Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Canadian cheerleaders, work to stay safe as sport explodes in popularity
The Canadian Press (Wire Service)
…As participation soars on cheer teams in the United States and Canada, injuries are also on the rise for a sport once the preserve of pompoms and megaphones but now transformed into a wildly popular rough and tumble trapeze show. At the University of North Carolina, the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research recently reported there have been 112 catastrophic injuries to high school girls in the United States over the last 26 years, 65 per cent of which happened in cheerleading.
National Coverage
Our view on football dangers: NFL drags feet as evidence on head injuries mounts (Editorial)
USA Today
During Saturday's game against Kentucky, star University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow got knocked cold. …About 24% of 2,500 retired NFL players surveyed early this decade had three or more concussions while playing. They were five times as likely to develop mild memory impairments, often precursors to Alzheimer's disease, than players with no concussions, according to a 2005 report by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes. …The league has financed research and changed tackling rules. But it could be doing much more, says Kevin Guskiewicz, who directs the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes.
The Senate Bill Tinkers With Touchy Issue — Carbon Offsets
The New York Times
Major climate legislation introduced yesterday in the Senate makes significant changes from a House version of the bill on offsets, or clean-energy initiatives that businesses can use to meet emission cuts outside their own facilities. …Victor Flatt, a University of North Carolina law professor who wrote a blog posting on the new offset language yesterday, noted in an interview that preliminary versions of the Senate bill emphasized the role of EPA, rather than the Agriculture Department. The "punt to the president" language popped up later.
New Computer Graphics Systems Give Reality a Convincing Makeover
Scientific American
…For decades, researchers also have been developing a more sophisticated, wearable technology that brings augmented reality to people in their daily lives. …In the 1970s and '80s a small number of researchers studied augmented reality at institutions such as the U.S. Air Force's Armstrong Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Regional Coverage
Cal bringing in consultants to help cut millions from budget
The Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)
UC Berkeley will hire consultants to help cut tens of millions from the campus budget. Bain & Co. will spend six months guiding Berkeley leaders through a study of campus finances, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Thursday. …The Bain collaboration will be part of an effort the university has named "Operational Excellence" and is modeled after a Bain partnership at the University of North Carolina, which is starting to implement 10 changes recommended by the firm. Cornell University also is working with the company, said Birgeneau, who spoke to the leaders of both schools.
Related Link:
http://www.dailycal.org/article/106875/campus_employs_firm_to_assess_operations
Is bank chief’s retiring forced?
The Boston Globe
Ken Lewis’s explanation that he will retire soon from Bank of America Corp. on his own terms continued to be met with skepticism yesterday. …Either way, his announcement should not have been a surprise, given how much controversy and criticism Lewis was subjected to in the past year, said Tom Hazen, a professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who focuses on corporate and securities law. “It is unusual for a company that is perceived as having problems for the CEO to last a terribly long time,’’ he said.
State and Local Coverage
Local broadcaster donates $3.5 million to UNC program
The Winston-Salem Journal
The UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication said yesterday that a $3.5 million gift — the largest single gift by an individual to the school — has been made by the estate of alumnus Reese Felts. Felts, a 1952 UNC graduate, died earlier this year. He worked for nearly 30 years as a radio and television broadcaster in Winston-Salem, primarily with WSJS and WXII, before retiring in 1980. The gift is being used to launch a major experimental student-news project and audience-research initiative. It also will pay for a distinguished professorship in the school, said Jean Folkerts, the dean of the school.
Related Links:
http://triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2009/09/28/daily62.html
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7042705
http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story/6116322/
http://www.wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=11969
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2927/75/
UNC Climate Action Plan: Netting out at zero by 2050
The Carrboro Citizen
Last month, UNC released its first Climate Action Plan, which sketched a roadmap to climate neutrality by mid-century. The plan is comprehensive and multi-faceted, but foremost among its objectives is improving energy efficiency in campus buildings. The impetus for the plan came in 2006, when then-Chancellor James Moeser signed onto the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging the university to achieve climate neutrality – meaning zero net greenhouse gas emissions – by 2050.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2865/107/
Developer says bank engineers defaults
The Charlotte Observer
As more commercial developments stumble in a weak economy, an increasing number of lenders are taking over projects – even if the borrower is not in financial trouble. …In this recession, which was largely brought on by overzealous lending, banks have been under increasing pressure from regulators to shed bad loans. They also have an obligation to shareholders to cut their losses, says UNC Chapel Hill banking professor Lissa Broome.
Faithful fight high interest
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The average debt for nearly half of Americans with credit-card balances rose from about $5,600 in 2004 to $7,300 in 2007, according to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve. …Jesse Blocher, a doctoral student in finance at UNC-Chapel Hill, has worked with Durham CAN in the past on improving school facilities but said he can't support the usury campaign. "We as the church would better spend our time trying to help people get out of debt rather than trying to take on Bank of America," he said.
Protection of rights
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp stood at the podium in The Pit reading aloud from the book "Catcher in the Rye." The passage he read included the words "God damn" several times. Who ever would have thought Thorp would stand in The Pit saying those provocative words, but the chancellor was participating in First Amendment Day at UNC and was reading a passage from the 1951 book by J.D. Salinger that has been challenged repeatedly and at times banned because of its use of profanity and sexuality.
Prep union breaking ties with UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The N.C. High School Athletic Association is in the process of severing its 97-year-old ties with the University of North Carolina. The NCHSAA already administers the interscholastic athletic programs of its 386 member schools, including most public high schools in North Carolina. …Carol P. Tresolini, a UNC associate provost for academic initiatives, said the university has examined all of its relationships in light of the current budget climate to see how the relationship was helping to fulfill the university's academic mission.
New prostate-cancer treatment ditches chemo, surgery
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Chemotherapy and surgery could become a thing of the past for men with prostate cancer. UNC Hospitals and Duke University Medical Center are studying a minimally invasive treatment for the disease, which kills one in 35 men. …"Then, instead of using an imaging frequency for an ultrasound that allows us to look at the prostate, it uses a different frequency that allows us to heat and kill the prostate," said Dr. Eric Wallen, an urologic oncologist at UNC Hospitals.
Study: Deer Crashes Continue To Rise In NC
WFMY-TV (CBS/Greensboro)
It's that time of year again…the time where you are most likely to hit a deer in your vehicle! Crashes involving deer rose to an all-time high in North Carolina in 2008. A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that crashes reported to police involving deer last year on roadways in the state increased to 19,693, up from 19,277 in 2007.
Related Links:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown/oh-deer-did-you-hit-one
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6116971/
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2926/73/
More hospitals set limits on young visitors
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Hospitals across central North Carolina are putting new limits in place for visitors as a precaution to limit the spread of the H1N1 and seasonal flu viruses. …exposure in a vaccination or virus. No one younger than 13 is permitted to visit the Newborn Critical Care Center, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Labor and Delivery Unit at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, a spokesman said.
Related Link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/health&id=7044703
http://durhamcounty.mync.com/site/durhamcounty/news/story/42569/
unc-hospital-restricts-access-to-visiting-children/
Marching orders (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
For those who are inclined to believe the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has too many highly paid bureaucrats doing too little work, Exhibit A might now be a well-meaning program to help deployed soldiers of the National Guard and the Army Reserves. …UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp is appropriately attentive, saying in an understatement that the program is "seriously flawed."
UNC Will Hold Off On Capital Campaign
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Matt Kupec, vice chancellor for university advancement at UNC, says the university may have been a little ambitious in setting a 4-billion capital campaign goal and has since decided to hold off. The idea for a new campaign was introduced after the success of the Carolina First initiative, and Kupec says the economy has deterred plans for launching the next one.
UNC gets award for diversity
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC was one of 53 colleges and universities nationwide that were honored recently for commitment to diversity. Minority Access Inc., a nonprofit education organization that supports academic institutions, government agencies and private businesses in improving the recruitment, retention and enhancement of minorities, presents the award. Archie Ervin, UNC's associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs, accepted the award for the university.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2894/68/
Seeing art with a lens of context
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
"Sentinel II," a 1959 sculpture by Seymour Lipton (1903-1986) is the focal point for a new exhibit opening Saturday at the Ackland Art Museum at UNC. The exhibit, titled "The Guardian and the Avant-Garde: Seymour Lipton's 'Sentinel II' in Context," has works in a wide range of media, from different historical periods.
PlayMakers plan 'Nickleby' events
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Spend an evening with the Tony Award-winning playwright of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" Thursday through PlayMakers Repertory Company's new outreach program, The Dickens Initiative. PlayMakers, the professional theater in residence at UNC Chapel Hill, will host the 6 p.m. program "An Evening with David Edgar" in the Paul Green Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2903/68/
Mixed-media art to be on display
The Chapel Hill Herald
"Dislocation/Relocation/Diaspora: The Art of Hamid Kachmar" will be the title of a mixed-media art exhibit on view from Thursday through Dec. 4 at UNC's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
Annual Asian Parent Night set
The Chapel Hill Herald
The 2nd Annual Asian Parent Night will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 14 at Smith Middle School Auditorium. Robin Visser, associate professor of Asian studies at UNC, and Ji-Yeon Jo, lecturer of Asian Studies at UNC, will speak on cultural and communication differences between the Asian and American cultures.
Cancer survivors program offered
The Chapel Hill Herald
Carolina Well, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's cancer survivorship program, is offering a program for cancer survivors called "Cancer Transitions: Moving Beyond Treatment." Developed by and in partnership with the Wellness Community and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the program was created to help cancer survivors make the transition from active treatment to post-treatment care.
Issues and Trends
$1.5 million to fund local research
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Roughly $1.5 million worth of federal stimulus funding will be coming to Greensboro as part of 556 National Institutes of Health grants handed out across the state this week. Nationwide, more than 12,000 such grants were given out under one slice of a $787 billion effort to spark the economy. In North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke landed the lion’s share of the grant funding.
UT system interim president to move off Knox campus
The News Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.)
After barely seven months in a temporary job, Jan Simek has decided to move the University of Tennessee president's office off the main campus in Knoxville – possibly next summer. …"This is easy to fix," Simek said, noting that the University of North Carolina's president office is located in Chapel Hill but not on the Chapel Hill campus. "We can do that here."