Carolina First
Dykstra honored as outstanding woman researcher\
Latest development plan modification presented to the Town of Chapel Hill
Alumni Jim Phillips elected chair of Board of Governors
Carolina North committee sets to work on principles
Employee Forum: Delegates discuss state budget, endorse internship program
Scholarships, new clinic mark Carolina for Kibera’s fifth anniversary
RENCI taps Knowles to serve as economic development director
Four UNC librarians lead professional groups
UNC hosts African American researchers
Journey to Middle East provides unique perspective for administrator

FYI Research: Study finds sleeping patterns may relieve ‘transformed migraine’ pain
What ITS About: ITS working on classroom renovations, upgrades
Reverse auction initiative process in place for campus
@ Your Library: Help available for reference management software
Online library access procedure improves
Learn IT @ unc.edu: ‘Word 2000: Advanced’ is featured course for CBT

Carolina First

Gift of the Month: June 2006

Gift: $250,000

Donor: Luther H. Hodges

Purpose:  Carolina Performing Arts Series

Luther Hodges Jr. of Chapel Hill has committed $250,000 to the Carolina Performing Arts Society Endowment Fund in the form of an irrevocable trust. He has given more than $2.2 million to the Carolina First Campaign. The portico in Memorial Hall will be named in honor of Hodges, his wife, Cheray Zauderer Hodges, and his father, Luther Hodges Sr., former governor of North Carolina.

Quick Stats:

 Goal: $2 billion

 Raised: (as of June 30): 89 percent - $1.79 billion

 Amount of campaign complete: 82 percent

 Amount raised in June: $44.2 million

 Campaign runs through: Dec. 31, 2007

 More information:  carolinafirst.unc.edu

Dykstra honored as outstanding woman researcher

Linda Dykstra, dean of the Graduate School, recently received the 2006 Marian W. Fischman Lectureship Award honoring contributions of an outstanding woman scientist in drug abuse research.

Dykstra

The award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence was given June 21 at its annual scientific meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. Dykstra, a William Rand Kenan Distinguished Professor in psychology and pharmacology at UNC, gave the meeting’s keynote lecture on Monday and received a monetary award. She is a past president of the college and won its mentorship award last year.

The country’s oldest group addressing problems of drug dependence and abuse, the college is a collaborating center of the World Health Organization. It serves as an interface among governmental, industrial and academic communities — maintaining liaisons with regulatory and research agencies and with educational, treatment and prevention facilities in the drug abuse field.

The college’s annual scientific meeting brings together scientists and clinical investigators from industry, academia and government.

Dykstra’s work focuses on the behavioral pharmacology of opioid analgesics in relation to their pain-relieving properties, as well as their tendency to produce tolerance and dependence.

A more recent research interest is the investigation of behavioral phenotypes related to substance abuse.

Dykstra has received continual support for her research since 1977 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The institute has honored her with its Research Career Development, Research Scientist and MERIT awards. The latter — Method to Extend Research in Time — gives outstanding researchers up to 10 years to focus on institute research without administrative burdens.

Dykstra has been the major research adviser for numerous UNC predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows. For the last 16 years, she has directed a training program in drug abuse research that is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

She also directs a program designed to encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue doctoral training in the biomedical sciences.

In 2006-07, she will chair the N.C. Association of Biomedical Research and serve as president of the Association of Graduate Schools, a part of the American Association of Universities.

Latest development plan modification presented to the Town of Chapel Hill

Finding room for more rooms at the Carolina Inn is among the list of projects that the University submitted for approval to the Town of Chapel Hill last month.

The additional space for the inn would come from the renovation of Whitehead Hall, currently a residence hall for about 100 students that sits beside the inn at the corner of South Columbia and McCauley streets.

Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for Facilities Planning and Construction, has said the renovation of Whitehead would net 15,000 square feet for an undetermined number of new guest suites.

The Carolina Inn expansion is among a host of projects contained within the third modification request to the University’s development plan.

