FILE1

P1 cutline: Paul Armistead, assistant professor of medicine, collaborates with fellow UNC researchers in efforts to discover new leukemia antigens and develop methods for analyzing their ability to create an immune response to cancer. He is one of more than 60 faculty members recruited during the past three years with support from the University Cancer Research Fund.

Cancer research and care enters new era of promise, making a difference in people’s lives

T

he state of North Carolina established the University Cancer Research Fund (UCRF) in August 2007 to reduce the burden of cancer, North Carolina’s leading cause of death.

Building on its $180 million investment in the N.C. Cancer Hospital, the North Carolina General Assembly allocated $25 million to the UCRF in 2007–08, $40 million in 2008–09 and $50 million per year after that. Revenue from the Tobacco Trust Fund and an increased tax on smokeless tobacco products helps fund the UCRF.

Shelley Earp, director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and one of seven members of the Cancer Research Fund Committee that governs the fund, told the University’s Board of Trustees in the spring that this visionary investment is an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Earp is also professor of pharmacology and medicine and Lineberger Professor of Cancer Research.

A planning process begun in May 2008 led to the approval of a strategic plan that focuses significant resources on a limited set of research initiatives that have the most potential for making a positive impact on the health of North Carolinians. At the same time, the plan calls for leveraging additional funding from outside sources.

The following research initiatives emerged as interconnec-ted priorities:

n Understanding genetics and its role in cancer causation and treatment;

n Developing new cancer treatments; and

n Optimizing North Carolina’s cancer outcomes.

Technology and resources

Earp said key investments in technology and resources, guided by the strategic plan, have helped faculty maximize leading-edge cancer research and extramural support.

For instance, investments in next-generation gene sequencing equipment and nanotechnology and materials sciences cores have directly contributed to Carolina’s ability to become part of The Cancer Genome Atlas project and to remain a Center of Excellence in Cancer Nanotechnology – both supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The Cancer Genome Atlas program, funded by a five-year grant expected to yield between $13 million and $20 million, pairs scientists from UNC Lineberger with collaborators from across campus to provide a deeper, more systematic understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the uncontrolled growth and spread of cancer cells throughout the body.

In another major collaboration among UNC Lineberger researchers from the School of Medicine, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and College of Arts and Sciences, the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence designs innovative, multifunctional nanodevices that are tested in sophisticated mouse models of human cancer. The ultimate goal is to translate these findings to the clinic. Carolina’s inclusion in these programs affirms the University’s place among the leading cancer research centers in the nation, Earp said.

UCRF has also invested in on-campus resources such as the UNC Health Registry to provide researchers with comprehensive data to explore solutions to cancer. When fully mature, the registry (also known as the Cancer Survivorship Cohort) will include 10,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients who give their consent to sharing a wide range of data about their disease, from treatment to genetic and psychological factors.

The registry will then follow these patients for years after their treatment concludes to record outcomes. With such comprehensive, secure data, researchers will be able to examine more fully the complex interplay of factors affecting survivorship and quality of life in the hope of designing new programs and interventions that will improve the health of all North Carolinians.

People

Equally important has been the investment in people, Earp said. Working with departments and schools across campus, the UCRF has made it possible for the University to recruit or help recruit more than 60 faculty members in the past three years.

Below are highlighted a few of the new faculty researchers who represent the continuum of expertise leading to optimizing outcomes, developing new therapeutics and expanding outreach efforts to underserved populations.

Amos

Keith Amos, assistant professor of surgery and member of UNC Lineberger, works to understand and eliminate disparities in cancer care for minorities and underserved populations.

Toward that end, his research focuses on communication issues between physicians and minority patients, barriers to enrolling minorities and underserved groups in clinical trials for cancer, and dissemination and availability of state-of-the-art and standard-of-care procedures for cancer care in minority and underserved populations.

Amos:

n Earned his B.S. in chemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and his M.D. from Harvard University;

n Completed his residency in surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; and

n Completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“Dr. Amos is an exceptional surgical oncologist who is actively participating in national clinical trials and cancer advocacy organizations,” said Anthony Meyer, chair of the Department of Surgery. “I believe he will make major contributions to the improvement of cancer care and continue to develop as a national leader in surgical oncology.”

Armistead

Paul Armistead, assistant professor of medicine and member of UNC Lineberger, collaborates with faculty in the Department of Chemistry to try to discover new leukemia antigens and develop methods for analyzing their ability to create an immune response to cancer. The hope is that this work will lead to the identification and characterization of new immune targets in leukemia.

Armistead:

n Earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from Carolina;

n Completed his M.D. from the UNC School of Medicine through the University’s M.D./Ph.D. program;

n Completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; and

n Completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology followed by an instructorship in stem cell transplantation at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“Dr. Armistead, who was a Morehead-Cain Scholar here, returned to UNC to launch a career exploring immunologic issues plaguing patients after bone marrow transplantation,” said Richard Goldberg, Distinguished Professor of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology. “As a scientist whose expertise bridges the disciplines of clinical medicine, immunology and chemistry, he felt advantaged by resources that UNC has in place to connect these multiple disciplines. His intelligence and credentials made him competitive for the best research positions, and UCRF allowed us to attract him back to UNC.”

Cameron

The work of Linda Cameron, a research professor in the Department of Psychology and member of UNC Lineberger, falls within the domain of health psychology and explores how cognitions and emotions influence behaviors and experiences within the context of cancer treatment and control.

One line of her research investigates the ways in which emotions such as anxiety influence how individuals cope with chemotherapy and use social support services. Another focuses on strategies for developing health communications, including messages about genetic testing and disease risk.

Cameron:

n Earned her B.S. summa cum laude in experimental psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara;

n Earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. in personality and social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and

n Served as a research scientist at the Health and Coping Research Center at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

“Linda Cameron is a leading social psychologist working on the cutting edge of understanding the role that human emotions can play in cancer, from detecting symptoms and participating in screening tests through treatment and survival,” said Karen M. Gil, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her interdisciplinary teaching and research in psychology and behavioral medicine inspire her colleagues and students, while addressing one of the world’s greatest health challenges, the timely detection and treatment of cancer. She exemplifies how University partnerships enhance the potential benefit of untold numbers of cancer patients.”

Chiang

Derek Chiang, assistant professor of genetics and member of UNC Lineberger, seeks to characterize the genetic changes that cause cancer. With rapid advances in sequencing technologies, it will soon become possible to survey the full spectrum of mutations in a tumor genome, but researchers lack the methods to distinguish which of these mutations are responsible for tumor growth.

To address this data analysis bottleneck, Chiang is seeking to develop new computational tools to interpret the alterations in tumor genomes. By identifying the key genetic vulnerabilities in a single tumor, he hopes that his research will help identify new targets for individualized cancer therapy.

Chiang:

n Earned his B.S. in chemistry from Carolina where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar;

n Earned his Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow; and

n Completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

“Dr. Chiang’s research focuses on developing methods for single-molecule sequencing analysis of cancer genome copy number,” said Terry Magnuson, chair of the Department of Genetics. “He is a leader in an international consortium that shares the goal of characterizing the genome of hepatocellular cancers and will continue this work at UNC. He is a critical addition to our cancer genomics program.”

Muss

Hy Muss, professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Hematology and Oncology, leads a new Geriatric Oncology Program in Lineberger that works to ensure the highest quality of oncologic care for older patients while factoring in the patient’s functional status and other non-cancer illnesses.

