UNCG in the News - April 2011

Contact: Dan Nonte

University Relations

(336) 334-4314

Please check back regularly for the latest coverage of UNCG. Links have been included whenever possible. If a link has expired or we missed a news item, please let us know.

• UNCG's Friends Helping Friends suicide prevention program was mentioned in a New York Times article on peer intervention programs at universities. (4-29-11)

• Song Anh Nguyen, an apparel design student at UNCG, won the national wrangler blue jean design competition. She will receive a cash prize and will see her SA line of jeans produced and sold by Wrangler. She has been featured by the Greensboro News & Record and Fox 8 News. (4-28-11)

• Ron Charles, fiction editor for The Washington Post, reviews Michael Parker’s latest novel, “The Watery Side of the World.” He calls the novel a “vivid tale about the tenacity of habit and the odd relationships that form in very small, difficult places.” Parker “lays out a bewitching triangle of dependent relationships in this inclement Gothic tale: two very different white women and a black man locked together by compassion, obligation and addictive resentment.” (4-26-11)

• National Public Radio's Morning Edition featured a story about conservation efforts at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge near Manteo, where several UNCG students spent spring break on a service trip organized by the UNCG Office of Leadership and Service Learning.The refuge encompasses 154,000 acres of marshland and a rare type of lowland forest called pocosin. According to the NPR story, it is about the only place on Earth where the endangered red wolf still roams, and a lot of it is at or near sea level, putting it at risk from rising seas. The students helped to restore oyster reefs, which serve as barriers protecting the coast from the increasing severity of hurricanes as ocean water temperatures rise. Check out the students' blog here. (4-25-11)

• Tara Green, associate professor and director of the African American Studies Program, was quoted in an article about a Langston Hughes exhibit at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey. “Hughes was an American who loved being black — he found a home in black communities, in blues and jazz clubs, and among black intellectuals. It is fitting, then, that some of his work be housed in the African American Heritage Museum,” Green said. The article appeared in The Daily Journal of southern New Jersey and a number of other newspapers. (4-22-11)

• An article in the May issue of Smithsonian magazine, “The Mystery of the Singing Mice,” describes the research of associate professor of biology Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell. Kalcounis-Rueppell and her students have recorded the ultrasonic “songs” of mice in California and North Carolina. “Her discovery reminds us that each species perceives the world in a unique way, with a finely tuned set of senses, and so finds itself in a slightly different world,” author Rob Dunn wrote.

• Newspapers around the state published a story about the exhibition “Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina,” which originally appeared in the Greensboro News & Record. Benjamin Filene, associate professor of history, worked with historian Leonard Rogoff to develop the exhibit, writing the text and collaborating with designers. It was on display last year at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh and a traveling version will be at the Greensboro Historical Museum for five months before heading to Wilmington and Charlotte. (4-18-11)

• Jose Villalba, professor of counseling and educational development, appeared on WFMY News 2's Good Morning Show to talk about how parents' eating habits may influence eating habits of their children.

• Sam Miller, head of the Department of Teacher Education adn Higher Education, talked to WFMY about a proposal for the state to study paying students for good grades. “If you want to support achievement, I would say you want to support teachers,” Miller told the station. “To pay the kids? We’ll see. I’ve been surprised before.” (4-11-11)

• Jennifer Etnier, a kinesiology professor, appeared on WFMY's Good Morning Show to discuss her book“Bring Your ‘A’ Game: A Young Athlete’s Guide to Mental Toughness.” She will speak to youth athletes and their parents about the mental skills needed for success in sports and life at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in Page High School’s auditorium. (4-11-11)

• WGHP Fox 8 News ran a story on two UNCG students who are among five finalists in Wrangler's Next Blue jean design contest. Rachel Fischer-Schulz and Song Anh Nyguen, both studying apparel product design, will present their ideas to Wrangler executives on Thursday. See their video entries online at http://www.nextblue.com/. (4-11-11)

• News 14 Carolina aired a segment about an April 8 demonstration calling for more benches and shelters at Greensboro bus stops. The demonstration involved students from UNCG and Dudley High School, who are brought together by a service-learning class taught by associate professor of communication studies Spoma Jovanovic. YES! Weekly on April 6 ran an item, “10 Ways to Support Greensboro Public Transit,” by Jovanovic and the students.

• The Chalkboard, the News & Record's blog about K-12 education, reported that 170 students have applied for the 50 ninth-grade seats for the Early/Middle College at UNCG, which will open in the fall. Tom Martinek, a UNCG kinesiology professor who helped design the program, said applicants seem to be attracted by its small classes and focus on health careers. (4-6-11)