Employee Forum to hold elections Dec. 1
Veterans remembered, a charge to serve issued
David Perry: a rock of stability in a sea of change
Tell us what made your holidays memorable
HR introduces new, online application form
Gift completes $1.6 million endowment for Latin American studies
FYI Research: Wood studies abuse in relationships
Odum Institute to help save 'lost' information
Evans professorship honors Jewish leaders
Human Resources news/Carolina Wellness Matters: Time out! Creating time for our top priorities
Human Resources news: Application forms revised for Tuition Waiver Program
Human Resources news: Star Heels

Employee Forum to hold elections Dec. 1

Some old and new faces will be in the running on Dec. 1 when the Employee Forum elects its leaders for the upcoming year.

A slate of five candidates was nominated for the three positions at the Nov. 3 Employee Forum meeting.

Nominated for chair were Tommy Griffin and Charles T. "Chuck" Brink. The two candidates for vice chair are Lori Lewter and Ernie Patterson. Patti Prentice was the lone nominee for forum secretary.

Griffin has worked at the University for more than 30 years and has spent the past three serving as forum chair.

"I am a person who believes in people and what they can do together," Griffin said in the biographical sketch he prepared for the election. "The University is just a big family working together to get the job done. It takes all of us working together to make this a great university. We are asked on a daily basis to do more with less, and the people here continue to do so because they love the University. They do this so that the University will grow and become the greatest university in the world."

Griffin, who is a maintenance mechanic in Facilities Services, said the forum is the voice of the staff and that is why he is running.

"I want to do everything that I can to help to make sure that the staff is heard and see that benefits, pay, and working conditions improve," he said. "We can only do this by us all working together."

Brink, in his biographical sketch, said he had worked with the University for more than eight years. He is an Electrician II in Facilities Services.

Brink began his first year on the forum as a first alternative and as a Personnel Issues Committee member. The next year he served as a delegate for Division II and has been re-elected for another two-year term. He recently received his department's humanitarian award for his service with the forum.

"There are many more issues that need to be brought to the attention of the administration and the legislature," Brink said. "As the Employee Forum chair, I will endeavor to keep those issues at the forefront of our leaders' attention.

"As a dedicated University employee, I am committed to improving the opportunities for education for all employees and to working hard to convince the administration that fair compensation and an affordable health benefits package are essential to morale and retention at the University."

Lewter or Patterson will replace Katherine Graves as vice chair.

Lewter has worked at the University for 23 years, all in the purchasing department where she is now the assistant purchasing director.

"My goal as vice chair would be to do anything and everything possible to make the University a place that we love to come to every day and do our jobs," Lewter said. "This includes better pay, health insurance that will cover our needs at a reasonable cost and an atmosphere that makes you feel like your contributions are appreciated.

"I feel that we all must stand up and fight for ourselves and the rights of others that work here so that at the end of the day we can feel that we have made a difference in the quality of life here at UNC-Chapel Hill."

Patterson has worked at the University for 29 years and currently manages the biology department's computer network and systems.

"I am running for UNC Employee Forum vice chair because I want to continue the work that the forum is doing to support UNC employees both within the University and across the state," Patterson said.

"I believe that the forum needs to become more active in representing the great job that both UNC and other state employees are doing for the full UNC system, the legislature and all the citizens of the state."

Prentice, who works in the School of Medicine, is the current secretary of the forum and running unopposed.

In other action, the forum completed the first reading of a resolution introduced by Ernie Patterson that calls on the state legislature to boost salaries for lower-paid employees.

Under the resolution, the state would grant all state employees a flat $2,500 pay raise. In addition, the state would offer a 2.5 percent raise for that part of an employee's salary that is above $50,000, up to a $7,500 ceiling.

The resolution also asks the state to fund incentive pay increases for employees with evaluations that are "good" or above who are in career banding or the regular state pay plan.

Finally, the resolution calls for the minimum hourly rate of pay to be raised to $12 an hour to ensure all state employees are paid a "living wage."

The resolution will be on the Dec. 1 agenda for a second reading.

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Veterans remembered,
a charge to serve issued

By Brian MacPherson
"Gazette" student assistant

A Frisbee sailed between two young men at one end of the Polk Place quad on Thursday afternoon. Students all around them hustled to and from classes, meetings and appointments, blissfully unconcerned with the tumultuous events taking place all around the world.

A NATION AT WAR REMEMBERS Members of Carolina's Army ROTC salute during the Veterans Day service on Nov. 11 in front of South Building. Retired Col. Sam Holiday, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, was guest speaker.

Unconcerned, that is, until a five-piece band softly began to play "Simple Gifts," and three columns of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) troops lined up in front of South Building for a Veterans Day ceremony to remember those who have allowed Americans to live in the peace they do.

In front of the three columns of Carolina ROTC students -- Navy in black, Army in green, Air Force in blue -- sat a group of men and women in both civilian and military dress who represented the millions of Americans who have served their country in combat.

