Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Democratic Lawmakers Keep Obama at Distance in Campaigns
Bloomberg News
…Kissell’s North Carolina district, as redrawn by the Republican-controlled state legislature, has “an oversupply of those people who are just unalterably opposed to Obama,” said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That means Kissell has “got to make the race much more of a local race than a national race” to win, Guillory said.
The Tungurahua Volcano Will be 'Dressed' with 500 Seismographs
El Comercio (Quito, Ecuador)
And why choose the Tungurahua volcano? Jonathan Lees, Professor of Geography with a specialization in seismology/volcanology at the University of North Carolina, smiles while he says that Tungurahua is more interesting that other volcanoes because it is in an eruptive cycle and it has a modern monitoring system. The NPS began investigating the volcano more than 10 years ago. What impact do the 500 seismographs have on the volcano? Lees responds with an analogy: it is like an MRI to a patient, the body tissue is analyzed using the rays. It works the same way with the volcano. The objective is to control the change in the properties of the material when the magma rises during volcanic activity.
National Coverage
A Fast Food Loyalty Rooted in Southern Identity
The New York Times
…Chains like Chick-fil-A and Waffle House, both founded in the Atlanta area in the middle of the last century, have strong associations for Southerners because they were part of the coming of age of a new South, said Marcie Cohen Ferris, who coordinates the Southern studies curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and who is writing a social history of food in the South.
Breastfeeding Rates Increase, CDC Finds
The Huffington Post
More moms in the U.S. are breastfeeding their babies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest breastfeeding report card. …"The big picture is that we've seen a really positive shift in policy and breastfeeding promotion, to where we're really talking about the system," said Dr. Alison Stuebe, an OB-GYN and assistant professor of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina.
A Newer Nostalgia
The Wall Street Journal
…Kevin Hewison, an Asian Studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, notes that any longing for what seems now like a more peaceful time may be a "reaction to the turmoil" of the current political climate, which included anti-government protests in 2010 that left more than 90 people dead after weeks of raucous demonstrations in central Bangkok. "Things were more predictable" in years past, he says.
Customer Service Gets the B-School Treatment
Bloomberg Businessweek
…Indeed, holding up examples of good customer service is something that happens in just about every business school covering this subject. At the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, professor Valarie Zeithaml distinguishes between customer support, in which companies help customers deal with a complaint or problem, and customer service, or the experience one has shopping in a store or staying at a hotel, for example.
B-Schools Send Women Up the Ranks (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal
…Annette L. Ranft, 48, associate dean of academic programs and business professor at University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Business Administration. Ms. Ranft has also spent time on the business faculty at Wake Forest University, West Virginia University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
State and Local Coverage
Collateral Consequences
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
Crime doesn't pay, or so we've heard. In addition to jail or prison time, fines and community service, there are a host of collateral consequences that many people don't even know about. …Host Frank Stasio talks to the co-managers of the Collateral Consequences Assessment Tool: Whitney Fairbanks, Civil Defender Educator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government, and Daryl Atkinson, a staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Dental students provide free care
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
This summer students at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Dentistry provided almost $19,000 worth of free dental care to those in need in the Chapel Hill community. Every Wednesday night for five weeks during summer dental school, students provided screenings, cleanings, extractions and fillings to a total of about 100 patients. Patients who went to the clinic, located in the School of Dentistry’s Tarrson Hall, were selected by lottery at the beginning of the session.
State cuts, yes, but UNC-CH better off than its peers
The Triangle Business Journal
Four years of budget cutting clearly cast some dark clouds over Blue Heaven. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill responded by cutting teachers and administrators, beefing up class sizes, canceling more than 1,000 library subscriptions and trimming special programs.
Millions on denial lists will be able to get health policy
The Triangle Business Journal
…Dr. Brian Goldstein, executive vice president and chief operating officer of UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, says, at least in the first few years of health reform, there will be an increased demand for some health services. “Some people will have new coverage to address injuries and illnesses, and others will have better coverage than before,” he reasons.
Why all the disbelief from leadership on UNC scandals? (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
Administrators at UNC Chapel Hill must have very sore shoulders these days, sore from shrugging in disbelief at every new revelation of athletic and academic cheating on campus.
Related Links:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/02/3425923/uncs-two-cultures-of-athletics.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/08/03/2240561/anne-wallace-conscientous-faculty.html
Issues and Trends
UNC System among the very top in taxpayer contribution
The Triangle Business Journal
State cuts to spending on higher education in North Carolina have produced howls of protests, with community college and UNC System leaders, students and some alumni decrying the actions as “devastating” to what are arguably the state’s most cherished institutions.
In N.C., ‘free’ college is guided by meaning of a word
The Triangle Business Journal
The word “practicable” is often brought up by state university supporters in their arguments for as much state funding as possible. That’s because the state’s constitution decrees that a higher education should be provided for free – to the extent that doing so is “practicable.” Jeff Davies, the UNC System chief of staff, and Charlie Perusse, UNC vice president of finance, defer in providing an exact ratio of support they would consider practicable.
What college system finances show us
The Triangle Business Journal
No one is saying North Carolina is spending too much on education. In fact, as a nation, we may not be spending enough. But the findings of an in-depth report on page 1 of this issue on how the University of North Carolina System is balancing its books when compared to some selected schools across the nation are startling.