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He said no to closing plant
Blanton Godfrey, College of TextilesSuperstition and fishin'
David StephanUNC Study: Saline Solution Safe Treatment For Cystic Fibrosis
Student affairs, student health
N.C.
State's College of Veterinary Medicine to Expand Equine Services
College of Veterinary Medicine, Warwick A. Arden
CAST
Assesses The Potential For An Avian Influenza Human Pandemic
Donna K. Carver
The
agony of the essay, the thrill of admission
Thomas Griffin, undergraduate admissions essay
Womble
Carlyle Adds Former Judge to Government Affairs Team
NCSU Board of Visitors
Tobacco
to grow again in 2006, experts say
Blake Brown
NASA
Langley grooms students for research careers
Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars program
UNC Study: Saline Solution Safe Treatment For Cystic Fibrosis
Jan. 19, 2006
WRAL.com, News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Twenty-year-old Louisa Chrisco went to North Carolina State University to further her future, but cystic fibrosis has always threatened to cut that future short.
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disorder, meaning both parents must carry the gene for it to be passed along to children. It is the leading potentially fatal genetic disease in the white population. Only about half of those with the disease live beyond the age of 30.
A simple cold could send Chrisco to the hospital just because she is more susceptible to bacterial infection in her lungs.
Chrisco's body produces unusually thick and sticky mucus that clogs her airways. To treat it, a nebulizer turns liquid medicine into a vapor that she then breathes.
But Chrisco also breathes in a mist of plain salt water that researchers say triggers coughing to clear away mucus.
"Who would have thought 20 years ago that just inhaling salt water would increase lung function?" Chrisco said.
Two teams of researchers, including one from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied the effects of hypertonic saline treatments on test subjects with cystic fibrosis. They found that a simple saline solution helps patients breathe easier and, perhaps, live longer.
"That's right. It's something that's so simple, that is cheap, and really exceeded our own expectations -- even of how effective it would be," said Dr. Scott Donaldson, a pulmonologist at UNC.
Donaldson says the saline solution draws water to airway surfaces and helps break free the mucus.
At one time, researchers feared continuous saline treatments might cause other problems, but researchers say the three-year UNC study found no evidence for more inflamation or infection and proves the treatments are safe -- and a new starting point for future therapies.
"(It was well-tolerated from the standpoint of coughing, wheezing and acute symptoms with the therapy," Donaldson said.
Chrisco is thankful she is living in a time when cystic fibrosis research is progressing so well.
"Obviously, I want to be well, and I want to live as long as possible, and I want to live a good life," she said.
The two studies were done with adult patients. Dr. Donaldson believe future studies will focus on the effects of saline treatments on young children to see if they can prevent the progression of cystic fibrosis. He also believes future therapies will include a combination of medications along with the saline treatment.
Health Team Medical Expert: Dr. Allen Mask
Health Team Producer/Photographer: Rick Armstrong
Web Editor: Kelly Gardner
Jan. 19, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Mike Marsh, Correspondent
When the weather is cold and windy, many fishermen head for their favorite tackle
shops to get up-to-the-minute information about what's biting and where to go
once the blow blows over.
At Cape Fear Marine and Tackle near Carolina Beach, such advice is free, along
with tips on which baits and lures to use. There's also advice for calling on
the supernatural during those tough times when the fish seem to have disappeared.
Anglers are nothing if not a superstitious lot.
Shop owner Barry Bernstein asked two customers if they had fishing superstitions. They laughed uneasily and would not look him in the eye. Making their purchases -- and hiding their eyes beneath their cap bills -- they slunk through the door. Bernstein smiled at counter man Clarence Chahoc, who smiled back.
"If you ask anyone if they have superstitions they will usually say, 'No' from the git-go," said Bernstein, 63. "Everyone knows it's even bad luck to reveal your superstitions.
"But if you really dig at them or go fishing with them, the truth will always come out. Every fisherman is superstitious about something."
Even Bernstein.
But he, along with Chahoc, on a recent day was willing to share a few of the superstitions he has heard.
No photos, please
For years, Bernstein said, he would not allow a camera on his boat.
"Fish are camera shy," the shop owner said. "If you take a camera aboard, you'll never catch a fish worth taking a picture of."
But he confided he now carries a digital camera. He prefers a photos of fish at sea over shots at the dock, and he has captured enough trophy fish that he can relegate his fish-photo phobia to no more than an uneasy feeling each time he stows a camera in his tackle bag.
"Maybe it was the switch from a film camera to a digital camera," Chahoc said. "Fish are finicky about things like that."
Wearable superstition
Chahoc admits to his own superstition.
"Good luck charms are common to every angler," Chahoc, 53, said. "I don't usually wear hats, except I have an old, beat-up white one I wear when I go fishing. I always seem to catch more fish when I'm wearing it than when I'm not. I also have a lure that's so lucky I don't even like to fish with it."
The problem with the lure is that it no longer is made. If a fish bites through the line, the Beaver Bait Co. lure will be gone and will be almost impossible to replace. It's a jerk bait similar to a current production Got-Cha lure that anglers cast to schooling fish such as Spanish mackerel and bluefish.
"I only have three of them left," Chahoc said. "They have a little rounder head than the current types and have cadmium hooks instead of chrome-plated or gold-plated hooks.
