Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
Regional Coverage
Promise kept to share diary of Nazi dissent
The Union-Tribune (San Diego, Calif.)
Six decades after the end of World War II, nobody hesitates to call the Nazis evil. … Christopher Browning, a historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has written extensively about the Nazis, said he was not aware of the Kellner diary, but that something written by a dissenter would be valuable to scholars. “After the war, many people claimed to have been opposed to the Nazis,” Browning said. “Diaries written at the time are crucial for documenting people's actual perceptions and attitudes, not how they reinvented them after the war.”
State and Local Coverage
UNC's Thorp exudes strength (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Holden Thorp is a very bright guy with a startling command of facts and figures. Getting a chance to sit down with the UNC chancellor and pick his very lively brain elicited, among other nuggets, that 34 languages are available to students attending the Chapel Hill campus. I'm not sure if bureaucratese is one of those foreign languages, but in an hour-long editorial board session with the chancellor, I did not once notice him slipping into that intellectual hiding place of so many government officials when they don't want you to know or to understand something. (Dan Way is the editor of the Chapel Hill Herald.)
Carolina North transit demands require funds
The Chapel Hill Herald
An increase in demand for public transit, particularly along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, seems to be a given with the development of Carolina North, and the need for services will require financial commitments from the town and university. Members of the Town Council and representatives of UNC Chapel Hill seemed to be on the same page Wednesday night after receiving an update on the status of a long-in-the-works long-range transit plan for the town.
Related Link:
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=9409
Anoop is in the top 36
WRAL.com
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill grad student Anoop Desai has officially made it to the top 36 contestants on “American Idol.” Spoiler sites had speculated for a week that the Chapel Hill resident would be featured on the viewer voting rounds, but it was confirmed Wednesday night when decision was announced.
Related Link:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1095309.cfm
N.C. biotech needs a boost
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Biotechnology has brought billions of dollars into North Carolina coffers. The biotech industry can be defined as the use of biological processes, systems and organisms to manufacture products for use in agriculture, food science and medicine. …The Council for Entrepreneurial Development's Biotech 2009 Conference, set for Feb. 16-17 at the Raleigh Convention Center, will be the Southeast's first significant life science conference following the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and will feature in-depth discussions on how the economy and changes in health policy will impact the industry. Speakers include …Nobel laureate Oliver Smithies of UNC-Chapel Hill and many others.
UNC research targets transplant rejection
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
To prevent the rejection of newly transplanted organs and cells, patients must take medicines that weaken their entire immune systems. Such potentially life-saving treatments can, paradoxically, leave those receiving them susceptible to life-threatening infections. Now researchers at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered what seems to trigger the immune system to attack transplanted cells in the first place.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-study-hints-
at-new-approaches-to-prevent-transplant-rejection.html
Couples therapy to help anorexia
The Chapel Hill Herald
The eating disorder anorexia nervosa has a profound effect not only on the person with the disorder, but also on their close relationships. Spouses or partners of people with anorexia typically have not been included in treatment. …Now the UNC School of Medicine's Eating Disorders Program is seeking adults with anorexia to participate in a 20-week comprehensive treatment course that includes couples therapy. Developed by the UNC School of Medicine Eating Disorders Program and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Uniting Couples (in the treatment of) Anorexia Nervosa, or UCAN, is the first and only NIH-funded trial of treatment for anorexia that emphasizes couples therapy.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-seeking-participants
-for-anorexia-nervosa-couples-therapy-trial.html
The Into Aging Game: Med students walk in patients' shoes
The Chapel Hill Herald
…Welcome to the Into Aging Game, presented by the UNC School of Medicine. First- and second-year med students in the class of introductory geriatrics — the care of people over age 65 — took on the identity of an elderly person and walked through the process of aging in today's medical scene by drawing life event cards and progressing through four stations. Professors, former students and hospital staff acted as nurses to the students' patients.
