uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Older ER patients less likely to get pain treated
Reuters (Wire Service)
People over age 75 who visit the emergency department with complaints of pain are about 20 percent less likely to have their pain treated than middle-aged patients, according to a new study. ..."The data from the study don't tell us why this is happening," said lead author Dr. Timothy Platts-Mills, a professor at the University of North Carolina.

National Coverage

'Glee' sends wrong message on teen sex
CNN.com
...Television is a "sexual super peer," according to Jane Brown, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina. The phrase "peer pressure" is used to describe the influence a peer group can exert on a teen's decisions. Television amplifies that peer pressure by making the entire realm of television, and all the characters in it, part of the teen's peer group.

Children 9 to 11 should have cholesterol tested, report says
The Washington Post
All children should have their cholesterol tested between the ages of 9 and 11, according to guidelines released Friday. ...Nortin M. Hadler, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he had “grave reservations” about the new recommendation. Elevated cholesterol levels do not necessarily lead to heart disease, he noted.

Obama’s Veterans Day: Troops and Hoops
The Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama on Friday climbed aboard the aircraft carrier that ferried Osama bin Laden’s body for burial at sea, marking Veterans Day with an out-of-the-ordinary visit with American troops. He was here for the “Carrier Classic,” the first time an NCAA basketball game was played aboard an aircraft carrier. The USS Carl Vinson played host, its vast deck transformed into an open-air regulation court. The game offered the commander in chief, whose passion for college basketball is well documented, a courtside seat to a premier matchup between marquee programs—No. 1 ranked University of North Carolina vs. Michigan State.
Related Links:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/for-obama-a-little-basketball-before-the-diplomacy/
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/sports/college/basketball&id=8429401
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/11/court-side-carrier-obama-
salutes-veterans-watches-close-basketball-game

Chinese Students Plunge Gamely Into Unfamiliar U.S. Admissions Process
The Chronicle of Higher Education
...Others, though, say they will do their applications without help. Zhao Xiawxwe, a tall, serious girl who also goes by Michelle, is waiting to hear back from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she applied early-action in mid-October.

A Word in Defense of the Witnesses–and the Word Is “Ambiguity” (Blog)
Scientific American
You and I – and every single other decent person on the planet who has heard about the Penn State abuse allegations – are having the same revenge fantasy. Or, I don’t know, call it a Guardian Angel fantasy. ...Kim Strom-Gottfried, professor in the school of social work at UNC-Chapel Hill, puts the response of the Penn State witnesses in equally everyday terms: “Have you ever seen anybody slug their kid in a grocery store?” she asks. And what did you do?

Regional Coverage

'Crowdfunding' bill would expose investors to swindles
The Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
..."If you want to argue for some lesser level of disclosure" than what a conventional stock offering needs, "that seems to be something that may make some sense," says Thomas Hazen, who teaches securities law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "But to make it all or nothing — to say you don't need any disclosure — that to me is fraud waiting to happen."

State and Local Coverage

UNC student body president presents tuition hike plan to task force
News 14 Carolina
Discussion continues Monday on how much UNC Chapel Hill students will pay for tuition next year. The school's student body president and member of the Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force presented her plan to the task force Monday.

College Debt Load
The Triangle Business Journal
If schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference were ranked by how little student debt their students are carrying at graduation, UNC in Chapel Hill would be the champ. ...Those are among the findings of a national study of student debt called the Project on Student Debt, which analyzed tuition, financial aid and loans for universities across the nation. The study provides two key data points: the percentage of students who graduate with some debt, and the average debt carried by those students.

Methane flaring could begin soon on landfill gas project
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Methane gas from the Orange County landfill will no longer be released into the atmosphere, thanks to the first phase of a joint project launched in November 2010 by the county and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to turn this greenhouse gas into electricity.
Related Link:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2011/11/11/unc-stops-landfill-gas-release.html
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4913/68/

UNC To Commemorate Campus Sustainability Day
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC will hold an event Tuesday to commemorate Campus Sustainability Day and America Recycles Day. The event will take place in the Great Hall of the Student Union, and will consist of a number of exhibits targeted at different aspects of sustainability at Carolina. Several University innovations will be emphasized in energy, food and water, recycling, and education.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4902/67/

Where the Ladies Steal the Show
The Triangle Business Journal
...UNC-Chapel Hill business professor Sreedhari Desai says women make up 14 percent of executives at publicly traded companies in the U.S. and 2 to 17 percent in other industrialized countries. While different companies may define senior management differently, Desai says, “The fact that Quintiles has 50.1 percent women in senior management is quite impressive.”