"I catch a lot of fish on other lures when I go fishing from the piers. But I just don't think I catch as many fish as with those lucky old lures."
Gone bananas
Bernstein reviewed a passel of scenarios he had heard over his many years behind a tackle counter and on the water.
"Holding your mouth right, spitting on your bait, spraying WD-40 on the bait, washing your hands after putting on sunscreen, not washing your hands after cutting your bait and before baiting a hook are all common superstitions," he said. "But the most persistent superstition is the one about bananas. If you even say the word 'banana' on some boats, you will get hog-tied and tossed overboard."
Anyone heading to the coast for a charter trip or a trip with a beach-town buddy is well-advised to avoid eating a banana within a day or two of heading out, and actually bringing one aboard is the ultimate sin to be committed in all of fishing.
No one seems to know for certain where the idea that a bringing a banana aboard a boat brings bad luck. But there are theories.
"I've heard the reason for the banana superstition is that the fastest sailing ships used to carry bananas from the tropics to U.S. ports along the East Coast to land the bananas before they could spoil," Chahoc said. "The banana boats were so fast that fishermen never caught anything while trolling for fish from them, and that's where the superstition got started."
More bananas
Another theory is that bananas carried aboard slave ships fermented and gave off methane gas, which would be trapped below deck. Anyone in the hold, including cargoes of imprisoned humanity, would succumb to the poisoned air, and anyone trying to climb down into the hold to help them also would be a candidate for a sailcloth-and-chain sleeping bag for that final resting place on the bottom of the ocean. Giving credence to that theory may be similar tragedies in farm manure digesters that provide methane gas for powering farm heating facilities and equipment.
A possibly more plausible theory is that a species of spider with a lethal bite likes to hide in bunches of bananas. Crewmen suddenly dying of spider bites after bananas are brought aboard certainly would be considered a bad omen resulting in the cargo being tossed into the sea. It could have been more than spiders.
"Back in the old days, it wasn't unusual for spiders, scorpions and snakes to hide in banana bunches," said David Stephan, an extension specialist in the N.C. State Entomology Department. "Tarantulas, being the largest, would be the easiest to notice."
Stephan said most species of tarantulas and scorpions are not lethal but that a bite or sting will provide "a painful but not dangerous experience." He also said the snakes found could be small boa constrictors, which are tree climbers that can administer a nasty bite but not a lethal one.
One remarkable story has it that Fruit of the Loom underwear once had a banana along with the other fruits in the logo on the waistband label. An executive of the company learned of the superstition while on an offshore fishing trip. The fish were in a particularly uncooperative mood, so he stripped off his unmentionables. After that, he considered the banana ban a true taboo, and the banana was banished from the label.
This tale, however, may be more lore than fact.
"As far as I know, we've never had a banana on the logo, and I've been here for 35 years," said Teresa Sikes, a consumer services representative for Fruit of the Loom.
And just as the bananas on the Fruit of the Loom label might never have existed, the bad luck might not have, either.
"I know anglers who've eaten bananas and caught plenty of fish and have heard of anglers trolling with banana peels and catching fish on a dare," Chahoc said. "But why press your luck?
"You might peel a banana, drop the peel on the deck and then step on it. If you slip and break your neck, it will only confirm the superstition.
"The superstition has been around ever since anyone can remember, and that would certainly reinforce it for at least another century or two."
Even the wind
Some superstition may be based on fact, including two mentioned by Chahoc: that yellow butterflies are good luck and that an east wind is bad luck.
"When the yellow butterflies are here, the spots are here," he said. "When they leave, the spots leave."
That fall movement by the cloudless sulphur butterfly [Phoebis sennae] makes sense to Chahoc.
"The yellow butterflies are seen migrating far out into the ocean," he said, "and it's not a stretch to think that the same temperatures or time of year that compels spots to migrate also makes the butterflies migrate."
Stephan backs that theory, but noted that the butterflies don't migrate long distances.
"In some years, they build up in huge numbers," Stephan said. "Butterflies may respond to the same changes in barometric pressure, temperature and weather changes just like fish. The coastline also may act as a barrier, concentrating the insects and making them more noticeable to people at that time of the year."
The east-wind theory also appears to hold truths from nature and science.
"Around Carolina Beach, an east wind makes it hard to get offshore because all the inlets face east, and that may be a reason for that superstition," Chahoc said. "It could also be that an east wind brings a change in barometric pressure or something else happens that shuts the fish down because the superstition persists all along the Eastern Seaboard.
"All I know is that there are a lot of fishermen who won't fish when the wind is blowing from the east. The saying goes, 'Wind from the east, fish bite the least. Wind from the west, fishing's the best.' Most of the time, I think it's true, but I've also seen some nice fish caught when the wind's from a direction that's supposed to be wrong."
And that may be the most telling point of all. Forget bananas, bugs, lucky lures and the like. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.
Jan. 19, 2006
News & Observer
By Vicki Lee Parker
© Copyright 2006
Brenda Mitchell worked at the former Glenoit plant for 33 years before she was laid off. She returned this month after the plant reopened as Tarboro Textiles. Jerry Howard 'came and rescued all of us,' she said.
In late September, executives at Glenoit Fabrics in this small town about
an hour east of Raleigh gathered their 126 employees and told them
the plant was
closing.
Glenoit was consolidating its operations in Canada to save money, making it
a part of the growing list of textile companies that had called it quits in
North
Carolina. And it was adding its employees' names to the more than 121,000 textile
workers who have lost their jobs over the past 15 years.
Plant manager Jerry Howard wasn't having it.
Shortly after the meeting ended, Howard made a bold proposition: He would buy the company and keep it afloat.
"I immediately had this idea," said Howard, who had worked at Glenoit 39 years. "I can do a better job of handling the people and be more cost efficient than we were originally."
For the next three months -- as Glenoit began laying people off -- Howard negotiated with the company's owners. He presented a business proposal, revenue projections, ideas on efficiency -- all to show that he could turn the money-losing plant around. He put up $75,000 -- most of it from his personal savings -- and received a small amount of funding from the Carolinas Gateway Partnership, an economic development agency for Edgecombe and Nash counties.
In mid-December, a few days before the remainder of the staff was to be laid off and the plant shut down, Howard sealed a deal -- just not the one he had originally envisioned.
On Jan. 2, Tarboro Textiles began operations with 62 employees -- as a contract manufacturer for Glenoit.
"We've put together something that's practical and very innovative and so different that the business community should take notice," said Bill Trienekens, Glenoit's chief operating officer.
"We split the responsibility. Glenoit owns the machinery, the building and provides the marketing, sales and product development, and [Tarboro Textiles] supplies the labor."
At the plant, where a cloud of lint dust hangs in the air, Howard's plans appear to be working. In just 16 days of operation, the company is already producing about 15 percent more than it did the same time last year.
"More product, with fewer people," Howard said proudly. He estimates that the company will become profitable in April.
Same plant, new name
In many ways, little has changed for the workers who now labor for Tarboro Textiles. They work out of the same Glenoit plant and produce the same colorful fabrics -- to be used in sweaters, faux-fur products and scatter rugs for long-time customers such as LL Bean, Country Clothing and Black Mountain -- as they did when Glenoit ran the plant. Even their salaries are the same -- averaging $10.50 an hour. They still can get medical and dental benefits and a 401(k) plan.
But the plant is a mere shell of what it once was. At one time, 1,100 people worked for the company, Howard said. But during its 47-year history, ownership has changed at least six times, with each new owner looking for ways to cut costs and survive amid increasing overseas competition. The current owner, China-based Haixin, took over in 2002.
The company tried to focus on markets that weren't vulnerable to foreign competition, but couldn't achieve the efficiencies needed to stay competitive. That will not be a problem for Tarboro Textiles, said Howard and Trienekens.
Because Tarboro Textiles focuses solely on labor, it will be able to quickly respond to customers' orders, which means ramping up production when needed, or scaling back when the orders slow down, Trienekens said.
"Before, it would take Glenoit over three months to adjust the labor for a large order," he said. Tarboro Textiles "can double the work force in four weeks, or shut down in a three-day notice. All of a sudden, your customers don't have to project three months out."
The work stoppages are hard, on employees, but they have been a part of the history of textile plants, said Howard.
"You build up in spring and lay off in the fall," he said. "We've always had layoffs. Employees are used to it being like that."
Indeed, his colleagues are just happy to be working again. He hired eight more this week.
Among them was Gloria Battle, who had worked for Glenoit for seven years before being laid off in November. Since then, her bills have been piling up. "I was glad to come back," Battle said. Howard "has done a wonderful thing, that's all I can say."
But Tarboro Textiles' future is no sure thing, as the history of textiles in North Carolina has shown.
Blanton Godfrey, dean of N.C. State University's College of Textiles, said the company has a good business model, but warned that maintaining a competitive edge will be a challenge.
"Anything that can be copied easily is vulnerable," Godfrey said. "They have to continue to look for new ideas and new markets to remain successful."
For his part, Howard is confident that the arrangement with Glenoit will work out.
Glenoit's sales team is eyeing new business and, based on new customer orders, Howard is ramping up, with plans to employ 140 workers by March.
"It's an open-ended contract," he said of his deal with Glenoit. "If they pull out or vice versa, we've got to give a 90-day notice. If they pull out, I would still pursue to keep something going.
"I guess it's like the old saying, 'You got to have some trust.' "
N.C. State's College of Veterinary Medicine to Expand Equine Services
Jan. 19, 2006
TheHorse.com (KY)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has announced plans to expand its satellite equine center in Southern Pines, N.C. The college has enhanced the tertiary medical services offered to referring veterinarians for their equine patients.
"Southern Pines is an excellent location for us to expand," says Warwick A. Arden, BVSc, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. "The Mid-Atlantic region is home to a thriving sport horse industry as well as a training location for performance horses from all along the Eastern Seaboard. The existing facility here in Southern Pines allows us the room to grow. Thanks to the 83 acres we have here, we can expand our medical services, research, and teaching capabilities to better meet the needs of the equine community, both in North Carolina and across the nation."
