The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry opened the doors to a new education and research facility and honored a generous alumnus and friend, Burlington businessman Maurice J. Koury, on Friday, April 27.

The Koury Building, which adds 216,500 square feet of space, adjoins the school’s existing structures – Tarrson Hall, Brauer Hall and Old Dental Building – at the corner of Manning Drive and South Columbia Street.

“This is an exciting time for the UNC School of Dentistry,” said Dean Weintraub. “The Koury Oral Health Sciences Building will allow us to continue being a leader in dental education and research for many years to come. We’re grateful beyond words for the investment the General Assembly, our University and our private donors, especially Mr. Koury, made in our school to make this facility a reality.”

Koury is president of Carolina Hosiery Mills Inc. and over the years his business interests have also expanded to the development of hotels and commercial properties.

The Koury Oral Health Sciences Building is the latest example of Koury’s generosity and impact across the Carolina campus. Others include the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Koury Auditorium; Koury Residence Hall; the Koury Library in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center; and the Koury Natatorium.

Koury, who enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill as an undergraduate in 1945, began his relationship with the School of Dentistry nearly 30 years ago as a patient and through patient referrals he made to the school.

Koury’s undergraduate years at Carolina were the beginning of a life-long commitment to public higher education and Carolina in particular. Koury served two terms on the University’s Board of Trustees, and he chaired the student affairs and development committees. He also served two terms as president of the Educational Foundation Inc. and was the longtime chair of the foundation’s endowment trust. The Burlington native played a major role in securing funding for the Dean E. Smith Center and made a generous leadership gift to the George Watts Hill Alumni Center. His contributions to the College of Arts and Sciences include the establishment of the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professorship, which honors his mother.
Koury’s University honors include the William Richardson Davie Award, the highest recognition given by the trustees, an honorary degree and the General Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Medal.

The Koury Oral Health Sciences Building will provide improved technology for teaching and collaborative research across UNC-Chapel Hill and other campuses, larger lecture rooms and meeting spaces for inter-class collaboration, and an expanded 105-seat patient simulation laboratory.

The Town of Chapel Hill is in the midst of developing a new comprehensive plan to guide its future

In a process called Chapel Hill 2020, several meetings are being held all across town to get input from the real experts – the people who live, work, play and invest here.

The next opportunity to participate will be right here on campus, from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 29) in the Student Union Art Gallery. Refreshments will be served.

The event, sponsored by Student Government, will give students, faculty and staff a chance to ask questions and to comment on the six themes that have emerged:

• Good places and good spaces (downtown and development);
• Town and gown (learning and innovation),
• Getting around (transportation of all forms);
• Community prosperity and engagement (fiscal sustainability and public safety);
• A place for everyone (diversity, cultural vibrancy and the arts); and
• Nurturing our community (environmental sustainability).

Now through April, groups will meet once or twice a month to discuss the themes and to hear what others have had to say about them. The idea is to use all this input to create a comprehensive plan that will guide policy decisions by elected officials as well as planning and implementation by the town manager and staff.

Recognizing that not everyone can participate in meetings (or wants to), the town has also set up a blog for people to contribute their comments. The blog also has links to surveys, reports and calendars for information. The outreach committee for Chapel Hill 2020 is also coordinating information and feedback sessions in neighborhoods, at group meetings and in churches.

For more information on Chapel Hill 2020 and how you can get involved, contact outreach committee member Susan Hudson, 962-8415, susan_hudson@unc.edu or visit these sites: www.2020buzz.org or www.chapelhill2020.org.

Amy Locklear Hertel, of the Lumbee and Coharie tribes of North Carolina, will become director of the American Indian Center at UNC-Chapel Hill on May 1.

North Carolina is home to the largest Native population in the eastern United States. The American Indian Center at Carolina is one of the only centers on the East Coast to focus solely on American Indian issues.

