August 13, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current International Coverage

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people 
and programs cited recently in the international and national media:

US Varsity in controversy over Koran 
The Hindustan Times (India)
An American university has come in for strong criticism from Christian fundamentalists 
for including a book on Koran in its curriculum to foster greater understanding between 
Christian and Muslim students. 
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/03131406.htm

Current National Coverage

Resolution Affirming Academic Freedom Fails to Win Approval of U. of North 
Carolina Board
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Faculty leaders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are blasting the 
university system's Board of Governors after it failed on Friday to pass a resolution 
defending academic freedom. The vote came as the Chapel Hill campus is being attacked 
by state legislators for requiring incoming freshmen and transfer students to read a book 
about the Koran. 
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/08/2002081301n.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

Mandating the Koran (Editorial)
The Wall Street Journal
When a state university requires students to immerse themselves in the study of a 
particular religion, it can expect trouble. That's exactly what the University of North 
Carolina got for its summer reading requirement that all incoming freshmen read portions 
of the Koran and commentary by a religious scholar. The school now faces a lawsuit 
from a group of students and alumni, charging violations of the First Amendment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1029195943657435395.djm,00.html
(Note: The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription to access articles. A Washington 
Post commentary published Aug. 12 was distributed via the Post wire service. Among 
outlets picking that up was The News and Observer. A related commentary from 
The Chicago Tribune published on Aug. 11 was featured in today's edition of 
The Houston Chronicle. The national Associated Press story distributed late last week 
about the state legislative action also has been picked up as a brief in The Christian 
Science Monitor.)

Checking In on Campus
The Chronicle of Higher Education
In the mid-1980s, Saint Louis University bought a hotel, turned it into a dormitory, and 
called it Reinert Hall. Almost 20 years later, officials decided that the private institution 
needed a hotel... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill brought in Doubletree 
in 1993 to operate the Carolina Inn, which the university had owned and managed since 
1935. By the late 1980s, the aging property was a "pretty shabby place. We had never 
properly managed it as an asset," says Carolyn W. Elfland, associate vice chancellor 
for campus services at Chapel Hill. 
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i49/49a02901.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

Asking for More
The Chronicle of Higher Education
When she's not "praying to the job gods," Nancy Kutrumbof has been contacting the 
financial-aid offices of the University of Connecticut and the University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill, asking for more aid for her two sons, who attend the colleges.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i49/49a03701.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

Top Ten Cities for Hispanics
Hispanic Magazine
In Washington Post writer Joel Garreau’s book, “The Nine Nations of North America” 
(Houghton Mifflin, 1981), he describes what going “home” felt like to a colleague who left
a prestigious Washington, D.C., job to return to his quieter, smaller, original town out west: 
“Suddenly a knot disappeared from his stomach, a knot he hadn’t known was there... 
With the Blue Ridge mountains to the west and the beaches of the Outer Banks to the east, 
North Carolina has suddenly become The Destination for new Latino immigrants... 
James H. Johnson, Jr., director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the 
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, explains that employers began heavily 
recruiting Mexicans to the state through informal networks in traditional gateway border 
communities like Los Angeles and Texas, traditional Hispanic strongholds like Miami and 
New York, and also directly from Mexico. 
http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2002/july-aug/CoverStory/index.html

National News Notes

Dr. Bill Roper, dean of the School of Public Health, is 
among the participants in the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas. For more 
information about the participants, please see The New York Times story 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/13/politics/13BUSH-LIST.html and a national 
Associated Press story that originated from the Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/nation/stories/081302dnnatsummit.4b523.html

Researcher Suzanne Levy was featured on the National Public Radio program, "The 
Todd Mundt Show," on Aug. 12 about a recent study suggests that unhappy romantic 
relationships during the teen years may lead to unfulfilling relationships in later life. "The 
Todd Mundt Show" is locally broadcasted on WUNC-FM. To view to the program online, 
please visit http://toddshow.org/log/dailylistings/08122002.asp.