Town officials got a first look at most of the projects listed in the modification request this spring when the University presented a “concept plan” previewing the formal modification request submitted in June.

The Carolina Inn expansion was one of three projects added in the intervening period. Changing the location of a chiller building and allowing mechanical equipment under a peaked roof in the Arts Commons were the other two changes.

All together, the projects forwarded in the modification request represent more than $600 million worth of new construction that will produce a net increase of some 1 million square feet of building space beyond the previously approved 6 million square feet.

A number of changes deal with the location of parking spaces around campus.

Under the modified plan, a three-level addition to the existing Craige deck on Manning Drive would replace the 890 spaces that would be eliminated from the parking deck in the Bell Tower lot.

The 1,600 spaces previously approved for the Bell Tower parking deck would be reduced to 710 spaces in order to create an appropriate scale of development in balance with the open space around it.

The smaller Bell Tower parking deck would allow for a new academic building of 80,000 square feet to be built by the deck in addition to the three research buildings for genomics and the pedestrian bridge across South Road already approved as part of the Bell Tower development.

A new two-level parking deck on Skipper Bowles Drive would add 230 parking spaces and feature tennis courts on the top level connected to the new Rams Village apartments.

Other projects include:

 A new 180,000 square-foot medical office building on North Medical Drive.

 A new 175,000 square-feet of space for the new building for the School of Dentistry. It had previously been approved at 84,990 square feet.

 A new building for the Department of Psychology to be built on the site of Davie Hall, which would be demolished.

 A new 125,000 square-foot building for the School of Information and Library Sciences on the south side of Blythe Drive to accommodate the school’s growing programs.

 UNC Imaging Center building connected to the Lineberger Cancer Center.

 A three-building office and storage complex to create a permanent home for the Grounds Department located behind the UNC Hospitals parking decks.

 A water tank west, south of the Manning Steam Plant, that would use reclaimed water on campus as part of a joint effort with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority.

 An 8,804-seat addition and improvements at Kenan Stadium, including a new pedestrian connection to Rams Head Plaza.

 Renovation of Boshamer Stadium, including additional seating, concessions and toilets, a new batting tunnel, and field, lighting and landscape improvements.

 A 12,000 square-foot addition to the Alumni Center.

The development plan, which is tied directly to the campus master plan, is the planning instrument by which the town oversees all campus construction projects.

The plan operates under special zoning classification that the University sought in tandem with the development plan.

When the University seeks a modification to the plan, it asks the town to approve in one fell swoop the general characteristics of a list of new projects before they are designed.

As design work is completed for each project, the University brings the project to the town again for a final site development permit.

Since the development plan was approved in October 2001, such modifications have been approved in summer 2003 and in March 2004.

Alumni Jim Phillips elected chair of Board of Governors

Greensboro attorney Jim Phillips was elected last month to a two-year term as chair of the UNC Board of Governors, the policy-making body of the 16-campus University of North Carolina.

A 1979 graduate of Carolina, where he was elected student body president, Phillips earned his law degree with highest honors from Wake Forest University School of Law, serving as editor in chief of the Law Review. A former legislative counsel to then Governor James B. Hunt Jr., (1993-94, 1996), he now specializes in complex business and commercial litigation.

A partner in the Greensboro law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, Phillips was first elected to the Board of Governors in 1997. A current member of the board’s Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs, he previously served on the Committee on University Governance and was twice elected chair of the Committee on Budget and Finance.

Phillips has also been tapped to chair numerous special and ad hoc board committees, including the Task Force on Best Financial Practices, the Special Committee Reviewing the Funding Model for Enrollment Growth, the Public Affairs Committee and the Committee on Committees. He has also served on the Board’s Tuition Policy Task Force, the Presidential Search Committee, and the Tuition and Fees Policy Committee.

Carolina North committee sets to work on principles

Town resolution asks for consultant
to help with long-range transit plan

Members of the Carolina North Leadership Advisory Committee made progress reviewing guiding principles at their July 6 meeting, but at the end were reminded of a salient point by University Trustee Roger Perry.

