Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Carolina in the News

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

Oh, the Places You’ll Go: E. O. Wilson at Chapel Hill
The New Yorker
...A similar theme was at the center of E. O. Wilson’s commencement address at the University of North Carolina, on May 8th. Wilson, an entomology professor at Harvard, last year became a first-time novelist with “Anthill,” an excerpt of which was published in The New Yorker. At Chapel Hill, he spoke about people, rather than ants, and offered an urgent appraisal of the human condition: “This is the time that we will either settle down, or completely wreck the planet.”

"It Happened on the Way to War"
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
When most college students were probably enjoying summer vacation, Rye Barcott was hanging out in a Kenyan slum. In the summer of 2000, while still a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rye went to Kibera. ...After graduation, he served in the Marines for five years while also working on a non-profit called Carolina for Kibera. He’s written a memoir about his experience called “It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace” (Bloomsbury/2011).

Reclaimed water set to quench Kenan thirst
The Chapel Hill Herald
...UNC has begun to use reclaimed water to irrigate Kenan field, making it the first place on campus to be irrigated with wastewater that has received advanced treatment including filtration and disinfection with ultraviolet light and chlorine. While not suitable for drinking, UNC officials see reclaimed water as a welcome alternative to using drinking-quality water to irrigate the gridiron.

What college kids want: Healthy food, affordable style
The Triangle Business Journal
...Although voluntary meal plan enrollment is slightly up at N.C. State and at UNC-Chapel Hill and stable at Duke, many students are becoming more particular about what they eat and are experimenting at home, says Scott Myers, director of food and vending for Carolina Dining Services at UNC.

State’s going green, but don’t worry: Red’s plenty safeThe Triangle Business Journal
...While that was impressive, Morrison Hall at UNC-CH did even better. Thanks in large part to solar panels that heat the dorm’s water supply, Morrison chopped its energy usage by a whopping 36 percent in one year, good enough to win the national competition, which included a New York City skyscraper.

Three UNC Professors Garner Prestigious Grants
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Three UNC assistant professors have received prestigious five-year grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy in order to further support their research. “The way the economy is, it’s really important any time you can get research funds for your group,” says Erik Alexanian, an assistant professor of chemistry at UNC.

10 Least Expensive Public Colleges for In-State Students
U.S. News & World Report
...In North Carolina, for instance, in-state students can apply to four of the nation’s top 10 least expensive schools for state residents, including Fayetteville State University, which places third on the list below. At that school, in-state tuition and fees were $3,637 for the 2010-11 academic year. Even the state’s most expensive school for in-staters, the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, charged $6,665 in tuition and fees—a figure still well below the national average.

Food Is Much Safer Than You Think
The Wall Street Journal
It appears increasingly clear that the E. coli outbreak, which as of June 12 has killed 35 people and made another 3,250 or so extremely sick, originated with bean sprouts grown on an organic farm in the north of Germany. There has been a huge amount written about the outbreak, particularly about the government's feckless response. (Peter Coclanis, professor of history and director of the Global Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a past president of the Agricultural History Society.)

Obama pushes jobs plan during visit to Durham LED manufacturer Cree
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
President Barack Obama has concluded his trip to the Triangle Monday, where he toured the Cree facilities and spoke to employees about jobs and the economy. ...And when he started to mention how the Triangle benefits from its universities, he mentioned the University of North Carolina first and N.C. State University second before pausing a moment and mentioning Duke University.

Sprouts can carry danger 
The News and Observer (Raleigh)
They just look so innocent. It's hard to imagine that a sprout could be a killer. A few bad sprouts, however, have recently reminded us that these fresh, green frillies have the potential to spread illness and worse. E. coli bacteria in fresh sprouts produced in Germany have in the past few weeks killed 31 people and made more than 3,000 others sick. (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.)
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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/