U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Sam Holliday, the Nov. 11 ceremony's keynote speaker, called attention to the contributions made by soldiers throughout the history of the United States. "All of them loved their country," he said. "All of them were honorable. All of them were doing what they thought was right. And even though their actions were heroic, they thought what they were doing was ordinary."

He reminded the cadets and guests in attendance of the duties inherent in the warrior code and the divided loyalties this duty sometimes produces. "All of us belong to different groups and factions," he said, naming religion, politics and economics as loyalties that divide Americans. "The warrior culture requires that priority be given to your country."

Holliday also called upon the assembled cadets to serve their country with the strength, courage and valor of past generations. "We need warriors as dedicated as those in any of our previous wars," he said. "These are going to be our future warriors, and these are going to come from your generation."

He concluded his remarks with four pieces of advice for the next generation of military officer. "Be strong, be valiant, protect your nation and do good in God's eyes," he said.

Cadet Major William Krebs, the master of ceremonies, next read descriptions of the wars around the globe in which American troops have played a major role since 1900, and he encouraged veterans present to stand when their particular conflict was mentioned, beginning with World War I.

A handful of men stood at the naming of World War II, and several of those men remained standing when Krebs mentioned Korea. The largest group stood when Krebs described the American contribution to the war in Vietnam.

Holliday remained standing throughout the description of all three wars.

Krebs then listed the remaining wars in which Americans had fought -- Lebanon, Panama, Desert Storm, Somalia, Bosnia, Afganistan and Iraq.

Once those assembled had honored the veterans present, Krebs reminded them to remember those not present. He called the audience's attention to an empty pair of black boots standing on either side of a gun stuck in the ground, dog tags hanging from the gun's handle and a camouflaged helmet placed ceremonially atop it.

"As a nation, we must never forget their sacrifice," Krebs said.

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David Perry: a rock of stability
in a sea of change

The University's School of Medicine is a $650 million-a-year enterprise with more than 3,300 employees, which makes it roughly a third of the University anyway you cut it.

Perry

There are countless things that go on day in and day out to keep it in business.

The real work that takes place in the medical school happens with the faculty and the students -- out in the departments, the clinics and the classrooms.

But in order for them to have the resources they need to be able to do their jobs, budgets have to be prepared and followed. People have to be hired or promoted. Agreements with outside groups that sponsor research programs have to be developed. New buildings have to be built and old ones renovated.

None of these things have to do with the core mission of the institution. But without putting and keeping all of these systems and procedures and people in place, the core mission would fail.

Enter David Perry.

As executive associate dean for administration at the medical school the past 15 years, Perry has served with four different deans to make sure all this other stuff gets done, day in and day out.

His success in doing so has not escaped the notice of a small army of appreciative colleagues, including those who joined together to nominate him for a 2004 C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award.

John Melvin Anderson, chair of the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, wrote in his nominating letter that Perry is a good listener with a keen mind who follows his analyses with clear and concise recommendations. Never before had he had the privilege of working with anyone of Perry's "high intelligence, honesty, dedication and objectivity," Anderson wrote.

Throughout his tenure, Perry has been credited with helping to develop new programs, securing financial resources and managing difficult personnel issues. He has also been instrumental in setting up a number of collaborative programs between the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health, including the jointly sponsored Department of Nutrition.

Through changes in leadership and a continuous period of phenomenal growth, Perry has been the one constant, faithful and loyal face of stability amid uninterrupted change.

Small town, big dreams
Perry, at the age of 62, now looks back on his life and career with a sense of gratitude and awe.

Perry's father worked 42 years in a General Motors automobile parts plant in Anderson, Ind., and among his greatest aspirations was seeing his two sons and daughter go to college and reach for something better.

Perry, who was the oldest, became the first to realize that dream when he went to Indiana University in Bloomington in the fall of 1960.

As captain of his high school marching band, Perry hoped to continue his trombone playing for the college band, but the band couldn't use him. They already had enough trombone players. It was tuba players they needed.

No problem, Perry told the band director. He could learn to play tuba. And so that's what he did.

His sophomore year was highlighted by the arrival of a girl from Anderson who had been a year behind him in high school.

They struck up a relationship at the start of the year.

Before the start of his junior year they married, and by the end of it he was a father.

To make ends meet, Perry worked 30 to 35 hours a week in two part-time jobs, in addition to taking a full load of classes for which he sustained a four-point average. Looking back, he marvels that he was able to do it.

"It just goes to show that, if you are focused and have some goals in life, you can knuckle down and get things done."

He majored in political science with a minor in history, and the distant goal back in those days was to live a tranquil, contented life in academia.

Because there was a draft in the early Sixties, Perry decided join advanced ROTC his junior year -- a move that would commission him as an officer in the Army Reserves upon graduation and call for him to complete an active-duty obligation of two years.

After graduating with honors in 1964, Perry immediately entered graduate school and completed his master's degree in political science by 1966.

Perry began his pre-doctoral work, intending to speed through it in much the same way, but he ran into an unexpected obstacle.