Even though UNC officials have consistently warned against getting bogged down in minutiae and have urged the committee to focus instead on broader concepts, Perry said looking at details of the plan may be useful as well, because that is where the most devilish and perplexing issues tend to lurk.

It is easy, for instance, to agree in principle that a heavy reliance on mass transit is the preferred method of transportation for the site and that the use of personal cars should be limited.

But the question is how far those limits should go, and if they go too far, how it could hamper the ability of Carolina North to be all that it was envisioned to be.

Holden Thorp, chair of the chemistry department and a member of the committee, cautioned against restrictions to car use that would be so severe as to hamper the ability of Carolina North to attract the top-notch research scientists that will be integral not only to its success, but to the University itself.

Committee members delved into the area of a new school. There has already been discussion about the possibility of the University donating a site for a new school at a location that school officials have said would be ideal.

There has also been interest expressed by the University in locating First School, a partnership between the Frank Porter Graham Child Development  Institute and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro public schools, to Carolina North.

But when some on the committee suggested that the University might consider helping pay the construction costs for a new school, Etta Pisano, a radiology and biomedical engineering professor, balked at the thought of it.

Donating land has precedent, Pisano said, while asking a public university to pay for construction costs of a public school may be overreaching.

One detail that Chancellor James Moeser took off the table last month is 17,000 parking spaces listed in the University’s 2003 concept plan for Carolina North. Even as he did so, however, Moeser cautioned that the use of mass transit by current University and UNC Hospitals employees remains problematic, with more than 70 percent of them living outside the Chapel Hill Transit service area.

Chapel Hill Town Council Member Cam Hill passed out the resolution that the town council approved June 26 calling for a request for proposal to hire a private firm to develop a long-range transit plan that would serve the University and towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The resolution also called for establishing a transit study committee to select a consultant and oversee the preparation of the plan.

Committee members, however, spent most of the two hours of the July meeting going over a 21-page document put together by committee facilitator Ken Broun that synthesized the guiding principles for Carolina North compiled by the Horace Williams Citizens Committee, the group appointed by the town of Chapel Hill; the University; the town of Carrboro; the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce and Orange County.

Some discussion focused on semantics — the replacement of the word “recurring” for the word “occurring,” for instance — and the question of what exactly the Horace Williams Citizens Committee meant when it said that growth should occur in such a way as to allow the town to retain its “charm.”

When asked what charm meant, Hill quipped, “It’s a technical term.” He added, “We know it when we see it.” Similarly, University officials were pressed to explain exactly what they meant when they talked about buildings maintaining a “human scale.”

The question eventually turned into a discussion of how tall buildings should be, with some committee members suggesting that taller buildings would be more acceptable in the interior of Carolina North, where they were out of view of surrounding neighborhoods, as a way of lessening the footprint of development and leaving more land in a natural state.

The advisory committee is a group of University and community leaders that Moeser appointed to outline guiding principles for the project and provide community input.

University trustees passed a resolution in May calling for the committee to complete its work in time for a report to be presented to them at their March 2007 meeting.

The July 6 meeting will be broadcast on July 20 and  July 27 from 9 to 11 a.m. on Time Warner Cable channel 4 (in Chapel Hill). Also, the meeting can be viewed anytime on the Carolina North website at research.unc.edu/cn/latest.php.

The sixth meeting of the committee is set for Aug. 24. The group got about halfway through the matrix of principles and is expected to resume reviewing the document at its next meeting.

Delegates discuss state budget, endorse internship program

With the next state budget bill pending, Kevin FitzGerald, chancellor’s special assistant for state relations, gave the Employee Forum a preview of what was likely to happen for the coming year. (See State budget includes highest raise in years.)

FitzGerald outlined the key areas where the University received funding and some that did not make it into the budget. Overall, he said the outlook was good for UNC.

“The headline is that the University did very well,” he said. “Also for employees, this is a year in which we received much better rates of increase.”

