Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
The Numbers Game
Science Magazine
… As a result, notes Liu Junguo, a hydrologist at Beijing Forestry University, the inverse is also true: guan chu shuzi, or "leaders make numbers." Scholars say that outright cooking of the books is rare, perhaps because it's a red flag: With data released consistently every month or every year, says Yong Cai, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, "it's very difficult to fake something in a systematic way without being caught." Instead, officials may change definitions so that one year's data are not comparable to previous years'.
President Gee's Last Gaffe
Inside Higher Ed
…But Gee's retirement does underscore the precarious position of public university presidents these days. He joins several other university presidents who have resigned in the past few years amid, if not because of, scandals. In the past two years alone, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Oregon and the Louisiana State University system have all named new leaders in the wake of controversies. … Most retiring presidents give their boards time to select a successor. Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman, who is stepping down this month, informed her board in September. Holden Thorp, who will step down as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on July 1, also informed his board in September.
Regional Coverage
The Meaning of Change
Urban Tulsa Weekly (Tulsa, Okla.)
…Alfred Brophy, a law professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has written a book about the Tulsa Race Riot. While he was quick to say he's not an expert on Tate Brady, he found no flaw with recent reporting in This Land Press of Brady's association with the riot.
State and Local Coverage
Get your fluids without the extra calories (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Be aware of a hydration hazard this summer: Cuploads of calories from a continuous drip of fluids. I’m talking about you two-fisted drinkers keeping company with jumbo-sized drinks all day every day. They’re with you in your car, at meetings and at your desk while you work or surf the Net at home. It’s hot outside, but you don’t need that much fluid. And those drinks, if they contain calories, can dash your diet plans.
(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.)
Child care fee useful (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In response to the June 4 letter “Justified paring” about UNC student fees: It contained a significant amount of misinformation about the referenced student child care activity fee. This fee provides some funding for subsidies to student parents through the Child Care Financial Assistance Program. The Child Care Financial Assistance Program is a need-based program and requires that parents or guardians also pay a portion of the cost of their child care. Many student parents who qualify for this subsidy do not receive assistance because the need exceeds the funding available. Child Care Services Association, a nationally recognized nonprofit, administers the program.
At UNC, Silent Sam romanticizes the Civil War and the old South
The Indy Weekly
Sam, a Confederate soldier, stands tall and stoic, rifle across his chest, in the middle of the upper quad at UNC-Chapel Hill. Made of stone, he is in full uniform, is wearing shoes, does not appear to have diarrhea and is not at all bedraggled, which makes him unlike an actual Confederate soldier during the Civil War.
Issues and Trends
Assembly has history of local-quarrel intervention
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Republican-driven moves by the N.C. General Assembly to intervene in local disputes in Durham, Asheville and Charlotte are drawing criticism, but they’re not unprecedented. The assembly when under Democratic control wasn’t averse to throwing its weight around with local governments, at no point more heavily than in 2001 when it forced Chapel Hill officials to approve an expansion of UNC’s central campus.
NCCU's new start (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Debra Saunders-White, the new chancellor of N.C. Central University in Durham, made connections in several ways with students on Monday, her first day on the job. In the chancellor’s case, connections is a significant way to put it. She is a former systems engineer for IBM, a technology administrator for Hampton University and UNC-Wilmington and most recently the deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs at the U.S. Department of Education.