Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Parents: Coach Pushed Son "Over The Edge"
CBS Evening News
The parents of a high school football player that died after collapsing at practice say the team's coaches "pushed him over the edge" in a grueling physical workout. …(Max) Gilpin was one of six people to die because of the heat in high school and college athletics in 2008. And in the past 13 years, a University of North Carolina study says 39 athletes have suffered heat-related deaths – 29 high school players, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of sports science Frederick Mueller was interviewed for this story from the Carolina News Studio .)
Using a Leadership Role to Put a Human Face on Science
The New York Times
In February, the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Peter Agre, 60, will be inducted as the 163rd president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest scientific organization. …Then in 1991, I visited John Parker. (He died in 1993.) He’d been my hematology professor at the University of North Carolina. He said, “Boy, this thing is found in red cells, kidney tubes, plant tissues; have you considered it might be the long-sought water channel?” It was his suggestion that caused me to change the direction of my research.
Do our genes make us popular? (Blog)
Scientific American
Always the last one picked for kickball? Never get invites to the hottest parties? Blame Mom and Dad. …The scientists based their findings on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a study by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill of the influence of health on the social behavior of some 90,000 teens who researchers have been following since 1994.
Regional Coverage
Confessions of an "Idol" addict (Blog)
The Seattle Times (Washington)
It's a pretty slow day in Idol-land, unless you're a big fan of either of last year's top Davids — Cook and Archuleta. …Move over Tyler Hansbrough! "Noop Dog" is now big man on University of North Carolina campus. (Anoop Desai is a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill competing on American Idol.)
State and Local Coverage
Town OKs business incubator at Carolina North
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Town Council Monday approved a three-story building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as the start of the future Carolina North campus. The Innovation Center will comprise 80,745 square feet of laboratories, offices and support facilities and will serve as an incubator for businesses that evolve from scientific research at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Related Link:
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=9231
Council unanimously approves Innovation Center permit
The Chapel Hill Herald
The Town Council unanimously approved a Special Use Permit for the Innovation Center late Monday, moving the first planned development at Carolina North a big step closer to reality. …Bruce Runberg, UNC's associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and construction said he agreed in principle, but "to just pick out a number and say let's go with it – that's a stretch."
Related Link:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1081302.cfm
Maple View serves "Thank You Chancellor Thorp sundae" (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Maple View Ice Cream will feature a "Thank You Chancellor Thorp sundae" this weekend to thank him for ending plans for an airport authority in Orange County. …The sundae, designed by Chancellor Thorp's children, will feature Carolina Blue ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream with optional wet walnuts. The ice cream will be custom made for the occasion using Maple View's famous vanilla ice cream mixed with precisely tinted Carolina Blue food coloring provided by UNC.
Changes to come to RTP
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Off Interstate 40, just past the bridge with Davis Drive sit the gleaming new offices of Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, the organization charged with developing and managing Research Triangle Park. …Carolina North, the 1.5 million-square-foot campus planned for the land adjacent to Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill, could be a potential RTP competitor for tenants. It's on the drawing board for academic programs, research activities, housing, retail space and corporate occupancy. The first building to be under construction, according to Executive Director Jack Evans, will be the Innovations Center, an 85,000-square-foot business incubator mainly housing UNC Chapel Hill faculty's start-ups.
Chapel Hill monster Hamming it up (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Regarding your Jan. 10 story "UNC-CH drops plans for airport": Chancellor Holden Thorp deserves praise for leading his campus away from a scheme that would have despoiled a chunk of Orange County, creating enemies for the university right in its own backyard. (Randall Rickman, Raleigh)
Cherie Blair speaks out on working women
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Women have come a long way, but they're still struggling to balance their families and work, still receiving less pay for the same work and still not being promoted to the highest levels in their fields, Cherie Blair told a packed audience at the Kenan-Flagler Business School Monday night. …The audience included newly inaugurated Gov. Beverly Perdue, the state's first female governor, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp and Noble Prize winner Oliver Smithies.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/business/cherie-blair-lawyer-and-former
-british-first-lady-to-deliver-weatherspoon-lecture.html
Gov. Scott's Legacy
WUNC-FM
Governor Bob Scott will be laid to rest today. He died late last week in hospice care in Alamance County. He served as Governor from 1969 to 1973 and was part of a political family that saw three generations get elected to statewide office. WUNC's Eric Hodge spoke with Ferrel Guillory, the director of the Program on Public Life at UNC Chapel Hill about the Scott legacy.
Tough year ahead for admissions
The Charlotte Observer
…So: more students, more applications and less money – a tough year all around. Flagship universities, each state's jewel in the public university crown, appear to be this year's greatest beneficiary. UNC Chapel Hill received a record 13,692 applicants for its Early Action program, which includes a 25 percent increase in out-of-state applicants.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-chapel-hill-offers
-admission-to-4885-first-year-applicants.html
Breast cancer lethal, but more treatable
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The high-profile death Saturday of Kay Yow, longtime women's basketball coach at N.C. State University, serves as a reminder that breast cancer remains a killer. …"In 1987, treatment was a whole different animal," said Dr. Lisa A. Carey, an oncologist at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Most underwent surgery to remove at least part of a breast and then endured harsh chemotherapy and radiation.
New UNC study to focus on causes of birth defects
WRAL.com
Andrew Olshan, Ph.D., professor and chair of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been awarded a $4.9 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes of birth defects. The grant provides five years of funding for research that will be coordinated by the N.C. Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, which contributes data to the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/new-unc-study-to
-focus-on-causes-of-birth-defects.html
Scientist recognized for computer security innovations
WRAL.com
Michael Reiter, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been recognized by an international computer organization for his innovations in computer security. Reiter, the Lawrence M. Slifkin Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/unc-scientist
-recognized-for-computer-security-innovations.html
Schools' imprints faring OK here
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Area university presses seem to be faring better than others, nationally. According to a survey by Association of American University Presses, overall sales for the first half of the 2008-09 fiscal year are down almost 10 percent when compared to the first half of fiscal 2007-08, which ran from July through December. University of North Carolina Press sales, however, were only down 6 percent. "Comparatively, we look pretty good," said Gina Mahalek, director of publicity. "We've had some very strong books."
UNC police probe reports of shower peepers
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Police at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigating two reports of suspicious behavior around showers in a dorm.
Related Link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6625109
Issues and Trends
Fortunes Falling
Inside Higher Ed
After a year of riding high, educational endowment investments began a downward spiral in the 2008 fiscal year, and the first half of 2009 was particularly brutal, according to two new reports released Tuesday. In a joint survey, the Commonfund Institute and the National Association of College and University Business Officers found that college endowment returns dropped by 22.5 percent in the first six months of the 2009 fiscal year, which began July 1 at most institutions.
Cautiously, Scientists Put Faith in Obama Promise
The Chronicle of Higher Education
When Barack Obama named his top science and technology advisers only weeks after being elected, many scientists celebrated. After eight years of an administration that many academics believed shortchanged research budgets and politicized science, researchers saw the swift appointments as evidence of a shift in the federal treatment of science.
Monsanto joining research roster at NCRC
The Charlotte Business Journal
Agricultural giant Monsanto Co. appears likely to become the 18th tenant at the N.C. Research Campus. The St. Louis-based company has been in talks about possible areas of research with the UNC Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute, says Dr. Steve Zeisel, institute director. A research agreement has not been negotiated yet.
Perdue proposes rearranging education leadership
The Associated Press
Gov. Beverly Perdue said Monday she wants to retool North Carolina's public school leadership by consolidating power with a new State Board of Education chairman who would also manage day-to-day operations. …That panel includes University of North Carolina system president Erskine Bowles and community college system president Scott Ralls, both of whom attended the announcement.
Barber: UNC should have hate crimes policy
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Phrases and logos painted in the N.C. State University Free Expression Tunnel on election night in November were neither protected speech nor the foolish ramblings of college students, but rather "terrorist symbols" that deserve consequences, the Rev. William Barber II said Monday. Barber, president of the N.C. Conference of the NAACP, shared his opinion with the UNC Study Commission to Review Student Codes of Conduct as they Relate to Hate Crimes, a group formed by UNC President Erskine Bowles shortly after the threatening messages were discovered.
Related Links:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4404209/
http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=604110
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1383119.html
Exhibit shows that in hard times, fun can be easy
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The different ways North Carolinians distracted themselves from the economic misery of the Great Depression while still pinching pennies is the subject of an exhibit at the state Capitol. …During the Depression, spectator sports such as college football and baseball attracted better-heeled audiences, even though UNC-Chapel Hill football tickets then went for $2.25 each, the price of a full bag of groceries in 1937, and also generated much-needed revenue for the schools.