from the University of North Carolina plan to collect the box -shaped wire traps, remove the prickly entrances that prevent escapes, cut exit holes and place them in waters near Beaufort. Oysters love to gather on unused crab pots and appear to prosper there, said Joel Fodrie, an assistant professor with UNC's Institute of Marine Sciences.

Richey: Listen to the beech trees (Column)
The Banner-Herald (Athens, Ga.)
...Beechnuts are edible for humans, and can be eaten raw, cooked into soups or ground into meal. Archeological research by Richard Yarnell, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found quantities of beechnuts in early settlements of North American inhabitants, showing that humans have subsisted on beechnuts for thousands of years.

Ferrel Guillory and Richard Hart: Leadership for hard times (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Charleston Gazette (South Carolina)
On Jan. 11, 1944, President Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union address from the White House by radio. The nation had not fully recovered from the Great Depression and was engaged in a ferocious war with D-Day still half a year away. (Guillory is director of The Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a senior fellow at MDC, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing economic and educational opportunity. Richard Hart is communications director at MDC.)

State and Local Coverage

UNC To Lose $17 Million In State Funds By March
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
In the face of the looming state budget crisis, UNC Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney is telling university officials to make deep cuts now and prepare for more to follow. The state will not be giving UNC its full allotment for the final quarter of this fiscal year, meaning the university must find a way to get by with $17 million less than expected. To do so, Carney wants to slash more than $4 million from academic affairs, which includes the College of Arts and Sciences, graduate school, and the professional schools. UNC’s health schools will lose 4.5 million, and the Provost’s Office will lose 2.6 million.

Triad has work to do to create job stability
The News & Record (Greensboro)
...Education is essential. But North Carolina also must recognize the demographic changes that are driving that need, said one analyst at UNC-Chapel Hill. One survey estimates that by 2018, 59 percent of the jobs in North Carolina will require education beyond high school, said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC.

'Flexicurity' the word in job creation (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In recent decades, social scientists have increasingly employed the concept "precarious work" with respect to jobs that are particularly uncertain, unstable and insecure. In such jobs, the preponderance of risks is borne by workers rather than employers or government, and misfortune of one type of another - a major illness, a work-related injury or a layoff - can start a worker and his/her family down the path to economic ruin. (Peter A. Coclanis is Albert R. Newsome Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Global Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill. Arne L. Kalleberg is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

UNC Hospitals wants to modernize ORs
The Triangle Business Journal
When designers were drawing plans for UNC Hospitals’ operating rooms, they didn’t have to worry about all the image-guided surgery equipment, microscopes and ceiling-mounted monitors that are required in ORs today. That was then, and this is now: UNC officials are evaluating what they will need from the 20 operating rooms in the oldest buildings on the hospital campus in Chapel Hill.

Tar Heels host Special Olympics athletes
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...On Sunday, Special Olympics athletes got a chance to play on one of the most hallowed courts in basketball and hone their skills with the help of some of the nation's best college players. ...The UNC-Chapel Hill men's basketball team hosted a clinic at the Dean E. Smith Center for about 100 special athletes from across the state. There were drills on shooting and dribbling before the athletes got on the floor to scrimmage in the cavernous Carolina blue arena.

Playground captures spirit of UNC fraternity leader
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In a bright metal collection of slides and swings and monkey bars, Courtland Benjamin Smith's legacy is reborn. Here, he is, and will be, the young man so beloved that his friends and family built, in his memory, a playground for strangers' kids in an affordable housing community near Interstate 40 in Chapel Hill. "This is really who he was," said Frank Driscoll, Smith's friend and fraternity brother at Delta Kappa Epsilon at UNC-Chapel Hill. "This is the way we want him remembered."
Related Links:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7913677
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/11092592/article-Playground-to-memorialize-
late-fraternity-president?instance=main_article

Questionable benefits (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In his Jan. 17 Point of View article ("Cutting Chapel Hill loose"), Jay Schalin of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy argued for defunding the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He extrapolated from a 12-year-old study that Chapel Hill students are relatively wealthy and claimed this means we should raise tuition instead of making Chapel Hill more affordable for lower income students. (David Winegar, Cary)

The rise of Thom Tillis
The Charlotte Observer
...His ascension came amid the seismic shift that put 68 Republicans in the 120-member House. Now only 27 have more seniority than (Thom) Tillis. Some say it signals a more fundamental change as legislative power shifts to urban areas and driven, well-funded candidates. "The old legislative politics of biding your time and climbing the ladder just doesn't hold as much anymore," says Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC Chapel Hill.

Fitness regimen could ease chronic problems
The Triangle Business Journal
...“The main value of exercise is health,” says Robert McMurray, a professor of exercise sport science at UNC-Chapel Hill. “The amount of calories you can burn in a 30-minute session is a couple hundred, which is what you get in a beer and a half.” Rather, McMurray and others say, the benefit of exercise is overall improved health, and even those suffering from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, depression or arthritis can benefit from an exercise regimen.

Pregnant women try to balance fitness, safety
The Fayetteville Observer
...That's because it differs for each woman, said Dr. SeonAe Yeo, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Nursing. As a general rule of thumb, Yeo said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that healthy women with healthy pregnancies should have moderate intensity exercise about 30 minutes a day, while avoiding contact sports, scuba diving and horseback riding.

Free legal advice offered on divorce
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law and Legal Aid of North Carolina on Feb. 7 will assist low-income people who need to obtain divorces. Clients must be financially eligible for Legal Aid assistance to obtain this free legal service. An Orange County District Court judge will then hold hearings and issue divorce judgments at the law school in April, with students representing clients under supervision by clinical professor Beth Posner.

Alcohol overdoses among young rise
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
...Dean Blackburn, assistant dean of students at UNC, said the school is constantly trying to educate students about the dangers of underage drinking and drinking too much. He thought the number of calls was about average but believed that some of them might be a sign that a program the university is promoting might be working. The program, called "Just Call," encourages students to call 911 if they are worried that a friend might need medical assistance because of drinking too much. "It's much better for it to be a false alarm than not to be called at all," Woodward said.

Ackland Sheds Light On Controversial Film
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
The Ackland Art Museum has brought a controversial film back to the public’s eye. That’s Ackland Director of Communications Emily Bowles. The installation on Ackland’s second floor is David Wojnarowicz’s unfinished film, “A Fire in My Belly.” The film was originally housed in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery until pressure from members of Congress and the Catholic League forced the work’s removal.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4234/66/

Soaring 'Angels'
The Chapel Hill News
In 1995, Joseph Haj won a role in one of the first regional productions of Tony Kushner's epic "Angels in America" after its 1993 Broadway debut, at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Even then, Haj says, he knew: "Angels" changed everything. "It was the most important play any of us had ever read," said Haj, who is now the producing artistic director of UNC's PlayMakers Repertory Company.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4185/66/

Imam's speech slated at UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, the leader of a controversial effort to build an interfaith cultural center in lower Manhattan, will speak in March at UNC-Chapel Hill. Abdul-Rauf will deliver the 2011 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at 7:30 p.m. March 16 in Hill Hall on the campus. It's free and open to the public, but tickets are required. The lecture is the featured event in a series of conversations on American citizenship. It is sponsored by UNC's Institute for the Arts & Humanities.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/11093020/article-Ground-Zero-Mosque-
imam-to-speak-at-UNC?instance=main_article
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4241/107/

Issues and Trends

State Spending on Higher Education Edges Down, as Deficits Loom
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher education largely dodged big cuts in state appropriations for this budget year, thanks in part to money from the federal stimulus package. On average, state appropriations for colleges fell by slightly less than 1 percent from the previous budget year, and by less than 2 percent over the past two years, according to the Grapevine Project, Illinois State University's annual survey of state financing of higher education.

Restoring the Faculty Voice
Inside Higher Ed
Faculty members from the unions of public colleges from 21 states met this weekend in Los Angeles and committed to launching a campaign with a lofty goal: assuring the future of higher education. ...The document stakes out seven broad principles: increased inclusivity and access for students; a broad, diverse, liberal arts curriculum; less reliance on contingent as opposed to tenure-track faculty; incorporating technology with an eye toward maintaining educational quality; more judicious balancing of short-term cuts with long-term costs; better state support; and the adoption of evaluation metrics that go beyond graduation rates.

UNC seeks more flexibility, less regulation (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
With new leadership in the General Assembly, the UNC system sees opportunity. UNC officials say new leaders in the State House and Senate have indicated an interest in providing universities with more flexibility by loosening some regulations. ..."This may be a time to step back and see if there are rules and regulations that are no longer needed," said Jeff Davies, chief of staff with the UNC system.

The new power brokers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A dentist, a real estate appraiser and a bail bondsman. A former county manager, a farmer and a small-town lawyer. These are some of the key Republican lawmakers who will carry out the vision of GOP leaders when the N.C. General Assembly arrives Wednesday in Raleigh. Nearly all have been placed in powerful positions that craft budgets, set taxes and control the flow of legislation.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/23/937931/six-to-lead-the-legislature.html

Sen. Richard Stevens
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
If the UNC system is to survive the budget ax this session, it will likely be due to the efforts of state Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary, who will serve as co-chairman of the Senate budget committee. Stevens is a former Wake County manager and also a former chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees. In November, the board gave Stevens its highest honor, the William Richardson Davie Award, for service to the university.

Budget, ideology will rattle education
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The biggest state expense, public education, is in line for cuts this year with money scarce and the legislature looking to fill a $3.7 billion hole. Gov. Bev Perdue has already warned that education budgets won't escape without a few scars. Public schools, the state universities and the community college system consume about 60 percent of the state budget. Administrators at all levels are looking for savings.

For state workers, layoffs loom large
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Faced with a huge budget shortfall, there have been predictions of widespread state employee layoffs as the legislature moves to downsize state government. One estimate, by the NC. Budget and Tax Center, put the potential layoffs at 21,000. Republican legislators say that layoffs are inevitable, but that such projections are meaningless.

Panel elects Basnight successor
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Stan White, a real estate agent and state Department of Transportation board member, was selected Friday night by a committee of Democrats to fill the state Senate seat vacated by outgoing Senate President Marc Basnight. White, who owns Stan White Realty and Construction on the Outer Banks, is a former member of Dare County commissioners and board chairman.

Campbell plans to open medical school in 2013
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Before the economy tanked, lawmakers approved plans to add 40 students at ECU's Brody School of Medicine, and 80 at UNC-CH. But they didn't provide funds. As a result, ECU has had to put its expansion on hold, while UNC-CH has scaled back plans for satellite doctor-training programs in Charlotte and Asheville. It's adding 10 students this year and another 10 in 2012 at the outlying programs, which rely on significant investments by partner hospitals in both cities. Adding students beyond that, however, would require an infusion of taxpayer dollars, which looks unlikely in the foreseeable future, said Dr. William Roper, dean of UNC-CH's medical school and chief executive officer of UNC Health Care System.

The fix that ECU's med school is in Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Enhancing Medicaid reimbursements for the state's two public medical schools does not take anything away from other providers. But it does help those schools bear their load, especially in the case of East Carolina University. ...Over the years, ECU and UNC have borne the scars of the 1970s fight to establish a medical school in Greenville. Now the universities are beginning to work together in many ways to better serve the people of North Carolina.
Related Link:
http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-c-2011-01-23-250303.112112-Report-
ECU-Dental-School-based-on-flawed-premise.html

Community colleges could bar students
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The state's community colleges could soon be able to deny admission to applicants who appear to pose a health or safety threat. On Friday, the State Board of Community Colleges voted to amend the system's long-standing open-door admissions policy. The change would allow the 58 colleges to refuse to admit prospective students who may present "an articulable, imminent and significant threat."