Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
U. of North Carolina Hopes to Lure Faculty Members With
Below-Market, Sustainable Housing (Blog)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has asked officials in the nearby town of Carrboro to approve plans for a sustainable 63-acre development that would offer below-market housing for university faculty and staff members. The development, to be called Carolina Commons, would place 166 units on a tract of land the university has owned since 1940, according to a university news release.
UNC Media Advisory:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-planning-staff
-to-brief-media-on-carolina-commons-below-market-housing-program.html
The Most Valuable College Basketball Teams
Forbes
…Our second annual ranking of the Most Valuable College Basketball Teams is based on the money that men's basketball programs contribute to four important beneficiaries: their university (money generated by basketball that goes to the institution for academic purposes, including scholarship payments for basketball players); athletic department (the net profit generated by the basketball program retained by the department); conference (the distribution of post-season tournament revenue); and local communities (estimated incremental spending by visitors to the county that's attributable to the program). The North Carolina Tar Heels, who reached the national semifinals in two of the past four years, is once again the most valuable team in college basketball, worth $25.9 million.
What the SCHIP Fight Means for Health Reform (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal
One of Barack Obama’s first moves on health-care as president was the long-awaited expansion of SCHIP, or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. His signature on the bill came after two vetoes by former President Bush. …The program “sought to fill in a coverage gap rather than to reengineer the entire system of coverage for all Americans,” write Jonathan Oberlander of the University of North Carolina and Barbara Lyons of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Will Anoop stay on the Idol voters' minds? (Blog)
USA Today
Anoop Desai admits that country isn't his forte. … He turns in a solid performance, taking liberties with the melody that should please the judges. And it does: "Anoop is back!" enthuses Paula. She's really proud of him. Simon says he's gone from zero to hero: "That was a good choice of song."
Related Links:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/americanidoltracker/2009/03/live-from-the-i.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1572322/american_
idol_top_11_randy_travis_and.html
Barbecue, North Carolina style
The Christian Science Monitor
Spend enough time in certain parts of the United States and you get the distinct impression that barbecue is a lot like religion. …"It's a local sport to argue about barbecue," says Dale Volberg Reed, a writer in Chapel Hill, N.C. "People grow up with loyalties to colleges. They grow up with loyalties to barbecue. And they have a hard time switching." For Ms. Reed and her husband, John Shelton Reed, real barbecue is that which is practiced in North Carolina. They've written a book devoted to the subject, "Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue," written with William McKinney. (John Shelton Reed Jr. is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
State and Local Coverage
UNC to build new housing
The Chapel Hill News
With the highest housing prices in the state, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are expensive places for university employees to live. Half live outside Orange County. …Now, for the first time in its history, UNC is planning its own off-campus employee housing development, Carolina Commons, to meet the demand from junior faculty and staff who want to live in Chapel Hill.
UNC Media Advisory:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-planning-staff
-to-brief-media-on-carolina-commons-below-market-housing-program.html
Roses & raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Roses to UNC, which has already won the NCAA championship. Not on the court. In the classroom. Like office pool hopefuls everywhere, Inside Higher Ed (a Web site dedicated to issues of higher education) fills out a bracket for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Rather than base its picks on basketball prowess, however, Inside Higher Ed advances teams in the 65-team field based on their supremacy in the classroom. The site uses the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, which rates schools according to their athletes' academic standing.
UNC Basketball: the nation's most valuable hoops program (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Here's a little extra March Madness: The UNC Tar Heels are the nation's most valuable basketball team. So says Forbes, the financial magazine that ranks the nation's top hoops programs on revenue earnings. The Heels generate nearly $26 million for the university, including $16.4 million in operating revenue, making the university one of the few in the nation that make more money from basketball than football, according to the story.
Virtual education the answer? (Opinion-Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
What really makes for good schools? At a recent conference organized for North Carolina Editorial Writers, organizer Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC's Program on Public Life, presented this question for discussion. …The experts that Guillory assembled also emphasized the leadership role as one of the keys. But they cautioned that no one thing by itself is going to be a magic fix. Only sustained efforts across many areas can bring about meaningful progress.