Formerly known as the "Veterinary Equine Research Center" (VERC), the Southern Pines campus has been re-named "North Carolina State Equine Health Center at Southern Pines." In 2005, 52 different veterinary practices used the services offered by the center, and Arden expects that number to grow. "The services we offer here, combined with the leading-edge clinical programs at our large animal hospital in Raleigh, ensure that we continue to provide the best equine care possible. The number of veterinary practices we support through the Southern Pines center has grown steadily over the years, and we have every expectation that trend will continue," says Arden.
In 2006, services offered at the NC State Equine Health Center at Southern Pines will include:
Podiatry and rehabilitation services, including assessment of difficult lameness
and shoeing problems.
Expanded ophthalmology services, including diagnostic, surgical, and therapeutic
treatments for eye disorders, as well as examination for genetic-based eye
diseases.
Availability of diagnostics that includes more than 90 different tests, with
45 that are conducted in-house, such as equine infectious anemia (Coggins)
and blood chemistry profiles. Emergency Coggins tests can be performed in less
than two hours. Other diagnostic services include video endoscopy for the stomach
and upper respiratory system.
Reproductive services such as infertility treatment, embryo transfer, semen
collection and transport, artificial insemination, reproductive emergencies,
and reproductive surgery.
In support of the expanded mission of the Equine Health Center at Southern
Pines, a new web site was created: www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ehc-sp.
CEM Quarantine Site
Currently the Equine Health Center at Southern Pines is the only USDA-certified
contagious equine metritis (CEM) quarantine site in North Carolina, and one
of only a few certified sites on the East Coast. The center's web site offers
downloadable forms to help facilitate the quarantine process.
The North Carolina State University Equine Health Center is located in Southern Pines, N.C., about 60 miles south of Raleigh. It is easily accessed from I-95 and I-40. For more information, visit www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ehc-sp or call 910/692.877
CAST Assesses The Potential For An Avian Influenza Human Pandemic
Jan. 19, 2006
CattleNetwork.com (KS)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
January 19, 2006…Ames, Iowa. Over the past several months the reported number of bird deaths and subsequent human deaths resulting from exposure to influenza A-infected birds has increased, making front-page news worldwide. In response to heightened concern about the possibility of a resultant influenza pandemic, CAST has prepared a new Commentary, Avian Influenza: Human Pandemic Concerns.
The likelihood that the next human influenza pandemic will emerge from the bird influenza circulating in Asia remains unknown, and because this bird influenza virus remains primarily an animal disease, there is hope that a pandemic can be prevented. But according to Task Force Coauthor Dr. Donna K. Carver, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, “Every new poultry infection, and subsequent human exposure, gives this virus an opportunity to exchange genetic material with other influenza viruses and increases the chances that the bird influenza will become a significant human disease.”
The authors suggest that stopping the spread of this virus will decrease the opportunity for the virus to adapt to humans, and eradication needs to occur at the farm level in the countries where it is currently circulating. “Funding of prevention, surveillance, and eradication efforts in the at-risk countries will provide tools needed to facilitate the eradication process of the virus where it is detected and will prevent further spread and subsequent economic loss,” says Dr. Elizabeth A. Krushinskie of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, Task Force Coauthor.
“In addition to outlining and assessing AI viruses and historical pandemics,” concludes CAST Executive Vice President John M. Bonner, “CAST’s new Commentary also evaluates the structure and function of AI viruses as they impact human cases of influenza, outlines pandemic risk assessment, and provides references for further information.”
CAST will be releasing a companion piece—Avian Influenza: Trade Issues—In February 2006.
The full text of Avian Influenza: Human Pandemic Concerns (CAST Commentary QTA 2006-1) is available online without charge at the CAST website (<www.cast-science.org>, along with many of CAST’s other scientific publications. CAST is an international consortium of 37 scientific and professional societies. It assembles, interprets, and communicates credible science-based information regionally, nationally, and internationally on food, fiber, agricultural, natural resource, and related societal and environmental issues to its stakeholders—legislators, regulators, policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.
Contacts:
Dr. Donna K. Carver: Phone: 919-515-5526; E-mail: <donna_carver@ncsu.edu>
Dr. Elizabeth A. Krushinskie: Phone: 770-493-9401; E-mail: <bkrushinskie@poultryegg.org>
Dr. John M. Bonner: Phone: 515-292-2125, ext. 25; E-mail: <jbonner@cast-science.org>
NASA Langley grooms students for research careers
Jan. 19, 2006
Daily Press (VA)
By KYM KLASS
© Copyright 2006
It never was rare that Turhan Carroll stood at a bus stop at 5 a.m. for his trip to NASA Langley Research Center.
While the journey to his internship from his Denbigh-area home took 31/2 hours, Carroll, 21, sees it this way: "If you want something bad enough, you'll go out and get it.
"That's the type of work ethic I have."
Carroll - a 2003 Denbigh High School graduate and a junior at North Carolina State University - is one of about 2,000 students who have gone through the Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars program, where, for 10 weeks each summer, college students work closely with some of the top researchers in the world.
"I really thought the experience was valuable to me," said Carroll, who applied for and successfully completed internships in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He took the bus when he didn't have a ride to Langley. "I had to transfer about three times, and sometimes waited half an hour for transfers," he said.
This summer marks the 20th anniversary for the LARSS program, which encourages high-caliber college students to pursue and earn graduate degrees and enhance their interest in aerospace research by exposing them to the professional resources of Langley Research Center.
