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(04/25/06 4:00am)
The United States is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of skin cancer cases, but experts say it's unlikely that Americans will change their habits to prevent the onset.
According to the April issue of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, the American Academy of Dermatology has labeled the disease as an unrecognized epidemic.
The new research reveals that "one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in his or her lifetime," and that the rate doubles for individuals who've received five or more sunburns.
The disease also has become more prevalent among young adults, the health letter stated. Previously the disease generally was found among people over 50.
Despite these warnings, college-aged students will still go to tanning beds and to the beach because they enjoy their new skin tones, said John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association.
"The bottom line is that the AAD is always releasing studies about skin cancer," Overstreet said.
"But there have been no well-constructed studies that conclusively link tanning to melanoma."
Diane Bumpus, general manager of Eclipse Tanning Salon in Chapel Hill, said that because people have been exposing themselves to the sun for years, the skin cancer epidemic has to be caused by additional factors.
These include heredity and damage to the ozone layer.
She added that people have been so overwhelmed with information about the negative effects of tanning that it has caused many people to completely avoid the sun.
This has resulted in a Vitamin D deficiency.
"You hear a lot of negativity, but there's a lot of positives to tanning too," Bumpus said.
This could include the prevention of other diseases, Overstreet said.
"Women who are regularly exposed to (ultraviolet) light have a 40 percent less chance of developing breast cancer later in life," he said.
"The whole issue is moderation," Overstreet said.
"Never get too much and never burn."
While Bumpus and other tanning bed proponents suggest that tanning beds help prevent skin from getting burned, the health letter states that "a tan isn't the best way to keep the sun's rays from penetrating and causing skin cancer."
It outlined various steps for skin cancer prevention.
These include applying generous amounts of sunscreen - about a shot glass worth - limiting sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., reapplying sunscreen every two hours and wearing protective clothing.
The main challenge will be getting people to apply this new information.
Jenny Tuttle, a sophomore psychology major at UNC, said it is unlikely that knowledge about this study will change the habits of young people.
"I think that it is a problem, but it's just up to individual people to handle it on their own," she said.
Alex Owen, a freshman political science major, said after being informed about this study that he probably won't take extra precautions.
"If I see a bunch of people playing volleyball, melanoma is not going to stop me from playing," he said.
And with the increasing popularity of tanning beds, the perfect tan might be irresistible.
"I think people will continue to go to tanning beds because of vacations and trips," said Tracy Nelson, front desk manager at the Body Caf
(04/25/06 4:00am)
The United States is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of skin cancer cases, but experts say it's unlikely that Americans will change their habits to prevent the onset.
According to the April issue of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, the American Academy of Dermatology has labeled the disease as an unrecognized epidemic.
The new research reveals that "one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in his or her lifetime," and that the rate doubles for individuals who've received five or more sunburns.
The disease also has become more prevalent among young adults, the health letter stated. Previously the disease generally was found among people over 50.
Despite these warnings, college-aged students will still go to tanning beds and to the beach because they enjoy their new skin tones, said John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association.
"The bottom line is that the AAD is always releasing studies about skin cancer," Overstreet said. "But there have been no well-constructed studies that conclusively link tanning to melanoma."
Diane Bumpus, general manager of Eclipse Tanning Salon in Chapel Hill, said that because people have been exposing themselves to the sun for years, the skin cancer epidemic has to be caused by additional factors. These include heredity and damage to the ozone layer.
She added that people have been so overwhelmed with information about the negative effects of tanning that it has caused many people to completely avoid the sun. This has resulted in a Vitamin D deficiency.
"You hear a lot of negativity, but there's a lot of positives to tanning too," Bumpus said.
This could include the prevention of other diseases, Overstreet said.
"Women who are regularly exposed to (ultraviolet) light have a 40 percent less chance of developing breast cancer later in life," he said.
"The whole issue is moderation," Overstreet said. "Never get too much and never burn."
While Bumpus and other tanning bed proponents suggest that tanning beds help prevent skin from getting burned, the health letter states that "a tan isn't the best way to keep the sun's rays from penetrating and causing skin cancer."
It outlined various steps for skin cancer prevention. These include applying generous amounts of sunscreen - about a shot glass worth - limiting sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., reapplying sunscreen every two hours and wearing protective clothing.
The main challenge will be getting people to apply this new information.
Jenny Tuttle, a sophomore psychology major at UNC, said it is unlikely that knowledge about this study will change the habits of young people.
