Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Congo Reassures Copper Miners Rattled by Attack in Katanga
Bloomberg News
…While parts of Katanga tried to secede immediately after Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960, the recent Mai Mai groups grew out of contemporary political and economic circumstances, said Professor Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, author of The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History. “They are young people with no hope for the future, who have not finished high school, with no opportunities, who can’t find a job,” Nzongola-Ntalaja said in a phone interview from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They’re easily recruited into these groups that promise them pie in the sky.”
National Coverage
UNC chancellor asks to suspend proceedings against student
The Associated Press
UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor asked the school’s student-led honor system Tuesday to suspend proceedings against a student it accuses of intimidating the man she says sexually assaulted her. …Thorp said Tuesday the university has asked the student attorney general to suspend the honor court proceedings because of potential conflict between that hearing and the retaliation claim. “For several weeks, the university has grappled with how to best respond to a public claim of retaliation against the university while maintaining the autonomy and integrity of our honor court proceedings and the privacy of the individuals,” Thorp wrote in an open letter to students, faculty and staff.
Related Links:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-03-26/university-of-north-
carolina-disciplinary-hearing-suspended
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-north-carolina-halts-case-against
-student-who-spoke-out-about-sexual-assault/57595
Bloomberg Seeks End to Cheap Cigarettes
The New York Times
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg opened a new front in his antismoking campaign last week when he proposed new legislation that would require stores to keep tobacco products out of sight, making New York the first city in the nation to do so. …“This is kind of a landmark set of proposals here,” said Kurt Ribisl, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose research on tobacco control influenced Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal. “For someone like me, who’s spent 18 years studying point-of-sale issues, this is kind of big.”
Yahoo’s ‘Acqui-Hiring’ and Its Tax Implications
"Deal Book" The New York Times
…John Coyle and Gregg Polsky, law professors at the University of North Carolina, explain the acqui-hiring phenomenon as driven by Silicon Valley social norms. Engineers don’t want to appear disloyal to the start-up or its investors. And the acquisition allows the founders, employees and investors to claim a successful exit, even if the product gets shut down.
3 Ways Colleges Can Build a Bridge for Future Leaders
Forbes
The 21st century poses looming challenges that will surely tax the talents of our future leaders across business, government and civil society. And since the quality of tomorrow’s leadership is tied to the quality of today’s education system, there is good reason for concern. …An increasing number of colleges are trying to get ahead of the curve by encouraging applicants to defer for a bridge year. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers a competitive Global Gap Year Fellowship to its incoming students.
Chinese Students Struggle for Returns on Education in U.S.
The Wall Street Journal
…That failure for Chinese students to integrate, combined with the price tag for an American education, frustrates students like Jocelyn Jia, a 22-year-old communications major from Hainan. Now at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ms. Jia is seizing every opportunity to make American friends and experience what she couldn’t have if she had attended college in China.
Disconnect: A New Movie Sounds the Alarm About Our Hyper-Connected Lives
The Huffington Post
…Barbara Fredrickson is a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina and the author of Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become. She explains how, in the same way that leading a sedentary life changes our bodies, our online habits can actually rewire our brains.
State and Local Coverage
UNC asks honor court to suspend trial against student
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill’s student-run honor court has delayed a trial for Landen Gambill, the student who was charged with intimidating another student after publicly saying she had been raped. Chancellor Holden Thorp announced Tuesday that he had asked the honor system to suspend its proceeding after a retaliation charge by Gambill against the university. “We decided it was best that the honor court case be put on hold,” he said.
Related Links:
http://wunc.org/post/unc-suspends-honor-court-case-against-gambill
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localnews/x145783456/UNC-suspends
-student-s-Honor-Court-hearing
Matthew Gfeller’s spirit and foundation helping thousands (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
…The conference was hosted by the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is part of the university’s Department of Exercise and Sport Science. “Our role is to disseminate as much information as we can to help people understand traumatic brain injury,” Bob Gfeller, Matthew Gfeller’s father, told the Journal. Bob Gfeller and his wife, Lisa, started the Matthew Gfeller Foundation after their son, 15, died after suffering intracranial bleeding caused by a helmet-to-helmet collision while playing in his first varsity football game at Reynolds High School in 2008.
Basketball star Josh Level’s infection uncommon, overlooked
The News & Record (Greensboro)
…Unbeknownst to his family and coaches, Level had myocarditis, a viral infection that is not common among teenagers, but can cause sudden death. The infection spreads through the air or by touching. …“One in 100,000 kids up to college age gets it,” said Bert Fields, professor of sports medicine for UNC-Chapel Hill, who also is on a sports fellowship for Moses Cone Hospital. Fields said he sees basketball players get myocarditis more often than other athletes, and that the virus is more common in African Americans than other races. It also is more common in boys.