Those raises included a 5.5 percent increase for all employees subject to the State Personnel Act (SPA) and a budgeted 6 percent increase for those faculty and staff exempt from the act (EPA), given based on merit and other factors.

Laurie Charest, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, said the increases will be seen in the July 21 paycheck for SPA employees and possibly at the end of September for EPA employees.

EPA checks will include the retroactive amount of the raise, if applicable, which went into effect on July 1.

Charest said the new budget allows state employees to take up to three courses per year under the tuition waiver program — up from the maximum of two of previous years.

Another provision suspends career banding, she said. Job groups that have already been banded will remain banded. The future direction of career banding is under review.

Clerical skills internship program
Forum delegates unanimously approved Resolution 06-05, which supports the implementation of a clerical skills internship program.

The resolution recommends to Chancellor James Moeser that the Employee Forum Staff Development Fund be used to help financially support the internship program.

As a result of the Chancellor’s Task Force for a Better Workplace, the Basic Clerical Skills program was redesigned to provide instruction and equivalent education and experience to prepare employees to meet minimal qualifications for office assistant III positions within the University.

Throughout the program, participants receive coaching, mentoring and feedback concerning their progress in skill development and behaviors expected of office staff.

At the completion of the Basic Clerical Skills program, graduates are eligible to apply for a six-month internship with a sponsoring department, the resolution noted. The internship is a partnership between the employee, the employee’s home department and a sponsoring department.

Each party will commit to meeting explicit expectations, the forum said, with the employee performing as an office assistant for the sponsoring department.

Through this program, the home department will allow the employee to intern for six months, pay the employee’s current salary plus a 10-percent temporary In-range Salary Adjustment (IRSA) for performing higher-level duties — if the employee is eligible — and to accept a temporary employee to fill in for the permanent employee.

Graduates in the 2000-01 program participated in the optional six-month internship program when available.

The 2005-06 program should offer the same opportunity to five graduates as a pilot program and offer five internships for the 2007-08 class, the forum said.

The success of the Basic Clerical Skills program depends on the commitment of management to the career development of eligible participants of the program, the forum said.

Scholarships, new clinic mark Carolina for Kibera’s fifth anniversary

The photo Rosemary took for the new book “LightBox” shows her cousin washing clothes in a small basin, at home in the Nairobi, Kenya, slum, Kibera. Rosemary’s caption reads in part:

“She is the only girl in the house and she has a big brother ... . It is her job to wash his clothes for him, and then also wash the utensils at home. You know, it is not good for girls to do all the work at home. Even boys can fetch water, wash the utensils and do the laundry. Here in Kibera, boys say that girls are the only ones who are supposed to wash the clothes, carry the babies and fetch the water.”

The book, introduced June 27 in New York City, offers photos and essays by 30 girls, aged 13-18, members of the Binti Pamoja (“Daughters United” in Swahili) women’s rights and reproductive health program that is part of Carolina for Kibera. The nonprofit (cfk.unc.edu) is based in the University Center for International Studies at Carolina.

“LightBox” is one of four new initiatives this summer during Carolina for Kibera’s fifth anniversary year. Besides promoting the book - a fund-raiser for school scholarships for the girls - the group will break ground for a new building for its medical clinic, funded in part by musician Sarah McLachlan.

Carolina for Kibera also will expand its partnership with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lastly, the group is facilitating a business development process led by Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management.

Kibera, believed to be East Africa’s largest urban slum, is home to some 700,000 people living in an area about the size of New York’s Central Park — 843 acres. Ethnic clashes and a lack of basic services characterize life there.

Carolina for Kibera serves about 10,000 residents each year through the clinic; a soccer league involving some 5,000 youth, who play in exchange for community service; a waste and recycling program also carried out by youth; and Binti Pamoja.

Carolina alumnus Rye Barcott founded the nonprofit group just after he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UNC in 2001. An ROTC student at Carolina, Barcott has just returned from duty as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

“That experience reinforced in my mind the importance of programs like CFK that, with minimal resources, make great strides in preventing armed conflict in disenfranchised places and promoting grassroots development,” Barcott said. “My goal now is to raise an endowment for CFK so that it can be a sustainable non-governmental organization based at UNC-Chapel Hill.”