"I think that it is a problem, but it's just up to individual people to handle it on their own," she said.
Alex Owen, a freshman political science major, said after being informed about this study that he probably won't take extra precautions.
"If I see a bunch of people playing volleyball, melanoma is not going to stop me from playing," he said.
And with the increasing popularity of tanning beds, the perfect tan might be irresistible.
"I think people will continue to go to tanning beds because of vacations and trips," said Tracy Nelson, front desk manager at the Body Caf
(04/18/06 4:00am)
Representatives from the UNC system and several N.C. community colleges will meet Wednesday to continue discussing the creation of a new higher education center in Hickory.
Officials from Appalachian State University, UNC-Charlotte, and Western Carolina University will be working alongside leaders from three community colleges to develop the Hickory Center for Engineering Technology, said Leroy Lail, chairman of the Hickory Furniture Mart and member of the UNC-system Board of Governors.
Emily Williamson, interim vice president of academic affairs at Western Piedmont Community College, one of the colleges involved in the project, said that the center will start with engineering and that additional programs will be added based on demand in the region.
Lail said the center will address a population whose educational needs previously have been overlooked.
"We're the largest metro area without university assets in the state," he said. "If we can make it work, it can work in other areas in North Carolina that are being underserved."
Cuyler Dunbar, president of Catawba Valley Community College, which has also signed on to the project, said the center will serve the region around Hickory that includes Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba counties.
Because the region's economy is so dependent upon manufacturing industries, it has been the hardest hit by job displacement overseas, Lail said.
He said the center will address this problem by providing a better-equipped local workforce.
The center will also prevent the types of conflict that many nontraditional students in these industries previously faced trying to balance education and work, Lail said.
Williamson also emphasized the value of the center in providing opportunities close to home. Her college, she said, already has worked out some of the details regarding its role with the center.
"Our college will provide courses the students need for the first two years of their degree so they will be capable of completing the second two years at the center in Hickory," she said.
"I think it will certainly benefit the students in the region."
Dunbar said he hopes the meeting will further address the types of academic programs to be offered and the level of involvement of the individual institutions.
"The more quality education that we can offer to the people that need classes, the better job we will be doing in preparing the people to meet the workforce demands of the future."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(03/27/06 5:00am)
Universities across North Carolina are preparing to increase their Arabic language programs, but they'll need qualified professors to meet the demand.
"There is an increase nationwide in an interest in Arabic," said Arne Kalleberg, senior associate dean for social sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill.
As UNC-CH looks to bolster its Arabic language programs, more students are expected to enroll in these courses in the future.
Nadia Yaqub, professor in the UNC-CH Department of Asian Studies, said enrollment in Arabic language courses has been increasing steadily since fall 2000.
She said that in 2000, UNC-CH had 20 students enrolled in first-year Arabic courses, and by fall 2005, about 70 students were enrolled.
That number should continue to increase, she said, estimating that 75 to 80 students will enroll in first-year Arabic courses next year.
For the fall semester, the University is offering three 27-student sections of elementary Arabic, two intermediate level classes with 23 seats each and one advanced Arabic course with 20 spots.
The department also will teach two Arabic literature lectures.
Yaqub said heightened interest in the language can be attributed partially to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq War, but she said there would have been increases in enrollment without those events.
"I wouldn't attribute all the growth we've had to those two events," she said.
Enrollment could continue to balloon as part of curriculum changes that require students to take seven credit hours of foreign language. The change begins with next year's freshmen.
Other universities in North Carolina also are expanding Arabic language programs by offering more courses.
Leo Ching, a professor in the department of Asian and African language and literature at Duke University, said enrollment in their programs also is on the rise.
"We are averaging 40 for first-year students," he said. "There is a great increase from right after 9/11."
Duke offers four levels of Arabic language and at least two to three Arabic literature and culture programs, Ching said.
Darlene Ruppert, administrative secretary for the department of foreign languages and literatures at Appalachian State University said ASU will offer its first introductory Arabic course in the fall of 2006 to gauge interest.
But a common problem for universities is finding individuals who are qualified to teach the subject.
"There is a high demand for Arabic instructors nationwide," Ching said. "Right now there is more demand than supply."
Ruth Gross, head of the department of foreign languages and literatures at N.C. State University, said that they offer Arabic up to the third year, and that the university has had trouble accommodating the increase in demand.
"It is not easy to find people qualified to teach at the university level," Gross said, adding that the department recently conducted a search for a tenure-track professor.
UNC-CH also is experiencing the effects of this shortage.
Yaqub said that in 2002, UNC-CH hired one lecturer to teach Arabic part time, and now has three full-time professors teaching the subject. She said a fourth professor is needed.
Kalleberg said that if UNC-CH is unable to find a faculty member this year, they will address the issue again next year.
Shortage of faculty with this expertise might be inhibiting the growth of programs at smaller institutions, such as UNC-Greensboro, which does not offer Arabic.
"There's a crisis in a shortage of Arabic speakers," said Raleigh Bailey, director of the UNC-G Center for New North Carolinians.
He said more Americans should learn Arabic because other countries have surpassed the United States in language-speaking abilities.
"It's unfortunate that we Americans are so monolingual," he said.
"We are out of step with this global age."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/27/06 5:00am)
Cingular Wireless will expand its service this year in North Carolina as part of an overall plan to provide greater coverage nationwide.
And that could mean more - or clearer - talk time for students.
Laurie Parker, senior public relations manager for Cingular Wireless in the Carolinas, said the company will invest $210 million in North Carolina in 2006, which includes the cost of adding at least 196 new cell sites.
Last year Cingular invested $161 million in North Carolina, which was only a small portion of the $1.8 billion invested in the Southeast as a whole, Parker said.
Past expansion has included the UNC campus, where a new antenna structure was installed to increase coverage, said John Streck, assistant vice chancellor for telecommunications.
"They're trying to increase the population of cell towers so that you have more robust and complete coverage," he said.
UNC has been partners with Cingular since fall 2004 through the Carolina Wireless Initiative. Students receive a special rate on Cingular service through the program.
Streck said the University is in the process of compiling a survey about cellular service to distribute to the community. The survey will be available online within the next month, enabling UNC to cooperate better with service providers.
To stay competitive, Cingular had to expand to keep up with growth.
"One of the reasons we are continuing to expand in the Carolinas is the massive growth in population that the Carolinas are having," Parker said. "As more Cingular customers move into the area . we need to increase our capacity."
Parker said heavily populated metropolitan areas, such as Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham, receive the best coverage. But the provider also has identified areas in Western North Carolina that have "white space," or little reception, and has established networks there.
Parker said she thinks Cingular's improvements will cause its number of customers to increase greatly.
"We're continually improving our networks across the country," she said. "We believe that as we continue to offer the best possible network, more people will move to Cingular."
And Cingular is not the only wireless network to expand its services.
According to a press release issued Wednesday by Verizon Wireless, the company invested more than $175 million in the state last year and will continue to expand services in 2006.
The company plans to improve services in areas such as Raleigh-Durham and Fayetteville, but also will establish new networks in places such as Wilmington, Rocky Mount, New Bern and Jacksonville.
"Our investment expands the company's geographic footprint and increases call capacity, enabling the network to handle even more simultaneous voice and data calls," stated Jerry Fountain, Verizon Wireless Carolinas/Tennessee region president, in the press release.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(02/20/06 5:00am)
The Common Sense Foundation entered the fray about emergency contraception refusal clauses with the release of a February report criticizing the exception.
The clauses allow pharmacists to refrain from filling emergency contraception prescriptions - commonly known as the morning-after pill - for moral or religious reasons.
The report stated that such refusal "tramples on the woman's right to utilize contraception and have control of her reproductive health."
David Mills, executive director of the Common Sense Foundation, a North Carolina organization for progressive public policy, said corporations that run pharmacies must take the lead in protecting the rights of consumers.
Wal-Mart is one corporation that has been forced to take a step in that direction. In Massachusetts and Illinois, the company is required by state law to stock emergency contraception.
"Women's health is a high priority for Wal-Mart," said Dan Fogleman, spokesman for Wal-Mart. "We're giving this a lot of thought."
The reason the morning-after pill has become so controversial is that people do not understand how it works, Mills said.
"Some people have the misinformation that emergency contraception is equivalent to abortion," he said. "We think people need more education about this issue."
Mills said that because the pill operates by preventing ovulation, fertilization or implantation, it is much more like the birth control pill. The only difference is that it is taken after sexual intercourse, rather than before - the reason some pharmacists have moral objections to providing it.
But Mills stressed that emergency contraception actually prevents abortion.
