Oct. 22, 2007
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
In Life, Politics, Edwards Relights Fire
The Associated Press (International)
Sheer will has taken John Edwards far, but only so far. His is the storybook life, still waiting for the storybook ending…The family moved back to Raleigh, where Edwards founded the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina.
National Coverage
The Power 50
Fortune Magazine
Ten editions of the Most Powerful Women list prove it: Women have come a long way (don't say "baby") – and they're not slowing down. "Men don't want women getting to the top. Period," Leona Helmsley told Playboy 17 years ago. Whether the late hotel queen was wrong or not, the history of Fortune's Most Powerful Women list shows that women are getting there anyway.
Note: Carolina alumnae Sallie Krawcheck, Ann Livermore, Amy Brinkley and Claire Babrowski have been recognized by Fortune Magazine as four of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.
For more about the UNC connections, see this special Morehead-Cain Foundation feature: http://www.themorehead.com/servlets/RouterServlet?
handler=News&start=0&act=publicview&id=360
Funds for All, and All for Funds (Letter to the Editor)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Your article states that "contributions to sports programs are eating up an ever-larger share of donations to colleges, Chronicle research suggests." In the case of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at least, more-rigorous research would have drawn an entirely different conclusion. (James Moeser is Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Note: Subscription required. For a copy, email News Services at news@unc.edu
Related Link: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i09/09a03801.htm
We Are All Larry David
The New Yorker
In 2004, David Roberts, a second-year clinical-psychology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had a summer job teaching social skills to a group of schizophrenic patients at a state hospital.
Why Schizophrenics Love Larry David
The Wall Street Journal
Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” strikes such a chord with schizophrenics that psychologists are trying to use the show’s style to help patients cope with social interactions, says Jacob Ward in the New Yorker. David Roberts, a clinical-psychology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noticed that normally uncommunicative patients would laugh at shows on television.
Hoping Someone Else Fixes Everyone's Problem
The Washington Post
Let's say there are 10 houses on your street and a giant pothole develops right in the middle of the block. Everyone benefits if the pothole gets fixed, but that might require multiple calls to municipal authorities and a lot of hassle…"Everyone agreeing on something is not sufficient to cause action — that's the free rider problem," said Stephen Gent, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Doctors appeal ruling on executions
The Los Angeles Times
North Carolina doctors reasserted their opposition to participating in the executions of condemned criminals this week, appealing a judge's ruling that the state medical board cannot prohibit doctors from taking part in lethal injections…Charles van der Horst, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina Medical School, and Arthur Finn, a retired doctor, were concerned that doctors would be asked to play a larger role in lethal injections.
Down to Earth
The Smithsonian Magazine
Starting around 1200 B.C., in southern Mexico, the Olmec created what most scholars agree was the first New World civilization, building large cities with monumental architecture, carving reliefs of animal gods, and trading raw materials and finished goods across hundreds of miles…Between 1999 and 2002, while she was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she examined plant and bone remains that Arnold and another archaeologist uncovered from two small sites in the volcanic Tuxtla region that was on the outskirts of Olmec territory but north of the city centers.
New & Improved Private Label Brands
Ad Week
This past spring, Safeway, in a search for what it called "pure talent," ran the O Organics Photo Contest for children. The two winners, announced in August, became the faces of the O Organics food line for babies and toddlers, an extension of a health foods initiative that began in 2006…"Look at how the whole perception of coffee has changed with Starbucks," says Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, the C. Knox Massey professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina who is co-author of Private Label Strategy: How to Meet the Store Brand Challenge.
Regional Coverage
Local recalls work with Nobel winner
The Santa Maria Times (Santa Maria, Calif.)
This year's Nobel Prize in medicine was shared by scientists in Utah, North Carolina and Wales – but one Righetti High School graduate feels a special connection to the prize and the work that led to it. One of the three winners was Oliver Smithies of the University of North Carolina, and 1982 RHS graduate Linda Hammond has fond memories of working in the lab at UNC with him and his wife, Nobuyo Maeda.
Marketing: It’s the salesperson-customer tie that spells success
Central Valley Business Times (Stockton, Calif.)
It’s a customer’s loyalty toward the salesperson – rather than the products and services tied closely to the seller – that can inspire greater sales, according to a new marketing study by the University of Missouri-Columbia…The study was conducted by Robert Palmatier, assistant professor of marketing in the Michael Foster School of Business at the University of Washington; Lisa Scheer, associate professor of marketing in the MU College of Business; and Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp, marketing area chair of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
State & Local Coverage
Priorities set for cancer research
The Chapel Hill Herald
The governance committee of the University Cancer Research Fund has established first-year spending priorities for the state's initial $25 million investment at UNC. The fund was created this year by the state's General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mike Easley in July. The goal is to accelerate cancer research at UNC's School of Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and N.C. Cancer Hospital, now under construction. The fund will increase to $50 million per year beginning in 2009.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/cancerresearchfund1007.html
UNC to take a day to celebrate sustainability (Opinion-editorial column)
The Chapel Hill News
In our busy, goal-oriented lives, it's important to take time out to celebrate our accomplishments. So please consider this an open invitation to attend Campus Sustainability Day at UNC on Friday.