UNC BoT To Meet, Will Discuss Future Of UNC
WCHL-FM (Chapel Hill)
The 21st Century Vision and the future of the UNC Board of Trustees are up for discussion when the Board meets Wednesday and Thursday. …Wednesday, board members will open with a committee discussion on the University’s 21st Century Vision, a planning initiative that Chancellor Holden Thorp announced in May.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localnews/x145783570/Coalition-
denied-place-on-UNC-Board-of-Trustees-agenda
Roses and Raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
…Roses form the families, staff, and volunteers at Charles House to Mel Hurston, senior vice president, professional and support Services, UNC Health Care, Dr. Jan Busby-Whitehead, director, Center for Aging and Health, UNC Health Care, and Dr. Phil Sloane, professor, UNC Department of Family Medicine, UNC Health Care, for each completing six years of dedicated service on the Charles House Board of Directors. Their commitment to improving the quality of eldercare in Orange County has resulted in an expansion of Charles House services to include Eldercare Homes, including a second Eldercare Home being constructed in the Winmore neighborhood, and plans for an expanded Eldercare Day program, and has strengthened Charles House’s partnership with UNC Health Care.
Global water expert to speak Wednesday
The Chapel Hill News
Felix Dodds, former executive director of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, will speak on “The Emerging Role of Water in the Global Climate Negotiations” at 5:30 p.m. today (March 27) in the fourth-floor conference room of the FedEx Global Education Center.
Three Triangle professors receive awards for excellence
The Triangle Business Journal
Susan E. Hauser from N.C. Central University, Darryl J. Gless from UNC-Chapel Hill and Rupert W. Nacoste from N.C. State University were chosen as this year’s most outstanding faculty to receive the 19th Annual Awards for Excellence in Teaching. …Established by the Board of Governors in 1994 to underscore the importance of teaching and to reward good teaching across the university, the awards are given annually to a tenured faculty member from each UNC campus.
UNC researchers push for new health screening strategy
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers are leading the push for a new health screening strategy that would allow people to find out if they are at risk of a rare genetic mutation or preventable disease, such as colon or breast cancer. Dr. James Evans, director of UNC's Clinical Cancer Genetics program, says it's time that public health strategies include genetic testing for mutations in healthy adults. It could happen when they see their doctor for routine exams and blood tests.
UNC Health Care, High Point Regional merger to take effect April 1
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC Health Care system’s merger with the High Point Regional Health System is slated to take effect starting April 1, according to announcements made by the systems on Tuesday. Through the merger, UNC Health Care will become the sole member of High Point Regional’s board. The system will provide $150 million for capital improvements as well as $50 million for a new Community Health Fund.
Related Link:
http://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/article_
a8a9bbf2-9670-11e2-83f4-001a4bcf6878.html
UNC-Kansas game the most-watched NCAA contest of weekend (Blog)
The Charlotte Business Journal
UNC Chapel Hill may have lost its NCAA basketball tournament game to Kansas on Sunday, but the Tar Heels were a winner in the TV ratings. More people watched North Carolina's 70-58 loss to Kansas than any other game this past weekend, the Triangle Business Journal reports.
Playing with ‘Chalk”
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
…“What are you drawing?” asked one of the students gathered outside the union. “We don’t know,” the trio replied. Smith, Fink and Gavel were among the students who braved Monday’s blustery late March chill to participate in “Chalk,” an art project that is part of the Ackland Art Museum’s exhibit “More Love: Art, Politics, and Sharing since the 1990s.”
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/27/2782542/students-chalk-unc-ch-campus.html
Embrace a Mediterranean diet: Study shows it's healthy (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In the scientific quest to define a dietary gold standard, score one more for the merits of a plant-based diet. A study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine found people at high risk for coronary artery disease could reduce their risks of stroke, heart attack and death from coronary artery disease by 30 percent by eating a diet rich in beans, vegetables, fruits, fish and olive oil. (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical associate professor in the department of health policy and administration in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Issues and Trends
Students to protest UNC system budget cuts
The Associated Press
A college students' group plans to protest against suggestions that proposed cuts for the state's public universities could include closing some University of North Carolina system campuses. The NC Student Power Union says it expects a few dozen protesters Wednesday. A top Republican budget writer in the state Senate said last week colleagues likely will consider whether it makes sense to cut some of the 17 UNC campuses.
Related Links:
http://chapelboro.com/Students-Rally-In-Raleigh-Over-UNC-System-Budget-C/15892215
http://www.wral.com/students-to-protest-unc-system-budget-cuts/12273053/
College affordability is a struggle as state aid drops, tuition rises
McClatchy Newspapers
…Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget proposal last week includes a 5.4 percent reduction in state spending for the University of North Carolina system next year. He also asked for a 12.3 percent tuition increase for out-of-state students at UNC-Chapel Hill and other five other schools in the system. Last year, tuition and fees increased an average of nearly 9 percent for in-state undergraduates in the UNC system.
Leave UNC intact (Editorial)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Erskine Bowles left the UNC Board of Governors with a dire warning during his last meeting as system president in November 2010: “If you have 20 percent budget cuts, you’ll have to think about closing down campuses,” he said. “If we keep having cuts, cuts, cuts, we’ll have to look at eliminating schools — campuses. If it went on for several years, that would be the smart decision. The unfortunate, smart decision.” It was an unfortunate statement because it’s being repeated today as possible justification for such a drastic move.
Related Links:
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/03/27/1246249
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/26/2781636/consolidate-unc-campuses-but-give.html
Busy summer ahead for road construction projects
The Chapel Hill News
Several road construction projects will occur this summer in the southern portion of Chapel Hill and Carrboro community that will bring infrastructure benefits valued at more than $11 million, town leaders said. Construction in Chapel Hill typically is planned during summertime when UNC and the public schools are not in session. Efforts are being made to minimize inconveniences to motorists.