VOLUME 115, ISSUE 89
UNC satellite
submission is
pushed back
November new
goal for plans
BY COLIN CAMPBELL
STAFF WRITER
The deadline for the final
Carolina North concept plan to
be submitted to the Chapel Hill
Town Council has been pushed
back to November.
UNC’s Board of Trustees had
requested that the proposal be sub
mitted this month, but University
officials said they want more time
to revise the plan for the proposed
satellite research campus.
“This is sort of like doing the last
proofread of a paper before you
turn it in,” said Jack Evans, execu
tive director of the project.
Once the plan is given to Chapel
Hill officials, it likely will have to
be reviewed by groups such as the
town planning board before it goes
to the council, Evans said.
“It would be some time before
the plan came before the council,”
he said, noting that it would prob
ably happen in early December.
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Hla Wai, one of more than 100 Burmese refugees employed by UNC
housekeeping, shows a scar he received from shrapnel while in Burma.
Local Burmese
remain hopeful
BY MAX ROSE
STAFF WRITER
Chapel Hill resident Ye Urn has
not had contact with his family in
Myanmar since Buddhist monks
rose up against the military gov
ernment in mid-September.
Though frustrated about being
unable to talk with family, I\m
said it is a small issue compared
to those faced by ipost Burmese.
“Right now, people are very
emotional because they have
nothing to eat,” he said.
Tun, 37, was in the first group
of Burmese refugees to settle in
the Chapel Hill-Carrboro com
munity 10 years ago. Many
families have followed, and they
are paying close attention to the
uprising back home.
He recalled when he first
arrived in the United States.
“The first thing is you can smell
freedom,” he said. “You can breathe
freely. You can freely express your
feelings. You can cry.”
The Triangle Burmese popula
tion, made up mostly of Christians
from the Karen state, has grown
to about 70 families, said U
Nandawantha, a monk and co
director of the Myanmar Buddhist
Association in Jamestown, N.C.
Most still have family in
Myanmar, formerly known as
Burma, and many fought the mil
online I dailytarheel.com
LUNCH CRUNCH CHCCS officials are
looking to address increasing food costs.
MEDIA RELATIONS A symposium
discusses issues for black women.
ARTS FORUM Ihe year's first meeting
focuses on collaboration and accessibility.
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Some town members have said
the University should not rush the
project. “I think it’s good for peo
ple to be thoughtful and careful,”
Mayor Pro Tern Bill Strom said.
The deadline was set by trust
ees in May 2006 when they passed
a resolution directing Chancellor
James Moeser to ensure that
UNC submit a plan to the town
by Oct. 1,2007-
Evans said the resolution
stemmed from frustration voiced
by some trustees about the effi
ciency of the process.
But now trustees, who unani
mously approved the plan at their
Sept. 26 meeting, are supportive
of the new timeline, he said.
Trustee Bob Winston, chairman
of the building and grounds com
mittee, said planners want to wait
for results of assessments includ
ing an environmental study, a
physical impact study and profiles
of roads involved in the project.
“There’s a lot of information
that’s coming in,” he said. “All the
heavy-lifting work’s still being
SEE PLAN DELAY, PAGE 9
itary government before coming
to the United States as refugees.
Chapel Hill resident Hla Wai,
who had fought in a guerrilla war
from the Thailand-Myanmar
border, still has two sisters in
Myanmar.
Wai, one of more than 100
Burmese refugees employed by
UNC housekeeping, was a school
teacher before saying goodbye to
his parents for the last time and
going to the border at age 26.
Wai, who came to Chapel Hill in
1999, now has three kids in college
in the United States and is the first
Burmese housekeeping worker to
be named a crew chief at UNC.
“Before I do everything, I never
dreamed it,” he said.
Protest at home
In recent weeks the Myanmar
military rounded up and killed
an unknown number of monks
who had participated in protests
demanding improved living con
ditions, political prisoners’ freedom
and national reconciliation.
The government-controlled
media announced Sunday that it
imprisoned at least 135 monks,
but witnesses say the number of
captives likely is in the thousands.
SEE BURMESE, PAGE 9
university | page n
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
UNC alumnus and former DTH
Editor Peter Wallsten will give
a speech tonight about the
power, politics and press of
presidential elections.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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UNC PROFESSOR WINS
NOBEL PRIZE
Earns honor with two
others for genetic targeting
BY KATE SULLIVAN
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Oliver Smithies, a UNC professor of pathology
and laboratory medicine, received the Nobel Prize
for medicine Monday, becoming the first full UNC
professor to receive the honor.
“When I got the proverbial phone call from
Stockholm this morning ... it was a peaceful feel
ing,” Smithies, 82, said during a press conference
Monday afternoon.
Smithies and his co-recipients, Mario Capecchi,
of the University of Utah, and Sir Martin Evans, of
Cardiff University, were honored for their work in
the area of genetic targeting.
Their research has spanned several decades,
beginning in the early 1980s.
Today the team’s work on genetic targeting in
mice is widely used in research physiology.
“I get a great deal of enjoyment in opening scien
tific magazines and seeing people using gene target
ing,” Smithies said.
The method of gene targeting focuses on select
ing a certain gene in the genetic makeup of mice,
specifically, and deleting it to see the effects that liv
ing without this gene has on the animal.
