Jan. 7, 2008
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Top 100 Public Colleges
Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Our rankings for the best public colleges deliver a first-rate education without breaking the bank. …The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a premier research institution with a mission to meet the full financial need of its students, gets top honors for in-state students for the seventh time in a row.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan08/kiplinger010708.html
Business tries to cash in on brainwaves
CNN.com
Ever driven down a highway while struggling to stay awake? You're not alone …"There is definitely potential to measure hazardous states of awareness with brainwave monitors," says Olafur S. Palsson, an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Legal Educators Rethink How Lawyers Are Trained
The Chronicle of Higher Education
…We're trying to bridge that isolation," says Judith Welch Wegner, a former president of the Association of American Law Schools and one of the authors of a 2007 report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that recommended sweeping changes in legal education. Ms. Wegner, who is also a professor and former dean of the University of North Carolina School of Law, says she had been asked to speak at several law schools since the report was published.
And Out of the Corner of My Eye… (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The New York Times
I have preached to my 17-year-old son that a person’s true character is revealed by his actions when he thinks there’s no chance of being rewarded for them or little danger of getting caught …Students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, must sign a pledge on all graded academic work signifying they have received no “unauthorized” help. (Patricia R. Olsen is a freelance writer in New Jersey.)
Regional Coverage
3-D maps can help surgeons navigate
The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.)
MapQuest gives drivers a custom-made way to avoid getting lost on highways, and now surgeons at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are using a similar idea to avoid getting lost in patients' lungs. Dr. Rick Feins, head of general thoracic surgery at UNC Hospitals, said the technology, which uses electromagnetic seeds to make landmarks in lungs, will help surgeons perform more accurate biopsies for patients facing cancer — the No. 1 cancer killer, taking 160,000 lives a year.
Time for Maine to reconsider cell phone ban (Editorial)
The Sun-Journal (Lewiston, Maine)
Perhaps you have had this unnerving experience. You're humming along the Maine Turnpike or some other highway, obeying the speed limit or something resembling it, and you suddenly run up on the rear end of a car going 15 or 20 mph slower than other traffic. …A study at the University of North Carolina found cell phone users are twice as likely to rear-end another car as nonusers.
State & Local Coverage
Can an Executive MBA Program Teach Leadership?
WRAL/CBS (Raleigh)
Before starting an executive MBA program, I thought an MBA was just a piece of paper. What could I learn that I wasn’t already getting? My school experience was humbling – I was stretched further than I ever imagined. (UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School will be contributing opinion articles to WRAL Local Tech Wire in 2008. This article was written by Dennis Docherty, a 2005 graduate of UNCs Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA for Executives Weekend Program.)
UNC's Philip Meyer Retiring At J-School
The Raleigh Chronicle
UNC Knight Chair in Journalism Professor Philip Meyer is retiring in the spring after more than two decades of working for the university and 50 years of helping chart the future of newspapers.
Jan. 1 is about a commitment to freedom (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill News
This Emancipation Day Service is part of a great historical tradition. In many communities in the South previous generations had significant, well-attended Emancipation Day Programs and services. (Reginald F. Hildebrand is an associate professor of Afro-American studies and history at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-chair of the North Carolina Freedom Monument Project.)
Seniors' wellness clinic opening
The Chapel Hill Herald
Local senior citizens won't have to travel far to see geriatric specialists about fall prevention or brain health. …The clinic's Mood, Memory and Mobility Boosting Program will focus on fall prevention or brain health, said Racquel Daley-Placide, a clinical assistant professor at UNC.
Issues & Trends
UNC campuses adopt new textbook rules to lower costs for students
The Associated Press
University of North Carolina campuses are using new rules to help ease the cost of textbooks for students. The UNC Board of Governors approved the new rules last March.
Related Link: http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2262980/
Not job one (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Jay Schalin's Point of View article on the report of the UNC Tomorrow commission ("Misguided agenda for universities, Jan. 1) is distressing and shortsighted, and not just because it fails to recognize the importance of education at every level for the future of our state. More troubling is an approach it shares with the commission and with many other recent reports on education — the view that the purpose of education is primarily, maybe even exclusively, "work force preparation." (W. Robert Connor, President, The Teagle Foundation, Hillsborough)
A suspect is cleared in UNC sex assault
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Three suspects became two after a judge found no evidence to show a 29-year-old mother of eight robbed and sexually assaulted UNC-Chapel Hill football players last month.
Hospitals silent on Franklin relocation
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Three hospitals that were initially opposed to a Franklin County hospital's move from the center of the county to its southwest edge remained silent on the hospital's new partnership with Rex Healthcare to relocate. …Rex is owned by UNC Health Care, the state-backed hospital system in Chapel Hill.