Campaign transparency, not financing (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The debate over public financing of political campaigns in North Carolina continues to be about a solution in search of a problem. Other than vague references about too much money in politics, public finance supporters are hard pressed to find specific examples of quid pro quo corruption. The public finance debate is more about power — who has it and who gets it — than it is about good government. (Leroy Towns is professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and a research fellow in the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Death penalty applied unevenly
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A couple of defense lawyers are using a local death penalty study that mirrors the racial disparities highlighted in national analyses to try and keep their client from being prosecuted capitally. …The Durham analysis was conducted by Isaac Unah, a political scientist at UNC-Chapel Hill. The researcher looked at all murder cases indicted by the Durham grand jury and followed them from start to finish.
Anoop Desai wows American Idol judges with Willie Nelson cover
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Last week, the American Idol judges tore him up, but Tuesday night, Chapel Hill's Anoop Desai tore the judges up. "Anoop is back!" gushed judge Paul Abdul after his performance of Willie Nelson's "Always on my Mind." …Desai, 22, who graduated from East Chapel Hill High School and UNC Chapel Hill, stood at the microphone with little fanfare and sang, adding a little rhythm and blues to a few lines of the song.
Related Links:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1124276.cfm
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/03/18/article/unc_grad_stays_alive_in_idol
Veggie alternatives better but still processed (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A colleague recently asked me to settle a food fight she was having at home. "We're having the war of the corn dogs," she said. Her husband has a penchant for traditional, state fair-style dogs, which he buys in bulk at a warehouse club. "Nitrate dogs" is what my colleague calls them. She buys Morningstar Farms meatless corn dogs and stocks up when they go on sale. (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the department of health policy and administration in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Wilson Library features authors
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
A book series at UNC's Wilson Library will feature recently published authors who conducted research in the Southern Historical Collection there, then published books with UNC Press.
UNC alumna to be featured
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Creative Writing at Carolina will sponsor a talk by Nina Riggs at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at 223 Greenlaw Hall (Donovan Lounge), UNC. Riggs is a 1999 alumna of UNC's Creative Writing program and has been on the faculty since 2005.
Historian to talk about the South
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Historian James T. Carson will discuss "The Old South and the Ancient South" at 4 p.m. Tuesday at UNC. The free public talk will be at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/talk-to-
explore-ancient-souths-impact-on-southern-history.html
Issues and Trends
Perdue lays out austere budget plan
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Gov. Beverly Perdue on Tuesday made public her plans on filling an estimated $3.4 billion hole in the state's $21 billion budget for the next fiscal year. It relies on spending cuts, tax increases, an accounting quirk involving vacant positions and a big bandage provided by the federal economic stimulus package. Perdue had warned that the global recession would lead to deep spending cuts, but her budget proposal would keep intact much of what the state does.
Related Links:
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/state/6-1123051.cfm
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/story/604364.html
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=321400
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090317/ARTICLES/903171959
UNC to campuses: Spread the business around
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
This week, the UNC system’s governing board will consider adopting a “value statement” making clear some of the public university system’s strategies as it navigates these lousy economic times. While some of it is the usual rhetoric: “Protect UNC’s commitment to teaching, research and public service” – there are a couple components that send a firm message to the system’s 17 campuses.
Related Link:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/unc-to-its
-campuses-spread-the-business-around
Oprah to feature Murdock, Research Campus March 24
The Salisbury Post
Footage from the N.C. Research Campus will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show March 24. The show airs at 4 p.m. on ABC. The program will include a taped segment on campus founder David Murdock, billionaire owner of Dole Food Co., as Winfrey leads a discussion about "extreme life extension," according to a representative from the show.
Computer model says UNC will win tournament
CNN.com
Here's a hot tip: The University of North Carolina is going to win the NCAA men's basketball tournament. At least that's the prediction of Joel Sokol, a Georgia Tech professor whose statistical model correctly selected the Final Four, championship game and winner of last year's tournament.
Speedway President Didn’t Get Degree, School Says
Bloomberg News
Speedway Motorsports Inc.’s Marcus G. Smith, president and chief operating officer of the second- largest U.S. auto-racetrack operator, didn’t graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the company asserted, the school said. “The university registrar’s office does not show that this person has earned a degree from this university,” spokesman Mike McFarland said in a March 16 interview.