Carolina for Kibera was honored as one of 10 “heroes of global health” in November at a Global Health Summit, which brought together leaders in medicine, government, business and other fields to seek solutions to health crises. Time magazine, which convened the summit, called the heroes innovators whose projects could become models for others.

“LightBox: Expressions of Hope from Young Women in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi,” was edited and published by Emily Verellen, a 2002 graduate of American University who co-founded Binti Pamoja as part of Carolina for Kibera. She had visited Kenya through study abroad. The book offers a candid look at the lives of young women in poverty, Verellen said: “Their photography and essays display a powerful message of struggle, perseverance and hope.”

Now working at a home for pregnant teens in New York City, Verellen obtained a $23,000 grant from the Fledgling Foundation of New York and Boston to produce and print 2,500 copies of the book. Sales support the Binti Pamoja Center Scholarship Fund, which helps members attend high school.

Buyers are asked for a $45 donation for each copy, of which $25 is tax-deductible. A donation for three copies funds a one-year scholarship. For more information or to purchase copies, visit www.bintipamoja.org.

Carolina for Kibera is raising funds for the new clinic building, but McLachlan already donated the lion’s share. She gave $150,000 to 11 sustainable development charities in Africa.

The Tabitha Medical Clinic, which began in a ramshackle one-room structure in 2000, is named for the late Kenyan who founded the facility, nurse Tabitha Festo. Two doctors now staff the clinic, which treats about 80 to 90 people daily, Barcott said. With the new building, the clinic will have 20 staff members and be able to treat about 200 people a day.

RENCI taps Knowles to serve as economic development director

David A. Knowles, an executive experienced in economic development, business assistance and strategic planning, will lead economic development programs at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

He begins work on July 31.

Knowles most recently served as business development manager for Georgia Tech’s Southeastern Trade Adjustment Assistance Center, a division of the university’s Economic Development Institute that provides technical expertise and funding to trade-impacted manufacturers in eight states, including North Carolina.

At RENCI, Knowles will develop programs and partnerships that leverage technological resources and expertise to help North Carolina businesses compete and prosper in the knowledge-age economy.

“David understands the needs of our region and the realities of the new global marketplace, and he is very aware of the role of emerging technologies and innovation in maintaining global competitiveness,” said RENCI Director Dan Reed. “He will be an important ingredient in our efforts to revitalize North Carolina’s business sector and workforce through innovative partnerships.”

“I look forward to creating some truly innovative partnerships between the North Carolina academic research community and the state’s large and small businesses,” Knowles said.

RENCI is a joint institute of  UNC, Duke University and N.C. State University that combines the strengths of these three institutions with the social, business and research opportunities of the state.

Four UNC librarians lead professional groups

Four librarians from the University Library are leading or have recently been elected to lead their specialized national and international professional organizations.

“Carolina has a long and proud history at the forefront of our profession,” said Sarah C. Michalak, University librarian and associate provost for University libraries. “To have so many of our staff elected to national and international office confirms the impact that UNC’s libraries and librarians continue to make.”

The four office-holders are:

Hart

Andrew S. Hart
Preservation librarian, Hart was elected in May to serve as vice chair/chair elect of the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). PARS contributes to library service and librarianship by encouraging, promoting and taking responsibility for activities relating to the preservation and reformatting of library materials in all types of institutions. PARS also provides leadership in applying new technologies to assure continued access to library collections.

Mullin

Patrick J. Mullin
Associate university librarian for access services and systems, Mullin concludes his year-long term as the president of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) in 2006 and then will serve for a year as past president. LITA, a division of the American Library Association, is the country’s leading organization for professionals involved with information technology in libraries and other settings. LITA educates, serves and reaches out to more than 4,000 members, other ALA members and divisions, and the entire library and information community through publications, programs and activities designed to promote, develop and aid in the implementation of library and information technology.