“The center serves as the University’s front door to American Indian communities across the state and the nation,” said Carol Tresolini, vice provost for academic initiatives. “Ms. Locklear Hertel’s professional experience in social work and law and her life experience as a native of our state and an alumna of our University will help her to expand the center’s capacity to enrich the intellectual life of the campus and link American Indian nations and communities with Carolina’s strengths in research, education and teaching.”

Locklear Hertel is currently a project manager at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is a doctoral candidate at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. She earned her master of social work and law degrees at Washington University.

She serves as a trustee for the G.A. Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation, which seeks to improve the social and economic conditions of American Indian families and communities. In addition, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Community Investment Network, a nonprofit organization that encourages organizations and individuals to engage in strategic giving to enable greater social change in their communities.

“During my practice and training, I have acquired an interdisciplinary mix of knowledge and skills that I look forward to bringing back to North Carolina to serve UNC and Native communities,” said Locklear Hertel.

Originally from Fayetteville, Locklear Hertel earned a bachelor of arts degree at UNC in 1997. While at UNC, she served as president of the Carolina Indian Circle and was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece. She was also one of the founders of Alpha Pi Omega Sorority Inc., the country’s oldest Native American Greek letter organization.

Basketball star Jessica Breland, a 2011 Carolina graduate and member the WNBA’s New York Liberty, has been named the 2011 recipient of the 23rd annual Honda Inspiration Award.

This award is given each year to a female college athlete who has overcome adversity to excel in her sport.

Breland was a standout in her first three years for the UNC Tar Heels. As a sophomore, she was named the ACC Sixth Player of the Year. In her junior year she played in all 35 games and started 27. She averaged 14 points, 8.5 rebounds and an ACC-best 3.1 blocks to rank seventh nationally.

In May 2009, after a history of ailments including asthma and severe allergies, Jessica visited a doctor for a sore throat that wouldn’t seem to go away. Hours of tests led to a biopsy the next day, and ultimately a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma was confirmed. Within days, doctors installed a port in Breland’s chest to administer chemotherapy treatments. Side effects ranged from severe chills and aches to hair loss, constant nausea and fatigue so debilitating there were times she could hardly move.

Forced to redshirt the 2009-10 season, Jessica gradually got her weight back up by eating as many times as she could with a plan devised by the team trainer and a nutritionist. She courageously returned to the court for the 2010-11 season. While it took some time for her to regain her full strength and capabilities, her game continued to improve steadily to where she averaged 19.5 points and 6.8 rebounds at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, helping UNC make it to the finals.

Read more.

Emergency sirens will sound today, Sept. 21, between noon and 1 p.m. as part of a test of Alert Carolina, a safety awareness campaign.

“The sirens are the best way the University has to inform people quickly about a life-threatening emergency,” said Chief Jeff McCracken, director of public safety. “It’s important to conduct regular tests so students, faculty, staff and community members know what the sirens sound like and what they are supposed to do in a real event.”

Learn more about the test and the alertcarolina.unc.edu.

Franklin Kelly, deputy director and chief curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will speak on Feb. 20 at the Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Kelly, one of the world’s leading authorities on American art, will speak in connection with the Ackland exhibition “At Work in the Wilderness: Picturing the American Landscape, 1820-1920,” up through March 20.

The free public talk, “Working the Landscape: American Artists and Nature, 1825-1915,” will be at 2 p.m. in the Hanes Art Center auditorium. A reception at the Ackland will follow.

Kelly, who graduated from UNC in 1974, has been in curatorial positions at the National Gallery for 21 years, co-organizing critically acclaimed exhibitions including “Winslow Homer” in 1995-1996 and “J.M.W. Turner” in 2007-2008.

Carolina alumnus David G. Frey of Grand Rapids, Mich., has made Kelly’s talk possible. The “At Work in the Wilderness” exhibition was made possible by Frey, the William Hayes Ackland Trust and friends of the Ackland.