The CNN program "Crossfire" featured a segment on Aug. 12 about the recent 
lawsuit against UNC involving the summer reading program. Guests on the program 
included Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, and Hussein Ibish, 
communications director for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. 
To view the transcript, please visit 
http://www.reamweaver.com/cnn.com/r/TRANSCRIPTS/cf.html.cn.php3 

The Nation's Health, the newspaper of the American Public Health Association, featured 
a story about a recent study by UNC researchers about the N.C. Health Choice program 
for dental care among low-income children. This study was the subject of a UNC news 
release http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/research/mofidi060602.htm

Regional Coverage

UNC administrator will head Tulane's public health school 
The Times-Picayune (Louisiana)
Tulane University has named Dr. Pierre Buekens, a native of Belgium who holds 
administrative and teaching posts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as 
dean of Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/newsstory/hied09.htm

Triangle leading lovers of N.C. into a new age
Miami Herald
Sweet, in all the best ways. As in sweet tea (that's iced tea, heaps of sugar.) Sweet, easy 
accents -- not a long drawl like Georgia or Mississippi, but a definite roll... That's right, 
Raleigh and Durham -- with Chapel Hill, the corner posts of the Research Triangle area -- 
are entirely separate places. And whether you find Raleigh slightly slow or delightfully 
sweet, the three towns together weave Southern traditions, sharp thinking and easy ways 
into a region that has grown by nearly 40 percent in the past decade.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/living/travel/3817612.htm

Required Islamic texts challenged at UNC
The Daily Texan (student publication at the University of Texas)
The North Carolina House Appropriations Committee approved a proposal that, if 
implemented, could bar funding for required religious courses and reading for incoming 
freshmen at all of the state's 16 public academic institutions. 
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/08/12/3d57752f698a7

State and Local Coverage

They flunked (Editorial)
It would have been a worthy symbol. It would have been timely, a way to demonstrate 
that principle stands above all -- even when the principle must stand for something that is 
controversial or unpopular. But now, the University of North Carolina system's Board of 
Governors stands, or rather sits, as a symbol of timidity.
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1633102p-1660051c.html

Academic freedom? Sounds dangerous (Editorial)
Wilmington Morning Star
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors isn't sure it believes in academic 
freedom. It's appointed a committee to study the matter. Presumably the board will come up 
with a carefully worded statement after the General Assembly gives the university system its 
money and after the fall elections. 
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=WM&Date=20020813&Category=EDITORIAL&ArtNo=208130002&Ref=AR&Profile=1016&SectionCat=editorial

Chapel Hill offers a lesson in inquiry (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The controversy about a summer reading requirement for incoming students at UNC-Chapel 
Hill has become a well-publicized example of contrasting views of both education and the 
values of American society...
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1633112p-1660126c.html
(Note: Lloyd Kramer is a professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill. He was a member of 
the 1996 committee that recommended setting up a summer reading program.)

Legislators vote for ignorance (Commentary)
Charlotte Observer
Young Americans seeking a useful college education should desire a keen understanding of 
the faith that attracts one-fifth of the world's population. Likewise, the citizens of a nation 
under attack by a warped and fanatic sect of that faith should want an accurate view of who 
hates them, and why.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/3852257.htm
(Note: This column originally appeared in The Daily Reflector http://www.reflector.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2002/08/10/1029037071.24670.3449.0586.html.)

Two cheers for UNC's academic freedom (Editorial)
It's a sad day for a once proud and free university system when its overseers can be cowed 
by petty bigotry. How else to explain the UNC Board of Governors' craven bumbling Friday? 
http://www.herald-sun.com/archives/URNDetail.cfm?URN=0396810194
(Note: The Chapel Hill Herald requires free registration to view archives.)

