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(12/01/09 5:24am)
Sir Christopher Meyer didn’t always know he would study diplomacy. While Meyer was a student at the University of Cambridge, a career adviser once suggested he pursue a career in the “fruit and vegetable industry.”“I could be sitting in a grand house in Sicily looking over my balcony at orange groves and vineyards,” he said.Instead, Meyer joined the British Diplomatic Services and served as a British ambassador to the United States. He will teach UNC students this semester as a visiting professor.The Honors Program course offered in the spring, “Empire and Diplomacy,” will allow 33 UNC students to learn about British diplomacy from two professors — one in North Carolina and one in London.Ted Leinbaugh, a professor of English at UNC, will instruct the course along with Meyer, who will lecture from London via videoconference.Leinbaugh and Meyer, who have been friends since the 1990s, decided last year to collaborate on teaching a course at UNC. Meyer will lecture as the Morehead-Cain alumni distinguished visiting professor.The class will focus on the diplomatic policy, history and origins of the British Empire. Students will read excerpts from “The Aeneid,” “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” works by the philosopher Voltaire and other texts, debating the role of Britain in international relations.Meyer will lecture to the class once a week. UNC students studying abroad in London will be invited to attend Meyer’s lectures in the United Kingdom.Meyer served in several countries including Spain, Belgium and Germany before returning to London as the British ambassador to the United States, one of the highest positions available in the area of British diplomacy.He was the British ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2003. After stepping down as ambassador, Meyer penned the book “DC Confidential” about his experience as a diplomat. His most recent book, “Getting Our Way,” covers nine episodes of individual diplomatic exchanges in British history.“His new book sounded like a fascinating class for UNC students, a chance for them to meet somebody who had reach the highest diplomatic office in the United Kingdom,” Leinbaugh said.Junior Nick Brod, who collaborated with Leinbaugh to develop the course, said he thinks the collaborative efforts will pay off and he looks forward to the experience.“It’s one of those classes that I will remember in 10 or 15 years,” he said.Meyer is currently visiting UNC and will give three speeches this semester about international diplomacy issues. He will also autograph copies of his book for interested students.“We have never needed traditional diplomacy skills as we need them today,” Meyer said. “This gives me an opportunity to come forward with strongly expressed views to present strong ideas and spark resistance.”Meyer said he is excited to teach the course.“Ted decided we could create a course about this, and the rest is history,” Meyer said.Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(11/19/09 5:46am)
Number of students studying abroad:2008-09: 1,2782007-08: 1,3732006-07: 1,3472005-06: 1,2912004-05: 1,207International students:Fall 2007: 1,252 (4 percent)Fall 2006: 1,244 (4.5 percent)Fall 2005: 1,289 (4.7 percent)Fall 2004: 1,263 (4.7 percent)
(11/10/09 4:04am)
UNC students will soon see evenings on campus in a whole new light — LED light, that is.University administrators plan to replace old incandescent lights with energy-efficient LED bulbs, or light-emitting diodes, which will decrease campus energy use and promote sustainability, campus officials said.But the installation of new bulbs might not go over well with some groups, who say the new lights would not be as bright and could decrease overall lighting.Instead of using a filament like a traditional incandescent light bulb, LED lights use many quarter-inch semiconductors with a phosphor coating.These lights are often used on stoplights and exit signs. The lights are noticeable because they emit a brighter glow.“The ‘Holy Grail’ in lighting is to be able to produce a white light that produces good ambient lighting and task lighting,” said Cindy Shea director of the Sustainability Office.“In the past, LED lights were mainly used for cell phones and backlights, but as the color rendition has improved, they are used more as a replacement for incandescent lighting,” Shea said.Shea said the Sustainability Office sees LED lights as the next generation of lighting, referring to them as “environmentally superior” because they don’t contain mercury.UNC has already installed LED lights at locations off the main campus.John Laetz, UNC’s electrical distribution systems manager, said his office is working to evaluate the LED lights. He said roadways, walkways and parking lots on campus will see these lights installed in the near future.The walkway path between Carmichael and Fetzer gyms has been chosen as the first potential site for the new lights, Laetz said.While they are more energy-efficient, LED lights come with a hefty price tag.“The initial capital investment cost is significantly higher than for other types of lights,” Laetz said, adding that LED lights could cost nearly twice as much as the lights currently used on campus.But the energy efficiency provided by the new lights could counteract their price. Since the lights would not produce as much heat, UNC could save money on cooling and maintenance.Cost efficiency for LED fixtures has also improved as manufacturers begin to make fixtures more available.Professor David McNelis, director of the UNC Institute for the Environment, said the LED lights will become cheaper, and performance of the lights should increase considerably in the future.Student leaders said administrators are going to want feedback once the new lights are installed. A tour of campus last week after dark allowed the community to comment on the current lighting situation.“I want to make sure students get a look at the test sites, and it’s a decision we should all make together,” said Ashley Klein, co-chairwoman of student government’s safety committee.“The student voice is the most important.”Klein said she hopes LED lights can be more easily maintained because they contain multiple bulbs, meaning a single burnout would not be as problematic.Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/13/09 4:21am)
The Roosevelt Institute’s new arts and cultural policy center hosted its first guest speaker, rapper Chuck D, Monday night.The University’s chapter of the student think tank serves in a variety of roles as a policy research advocacy group.Now, as the first chapter to incorporate an arts and cultural policy center, it serves yet another role — bringing public policy to life through art.UNC’s Roosevelt Institute chapter has existed since 2005, but the arts and cultural policy sector was added just last spring. Amy Zhang, chairwoman of the Carolina Union Activities Board’s social commentary committee, contacted Roosevelt Institute President Libby Longino and proposed the idea. “We have all of these different arts events that are going on, but it seems as if one thing we might be missing is an entity where we can reflect on that and consider what’s happening in a larger sense,” Zhang said.Chuck D, a rapper and political activist, was supposed to visit UNC last spring, but the visit was postponed because of his return to the rap group Public Enemy.Zhang contacted Chuck D’s agent and invited him to campus to provide students the opportunity to learn from his music. “Part of his message is that we all are able to combine our passions with a larger social aim,” Zhang said. Longino said Chuck D and Public Enemy’s message is relevant to the UNC chapter’s advocacy for social justice.She added that events like this help make policy discussions more accessible to the broader campus community, especially to students who wouldn’t normally think to be interested in such a topic.“The culture of hip-hop and the implications of rap music are so much deeper in influence than the public realizes,” she said.Zhang said she hopes other chapters of the Roosevelt Institute establish arts and cultural policy centers of their own.Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/09/09 4:19am)
Two years ago, UNC administrators feared that an aging faculty would force the University to replace five out of every eight professors due to a wave of retirement — a total of almost 2,000 hires.But this academic year, driven by a sour of economy, only about half as many faculty as usual will be retiring, a drastic departure from the trend.“There are less faculty that have retired this year, for obvious reasons,” said Ron Strauss, executive associate provost.And while the economy has pushed back the wave of retirement, it might exacerbate the problem when a generation of professors leave UNC as the economy rebounds.Because of the deferred retirements, UNC will not have to hire as many new faculty members this year — a blessing in a tight budget year, administrators said.Nine faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences retired or gave notice to administrators that they would leave last year, a decrease from 20 retirees in 2005-06.Strauss said the value of many faculty members’ retirement accounts has decreased recently, encouraging them to remain at the University. “They had filled retirement accounts. They were feeling like they had lots of resources to retire upon and they were planning, sometimes, even early retirements,” he said. “But for some of those people, they’ve lost money in their accounts and they don’t have freedom to retire anymore.”Karen Gil, dean of the college, said administrators anticipated a general decrease in retirements this year, although the actual numbers were lower than expected.But within individual departments, the trend hasn’t been particularly noticeable.William Kier, biology department chairman, said he was not aware of anyone in his department considering retirement who delayed the decision.Gil said most professors who are retiring are those who have had extensive teaching careers at the University and have been planning to retire for a long time. Stafford Wing, a music professor who retired last spring, worked at UNC for 40 years before leaving. Terry Rhodes, chairwoman of the music department, said there have been no other retirements in her department.“His is the most recent, and I don’t foresee any more on the horizon,” Rhodes said. Gil said despite recent trends, the University will maintain its goal of retaining the best faculty members possible.“It’s up to an individual person to decide when they want to retire,” she said. “It’s very good that we’re able to keep experienced teachers on board.” Strauss also said the University wants to keep skilled professors in their jobs and will not encourage retirement.“We’re not trying to move people into retirement,” he said. “When people choose to remain active in University life, obviously they don’t need to be replaced.”Although the University has seen more delayed retirements, this trend is not specific to UNC.“This is a reflection of the state of the economy,” Strauss said. “We like to think of ourselves as special, but in this regard we are just like everybody else.” Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/06/09 3:39am)
A man called “Little Princess” addressed a group of students, businesspeople and former convicts Monday at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.“Little Princess,” an ex-convict whose real name is Jason Wang, was visiting UNC with Catherine Rohr, the founder and CEO of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program.The program, which began in 2004, takes convicted prisoners who are at least three years from their release date and teaches them to create competitive business plans, making them more likely to become permanent additions to the workforce once they are released.The story behind the program has all the markings of a classic turnaround story.“I used to hate criminals. I thought they were the scum of the Earth,” Rohr said at the beginning of her speech.This resentment was only fueled by her job on Wall Street, where Rohr recalled learning the cost of incarcerating a criminal. But Rohr reversed her feelings during a trip to a Texas prison with a friend where she realized the striking similarities between her career and the inmates.“Gangs are run by boards of directors, and they have bylaws and bookkeepers,” Rohr said. “The guys at the top make these incredible profits. The one thing they weren’t really good at was risk management.”Rohr decided to capitalize on the potential she saw in the inmates and returned to the same prison two weeks later to teach a “business 101” class for the prisoners with the help of other CEOs.“It was like breathing life into these guys,” Rohr said. “They had never been told before they could go do something good and productive.”After her first two-hour session with the men, Rohr immediately decided to implement a business plan competition for the inmates and assigned their first homework assignment to be due in two weeks.Rohr moved to Texas and invested all of her money in her new Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Her efforts paid off quickly — the program raised $230,000 in its first year with no help from state funding.The men in the program work through a five-month program at the Cleveland Correctional Center in Cleveland, Texas. Potential program participants are screened by two recruiters who make sure they are committed to personal transformation, have a strong work ethic and show entrepreneurial potential.Rohr said games the men played, such as hula-hoop contests and sack races, and nicknames like “Skittles” and “Peaches,” helped break down barriers between the inmates.“We have to get them to play together and love one another. That builds camaraderie and brotherhood that is so important once they get out of prison”, Rohr said.Jane Murchison, a senior from Texas, heard about Rohr through family friends. Her parents and parents’ friends helped underwrite Rohr’s travel costs while the business school sponsored the reception after Monday’s speech.“She is such a wonderful person, and I wanted other people to hear her story about following her passion”, Murchison said.Wang stood in front of the crowd Monday in a business suit and described his three years spent in prison after being charged with aggravated robbery at age 15.He is now 20 and attends Collin College in Plano, Texas. Wang described his prison time as a God-given gift.“It was where I was able to find out what my values were, and it gave me a second chance at life,” Wang said.Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(09/22/09 4:39am)
Jeweler William Travis Kukovich never watched the Disney Channel.But now one of the channel’s most popular teen sensations — Miley Cyrus — is a client.Kukovich, who is the owner of William Travis Jewelry, has owned his University Square store for five years. Three years ago, he opened a second location in a Costa Rican resort, FlorBlanca.Celebrities visiting the resort noticed his designs, and Kukovich was asked to make jewelry for “Main Street,” an upcoming movie starring Orlando Bloom and Colin Firth, partially filmed in Durham.Many members of the “Main Street” team then went to work on Cyrus’ newest movie, “The Last Song.”Originally, Cyrus was not meant to wear jewelry in the film, but after she said she wanted to, crew members suggested Kukovich’s jewelry and directed Cyrus to his store Web site, Kukovich said.Soon after, crew members called Kukovich to the Georgia movie set, he said.But when he arrived on the set with $16,000 in jewelry for the Disney star’s latest movie, he was promptly removed by the producer, who didn’t know he had permission to be there.“Miley went to the producer and personally called and brought me back on set,” he said.The same day Kukovich was removed from the set, Cyrus chose about 20 of his designs to wear for a private photo shoot, he said.Kukovich described Cyrus’s style in the movie as “emo-edgy,” the theme he kept in mind when he designed the jewelry, which mostly uses larger, darker earthy stones with gold backing.John Sanders, the propmaster for “The Last Song,” said he recalled helping pick out jewelry for the shoot with Kukovich and Tish Cyrus, Miley’s mother.Despite Kukovich’s rocky start, he looked to Deirdre Imershein Haj of Ruffian Media as his mentor in on-set manners.Their UNC connection is Imershein’s husband, Joseph Haj, the producing artistic director of UNC’s PlayMakers Repertory Company.“Without her, I never would have made it there on set. She told me what to do, how to act, everything,” Kukovich said.Imershein encouraged Kukovich to find similarities between himself and Cyrus to help bridge the age difference. Imershein, who has purchased jewelry from Kukovich, described his work as “stunning.”“I think this (experience) gave him an idea of whether he wants to delve into that world or not,” she said. “It’s a unique business. You have to know who to call and what to say, and I was happy to help.”Kukovich noted that both he and Cyrus started their careers around age 12 or 13. He started pursuing jewelry professionally at age 16, coming from a family with a metalsmithing history of 250 years. Now that he has the Cyrus gig under his belt, he said he hopes to continue pursuing movie jewelry contracts, Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/17/09 4:08am)
