uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Animals moving to keep with rising temps
United Press International
..."Not a lot of marine critters have been able to keep up with that," study co-author John Bruno, a marine ecologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a statement. "Being stuck in a warming environment can cause reductions in the growth, reproduction and survival of ecologically and economically important ocean life such as fish, corals and sea birds."

Infant-formula companies milk U.S. food program
United Press International
...But women can pay a steep price for that conviction, since their WIC vouchers are not sufficient to get them all the way through the month. WIC has spending caps, explains Dr. Miriam Labbok, a health professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "So WIC recipients who use formula continuously instead of breastfeeding need to go out and buy formula on their own to supplement their monthly WIC subsidies," she says. "Vouchers for individual WIC formula supplies don't last a full month."

How to play it: Groupon and high-profile IPOs
Reuters (Wire Service)
...Scott Rostan, adjunct professor at Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that investors historically only see gains if they bought at the IPO level, a strategy that is out of reach for most investors because of limited supply and a high barrier to entry. Given the small float and heavy demand for the stock, retail investors may need to wait as long as a few weeks before they are even able to buy in. During that time, the stock is unlikely to recapture its early highs.

National Coverage

Groupon mania eases on second day of trading
MSNBC.com
Groupon shares surged 30 percent from their offering price on the first day of trading Friday, but activity cooled a bit on Monday. ..."If you bought at LinkedIn's IPO price (of $45) then you've seen some gains, but if you bought at the end of the first day then you're down," Scott Rostan, adjunct professor at Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill, told Reuters.

Getting their heads into the game
ESPN.com
..."Payne (Stewart) was convinced that it wasn't fair to have sand-filled divots on the golf course," said Dr. Richard Coop, Payne's former mental coach and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of North Carolina. "He always thought that he was going to have more of those than anybody else. So I told him that instead of worrying about it so much that he should try to become the best sand-filled divot player in the world."

Open Letter to Anonymous (Commentary)
Inside Higher Ed
We write in response to the essay “An Open Letter to OCR," by “Anonymous.” As higher education professionals who work with survivors of sexual assault and in prevention efforts on our respective campuses, we could not disagree more with the comments and conclusions of this author. (Donna Bickford is director of the Carolina Women’s Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

More Than a Third of Teens Turning to Alcohol, Drugs: Study
HealthDay News
...Addiction expert Dr. J.C. Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that "these data support the growing concern over the misuse of prescription opioids, with opioids now representing the second most commonly used substance among adolescents after marijuana."

Rappers Take To Mic In Oakland Occupy Protest
The Associated Press
..."There is always a big element of politics that unfolds in Oakland's hip hop scene even if on its surface it seems playful," said Ali Colleen Neff, a former San Francisco Bay area music critic who studies underground music movements at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Boots and the others know there is power to be gained from this kind of coalition building across ethnic and cultural lines."

State and Local Coverage

Thorp named to national panel
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp has been named to a new national Commission on Higher Education Attainment created by the six presidentially based national higher education associations. The 24-member panel’s goal is to chart a course for greatly improving college retention and attainment and, in turn, restore U.S. higher education preeminence.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4862/68/

Former leaders to gather for UNC system forum (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Forty years after the creation of University of North Carolina system, the five living presidents will join this week for a conversation about leading the system's 16 public universities. The free, public event is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Memorial Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Former Gov. Jim Holshouser will lead the discussion. Joining will be emeriti presidents William Friday (1956-86), C.D. Spangler, Jr. (1986-97), Molly Corbett Broad (1997-2005), and Erskine Bowles (2006-2010), as well as current President Tom Ross.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4882/68/

The drugs they need (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Last year, oncologists in Charlotte handled shortages of a particular chemotherapy drug with a very different prescription: gasoline. “There were a couple of people referred to us last year because they couldn’t be treated optimally in Charlotte,” said Dr. Thomas Shea, the interim chief of the division of hematology and oncology at UNC Lineberger Cancer Center, and a leukemia and bone marrow transplant physician.

Issues and Trends

UNC students 'strike the hikes' on tuition
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
A group of students frustrated with the possibility of tuition increases at UNC Chapel Hill are joining together to fight. Students in the UNC Chapel Hill chapter of the national student organization Students for a Democratic Society are leading the charge. They’re calling their efforts “Strike the Hikes.”

The low-down (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and many of its sister institutions in the UNC system can point to other "peer" universities around the country (those with which they compare in size and quality) and with regard to tuition and fees, say, "We're low. Way low. Cheap. Maybe too cheap." And you know what? They're right. Higher education is a bargain in North Carolina, at the public institutions which so many young people attend.

UNC loading students down with more debt (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City)
Five years ago, at the behest of then-University of North Carolina president Erskine Bowles, the UNC Board of Governors capped annual tuition increases for the 16 UNC campuses at 6.5 percent. That cap, already massaged upward in the ensuing years, came during a decade when the U.S. inflation rate never exceeded 4 percent. It came as college students graduated with rising amounts of college loan debt.