The LARSS program, which operates under a cooperative agreement between NASA Langley Research Center and Hampton University, attracted applicants from 40 states last year, said Denise Siegfeldt, LARSS program director. Between 100 and 150 students are selected for the program each year.
The program, she said, "is an eye opener. It makes me realize the competition among college students out there. For the college students who come here, they are just amazed at the quality of the students who are there. It motivates them to try even harder in college."
Two primary elements of the LARSS program are a research project completed by each participant under the supervision of a mentor and technical lectures by prominent engineers and scientists. Additional elements include tours of wind tunnels, computational facilities and laboratories.
Program participants are awarded scholarships: $4,500 for rising college juniors and seniors and $5,000 for graduate students.
A "Bridge Program" has recently been added to LARSS, allowing high school seniors and first- and second-year college students with a grade point average of 3.5 or above to be accepted for internships, provided they have previous NASA-sponsored research experience. For example, they could have participated in the NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program, or SHARP.
Carroll did, and he describes LARSS as a continuation of that program.
"I really liked the SHARP program and the different exposures to research, and meeting other students interested in going into the science and technology fields, and meeting other engineers," he said. "There's not that many programs that give you that type of exposure in high school."
Joanne Moore, a Yorktown resident and senior biology major at the University of Virginia, is part of a yearlong LARSS initiative. Her mentor at LARSS helped make arrangements to extend Moore's summer internship.
"It's been a really good experience because in school, you learn certain things out of books, but it's actually pretty different when you're doing it yourself," she said. "Even if it's lab-type courses, you do certain things and you know your results.
"But here, it's research, and you don't necessarily know what you're going to get or what you want the results to be."
The program has allowed Moore to be around female role models as well. Her mentor, Ruth Pater, is a senior polymer scientist who has mentored high school through doctoral students for the past two decades.
"As a female scientist, I want a particular interest in having women scientists here to show them how a woman scientist can be successful in a male-dominated field," Pater said. "That's why I have a particular reason for choosing female students."
Pater said NASA is interested in educating the younger generation.
"We are hoping they will, after finishing their degree, come back to NASA to work. We want to show them what we do for research," she said. "We want the top notch, the very brightest students to be interested in future research."
Jessica Edmonds understands the hands-on approach the program offers.
The third-year graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a 2001 LARSS intern, and said during her time at NASA, she worked on implementing a new flight simulator, designed to test the concept of Personal Air Vehicles - airplanes that, in the future, could be used in a manner similar to cars.
"As a test, I programmed the simulator to receive the input parameters of an existing Lancair aircraft, and also produced a 'user manual' for other aircraft used with the simulator," said Edmonds, who recently completed her master's degree in aerospace engineering at MIT, and is now pursuing a doctorate in aerospace engineering at MIT.
"LARSS was important in following my goals to work at NASA someday," she said. "Because of LARSS, and the other college summer programs in which I participated, I have been able to attend and succeed in a fantastic graduate program here at MIT."
Pater said the research center benefits from students help by directing them to do more simple research. As they progress, "they can be very useful to help us with our goal. The student will gain direct experience about actual research, very high-tech type of research. We are doing things that not ordinary companies will do."
Edmonds said the LARSS program was unique in that "we each were assigned to a program, and were expected to perform our research in a mostly independent manner.
"In a way, I was my own boss. From this experience, I learned to outline my own goals for the day, and to motivate myself to achieve milestones. This has been an extremely important lesson as my academic and research career has progressed."
Siegfeldt said students are able to contribute to big projects, journal articles and conference proceedings. High-tech employers look very closely at students who have participated in the LARSS program, she said, because they've hired them in the past.
"Maybe about 20 percent are still working, somehow, doing something associated with NASA-related research. They get jobs with companies, but a lot of them get jobs with NASA or with a NASA contracting organization," Siegfeldt said.
Aside from the academics, Carroll has learned that hard work also is important.
"You have to really have a good work ethic to get a job done," he said. "My mentor (Luther Jenkins) did a really good job teaching me that. You really have to work at staying on top of your game. My mentor taught me that you aren't always given something, but you have to make opportunities for yourself by showing initiatives.
UCSD chancellor gets extra $248,000
Jan. 19, 2006
San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
By Eleanor Yang
© Copyright 2006
As the University of California regents gathered in San Diego yesterday to address major shortcomings in its compensation practices, the UC president defended a decision in 2004 to pay UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox $248,000 in previously undisclosed compensation.
That payout, with other benefits, brought Fox's compensation for her first year at UCSD close to $700,000, according to data released in response to a public records request by The San Diego Union-Tribune. That's far more than the $350,000 salary disclosed when she was hired.
In addition to her salary, Fox was paid $248,000 for a sabbatical she had earned at her previous university, but did not take.
The revelation comes as regents outlined several efforts to restore confidence and openness in the university's compensation practices.
The university has come under attack in recent months after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that UC had paid more than $800 million in bonuses, administrative stipends and other forms of hidden compensation in the last fiscal year, while facing tight budgets and raising student fees.
In addition to questions over UC's transparency, UC President Robert Dynes and other regents yesterday characterized the compensation practices as contradictory and in need of an overhaul.
Part of the problem, Dynes said, is that presidents have heaped policy upon
policy while not stating which ones transcend others.
Yesterday, the regents discussed giving Dynes more authority to approve salary
increases for the highest-paid employees.
That proposal, approved by a subcommittee yesterday, would create a system for approving salaries and salary increases for the highest-paid officials in the system.
Regents, who will vote on the proposal today, say that it would provide more context and openness when setting executive salaries.
But some critics contend that it would shift too much authority to Dynes to approve salary increases.
While regents continue to call for full disclosure of compensation, several said they were not informed of Fox's extra pay, an apparent violation of university policy.
The minutes from the April 2004 meeting in which regents approved Fox's appointment showed that only the $350,000 salary and $87,500 relocation allowance were publicly reported.
"It's disappointing to learn there was a package put together that I didn't know about," said UC Regent John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres and chairman of the regents when Fox was appointed. "Maybe it's part of an effort to bring her up to market."
UC Regents Chairman Gerry Parsky said he was unaware of Fox's extra compensation. But he added that a university audit under way will consider the appropriateness of compensation for the top 32 management positions, and whether regents were informed about and approved their compensation.
Asked why regents might not have been informed, Parsky said, "It may have been a miscommunication between the president and the regents. But I want to say I have great confidence in Bob Dynes, and I believe he acted under the authority he thought he had."
In a brief interview yesterday, Dynes explained that he authorized Fox's payout because she had earned the money in sabbatical time at her previous school, North Carolina State University. Fox, who was earning $248,000 in North Carolina as chancellor, would have received one year's salary if she had taken a sabbatical there.
"We often respect accrued sabbatical leave when we recruit people," Dynes said.
Asked whether the decision to pay Fox money defied the philosophy behind sabbaticals, which is to provide faculty with a chance to reflect and focus on research, Dynes said, "That was Marye Anne's judgment."
Fox declined requests to be interviewed.
Acknowledging that the system must be more open, Dynes has said he needs to be able to offer competitive salaries to recruit the best candidates.
Dynes helped choose Fox as his successor at UCSD after he was selected as president of the 10-campus system.
It's unclear whether Fox's compensation is below or above market. According to a recent UC-commissioned report by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the average university employee's cash compensation is about 15 percent less than those at comparison institutions.
Fox's salary falls in line with other UC chancellors. UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgineau's salary was $390,000 in the 2004-05 academic year. UCLA's chancellor drew a salary of $315,600.
However, according to a 2005 survey in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Fox's total compensation of $694,416 last year slightly trailed that of the highest paid public university leader, Mary Sue Coleman, head of the University of Michigan, who will be compensated $724,604 this year.
Several UCSD faculty members were unaware of Fox's compensation, and thought it would have been best to disclose the compensation when she was appointed.
"As far as whether the package ought to be made public at the time of her appointment, sure, I think the public has a right to know," said Donald Tuzin, the past chairman of UCSD's academic senate.
Some faculty found no problem with the practice.
"I come from the private sector, where using bonuses to get people to work for you is common," said Bernard Minster, chairman of the academic senate. "I don't see why the university should not have that mechanism at its disposal."
UCSD's Associated Students President Christopher Sweeten said he believes that Fox, like most university administrators, is overpaid.
"If the university is raising students' fees, I don't understand why the money would go to administrators' salaries, and not towards instruction."
Some union representatives were more critical.
"I think people should be outraged," said Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, the chief negotiator for the Coalition of University Employees. "That's the inequity of the UC compensation system. Rather than fix it from the bottom up, they continue to fatten pockets of the richest employees and on the backs of the lower-paid employees and students."
Sabbatical leave, as defined in the University of California faculty handbook, is granted to faculty members as time away from teaching responsibilities to refresh themselves, and oftentimes focus on research.
Nowhere in UC policy does it state that employees can receive extra pay in lieu of taking a sabbatical, though as president Dynes has the authority to negotiate compensation.
It's unverified that Fox did earn a sabbatical at NC State. University officials refused to provide information about her compensation and any academic leave time earned, saying personnel records do not have to be released.
" You can request it, but you're not entitled to it," said North Carolina State's Barbara Carroll, associate vice chancellor for human resources. Faculty must make a proposal for a scholarly undertaking, and then have it approved by a department head, dean and provost, she said.
Typically, it takes about six to seven consecutive years of service to earn a year's sabbatical, said Jonathan Knight, director of the office of academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors.
Knight said it makes sense that a prospective employee would try to negotiate with a university to pay for sabbatical leave accrued at another institution.
"It's to sweeten the pot," he said. The previous institution wouldn't pay for the sabbatical because most sabbaticals require that the employee returns to employment for a year afterward, he said.
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Eleanor Yang: (619) 542-4564; eleanor.yang@uniontrib.com
The agony of the essay, the thrill of admission
Jan. 19, 2006
Indianapolis Star
By Bonnie Rochman
© Copyright 2006
It's college deadline crunch time, and nothing spells anxiety like the application
essay. Grades are black and white. SAT scores are, too. But essays are supposed
to be Technicolor.
Listen in: "W.B. Yeats once observed, 'Education is not the filling of
a pail, but the lighting of a fire.' . . . The kindling has been laid for my
intellectual fire and the flame is flickering to life."
That's Andrew Simpson, a senior at Chapel Hill (N.C.) High School, trying to persuade University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill that he's the (fresh)man for them.
But what appears now in perfect prose was many months in the making. Simpson first looked at the application last summer. From June to November, his mind hummed with activity as his brain struggled to match experiences and memories with essay topics.
It was stressful.
He was desperate.
" Especially in the last couple of weeks, when it was crunch time, I started asking my parents to feed me some experience I'd had," he said.
Though admissions directors insist college essays are just one of several elements they consider when whittling the number of applicants, students tend to believe they're weighted more heavily than letters of recommendation, say, or extracurricular activities.
They struggle to pinpoint a drama, a trauma, that has seared them indelibly. They cast about for a life-altering event.
But students shouldn't worry so much, admissions directors at several universities say. What colleges want is just a little bit of insider information: Who are you beyond your grades and your class rank?
Still, it's intimidating writing these personal paeans, being profound yet sincere, skirting the fine line between ego and accomplishment.
One of UNC's questions asked Simpson what advice he'd give a 10-year-old.
He pounced on his parents.
" What advice would I give a 10-year-old?" he begged them. "What advice would you give a 10-year-old?"
It's not the topic so much as the way you present it.
You can write about pretty much anything, as long
as you make
it interesting
and do it well.
At Duke University, which gets about 18,500 applications
for 1,665 spots, reviewers evaluate essays to determine
how well
students
write, think
and share information
about themselves.
Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions,
says there's a common misconception that essays
have to be epic in
their scope.
"
Most 17-year-olds haven't had an unusual problematic event in their lives,
and we don't expect them to," Guttentag said. "There have been good,
thoughtful, informative essays written on every subject."
North Carolina State University lets students write about anything they want. But undergraduate admissions director Thomas Griffin has found students often think it's a trick question. Bemused, they'll call the admissions office. No, really, they'll ask -- what do we write about?
"
It's not what they're used to in their AP English class," Griffin said. "We
don't mean it to be harder, but it might be, because hopefully they have to
look inside themselves."
It's something not all applicants realize they
should do, said Rodney Allred, a high school
counselor in
Clayton, N.C.
He has seen too many essays that simply repeat information the college already has, like test scores or extracurriculars. But that mistake pales next to the more egregious sin of overt fawning.
" They'll try to suck up to the school," he said.
For example: " 'I really want to go to (this college) because I've heard it has the best marine biology program in the country and it's a great school and the teachers are great and the location is great.' They've said all these great things about the school but nothing about themselves."
Quincy O'Neal, a high school senior in North
Carolina, didn't make that error. He wrote
about the media
perpetuating racial
stereotypes
in his
application
to Yale University.
He told of learning that, as recently as
the 1980s, a certain Southern town had
a billboard
welcoming
visitors traveling
the main highway
into town to "KKK
country." Because racism is a subject he feels passionately about, he
said, the essay was easy to write.
" If you write from your heart, it helps you a lot more than writing about an overused topic," he said.
He found out last month that he got in.
Sometimes in the search for the perfect essay topic, students overlook the obvious.
Once, a student complained to Sam Holleman, who teaches senior English at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, that it was hard to figure out what to write about. In the course of the conversation, the student divulged that his family had lived in Iran for a few years.
" I said, 'Are you kidding? You have a perspective a lot of others don't have.' "
But teenagers can feel uncomfortable writing about themselves. It's an art to sell yourself without sounding like a braggart.
" Usually, once they get going and feel comfortable talking about themselves, they find they have plenty to say," Holleman said.
Womble Carlyle Adds Former Judge to Government Affairs Team
Jan. 19, 2006
Business Wire (CA), Carolina Newswire (NC)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2006--Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC today announced that Jack Cozort -- a former North Carolina Court of Appeals judge who is one of North Carolina's top government relations professionals -- will join the firm's Federal and State Government Affairs Practice Group.
Cozort joins Womble Carlyle's bipartisan team of government affairs practitioners who represent the firm's clients before members of Congress and state legislators as well as federal and state executive branches of government. The group includes members who have served in such roles as four-term North Carolina governor; chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; four-term North Carolina state senator; five-term Georgia state senator; deputy director of legislative affairs to Georgia's governor; chief of staff to the Republican leader of the North Carolina House of Representatives; and three chiefs of staff to United States senators.
"Jack Cozort joining Womble Carlyle is an important step in the continued growth of our Federal and State Government Affairs Practice Group," said Keith Vaughan, Womble Carlyle managing member. "His proven track record of client successes and dedication to client service are a very good match with Womble Carlyle's philosophy of providing outstanding client service above all else."
Cozort served for 12 years as a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He took a 15-month leave of absence from the bench to serve as acting director of the Administrative Office of the Courts when he was asked to do so by then North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice, and current Womble Carlyle government affairs practitioner, Burley Mitchell. Prior to his tenure on the Court of Appeals, Cozort served as legal counsel to Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. for eight years. In this role, Cozort was a legislative program leader and legislative liaison for the Governor. He also worked as an associate attorney general with the North Carolina Department of Justice.