A group of students and national organizers united Wednesday in front of South Building to push UNC toward a nationwide effort to rid college campuses of coal.The focus of the rally was the UNC Cogeneration Facility, a power plant a half-mile off campus that burns coal and natural gas.A line of five students drew little attention with their protest but delivered a packet of information to the chancellor’s office in hopes of changing University policy.Outside the building, they held posters opposing the plant and claimed that the facility’s daily carbon emissions equaled that of 50,000 cars.Ray DuBose, UNC’s director of energy services, said the plant’s main purpose is to provide UNC and the hospitals with steam, used for heating, humidification, domestic hot water, sterilization and making distilled water. The plant is looking to shift from coal and natural gas to biomass fuel.“It’s absolutely necessary that we do not sacrifice the reliability of the facility because steam is critical to the University and the hospitals,” DuBose said in an interview.Laura Stevens, a representative from the national Sierra Club’s “Moving Campuses Beyond Coal” campaign, which organized Wednesday’s event, said UNC was one of 30 campuses on a “beyond coal” mission.Stevens discussed the environmental impact of carbon emissions, saying a temperature increase of four degrees would make North Carolina’s climate similar to Florida’s.“UNC has traditionally been a leader in solving some of the most critical problems facing our nation, and we hope coal will be no exception,” Stevens said.Sara Mishamandani, a junior environmental health major in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, spoke about the physical impacts of burning coal.She attributed 20,000 hospital visits and 38,000 annual deaths to adverse health effects from coal power plants.Mishamandani added that she hoped students would participate in UNC’s effort to reduce coal use.“Students and young people have been at the forefront of every social justice movement in recent history,” she said.Last year, students voted to renew a $4 per semester renewable energy fee that has been in place since the 2004-05 school year. The money is used for renewable energy projects on campus. The fee has generated more than $200,000, said Robert Cox, a UNC faculty member and former president of the Sierra Club.“I love UNC, and I’m here to support growing the number of students in conversation about the campus’ energy future,” he said.Cox added that other universities’ efforts have made him optimistic about UNC. “I am encouraged by other campuses who have already taken steps,” he said.Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(09/15/09 4:22am)
The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center will celebrate its new hospital today — a symbol of its goal of unified accessible care to North Carolina residents.In a ceremony featuring patients, doctors and Gov. Bev Perdue, the hospital will be dedicated to all citizens of the state, who will be able to rely on it for cancer care regardless of financial means.The hospital is one of only 40 institutions in the country designated by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center. It is the only public center of this type in the state.Patients at comprehensive cancer centers can receive all stages of treatment in the same facility from collaborating doctors and staff, providing a more streamlined care experience.“Even though it is located in Chapel Hill, we are going to make every effort to help people throughout the 100 counties and connect this hospital to North Carolina,” said Karen McCall, vice president of public affairs and marketing for the UNC Health Care System. “We wanted it to be a dedication for the people of North Carolina.”While the hospital hasn’t been inactive during construction, today’s ceremony will mark the facility’s return to full operation after four years of construction.The new 315,000-square-foot facility was funded by a $180 million fund from the N.C. General Assembly.It has three times as much space allotted for patient care as compared to the old building and has added 51 beds to the existing 700. “This improves access for inpatient services for everyone,” McCall said. “Patients won’t have to wait so long to get a bed.”N.C. Cancer Hospital physician-in-chief Richard Goldberg said the new facility has been built specifically to cater to patient needs. “Now we have a building that was designed exactly for the purpose we were using it for, designed with input from patients,” Goldberg said.Former and current patients of the hospital had significant input in the design of the new facility. Construction began in 2005 and was completed this year.Lea Wharton, 42, a Raleigh resident and former patient at the Lineberger center, said she was impressed by the features of the upgraded hospital.“The new facility finally matches the level of care,” she said. “They are the most amazing surgeons and doctors I have ever met and are clearly all about the whole patient and the whole experience and not just the cancer.”Goldberg said he also thinks the new upgrades correspond to the level of care provided.“Now we’re in a situation where the quality of the building matches the quality of the people who work in the building.” Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.