Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
A dean for leaner times
Financial Times (United Kingdom)
James Dean has a reputation as one of the nice men of business education. It would be hard to confuse this quietly spoken and affable man with the image of a bike-riding rebel conjured up by his movie star namesake. But although leather jackets may not be his style, Prof Dean has reached the top in his own profession. He was appointed dean of the Kenan-Flagler school at the University of North Carolina in August 2008, after 12 years working for the business school.
National Coverage
Great Colleges to Work For, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Carolina is among 150 colleges and universities recognized in The Chronicle's 2009 "Great Colleges to Work For" program, according to results of the second annual survey announced today in a special supplement of the newspaper. The program recognizes campuses based on enrollment for specific best practices and policies. UNC-Chapel Hill was listed in four categories: teaching environment, facilities and security, connection to institution and pride, and respect and appreciation.
To view the lists UNC-Chapel Hill was included on, go to:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i41/greatcolleges.htm
Note: Click on any of the tabs above to view the recognition categories in that group, and then click on the category to see the colleges recognized. Clicking on a college name in any list reveals all the categories in which the college was recognized.
Life, Liberty and Benign Monarchy? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The New York Times
From the perspective of 2009, democracy in the United States is a great success. This makes it is easy to imagine that the march to democracy was the only path — that there is a clear line from the Declaration of Independence to the presidency of Barack Obama, and that democracy is the only fair society. But republican government was a risky choice at the time of the Revolution, and democracy was almost out of the question. (Kathleen DuVal is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
Summer 2009 Books: MBA Reading List
Business Week
BusinessWeek recently asked professors and students what books they would recommend for summer reading. The lists were used to generate a summer reading list featuring 10 interesting books that were relevant to the times MBAs and aspiring MBAs are facing in 2009. With the economic crisis unfolding, businesspeople benefit from every additional bit of knowledge they have. …Here, are the complete summer reading lists from those who responded: …James W. Dean Jr., dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
Details emerge on woman accused of al-Qaida ties
The Associated Press
A U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan for portions of the five years before her arrest last year, a psychologist says, disputing claims that the scientist had spent those years in the custody of foreign authorities. …Sally C. Johnson, a professor in the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina, wrote in a March 16 report that Siddiqui's medical problems have been treated and stabilized.
Court to Hear New Reports on Pakistani Scientist’s Fitness for Trial
The New York Times
To government psychiatrists, Aafia Siddiqui has been faking symptoms of mental illness, hoping to avoid a criminal trial on charges of trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan. …Another prosecution expert, Dr. Sally C. Johnson, a psychiatry professor at the University of North Carolina, wrote that although Ms. Siddiqui appeared frail and timid, “her potential for aggression towards herself or others might be underestimated,” and she “could perceive herself as martyr for a cause.”
America's 100 fastest growing small public companies
CNNMoney.com
In good times the FSB 100 constitutes an elite group of small public companies: the best of the best, measured by revenue growth and stock performance over the past three years. But in this Great Recession, their performance is nothing short of miraculous. "To thrive in these conditions, you must be extraordinary. You have to offer a smart solution that solves a genuine problem for customers," says Ted Zoller, director of the center for entrepreneurship at Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For OCD, Not Helping Might Be Best
HealthDay News
… Jonathan Abramowitz, an associate professor and associate chairman of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noted that this unintentional reinforcement of OCD has also been reported anecdotally by adults in relationships. "We see it with adults' spouses and partners, too," he said in the news release. "In trying to be helpful to the person with OCD, they end up making the problem worse."
Regional Coverage
Coaches deal with heat during practice
The Journal Star (Lincoln, Neb.)
…According to statistics from the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research at the University of North Carolina cited in a recent Associated Press story, there have been 39 heat-related deaths in all levels of football since 1995. With that in mind, the National Athletic Trainers Association recommended last month that high school football teams should eliminate two-a-day practices during that first week of August drills.
UNC chancellor expects 10 percent budget cut
The Associated Press
The chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says budget cuts are the school should total about 10 percent. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported the university is planning to lose about $60 million from its budget. …Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote in a letter to staff, faculty and students that the budget remains bleak and significant cuts will be necessary for all state agencies.