The museum opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free, with donations accepted. For more information, visit www.ackland.orgor call (919) 966-5736.

Sakai, an open source collaboration and learning environment, will replace Blackboard as UNC-Chapel Hill’s learning management system by December 2012.

The move from Blackboard to Sakai will provide greater flexibility and control, an expanded tool set and longer term sustainability.

“Sakai allows us to customize for individual user or program needs,” said Larry Conrad, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer. “It is a major change but one that better supports Carolina’s learning, research and collaboration needs now and in the future. We will do everything possible to ensure a smooth transition for faculty. That is one of our top priorities.”

Information Technology Services (ITS) will lead the transition in collaboration with faculty and campus IT support staff. Support options will include one-on-one faculty consultations, content migration assistance, group demonstrations and workshops, faculty case studies, on-demand online tutorials and targeted informational meetings.

A Sakai pilot began in fall 2008 with 18 courses and grew to 81 courses with 120 sections by fall 2010. A 2009 survey of Sakai pilot participants indicated that when it came to functionality, Sakai tools were on parity with Blackboard’s but Sakai offered additional flexibility for researchers, committee work and other collaborations. Students and faculty indicated that Sakai was easy to use.

Last fall the IT Governance Instructional Technology Coordinating Committee approved the recommendation to move to Sakai and the decision was finalized in October 2010 by the Information Technology Executive Steering Committee (ITESC). Both committees are part of campus IT governance structure.

Read more about Sakai.

The town and the University need online votes to make Chapel Hill the 2011 Fan Favorite. The month-long online competition follows Chapel Hill being named one of this year’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Participants can vote for their favorite destination once a day through March 15 after registering on the National Trust website.

The 11 other “distinctive destinations” are Alexandria, Va.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Dandridge, Tenn.; Muskogee, Okla.; New Bedford, Mass.; Paducah, Ky.; San Angelo, Texas; St. Paul, Minn.; Sheridan, Wyo.; and Sonoma and Eureka, Calif.

Nominated by the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, Chapel Hill was cited by the National Trust for its two centuries of architectural grandeur and its citizens’ dedication to historic preservation as well as a lively nightlife scene, celebrated restaurants and cultural destinations from the Ackland Art Museum to the N.C. Botanical Garden that appeal to visitors.

“Holden and I are determined to win this,” the wife of Chancellor Holden Thorp told the audience at the announcement ceremony at the Carolina Inn. She held up a men’s basketball championship ring hanging on a chain around her neck. “This is a town that loves competition, especially in March.”

UNC Recycling has added #2 and #5 plastic tubs and cups and lab plastics (marked #1, #2, #5 and #6) to items that can be recycled.

They can be included in the bottles and cans recycling bins. Also, all recyclable paper now can be placed in mixed paper bins.

The University is participating in RecycleMania 2012, a 10-week competition among more than 400 college recycling programs in the United States and Canada. The competition began in 2001, with Carolina joining in 2006. This year’s competition kicked off Jan. 22.

The goal is to increase campus recycling, raise awareness of the issue and reduce overall waste. Last year, the University placed 25th among the 361 schools competing in the Gorilla Prize category for the highest gross tonnage of recyclables.

Visit the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling’s website for more information.

Do the Snake Dance. learn some Cherokee words, hear Native folk music and much more as UNC celebrates American Indian Heritage Month in November.

UNC will be in the spirit. Films, talks and shows at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center also will be among activities in which members of the campus and area communities are invited to participate, said Clara Sue Kidwell, Ph.D., director of UNC’s American Indian Center. They include events at nearby Duke University and the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh that the center is helping to sponsor.

“American Indian Heritage Month was first proclaimed by President George H. W. Bush in 1990,” Kidwell said. “It recognizes contemporary American Indian tribes and individuals as active participants in American society and honors their histories, cultures and achievements.”
Events will be free and on campus unless otherwise noted. See the schedule of events on the American Indian Center’s website.