"I couldn't bear the thought of sitting one more semester in a seminar of some kind," Perry said. "I had reached the outer limit of my ability to tolerate being in classes again."

And that looming two-year military obligation gave him the perfect excuse for taking a needed break.

What he didn't know, when he went on active duty in January of 1966, was that the hiatus would entail a one-year tour in the Republic of Vietnam.

When he arrived to Vietnam in summer of 1966 he was one of 200,000 American troops there. By the time he left the following summer, the number of troops exceeded 500,000 and was still climbing.

He served as an Army intelligence officer, briefing senior staff in headquarters in Saigon on analysis of battle information. On one occasion, he gave a report to Gen. William Westmoreland, who was then the commanding general of U.S. forces in Vietnam and "Time" magazine's "Man of the Year."

"For a person who was only 23 years old, that was a very formative period in my life," Perry said. "It was quite an experience and one that stayed with me the rest of my life. I figured if I could brief Gen. Westmoreland and survive it there wasn't much else I could run into trouble doing."

Coming of age
After finishing his remaining six months of active duty service at Fort Sheridan, Ill., Perry was ready to take on any challenge, even if it meant giving up the one of finishing his doctorate so he could become a college professor.

Somehow or other, that dream had lost its allure. Some of it might have had to do with his coming of age in Vietnam. Some of it might have had to do with his memories as a graduate student of having to read undergraduate essay papers on American foreign policy.

"The thought of spending my whole life doing that was more than I could bear," Perry said.

Thinking of what else he might do, he signed up at Indiana University's business school for job interviews with Ford Motor Company and other corporations. And it was here that he stumbled upon a recruiter from what was then called the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget), which was within the executive office of the president.

As an old political science major, the prospect of going to work at an executive office of the president of the United States piqued his interest.

He ended up going to Washington in spring of 1968 to be interviewed for not one but three different positions -- and getting offered all three.

He ended up working as a legislative analyst, and later as a budget examiner, in the Human Resources division.

It was while working as a budget examiner that Perry got to know a vice chairman of the Indiana University medical school who was in the first cohort of academics who had been brought to Washington under the Robert Wood Johnson Public Policy Fellows Program to get a better understanding of the public policy process.

The man's name was David Challoner, who in fall of 1974 called Perry to tell him that he had just accepted an appointment as dean of the medical school at Saint Louis University.

Challoner was 39 at the time, Perry only 32 and not yet at that set point in his life where he wanted to spend the rest of his career working for the federal government.

Perry accepted the offer and would end up spending the next 14 years at Saint Louis University, seven years longer than Challoner.

'Bureaucratic midwife'
Perry had applied for the job at Carolina once before in the early 1980s, but ended up as the runner-up candidate. When he was contacted about the opening for the same job 1989, he initially refused to consider it until the dean of the medical school, Stuart Bondurant, and Eric Munson, CEO of the hospital, turned up the heat.

Come down and take a second look, they told him. And when they offered him the job a short time later, he found himself unable to say no. "What happened to me is what happens to so many who come to Carolina -- you take a look and you get the bug real quick."

He arrived in May of 1989 and plans to stay until he retires.

"I have to say I've been extraordinarily fortunate in my career, from beginning to end, to have the opportunity to work with some really stellar people. I've learned from them. I've been able to contribute, I hope, to their success, but I've learned a lot from them starting with my days with the Office of Management and Budget. I was mentored by really good people who knew their stuff and who instilled in me a commitment to high quality work, thoughtful analysis and getting work done on time."

When he went to Saint Louis, he discovered that many of the tricks of the trade in Washington had parallel applications in the academic milieu as well. Maybe the most important one was what Perry calls the "small p" politics that is part of the fabric of life in a large, complicated organization with diffused authority and power.

Because of the range of experience he has had throughout his career, Perry has been called upon to get involved with matters outside his former sphere of responsibilities.

It is through these assignments that he has acted primarily as a bridge builder, forging links between the medical school and the schools of dentistry, nursing and public health, and with departments within the College of Arts and Sciences such as physics, biology, chemistry and math.

There are always new challenges, and that for Perry is what continues to make the job so much fun.

But the deep satisfaction comes from the quality of the people, the worthiness of the mission and what Perry called the culture of Carolina. There is an ease with which collaboration can take place across disciplinary boundaries here, Perry said, and the medical school's location on campus is only a part of the reason why.

"There seems to be a conscious desire on the part of leadership across the campus to collaborate and to be supportive of one another and to share resources and to recognize that the path to success is not me having a bigger pie and you having a smaller pie, but having the whole pie get bigger so that we can all benefit from it."

In 15 years of service, Perry was instrumental in the establishment of seven new departments (emergency medicine, biomedical engineering, nutrition, orthopaedics, genetics, otolaryngology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation) and seven new centers (the Cystic Fibrosis Center, Gene Therapy Center, Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center, Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center, Center for Infectious Diseases, Carolina Center for Genome Sciences and Center for Maternal and Infant Health).

In addition to helping ensure smooth transitions of leadership across four deans of the school, Perry has helped to recruit at least one new chair for each of the school's 27 departments, initiated career development training for their administrators and recruited directors for most of the school's 16 established centers.

It is this connection that Perry feels with the whole campus that makes winning a Massey so meaningful to him, he said.

"Needless to say when the chancellor called me to tell me I was one of the awardees it was one of the greatest days of my life. It was an affirmation for me of what I've been trying to do here. I couldn't have been happier."

In his Massey citation, co-workers described him as "accessible, responsive, thoughtful, diplomatic, knowledgeable, sensitive and firm," and "one of the best things we have going for us in the School of Medicine."

But winning a Massey for Perry is something that was both exhilarating and different.

"To be really happy and ultimately successful in a job like this, your personality has to be one in which you don't necessarily crave the limelight yourself," Perry said. "This is the kind of job that allows you to go home at the end of the day and sleep well at night happy and content that you did something that contributed to somebody else's ability to be successful."

Most days, the satisfaction comes in helping in some small way for somebody else to get that grant, or publish that paper, or teach that class, or care for that patient in the clinic.

He sees himself, at times, as a sort of bureaucratic midwife, clearing away some obstacles that get in the way of faculty members being able to do their best work.

"I've felt very well rewarded, not just in having a good job and a comfortable living, but more importantly, in feeling I was making a contribution to something in society that was bigger and better than myself."

Editor's note: This story is the fifth in a series featuring 2004 winners of the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award. The late C. Knox Massey of Durham created the awards in 1980 to recognize "unusual, meritorious or superior contributions" by University employees. The award is supported by the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund created by three generations of Massey and Weatherspoon families. Chancellor James Moeser selected the honorees from nominations submitted by the campus. They each received an award citation and $6,000 stipend.

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Tell us what made your holidays memorable

Call it "The Good, the Sad and the Ugly: the Sequel." Last December, the "Gazette" featured holiday reminiscences submitted by faculty and staff. We enjoyed reading them so much that we're going to do it again this year.

Send us your most enduring memories of your celebration of the season, and we'll share selected ones in our Dec. 15 issue.

As a special treat for University employees, Margaret Skinner, marketing director at the Carolina Inn, has made the generous offer of two sets of dinner-for-two at the inn -- each valued at $80 -- that could be enjoyed during the Twelve Days of Christmas Celebration. Everyone who submits a memory will be included in a drawing for the meals, and we'll publish the names of the winners on Dec. 15, too.

Send your anecdotes of no more than 150 words to Gazette, CB# 6205, or e-mail gazette@unc.edu. Entries must be received by Dec. 6. The "Gazette" staff reserves the right to edit all entries for style and length.

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HR introduces new, online application form

A new online job application tool debuting after Thanksgiving will simplify the process of applying for SPA positions for both internal and external job seekers.

The new tool, called ApplicantWeb, will be introduced on the Office of Human Resources web site (hr.unc.edu) on Nov. 29. After that date, all applicants for SPA positions will need to apply using ApplicantWeb, instead of submitting applications via e-mail, U.S. mail or in person.

STREAMLINING THE APPLICATION PROCESS Janice Burton (left), processing assistant in Human Resources, gives the ApplicantWeb job application software a whirl while Connie Boyce observes. Boyce is a generalist team leader for Human Resources.

The greatest benefit of ApplicantWeb is that it saves the applicant's information for future use, said Lou Ann Phillips, director of Workforce Planning and Compensation.

"With paper applications, applicants have to make copies and recreate the applications over and over for each job they wish to apply for," Phillips said. "ApplicantWeb lets you enter your information once and then saves that information to use in applying for future positions. You can also update and tailor your information for specific positions."

ApplicantWeb is accessible from computers with an Internet connection. To assist those without computer access, the Workforce Planning and Compensation Department in Human Resources has installed four computer kiosks in their office at 104 Airport Drive, Suite 1100. A list of public-access computers also will be available in the Workforce Planning and Compensation office and online after ApplicantWeb is introduced. University employees can access ApplicantWeb from ITS computer labs on campus.

The current online job search process will remain the same, with one exception. Each individual job listing will contain an "Apply Now" button that will take the user directly into ApplicantWeb. This will eliminate the need to fax or e-mail completed applications.

ApplicantWeb has seven steps for applicants to enter all the information currently on the hard-copy application, including personal contact information, employment and work history, and optional Equal Employment Opportunity information. Optional skill sheets for specific position attributes are available, and the system allows applicants to include a resume and/or cover letter.

Applicants will log in to the system with a unique username and password. Current University employees can choose to log in with their Onyen. Users who include an e-mail address will receive automated responses, including confirmation that the application has been received.

The tool will also allow applicants to see the current status of the positions they've applied for through ApplicantWeb -- open, closed, canceled or filled. This information is available for six months after the position is filled or canceled. A future version of ApplicantWeb, set for introduction in 2005, will allow applicants to see if their application was referred to the hiring department.

Assistance with the new process and the online tool will be available at the kiosks in Human Resources and by phone during regular office hours.

"We believe that ApplicantWeb will make the application process much easier for everyone interested in a new job at Carolina," Phillips said. "Our job is to make the transition as seamless as possible for everyone."

All applications submitted prior to Nov. 29 will not be affected by the new process and will continue to receive full consideration.

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Gift completes $1.6 million endowment for Latin American studies

A $600,000 gift to the University from alumnus and former U.S. Ambassador Anthony S. Harrington and his wife, Hope, completes a $1.6 million endowment fund to support the Institute of Latin American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

THINKING, TEACHING AND BUILDING GLOBALLY The groundbreaking for the Global Education Center is cause for celebration on Nov. 12 as participants gather for a photo with the worldly refreshments. They are: Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; James Moeser, chancellor; Molly Corbett Broad, UNC president; Peter Coclanis, associate provost for International Affairs and director of the University Center for International Studies; and Richard "Stick" Williams, chair of the Board of Trustees. The $800,000 gift to the Institute of Latin American Studies -- one of several units to be housed in the $38.5 million center -- was announced at the groundbreaking. The building will be located at the corner of McCauley and Pittsboro streets.

The endowment fund was launched in 2001 at an $800,000 endowment challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. With $200,000 committed from other donors, fund raising for the challenge grant is complete.

The Harrington gift will be matched dollar for dollar by the Mellon Foundation to establish a visiting professorship and study abroad scholarships.

Each year, the Anthony Harrington Distinguished Visiting Professorship will bring an eminent scholar to the University from Latin America to conduct collaborative research with Carolina faculty and to teach undergraduate and graduate courses.

Harrington, U.S. ambassador to Brazil during the Clinton administration, has established the professorship in honor of statesman and personal friend, former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Because of Harrington's close ties with the country, the Harrington Visiting Professor will come from Brazil every third year.

"In our increasingly interconnected world, the United States has generally suffered an attention deficit within our own hemisphere," Harrington said. "Having had the privilege of representing our country in Brazil, Hope and I were attracted to this opportunity to enhance exchange and understanding by helping to bring distinguished scholars from Latin America to Chapel Hill and send students to study there."

The Anthony and Hope Harrington Study Abroad Scholarship will provide four undergraduate scholarships each year for students who wish to participate in a summer, semester or yearlong study abroad program in Latin America. The Harringtons established the study abroad scholarship to honor Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, a distinguished scholar who taught at the University in 1974 and 1975. Lagos received an honorary degree from Carolina in 2001.

"Anthony and Hope Harrington's generous gift was instrumental to the success of our Mellon matching campaign," said Arturo Escobar, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies and Kenan distinguished professor of anthropology. "The Harrington Visiting Professor and Harrington Scholars will allow our program to grow significantly by adding to the vibrant scholarship and study of Latin America that our institute has provide to the University community for over 60 years."

Harrington served as U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 1999 to 2001. He went with a mandate from President Clinton to upgrade U.S.-Brazil relations. In recognition of Ambassador Harrington's work, the Government of Brazil conferred on him the Order of Rio Branco, Grand Cross.

Currently, Harrington is the president of Stonebridge International LLC in Washington, D.C. A native of Taylorsville, Harrington and his wife now live in Easton, Md. Their two sons also are alumni of Carolina. Harrrington is presently chair of the UNC General Alumni Association and member of the University's Advisory Board for International and Area Studies.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has supported Latin American studies at Carolina for more than a decade. Two previous endowment challenge grants in 1990 and 1994 were collaborative grants for the Carolina-Duke Consortium in Latin American Studies. The current $800,000 challenge endowment is the foundation's largest for Carolina's Institute of Latin American Studies. In addition to the visiting professorship and study abroad fund established by the Harringtons, several other new funds have been created to support the study of Latin America. Of special note is the Federico Gil Fund, named in honor of the institute's beloved founding director, under whose leadership the institute developed into a major center of scholarship and teaching on Latin America.

In addition to the Mellon match, the College of Arts and Sciences intends to apply for a matching grant of $334,000 from the N.C. Distinguished Professorship Endowment Fund. State legislators created the fund in 1985 as a way to help attract and retain outstanding UNC system faculty members.

The Harrington gift counts toward the University's Carolina First campaign goal of $1.8 billion. Carolina First is a multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina's vision of becoming the nation's leading public university.

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Wood studies abuse in relationships

For Julia Wood, a professor of communication studies, her route to the Albemarle Correctional Institution began with her students at Carolina.

In her 29 years on faculty at the University, Wood has included discussions on intimate-partner violence in her courses on personal relationships. And over the past decade or so, Wood has noticed more and more students nodding their heads in interest and familiarity during these discussions; more and more students asking questions during class; and more and more students dropping by her office to talk about violence in the lives of their friends, their parents and themselves.

