uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

10 Colleges Will Provide Cost and Financial-Aid Information to Incoming Students
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Ten colleges, universities, and systems have committed to presenting certain cost and financial-aid information to incoming students as part of their aid awards starting in 2013, the White House announced on Tuesday. ... Tuesday's meeting was valuable because "we had the opportunity to explain the nuances of all of this to the administration," said Holden Thorp, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Providing students with good information on college affordability is a challenge, Mr. Thorp said, and some higher-education leaders worry that if the data are presented in a standard format that is too simplified, it will actually add to students' confusion.
White House Release: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/05/vice-president-biden-secretary-duncan-cfpb-director-cordray-and-college-
Related Link: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-college-costs-obama-20120605,0,7217083.story

Colleges to Use 'Shopping Sheet'
Inside Higher Ed
Ten presidents and chancellors of colleges and state higher education systems announced Tuesday that they would begin providing students with clearer information on college costs and financial aid. ... The list of colleges committing to the new forms -- along with the four state systems, Arizona State, North Carolina A&T State, and Syracuse Universities, Miami-Dade and Vassar Colleges, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will participate -- includes some leaders of public colleges who met with President Obama in December, as the administration was beginning its push on tuition pricing.

White House, congressional GOP squabble over student loans
NBC
... Beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, 10 institutions, including the State University System of New York and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will consolidate information about the costs of one year of college, financial aid options, including grants and scholarships and estimated monthly payments for federal student loans the student would owe after graduation.

US universities pledge clarity on costs
Financial Times
Ten universities across the US have committed to greater transparency about how much tuition students will pay, including estimated loan repayments after graduation, as part of a White House initiative to help young people avoid racking up crippling levels of debt. ... Prospective students will receive a clear outline of costs before enrolling at the universities, which also include Syracuse and Arizona State universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vassar College.

How Much Disclosure?
Inside Higher Ed
When colleges sent financial aid award letters this year, telling students (or parents) how much they will actually have to pay to enroll, they were accompanied by a flurry of complaints: that the letters are too confusing, too difficult to compare, and can mislead students as to how affordable college really is. ... But the consumer bureau's effort is voluntary. While the early adopters include some big names -- the State University of New York system and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill among them -- it's hard to tell how many colleges will follow.

How Would You Like A Graduate Degree For $100?
Forbes
...There’s a startup boom in online higher education, but nearly all of the players hope to advance by working within the system. EdX is a joint venture of Harvard and MIT. Coursera has backing from Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. 2Tor, which has raised $90 million in venture capital, runs online graduate programs in business and nursing for the likes of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgetown.

Public universities pushing ‘super-seniors’ to the graduation stage
The Washington Post
Some of the nation’s top public universities are prodding dallying students toward the graduation stage, trying to change a campus culture that assumes four-year completion is the exception rather than the rule. It’s a move supported not just by parents whose wallets are depleted by tuition bills. University leaders are pushing for on-time completion amid criticism over wasted tax dollars, spiraling tuition and America’s plummeting global rank in college attainment. (UNC is included in a chart that is part of this report.)

State and Local Coverage

N.C. Children’s Hospital named one of nation’s best
The Chapel Hill Herald
For the fifth year in a row, N.C. Children’s Hospital at UNC Hospitals has been recognized by U.S. News Media Group as one of the nation’s best. N.C. Children’s Hospital ranks in 10 out of 10 clinical categories in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” list, including a top 10 ranking in pediatric pulmonology.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5362/71/

UNC testing ways to make breast cancer treatment more efficient
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Breast cancer patients who develop a resistance to cancer-fighting drugs could be helped by a new technique being pioneered by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers.

National survey grades Triangle hospitals on patient safety
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Just as diners compare restaurants by their sanitation scores, patients can now compare hospitals’ safety by letter grades compiled by a group of national medical experts. ... Triangle hospitals received a range of scores, from A for UNC Hospitals and Rex Hospital to B for Duke University Hospital and C for WakeMed Raleigh Campus and Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital in Dunn.

A World Without Aids?
WUNC-FM
When the AIDS epidemic hit in the 1980s, it was a scourge unlike any other, one that weakened the body’s defenses and left victims to die an agonizingly slow death. ... Host Frank Stasio gets an update on the latest HIV research breakthroughs and considers how a world without AIDS would affect politics, healthcare and the economy with Daniel Halperin, an epidemiologist and medical anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of the new book “Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic, and How the World Can Overcome It" (Penguin/2012); Dr. Myron Cohen, an HIV/AIDS researcher from UNC with many titles including Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health and Public Health Director at the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases...

Mayor Bloomberg has right idea (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Our struggle against obesity is going to take courage. New York City and its mayor are showing us how. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed a ban on the sale of soft drinks in restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and similar venues in portions larger than 16 ounces.
(Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical associate professor in the department of health policy and administration in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

Transit of Venus
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Jennifer Selvidge and her son Shafe Selvidge (age 13) of Chapel Hill, N.C. view the Transit of Venus with special glasses from the roof of the Morehead Planetarium on Tuesday June 5, 2012 in Chapel Hill, N.C. Thousands turned out for the opportunity to view the historic event. Telescopes were set up by volunteers giving visitors a chance to see Venus passing over the sun.

It wasn't Choo-Choo (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sportswriter Frank Deford recently wrote of the trouble he had with a fictional character being a little too true to life -- or at least that's what UNC fans thought. In the early 1980s, he published the novel Everybody's All-American, about a washed-up former college football star. Deford explained that the character was drawn from many athletes in many sports, but because the story was set in Chapel Hill, readers insisted he must have based his character on UNC's All-American Charlie Choo-Choo Justice.

Issues and Trends

Chapel Hill to open new business incubator downtown
The Chapel Hill News
Entrepreneurs will soon have a new space to grow companies in downtown Chapel Hill. ... The town will partner with 3 Birds Marketing, Orange County and UNC-Chapel Hill to develop the space for new small businesses, particularly those started by recent graduates of the university.

Roses and Raspberries
The Chapel Hill News
Roses to William Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system, who was released recently after being hospitalized for more than a week, during which he spent several days in critical condition. Friday, 91, received a pacemaker and reportedly was feeling better.