uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Underage Drinkers Buy Alcohol Online With Few Barriers
Bloomberg News
Underage drinkers successfully bought alcohol online in about half their attempts, according to a study that found the illegal purchases went through even when little attempt was made to disguise the buyer’s true age. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recruited eight young adults, ages 18 to 20, to buy wine, alcohol, beer or other adult beverages from 100 popular websites in the $2.4 billion industry.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5294/71/

Mothers cling to chubby ideal for toddlers: study
Reuters (Wire Service)
..."That suggests we may have a lot of parents who are trying to fatten up their babies," said Dr. Eliana Perrin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who wrote a commentary on the research in the same journal. Doctors say the obesity epidemic may be eroding a general impression among the public of what healthy looks like in a toddler, and that suggests pediatricians need to be much more candid with parents about their child's weight.
Related Link:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4303428/
Mums-blind-to-toddler-weight-probs.html

MBAs Learning Leadership the Hard Way
Bloomberg Businessweek
...The number of MBA programs NOLS has worked with has tripled since 2007, and the school is in talks with Harvard Business School, University of North-Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Johnson School at Cornell University, and the Indian Institute of Management, about trips for the 2012-13 and the 2013-14 school year, NOLS says.

National Coverage

Buying alcohol online? It's not hard for underage drinkers
The Los Angeles Times
Underage drinkers who participated in a study to see if they could buy alcoholic beverages online were successful in 45% of attempts. The study, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recruited eight people, ages 18 to 20, to try to purchase wine, beer and other beverages online, according to Bloomberg News.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5294/71/

Online Wine Merchants Fail to Check IDs (Blog)
ABC News
Many Internet alcohol vendors are lax at verifying that customers are of legal age, making it easy for teens to buy alcohol, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked eight volunteers between the ages of 18 and 20 to attempt to purchase alcohol from 100 of the most popular vendors using prepaid gift cards.

U.S. obesity rate is still gaining
NBC News Channel
...New research found many mothers of overweight toddlers misjudged their child's body size, often assuming the kids were actually at a healthy weight. And 20 percent of mothers of healthy, average-sized children wanted their kids to put on a few more pounds. This is a good time for pediatricians to step in with a growth chart -- and assure parents of healthy children they're on the right track. "When we as pediatricians don't provide that reassurance they may actually be trying to fatten their children up," said Eliana Perrin of University of North Carolina.
Note: This interview was recorded in the Carolina News Studio.

Most Moms Wrong About Babies' Body Size
The Huffington Post
...In an editorial accompanying the new Archives study, Dr. Eliana Perrin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, argued that the findings matter deeply, because having an accurate sense of a child's weight influences parents' readiness to make weight-related behavioral challenges. In other words, misperceptions can be a barrier to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

New clue to mystery of lost Roanoke colony
Fox News
...Now experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London have taken a fresh look at White's 425-year-old map (the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina has been owned by the British Museum since 1866) and uncovered a tantalizing clue about the fate of "the Lost Colony," the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century. ...The American and British scholars believe the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went. They discussed their findings Thursday, May 3, at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Marriage Amendment Opposition Called One of NC's Largest Grassroots Efforts
Public News Service
...Daniel Kreiss is an assistant professor in journalism and mass communications at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has been studying the campaign against the amendment since February and says opposition leaders have successfully used social media as one of the tools in their efforts, raising almost one-third of their funding from online donations.

Regional Coverage

Minors see online alcohol ads, buy alcohol (Blog)
The Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
Alcohol is far too attractive and easy to obtain online for kids, says Dr. David Jernigan, director of Johns Hopkins’ Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. Jernigan wrote a commentary for the Archive of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine to accompany a new report from researchers at the University of North Carolina that documents how easy it is for underage drinkers to make purchases on the Internet.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5294/71/

Did Jesus exist?
Minnesota Public Radio
In "Did Jesus Exist?" Bart D. Ehrman looks at the atheists, humanists, and conspiracy theorists who are asking about the existence of Jesus. Ehrman's book delves into the existence of Jesus: Was he an invented character? Was he too far removed from the man we've come to know in the Bible? (Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

