Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
A Crown Jewel of Education Struggles With Cuts
The New York Times
As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent. …And on Thursday, to top it all off, the Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — by 32 percent next fall, to more than $10,000. The university will cost about three times as much as it did a decade ago, and what was once an educational bargain will be one of the nation’s higher-priced public universities. …So although he was not swayed last year when the University of North Carolina came calling, Mr. (Bruce) Fuller said, he may be more receptive this year.
Mammogram Debate Took Group by Surprise
The New York Times
The federal Preventive Services Task Force, the group that created a political firestorm this week with its recommendation that women get less-frequent mammograms, was created to be insulated from politics. Yet, some observers say, its apolitical nature may have made it naïve about just how strongly Congress; some professionals, like radiologists; advocacy groups, like the American Cancer Society; and members of the public would react. …Dr. Russell Harris, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, whose term on the task force recently ended, said, “I’m sure George Bush would never have appointed me to anything.”
Ouster of N.F.L.’s Voice on Concussions Sought
The New York Times
The National Football League Players Association is calling for the removal of Dr. Ira Casson as co-chairman of the league’s committee on concussions, saying that he is too biased to lead the research and policy group. …As the issue of the long-term effects of football brain injuries has risen in prominence, Casson has dismissed every outside study finding links to dementia and other cognitive decline, including three papers published by the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes.
Guest Book Review: Give My Poor Heart Ease
Inside Higher Ed
Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues is a book that will transport its readers, though it’s meant to be experienced at a walking pace. The book is comprised of black-and-white photographs and edited interviews that William Ferris compiled in the 1960s and ‘70s, and it comes with a CD and a DVD that don’t merely just make possible, but actually require, appreciative interaction with the people of a “fading generation” along the landscape of Mississippi's Highway 61. …Ferris (Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) wants the book to be about blues and its people, about Mississippi, about two past generations.
Top Employers for Global Business Undergrads
Businessweek
…Recently, 45 students converged on New York and shared feedback on what they look for in an ideal employer. The students were participants in GLOBE, an undergraduate business program that brings together top students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School (Kenan-Flagler Undergraduate Business Profile), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Copenhagen Business School, who travel and live together for 18 months and visit five different countries, including the U.S. and China.
Regional Coverage
North Carolina and California also raise college costs (Blog)
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (Georgia)
We aren’t the only state socking it to college students: …The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Thursday approved a $200 tuition and fee increase for in-state students for next fall.
Outside consultants as UNM salvation? (Editorial)
The Santa Fe New Mexican (New Mexico)
…So a story tucked in a back page of last Sunday's New York Times caught our attention: Seems some of America's leading universities are turning to — mirabile dictu — management consultants to resolve their budgetary and administrative problems, the way executives in private industry would. At the University of North Carolina, the prexy called in a consulting company to look for ways of saving money in these thin times. The outside experts came back with recommendations that would save the Tarheel campus $150 million — through such business-common practices as centralizing school purchases, sharing computer systems and simplifying the organization structure.
State and Local Coverage
UNC tuition hike too small, some say
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Students at UNC-Chapel Hill will continue to pay far less for their educations than peers at most of the campus's competitors under a tuition plan approved Thursday. And that, some say, is a problem. In considering tuition hikes each year, campus leaders weigh the price of quality against the state's historic mandate to keep college costs low. This year, the task was complicated by the recession and a legislative mandate that will take tuition revenue away from public university campuses.
Related Links:
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/11/16/daily58.html
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6457123/
http://wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=12453
http://www.heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Trustees+OK+UNC+tuition
+increase%20&id=4581353-Trustees+OK+UNC+tuition+increase
UNC trustees honor 4 with prestigious Davie Award
The Chapel Hill Herald
The UNC Board of Trustees has honored four recipients with the William Richardson Davie Award, the board's highest honor. Chancellor Holden Thorp and the trustees honored Fred Eshelman, founder of PPD Inc., of Wilmington; Richard Krasno, executive director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, of Chapel Hill; Gov. Beverly Perdue of Raleigh; and Richard "Stick" Williams, senior vice president of environmental health and safety at Duke Energy Corp., of Charlotte during a dinner Wednesday at the Carolina Inn.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3124/68/
UNC, NCSU to partner on ERP
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC and N.C. State University hope to save money and improve efficiency by partnering on the human resources and finance components of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Both campuses use Oracle's PeopleSoft software for their ERP systems — major administrative systems for student services, human resources, payroll and financial. The partnership will focus on the human resources and financial systems. N.C. State has used PeopleSoft for these functions for a decade and is upgrading to the latest version. UNC Chapel Hill plans to use those PeopleSoft components.
Related Link:
http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/news/blogpost/6454871/
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3125/74/
UNC's business exec program to grow
The Triangle Business Journal
The Kenan-Flagler Business School is going all in on its UNC Executive Development program with a $36 million plan to double the size of the Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center, including 35,000 square feet of additional student living space. The project, which has been presented to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, is being considered at a time when demand for such programs is ebbing. But backers say it would position the business school to take advantage of pent-up demand when the economy rebounds.
UNC scientists delving into human lung to build virtual map of organ
The Triangle Business Journal
For 50 years, doctors have believed that a thin layer of water separates the inside of a human lung from a layer of protective mucus. …Those involved in the Virtual Lung Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are building a computer model of the human lung that replicates even the tiniest processes in the extremely complex organ.
Injury prevention is the focus of UNC center
The Chapel Hill Herald
Accidents happen. Bruises, sprains, concussions and even the occasional broken bone. For most people, these are an unavoidable part of an active life. But not according to scientists at the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center. Founded in 1987, the UNC center is one of 11 such organizations in the U.S.
UNC endowment takes a big hit (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In fiscal 2009, UNC Chapel Hill's endowment lost nearly 20 percent of its value. In real numbers, that's $440 million, from $2.2 billion to about $1.8 billion. …Though tough to stomach, the endowment loss is not unusual. Universities everywhere have struggled this year with significant decreases in the value of their endowments. A study by Cambridge Associates shows that the average loss in fiscal 09 by a group of 163 colleges and universities is 20 percent – so UNC-CH is right at the average.
Undoing vote on lake requires suit
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A lawsuit must be filed to undo a 3-2 vote that changed a watershed protection boundary near Jordan Lake, County Attorney Lowell Siler told the Durham County Board of Commissioners Thursday. Little precedent exists for changing the outcome of a board vote, Siler said, but experts at the UNC School of Government indicate that any alteration will require action in Superior Court.
Issues and Trends
Duke, UNC vows aren't good enough (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
I couldn't agree more with last Sunday's op-ed, "UNC should follow Duke's lead in reducing coal use." What it failed to mention is that neither university's climate pledge goes far enough as they are based on outdated climate models. (Brendan Watson, Carrboro)
Underage drinking has high financial costs for many (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The annual Franklin Street Halloween event is a continuing source of community debate. No longer a family festival, families were pushed aside by large university age crowds from UNC and surrounding counties. Even with efforts to reduce its size, estimates this year report 50,000 attendees. Off-duty law enforcement officers from throughout the region are hired for security and crowd control. Emergency medical transports for alcohol poisonings, as usual, occurred, and assaults, including the stabbing of a UNC student, were reported.
NCCU seeking right balance (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC President Erskine Bowles has made it clear that one aggressive priority of his tenure is increasing the retention rate in the system's campuses. …This week, N. C. Central University's chancellor, Charlie Nelms, raised a bit of a caution flag on that drive. He wants to be sure Bowles and other top system administrators acknowledge that schools like NCCU have a different mission, and a different challenge, than campuses such as Chapel Hill, N. C. State University or UNC Wilmington.