Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
$1 million grant for Pa. gas drilling health study
The Associated Press
A Pennsylvania health company says it has gotten a $1 million grant to study possible health impacts of natural gas drilling on the Marcellus shale. …Also cited was an EPA study on potential impacts of fracking activities on drinking water that is due to be completed in 2014 and a study recently announced by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with scientists from Columbia, Johns Hopkins and the University of North Carolina.
State and Local Coverage
Thorp to become provost at Washington University
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Citing an opportunity to return to teaching and research, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp on Monday confirmed that he will leave his beloved UNC in June to become provost at Washington University in St. Louis. …“This exciting new opportunity represents the best of both worlds,” Thorp said in a formal notice to the campus Monday. “My new positions will enable me to return to my passions of teaching and research while, at the same time, as the chief academic officer, will allow me to continue many of the administrative duties that I enjoyed as chancellor.”
In moving on, Holden Thorp will leave athletic headaches behind
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Gone was the Carolina blue tie, replaced with a green one, when UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp posed for a picture with his next boss, Mark Wrighton, the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. It’s a standard touch of school spirit in the world of higher education – a newly hired college administrator wearing the campus colors.
Fresh start for Thorp (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In his new job as the chief academic officer of Washington University in St. Louis, Holden Thorp still will have a role in oversight of an athletics program, but one on a much smaller scale than the behemoth he leaves behind in Chapel Hill. Washington doesn’t play “big-time” college sports and doesn’t worry about it. Doubtless the role of Washington University provost will be a welcome change for Thorp, a top scientist and teacher before his fateful appointment as chancellor of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill five years ago.
Thorp will fit in at Washington (Commentary)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
I’m not alone in my surprise at Holden Thorp’s decision to take the top academic post at Washington University in St. Louis rather than return to the UNC-CH faculty. “Thorp’s move is an unusual one in higher education,” Inside Higher Ed notes. “While chancellors and presidents often move to the presidency of other institutions or back to the faculty, they rarely move down the administrative chain. In picking up Thorp, Washington University acquires a level of experience that’s hard to come by.”
Washington U Chancellor Thrilled To Get Thorp
WCHL-FM (Chapel Hill)
The Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis Mark Wrighton spoke glowingly about what the addition of Holden Thorp will mean to his university. “We’re thrilled. Holden Thorp is one of America’s great academic leaders. He is an established leader in science. He’s an innovator, an entrepreneur. He’s a person that works well with many people at all levels, and we are very fortunate to have him joining our leadership team.”
Related Links:
http://chapelboro.com/Thorp-s-Predecessor-Says-He-Will-Hit-The-Ground-Ru/15560425
http://chapelboro.com/Bruce-Carney-Thorp-s-Going-To-Be-A-National-Presen/15560388
Franchising means entrepreneurs don't have to go it alone
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…Ted Zoller, a UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School professor and the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, said franchise advantages include a template business with a predefined pricing and marketing strategy, and access to market research. The biggest advantage, Zoller said, is the relevance and visibility of the brand. “People know the brand based on its experience with it elsewhere,” Zoller said. “So you can immediately get traction.”
Judge declines request for restraining order against church
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A judge on Monday denied neighbors of newhope church a temporary restraining order that would have forced the church to turn down its music so it’s not a nuisance to adjoining homeowners. …Temporary restraining orders are “an emergency measure” typically requested at the outset of a case and only sets the stage for further proceedings, UNC School of Government professor Ann Anderson said in a school briefing paper.
Nursing program approved
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The UNC system Board of Governors has authorized the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing to offer a graduate-level nursing degree, the doctor of nursing practice. Nurses with the advanced degree will be educated to fill critical roles in a complex health care environment in which people need better access to primary care, chronic illness management and preventative health services. Previously, there had been no state-supported colleges or universities offering the DNP degree in North Carolina, which has 91 counties out of 100 that are designated as medically underserved areas.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5863/71/
NC legislators consider limits on tanning beds for those under 18
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…Young, white women are the heaviest users of tanning beds and are also the group most likely to develop melanoma, said David Ollila, a surgical oncologist at UNC’s Lineberger Cancer Center who helped write the proposed legislation. He cited two studies, one from Minnesota and one from New South Wales. “The results show unequivocally that people who have ever used a tanning bed have higher rates of melanoma, and it’s most pronounced in those who used them in their teens or 20s.” Ollila said.
Health conference scheduled
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The 34th annual Minority Health Conference will be held Friday at the Friday Center for Continuing Education. Brian Smedley, the vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute at the Center for Political and Economic Studies, will give the William T. Small Jr. keynote lecture. His topic will be “Taking Action to Achieve Health Equity: Beyond the Affordable Care Act.”
ACLU honors its heroes (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The N.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union held a banquet Saturday to give awards to their “civil liberties heroes”: UNC Law Professor Deborah Weissman, the Frank Porter Graham Award for her contributions to the fight for individual freedom and civil liberties…
Targeting dementia (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…Alzheimer’s and other dementias usually don’t make people feel sick or look much different. The initial signs are easy to overlook or ignore. Degenerative brain disorders are among the toughest to diagnose and treat, but an even greater tragedy is failing to identify someone with a reversible cause, such as medication side effects. Over the last decade we have learned a simple lesson: We need to take action at the very first sign of trouble in order to have the best chance of turning things around. We can do it – with teamwork. (Daniel Kaufer, M.D., Director, UNC Memory Disorders Program; co-director, Carolina Alzheimer’s Network, Chapel Hill)
At UNC-CH, deficits of democracy and leadership led to scandal (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill has been suffering from an athletic scandal that refuses to go away. What is easy to miss behind the accumulating mass of embarrassing and perplexing detail is the dual deficit that is at the root of the scandal. (Michael H. Hunt, the Everett H. Emerson Professor Emeritus at UNC-CH, taught in the history department from 1980 to 2008. He remains active in his specialty of U.S. foreign relations.)
Issues and Trends
Quintiles Wants To Go Public Again
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
The rumors have circulated for at least a year. But now it's official, North Carolina-based Quintiles has filed a registration with the U-S Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. This isn’t the first time Quintiles has moved forward with plans to file an initial public offering, but times are different today for the 30 year-old company founded by former UNC biostatistics professor Dennis Gillings.