Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

The Entrepreneurial University (Commentary)
Inside Higher Ed
What is an entrepreneurial university, and how does it address the world’s biggest problems? It’s a question that we’ve been asked regularly the last few months in the run-up to the recent publication of our book, Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the 21st Century (University of North Carolina Press). We wrote the book because we think this is an important question. Friends of higher education who believe, as we do, that universities are the key to taking the U.S. economy to a prosperous and more egalitarian future need examples and evidence to help make the case for investment in universities and basic research. Holden Thorp is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Buck Goldstein is entrepreneur in residence at the university.)
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12 Months to Save the World (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal
I want to save the world, and I mean it in the most idealist way a person can mean it. This evokes images of men in capes and too-tight spandex with super-human strength. After all, saving the world is not an easy task. These images are a stark contrast to myself, a 20-year old female student in a business suit. Unfortunately, in my past three years I have never come across a job listing looking for someone to save the world. Furthermore, on my resume next to my name there is no “Major in Heroic Deeds” or “Bachelor’s of Science in World-Changing.” (Emily Noonan, of Bloomingdale, Ill., is a senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, pursuing a degree in business administration and a second major in Asian studies.)
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Gulf's baby fish may have 'dodged a bullet' in oil spill
The Press Register (Birmingham, Ala.)
Early results from an annual count of juvenile fish in grass beds scattered around the northern Gulf of Mexico suggest that the larvae of some species survived the oil spill in large numbers, according to the scientists involved. “My preliminary assessment, it looks good, it looks like we dodged a bullet. In terms of the numbers of baby snapper and other species present in the grass beds, things look right,” said Joel Fodrie, a researcher with the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Science who has been studying seagrass meadows along the coast for five years.
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UNC expo caps science festival
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
With the balloons, tables, music and families scattered around the McCorkle Place quad at UNC-Chapel Hill, Saturday's scene might have been mistaken for freshman orientation or Family Day. But after one overheard question - "How does the heart keep working after a person dies?" - it was quickly apparent this event was something more. The first UNC Science Expo drew hundreds of science enthusiasts of all ages to the UNC-CH campus, with features such as an "Ask a Scientist" booth to answer questions about successful organ transplantation.
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Marine ecology in a warming planet Earth
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
John Bruno, 44, is a marine ecologist and professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He contributes regularly to the blog Climate Shifts, which covers climate change. He also contributes to the Huffington Post. Questions and answers have been edited. Q. Many of your posts draw on mainstream media news stories that you critique or comment upon. Which media outlets do you tend to read, or trust, the most? I browse and draw material from a pretty large range of online sources including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and blogs that cover environmental science and issues like ClimateProgress and DotEarth. I spend a frightening amount of time reading blogs written by other scientists like Real Climate and SkepticalScience and I certainly keep tabs on what the many deniers of global climate change are saying.
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Apex officials bicker over green resolution
The Cary News
During the past few years, dozens of counties, states and municipalities across the country - even the federal government itself - have passed rules requiring environmentally friendly construction. Don't expect Apex to join the bandwagon any time soon - at least, it seems, if Bill Jensen is proposing it. ...State law bars public officials from taking actions that could lead to a personal financial benefit, said Freyda Bluestein, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who specializes in government conflicts of interest.
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Public welcome at Native Foods Celebration Monday
The Chapel Hill Herald
Samples of succotash, wild rice, chocolate and more will be offered at a Native Foods Celebration on Monday at UNC Chapel Hill. UNC's American Indian Center will sponsor the free, public festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the lawn of Abernethy Hall, which faces South Columbia Street near Cameron Avenue. Squashes, dried Indian corn and sunflowers with seeds and roots will be displayed, and information about American Indians in North Carolina shared. Education booths will cover American Indian studies at UNC and native peoples' contributions to sustainable agriculture, world cuisine, medicine and more.
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-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

Bold plan to enhance innovation, entrepreneurship to launch bolstered by early fundraising success

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has raised more than $11 million for a new $125 million fundraising campaign supporting an ambitious plan to bring the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to bear on the world’s biggest problems.