"For those who are against abortion, it's estimated that E.C. prevents tens of thousands of abortions each year," he said. "There's no reason why the moral agenda of a very few people should control the lives of everyone else."
Another issue that the foundation addressed in its report is the importance of patients getting their prescriptions quickly.
"The issue with emergency contraception is that timing is very important," said Dennis Williams, president of the N.C. Association of Pharmacists and professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy.
"It's OK for pharmacists to have the right to refuse, but they should still get the patient the treatment they need," he said.
David Work, executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, also said refusal clauses are necessary as part of a pharmacist's right to exercise professional judgment.
But he added that although pharmacists have the right to decline a patient, they do not have a right to obstruct her from getting the medication she needs elsewhere.
"They have an obligation to get that patient to a pharmacist who will fill that prescription in a timely manner," Work said.
He said that few pharmacists oppose emergency contraception pills and that not many patients have filed complaints.
"We have only had one complaint, and that complaint was withdrawn," Work said.
Last April, North Carolina failed to pass House Bill 1407, which would have protected physicians' and pharmacists' right to refuse "medical procedures or prescribe or dispense drugs or devices which result in abortion."
Rep. Bill McGee, R-Forsyth, who co-sponsored the bill, said he does not feel that emergency contraception falls into this category.
"Emergency contraception to me does not equate itself with abortion if taken within a reasonable period of time," he said.
Although the foundation's report cited the difficulties of timeliness particularly among women who are refused their prescriptions in rural areas, McGee said such situations rarely arise.
"I think those circumstances are very rare and are not likely to exist in real-world situations."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/27/06 5:00am)
The stereotypical picture of the apathetic college student might have to be revised, according to a recent university report.
The results of a nationwide survey released Wednesday by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles revealed that this year's freshman class was more involved in their community and less likely to have consumed alcohol in high school than previous freshman classes.
The survey was administered during student orientations or shortly after students arrived at their respective campuses, said John Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research program, which was responsible for the survey.
According to the survey, 83.2 percent of entering freshmen volunteered in service activities "at least occasionally" during their senior year of high school.
In addition, 66.3 percent said it was "essential or very important" to help people in need - a 3.9 percent increase from last year and the highest level seen in 25 years.
This also is the driest high school class in the history of the survey. Results showed that the level of entering freshman who consumed alcohol in high school dropped from 45.5 to 43.4 percent in 2005.
He said the results were not surprising, but they were unusual in comparison to results of previous years.
"The fact that so many of these questions of social and civic responsibility converge to increase this year was not surprising, but certainly not an ordinary event in the history of this survey," Pryor said. "We rarely see so many of these issues converge to change."
He also said events such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 2004 tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and the hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 gave students many opportunities to volunteer and encouraged increased activism.
"Those factors, combined with what campuses were doing, impacted beliefs and behaviors surrounding civic and social responsibility," Pryor said.
UNC, however, might not be seeing the same increase.
"We've really only tracked just the last two to three years," said Jenn Kretchmar, senior assistant director of admissions at UNC. "There really hasn't been a dramatic incline."
But UNC students have had a long history of community activism already, she said, adding that the percentages of civic involvement from previous years already were in the 90s.
In fact, 95 percent of entering freshmen at UNC participated in community service in high school, which surpassed the national percentage.
"A lot of high schools might have community service requirements," Kretchmar said. "That might boost the numbers."
Eileen Hannan, program officer at the Carolina Center for Public Service, said the high level of participation also could be attributed to the full-time staff at UNC that is dedicated to civic involvement and students telling their friends about various service opportunities.
She said the culture of community service is what makes UNC unique in comparison to other schools.
"I think here at Carolina specifically, Chancellor Moeser and the rest of the administration have done a really good job of promoting what the mission of the University is," she said. "One of the things is to really give back to the state of North Carolina."
In addition to UNC's public service scholars program, the APPLES service-learning program has seen increased involvement.
"Looking at the APPLES program specifically, it seems like more students are more interested in getting involved and seeing what it's about than in previous years," said LaDonna Brown, a senior at UNC and co-chairwoman of the APPLES internship program.
"More high schools are requiring more of students," she said. "And they are looking to continue that when they come to college."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/24/06 5:00am)
Skipping class is not a problem for the many enrollees in UNC's distance learning programs.
These classes are becoming a popular option for students whose schedules do not allow for traditional classroom methods, and with a new UNC system president leading the way, the emphasis on distance education is growing.