RESEARCHING VIOLENCE AGAINST PARTNERS Concern for her students at Carolina drove Julia Wood, professor of communication studies, to interview 22 male prisoners who abused or killed their partners. Here she is shown in a conference with teaching assistants.

"I don't know whether the incidents of abuse actually increased over the years, or whether there was a greater awareness," Wood said. "But it became very clear to me that we needed to be doing something about it (abuse)."

For Wood, doing something first meant interviewing 20 victims of intimate partner violence, all women, in order to understand how they made sense of abusive relationships. But this addresses only the victims' point of views.

So Wood went to the Albemarle Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison in Badin, and interviewed 22 men who admitted to abusing or killing their partners. The study was published in the October 2004 issue of the "Journal of Social and Personal Relationships."

Technology Transfer Update The Office of Technology Development helps Carolina faculty, students and staff develop and commercialize patentable inventions resulting from their research. Over the months of September and October, the University executed two license agreements and had four U.S. patents issued. A patent is a legal document granting inventors the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using or selling an invention for a number of years. A license agreement is a written contract granting permission for a person or company to use an invention under certain terms. For more information about OTD, go to: research.unc.edu/otd.

The men's stories, Wood said, provide insight into why men abuse their partners and how it might be decreased.

All the men she interviewed, Wood said, lacked the cognitive skills necessary to think through their options before committing acts of violence.

"Many of these men have never been taught how to think through their options," Wood said. "I didn't believe that thinking through options was a skill. But, by golly, it is."

Environmental conditioning, or their upbringing, also influenced the way men defined manhood, Wood said. All the men said they believed they had a right to control their partners because men are dominant and superior to women, Wood said.

A 23-year-old inmate, for example, told Wood: "A woman's kind of like a dog. You got to break `em. A dog don't do right, you beat it `til it do what you say."

These findings, Wood said, have implications for intimate-partner violence behavioral treatment programs. Traditionally, treatment programs have been empathy-based, "trying to get (the abusers) to understand what a woman feels like when you beat her up," she said. "But if you're trying to make a woman feel bad because she has made you angry, that's not necessarily going to stop you."

Instead, Wood said, treatment programs should move into greater practice. The STOP program, the only treatment program offered in a state prison in North Carolina at the time Wood conducted the interviews, worked with men to redefine manhood and, as the STOP acronym suggests, develop the skills to Survey the situation, Think about consequences, consider Options to violence and Prevent violence.

All the men Wood interviewed completed the 20-week STOP course after she interviewed them. Then, Wood visited the men again and witnessed "genuine changes." She watched, for example, as one man who knifed his partner applied what he learned in STOP to an incident on the prison's yard, where he broke up an argument between two inmates, telling them to think about the consequences of fighting. "Do you really want solitary confinement?" he asked. They stopped arguing and shook hands.

Wood acknowledged such examples may be fleeting moments. Nonetheless, the interviews with the men, Wood said, gave her hope.

"Almost all of the men I talked to were really torn about what they had done to their partners," Wood said. "They knew what they did was wrong because they had also heard about the code of chivalry that is part of manhood. That means there's already something there that we can work with."

Since Wood conducted her interviews in the summer of 2001, the STOP program has been suspended due to a lack of funding.

"We make a serious mistake if we look at abuse as an individual problem; it's a cultural phenomenon," Wood said. "But we don't start talking about violence and why it's wrong until maybe late high school -- maybe late high school.

"We've got to start getting this woven into people's awareness at a much earlier age, because I don't want it to happen to my daughter or my son or my best friend. I don't want it to happen to a student in my class," she said.

Provided by Research and Economic Development
Writer: Cherry Crayton
Editor: Neil Caudle

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Odum Institute to help save
'lost' information

In the digital age, much of the country's history found in polls and surveys is erased in the blink of a cursor, but efforts are under way to preserve America's past.

The University's Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science is a part of those efforts.

The Library of Congress recently awarded a three-year grant to the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Odum Institute and four other institutions to collaborate on a national project to archive digital poll and survey data, which are often lost after publication. The total award, including cost sharing, is $4.1 million.

Data to be archived include opinion polls, voting records and surveys from the social sciences. The project is an outgrowth of the Library of Congress' mandate to create a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.

"We have a real problem with the way digital data are being treated," said Ken Bollen, director of the Odum Institute. "People often see it as less valuable than books; they're less concerned with it."

Many cases exist in which information is left behind. America's unprecedented growth after World War II was accompanied by the rise of private organizations that dealt in the production and analysis of data. However, these private organizations perform much of their work under contract with agencies that may not require that the data be archived, Odum Institute officials said.

For example, Bollen said that after Sept. 11, 2001, one firm polled nationally to compare contemporary American attitudes to those prevalent after another American tragedy, the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The firm had difficulty finding the digital data of the 1963 poll, which contained Americans' responses to their earlier questionnaire, he said. It eventually was located in a warehouse.

Besides Carolina, other partners working with the University of Michigan in the data retention project are University of Connecticut's Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute's Henry A. Murray Research Center, the National Archives and Records Administration and the Harvard-MIT Data Center.

Each institution will share responsibility for preserving different at-risk information sources that are of national historical or cultural value. In its role as a partner, the Odum Institute will focus on the following components: securing digital data from "classic" social-science studies, gathering information from private social science research organizations (such as RTI International in Research Triangle Park), archiving Harris Poll data and cataloging state polls from across the nation.

The project is in its initial stages, Bollen said. Faced with a lot of information and limited time, he added, the Odum Institute will need to prioritize data and decide what is the most important information to be saved. Data collected by the Odum Institute will be stored in Chapel Hill.

"We will be the primary holder of that, but we will readily share it with other institutions," Bollen said.

The Odum Institute maintains the country's third-largest archive of computer-readable social-science data. Bollen said the Odum Institute hopes the institutions' work will change the way future generations review history.

"The representativeness of our samples and the types of data we've collected in the past 20 or 30 years are unlike any other," said Bollen. "Could you imagine if we had representative samples and good survey data from the Roman Empire or from the Russian revolutionary period?

"Our goal is to help to preserve this type of information about our contemporary era for future generations."

Founded by Howard W. Odum in 1924 "for the cooperative study of problems in the general field of social science," the Odum Institute was the nation's first multidisciplinary social science research institute based at a university.

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Evans professorship honors Jewish leaders

The Crown family of Chicago has pledged a gift to establish an endowed professorship at Carolina in honor of the late Sara and E.J. Evans of Durham, longtime leaders of civic and Jewish causes.

The Sara and E.J. Evans Distinguished Professorship, based in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Political Science, will enhance the University's study of Israel and the Middle East in conjunction with the work of the new Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. The interdisciplinary center, established last year in the college, offers an undergraduate minor in Jewish studies. Its faculty experts engage in teaching, research and special programs to enhance public understanding of Jewish history, culture and religion in the United States and abroad.

The Evans professor, who will be chosen in a competitive search process, will also contribute to the work of the new interdisciplinary Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations.

Lester Crown, chair of Henry Crown and Company, serves on the boards of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He is actively involved in the American Jewish Committee and The Jewish Federation of Chicago.

Susan Crown, president of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial, also is vice president of Henry Crown and Company, founder and board member of The Covenant Foundation and chair of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

Sara Crown Star, a 1982 graduate of the University, serves as a trustee of the Crown Memorial, governor of the Hebrew Union College Board of Governors and advisory board member of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.

"The Sara and E.J. Evans Distinguished Professorship honors a 50-year friendship between the Crown family and one of the extraordinary Jewish families in North Carolina history," said Sara Crown Star. "The Evans' contributions to the Jewish and civic culture of their city and state, the University and the nation have been legendary. In particular, we are thrilled to be able to honor the passion the Evans family has to support the furtherance of Jewish education at UNC-Chapel Hill."

E.J. Evans, owner of Evans United Department Stores, was mayor of Durham from1951 to 1963 and played a nationally recognized leadership role in improving race relations in the city. Bringing together groups in the community to work together, he helped Durham eventually to desegregate its public accommodations, city agencies and schools. He also gave his time and energy to Jewish affairs, serving at least a decade in each of the following roles: president of the Beth El congregation in Durham, chair of the statewide Bonds for Israel campaign and president of the statewide United Jewish Appeal.

Originally from Fayetteville, Evans graduated from Carolina, where he was active in campus affairs and was a member of the basketball and track teams, in 1928. He later was president of the University's General Alumni Association and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1972.

Sara Nachamson Evans also was a leader in the Jewish community locally, regionally and nationally. She served on the national board of Hadassah for more than 45 years, and she spoke all across the South on its behalf. Her mother Jennie Nachamson founded the first Hadassah chapter in the South in 1919.

The Evans' sons, Eli and Bob, are also University alumni. Bob Evans, who was a special assistant to CBS news legend Edward R. Murrow, is a former CBS bureau chief who covered the South from Atlanta and the Soviet Union in Moscow.

Eli Evans, the former president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation in New York City, is an author of three books on Jews in the South and chairs the advisory board for the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.

"Our family is deeply grateful to our old friends, who now span two generations of the Crown family, for this generous gift that enables our parents' memory to be associated with Jewish studies at our Dad's beloved alma mater," said Eli Evans.

Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said, "We are most grateful to the Crowns for their generous gift and to the Evans family for their extraordinary service to the University and to Jewish and civic affairs over several generations. The Evans professorship will further strengthen our faculty expertise and outreach programs in Jewish studies, advancing our goal of making Carolina a national leader in the field."

The Crown gift counts toward the University's Carolina First campaign goal of $1.8 billion. Carolina First is a multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina's vision of becoming the nation's leading public university.

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Time out! Creating time for our top priorities

One mark of a healthy lifestyle is effective and appropriate management of time. We all periodically feel there aren't enough hours in the day to fit in everything we have to do -- whether it's work, personal or family obligations. However, if you find yourself constantly running from one thing to the next, your quality of life and your health can be adversely affected.