“Innovate @Carolina:  Important Ideas for a Better World” is a roadmap developed through nearly a year of deliberations by alumni and friends with extensive experience leading innovation in science, business, medicine, nonprofits and academia. Alumnus Lowry Caudill, co-founder of Magellan Laboratories Inc. and an adjunct faculty member, chaired the Innovation Circle, which also worked with a Faculty Innovation Working Group and Student Innovation Team. The roadmap was previewed today (Sept. 23) for the University’s Board of Trustees and will be officially released on University Day, Oct. 12.

“The innovation roadmap provides a well-researched and conceived strategy for helping our faculty and students produce basic knowledge of the highest quality,” said Chancellor Holden Thorp. “We want them to have the freedom and encouragement to seek solutions and answers to the most important problems – and then to be empowered to act on their ideas.”

The Innovation Circle made five major recommendations:

• Prepare faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, staff and the broader Carolina community with the knowledge, skills and connections to translate ideas into innovation;
• Collaborate with diverse groups on campus to explore issues, options and creative approaches that may lead to innovations;
• Translate important new ideas into innovations that improve society more expediently and at an increased volume;
• Align people, incentives and processes to strengthen an intentional culture of innovation at Carolina; and
• Catalyze innovation at Carolina by facilitating the work of faculty, staff and students as they put important ideas to use for a better world.

Examples of goals and strategies in the roadmap supporting those recommendations include:

• Build the University’s capacity for innovation, drawing in part on successful existing programs such as a minor in entrepreneurship in the College of Arts and Sciences and a chancellor’s faculty entrepreneurship boot camp.

• Enhance robust interdisciplinary collaboration and advance the applied sciences; establish five new distinguished professorships.

• Collaborate and coordinate activities around key themes of local, national and global significance.

• Expand the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program to put 18 such positions around the campus.

• Recruit innovators and future innovators and reward activities that contribute to the culture of innovation; create two innovation professorships to provide release time to pursue important innovations.

• Establish a Carolina Innovation Fund to support promising innovations.

• Create a user-friendly central online gateway to innovation and a hotline to help the campus community learn more about innovation with easy-to-find engaging opportunities.

Thorp said the roadmap’s recommendations would foster and support a campus culture that remains true to the University’s historic mission even as it invites faculty, staff and students to build upon it with their own visions for making the world a better place.

The roadmap also provides the University with a strong blueprint for success that already has inspired private donors to support the new Innovate@Carolina Campaign, Thorp said. Goals include creating an $88.2 million endowment and providing $36.8 million in expendable funds to help implement the roadmap.

The more than $11 million in pledges and gifts to date represents nearly 10 percent of the $125 million goal, Thorp said. Major commitments include:

• A $2 million pledge from an anonymous donor that will support an existing minor in entrepreneurship in the College of Arts and Sciences. Part of this gift will support a distinguished professorship to recruit a faculty member to teach in the program.

• A $2.25 million commitment from an anonymous donor to create an innovation scholarship endowment fund, as well as $340,000 for the Frederick H. Houk, Jr. Innovation Scholarship Endowment Fund. These gifts will go toward the new Innovation Scholars, a merit-based scholarship that enrolled its first recipient this fall.

• A $2 million gift to establish the C. Felix Harvey Award, which supports innovative faculty projects in the humanities and social sciences that directly serve the people of North Carolina.

• A $200,000 award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support innovation in the arts. It will fund a PlayMakers Repertory Company residency program that will bring a theater ensemble each summer to campus to create a new artistic work.

• A $268,000 commitment from ChildFund to create an Innovation Laboratory that will develop a framework for healthy and secure infant-through-2-year-olds that can be scaled across ChildFund’s programs for vulnerable children around the world. Based at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, this initiative will build on the innovation labs created by Dennis and Joan Gillings’ $50 million commitment to the Carolina First Campaign.

The campaign runs through mid-2013.

Thorp emphasized that the Innovation Circle and faculty and student groups coordinated their work with the University’s Academic Plan Steering Committee currently leading efforts to develop a new five-year plan to guide campuswide academic priorities.