"For undergrads, distance education offers real flex-time convenience," said Louise Spieler, assistant dean for executive education and distance education, in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
"For working professionals, it opens the Carolina learning experience to people who could never take time off to return to campus," she said.
Spieler said overall online enrollment grew nationwide by more than 18 percent to 2.35 million students in 2004.
"The distance education program is thriving at UNC," said Linda Carl, the head of the office of education and e-learning policy in the William and Ida Friday Center at UNC-CH.
In addition to offering online courses that students can take from their homes, UNC-CH's distance education program offers on-site courses in which professors travel to meet with students at an off-campus site, Carl said.
This adds the element of face-to-face communication that is often missing from distance education programs.
But a lack of personal interaction, typical of distance education programs, has not inhibited their statewide growth.
"We're making real progress in meeting the distance education needs of people in North Carolina," said James Sadler, associate vice president for academic planning in the UNC system.
North Carolina offers 234 distance learning programs in 83 content areas, Sadler said. Online degree programs also have increased from six in 2000to 89 in 2006.
But this growth might not be as much as other states are experiencing, Carl said.
Sadler explained the gap in growth as a reflection of other states' need to accommodate larger populations.
"A state like Texas that has a lot more people might have a lot more programs," he said.
UNC-system President Erskine Bowles has said expanding distance learning initiatives statewide would be a university priority to educate as many North Carolinians as possible and keep the state competitive.
But there are also some downsides to distance education, including the longer preparation time required of professors and high costs, Carl said.
In addition, professors frequently are not given any special incentives to take on the extra work load.
"Funding is an issue because it takes a lot of money to get funding established for an online course," Carl said. "For quality, it almost always takes a lot of money up front."
Paul B. Mohr, director of special programs for the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, said the Southern Regional Education Board, a 16-state organization of which North Carolina is a member, is undergoing a collaborative effort to minimize these costs.
"We make available courses and programs through the electronic campus," Mohr said.
"That increases accessibility and affordability for our constituencies."
Bill Gentry, director of the Community Preparedness and Disaster Management Program at UNC-CH, said it can be stressful not having the luxury of adding material during his lectures. He has to ensure that the information students download is correct and complete the first time.
But he added that teaching such courses also offers its rewards.
For instance, his students are more willing to express themselves in writing than participate in normal face-to-face class discussions.
"I enjoy it because you really can get more unabashed opinions," he said.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(01/20/06 5:00am)
The U.S. Department of Commerce has decided against fully implementing an earlier proposal that would restrict the participation of foreign students in university laboratories.
The restrictions focused around research that might be sensitive to national security. But stipulations were met with protest from university leaders who argued that such restrictions would discourage foreign students from enrolling in U.S. institutions.
The department has dropped some, but not all, of the restrictions, said Tony Waldrop, UNC-Chapel Hill vice chancellor for research and economic development.
"They dropped the rule on access to technology based on place of birth," he said. "I think that it is a step in the right direction."
The original proposal banned researchers from labs even if they had received citizenship in a nation different from their birthplace.
John Gilligan, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at N.C. State University, said the fewer restrictions placed on research, the better.
"Any reduction in the restrictions that were proposed by the Department of Commerce would be a good thing," he said, adding that such restrictions would have been difficult to implement.
"The decisions they were proposing were ill-defined," Gilligan said. "It didn't look like they were going to be effective."
Departments that were working in more sensitive areas, such as optics and engineering, found it very difficult to conduct their research while adhering to such conditions, said Mark Clemens, vice chairman of UNC-Charlotte's biology department.
"There was a lot of concern about trying to understand the regulations and the new types of bureaucracy," he said.
But there are still concerns about other restrictions, including a licensing requirement for foreigners using sensitive equipment on fundamental research, Waldrop said. Such research normally is exempt from licensing.
"It's adding another layer of bureaucracy," he said.
Clemens said that the issue is likely to resurface, but that he hopes the United States will get a change of administration in time to avoid it.
"The level of paranoia over these things is best kept at bay," he said.
Clemens also said that a preoccupation with other homeland security issues might keep the issue from coming up again soon, but that it is hard to tell.
"In this age of terrorism, or potential terrorism, this issue will come up again and again," Gilligan said. "But we just have to be reasonable about the whole thing."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
(09/30/05 4:00am)
Universities across the nation welcomed thousands of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina for the fall but are hesitant to make their status permanent.
