uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Kenyan study shows that cash-transfer payments reduce sexual risk
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Cash-transfer programmes not only improve nutrition, education and health benefits for orphans and vulnerable children, but new research now suggests that these programmes can also significantly reduce risky sexual behaviour and HIV infection. ..."Our study is based on the government of Kenya's Cash Transfer for OVC [orphans and vulnerable children]," Handa Sudhanshu, a lecturer at the University of North Carolina and one of the study's researchers, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Overweight tweens eat fewer calories than normal-weight kids: study
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
...The CBC reports that overeating at younger ages may set the pattern for later years: "One explanation for this would be that increased caloric intake in early childhood is related to obesity's onset, but other mechanisms, such as differences in energy expenditure, may be more responsible for maintaining weight through adolescence," Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina and her colleagues, wrote in Monday's issue of the journal Pediatrics.
UNC Release:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2012/september/older-overweight-children
-consume-fewer-calories-than-their-healthy-weight-peers

National Coverage

UNC ranks 5th among national public universities for 12th year in a row
U.S. News & World Report
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranks fifth among the nation’s best public universities for the 12th consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report. The rankings appear in the 2013 “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook and at www.usnews.com starting on Wednesday (Sept. 12).
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5551/1/

Dems get boost as both parties seek to leverage conventions
CNN
..."There are many layers of the performance going on," said Daniel Kreiss, an assistant professor of political communications at the University of North Carolina, noting images, speeches and biographies. "The political performance and political theater is a good thing for democracy. It's one of the few ways the parties get a chance to make their unmitigated case for that hour," Kreiss said.

What to Do With a Workplace Whiner
The Wall Street Journal
...Of course, "there has to be some healthy conflict," says Mr. Gordon, the author and consultant. When work teams get together, the ratio of positive interactions, such as support and encouragement, to negative interactions, such as disapproval and criticism, should be about 3-to-1 or higher in order to ensure top performance, based on research by Barbara Fredrickson, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and others.

Faith Hedgepeth, UNC student, found dead in her apartment
CBS News
Families and friends are mourning over the death of 19-year-old Faith Hedgepeth, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was found dead in her apartment last week. Police said they are investigating the case as a homicide.
Related Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/11/us/north-carolina-student-killed/index.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/university-north-carolina-grieves
-student-faith-hedgepeth-found-murdered-apartment-article-1.1156608

State and Local Coverage

N.C. has many colleges on U.S. News' annual ranking
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina universities were well represented in the latest round of college rankings by U.S. News & World Report, out Wednesday. ...UNC-CH has rated fifth among public campuses for a dozen consecutive years. The top four publics were University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, University of Virginia and University of Michigan. ...The magazine also ranked some particular academic programs. Among undergraduate business programs, UNC-CH’s Kenan-Flagler Business School was seventh.
Related Links:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/morning_call/2012/09/duke-places-8th-in-us-news-rankings.html
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/sep/12/wsmain01-nc-schools
-dip-in-rankings-ar-2599196/
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5551/1/

UNC mourns death of a student (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A campus community, and indeed the surrounding communities, have had to come together all too often in times of tragedy. The death of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Faith Danielle Hedgepeth is such a tragedy. She was found in her apartment on Old Chapel Hill Road.

Visitation held for slain UNC student
WTVD-TV (ABC/Raleigh)
Hundreds of family and friends gathered Tuesday evening to say their final goodbyes to Faith Hedgepeth. A visitation was held at Mount Bethel Baptist Church on Richardson Road in Warrenton. Her funeral will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the same location. Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old UNC sophomore, was found dead in her off-campus apartment last Friday.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/12/2334395/greg-richardson-her-bright-potential
.html#storylink=misearch

911 call, search warrants sealed in UNC student's death
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Police say a judge has ordered 911 recordings sealed in the death of UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth. Officers are treating Hedgepeth’s death as a homicide and have said the crime was not random.
Related Link:
http://chapelboro.com/pages/14212586.php?