UNC professor honored
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Annegret Fauser of UNC Chapel Hill has received the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association, one of the highest international honors a musicologist can receive. Fauser, a professor of music and adjunct professor of women’s studies in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the 50th recipient of the award. The association is the leading and oldest society in the United Kingdom dedicated to the study of music.

Full-deck press
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
With President Barack Obama watching from center court, UNC-Chapel Hill opened its basketball season under the most unusual of circumstances, on the flight deck of an active Navy aircraft carrier docked in San Diego Bay. The Tar Heels, the preseason No. 1 team in the country, have aspirations of winning a national title in April, but that campaign began Friday in the inaugural Carrier Classic, a celebration of Veterans Day played in front of a crowd that included military and civilians alike with a 67-55 win over Michigan State.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/16407055/article-CLASSIC-VICTORY?

Across the South, growth is still impeded (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A quarter century ago today, on Nov. 14, 1986, the North Carolina-based Southern Growth Policies Board issued a major policy report on the state of the region, "Halfway Home and a Long Way to Go." The board hoped to mobilize support for public policies and public-private partnerships that would increase per capita income and reduce poverty and unemployment for Southerners. (Peter A. Coclanis is Albert R. Newsome distinguished professor of history and director of the Global Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill. Daniel P. Gitterman is an associate professor of public policy and a senior fellow at the Global Research Institute.)

Davis sings more than just the blues
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A historical marker on Fayetteville Street, “Bull City Blues,” pays tribute to the Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller and other musicians who once played their music in Durham’s Hayti and tobacco warehouse districts. ...Wald will give a free talk about Davis’ music Thursday in Wilson Library at UNC. After his talk, guitarists Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman and Ernie Hawkins will perform some of Davis’ compositions in a concert at the Carolina Union.

UNC student arrested in Apex bank robbery
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
The Apex Police Department reports a bank robbery suspect was arrested Saturday night in New Jersey. Gordon Goodwin, 22, was arrested in Atlantic City. He is named on a warrant accusing him of robbing a SunTrust bank on Monday.

Issues and Trends

Redundancy at universities? (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As tuition talks get under way at UNC campuses, it looks like the state's public universities aren't in a position to save big money by eliminating duplicative degree programs. Former UNC Charlotte Chancellor James Woodward spent several months studying whether the UNC system had too much redundancy in its academic programs. His answer? No.

UNC leaders need to keep pressure on legislature; constitution on their side (Editorial)
The Star News (Wilmington)
Wilmington’s Fred Eshelman gave more than $3 million to a special-interest group that helped elect Republicans to Congress, but he also has been a staunch supporter of North Carolina’s public universities, including UNCW. And as a member of the UNC Board of Governors, he had strong words last week about yet another proposal to increase tuition.
Related Link:
http://www.thepilot.com/news/2011/nov/13/easy-tuition/

College.xxx? Schools snap up porn domains
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
The world is getting closer to the launching of a new Internet address system for pornography providers, and there are some eye-opening names being registered. ...In what amounts to a defensive maneuver, schools across the nation are snapping up the .xxx domain names that match their federally registered trademarks. It's a matter of trying to keep them out of the wrong hands. ...In addition to tarheels.xxx, UNC has also filed to register UNC.xxx and UniversityofNorthCarolina.xxx, spokesman Mike McFarland said.

Halloween plan works (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
The town of Chapel Hill's effort to bring order to the chaos that used to be the annual downtown Halloween celebration has been, by nearly all measures, successful. So it seems an odd time to call, as is a local citizens group, for the town to cease that effort.

UNC officials: There are lessons from Penn State scandal
The Chapel Hill Herald
...In response to a reporter’s question Friday, UNC President Tom Ross addressed the scandal head on, contending that the situation at Penn State could happen on any campus. “I think the lessons here are that if you know about illegal conduct, you have an obligation to report it to law enforcement,” said Ross, a former judge. “We have state laws that require that, and certainly our universities are aware of that and would follow the law and make those reports.”