Cozort comes to Womble Carlyle from Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein L.L.P. where he represented a number of businesses and organizations before the North Carolina Legislature and agencies of the North Carolina executive branch. He also assisted with the formulation of strategy, drafting of legislation and preparation of testimony and briefs.
Currently, Cozort is a member of the North Carolina Forum for Research and Economic Education Board of Directors, serves as the organization's legal counsel and chairs its research committee. He also is vice-chairman of the North Carolina State University Board of Visitors and is a member of the Wake Forest University School of Law Board of Visitors.
About Womble Carlyle
A full-service business law firm, Womble Carlyle ranks among AmLaw's 100 leading firms in the country. The firm is the 2003 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making Womble Carlyle the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a company in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member institutions.
Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle operates in four states and the District of Columbia with nearly 550 attorneys in nine offices located in Atlanta, GA; Greenville, SC; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, DC; and Tysons Corner, VA.
Tobacco to grow again in 2006, experts say
Jan. 19, 2006
Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC)
By Tonya Root
© Copyright 2006
The 2006 season looks brighter for local tobacco farmers who stayed with the golden leaf after the 2005 harvest, the first year without federal price supports.
Farmers who stay in the market will have to grow higher-quality tobacco at more efficient prices, said Blake Brown, a tobacco economics professor with N.C. State University.
Flue-cured tobacco production is expected to increase in the 2006 season as cigarette manufacturers ask farmers to grow more of the crop, according to an outlook published by Brown and Dewitt Gooden, a retired Clemson University Extension tobacco specialist. Horry, Georgetown and Brunswick, N.C., counties produce flue-cured tobacco, which uses tobacco strains that grow better in the coastal soils and is heated during the curing process after harvest.
Tobacco farmers who previously received government-supported prices for yearly quotas of tobacco were awarded a $10.1 billion buyout payable over 10 years, with around
$724 million coming to S.C. farmers, when Congress ended the tobacco-subsidy program that had been in place since the 1920s.
"Crop reporting said we had about 80 percent of what we had before the buyout in 2005," Gooden said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see another decrease this year because I think it's going to take a few years before it'll all settle out."
In 2005, tobacco production was down across the country and in South Carolina, and though figures won't be available until the summer, production likely dropped in Horry and Georgetown counties, according to officials who track agriculture.
In South Carolina, flue-cured tobacco production decreased 22 percent, which nearly mirrored the 20 percent decline of farm acreage dedicated to tobacco growth in the state. North Carolina, the largest flue-cured production state, lost 39 percent of its tobacco acreage to other crops or development of farmland, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
Officials predict among the five states where flue-cured tobacco is produced, a further 25 percent decline will occur this season as more farmers diversify their holdings in other crops and ventures.
Brown said in the future, fewer farmers would be needed to meet the demand, but their yields and quality must increase to remain competitive on the world market. It doesn't take a lot of farmers to grow what will be needed of flue-cured tobacco and a select few will meet the demand, he said.
Thus, acreage is expected to continue to decline as more farmers diversify their holdings in other crops or in some cases where land is at a premium, such as Horry County, develop their large tracts of land.
It depends on who you ask as to whether or not a profit can be made in growing flue-cured tobacco now that the government does not support the market price. Early production reports show fewer farmers are growing tobacco, many turning to other crops such as peanuts, cotton and even sod.
"The growing season was good, so those who made their pounds made some money. But others [planted] some peanuts, and cotton increased here," said Johnny Jenerette, executive director for the Horry County Farm Service Agency. "Peanuts are iffy. Some people did good, some not so well. There's nothing really out there that's suitable for the area as well as tobacco is."
In Horry County officials say farmers are increasing production to meet demands from companies wanting more U.S. grown leaf, he said. "Tobacco is going to be the main crop of this area and with the increases the market is calling for, I think that it's still going to be the No. 1 crop in the county for years to come."
Without government price control anymore, it is difficult to gauge how much farmers were paid for their 2005 crop or how much they'll earn in 2006. Prices vary depending on the contract a farmer receives from a company.
It appears farmers were paid less in 2005 from the previous year.
Pee Dee Research and Education Center listed South Carolina's 2004 flue-cured tobacco crop at a cash value of $116 million, which was 26 percent of the state's row crop income. Other experts estimate the 2005 value fell to $64 million.
"There's some people that made the decision to exit, and there's some people who are going to increase production in 2006," said Albert Johnson, an Horry County farmer and Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp. board member.
"I'm hearing the farmers talk about what the [contract prices] of the different companies are contracting with them, and apparently it's increased. But we have no way of really knowing what production will be until next fall."
County numbers of production, acreage and yields won't be released until June, but officials expect a decline locally as well.
In 2004, Horry County tobacco growers produced 16,402,000 pounds of the golden leaf from 7,070 acres.
Georgetown County growers had 1,386,000 pounds on 580 acres.
Those numbers are expected to change for the 2005 season because officials said local growers were thinking of retiring or increasing their production.
"Contracts are one year at a time and that makes it very difficult for the farmers," Johnson said.
"I don't think any of us have a crystal ball as to how this thing will shake out, but we're all optimistic."
Johnny Jenerette | Executive director for the Horry County Farm Service Agency
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BURN BACK | With U.S. subsidies gone, demand could spur competition
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Contact TONYA ROOT at 248-2149 or troot@thesunnews.com.