uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

iPad owners chuck original to get iPad 2
The Christian Science Monitor
...But even some iPad enthusiasts aren't ready to buy the new model. Cameron Parker, a junior at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, is impressed by the new model, particularly with the design of the new case and the thinness of the tablet. He'd like to own one, but alas, is on a student budget. “If I had the disposible income, I would definitely do it,” Mr. Parker said.

National Coverage

Rare anti-slavery booklet acquired by U.Va.
The Associated Press
The University of Virginia has acquired a rare first edition of an 1829 anti-slavery manifesto that was considered a rallying cry for black Americans and a major threat to Southern leaders, who worked vigorously to ban it. ..."It really was the very first document in the United States to call for the immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery," said Harry L. Watson, director of the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of the American South.

Accountants Get More Optimistic (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal
What do you call a happy accountant? We’re not sure, either, but bean counters are feeling more upbeat of late. A CPA Outlook Index put together by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the University of North Carolina rose to its highest level since the third quarter of 2007 — before the recession took hold. That was largely due to a big jump in optimism over the U.S. economy, but the 1168 accountants surveyed were also felt better about their own firms and expect stronger sales, profits, spending and hiring.

North Carolina Following Arizona's Lead Against Undocumented Immigrants
Fox News.com
A bill inspired by Arizona's law SB1070 was presented on Thursday in the Senate in North Carolina, a state where the immigrant community doubled in numbers over the past decade. ...A 2006 study by the University of North Carolina concluded that Hispanics contribute $9 billion annually to the state economy.

Paradises on earth (Book Review)
The Economist
...In “Aerotropolis”, John Kasarda of the University of North Carolina and his co-author, Greg Lindsay, convincingly put the airport at the centre of modern urban life. What may appear to be merely a means of travelling from the inconvenient edge of one city to the edge of another is becoming, whether by design or as a result of millions of personal decisions, the centre of the metropolis.

Regional Coverage

At Logistics' Heart
The Memphis Daily News (Tennessee)
The chairman of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority Board puts Memphis at the “midway” point between the ingredients for a dedicated aerotropolis and a nuts and bolts master plan to turn it into reality. ...Those advantages – location, moderate weather and FedEx – are touted heavily in the new book coauthored by Kasarda, the University of North Carolina business professor who coined the term and defined the aerotropolis concept in the mid-1990s.

State and Local Coverage

National innovation council to meet here
The Chapel Hill Herald
Leading innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs who make up President Barack Obama's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) will hold the group's first public forum at UNC on March 15. The 24-member council, which includes Chancellor Holden Thorp, was created last year to support President Obama's innovation strategy by helping to develop policies that foster entrepreneurship and identifying new ways to take great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to drive economic growth and create jobs.
Related Links:
http://wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=17637
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12155348/article-UNC
-to-host-NACIE-public-forum-on-March-15?instance=main_article
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4352/107/

Liquidia wins the backing of Gates
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A Durham company developing vaccines using nanotechnology developed by renowned chemist Joseph DeSimone will announce today that it has attracted a $10 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ...The company's backers are betting on the prospects of the nanotechnology developed by DeSimone, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. DeSimone won the 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lemelson Prize, known as "the Oscar for inventors," and another prestigious award in 2009 from the National Institutes of Health.

UNC-AICPA survey: CFO optimism hits highest point since 2007 (Blog)
The Triangle Business Journal
A nationwide survey of CFOs and other executive-level CPAs shows that their optimism about the U.S. economy has risen to its highest level since late 2007, before the financial meltdown. Such are the findings of the latest opinion sampling taken by the Durham-based American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Even with jobs harder to get, law schools hiking tuition
The Triangle Business Journal
UNC-Chapel Hill’s law school’s tuition will rise by a whopping 11 percent, to nearly $19,000 annually, next school year as it seeks to implement programs designed to improve students’ writing and better prepare them for the real world of lawyering. ...UNC also plans to use additional tuition revenue to modify upper-level courses to better simulate law firm settings. The goal is to have students ready to hit the ground running as soon as they start with a firm.

Funding cut means fewer slots for N.C. nursing students
The Charlotte Business Journal
...UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing has announced it will cut enrollment in its undergraduate-nursing programs by 25%. The decision follows a campus-wide budget cut of 5% that will trim more than $483,000 from the nursing school, says Kristen Swanson, dean of the nursing school. That’s on top of 10% in budget cuts absorbed during the past two years.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4312/71/

Retired cop files bill to ban red-light cameras (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...But they sometimes increase rear-end collisions, caused when the driver in front hits the brakes to avoid running the light. Rear-enders generally cause fewer injuries. Some experts have questioned these findings. A new report from the University of South Florida College of Public Health looks at several old studies, including one headed by a UNC-Chapel Hill safety researcher, and concludes that they actually show red-light cameras cause more crashes and injuries.

Two strikes at N.C.'s public schools (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Two proposals now before the General Assembly call into question our state's commitment to high-quality public education. House Bill 41, titled "Tax Fairness in Education," proposes to give a $2,500 annual tax credit to eligible individuals with children attending grades K through 12 "other than in a public school." (Elizabeth Haddix and Mark Dorosin are senior attorneys at the UNC Center for Civil Rights.)

Rights upheld (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Typically faculty members do not have positive things to say about athletics departments. In the case of the appeal of UNC-Chapel Hill football student-athlete Devon Ramsey and UNC Athletics, I can say the Heels have done good. ...Baddour and others also listened to former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr, who recognized the lack of procedural due process and the flawed NCAA appeal procedures in the Ramsey case. Lee and Orr demanded that UNC take on the NCAA and fight for Devon's rights. The athletics department should be commended for listening.(Emmett L. Gill, Jr., Assistant professor, N.C. Central University, Durham)

Issues and Trends

UNC's Ross adds to leadership team (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC President Tom Ross has added to his leadership team. Lyons Gray, a Winston-Salem businessman who served six terms in the N.C., General Assembly before joining the administration of President George W. Bush, has been named Senior Advisor to the President of the 17-campus University of North Carolina.

Perspectives on the Downturn: A Survey of Presidents
Inside Higher Ed
...Those are among the many findings of "Presidential Perspectives," Inside Higher Ed's first Survey of College and University Presidents, released today in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Council on Education. A total of 956 campus chief executives, nearly a third of the 2,900 invited to participate, provided their views, with hearty response from across higher education's sectors and segments (though disproportionately few for-profit college leaders participated).