uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Researchers Cite Progress Toward HIV Treatment, Cure
Voice of America
...2011 saw some important scientific advances. One study, for example, found early treatment of HIV-positive people with anti-retroviral drugs can greatly reduce transmission of the virus to an uninfected sexual partner. Infectious disease specialist Myron Cohen, from the University of North Carolina, designed the two-year trial: HIV Prevention Trials Network 052.

National Coverage

A Generational Rift (Blog)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
...College presidents have been getting older over the past two decades; the average age of those in the top job rose from 52 to 60 between 1986 and 2006, according to the most recent survey on the college presidency by the American Council on Education. ...Some argue that the average age of college presidents will naturally drop when the current crop retires and is replaced by a new generation. “It’s cyclical,” says Holden Thorp, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is 47.

How the Euro Crisis Could Destroy the U.S. Economy
The Atlantic
..."The precipitating event for the global financial crisis and the Great Recession was the bankruptcy of a single, relatively small broker-dealer, Lehman Brothers. The bankruptcy of a nation as large as Italy would be many times more severe," says Karl Smith, an economist at the University of North Carolina who cowrites the popular economics blog Modeled Behavior. "In theory, there is no limit to how bad it could get."

State and Local Coverage

Stadium upgrades could lure soccer tournaments back to Cary
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...The town can gauge the economic benefits by surveying visitors about their spending, said Coyte Cooper, an associate professor of sport administration at the University of North Carolina. But any influx of tourism dollars may slow as other cities build new stadiums and arenas, complicating forecasts, he said. "In 10 years, there's new facilities across the way," Cooper said. "How do you keep up with them?"

Duke outpaces others in tech transfer field
The Triangle Business Journal
...Spinoff companies from UNC-CH have been on the rise in recent years. In the middle of the past decade, the university would average about three spinoff companies per year. In recent years, that doubled, (Cathy) Innes says. In addition, the university established a boilerplate licensing agreement that a researcher may sign with the university, saving the time and cost of hiring legal representation to hash out terms.

Gram-O-Rama
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fall all over themselves to get into Marianne Gingher's stylistics class. Gingher, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, teaches her language class just once a year. It culminates in the annual performance of Gram-O-Rama, a collection of student-produced skits and songs spun out of grammar assignments. Gingher and students Ramey Mize, Andrew Waszkowski, Mark Abadi and Brandon Rafalson join host Frank Stasio. to some previews of this year’s performance of Gram-O-Rama, complete with guitar and kazoo.

Here's to a smokeless New Year (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As we approach the New Year and think about resolutions to improve our health, perhaps as a state we should resolve to address the major cause of cancer in North Carolina. Thirty years after the Surgeon's Report on Tobacco and Cancer, more North Carolinians (men and women, blacks and white, seniors and adults) still die of lung cancer than prostate, colon and breast cancer combined. (Adam O. Goldstein, M.D., is a professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill and director of the UNC Tobacco Intervention Programs. Anna McCullough is manager of N.C. Cancer Hospital's Nicotine Dependence Program.)

Exposing truth in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Ah, marriage. The love, the longevity, the fights. Drinks in hand, the cast of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” brings Edward Albee’s tale set in the fall of 1962 on a small New England college campus to the PlayMakers Repertory Company stage at the Paul Green Theatre on a large Southern campus, here at UNC Chapel Hill.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4918/66/

Issues and Trends

Some welcome steps toward reducing the cost of college (Editorial)
The Washington Post
The price of a college education keeps spiraling upward. Tuition is up 8.3 percent for in-state students at four-year public universities for the 2011-12 academic year, according to the College Board. Lest you think state budget cuts are solely to blame, tuition at four-year private colleges rose 4.5 percent at the same time. Both figures far outstrip the rate of inflation.

UNCG considers extended fee hikes
The News & Record (Greensboro)
UNCG students will see a 10 percent increase in tuition next year under a plan the university’s board of trustees will vote on today. But they could see additional increases as high as 10 percent annually for three years beyond that under a proposal the trustees are also considering.

UNCSA plans annual $750 tuition rise
The Winston-Salem Journal
Tuition for most students at UNC School of the Arts will go up $750 per year under a plan approved by the school's trustees Thursday. And by the fall of 2016, most students would be paying $3,000 more than they are now. The plan, which needs the approval of the UNC Board of Governors, is one of several measures designed to close a deficit in excess of $1 million per year brought on by severe cuts in state allocations.

State jobs cuts in N.C. are overstated
The Triangle Business Journal
...A new report from the Office of State Budget and Management finds 1,633 state employees were receiving a severance package due to a reduction in force, including 516 local-district education jobs. Furthermore, Together NC claims the UNC System was forced to end 3,000 jobs, yet the budget office report shows only 243 receiving severance.

From Eve (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Eve Carson, the much-admired president of the student body at UNC-Chapel Hill, has a scholarship and other tangible memories in her honor at her alma mater, established after her gruesome murder in 2008. But her legacy may prove even more profound: A seriously flawed probation system (Carson's accused killers were both on probation and had not been watched closely) is now much improved. Lives will undoubtedly be saved as a result.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/16624007/article-Nine-
jurors-selected-in-Lovette-trial-?instance=main_article