uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Impact factor: researchers should define the metrics that matter to them
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
One of the challenges faced by research funders – both public and private – is how to maximise the amount of work being done on important problems, without institutionalising any particular dogma which may suppress novel ideas. ...Jason Priem, a library and information science researcher at the University of North Carolina, and his colleague Heather Piwowar from the University of British Columbia, are the creators of Total-Impact, which aggregates information from all over the web about how research is being used - beyond simple citations.

The Debt-Free College Degree
Bloomberg Businessweek
...Klaiklung applied to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Davidson College and got into both. Chapel Hill is often ranked as the best value in public education. In-state tuition for her freshman year, 2009-10, would be just $5,600 compared with $35,000 at Davidson.

National Coverage

Schools Tout Free Courses to Lure Alumni Back
The Wall Street Journal
..."It's not reasonable to think that everything you need to know about management and leadership is compressed into a two-year period," says Susan Cates, executive director of MBA@UNC, the online degree from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. That school is offering alumni discounted online courses beginning this fall.

FTC cracks down on anti-concussion claims
The Chicago Tribune
..."The theory is that a properly placed mouthguard would provide separation and cushioning" by opening up the joint, said Jason Mihalik, co-director of the Matthew A. Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at the University of North Carolina. "There could be a greater amount of space where the force can be dissipated, less bone-on-bone contact, less force transmitted to the brain and decreased risk of injury."

Regional Coverage

UC Berkeley sends most graduates to Teach for America
The San Francisco Business Times (California)
The University of California, Berkeley, sent 88 graduates to Teach for America this fall, more than any other university. ...The University of Florida, with 78 grads going to Teach for America, ranked No. 2 on both lists, with UCLA and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill next with 75 each.

State and Local Coverage

Recession Deep, Recovery Slow In North Carolina
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
The economic downturn hit North Carolina harder than much of the country, and it will take the state longer to recover. That's the conclusion of a new report from UNC's Global Research Institute. Senior Fellow Daniel Gitterman is an author of the report. He says a survey of data over the last 5 years shows job losses cut across demographic groups and industries. He says the state will need to be flexible in order to increase employment.

Democrats talking about military, veteran issues at their convention
The Fayetteville Observer
...Ferrel Guillory, a journalism professor who directs the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, said Romney's failure to mention Afghanistan during his convention speech was unusual because the GOP has traditionally positioned itself as the more hawkish party that favors a robust national defense. "For years, Democrats suffered from their posture as the party that turned against the war in Vietnam," Guillory said in an email Wednesday. "In terms of both human compassion and politics, the Obama family focus on veterans and spouses appears an effort to avoid the reputation attached to Democrats after Vietnam."

NCSU to lead federally-funded nanotechnology research
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...UNC-Chapel Hill will help with medical expertise on things such as the kinds of data to monitor, and provide space in a state-of-the-art testing facility where it will be easy to study asthma sufferers, a big early thrust of the technology, as will people whose heart rate needs monitoring.

NCSU, UNC grow revenue generated from research
The Triangle Business Journal
The Triangle’s two public research universities both recorded gains in licensing revenue last year. N.C. State University generated $6.4 million during the 2011-12 fiscal year, and UNC-Chapel Hill took in $2.5 million. For UNC-CH, the figure is a tidy 67 percent bump from the previous year, when the university recorded a decline in licensing revenue from the year earlier.

Study: Alcohol increases anxiety in mice
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Heavy drinking can affect your judgment, your family, your work life and your health. According to a new study from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and UNC’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, chronic alcohol consumption also rewires the brain.

Town seeks feedback at Carolina North public information meeting
The Chapel Hill Herald
A public information meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Monday to receive comments and feedback on the UNC-Chapel Hill Carolina North Annual Report to the Town of Chapel Hill. The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Health-care leader Donna E. Shalala to speak at UNC
The News of Orange County
Donna E. Shalala, Ph.D., president of the University of Miami, will speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Sept. 11, about how nurses can help meet the increasing need for more health-care providers.

New lawyers finding friendlier job market
The Triangle Business Journal
...Meanwhile, firms and graduates are waiting to learn exactly who passed the bar exam in July. Representatives of the Triangle’s four law schools – Campbell University, Duke University, North Carolina Central University and UNC-Chapel Hill – say that 340 of their graduates passed the exam and that 71 failed, but those numbers could be revised as the N.C. Board of Law Examiners continues to unseal results that are now in question because of a power outage on one day of the exam.

Greed in the saddle (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Writing as a 1976 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, it seems the recent scandal entwining the administration, academe and the UNC football program has not aroused as much anger or shame among the alumni as it should. (Robert Hoskins, Crowheart, Wyo.)
Related Links:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/06/2322586/chris-hains-ncaa-riddle.html
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120906/ARTICLES/120909804?p=2&tc=pg

Issues and Trends

Democratic convention courts youth vote with focus on student loans
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
...The University of North Carolina warned in April that students at the university, and at other schools across the state, would have to pay more for university healthcare. "Based on more than three semesters of actual claims experience, as well as the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act, we are facing large increases in premiums for our students," the university's president, Tom Ross, wrote.

Changes in works for students as college debts mount up
The Triangle Business Journal
As North Carolina’s college students finish their first weeks back in school, they may also be acutely aware that they are deeper in debt that ever. The pool of student loan debt has deepened substantially from an estimated $1.34 billion during the 2010-11 school year.

Two ex-N.C. Central officials indicted
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Two former N.C. Central University administrators have been indicted on charges of embezzling grant money that was diverted into what state auditors called a secret bank account. Nan Coleman, who was executive director of the former Historically Minority Colleges and University Consortium at NCCU, was indicted this week by a Durham County grand jury on five counts of embezzlement. The indictments said she took $137,330 between 2005 and 2010.