Understanding Islam is crucial (Opinion-Editorial Column)
Greensboro News and Record
As a Tar Heel student, I am proud UNC-Chapel Hill selected "Approaching the Qur'an" for 
its freshmen summer reading program...
http://www.news-record.com/news/opinions/letters/ilias13.htm

Professor defends controversial book 
When a UNC faculty committee charged with selecting a book for UNC's summer reading 
program needed advice on religious issues, it turned to Carl Ernst. For 10 years, Ernst has 
taught courses in Islamic studies at Carolina, and was the only faculty member in the religious 
studies department until UNC added a second such scholar recently. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/archives/URNDetail.cfm?URN=0396810162
(Note: The Chapel Hill Herald requires free registration to view archives.)

Religion in college (Letter to the Editor)
Both the state House Appropriations Committee in voting strongly against the UNC-Chapel
Hill freshman program requiring the reading of Michael Sells' "Approaching the Qur'an" and
the UNC Board of Governors voting weakly in favor of academic freedom (news story, Aug. 
10) miss one issue entirely: a college is not a public elementary or secondary school! 
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1633111p-1660056c.html

McColl to chair nonprofit managing UNC's endowment
Business Journal 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials have set up a not-for-profit management 
company to invest the school's $1 billion endowment and the endowments of any other UNC 
System schools that want investment help. UNC Management Co. began operations July 1 
with retired Charlotte banker Hugh McColl Jr. as its first board chairman.
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2002/08/12/story1.html

Universities inject grant cash into economy
Business Journal
Amidst a troubled economy, dried-up private equity markets and corporate cutbacks, the 
Triangle's three research universities pumped $1.3 billion worth of grant money largely into 
the local economy during the 2001-2002 academic year. All of that spending was thanks
to federal, state and private grants received by the University of North Carolina, Duke 
University and North Carolina State University. 
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2002/08/12/story3.html

Want a Morehead? Go for it
Charlotte Observer
For the first time in the 51-year history of the Morehead Award, N.C. high school seniors 
can nominate themselves for the prestigious scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/3852301.htm
(Note: This originated from a UNC News Services release 
http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/univ/selfnom081202.htm.)

Danger of marine microbe up for debate
Wilmington Morning Star
Something smells a little fishy to an environmental watchdog group headed by Robert 
Kennedy Jr... Institutions that received federal funding to study the microbe include the 
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University 
and several institutions in Maryland and Virginia.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=WM&Date=20020812&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=208120306&Ref=AR&Profile=1004&SectionCat=Local

Stick and Teresa Williams begin a new life
The inviting settee is gone from the front porch of the home in Ironwoods that Richard 
"Stick" Williams and his wife, Teresa, bought when they moved to Chapel Hill 12 years ago. 
The couple and their three daughters are gone as well, having moved on to a new life in 
Charlotte, the town where the marriage began and the girls were born. 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/08/11/town01.html
(Note: Williams is the vice chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees.)

NPR correspondent, author to speak at UNC 
National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams -- author of the nonfiction best 
seller "Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965" -- will serve as the 
guest luncheon speaker for an Aug. 30 conference involving national experts in civil rights 
and education policy.
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-256290.htm
(Note: This is a UNC News Services release 
http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/univ/civilrights080702.htm. Other pick-up includes 
The Chapel Hill News.)

UNC students to immerse selves in South African culture
Seventeen University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sophomores and juniors will 
spend the upcoming semester in Cape Town, South Africa, studying the country's 
conflicts, culture and politics and serving internships at agencies throughout the city. 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/08/11/town00.html
(Note: This is a UNC News Services release 
http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/univ/burchsafrica080102.htm. Other pick-up 
includes The News and Observer.)

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Chapel Hill Transit rearranges routes to improve service 
Chapel Hill Transit is shuffling its timetable on Aug. 19 to extend service to a new park-
and-ride in Carrboro and beef up its offerings in several other parts of the area. The 
single biggest change involves the C route, which links Carrboro to the UNC campus 
and the hospital’s Family Practice Center off Manning Drive. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-256266.html

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, 
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, 
(919) 962-2091 or cathleen_keyser@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu