The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been named one of the best colleges for academics, affordability and career prospects by The Princeton Review.

When examining everything from academics, cost and student debt to statistics on graduation rates and alumni salaries, Carolina earned the No. 33 ranking on the list of “Colleges That Pay You Back,” which was released Feb. 3.

To determine a “Return-on-Education” rating, list-makers weighted more than 40 data points based on information collected from surveys of administrators and students at 650 colleges. The Princeton Review also incorporated data from PayScale.com surveys of alumni of the same schools.

The list is an expansion of The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Value Colleges” rankings, which has named UNC-Chapel Hill as the top public university for 14 consecutive years.

In a room full of future social workers, civil rights activist Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. on Tuesday urged the audience to become freedom fighters and change the world around them.

“I believe that the ultimate power of a social worker is to become a freedom-fighting social worker,” he said. “By definition, social workers work to improve the quality of life for others.”

Chavis’ call to action was the resonating message of the second annual Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture hosted by the University of North Carolina School of Social Work. The 90-minute lecture was part of UNC-Chapel Hill’s celebration of Black History Month.

The annual lecture series, named after an alumnus and member of the school’s board of advisors, provides a forum for leaders from various fields to discuss their experiences and strategies to promote social change interventions.

For several decades, Chavis has been a leader in social change. He began to make his mark as a 12-year-old when he successfully desegregated the white-only libraries of his hometown of Oxford, N.C., and he became the first African-American in the town to be issued a library card. Chavis also served as a youth coordinator for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Chavis has held many leadership roles including vice president of the National Council of Churches, executive director of the NAACP, national director of the Million Man March, founder of the National African American Leadership Summit and co-founder of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. He is currently the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Associations.

“He is a North Carolina treasure,” said Louise Coggins, chair of the School of Social Work’s board of advisors. “We are so honored to have Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. here with us. … I know I speak for all of us in this room when I say that I’m so excited that he is here tonight to share his vast experience and knowledge with us.”

During his speech, Chavis discussed his experiences as a leader in the civil rights movement and encouraged the audience to actively use what they learn in the classroom to help make positive change.

“We have to arm ourselves with truth, with intellect and with research,” he said. “Whether you’re in an applied science or social science, we use the knowledge that we obtain not just for ourselves. We use the knowledge that we obtain to help make the quality of life better for all people. …. You’re given this information to make a difference — a real difference in the world we live.”

Click here for a list of more Black History Month events at UNC-Chapel Hill.

By Brandon Bieltz, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Published February 4, 2015

Susan A. Murphy received a 2013 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for breakthroughs that may help clinicians more effectively assess and adapt treatment of chronic and relapsing diseases. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate alumna and statistician, Murphy will give the keynote address at UNC-Chapel Hill’s 2015 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony.

The event recognizes graduate students receiving their doctoral degrees and is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. May 9 at the Dean E. Smith Center, 300 Bowles Drive.

Murphy received her doctorate in statistics from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is the H.E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of statistics, professor of psychiatry and research professor, all at the University of Michigan. She also is a principal investigator with the Pennsylvania State University Methodology Center.

Murphy was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow for her work in designing the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial, or SMART. This statistics-based approach collects and analyzes a patient’s health data over time, and provides guidance on the possible need to change treatment or on how long current treatment should continue.

In announcing the fellowship, the MacArthur Foundation said: “Using SMART, clinicians assess and modify patients’ treatments during the trial, an approach with potential applications in the treatment of a range of chronic diseases – such as ADHD, alcoholism, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular disease – that involve therapies that are regularly reconsidered and replaced as the disease progresses.”

In October 2014, Murphy was elected to membership within the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

“The knowledge Dr. Murphy has created will have major implications for medicine, and also for other fields in which researchers are tackling challenges requiring careful analysis of information captured at different times,” said Steve Matson, dean of The Graduate School. “We are honored to welcome her back to Carolina, and our doctoral graduates will be inspired by her remarks.”

During the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony, each participating doctoral graduate will be called to the stage to have the hood of the commencement regalia conferred by his or her adviser or dissertation committee chair. Family and friends are invited to the ceremony, as well as the public.

Published: February 2, 2015

Teams from UNC-Chapel Hill centers, institutes, schools, departments and student organizations gathered Jan. 30 to explore the needs of North Carolina and how they can align their work to help meet them. For eight years, the Engagement Units Summit, formerly known as Campus Dialogue, has convened as an opportunity for campus groups and community partners to network and build relationships that benefit North Carolina.

Chancellor Carol L. Folt, the summit’s keynote speaker, emphasized the importance of the University’s contributions to the state by highlighting the collaborative efforts of campus units and community partners.

“Our job is not just to educate the brightest young people and to do groundbreaking research,” Folt said. “Our job is to apply the best of what academia has to offer to the challenges facing the people of our state.”

Provost James W. Dean Jr. welcomed summit participants and thanked them for their commitment to public service and community engagement. Dean also congratulated the University for receiving the 2015 Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which recognizes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their communities.

Dean said this classification was a reflection of “the breadth and depth of our local, state, national and global engagements that address issues of health, education, poverty, economic development and the world’s other greatest problems.”

This year’s summit began with a panel of local and statewide foundation executives who described North Carolina’s most pressing needs and funding opportunities. Moderated by Tom Lambeth, senior fellow at Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the panel included Dan Gerlach, president of Golden LEAF Foundation; Marilyn Foote-Hudson, executive director of GlaxoSmithKline Foundation; Lori O’Keefe, president of Triangle Community Foundation; and Leslie Winner, executive director of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

During the afternoon session, summit attendees engaged in smaller break-out sessions to learn about topics such as proposal writing, pitching local and community-oriented projects on a federal level, and the food security challenges that North Carolina currently faces.

“This summit was extremely productive; the opportunities that you find when you get people together who are really interested in collaborating in public service are amazing,” said Bruce Cairns, chair of the faculty. “I leave here with a lot more work to do. Important work.”

The Carolina Engagement Council, which advises and assists the Office of the Provost in regard to engagement, engaged scholarship and social innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, sponsored the summit. The Council is committed to promoting Carolina’s mission of community involvement and public service and encourages meaningful interactions and connections between the university and the communities of North Carolina.

Story and photo by Rhonda Hubbard Beatty, Carolina Center for Public Service

Published February 2, 2015.

 

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will commemorate Black History Month with a series of events throughout February.

Carolina’s Black Student Movement will host the 11^th annual African American History Month Lecture on Feb. 17 at The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will discuss the “Unbearable Likeness of Ferguson: The Origin Story of Now.”

In keeping with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 2015 theme of “A Century of Black Life, History and Culture,” the William and Ida Friday Center for Continue Education will sponsor a performance of “Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart” on Feb. 15. The one-man play, performed by Mike Wiley, tells the story of the baseball legend.

On Feb. 21, Carolina athletics will honor Karen Stevenson and Charles Waddell with the second annual Tar Heel Trailblazer awards during the men’s basketball game against Georgia Tech.

The award recognizes individuals who paved the way for success in all aspects of the student-athlete experience.

Stevenson, a former track and field athlete, was the first black woman to earn the Morehead Scholarship at Carolina and the first in the country to be awarded the Rhodes Scholarship. A three-sport letter winner, Waddell was awarded the Patterson Medal — Carolina’s highest athletic award — in 1975.

Black History Month events also include the Black and Blue historical tours, the 36^th annual Minority Health Conference, the Conference on Race, Class, Gender and Ethnicity, and lectures by speakers civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis and Dr. Herman Taylor.

For a complete list of events, click here.

Published January 30, 2015.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host its second annual N.C. Clean Tech Summit Feb. 19-20. The event highlights the latest innovations, trends and challenges and North Carolina’s central role in the growing clean technology industry.

Hosted by UNC’s Institute for the Environment and the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, the summit focuses on three themes:

• The military and renewable energy;
• Smart cities and sustainable communities; and
• The future of electricity in the Southeast

Highlights of the summit include:

• Keynote addresses by Bill Johnson, CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark and Jesse Berst, founder and chair of the Smart Cities Council; and
• Remarks by UNC Chancellor Carol L. Folt and UNC System President Tom Ross; and
• “The Military as a Driver of Renewable Energy” panel discussion moderated by former N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Bill Ross and featuring Chad Harrell of Lend Lease, Gen. (Ret.) Ronald Keys of the CNA Military Advisory Board, Richard Kidd of U.S. Army Energy and Sustainability, Col. Jeffrey Sanborn of Fort Bragg and Britt Boughey of the Naval Research Office of Science and Technology at U.S. Navy; and
• “Adapting to a Changing Power Industry: A View from the Utilities” panel discussion with CEOs Thomas Fanning of Southern Company and Lynn Good of Duke Energy; and
• “Creating a Stronger Innovation Ecosystem” panel discussion featuring author Sarah Caldicott and Judith Cone, UNC Interim Vice Chancellor of Commercialization and Economic Development

The N.C. Clean Tech Summit provides a non-partisan forum where business leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs, educators, researchers and students convene to advance the development of the clean technology sector in North Carolina.

It features special programs for students, including the opportunity to engage with clean-tech industry leaders, sessions on graduate study opportunities in clean tech and sustainability and careers in clean tech and renewable energy.

Registration is open at http://ie.unc.edu/cleantech. The fee is $250, with special rates for students, K-12 and community college teachers, and representatives from government or the non-governmental sector.

The event will be held at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill. For directions, see http://fridaycenter.unc.edu/directions/.

Sponsors of the 2015 N.C. Clean Tech Summit include ABB, Birdseye Renewable Energy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Double Time Capital, Duke Energy, D Utility Dive, Fifth Third Bank, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Mottis, N.C. Clean Energy Business Alliance, N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, O2 Energies, Parker Poe, Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster, ScottMadden Management Consultants, Southern Company, Strata Solar, UNC Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation and Resources (CLEAR), UNC Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, UNC Sustainability Office and United Solar Initiative.

Published January 27, 2015.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Feb. 6 in the Genome Sciences Building, room 100, at 5:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public on a general admission basis. Members of the media are permitted to attend the event, but must arrive by 5:00 p.m. to have their equipment cleared by security.

Dempsey is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, serving as principal military adviser to the president, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council. During his 40 years in the U.S. Army, he has served during times of war and peace at every level, from platoon leader to combatant commander.

Both a soldier and a scholar, he earned a master’s degree in English from Duke in 1984.

He’s held command in Iraq, as well as throughout Europe and the Middle East. In 2007, Dempsey served as acting commander of U.S. Central Command and became chief of staff of the Army in 2011.

His awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Defense Superior Service Medal.

The event is sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill’s curriculum in Peace, War and Defense. It is co-sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies.

Published January 27, 2015

Nominations are due for the University Awards for the Advancement of Women on Feb. 13 at 5 p.m.

The annual award recognizes Carolina women and men (faculty, staff and students) who have contributed to the advancement of women in one or more of the following ways:

• Elevated the status of women on campus in sustainable ways;
• Helped to improve campus policies affecting women;
• Promoted and advanced the recruitment, retention and upward mobility of women;
• Participated in and assisted in the establishment of professional development opportunities for women; and/or
• Participated in and assisted in the establishment of academic mentoring for women.

Each year the University presents the awards to one faculty member, one staff member, and one undergraduate/graduate student/postdoctoral scholar. A committee of faculty, staff and students from across campus review the nominations and select the award recipients. Faculty and staff recipients each receive $5,000 and the undergraduate/graduate student/postdoctoral scholar recipient receives $2,500. Awardees are honored in a ceremony during the Carolina Women’s Center’s annual Gender Week Celebration in the spring.

To see a list of previous winners, visit go.unc.edu/Fg37X. The nomination form can be found at go.unc.edu/z9M2T. Contact Clare Counihan at clarecounihan@unc.edu or 919-843-2423 with any questions.

The Carolina Women’s Center manages the award process on behalf of the Offices of the Chancellor and the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. To learn more about the center, visit womenscenter.unc.edu.

By Susan Hudson, University Gazette

Published January 26, 2015

For the second year in a row, Carolina Athletics will honor pioneering former student-athletes with the Tar Heel Trailblazers award. This year’s honorees are Karen Stevenson and Charles Waddell.

Stevenson, who competed in track and field at UNC, was the first African-American female to earn a Morehead Scholarship at Carolina. She went on to become the first woman from UNC and the first black woman in the nation to earn a Rhodes Scholarship, in 1979.

Waddell was a three-sport letterwinner for the Tar Heels, competing in football, basketball and track. He received the Patterson Medal, Carolina’s highest athletic award, in 1975 and went on to earn an MBA from UNC.

The award recognizes individuals who paved the way for success in all aspects of the student-athlete experience. The Trailblazers will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game on Feb. 21 and at a reception afterward.

Each February, in honor of Black History Month, Carolina Athletics recognizes pioneering African-American student-athletes. Last year, in the inaugural year of the program, honorees were Courtney Bumpers, Robyn Hadley, Ricky Lanier and Charles Scott.

Story by goheels.com.

Published January 23, 2015