Currently, clinical trials are being developed to integrate prevention, treatment, quality of life and translational research focused on older patients with cancer.

Muss:

n Earned his B.S. cum laude in chemistry from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.;

n Earned his M.D. from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn; and

n Completed his internship, residency and a research fellowship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

“Professor Muss came to implement a research and clinical program focused on the growing elderly cancer population who commonly are challenged by other illness and social situations,” said Goldberg, the gastrointestinal cancer researcher who heads hematology and oncology. “His work integrates naturally with UNC’s Geriatric Medicine program led by Jan Busby-Whitehead. We just hired our first joint fellow who chose UNC because we have one of the few multidisciplinary groups emphasizing research, education and patient care for older cancer patients. A year ago there was no such program.”

Troester

Melissa Troester, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and member of UNC Lineberger, combines cancer epidemiology, biomarker development, exposure assessment and cancer genomics in her research.

The goal is to identify risk factors for human cancer and to understand how genetic and environmental factors interact in cancer’s causation.

Currently, the focus of her work is to identify gene expression changes associated with breast cancer risk. These research projects have applications in clinical medicine, risk assessment and cancer prevention.

Troester:

n Earned her B.A. in chemistry from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., and her M.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago;

n Earned her Ph.D. in environmental health at Carolina; and

n Completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pathology and genetics and an M.P.H. in epidemiology at Carolina.

“Dr. Troester has been an exceptional addition to the cancer center’s research program,” said Andrew Olshan, chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the Gillings School of

Global Public Health. “Her innovative research uniquely combines epidemiology and cutting-edge molecular biology to address important questions about the causes of breast cancer and factors that influence treatment and survival.”

Whitehurst

Angelique Whitehurst, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and member of UNC Lineberger, focuses on understanding the functional components supporting uncontrolled growth of cancer by employing a technique called small interfering RNA, which allows the selective silencing of individual proteins in tumor cells.

Her work has helped to develop a screening test for certain genetic signatures that may indicate response to chemotherapy. This analysis may help scientists and doctors understand how the presence of certain genes and the expression of particular proteins influence chemotherapy’s effectiveness in killing cancer cells. These profiles could help identify targets for new therapies that can kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.

Whitehurst:

n Earned both her B.S. in biochemistry and her B.A. in chemistry at Virginia Tech;

n Earned both her B.S. in and Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern; and

n Completed her postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at UT Southwestern.

“Dr. Whitehurst completed the first human genome-wide screen to identify genes that affect how tumor cells respond to the first line chemotherapeutic, paclitaxel,” said Gary Johnson, chair of the Department of Pharmacology. “She brought this high-throughput screening technology to UNC and helped establish a facility that harnesses the technology to identify genes that are required for tumor cell viability. In just six months, investigators have discovered essential genes in breast, lung and liver cancer that present new therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of cancer.”

Page6 cutlines

 Pharmacologist Angelique Whitehurst employs a technique in her research called small interfering RNA, a process that selectively silences individual proteins in tumor cells. Her work has helped to develop a screening test for certain genetic signatures that may indicate response to chemotherapy.

 The N.C. Cancer Hospital, which opened last year, is the clinical home of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. It features state-of-the-art imaging, radiation oncology,

pediatric treatment, infusion and inpatient facilities, and has extended outreach to patients across the state through teleconferencing facilities funded by the UCRF.

Page 7 cutlines

 Keith Amos, whose research focuses on enhancing cancer care for minorities and underserved populations, works to understand and eliminate the barriers that lead to disparities in cancer care. Among other topics, he examines communication issues between physicians and patients.

 Melissa Troester’s work seeks to identify risk factors for cancer and to understand how genetic and environmental factors interact in the causation of the disease. Her current research focuses on identifying gene expression changes associated with breast cancer risk.

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Don’t forget to add this to the Budget page

Details to come on $19 billion budget signed June 30

For the first time in seven years, the state budget was approved before the start of the new fiscal year.

The $19 billion budget for fiscal 2010–11 passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue on June 30 calls for a $70 million reduction in the operating budget for the UNC system. It also includes provisions for need-based financial aid, enrollment growth and operating funds for many new campus buildings.

Administrators do not yet have complete details about what the budget means for Carolina and are still working through those implications.

Planning for inevitable reductions began last December when Chancellor Holden Thorp asked the vice chancellors and deans to develop proposals that assumed new cuts at the 5 percent level as well as continued declines in funding from endowment earnings.

“I believe that work, and the difficult decisions associated with it, have put the University in a good position,” Thorp said in an e-mail message to the campus community on June 30. He added that administrators did not expect the cuts to dramatically exceed the 5 percent level.

“The ongoing support our legislators have shown for higher education in our state is extraordinary,” he said. “Their efforts allow us to do the important work we do at Carolina every day, and for that we are truly appreciative.”

Last fall, University administrators outlined three priorities for the upcoming fiscal year: to minimize budget cuts; secure funding to support need-based financial aid; and use tuition revenue for campus needs. The approved budget supports all three goals.

“We are pleased that the budget has allowed us to be successful in these key areas for our University,” said Dwayne Pinkney, associate vice chancellor for enterprise services and special assistant to the chancellor for local and state relations.

Other positive outcomes include residential tuition rates for out-of-state students who earn academic scholarships (but not athletic scholarships) and an infusion of $3.5 million to help reduce the backlog of distinguished professorships in the UNC system.

To help offset the impact of management flexibility cuts, the legislature authorized UNC system campuses to increase tuition by up to $750 per year, with approval of the Board of Governors and UNC President Erskine Bowles. Yesterday (after the Gazette went to press), the Board of Governors met to discuss implementation of the supplemental tuition increase.

The University also is slated to receive about $12 million in repair and renovation funds and $2.6 million in building reserve funds, the money used to support the operating costs of new or renovated buildings. Much of the reserve allocation will be used for the new Physical Sciences Building, known as “new Venable.”

The budget does not provide state-funded salary increases for employees, and Thorp acknowledged in his e-mail message the hardship that creates for many people.

During this year’s “short session,” legislators worked to close the state’s $800 million revenue gap and were able to avoid some of the most severe cuts under consideration. But next year’s outcome could be very different, with the state facing a shortfall estimated as high as $3 billion.

One aspect of the 2010-11 budget will not be known until later this summer or early fall. The budget includes a contingency plan that allows a 1 percent across-the-board cut if North Carolina does not receive anticipated federal Medi-caid funding known as FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentage). If that happens, the state would have to cover

the shortfall.

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Protecting the University from cyber attacks Q&A

Protecting the University’s computing resources and sensitive data is more important than ever. Information Technology Services (ITS) officials estimate that there are about 30,000 attempted hacks per day into Carolina’s computing systems.

With the recent findings of the Office of the State Auditor for North Carolina that identified weaknesses in the University’s approach to managing IT security, eight new information security policies are being implemented.

The Gazette spoke with Larry Conrad, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, about how the University community can protect its sensitive data and deter security breaches. Below is an excerpt of that conversation; to read the full interview, refer to gazette.unc.edu/file.3.html.

What data are most at risk for security breaches?

We’re most concerned about exposing the broad, growing spectrum of sensitive data at the University. That includes Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, student identifying information and personal health information, among other data.

A key piece of the University’s information security policies involves how to help people in our community know what to watch out for.

What makes universities like Carolina so vulnerable to breaches?

Universities in general, and certainly major research universities, are ‘a destination resort for the worldwide hacker community.’

Universities are notoriously open. The whole idea of people being able to do, to the greatest extent possible, whatever they need to do, with whomever they need to do it, wherever and whenever it’s needed, is part of academic freedom. That makes for an interesting, diverse environment, but that underlying spirit of openness also makes it a lot harder to protect things.

We also have great connectivity. We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making sure we have state-of-the-art networking capabilities, which hackers love because if they can find resources they can use, they can use them at very high speeds.

And we have a lot of potential targets. There are nominally 80,000 separately addressable devices connected to the campus network, and our environment is only as good as the least maintained of those systems.

Hackers are certainly looking for information, but often they’re just looking for a system they can take over and subvert to their uses. The hacker community is worldwide. They’re smart, they’re relentless, they’re automated and they work 24/7.

How do we keep data secure?

There’s no magic bullet. The harsh reality is if a system is connected to the Internet, you can’t guarantee 100 percent security. We have intrusion detection and prevention systems and firewalls at the campus border, with the assumption that most of the exposure is from off campus.

Next, we look at special areas on campus, for example the three machine rooms here in ITS. We build in additional layers of protection for those machine rooms because we have hundreds of servers, many with sensitive data that need to be protected.

But there’s no way you can protect everything through central action. And once a system has been compromised, the enemy is inside the borders. That’s why we erect additional layers of defense within the University.

What is the advantage of decentralized IT support?

It isn’t practical to have centralized IT support here, and I don’t actually believe being centralized is the right way to go.

One reason a place like Carolina is so successful is because we have a lot of really smart, creative people who are excellent at innovating. And that innovation and creativity covers a broad spectrum of things including the use of IT. The needs really vary from discipline to discipline.

Some things are critically important to have common from an infrastructure standpoint, and that’s what the central IT organization does.

Conversely, there are many things that are unique. Kenan-Flagler, for instance, has a room that simulates a trading floor; that’s unique to their environment and clientele, and should be supported by their IT organization.

Our challenge is finding a balance between centrally supported things that are consistent across the University with providing latitude and creativity among units and disciplines.

Why should employees who don’t conduct research or deal with confidential records be concerned about security?

Even if an individual’s job and position doesn’t involve exposure to sensitive data in an official capacity, the bad guys can still compromise and take over their computer. So we need to ensure that each of us takes the necessary steps to make sure our system is protected for the good of the community.

What should researchers be concerned about?

These are things the policies will address. One aspect is that if you have a need to have sensitive information on your computer at all – and certainly on your laptop – that information needs to be encrypted.

Even sensitive information passed around the campus network needs to be encrypted. We’d really like to have people put sensitive information on a server instead of their computers.

What do you hope will come out of the current risk assessment?

We’re doing it because we don’t know what we don’t know. We do know that we have exposures, but we don’t know where they are. The risk assessment should give us a representative sample of the scope of the problem.

What is the key message you want people to have?

Information security is a community challenge. We have to address it collectively and motivate everyone to work together.

The new policies are just good best practices for information security and system administration. I’m committed to addressing any problems we find. The worst thing that can happen is to put policies in place that no one can comply with.

FILE4

A man of a different Day and time

The dark stain of slavery is woven into the history of Carolina, much like the history of the fledgling democracy it was created to serve.

Slaves built Old East in 1793 and worked on Old West in 1823 and Gerrard Hall in 1837. Until an ordinance was passed abolishing the practice in 1845, it was not uncommon for students to bring slaves to campus to blacken their boots, carry their books or cut the firewood that heated their dorms.

free black artisan thrives

But interwoven into the University’s history is a tale of one free African-American whose life proved to be an exception for his time.

Born to free parents in Dinwiddie, Va., in 1801, Thomas Day was well educated and, in the years before the Civil War, became a highly respected free black artisan.

From his workshop in Milton, in Caswell County, Day operated what at one time was the largest furniture business in North Carolina, using steam-powered tools and mass production to fashion fine furniture and trim for wealthy white customers. The staff included free employees and slaves owned by Day.

In 1847, among those customers were the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, the two oldest student organizations at Carolina that were founded five decades before, just after the arrival of the University’s first student, Hinton James.

Manuscripts in Wilson Library record the transaction between Day and C. L. Swain within a span of a week that November. On Nov. 17, Davis wrote from his home in Milton:

Hon. Sir,

I have calculated the 12 alcoves to be shelved in the plan way you discribed [sic] with Pillaster [sic] at the Back to correspond in appearance with the Front, the Boxing round the alcove to be finished as in the First proposition. Shelving the two halls in the way above mentioned will cost two hundred 93 dollars 25 cents, without the pilaster 22$ less $271.25 cts.

If you conclude to have me do it you will please inform me as Earley [sic] as convenient.

Verry [sic] obediently yours,

Thos. Day

If you should get me to shelve them I must beg the favor of you to measure the lenghth [sic] of your Books the Depth of the shelves accurately & send me.

T. Day

Swain responded with the following letter, dated Nov. 24 and sent from Chapel Hill.

To Thomas Day

Sir,

I have concluded to accept your bid for shelving the libraries, though it is higher by more than $100 than the sum proposed by a very respectable firm in this place. For my justification to him and to the Trustees, I must rely upon the superior manner in which I expect you to execute the work. For the present you must not mention to anyone the amount you are to receive. You speak of 12 alcoves, there are 14.

Will it not be your best plan to pack up & come down & do all the work here. A large comfortable & commodious house to work and lodge in within 100 yards of the Library, can be occupied without charge during the time you are here engaged and many difficulties about plans & measurements avoided by opportunities of comparison and consultation on the spot, which it will be very hard to overcome at a distance. The shelves ought not to be equi-distant – 10 – 9 – 8 inches will be most general intervals. Neither the depth, nor width will in all cases be uniform. The North end of the North alcoves (fronting the main street in the village) you will recollect are much deeper than the others, & are to be arranged for quarto & folio volumes.

The regular meetings of the Societies take place on Friday night, when I suppose your proposition will be passed upon by the Philanthropic Society.

To understand how remarkable this simple business transaction was, consider this: In 1850, the same year Day was recorded as owning and operating the state’s largest cabinet shop, more than 288,000 men, women and children – or roughly a third of North Carolina’s population – were slaves.

Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll reveal in their new book “Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color,” how Day’s entrepreneurial spirit, his work ethic and his artistic talent all contributed to his success, as did the boom era for his planter clientele in the 1840s and 1850s.

Although his work reflected the architectural styles of the times, Day made his work distinctive with his unique flair. According to Marshall and Leimenstoll, Day imbued everything he made with idiosyncratic motifs, fluid lines and spiraling forms that conveyed energy and movement.

Today, experts consider Day’s craftsmanship among the best in the 19th century.

War and its aftermath

The years leading up to the Civil War marked the death knell of Day’s once-booming business.

The Panic of 1857 set off a chain reaction of urban bank failures, which led to a severe economic downturn similar to the one experienced recently. Day found himself caught between suppliers demanding payments and clients who could not pay.

Riddled by debts, Day and his business were forced into receivership – an arrangement under which the business avoided liquidation by being reorganized by a court-appointed trustee. In 1859, Day’s son, Thomas Jr., executed a note for his father’s debts, and the property was returned.

But in 1861, the same year the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter and Carolina students left the classroom to join the fight, Day disappeared from public records. It is possible that he died that year. His body is buried near Milton, on property he once owned.

The University not only survived the war, but eventually emerged reborn.

In the years after the war, North Carolina began to remake its economy with the establishment of cotton mills and tobacco factories and the construction of thousands of miles of railroad. The University began remaking itself in the image of that economic revolution, starting in 1875 when the trustees scuttled the antebellum curriculum.

This University, the trustees insisted, should operate not as a storehouse of knowledge, but “a great metropolis of thought.” By gathering, creating and distributing knowledge, they said, the University would become a force in the world of progress.

Under this new concept, the faculty changed from a handful of ministers who had served as jacks-of-all-trades to include specialists certified by a degree borrowed from German universities, doctorate of philosophy, or Ph.D.

Progress in the push for racial equality to create a climate in which business owners like Day could thrive, however, occurred in fits and starts during the next century.

It was not until 1951 – after a ruling by a federal court – that the University admitted the first black students to its medical and law schools. In 1955, three men from Durham became the first African-Americans to enroll as undergraduates.

In 2004, the University opened the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black History and Culture, and the following year the University dedicated a memorial in McCorkle Place to the slaves and free people of color who have been a part of the University’s complex past, even when their contributions remained hidden.

Called Unsung Founders, the piece features bronze figures supporting a round stone tablet. There are no names written on that tablet because there are so many people who belong on it and so little written history about them.

A revival of interest

Day’s remarkable life may have been left forgotten as well if not for the late historian John Hope Franklin. Franklin generated interest in Day in 1943 when he highlighted the artisan’s accomplishments in his groundbreaking book, “The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790–1860.”

By 1975, the North Carolina Museum of History had worked with many families in the Dan River region to preserve a large collection of furniture that Day made for one of his most illustrious clients, Gov. David Settle Reid.

That same year, the museum used a donation from the North Carolina membership of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., a national African-American public service sorority, to publish a small catalog that included the Reid collection as well as other examples of Day’s work that had been preserved in North Carolina and Virginia.

This spring, the museum put Day’s work on display once again when it opened the exhibit, “Behind the Veneer, Thomas Day, Master Cabinetmaker,” to highlight Day’s life and legacy.

Organized in conjunction with the release of “Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color,” the exhibit showcases more than 70 pieces of furniture crafted by Day.

The exhibit features a recreation of Day’s workshop with hand tools common to the era and a partial replica of the production line Day and his workers would have used to turn out the finished pieces.

For more information about the exhibit, which will continue throughout the year, refer to bit.ly/d44ZWZ.

To see more photos from the book, refer to gazette.unc.edu/file.4.html.

Photo credit: From “Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color” by Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll. Copyright © 2010 by the North Carolina Museum of History. Used by permission of the University of North Carolina Press.

SUSTAINABILITY

Energy Task Force turns its attention from supply to demand

When the University accepted a recommendation from the Energy Task Force in May to end coal use on campus by May 2020, it was big news. But the job of the task force was only half done. After devoting its first four meetings to the University’s energy sources, the task force will now focus on consumption and demand.

At its June 16 meeting, the task force heard presentations about student support for energy efficiency, efforts to curb energy usage and a new method for monitoring campus energy consumption.

Erin Hiatt, a rising junior majoring in public policy who co-chairs the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee, talked about efforts to reduce energy consumption in campus buildings.

The committee manages the approximately $200,000 generated annually by the $4-per-semester Student Renewable Energy Fee and is best known for funding alternative energy projects such as the solar panels on top of Morrison residence hall and the geothermal wells at the North Carolina Botanical Garden Education Center. It also looks for projects that cut energy waste and that educate consumers, Hiatt said.

“In our Shut the Sash campaign in Caudill, Hooker and Chapman labs, we put magnets on hoods that could be shut down when not in use,” Hiatt said. Other projects include more efficient lighting for PlayMakers Repertory Company and the Medical Biomolecular Research Building, and laundry room lights triggered by motion sensors.

“We really applaud your work,” said Tim Toben, chair of the task force and the North Carolina Energy Policy Council. “In the long run, people begin to realize there are great paybacks for those investments.”

Chris Martin, director of Energy Management, echoed the payback-for-investment message. The University’s Energy Conservation Measures project, begun last July, cost about $200,000 to implement but has resulted in $3.2 million of avoided utility costs and other savings so far.

Some buildings have exceeded 50 percent energy savings, Martin said, because of measures such as stricter central control of temperature and lighting.

When Pete Andrews, chair of the department of public policy, asked what “low-hanging fruit” might result in more savings, Martin said, “What I’ve found out is that low-hanging fruit grows back. We have to stay diligent to maintain the savings we have.”

One way to do this is to have a better way of monitoring energy use in buildings. Work on a new online energy consumption “dashboard” that would display near real-time energy consumption data for campus buildings should start in mid-July, said Kehinde Olajide, systems project manager in Energy Services.

Presentations made to the task force, which was established by Chancellor Holden Thorp in January to study the University’s carbon reduction plans, are posted at bit.ly/afxxRE. The group will meet again July 22.

LIGHTING THE NIGHT The walkway at the southeast corner of Kerr Hall glows with traditional Gothic street lamps in a real-world test of LED (light-emitting diode) lighting this summer. A group of eight lights, recently installed by UNC’s Electric Distribution Systems, are a mixture of old and new. The poles and heads are the traditional “main street” style widely used on campus. But inside, they’ve been retrofitted with an LED kit that produces a soft white light similar to a 150-watt metal halide bulb that only consumes 52 watts of power. EDS welcomes any comments on campus lighting. Call 962-3853 or e-mail Bill.Lowery@energy.unc.edu.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

University to collaborate in developing a new bioterrorism signal detection, warning system

North Carolina will be the national model for a new system to detect the earliest signs of an impending bioterrorism attack and provide warnings in time to minimize damage to human and animal life as well as the environment.

The model, called North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative (NCB-Prepared), will alert health officials and practitioners within hours of symptom outbreaks that might indicate a bioterrorist attack, threat of disease, food-borne illness or other threats to public health and safety.

The congressionally funded one-year, $5 million project is a cooperative agreement between the University and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Initial collaborators include Carolina, N.C. State University and SAS Institute. The effort includes participation of the N.C. Division of Public Health and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, as well as others from the public and private sectors.

Rep. David Price, chair of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, was instrumental in bringing together experts in threat detection, data collection and dissemination, emergency preparedness and computer analytics to develop a model early warning system. He also sponsored a measure in Congress to provide a $5 million grant to fund the NCB-Prepared project.

“The goal of this groundbreaking effort is to save lives in the event of a major biological event – whether naturally occurring or man-made – to provide reliable early detection of an event and to inform a successful response by our public health system,” Price said.

The project was launched June 21 at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Charles B. Cairns, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, and Marc Hoit, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer at N.C. State, are project co-principal investigators.

NCB-Prepared will draw on a wide array of human health data (physician’s clinical notes, electronic hospital records, school nurse logs, prescription databases and over-the-counter medication sales) and information from the rest of the biosphere including animal health records, air quality measurements and food safety data.

Using advanced analytical programs, the project aims to detect a public health threat long before it would surface in traditional disease surveillance systems. It builds on existing state surveillance capabilities such as NC-DETECT, one of the most advanced surveillance systems in the country, which analyzes hospital emergency room and other data several times a day.

For more information, refer to www.ncb-prepared.org.

GOVERNANCE

Proposed grievance policy changes get mixed review from Forum

Before Jackie Overton decided to run for chair of the Employee Forum, she asked her colleagues in the Department of Public Safety for their support.

Without exception, she received it. On July 6, as she was sworn into office, her co-workers were there.

“Nobody can lead an organization without a support system, and this is mine,” Overton said as she glanced over at the contingent of colleagues from the Department of Public Safety who she asked to stand with her after the swearing in.

Among them was Jeff McCracken, director of public safety, who told forum members that they were lucky to have Overton as their chair. Overton is in charge of annual training for all public safety employees who are not sworn officers.

“She has been with our department through tough times, and her training and education and experience have helped us get through those times,” McCracken said, adding that

he believed Overton could apply those same skills to help the forum get through the tough times now facing the University.

One response of the forum to tough times has been its support for and active involvement with the Carolina Campus Community Garden.

Overton said the garden was a “wonderful undertaking” that fostered a community of students, staff and faculty joined in the mission of growing and distributing free vegetables to low-paid University employees.

To help ensure that the garden becomes a fixture of campus life, the forum voted to form a standing committee – called Community Outreach – to deal exclusively with issues related to the garden.

In other action, the forum voted to approve a resolution that objected to three changes in the SPA Grievance Policy that the Office of Human Resources (OHR) will submit for consideration to the Office of State Personnel (OSP) and the State Personnel Commission (SPC).

SPC has the final say on approving any of the submitted changes, including several OHR made in direct response to suggestions by Employee Forum members.

Changes the forum’s resolution opposed, however, pertained to the removal of the right to grieve “unfair treatment by management”; removal of a “stop-the-clock” provision when mediation is used; and a reduction in the paid leave time an employee could work on his or her grievance to be consistent with state policy.

Vice Chair Mark ter Horst, who led the committee that developed the resolution, thanked Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Brenda Malone and her staff for their willingness to hear the forum’s concerns and respond to them.

Malone said OHR had worked hard to secure input on a grievance policy that was due for an update – and to pay attention to the suggestions that forum members and others had made over the past few years.

“We really did try to address many of the concerns that have been raised,” Malone said, citing as an example the strong push by forum members to allow a support person to have greater involvement at the hearing.

“Rest assured we will be advocating for that, as well as all the other changes, very strongly,” Malone said. However, she reminded the forum that OSP and the SPC provide final approval.

She also pointed out that each UNC system institution, along with every state agency, has its own grievance policy and that Carolina’s policy was already more generous than many others in the rights conferred to employees.

She said OHR’s recommendations will be forwarded to OSP for action this summer. If approved, the amended grievance policy could go into effect in the fall.

STUDENTS

Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center blends excellence in academics and athletics

The new Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center opened its doors to students in May.

The $8.3 million renovation and construction of the space formerly known as Women’s Gym between Woollen and Fetzer gyms was funded with a combination of private gifts and contributions from the Division of Student Affairs, Department of Athletics and College of Arts and Sciences.

The facility provides athletic training and sports medicine services for the University’s 800 varsity student-athletes plus many others who are involved in club sports and intramural activities through campus recreation programs.

The building is named for Don and Billie Stallings, who made the lead gift in support of the facility. Stallings, chair and chief executive officer of Eagle Transport Inc., is a Carolina alumnus and former professional football player with the Washington Redskins. He served on the University’s Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2009.

The building also honors Eddie Evans, the late son of Billie Stallings, who said she hoped that Eddie’s “positive caring attitude will always be an example to the student-athletes and athletic trainers who will work in this facility.”

The facility – a collaborative effort of Campus Health Services in the Division of Student Affairs, the Department of Athletics and the Department of Exercise and Sport Science in the College of Arts and Sciences – will provide care, rehabilitation and athletic training for students as well as clinical educational experiences for undergraduate and graduate athletic-training students.

The University’s sports medicine facilities were previously in a 2,500-square-foot space in Fetzer Gym. The new center was built next to Fetzer with the conversion of the 70-year-old Women’s Gym into a 4,800-square-foot athletic training room and the addition of a 3,000-square-foot hydrotherapy room and lobby.

The new facility also houses the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, where University researchers study sports-related concussion and traumatic brain injury. The sports medicine center is staffed with 11 full-time and three part-time athletic trainers, 18 graduate athletic trainers, two sports nutritionists and four UNC Sports Medicine physicians.

“At Carolina, we pride ourselves on excellence in academics and excellence in athletics. This new building illustrates very nicely just how we accomplish this,” said Kevin Guskiewicz, Kenan Distinguished Professor and chair of exercise and sport science.

Cutline

Trainer Scott Oliaro checks the temperature in the cold pool in the Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center. The hydrotherapy room also has a hot pool and an exercise pool with an underwater treadmill.

CAROLINA NORTH

Army Corps explains permit process for Carolina North

About 60 local residents came to the Seymour Senior Center on June 21 to find out more about the permitting process required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before development at Carolina North.

The audience included at least two members of the Chapel Hill Town Council, a Carrboro alderman and others who have been following issues related to the University’s proposed mixed-use academic campus along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as well as some nearby residents who seemed to be new to the topic.

Andy Williams, regulatory project manager of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers field office in Raleigh, described the permitting process, starting with why the Army is involved: because of the Clean Water Act, which established the corps as the administrator of this permit program.

The corps has jurisdiction in the Carolina North property over impoundments, streams and wetlands. To be considered a wetland, an area has to meet certain criteria in vegetation, soils and hydrology. In addition, the N.C. Division of Water Quality will issue its own certification for the stream and wetland impacts and will review UNC’s stormwater concept plan for the site.

Williams reminded the audience that this was a voluntary pre-application meeting. After the University submits its permit application, the corps will publicize and distribute its public notice about the permit to adjacent property owners, government agencies and congressional representatives.

Audience questions focused on the permit’s scope and enforcement. Williams said the permit would cover the proposed impact on streams and wetlands throughout the 50-year development, not just for the 20-year development agreement between the University and the Town of Chapel Hill.

If the University makes design changes that affect the streams and wetlands beyond what the permit allows, it will have to modify its permit. After issuing a permit, the corps can return later to do compliance inspections to make sure the University is doing what it said it would.

Jack Evans, executive director of Carolina North, followed up with a presentation on work the University has completed so far, including the delineation of streams and wetlands by BioHabitats Inc. and refinements made by University staff to reduce the impact on streams and wetlands.

Two of these refinements resulted in minor modifications to the development agreement, which have been submitted to Town Manager Roger Stancil and posted on the town’s website.

The first relocates a recreation field that would have overlapped with a wetland and realigns a utility site to avoid a steep slope and impact on a stream. The second combines bike and pedestrian paths and relocates them to the east side of Seawell School Road to avoid about 600 linear feet of impact on the stream on its west side.

The University plans to submit its application later this year, probably in mid-September, with another pre-application public information session to be held in late August or early September, Evans said.

The June 21 presentation is posted on the Carolina North website, research.unc.edu/carolina-north.

FACSTAFF

Entwisle named interim vc for research and economic development

Barbara Entwisle, director of the Carolina Population Center and Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology, will serve as interim vice chancellor for research and economic development beginning Aug. 1.

Entwisle, a social demographer who studies population, health and environment, joined Carolina’s Department of Sociology in 1985. Since 2002, she has directed the Carolina Population Center, and within the last decade has assumed additional faculty appointments in the Department of Geography, Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology, Curriculum in International and Area Studies, and Department of Asian Studies.

She is a past president of the Population Association of America (PAA), a former editor of Demography (the PAA’s flagship journal) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served on numerous advisory and review groups for the National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and NASA.

The Carolina Population Center, which routinely attracts funding from the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies, helps foster related social science and health research projects across campus. It currently houses more than 43 active research projects, and in fiscal year 2009–10 brought in more than $47 million in external support.

