Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
"Vi går in i den smarta maskinens tidsålder"
[“We are entering the age of the smart machine”]
ComputerSweden (website)
Oct. 14
Howard Aldrich, Kenan Professor of Sociology & Chair, is interviewed about the new do-it-yourself movement that is creating future entrepreneurs. He gave a presentation in Stockholm titled, "Hackers, the Maker Movement, and Crowdfunding: Technological & Institutional Changes Are Lowering the Threshold for Entrepreneurship.”
National Coverage
Hatchell will tackle cancer head-on
ESPN.com
Oct. 14
There are people who, if you gave them a free pass from work for the rest of their lives, simply wouldn’t take it. Having expectations to face, goals to meet, production to accomplish — it’s just how they are wired. North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell is that kind of person. …And, as everyone who knows her would tell you, it’s how she’ll deal with cancer. She’ll tackle it head-on, with a commitment to a game plan and her trademark relentless optimism.
Just 12 Percent Middle-Aged Women Satisfied With Body Size
Parent Herald (website)
Oct. 15
A latest study by American researchers shows that just 12. 2 percent of midlife women are satisfied with their body size. Researchers at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine analysed Gender and Body Image (GABI) studied 1,789 women, aged 50 and above. According to the observations, only 12.2 percent of the respondents confessed to being satisfied with their body size.
National Institute Of Health Launches $25 Million Study On Newborn Genetic Testing
The Huffington Post
Oct. 14
Researchers will spend $25 million in federal funds over the next five years assessing the effectiveness and ethical implications of making genetic testing of newborns a new delivery room standard. Launched by the National Institutes of Health last month, the study will be divided into four projects at the University of California, San Francisco, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
State & Local Coverage
Editorial: Baby blue skies ahead with Folt
Henderson Daily Dispatch
Oct. 14
[Full text is below.]
Bright days with baby blue skies are coming to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Carol Folt.
The flagship of our state university system has finally selected a woman for its senior-most leadership position. The selection is solid for a university having no shortage of outstanding candidates.
Skies have been gray, overcast and turbulent of late in Chapel Hill. What began as a problem within the football program mushroomed. NCAA violations would have been bad enough. The university, instead, has endured multiple investigations also uncovering academic fraud.
Many people were part of the trouble, from tutors of students to department heads, from coaches to the athletics director, and even to the chancellor slow to pull a trigger.
Fingers in the dike couldn’t hold back the volume of scandal. An illustrious image of the university was forever badly marked.
Folt’s biggest asset, however, remains the university and its people.
She’ll move forward with many issues in front of her. This is an institution, after all, with more than 29,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students and a faculty of 3,600.
In her installation speech Saturday, Folt said she has confidence in Carolina people. She said she would commit to high standards of transparency, integrity and accountability. She wants to “de-silo” the campus, taking down areas of isolation among teachers and researchers.
Folt was describing relationships and bonds. Two of Carolina’s greatest treasures knew them and used them as well as anyone in their day-to-day life: Charles Kuralt and Dean Smith.
Kuralt’s words still echo today: “What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls or the crisp October nights. Our loyalty is not to the memories of what William Richardson Davie did 200 years ago. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be: The University of the People.”
Folt grew up in Ohio and most recently was in the Ivy League at Dartmouth. But she knows the route to finding the bright blue skies: a university and its people.
UNC Chancellor Carol Folt Takes The Helm
WUNC-Radio (Interview: The State of Things)
On Saturday UNC inducted its first female chancellor, Carol Folt. The former Dartmouth professor takes the reins during a pivotal time at the university. …Host Frank Stasio speaks to Chancellor Folt about her background, vision and plans for the university.
UNC-CH becoming a capital of research aimed at tougher tobacco regulation
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Oct. 15
A perfect growing climate and companies such as R.J. Reynolds in Winston-Salem and American Tobacco in Durham once made North Carolina the cigarette capital of the world. Now, though, the state is becoming a capital of research to build tougher tobacco regulations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs solid data to underpin its 4-year-old authority to regulate tobacco products, and so it decided to fund 14 “Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science.” UNC Chapel Hill is the only institution in the country to win two of them, and together they will bring in nearly $40 million in grants spread over five years and employ nearly 100 people.
Georgia man is third person arrested in UNC sports agent investigation
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Observer (Charlotte)
Oct. 15
A third person has been arrested as part of the secretary of state’s investigation into agents providing illegal benefits to UNC football players. Patrick Mitchell Jones, a real estate agent in Cartersville, Ga., is charged with one count of athlete-agent inducement. Jones is accused of trying to induce Robert Quinn, a defensive end who was a first-round 2011 draft pick by the St. Louis Rams, to sign with Georgia sports agent Terry Watson.
Rex opens new hematology oncology practice in Garner
Triangle Business Journal (blog)
Oct. 14
Rex Healthcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of UNC Health Care, has opened Rex Hematology Oncology Associates of Garner. Rex hopes to attract patients from southern Wake County as well as neighboring Johnston County and other areas.
UNC pushes back application deadline
WTVD-TV (Durham/Raleigh)
Oct. 15
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said Monday that it is extending its early decision deadline to October 21 because of problems with the Common App – a website used by more than 500 schools across the country to accept college applications.
Issues & Trends
Report Advocates More Research in Journalism Master’s Programs
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Oct. 15
Journalism master’s programs must emphasize gathering information and become more invested in practical research to improve their relationships within their universities, according to a new report from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. …Increasing practical research and encouraging faculty collaboration with Ph.D.’s and professional experience would be a beneficial outcome to the report, one of the report’s authors, Jean Folkerts, said in an interview. [Folkers] is a former dean and a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.