Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Latest concussion doesn't worry Roethlisberger
The Associated Press
Ben Roethlisberger played one of the worst games of his NFL career one week after sustaining a concussion in 2006. He is days removed from his fourth concussion in four years, an uncommonly high number even for an NFL player. …There is evidence of a cumulative effect on players who receive multiple concussions. In 2005, Kevin Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina published a study of retired pro football players that determined players who had three or more concussions had a heightened risk of mild cognitive impairment after age 50.
Get Smart About Product Returns (Commentary)
The Wall Street Journal
To many marketing managers, product returns are a bitter pill to swallow. After all, they can be an enormous drain on revenue. There's the money to be refunded to customers, plus the cost of repackaging, restocking and reselling the returned items. But discouraging returns with policies like strict time limits or only partial refunds, as many retailers do, is a mistake. (Dr. Andrew Petersen, this column's co-author, is an assistant professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
Autistic toddlers make big gains with early, intensive training (Blog)
The Los Angeles Times
In a head-to-head comparison with the kind of care most autistic youngsters receive, a program of intensive training aimed at autistic toddlers as young as a year old demonstrated better results in boosting IQ levels, communication skills and adaptive behavior. …Encouraging the expression of positive emotions, promoting eye contact and rewarding social interaction were at the heart of the teaching strategies, said lead author Geraldine Dawson, a University of North Carolina psychologist and chairwoman of the scientific advisory committee of the patient-advocacy group Autism Speaks.
CEO search at BofA may stretch into 2010
The Associated Press
Bank of America is having such a hard time finding a new CEO that analysts wonder whether Ken Lewis might have to stay past his planned Dec. 31 departure. …"The situation now is far more complex and far more challenging than it was a few months ago," said Anil Shivdasani, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Given the extent of the involvement of the U.S. government, the pay czar, a new board, it has been hard to find a capable CEO that would want to take this job."
Islam's warrior prophet shrouded by myth, devotion
The Houston Chronicle
Yet for detractors, Islam's Prophet Muhammad is a polygamist who spawned a religion that subjugates women, condones violence, and was, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “spread by the sword.” …Enter Omid Safi, a scholar of Islam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose new biography, Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters, attempts to discover the true Muhammad obscured by both hagiography and militant extremism. “I'm trying to help non-Muslims learn things about Muhammad that they've never known,” Safi said over a pot of Ethiopian coffee, “and help Muslims remember things they've forgotten.”
Regional Coverage
Mixed message on breast screening
The Florida Today (Melbourne)
…"The task force is not saying, 'Don't do it,' " said Dr. Russell Harris, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine, referring specifically to mammography. "What we're saying is, 'Don't do it routinely. Stop and think about it.' " Harris, a former member of the task force, said the timing of the new guidelines had nothing to do with politics. It was part of a regularly scheduled update.
When you don't know what's the truth and what's the lie (Blog)
The Boston Globe
…This is a tough question for a few reasons, especially the age of your child and the unknown nature of the offense, but the police involvement obviously hints at something serious. For all those reasons, I checked in with three experts on this, David Finkelhor, from the University of New Hampshire, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center there; Mark Everson, child development specialist and director of the Program on Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment at the University of North Carolina; and a child psychiatrist.
State and Local Coverage
So very thankful at UNC
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In Chapel Hill, Chancellor Holden Thorp gave thanks this week that UNC-Chapel Hill is weathering the recession better than many institutions. On his blog, Thorp said he was thankful for the university's new $180 million Cancer Hospital; its highest SAT-scoring first-year class yet; an agreement on the future Carolina North satellite campus; a grounds crew that keeps the campus leafy green; and a theater company drawing raves for "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" ("Don't miss it," he writes).
Chancellor's Blog:
http://holden.unc.edu/2009/11/some-things-to-be-thankful-for/
Oxford bound (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Folks who disparage today's young people haven't read a lot of Rhodes Scholarship citations. It's mind-boggling to see how accomplished the winners of these coveted postgraduate scholarships to study at Oxford University are. This year North Carolina can claim three, one whose home is here but who studies at MIT and two students at UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3129/1/
UNC-CH Official Defends Tuition Hikes
The North Carolina News Network
While some have criticized tuition increases at UNC-Chapel Hill as being too high, school leaders say they may not be enough to keep the best faculty. Interim Provost Bruce Carney said the school still has tuition that is less than some other comparable institutions. "Well, I would say that when I look at tuition both for residents and for non-residents among our 10 public peers, we're next to last in half the categories and dead last in the other half," said Carney.
Duke, UNC, NCSU hold their own as international MBA students stay home
The Triangle Business Journal
…So far, the movement has not had a major impact on area MBA programs, which strive for a balance of domestic and foreign students. Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill count on foreign students to fill between 30 percent and 40 percent of their MBA classes. Sherry Wallace, director of admissions at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, says she has noticed a drop in international applications over the years, but the school is not at a point that it will affect the quality or mix of students.
Students “Get a Clue” in forensics lab exercise
The Laurinburg Exchange
With a big assist from the University of North Carolina Destiny mobile science lab, students in Kathy Williams’ biology class at the Scotland High School of Visual and Performing Arts spent a day last week using the latest in forensic science to figure out “whodunnit”, when Williams’ biology students performed a lab exercise called “Get a Clue.”
New Topsail commissioners to re-examine beach nourishment project
The Star-News (Wilmington)
With three new faces on Topsail Beach's board of commissioners and a board majority now raising concerns, the town's planned beach nourishment project could face changes. …Joseph Kalo, a University of North Carolina law school professor and co-director of N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center, questioned the right to accretion in the fall 2009 issue of Legal Tides.
Foxx toes own line
The Winston-Salem Journal
In the post-Jesse Helms era, it's hard to find a North Carolina politician more polarizing than Virginia Foxx. …"On that narrow factual point, she is correct," said Harry Watson, a professor of history at UNC Chapel Hill and an expert on the Civil Rights Movement. But Watson added that Foxx is wrong to omit the political and historical context.
Budget woes halt plan to train medical students at Nash General
The Rocky Mount Telegram
A proposal for medical students from East Carolina University to train alongside doctors at Nash General Hospital has been put on hold due to the state’s fiscal woes. …The plan is based on a collaborative effort between the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. In addition, UNC-Chapel Hill plans to develop facilities in Charlotte and Asheville to accommodate students in the last two years of their medical education.
Rediscovering the joys of science at Morehead Planetarium (Editorial)
The Triangle Business Journal
It’s hard to convince people that I love science when I am working at a newspaper, a profession that relies on creativity rather than absolutes. While we were growing up, we were taught that learning science would help us throughout our lives. Clearly my sister believed it as she went on to get a Ph.D. in physics while I was chasing rogue securities brokers on Wall Street. But on Nov. 20, spending four-odd hours at the Jupiter Ball hosted by the UNC Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, brought back all kinds of fond memories.
Trash treasure
The Chapel Hill News
If you're on the second or third floor of the FedEx Global Education Center at UNC and look over the railing down at the atrium floor below, you can't help but be struck by the large mandala that was created there earlier this month. …"The university is focusing on sustainability all year," said Laura Griest, manager of global events and exhibitions at the FedEx center. "We're focusing of global environmental issues from a variety of perspectives. We're looking at it academically with a series of lectures and other events, and we're also looking at it from a creative perspective.
UNC Citizen Soldier program recruits behavioral health providers for database
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Citizen Soldier Support Program is recruiting behavioral and rehabilitative health service providers to participate in a new database that will help returning combat veterans and their families. The Web-based searchable database is part of a refocused effort by the program to enhance behavioral health resources available to National Guard and Reserve members and their families before, during and after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Campus warming (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Despite resistance, we here at UNC-Chapel Hill with the Sierra Club's Coal-Free Campus Campaign believe that we really can succeed in moving beyond coal by 2015. …In the long-term, the Sierra Club hopes to work with the university to move beyond fossil fuels entirely, but that switch must start with coal, one of the dirtiest energy sources used today. (Stewart Boss, Chapel Hill)
Statues reflect different times (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
UNC and the community have more important issues to occupy our time and energy than debating the merits of "Silent Sam" and the "Unsung Founders" memorials. Both memorials deserve our respect and acknowledgement of the history and realities of our past. …To suggest that our perspective must wipe out what was valid then is to negate the very reality of our own history. Better to address ourselves to the injustices of our own time and in our own place than to obliterate the contradictions in our shared experience here in Chapel Hill. (Eunice M. Brock, Samuel H. Magill, Chapel Hill)
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts/story/213404.html
Veterans memorial overdue (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
A lot is riding on the university's remaking of the University Square shopping center downtown. The UNC Foundation has held public meetings. People have asked for green space, a place for public art, a grocery store. Let's add a veterans memorial.
Playmaker pride (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Kudos to Playmakers Repertory Company at UNC-Chapel Hill. I will never forget having the experience of attending the opening performances of "Nicholas Nickleby." The idea of enjoying a box supper in the lobby with friends made for a perfect interlude between performances. Under the direction of Joseph Haj, the acting was superb and the staging and costumes magnificent. (Karen Fink, Chapel Hill)
Flu testing available (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In response to the Nov. 24 letter "Flu test follies," I wanted to clarify UNC Hospitals' capability to perform influenza testing for both seasonal and novel H1N1. UNC Hospitals does offer laboratory testing for influenza, and our community practices have access to this testing. However, our institution follows the guidance of the CDC and North Carolina state public health recommendations in terms of which patients are offered testing. (Melissa Miller, Ph.D., director, Clinical Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill)
Giving thanks and Big Turkeys for business klutzes (Column)
The Triangle Business Journal
Global warming, health-care reform, college football – they all pale in significance when compared to the really big news of the season: the 2009 Family Business Big Turkey Awards! Each Thanksgiving, this column recognizes those business-owning families that have distinguished themselves over the past 12 months with un-businesslike behavior bordering on the bizarre. (James Lea is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a family business speaker, author and adviser.)
Bucking trend, UNC newspaper Daily Tar Heel plans to expand
The Triangle Business Journal
As its competitors retrench, the University of North Carolina’s nonprofit student newspaper is expanding into space off campus with the goal of generating new revenue by beefing up its online offerings. Relocating The Daily Tar Heel into 6,000 square feet of leased space on Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill is a risky move that will squeeze the operation’s already tight margins even further.
Issues and Trends
USDA grant to fund food science studies
The Charlotte Observer
Thanks to a $1million grant, students from as many as eight state universities will study food science and nutrition at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. …Participating institutions are Appalachian State, Duke, N.C. A&T State, N.C. Central and N.C. State universities and UNC Charlotte, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro.
Money for Nothing (Opinion Column)
The Macon County News (Franklin)
…Those thoughts returned while reading about the attempt by the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors to reign in the practice paying top university officials outrageous amounts to essentially do nothing, to take a "research leave." …One recommendation being considered by the Board of Governors would limit the leaves to six months, rather than one year. Paul Fulton, a board member and the former head of the Kenan Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, doesn't like the idea. He says it would hurt the schools' ability to recruit top administrators. "Our benefits — they'd have to improve to get bad," Fulton said.
Varsity returns with style
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The lights of Franklin Street are a little brighter this week now that the historic Varsity Theatre marquee is lit up once again. …Thanks to the efforts of UNC art school students, all the paneling and designs have been painted by hand. Add to that a completely renovated concession area and upstairs lobby, and you may not recognize Chapel Hill's only remaining downtown cinema.
Aldermen clear way for school
The Chapel Hill News
…Mark Dorosin, a senior attorney with the UNC Center for Civil Rights, spoke on behalf of the greater Rogers and Eubanks Road communities. He said the Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to site the waste transfer station at a Dec. 7 meeting. Dorosin said a resolution from the Board of Aldermen would be "reinforcing this board and this town's commitment to racial and economic justice."
Slump closes Latino nonprofit
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A nonprofit that served Orange County's Latino population for a decade closed its doors this week, saying the recession had taken a heavy toll on its funding. …"It has been a wonderful nonprofit that has provided so many good services to the community," said Paula Gildner, a UNC-Chapel Hill researcher and board member. "It was just the recession. It's hit a lot of nonprofits hard, especially small ones like ourselves."