“With her experience leading such multidisciplinary efforts, Barbara is in a strong position to help guide the continued growth of the University’s research enterprise, which topped $800 million during the last fiscal year,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in announcing Entwisle’s role.

Karen Gil, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Lee G. Pedersen Distinguished Professor of Psychology, will chair the search committee for a permanent vice chancellor.

Until the position is filled permanently, Entwisle will replace Tony Waldrop, who was named the new provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Central Florida. An interim director of the Carolina Population Center will be named soon.

Philosopher Warren Nord dies June 19

Warren Nord, who was the founding director of the UNC Program in the Humanities and Human Values, died June 19. He was 63.

During his 25 years as director, from 1979 to 2004, the program sponsored more than 700 conferences and weekend, summer and executive seminars that were attended by more than 40,000 participants.

Nord also taught courses on the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of education in the Department of Philosophy from 1981 until he retired last summer.

He grew up in Wheaton, Minn., and received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota at Morris. His graduate studies in philosophy at Carolina were interrupted by service in the Army, but he returned to Chapel Hill and earned his Ph.D. in 1978.

Nord was the author of many articles on religion, morality and education, and of three books: “Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma”; “Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum,” co-authored with Charles C. Haynes; and “Does God Make a Difference? Taking Religion Seriously in our Schools and Universities.” The latter will be published by Oxford University Press in September and is a culmination of Nord’s 25 years of work on religion and education.

In addition to his books, Nord also worked at the state and national level on the challenge of guiding public schools toward a middle road in dealing with religion in the public school curriculum. To that end, he helped draft revisions to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study that referenced religion and helped write guidelines for dealing with the Bible in public schools.

After his retirement last summer and his subsequent diagnosis with leukemia, Nord wrote about his life, published on his Carolina website: warrennord.web.unc.edu/autobiography.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Program in the Humanities and Human Values (college.unc.edu/foundation/makeagift) or to Olin T. Binkley Baptist Church (1712 Willow Dr., Chapel Hill, NC 27514).

Exum is named Purdue’s VP for student affairs

Melissa E. Exum, associate vice chancellor for student affairs, has been named vice president for student affairs at Purdue University, effective Aug. 2.

In her new post, Exum will oversee the dean of students, student health, recreational sports and the Center for Career Opportunities. At Purdue, student affairs also includes 81 Greek chapters, 12 cooperative houses, 875 registered student organizations, volunteer programs and other university groups.

“Student affairs is an essential component in ensuring student success, and I am pleased that Dr. Exum will be leading the university’s efforts to help students achieve academically as well as personally,” Purdue President France A. Córdova said in a statement.

Exum, who has been at Carolina since 1998, also has served as dean of students. During her tenure, she designed and taught several courses focused on leadership development in a global context and created a crisis response team.

“One of the foremost goals of student affairs should be to assist students in a development process that is holistic and emphasizes learning,” Exum said.

Exum earned her doctorate in higher education administration from Ohio University, her master’s degree in medical sociology from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wake Forest University.

Before coming to Carolina, Exum was associate vice president of student affairs at Ohio University for nine years.

Honors

Joe DeSimone, Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry, has accepted an adjunct appointment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Cancer Nanocenter. The appointment is part of a strategy aimed at building Sloan-Kettering’s capabilities in nanomedicine and broadening the base of DeSimone’s pioneering work in North Carolina.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication finished first overall in the Intercollegiate Competition of the Hearst Journalism Awards, known as the Pulitzers of college journalism. The Hearst Corp. announced the awards in June at a ceremony in New York City. The first-place finish resulted from cumulative points earned by 11 UNC students who placed in monthly writing, photojournalism, broadcast and multimedia competitions during the 2009–10 school year.

In June, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awarded a Gold Circle of Excellence Award in the Diversity Programs category to the University and the Alumni Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The award recognizes efforts to foster a more inclusive, collegial environment and to spur minority alumni support.

The committee, based in the Office of University Development, brings together African-American, Asian, Latina/o and American Indian alumni behind its initiative Celebrating Carolina’s Diversity to help increase minority alumni support and participation and to encourage these constituents to play an even greater role at Carolina.

Hannah Grannemann, managing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, has been appointed to the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) – the largest professional theater association of its kind. Grannemann will serve with representatives of theaters from across the country to promote the welfare and growth of the nation’s professional theater scene.

Bill Rivenbark, professor of public administration and government, was selected to participate in a Fulbright Specialists project for six weeks at the University of Palermo on the island of Sicily, Italy. He is teaching regional government and local officials about performance and financial management, performance measurement and benchmarking, budgeting, financial condition analysis and capital budgeting.

NEWSBRIEFS

Seminars, forums, conferences

n July 22–23 – Each year, the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) culminates with an academic conference at which invited scholars and students present their research and engage with the Carolina community. The theme for this year’s 16th Annual MURAP Conference will be “Haiti Then and Now.” Free and open to the public, the conference will be held in the Stone Center’s Hitchcock Room. For information, refer to www.unc.edu/depts/murap or contact Seana Pabon (seana.pabon@gmail.com).

n July 23–24 – The Program in the Humanities and Human Values will offer a weekend seminar at the Center for School Leadership Development titled “A Journey into Renaissance Europe: Tradition and Discovery in the 16th Century.” The program will be held from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday with an optional dinner available, and will continue on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Registration is required, with fee. John Jeffries Martin, author of “The Myths of Renaissance Individualism” and a professor of history at Duke, will lead the seminar. Call 962-1544 or see adventuresinideas.unc.edu.

n July 29 – A “One Health” Forum sponsored by the Gillings School of Global Public Health will focus on “North Carolina Spill Response, Recovery and Health Effects.” The BP oil spill may or may not affect the N.C. coast, but it has provided an opportunity to evaluate readiness and communication on the local, state and federal levels. This meeting will assess the state’s preparedness to respond to and recover from an oil spill. The forum, to be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., is free of charge; lunch will be provided. For information, see bit.ly/9MVIiy.

n Aug. 6 – The TraCS Institute will hold a seminar titled “Write Winning Grants” from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a fee of $100. The program will focus on the submission of NIH-type proposals. In addition to addressing the practical and conceptual aspects that are fundamentals of the proposal-writing process, the seminar also will address the Peer Review Enhancement changes announced by the NIH in January 2009. Refer to bit.ly/ajtYIM.

State leads nation in tobacco-free college campus policies

A study by University researchers has found that North Carolina leads the nation in the number of college campuses that have voluntarily banned or severely restricted smoking.

The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that in the first four years of the North Carolina Tobacco-Free Colleges Initiative, 33 college campuses in North Carolina adopted tobacco-free policies, which prevent tobacco use to the maximum extent allowed by law.

“Our study shows that North Carolina is a national leader in protecting college students from the clear dangers of secondhand smoke,” said Adam Goldstein, director of the Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program at the School of Medicine, which conducted the study to evaluate the Tobacco-Free Colleges Initiative for the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund.

Carolina expanded its no-smoking policy on Jan. 1, 2008, to prohibit smoking within 100 feet of University facilities and in state-owned vehicles as well as inside buildings.

Nominations open for Human Resources Facilitator of the Year

July 30 is the deadline to make nominations for Human Resources Facilitator of the Year. The award, sponsored by the Office of Human Resources, recognizes excellence in ambassadorship, customer service, knowledge and teamwork as demonstrated by Human Resources facilitators.