UNC wins grants to study local elementary schools
The Triangle Business Journal
A pair of grants totaling $375,000 are aimed at helping University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers address the performance gap at local elementary schools.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/strowdroses1019.html
Related Link: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/224753.html
A proud profession (Letter to the Editor)
News & Observer (Raleigh)
As a co-author of "Direct Social Work Practice," I am compelled to respond to George Will's critique of my profession and my book in his Oct. 14 column "The tenets of social work ed." (Kim Strom-Gottfried, Ph.D., Smith P. Theimann Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Professional Practice, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work)
A society's support (Letter to the Editor)
News & Observer (Raleigh)
George Will's Oct. 14 column concerning social work education was outrageous and misrepresents a profession that has been aimed at alleviating social problems for over 100 years. Social workers confront issues and individuals whom many in society would like to forget. Graduates of the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill work with soldiers returning from Iraq. (Mimi Chapman, Ph.D.)
Pride and inspiration (Letter to the Editor)
News & Observer (Raleigh)
In light of recent discussions in the People's Forum about which headlines and stories are appropriate for children's eyes, we sure hope our community's younger readers caught the Oct. 9 front page: UNC scientist wins Nobel. (Suzanne Wilkison, Deputy to the president for Programs and Communications, N.C. Association for Biomedical Research)
Parole setting free long-term inmates
The Asheville Citizen-Times
The sweetness of Betty Norton Young’s mountain accent does little to reveal the tragedy she has endured for 30 years. It was June 12, 1977, when Young lost her husband and the father of their 12-year-old son. Tommy Norton was shot to death in a robbery by Phillip Eugene Turpin, an 18-year-old soldier listed by the military as AWOL…Sixteen other states had already set caps on their inmate populations, and the federal government threatened to intervene in North Carolina, said James Markham, an associate professor with the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill.
Take a 'Lesson' in drama
News & Observer (Raleigh)
South African playwright Athol Fugard sows his dramas in a field of epic conflicts, most commonly government oppression and racism…Veteran director Joan Darling, an adjunct professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, works gracefully with the play's changing rhythms and dynamics, which can accelerate from quiet affection to booming rage in a heartbeat.
Rosemary Roberts: Colleges scoring big-time sports money
The News-Record (Greensboro)
The story made a splash in most of the North Carolina media, but the athletics department at Carolina, as we alums fondly call our alma mater, probably wishes it had not been printed…We Carolina alums take pride in our alma mater's sterling academic reputation and wince at the thought of being perceived as a "jock school."
WISE WORDS ON RECENT CORRUPTION IN N.C.
The Charlotte Observer
Joel Fleishman, professor of law and public policy at Duke University, is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to N.C. history, politics, public policy and ethics. He spoke the other day in Chapel Hill about ethical problems that have plagued public life in North Carolina and nationally. Here are some nuggets excerpted from a draft of his remarks, soon to be published by the Program on Public Life at UNC Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.
10 Plus with Mark Sills
The News-Record (Greensboro)
FaithAction International House grew out of a vision Mark Sills received while sitting in a church on a hill in Costa Rica where he had gone to learn Spanish when he was 50 years old…Recent studies by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discovered that the Latino immigrant in North Carolina generated far more benefits to the state than costs to the state.
Cyclists reach deal on Carolina North bike paths
1360 WCHL
Future bike trails at Carolina North will be in large part the responsibility of the Triangle Off Road Cyclists. The biking group’s president Stewart Bryan says the new agreement is promising, even if the job of making UNC bike-friendly isn’t done.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/torcmou1018.html
Two Tar Heel players suspended
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sophomore cornerback Jermaine Strong and sophomore offensive lineman Andre Barbour have been suspended indefinitely from the North Carolina football team for violating team and university policies, head coach Butch Davis announced in a news release this morning.
Issues & Trends
NCSU making a move in funding
The Triangle Business Journal
While Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are mourning stingy budget growth at the National Institutes of Health, North Carolina State University is licking its chops at proposals to boost funding for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy…UNC-CH increased its spending by 2.8 percent, from $320 million in 2005 to $329 million in 2006.
Making all the right moves (Editorial)
News & Observer (Raleigh)
And an appreciable amount of rain is what we desperately need. Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s water sources — Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake — are hovering around 50 percent of full.
OWASA: Report water misuses
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Orange Water and Sewer Authority has received dozens of calls in recent weeks, mostly those concerned that neighbors or businesses aren't complying with water restrictions, said Greg Feller, spokesperson for OWASA…Johnny Cake, director of golf at UNC, said staff at UNC Finley Golf Course is "taking all kinds of precautions."