Feeling that we don't have enough hours in the day is all too common, but we all have the same amount of time, and no more. A key component to structuring your life in a healthy way comes from within -- making choices, saying "no," and prioritizing what needs to get done. Granted, we don't control every second of our time, since various obligations pull us in different directions. However, you may have more control over your schedule than you think. Take a look at the following items to see if any areas ring true for you.

Take a close look at your beliefs and attitudes about time. Is time your enemy, making you rush from one event to another? Or do you see time as a gift, allowing you to experience life to the fullest? Try to think of time as a gift to you and consider areas in your life where you're able to see it as such.

It's impossible to "do it all." It's essential that you recognize this when you can't accomplish everything you set out to do in a given period. Try taking a deep breath and putting your busy schedule in perspective.

Creating time for your top priorities means saying "no" to other things. It's up to you to decide what you do and do not have time for. If you allow time to be taken up by things that aren't on your priority list, you can cultivate feelings of bitterness, anxiety and futility. Decide what your top priorities are, allot appropriate amounts of time to them and move other things to the end of the week or month. If everything is a priority, a course in prioritization may be in order.

Effectively managing your time is not about fitting more things into a given period but about allotting appropriate amounts of time for each activity. After setting priorities and realizing you can't do everything, you're more likely to incorporate reasonable amounts of activity into the day and allow appropriate amounts of time for those activities.

There will always be certain times in life when you're fighting the clock -- meeting a deadline, working on a special project or planning a special event. However, if that has become a routine that you don't like, it might be helpful to take an "adult timeout" and work on creating time for your top priorities.

Live well!

For more information about healthy time management skills or to suggest topics for future installments of Carolina Wellness matters, contact Holly Tiemann, Training and Development, 962-9682, holly_tiemann@unc.edu.

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Application forms revised for Tuition Waiver Program

The Office of Human Resources has created a new application for the Tuition Waiver Program. The new form replaces the two different forms that had been used previously: one for study at Carolina and one for study at other UNC system institutions. The new form can be used for study at any UNC system university and can be downloaded from the HR web site.

Permanent UNC employees working at least three-quarter time are eligible to participate in this program. Employees may have tuition waived for one course per term (up to two classes per academic year) for the fall and spring semesters. Carolina employees who are studying at Carolina may elect to apply one tuition waiver per academic year to summer school courses at the University. However, employees are still restricted to a maximum to two tuition waivers per academic year. Tuition waiver can be used for only one summer session, not both.

Tuition waiver may be applied to regular undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, online courses and independent studies courses. This includes enrollment through Continuing Education.

Employees must reapply for tuition waiver each term. The deadline for submitting a tuition waiver form for the Spring 2005 semester at Carolina is Jan. 19, 2005. Other deadlines may apply for different UNC system campuses. Forms must be submitted to the Benefit Program Administration Office, Suite 1700, 104 Airport Drive, CB# 1045.

For more information, visit the HR web site at hr.unc.edu. Under the A-to-Z index, go to "Tuition Waiver Program."

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Employee Services highlights one Star Heels winner per month who exemplifies the spirit of the award -- the spirit of teamwork and dedication that these winners all exhibit.

Cheryl Gerringer
Cell and Molecular Physiology

On Nov. 9, the administrative staff of the Cell & Molecular Physiology department gathered for an informal lunch in the office. Everyone was enjoying the break together because it is a rare occasion due to the staff's busy schedule. Little did Cheryl Gerringer know that she was reason for this gathering: the department's presentation to her of their Star Heels Award.

According to her award's nominating materials, "It quickly became apparent when Cheryl joined us that she is highly motivated and has outstanding work ethics." Gerringer was pleased when her manager presented the award and took it home that evening to share with her family.

Gerringer developed her strong work ethic while working as a U.S. Postal employee for 15 years. During that time, she also worked hard to earn her degree in accounting from Elon University and put that degree to use with her first position at Carolina in 2002.

Today Gerringer is employed with the Cell & Molecular Physiology department as an accounting technician.

"I love my department," she declared, after having joined the team in January. In her position she is responsible for grant management and will soon be taking on additional duties, a learning opportunity she is looking forward to. "My department has given me the opportunity to learn and expand and I'm very thankful for this" she stated.

We congratulate Cheryl as a shining example of a UNC Star Heel. Keep up the excellent work.

The following employees also have received recognition as Star Heels:

Donna Braxton, Physics & Astronomy

Daniel Cloud, Academic Advising

David Holmes, AHEC-Community Medical Care

Lou Anne Phelps, Graduate School

Mary Beth Powell, Urban Studies

Phillip Thompson, Physics and Astronomy

Editor's Note: The Star Heels Award Program is generously sponsored by TIAA-CREF. Winners receive an award letter and a $25 gift certificate from one of four area vendors. For more information on the Star Heels program, call Employee Services at 962-1483.