State and Local Coverage
Family doctors become rarer
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As health-care reform efforts in Washington put primary care at the center of treatment, the need for generalists will likely worsen an already chronic shortage across North Carolina and the nation. From 2001 through 2005, 46 of the state's 100 counties lost ground in the ratio of primary-care doctors to residents, according to the most recent data from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Asheville's role in climate change grows
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
…Now scientists coming to Asheville hope to use that same satellite data to forecast what weather patterns people can expect by the end of the century. “Climate is changing, and it's clear that humanity at large is the main reason for this change,” said Otis Brown, who will head a new group of university researchers at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville. …Working with faculty at N.C. State University — as well as universities including Princeton, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, Columbia and Miami — the new institute will give NCDC more intellectual firepower, adding to an existing brain trust of Nobel laureates.
There's danger afoot for pedestrians in Fayetteville
The Fayetteville Observer
…Charlie Zegeer, associate director of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, said new federal guidelines will soon require all new pedestrian crossing lights to be the countdown type, which tell pedestrians how many seconds remain to cross a street safely. Under the new guidelines, pedestrian signals will be required in school crossing zones and in areas of high-volume pedestrian crossings.
Still tipping the scales in Carolina (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Fayetteville Observer
North Carolina retains its "big boy" status in the new rankings on obesity. …Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that people tend to put on the pounds after they get married. A married or cohabitating person is twice as likely to be obese as a single person.
Study suggests vast complexity of schizophrenia
The Chapel Hill Herald
A multi-national group of investigators, including a scientist at the UNC, has discovered that nearly one-third of the genetic basis of schizophrenia may be attributed to the cumulative actions of thousands of common genetic variants. The effects of each of these genetic changes, innocuous on its own, add up to a significant risk for developing both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. …"This is an enormous first for our field," said co-author Patrick Sullivan, the Ray M. Hayworth and Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry in the department of genetics at the UNC School of Medicine.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/July/sullivan/
UNC searches (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The controversy over Mary Easley's jobs at N.C. State University raised the curtain on some standard operating practices of big-time university administration that, when the spotlight shines on them, don't play well with the public. Now UNC-Chapel Hill opens another curtain. It will — and this seems not to be unusual — pay an academic headhunter more than $70,000 (plus expenses) to help locate the campus' next provost, or chief academic officer. …Of course, being Chapel Hill, the university will pay its consultant with privately raised money.
Related Links:
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1593696.html
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/should-universities-pay-search-firms
Proposed care cuts prompt fight
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Two distinct narratives are at war in a controversy over whether North Carolina should cut as much as $100 million over two years from in-home care for older and disabled people. …"You're going to have really frail people staying at home, and bad things are going to happen," said Bill Lamb, associate director for public service at the UNC Institute on Aging. "People are going to die." However, Lamb added, "The folks in [Medicaid] are absolutely convinced that providers have gone too far on personal care services."
It’s a switcheroo, sure, but it means new revenue for UNC Hospitals
The Triangle Business Journal
Some UNC Health Care patients – and their insurers – will be getting bigger bills as the health-care provider reclassifies about a half-dozen clinics as hospital based, allowing it to charge a higher facility fee. The health system, which is facing unprecedented uncompensated-care costs and looming budget cuts, says moving the clinics from the purview of the system’s physicians’ practices to UNC Hospitals will generate about $2.3 million in new revenue annually, a 32 percent increase in fee revenue generated by its hospital-based clinics.
Chatham composters hailed as 'Environmental Heroes'
The Chapel Hill Herald
A Chatham County family that picks up food waste from UNC and various restaurants in Chapel Hill will be featured Saturday night in a TV documentary called Environmental Heroes. The documentary, produced by students at the UNC Journalism and Mass Communications science documentary television course, airs at 11 p.m. during the North Carolina Visions film festival on UNC-TV.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2675/74/
Collectors find history in postcards
The News & Record (Greensboro)
For postcard collectors, it’s not about the words. It’s the images that count. …And no collection of postcards has become more important in North Carolina than the one that belonged to M. Durwood Barbour, a retiree from Raleigh. In late 2006, Barbour gave UNC-Chapel Hill the majority of his postcard collection — 7,894 images from across the state.
No need for Racial Justice Act (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill News
The N.C. House Appropriations Committee is now considering the "Racial Justice Act," previously passed by the Senate. The bill is "an effort to ensure race isn't a factor in any death penalty case." It would allow "those on death row to argue race played a role in their death sentence or someone accused of capital murder in a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty." …Based on a new study by UNC political science professor Isaac Unah, it was argued that "prosecutors are six times more likely … to seek capital punishment when a black suspect has been accused of killing a white person compared with when the victim is black."