The nomination form can be downloaded online (hr.unc.edu/n/CCM3_020244). Return to Laura Gonzalez (CB# 1045, fax 843-9850 or e-mail laura_gonzalez@unc.edu).

Five centuries of N.C. maps online

More than 3,200 historic maps of North Carolina are now available online as part of the digital North Carolina Maps project. Visitors to the site, www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps, can see the results of a three-year collaborative project to identify and scan nearly every original map of the state published from 1584 to 1923. The collection also contains maps of every North Carolina county and maps published by the state through the year 2000. uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3708/73

Hatchell makes gift of $50,000 to North Carolina cancer hospital

The UNC women’s basketball team joined Coach Sylvia Hatchell June 25 when she announced a $50,000 gift to the N.C. Cancer Hospital’s Pediatric Oncology Classroom. Part of the Hospital School at UNC, the classroom will be named in honor of Hatchell’s commitment to the N.C. Cancer Hospital Pediatric Oncology Endowment Fund. She is known for her creative fundraising ideas, such as donating proceeds from the blueberry patch at her N.C. mountain cabin to the cancer center.

grant enables UNC-CIBER to plan new initiatives, research, outreach

A $1.51 million four-year grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to the Center for International Business Education and Research (UNC-CIBER) will allow the center to further its globalization efforts.

Among 29 planned new initiatives are the center’s Next Generation program for junior faculty from Thailand, China and India; faculty development programs; mini-grants for graduate students; international internship programs for undergraduate business students; Language Across the Curriculum courses; an innovation lab dedicated to solving real international business problems; and cross-disciplinary symposiums on global innovations in sustainability.

Jayashankar Swaminathan, senior associate dean for academic affairs at Kenan-Flagler, is the new UNC-CIBER faculty director. He is an internationally recognized expert and a distinguished professor of global business operations and strategy. His work has focused on emerging economies, including India, China and Africa. www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/ki/ciber

Eco-friendly management makes Friends’ Café a natural choice

In addition to fulfilling its role in education, research and information access, the Health Sciences Library also offers a comfortable space to gather with the Friends’ Cafe. It opened under new management in March and joined UNC’s other locally owned cafes, The Daily Grind and Global Cup Café.

Refer to The Daily Grind’s website for an example of the drinks, food and catering services that are available at Friends’ Café (dailygrindespressocafe.com).

Paperhand prepares for Forest Theatre transformation

Every summer, the Paperhand Puppet Intervention takes over the Forest Theatre on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with the troupe’s popular puppet shows. This year’s production promises to be more of the same: “an absolutely epic adventure … a journey of transformation.”

“Island Unknown” opens Aug. 6 and runs through Labor Day. Shows for groups of all ages start at 7 p.m. with a different pre-show each night at 6:20 p.m. www.paperhand.org

Ahoy there,‘Pirates’ fans

The Alamance Arts Council presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” this month at the Mackintosh on the Lake Amphitheater in Burlington. The comic opera’s music is familiar and the story is fun for the whole family.

Performances will be held July 15–18 at 7:30 p.m. For complete information, venue location and tickets, see www.artsalamance.com/events.html.

Tar Heels finish seventh in Directors’ Cup standings

Carolina finished the 2009–10 athletic season in seventh place nationally in the annual NACDA Cup (National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics) standings. The Directors’ Cup award, which originated in 1993, is given annually to the colleges and universities with the most success in college athletics.

The Directors Cup measures a school’s postseason success in men’s and women’s sports. Each school is ranked based upon its 10-highest men’s and 10-highest women’s finishes.

Carolina is the only ACC school to finish in the Top 20 in all 17 seasons, and it has been the highest finishing ACC school 14 times. In addition, the University has 15 Top 10 finishes, compared to the rest of the ACC, which has combined to finish in the Top 10 just eight times.

For more information, refer to nacda.cstv.com.

UNC awarded $1.7 million to curb spread of HIV in North Carolina

A team of researchers from the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases has received a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention to study novel HIV testing methods to detect acute HIV infection and target sexual networks to curb the spread of HIV in North Carolina.

The four-year study will assess the performance and cost-effectiveness of a new, fourth-generation test to diagnose acute HIV infection (AHI). AHI is the period between infection and detection of HIV antibodies and lasts up to 12 weeks. During this brief window of time, the virus replicates rapidly and the probability of transmission is very high.

UNC named Fiske 2011 Best Buy

The University has been designated as one of 45 “Best Buy” schools in the 2011 edition of Fiske Guide to Colleges. To be qualified, the guide evaluates qualities such as four- or five-star academic ratings, inexpensive or moderate price category and quality of student life on campus.

‘Exit Cuckoo’ completes PlayMaker’s second-stage lineup

Actor-playwright Lisa Ramirez will bring her autobiographical show “Exit Cuckoo (nanny in motherland)” to PlayMakers Repertory Company Jan. 12-16, 2011. PlayMakers will present “Exit Cuckoo” as part of its thought-provoking PRC² second-stage series, in which each performance is followed by an artist-audience discussion.

Tickets are available now as part of the 2010-11 season subscription packages. For more information, call the PlayMakers box office at 962-PLAY (7529) or visit www.playmakersrep.org. PRC² shows are presented in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art.

Odum Institute sets forums for candidates for director

Forums have been scheduled on the following dates for candidates for the position of director of the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, all of whom are on the faculty at the University:

n July 21 – Philip Cohen, assistant chair of sociology, 1-2 p.m.;

n July 29 – Thomas Carsey, Pearsall Distinguished Professor of Political Science, 1-2 p.m.;

n July 30 – Gary Henry, Duncan and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy, 1-2 p.m.; and

n Aug. 4 – Maryann Feldman, S.K. Heninger Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, 11 a.m.-noon.

Forums will be held in Room 207 of the Campus Y.

Federal work-study orientation for new supervisors

The Office of Scholarships and Student Aid offers training sessions for full-time faculty and staff members interested in joining the Federal Work-Study program.

Training is mandatory and covers topics such as institutional and federal guidelines, student payroll, the job classification system, documenting student hours in TIM, creating job descriptions and marketing jobs online.

The last session of the summer will be held Aug. 5 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room 121 of Hanes Art Center. No registration is required. Contact Michelle Klemens for information (962-4176 or michelle_klemens@unc.edu).

Update listings in campus directory

Information for the next printed version of UNC’s campus directory will be pulled from the online campus directory. Because the accuracy of the 2010-11 printed directory relies on the accuracy of data contained in the online directory, it is important for all University faculty, staff and non-faculty EPA employees to update their personal data by 5 p.m. on Aug. 13.

To review and update your personal data, log in to MyUNC (my.unc.edu) using your Onyen and password and click on Update Personal Information. Once you update your information, scroll to the bottom and click Save to submit your updates.

ARTS

Summer Youth Conservatory takes on vaudevillian ‘Drood’ July 22–25

After five weeks of training and rehearsal with members of PlayMakers Repertory Company and professional guest artists, a group of students ages 10 to 18 will perform the Tony Award-winning musical “Drood: The Mystery of Edwin Drood” July 22–25 at the Paul Green Theatre.

The 47 students involved in the 2010 Summer Youth Conservatory include 35 performers who take daily classes in acting, voice and movement before they begin rehearsals for the production, and another 12 high school students who are learning about costume, scenic and lighting design as well as the stage management involved in technical theater.

Now in its fourth year, the conservatory was created as a partnership between PlayMakers and The ArtsCenter of Carrboro. This year, the programming has been expanded to a full-day format to offer focused instruction on technique and skill building. Twenty professionals, 14 from the Department of Dramatic Art and six guest artists, are working with the budding thespians and backstage techies.