Rural clinics help fill in coverage gaps
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
...Seeing her this day is Dr. Mimi Miles, a UNC resident physician. UNC Family Medicine is expanding their residency program by bring more physicians here for their training. Dr. Miles was eager to take advantage of it. ...The Cecil Sheps Center for Health Services Research shows that in 2005, of the 408 graduates of the state’s medical schools, only 2 percent were serving in rural communities five years after graduation. "We'll be able to provide probably over 2,000 more patient visits a year for having residents here," said Dr. Evan Ashkin of UNC Family Medicine.

UNC Health To Introduce Teaching Health Center With Piedmont Health
WCHL-FM (Chapel Hill)
On Wednesday, Piedmont Health and UNC Family Medicine are teaming up to showcase the first teaching health center in the state. UNC Family Medicine Communications and Development Coordinator Donna Parker says the two organizations are jointly collaborating on a new residency program—and this event will be a way to unveil it to the public.

UNC’s Stone Center honors true original
The Chapel Hill News
Nina Simone was one of the indelible performers in American music and an influential voice of the civil rights movement – and yet it’s probably safe to say that a lot of people don’t know her name. “Nina Simone is probably one of the most important artistic figures that has not received due respect or credit for their contribution to American music,” said Joseph Jordan, director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center at UNC. “There was and is no one else like her.”

UNC panel to address affirmative action case
The Chapel Hill Herald
Monday, Constitution Day, will be marked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a free public panel discussion on affirmative action. ...This year’s panel discussion will focus on the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Oct. 10 on whether the university’s race-conscious admissions practices violate the Constitution.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5543/70/

UNC: Taxpayers won't pay for academic consultants
The Associated Press
Consultants called in after discoveries of academic fraud at North Carolina's flagship public university say they're giving the school a 20 percent discount on hourly fees. Documents released by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday show Washington-area consulting firm Baker Tilley will bill a discounted hourly rate of up to $440 an hour.

Lawyers: UNC player not complicit in academic fraud
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
The latest twist in the case of a former football player seeking damages from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill again points the finger at irregularities in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Michael McAdoo filed suit against the university in July 2011 after he was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the 2010 season.

UNC's Kupec worked to establish job eventually given to Tami Hansbrough
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A fundraising position at UNC-Chapel Hill filled by Tami Hansbrough was the result of direct efforts by Matt Kupec, the university’s chief fundraiser who was also in a relationship with her, a top university administrator acknowledged in an interview Tuesday.

Thorp: UNC strengthening policies in wake of latest black eye
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Chancellor Holden Thorp said Tuesday that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is working to upgrade its internal processes so that issues such as one that led to an administrator's resignation don't crop up again. Vice Chancellor for Advancement Matt Kupec stepped down Monday amid an internal investigation into his travel expenses.

Brainy Bloomington
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC has fiberglass cows all over town as part of an effort to raise money for the N.C. Children’s Hospital. In Bloomington, they’ve got large fiberglass brains – 22 of them set up around town and the Indiana University campus as part of a community art event created by Jill Bolte Taylor to educate people about the brain.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/20115038/article-Bloomington-
makes-good-first-impression-?instance=search_results

Organic still the best (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
There’s no nutritional advantage to eating organic produce instead of conventional, and that’s OK. It’s still better for you to buy organic. Media reports last week called attention to new research demonstrating nutritional similarities between organic and conventional foods. In truth, that hardly qualified as news at all. (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.)

Issues and Trends

In Selecting Peers for Comparison's Sake, Colleges Look Upward
The Chronicle of Higher Education
When colleges look to compare themselves with others, they're not much different from high-school students chasing popularity: Everyone wants to be friends with the Ivy League, but the Ivy League is really picky about whom it hangs out with.

Presidential Participation Edges Up in 'U.S. News' Rankings
Inside Higher Ed
The annual college rankings of U.S. News & World Report are out today, with only one change in methodology. The two most recent years of guidance counselor surveys, rather than just one year of data, will be used to calculate the counselors' ratings. The participation of college presidents in the survey (by filling out reports on the reputations of other colleges) is up a bit this year, if still way behind the two-thirds participation levels of a decade ago.

Board of Governors begin work on strategic plan for UNC system
News 14 Carolina
The UNC Board of Governors started working on a long range plan for higher education in North Carolina. A committee's developing a new strategic plan for 2013 through 2018 that will change what students across the UNC system are learning and how resources are divided. On Tuesday, a small group began working on a plan to launch the state's public university system into the future.