Students enjoy giving back through donation
The Chapel Hill Herald
As they awaited their turns for the men and women in white smocks to pierce their arm with a needle and draw blood into a pint-size drip bag, several UNC summer school students in the Great Hall of UNC's Frank Porter Graham Student Union took turns explaining the urge to give the gift of life. Maira S. Aviles of Jackson Springs, an incoming freshman at UNC, said it was just her second time donating blood, an opportunity that didn't present itself much in her hometown. "I just feel it's like a moral obligation to help someone out. Why wouldn't you?" she said during the American Red Cross blood drive on Wednesday.
Many blood donors staying home
The Chapel Hill Herald
The negative fallout from North Carolina's unemployment rate of 11.1 percent and climbing is being felt even in the realm of blood donations. As companies shrink, so do the number of donors. …On Wednesday in the Great Hall in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, a blood drive sponsored by the UNC Red Cross Club actually did better than expected.
PlayMakers to host Universes
The Chapel Hill Herald
The innovative hip-hop theater troupe Universes will perform in Chapel Hill from Jan. 13-17, 2010, PlayMakers Repertory Company has announced. PlayMakers is the professional theater in residence at UNC. It will present the troupe's newest stage show, "The Big Bang." The announcement rounds out the lineup for the next season of PlayMakers' thought-provoking PRC² second-stage series.
'Giant Beetles' workshop set
The Chapel Hill Herald
"Giant Beetles of the Piedmont Family" is the name of a workshop to be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the N.C. Botanical Garden's Totten Center. …The workshop will feature live beetles in simple terrariums as well as a presentation detailing beetle habitats and life cycles. There will be time outdoors on the Botanical Garden's Nature Trails as well.
Botanical Garden tours Saturdays
The Chapel Hill Herald
Guided Tours of the Plant Collections at the N.C. Botanical Garden will be held from 10-11 a.m. every Saturday through July 25. The tours are held at the Botanical Garden's main visitor site on the US 15-501 Bypass and Old Mason Farm Road. Meet at the stone gathering circle in front of the Totten Center.
Lasers, microscopy topic of meeting
The Chapel Hill Herald
"Lasers and Microscopy" is the name of this user-group meeting to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. July 14 and 15 at Taylor Hall on the UNC campus. The meeting is geared towards those interested in lasers and microscopy and is open to all interested people.
Art and lit series continues in July
The Chapel Hill Herald
The Art and Literature in the Galleries series at Ackland Art Museum continues this month with a focus on two exhibitions, "Sage in the Bamboo Grove: The Legacy of Sherman E. Lee" and "Aldwyth: Work V./Work N. – Collage and Assemblage 1991-2009."
Art After Dark back at museum
The Chapel Hill Herald
Art After Dark will return to the Ackland Art Museum from 5-9 p.m. Friday. Visitors may enjoy the Ackland Art Museum's evening hours, a cash bar, light refreshments, and music. This month's event will feature Carmen Elliot as the second installment of "Out of Studio," an ongoing initiative to make connections between Ackland and our rich community of contemporary artists.
'Drawing in the Galleries' Sat.
The Chapel Hill Herald
Amanda Hughes, director of external affairs at the Ackland Art Museum and working artist, meets with friends of the museum who have an interest in practicing and strengthening their drawing skills from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the museum. Each "Drawing in the Galleries" session opens with a brief conversation about a work of art in the museum, the artist who made the work and the culture from which it emerged.
Program teaches kids drawing
The Chapel Hill Herald
Ackland Art Museum's senior museum educator Beth Shaw McGuire leads a drawing program designed to teach children the basics of drawing from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in the "Drawing for Kids" program at the museum. Children ages 9 to 12 practice techniques such as contour drawing, linear perspective, shading and drawing people. Materials are provided.
Issues and Trends
Schools wait for word on UNC cuts
The News & Record (Greensboro)
The new fiscal year came and went Wednesday, but the state budget is still in flux. At UNCG and N.C. A&T, that means more waiting as administrators, faculty and staff anticipate just how deep the budget cuts at UNC schools will really be. …Last week, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote a similar letter to faculty and staff in which he predicted a 10 percent cut at his campus, or a loss of $60 million.