CHS affiliates with New Hanover Regional
The Charlotte Business Journal
New Hanover Regional Medical Center is affiliating with Carolinas Physicians Network, the physician practice arm of Carolinas HealthCare System. …New Hanover Regional is the ninth-largest health network in the state, with 4,700 employees, 500 physicians and 800 volunteers. The network is a teaching site affiliated with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Duke meningitis victim expected to recover
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A Duke freshman who contracted meningitis while sleeping out at the Krzyzewskiville tent city is expected to make a full recovery, university officials said Wednesday. …Mary Covington, assistant vice chancellor for campus health services at UNC-Chapel Hill, said the risk of meningitis is greater this time of year when people are suffering from coughs and colds. And its symptoms are similar to those of influenza, she said.
'JAG' producer joins faculty
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Dana Coen, co-executive producer of the long-running CBS series "JAG" (1997 to 2005) and "Bones" (2005), has joined the faculty of UNC. A television writer/producer, screenwriter, playwright and stage actor/director, Coen will teach in the writing for the screen and stage program. He was named an adjunct assistant professor of communication studies in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/jag-producer-joins-writing
-for-screen-and-stage-program.html
'Continuous City' set next week
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Local audiences will see familiar faces and places in the multimedia performance "Continuous City," on stage Feb. 20-21 at UNC Chapel Hill. Carolina Performing Arts will present the work at 8 p.m. both days in Memorial Hall.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/multimedia-performance-examines
-relationships-in-age-of-technology.html
'Little Grand Canyon' topic
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Paul Sutter of the University of Georgia will discuss the history of Providence Canyon State Park, also called Georgia's Little Grand Canyon, at 4 p.m. Tuesday at UNC. The associate professor of history will give the free public talk, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Georgia's 'Little Grand Canyon' and the Problem of Soil Erosion in the South," at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/talk-to-explore-
history-of-georgias-little-grand-canyon.html
Outdoor drama auditions set
The Chapel Hill Herald
Actors, singers, dancers and technicians who want to participate in outdoor historical dramas this summer have until March 2 to register online. …The UNC Institute of Outdoor Drama hosts the auditions every year for shows including "The Lost Colony" in Manteo and "Tecumseh!" in Chillicothe, Ohio.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/march-2-is-deadline-for-outdoor
-drama-audition-applications.html
Issues and Trends
Quick Takes: …Economics Jobs Disappear
Inside Higher Ed
It’s not just humanities departments that are calling off searches. The Wall Street Journal reported that top economics departments, some of which have been hiring with gusto, are no longer doing so. Columbia University, which hired eight professors from other institutions and one new Ph.D. last year, isn’t hiring. Searches have been suspended at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Amherst College and the University of Minnesota. And Harvard University, which typically hires two or three people out of graduate school, is only hiring one person this year.
Lawmakers Worry About Financial Aid For Higher Ed
The North Carolina News Network
State legislators have some serious budget commitments to consider for the University of North Carolina System in the next two years. One of the more worrisome issues for UNC schools is the increase in financial aid and the falling amount in the fund that pays for it.
Enrollment, costs jump (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Enrollment growth at the state's universities and community colleges will cost nearly $100 million next year. Legislators heard a briefing Wednesday on the budgets for the UNC system and for the community colleges.
Watchdog: College PACs are big donors (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A campaign finance watchdog says university boosters are big givers.
Bob Hall, president of Democracy North Carolina, announced today that two political action committees tied to trustees and boosters of UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State have given heavily to state legislators. Citizens for Higher Education, which is tied to Tar Heel boosters, gave $485,000 in the 2007-08 election cycle and $425,000 in 2005-06.
Probation manager steps down
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The resignation of a key manager in the state's probation system signals that the shakeup continues in an agency with deep problems that affect public safety. …Many of the problems were in counties under Fullwood's management, including the highly publicized killings last year of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson and Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato. The men accused in their killings had received scant attention from probation officers in Wake and Durham counties.
Related Link:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/state/6-1095429.cfm