“We see important synergy between both of these efforts in thinking about the future of the University,” Thorp said. “Careful planning like the roadmap is going to position us well when the economy recovers.”

For additional information about the innovation roadmap, refer to innovate.unc.edu.

Contact:  Mike McFarland

UNC Sustainability - Upcoming Events

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:

• In the Spotlight: International Project Reception at the Y


• September Green Drinks


• Food, Inc. Screening


• Net Impact Undergrad Intro Meeting


• Noam Chomsky discusses Environmental Responsibility


• Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference


• And more!

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

UNC Science Expo Brings Science Fest To Close
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
The first-ever North Carolina Science Festival is drawing to a close this weekend, but Morehead Planetarium Director Todd Boyette says they’re planning to send it out in style. The UNC Science Expo is taking place this Saturday, with activities scheduled all over the UNC campus. The event includes virtual reality demonstrations, catapult testing, NASCAR displays, and an all-day science challenge for local kids, and culminates with a talk by Nobel Prize-winning medical researcher Oliver Smithies.
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-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

UNC Sustainability - Upcoming Events

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:

• Entrepreneur-in-Residence Buck Goldstein reads from The Entrepreneurial University in the 21st Century, co-authored with Holden Thorp


• Hanes Visiting Artist Jason Middlebrook discusses his work involving decaying landscapes and nature/culture clashes


• Wellness Into Your Day: Health, Fitness, and Academic Success Fair


• Carolina: A Living Laboratory for Sustainability


• Managing Biologically Active Compost


• Update on Environmental Legislation that Pertains to Government Agencies in NC


• And more!

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

In Push for Diversity, Colleges Pay Attention to Socioeconomic Class
The Chronicle of Higher Education
It's hard to spot one of the most underrepresented minority groups at many four-year colleges: students and faculty members from the working class. Efforts to promote campus diversity have tended to gloss over them, focusing instead on members of racial and ethnic minority groups, whose presence or absence is easier to detect. ...A long list of other elite colleges, including Stanford University and the Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia, have followed Harvard's lead in seeking to cover most or all of the education costs of students of modest means.(Note: News Services is contacting this Chronicle reporter to point out that the Carolina Covenant was established before Harvard’s initiative to help low-income students.)
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UNC lands $11.29M in grants
The Triangle Business Journal
Seven international centers at UNC-Chapel Hill have received grants totaling $11.29 million. The four-year awards from the U.S. Department of Education will support global business education, international and regional studies, language instruction, teaching, research and community outreach in Africa, Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East. “These coveted awards recognize UNC’s role in global education as we prepare our students for leadership in the 21st century,” said Ronald P. Strauss, executive associate provost, who oversees the University’s international initiatives.
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Related Links:
http://wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=15923
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/uncs-global-efforts-get-11-million-boost
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3910/73/

Noam Chomsky To Speak At UNC September 30
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Noted linguist and political thinker Noam Chomsky will speak at the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC later this month. Chomsky is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at MIT, and will give the keynote address as part of the Parr Center’s series on environmental ethics. Chomsky has long identified as an anarchist, and was a leading voice against the Vietnam War. Chomsky will speak at 12:30 p.m. September 30 at Gerrard Hall.
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UNC Lecture Series Highlights Sustainability
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC’s Friday Center is hosting a series of lectures starting this week about sustainability in local communities. Program specialist Rosemary Howard says the “What’s the Big Idea?” series includes local experts who will cover a variety of topics dealing with sustainability. The lectures will focus on water, energy and food conservation, using UNC as a case study for the series.
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UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3900/68/

Chapel Hill changes game day transit
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Fans coming to the UNC home football games this year will notice transportation changes as part of the "Touch Downtown Chapel Hill" campaign. The campaign's goal is bolstering the community, hometown spirit and economic activity during football weekends. Fans should be aware of some transportation and parking changes this fall. Nationwide Insurance, now partnering with Tar Heel Sports Properties as a sponsor of UNC athletics, will be offering The World's Greatest Free Ride in the World: Free shuttle rides for Tar Heels to the stadium on game day.
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Three opportunities to turn your kids on to science
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Looking for ways to share science with your kids? For the next couple of weeks, you'll find lots of cool opportunities. The N.C. Science Festival, a celebration featuring science and technology, kicked off last Saturday with BugFest at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and continues through Sept. 26. "This is the first statewide science festival in the country," says Julie Rhodes, coordinator of the N.C. Science Festival. "UNC's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center was interested in developing a regional science festival. The idea was received so well that people said, 'Why not make it a statewide science festival?'"
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UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3903/107/

Wind Energy Still A Viable Option On The Coast
North Carolina News Network
A strong supporter of energy alternatives says there is still plenty of opportunity for wind power on the coast despite the recent move by Duke Energy to cancel plans to build test turbines. Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro said she remains optimistic about the future for renewable energy. ...Duke Energy will continue to fund research by UNC-Chapel Hill related to wind power and the potential for building turbines on the ocean side of the coast. There is no timetable for building those turbines.
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-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Festival brings science - and myths - to N.C.
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The first N.C. Science Festival began this past weekend and will run for the next two weeks throughout the state. More than 400 events are part of this first festival, which is planned as a celebration of science in our everyday lives. We talked with Julie Rhodes, coordinator of the festival, about the 16-day event. ...One of the signature events is on Sunday, when we have Adam [Savage] and Jamie [Hyneman] of "MythBusters" coming to UNC. Another signature event is on Sept.25, which is the UNC Science Expo Day. That's sponsored by Morehead Planetarium and UNC and will be held on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. It's expo style, running from 11 [a.m.] to 4 [p.m.] that day, and things are happening all over campus.
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UNC's share of federal grants is record haul
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill’s research grants and contracts totaled $803 million in fiscal 2010, the largest amount in campus history, officials announced today. The figure is a 12.2 percent increase over the $716 million received last year. The contracts and grants come primarily from the federal government – especially the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. The NIH is traditionally the university's largest source of research funding.
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Tar Heels turn to science this month
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A statewide science festival, billed as the first of its kind in the nation, gets under way Saturday with BugFest 2010 in downtown Raleigh, plus a variety of other events across the state. The N.C. Science Festival is modeled after similar regional science celebrations in San Diego and Boston but spans from the coast to the mountains and includes programs, lectures, demonstrations, lessons, tours and other fare. Events run through Sept. 26. Among the highlights will be an appearance Sept. 19 by the two stars of "MythBusters," a popular Discovery Channel TV program. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, famous for testing ideas using impressive explosions, will lead a 90-minute program with outtakes and behind-the-scenes experiences from the show.
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N.C. Science Festival kicks off this weekend
Local Tech Wire
Todd Boyette has made a career of communicating science to the general public. In addition to heading the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, he also has led the charge to create the first statewide science festival in the country. The N.C. Science Festival begins this weekend and features events across the state for the next two weeks. It's a partner event in concert with the USA Science & Engineering Festival next month in Washington, D.C.
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UNC Habitat for Humanity Offering Free Tutoring
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC Habitat for Humanity and the Hillsborough Police Department are teaming up for the third year to offer free tutoring services. Corporal Tereasa King says she hopes people take advantage of the program. UNC student volunteers will help with every subject but computers. The program is open to Orange County Schools students of all ages.
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Environmental Outlook: Extreme Weather
National Public Radio
Several parts of the world are coping with severe weather related events, including a record heatwave in Russia, severe flooding in Pakistan, mudslides in China, droughts in sub-Saharan Africa, and record high temperatures in parts of the U.S. For this month's Environmental Outlook Series, climate scientists explain what we can learn from weather extremes. Guests ... Gavin Smith Executive Director, Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters and Associate Research Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Profs to discuss long-term impact of Gulf oil spill
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A panel of faculty experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present their findings on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill at a forum Sept. 15 that is sponsored by the General Alumni Association. "Oil on the Water: A Public Discussion and Analysis of the Long-Term Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill" will be presented from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive. The experts also will answer questions from the audience in the free public forum.
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Carolina North meeting slated
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A public information meeting will be held at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 29 to receive comments and feedback on the UNC-Chapel Hill 2010 Carolina North Annual Report to the Town of Chapel Hill. The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu