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Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

International Coverage

All eyes on Article 112
The Bangkok Post (Thailand)

…Article 112 of the Criminal Code allows three to 15 years in jail for "whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the heir to the throne or the regent". …The 112 international scholars — led by Kevin Hewison, professor of Asian studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Thai studies expert –in an open letter called on the Yingluck government ''to review the cases of those already charged and convicted, review the laws as they are currently used, and to release on bail those prisoners currently fighting their cases in the courts''.

National Coverage

Responding Before a Call Is Needed
The New York Times

…But for all of what might seem like straightforward logic — that preventive care is better than emergency care — a single knotty problem remains. Under federal rules, emergency medical providers get reimbursed only if they transport a person. What that means is that cutting down on 911 calls, even in the name of better care, can have a built-in conflict of interest for emergency responders themselves. “All these programs are run by people who believe in them — but they don’t get paid for it,” said Dr. Greg Mears, an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We haven’t solved that yet.”

Library School at U. of North Carolina Offers Students Lifelong Digital Archive
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Incoming students at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science this year are getting a new kind of welcome-to-campus perk: Free data storage, for keeps. The service, called LifeTime Library, works on students’ personal computers, allowing them to automatically archive files and folders.
Related Link:
http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=citizen
-times&sParam=37478857.story

UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4759/1/

As colleges cut money, who's taking the hit?
The Associated Press

…College teaching has taken an unprecedented hit during the Great Recession. Universities have cut tens of thousands of mostly part-time teaching positions. That means fewer and more crowded classes, and much more work for teachers who remain. The University of North Carolina system has eliminated more than 3,000 positions – mostly adjunct professors – to bridge a $414 million state budget cut this year. The California State system – which has lost roughly $1 billion in funding – has turned away 50,000 otherwise admissible students in recent years for lack of resources to teach them.

Art at the Scale of Landscape (Column)
The Wall Street Journal

Altitude was the first air conditioner. Come summer since time immemorial, people around the globe—those who could afford it, at least—have fled malarial cities to seek refuge in cool verdant hills. New Yorkers of Edith Wharton's generation repaired to the Adirondacks; officials of the British Raj to hill stations like Simla, with its English roses and mock-Tudor churches. (Thomas Campanella is associate professor of urban design and planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

Additions of Syracuse, Pittsburgh would be coup for ACC
The Washington Post

Two pillars of the Big East, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, have applied to join the ACC and appear poised to do so as early as 2013. …When asked Saturday if the ACC would look to increase in size to 16 teams, North Carolina Athletic Director Dick Baddour said: “It may or may not. I think that depends on … how we size up the situation.”

State and Local Coverage

The new global killers
The Associated Press

…"The timing is difficult with the economy the way it is, but it should not prevent us from setting goals," said Dr. Sidney Smith, who heads the World Heart Federation, an umbrella group of more than 200 organizations focused on heart disease. "Many of the things we're proposing cost very little" and some, such as smoking cessation, even save money, said Smith, a cardiologist at UNC Chapel Hill.

Blazing-fast Internet is dashing to colleges
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

When Larry Conrad took over as UNC-Chapel Hill's technology chief more than three years ago, university staffers balked at his proposal to beef up the campus data backbone. The one-gigabit network – 10 to 20 times faster than an average home Internet connection – wasn't exactly slow. And they had little incentive to invest any further. "They said, 'Well, there's not demand for higher bandwidth,' " said Conrad, the university's vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer. "We didn't have people beating our doors down with demands for connectivity."

UNC-CH takes its MBA online
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

D'Andre Payne and Erik Sneed don't mind being guinea pigs. They're among the small crop of students enrolled in a new online MBA program started this summer by UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. MBA@UNC is one of the first online-only business degree programs started by a highly ranked university. The effort is a bold bet by the school that an online degree will carry the same prestige and allow it to expand its share of the global executive education market.

Is North Carolina the next battleground over water? (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

…North Carolina offers fertile territory for further expansion through acquisitions, according to the current issue of UNC Chapel Hill's Water Resources Re
search Institute quarterly journal. Private water companies companies are considered "rate case machines" on Wall Street and consistently outperform the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average stock indexes. "Because of their potential for population and rate-base growth, systems in wealthy communities in sunbelt states, including North Carolina, are prime targets for acquisition-oriented companies," the UNC journal says in its July-September issue.

Fierce fight expected over constitutional amendment against gay marriage in North Carolina
The Fayetteville Observer

…The practical effect is that unmarried couples – gay or straight – will be constitutionally barred from numerous benefits automatically given to married couples, said Maxine Eichner, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Those could include the right to visit a loved one in the hospital, the right to make medical decisions on behalf of their incapacitated partners, funeral and burial decisions, inheritance rights and access to government benefits, such as Social Security and government medical care, she said.

Organ donor's parents honored for keeping son's memory alive
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)

The parents of a 21-year-old University of North Carolina student whose organs were donated after he died nearly four years ago were honored Saturday by Carolina Donor Services at a banquet dinner in Durham. Their son, Jason Ray, played the popular, energetic mascot Ramses for the Tar Heels. He was hit by a car in March 2007 while on a trip to New Jersey for the NCAA Sweet 16 tournament.

Erskine Bowles on National Debt
North Carolina News Network

Former UNC System president Erskine Bowles says Congress will have to take a balanced approach to get the national debt under control. Bowles, who also co-chaired a debt reduction commission appointed by President Obama, recently delivered a speech on the issue at UNC – Chapel Hill.

Clearing for ductbank to begin at Carolina North
The Chapel Hill Herald

UNC officials held an open meeting to talk about putting in a ductbank on the Carolina North property last week, but before they could begin their presentation, a few people began to object.

Defend America, yes, but also its values (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer

…In a post-9/11 world, no one should deceive themselves: There are a lot of extremists out there who hate America and want to hurt us. A lot of them are Muslim. A study by UNC Chapel Hill sociologist Charles Kurzman found that authorities had identified 161 Muslim American terrorist suspects since 9/11 (out of a population of just 2.6 million Muslim Americans). So authorities must be vigilant.

Learning to compromise (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald

…These parents should be introduced to the growing research, much of it produced by UNC Chapel Hill, that indicates that wealthy, talented students demonstrate no ill effects or grade lag when they share classrooms with poor or less-prepared peers, but that students who enter school with deficits in income or preparation show dramatic improvements when they are educated in the sort of environment that hybrid classrooms promote.

In the dependent danger zone (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

North Carolina was one of the nation's most rapidly growing states during the first decade of the new millennium. In absolute terms, the state added 1.5 million newcomers and grew at a rate (18.5 percent) almost twice the national average (9.7 percent). (James H. Johnson Jr. is William Rand Kenan Jr. distinguished professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the university's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.)

UNC Habitat Dedicates Unprecedented 'Build A Block' Project
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

Sunday, UNC’s Habitat for Humanity chapter will host the dedication of Build a Block, the largest Habitat project undertaken by any university in the country. The student-led project has helped fund and build ten Habitat Homes for UNC and UNC Health Care employees at Chapel Hill’s Phoenix Place subdivision.

27 Views of Chapel Hill: Book collects writers' views of the town
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

It's no secret that Chapel Hill is, and has been, at least since Thomas Wolfe came down from the mountains to attend UNC, crawling with people who Live to Write. You can't spit here without splattering somebody's novel-in-progress, epic poem or latest blog entry. In fact, as Daniel Wallace – a novelist, of course – points out, "Though Chapel Hill is not officially the capital of the world of anything, it has, over the years, become the home of more writers than any other single town in the world."
Related Links:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/18/1493682/a-boyhood-friendship
.html#storylink=misearch

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/18/1493684/in-a-fragrance-a-promise-
of-all.html#storylink=misearch

ACC grows to 14 with addition of Syracuse, Pittsburgh
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

…"I appreciate the work and preparation that the conference has done to put us in position to invite and accept Pittsburgh and Syracuse into the ACC. The ACC has been one of the top conferences for more than 50 years and today's additions will strengthen the league and help each of the current members sustain our outstanding programs in the future." – North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour
Related Links:
http://www2.journalnow.com/sports/2011/sep/18/2/wsmain01-acc-poised-to-expand-ar-1403969/
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/sports&id=8358701
http://www.chapelboro.com/It-s-Official–ACC-Will-Add-Two-Members/10944491

UNC may offer self-imposed sanctions
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

University of North Carolina officials and lawyers face a delicate balancing act as an important NCAA deadline approaches. …That response is expected to include penalties UNC will impose on itself. Schools facing major violations often self sanction to display penitence and respect for NCAA rules.

UNC-CH probing classes
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

A probe into academic "irregularities" at UNC-Chapel Hill's African and Afro-American studies department is targeting independent study classes after data released to The News & Observer this week show football players are accounting for more than 20 percent of the class enrollments over the past five years.

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