State and Local Coverage

Much at stake today (Editorial)
The Salisbury Post
Today is one of those important points in our democracy. The little man could just as well be a little woman, and today’s voters are more likely to use ink than pencil. But all the campaigning boils down to this: What will that person in the voting booth decide? ...But here’s another option — the nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline manned by law students and faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and community volunteers.
Related Links:
http://www.jdnews.com/news/carolina-103636-north-questions.html
http://wunc.org/programs/news/archive/SGS050812.mp3/view
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5299/70/

Campaigns work on last full day before primary
The Rocky Mount Telegram
...The Legislature split more towns and cities and hundreds of precincts between districts. Hall, whose group is among those challenging the districts in court, urged voters to check online the districts in which they now live so they can make informed decisions at the polls. Lawyers and University of North Carolina law students were planning to field toll-free calls Tuesday from voters who are confused or have questions.

Appeals court says Pitt schools must do more
The Associated Press
A federal appeals court says Pitt County Schools need to do more to counter remnants of segregation. The Daily Reflector of Greenville reported that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., on Monday overturned a lower court decision on school attendance zones....Mark Dorosin with the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says the ruling is a victory for those concerned about the education of black children.

UNC-Chapel Hill students seek peace through soccer
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
...(Sasha) Seymore, (Dylan) Simel and (Ahmad) Saad, who range in age from 18 to 20 and just finished their freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill, met on the soccer field playing the most popular sport in the world. ...The three charities the guys are raising money for are Soccer for Peace, the Maccabim Association and the Peres Center for Peace, which are devoted to uniting children of war-torn nations through the game of soccer.

UNC needs to worry less about TDs and more about GPAs (Editorial)
The Star News (Wilmington)
All North Carolinians should feel shame and utter disappointment in our state's flagship university after a faculty investigation confirmed academic dishonesty in one department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Findings regarding professor-less classes and unauthorized grade changes in the Afro-American Studies Department, among other revelations, are an outgrowth of the equally embarrassing, two-year-old scandal involving inappropriate assistance to some members of the football team.

Too easy (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
This is a disgraceful moment for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the man at the center of it should have been dismissed with cause, not allowed simply to resign. And Chancellor Holden Thorp, who several years ago was the man’s supervisor and once called him a “great colleague,” needs to issue a stronger statement of explanation and apology than has thus far been forthcoming.

UNC players made up 39 percent of suspect classes
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Football and basketball players accounted for nearly four of every 10 students enrolled in 54 classes at the heart of an academic fraud investigation at UNC-Chapel Hill, according to figures released Monday. The classes were all within UNC’s Department of African and Afro-American studies. An internal probe released Friday produced evidence of unauthorized grade changes and little or no instruction by professors.

Problems limited in UNC department (Letter to the Editor)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The recently issued “Review of Courses in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies” at UNC-Chapel Hill is sobering and disappointing for all of us who believe deeply in African and Afro-American studies and are committed to upholding the ideals and the integrity of the University of North Carolina. The findings of the report have been a heavy blow to us. We are particularly mindful of our majors who have worked hard, with integrity, and are in no way implicated in this report that deals primarily with a subset of summer school courses taken mostly by non-majors. (Reginald F. Hildebrand, UNC associated professor of African and Afro-American Studies, Recipient of Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching 2012)

Issues and Trends

Higher education leaders urge Michigan to avoid funding cuts
The Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
If you took a poll of North Carolina residents, higher education would likely be way down on the list of things the state government should cut, University of North Carolina President Thomas Ross said Monday during a summit on higher education in Michigan. That attitude hasn't been reflected in Michigan over the last decade, several speakers told the crowd at the event, hosted by Business Leaders for Michigan.

Legal Education and the Web
Inside Higher Ed
The small, synchronous online classes have become a hallmark of 2tor, whose business model is based on running highly specific, production-intensive online programs for a small stable of high-profile clients. (The company’s three other partners are Georgetown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Southern California, each of which has devoted office space, decorated with the university’s colors, in the company’s Maryland home.)