Smithies explained the genetic targeting method
as a series 0f3,000 books, in which a scientist selects
a specific word out of one of the many books.
“We can alter that word or take it away and learn
what happens,” he said.
The process uses embryonic stem cells of mice to
create offspring with the altered genetic makeup.
Smithies said using this process in lab animals can
lead to breakthrough technologies for humans.
While Smithies was hesitant to say how much
this technology has benefited humans so far not
ing only that some of his findings have been used in
furthering research on human cystic fibrosis he
said further research could lead to more human
related treatments.
“Much of a direct benefit is not obvious at this
point,” he said.
Smithies has been at UNC for the past 19 years
and is the first full-time UNC faculty member to
win a Nobel Prize.
“It’s really a pleasure to those of us who have been
in science for a long time,” said Bill Marzluff, associ
ate dean for research at the School of Medicine.
SEE NOBEL PRIZE, PAGE 9
Nobel Prize winners
with ties to UNC
Peter Agre
► Chemistry, awarded 2003
► Former fellow in hematology/
oncology, 1978-1981
Robert F. Furchgott
► Physiology or medicine, 1998
► Alumnus, BA in chemistry, 1937;
honorary doctorate, 1984
Louis Ignarro
► Physiology or medicine, 1998
► Honorary doctorate, 1984
Martin Rodbell
► Physiology or medicine, 1994
► Former adjunct professor
Rudolph Marcus
► Chemistry, 1992
► Post-doctoral fellow, 1951; fac
ulty, 1951-1952
Gertrude B. Elion and
George H. Hitchings
► Physiology or medicine, 1988
► Former adjunct professors
UNC disputes athletics donation trend
BY EMILY STEPHENSON
STAFF WRITER
A recent article names UNC the
No. 1 recipient of athletics donations
in the nation, but University officials
are protesting that a trend exposed
by the article doesn’t apply to UNC.
The article, in Friday’s issue
of “The Chronicle of Higher
Education,” lists UNC as the
nation’s leading recipient of dona
tions to athletics. The University
raised ssl million in 2006.
The Chronicle claims that there
is a national trend of increasing
donations to athletics departments
and shrinking funds for academ
ics.
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Oliver Smithies, a UNC professor of pathology and lab medicine, speaks at a press
conference Monday about winning this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Prize is UNC’s closest tie to laureates
BY KATY DOLL
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
UNC celebrated its first full
time faculty member to receive the
Nobel Prize on Monday.
Faculty Chairman Joe Templeton
said the selection of Oliver Smithies,
who received the Nobel Prize
for physiology or medicine, is an
important national recognition.
“We need a lot of stars, and we
also need a superstar,” he said. “What
happened today was one of our own
faculty colleagues has been recog
nized as a world science superstar.”
But the historic announcement
was not the first time UNC has
been listed among Nobel winners.
Besides Monday’s winner, UNC
has had several ties to former
Nobel laureates.
Two former adjunct professors,
an alumnus, a post-doctorate fel
low, a fellow and an honorary doc-
But some UNC officials said they
think the article titled “Growth
in Sports Gifts May Mean Fewer
Academic Donations” describes
a fundraising trend that isn’t pres
ent at the University.
“If people read only that story
they may get a misrepresentation
of the facts,” said Steve Kirschner,
associate athletics director for
communications.
The article prompted UNC
Chancellor James Moeser to write a
letter to the Chronicle, refuting the
trend claims, said Scott Ragland,
director of communications in the
SEE DONATIONS, PAGE 9
plugged in I page 8
OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
With programs such as Mozilla
Rrefox, the open-source software
movement is gaining popularity
as a free alternative to programs
such as Internet Explorer.
torate have previously received the
prize in medicine or chemistry.
But Smithies will bring a level
of national recognition that the
University has not reached before,
said Holden Thorp, dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences.
“I think it’s a qualitative change
for Carolina,” he said. “I think
when you’re on the network nightly
news and you’re the lead thing on
(National Public Radio), that’s a
qualitatively different recognition
than we get most other ways.”
Many of UNC’s peer universities
have several laureates, such as the
University of California at Berkeley
with 15 fiill-time faculty laureates.
“It’s certainly true that it gives
you bragging rights when you’ve got
a Nobel laureate or more than
one,” Berkeley spokesman Robert
Sanders said. “The students love
to say that they’ve taken a course
Athletics donations in the ACC
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that athletics donations have risen in
recent years, ranking UNC-Chapel Hill in the top spot of ACC schools in 2006-07.
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SOURCE: THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION * DTH/ALLIE WASSUM
this day in history
OCT. 9,1956...
A student committee is appointed
to help select the chancellor to
succeed Robert House. The
students would submit concerns
to the full committee.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2007
from a Nobel laureate. It’s a morale
booster for the faculty, too.”
The award also helps in fund
raising, attracting students and
retaining faculty, Sanders said.
Berkeley has had faculty win in
physics, chemistry and economic
sciences, which Sanders said dem
onstrates that the university is well
rounded in top academics.
“All around, it’s a fun day when
it’s awarded, and it’s a great year
when you get one,” he said.
Although this award marks an
important step for UNC, officials
stressed that it also was an impor
tant recognition for Smithies.
“It’s just a crowning glory for a
long career for Oliver Smithies and
it’s a boost to everyone on our cam
pus,” Templeton said.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
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