The morning actors’ classes, modeled after classes in Carolina’s master of fine arts program, are designed to help the students build the endurance required to be an actor, said Jeff Meanza, director of education and outreach for Playmakers.

“This play is really a variety show with a true vaudeville quality,” he said, “and it takes some stamina to handle all the singing, dancing and physical comedy that’s involved.”

Students involved in the technical side of the production complete seven days of instruction before undertaking a monthlong apprenticeship in an area of their choice and working with some of the PlayMakers’ veterans.

Between the full-company and small-group rehearsals and all the work involved on the technical side, students and instructors are spread throughout five rooms in different parts of the Center for Dramatic Art at all times, Meanza said.

For some of the students, the conservatory experience is a first. Many, however, come back year after year, and quite a few have been involved all four years, Meanza said. Those students understand what it takes to be successful in theater and serve as role models for less experienced students.

“What’s especially rewarding for us is to watch the students grow, both as artists and as human beings, over time and become the leaders for the group,” he said. “Whatever the students’ background, we try to create a professional experience for everyone involved.”

Apparently, that effort is successful. The conservatory has been recognized by the North Carolina Theatre Conference as a “model program for youth theatre in North Carolina.”

For ticket information and information about the conservatory, refer to www.playmakersrep.org.

Cutline

Choreographer Erin Dangler rehearses dance moves with Summer Youth Conservatory students.

WORKING

John Jones’ bottom line:

managing store to profit students

At first, John Jones had a hard time admitting his darker blue roots, but the fact is inescapable.

More than 40 years ago, Jones left his home in Florida to attend Duke University. There, he earned a degree in psychology that prepared him for what would turn out to be a successful 35-year career in the retail business.

But his sports allegiance shifted on a dime 22 years ago when he came to Carolina to become the director of Student Stores. From that point forward, he has been a true-blue Tar Heel fan.

That’s because he knew from the first day on the job that his sales numbers were tied inextricably to the number of Carolina sports teams’ wins.

The better the basketball team performed, the bigger his sales would be. And the farther Carolina advanced in the NCAA tournament, the better his bottom line.

In round numbers, a national NCAA men’s basketball championship equals about $1 million dollars in additional revenue for Student Stores. And all – except the money needed to operate and enhance the store – is returned to the University in the form of student scholarships.

That is why one of Jones’ biggest fans over the years has been Shirley Ort, director of scholarships and student aid since 1999.

Ort said the amount of scholarship money generated by Student Stores has grown exponentially over the years.

During the 1956-57 school year, the distribution was $57,540. A year later – after the men’s basketball team’s NCAA championship season – the distribution more than doubled to $137,000, then dropped to a low of $23,020 the following year.

Distributions first surpassed the $200,000 mark in 1968, the year all student stores were consolidated into one location in the newly opened Daniels Building, and reached $300,000 for the first time in 1972.

By the 1980s, distributions ranged at or near the $500,000 mark and since 1999 have held steady at $1 million a year.

Jones is a big reason for that growth, Ort said.

“John greatly cares about students and their experiences here at Carolina,” she said. “He also understands the need for scholarship assistance. There are a lot of different things that bring each of us satisfaction in our jobs. Nothing pleases John more than seeing the fruits of their labor in Student Stores result in increased scholarship assistance that can be offered to students.”

Jones, who is retiring at the end of the month, said it took him several years to adjust to running a retail store that was completely dependent on sales receipts in the middle of a campus that operated with a mixture of state support, tuition revenues, research grants and private donations.

Jones began his career in retail in 1975 with B. Dalton Bookseller, a now-defunct company that was once the premier mall-based bookstore chain in the country. He rose from management trainee to regional manager and was responsible for 28 stores in five states before he was hired here in 1988.

“Student Stores should really be thought of as a collegiate department store,” Jones said. “Within that framework, it has particular departments. Some of those departments,

such as the Bull’s Head Bookshop, RAM Shop and Pit Stop, have their own unique brand; others do not.”

Ranked among the 100 university stores in the country that generate at least $10 million in annual sales, Carolina’s Student Stores have annual sales of nearly $30 million.

The challenge of running such a major enterprise, Jones quickly learned, was balancing the need to generate earnings to support scholarships with the desire to keep prices low enough to be fair to students.

“That is the tightrope we have to walk,” Jones said.

Take, for example, the thousands of laptop computers sold at the RAM Shop each year in response to the Carolina Computing Initiative, or CCI, which in 2000 began requiring all entering students to own laptop computers.

Students are not required to buy the computers from the RAM Shop, but more than 90 percents of students do because of pricing discounts made possible by a larger contract the University has with Lenovo, Jones said.

Student Stores makes almost nothing from the sale of computers even though they generate the largest sales volume, he said. That is just fine with him, Jones said, because giving students a good deal on such an expensive and essential item helps support the broader academic mission. And that is the primary reason Student Stores exists.

Having the right merchandise and keeping it well displayed has always been a critical component of success, Jones said.

That is why the major renovation of the store, which began in 2005 and took more than two years to complete, was such a transformational – and traumatic – event.

“We basically took the store apart and put it back together,” Jones said. “Looking back on it, I am glad we did it but would never want to do again.”

He is leaving the job after all these years, first of all, because he is nearing his 60th birthday and he once set as a goal retiring at that age.

Jones said he looked forward to having more time to spend to pursue his photography (he has had his work displayed and published in several books) and music.

He plays the euphonium – which is really a tenor tuba, he said – in several local groups, including the Triangle Wind Ensemble and the Old North State Brass Ensemble.

He also takes comfort in knowing he is not leaving big problems behind for his successor.

“We are well positioned, when the recession eases, to slingshot a lot of money to the bottom line, which will continue to go toward helping our students,” Jones said.

Summer session for workplace literacy initiative begins Aug. 10

Beginning Aug. 10, the Office of Human Resources is expanding its workplace literacy program to include intermediate computer skills. Basic computer skill classes will also be available in the summer session, as well as the general literacy class “Reading and Writing for Opportunity.”

“The purpose of this program is to address gaps in general and computer literacy within Carolina’s employee population,” said Verita Murrill, senior manager for training and talent development. “Employees who attend are unanimously saying they enjoy the classes and appreciate learning new skills.”

One participant from the basic skills classes said, “[The class is an] excellent class for employees. Now I can get [my paystub] through the Internet. I can send e-mail and read it in our webmail. Great job.”

A participant in the general literacy class said, “I learned the meaning of different words, understanding what people are saying more in meetings.”

Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays during multiple shifts, and the Orange County Literacy Council will provide trainers. For additional information, contact Training & Talent Development at 962-2550 or training_development@unc.edu.

Class descriptions

“Reading and Writing for Opportunity” focuses on fundamental literacy skills. Employees who enroll in this seven-week class have a wide range of skill levels, from pre-literate to beginning high school. The classes are learner-centered, based on the goals set by the students.

The “Basic Computer Skills” classes are designed for employees with little or no computer experience and cover topics such as using the mouse, typing on the keyboard, navigating and searching the Internet, checking University paystubs and using University e-mail.

The “Intermediate Computer Skills” class is for employees who have completed the basic skills course or who are comfortable using a mouse, keyboard, checking e-mail and searching the Internet. This class will cover Microsoft Word basics; e-mail topics (folders, attachments, multiple recipients); Web searches, including favorites and UNC employee websites; and other subjects of interest.