Vargha

Rebecca Vargha
Librarian of the SILS library, Vargha will serve in 2006-07 as president of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). SLA is a nonprofit global membership organization for information professionals and their strategic partners. The association serves more than 12,000 members in 83 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic and government information specialists.

Vandermeer

Philip Vandermeer
Music librarian, Vandermeer has been elected to serve in 2007-09 as president of the Music Library Association (MLA), following a term as president-elect. Founded in 1931, MLA provides a forum for issues surrounding music, music in libraries and music librarianship. With about 2,000 members, MLA is the country’s leading organization for music librarians, librarians who work with music as part of their responsibilities, composers and music scholars, and others interested in the program of the association.

UNC hosts African American researchers

The UNC mathematics department hosted the 2006 Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS). Sixty-eight participants attended the event June 20 – 23. The conference concluded with a visit to SAMSI, the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, in Research Triangle Park. SAMSI co-hosted for the conference.

MATH CONFERENCE CAARMS members were on campus last month for the 12th annual meeting of the research group.

Eleven invited lecturers gave research reports ranging from the study of light and gravity in a relativistic universe to optimal nurse/patient ratios in hospitals. Fifteen young scientists presented posters about their work.

This was the 12th annual CAARMS meeting, under the leadership of Princeton Professor William Massey. Patrick Eberlein, professor and chair of the UNC mathematics department, and Chris Jones, associate director of SAMSI and the Guthridge Professor of Mathematics at UNC, provided local leadership for the conference. Financial support came from the National Security Agency, with additional support from the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of Berkeley, Calif.

William Massey of Bell Laboratories (then AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) was instrumental in the birth of CAARMS in the early 1990s.

Massey had an idea for an organization devoted mainly to addressing critical issues involving African American researchers and graduate students in the mathematical sciences.

Journey to Middle East provides unique perspective for administrator

By Allison Rosenberg
Associate Vice Chancellor
For Research, Federal Affairs

Editor’s note: Following is part two of Allison Rosenberg’s first-person account of her experience in the Middle East recently, as a participant in the 71st session of the Secretary of Defense’s Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) To read part one, see gazette.unc.edu/archives/06jun21/file.4.html.

Midway through our weeklong journey, I noticed my perception of time was slipping. Three days had unfolded since our initial briefings at CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, all in what felt like little more than one very full afternoon. Back on the C-17 transport plane late Wednesday, I realized the remainder of our adventure would be over in the next blink of my eye.

Rosenberg speaks with Navy Vice Adm. David C. Nichols, deputy commander of CENTCOM, on the fight overseas.

Less than an hour after takeoff from Kuwait City International Airport, we put down again on the island kingdom of Bahrain in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Bahrain is an ultra-modern and relatively liberal oasis among its more conservative Arabic neighbors, and it is home to many multinational corporations that do business in the Middle East.

Command of the sea
Since 1993, Bahrain also has been host to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the U.S. 5th Fleet, which supports all naval operations in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). The 5th Fleet consists of as many as 25 ships and 15,000 sailors and Marines, an aircraft carrier battle group, an amphibious ready group, surface combatants, submarines, maritime air and sea patrol craft, and other fleet support units.

Our host was Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, commander of U.S. Naval Forces for Central Command (NAVCENT), the U.S. 5th Fleet Commander and the coalition’s Combined Maritime Forces. Whereas Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, commander of U.S. Army Forces Central Command (ARCENT) in Kuwait, had embodied the 3rd Army motto, Patton’s Own, Walsh in contrast personified the elite Navy fighter pilot. His call sign as an aviator was Sponge, and before earning command of the 5th fleet, Walsh flew with the Navy’s elite flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels.

Walsh exuded intelligence, integrity and impressive political poise as he shared with us insights into the support activities of regional allies (Neighboring nations often do not want their contributions to America’s military operations acknowledged.); into the awkward physical outlines of CENTCOM’s area of responsibility (AOR) as certain countries cannot be in the same AOR, because of the perception of a relationship with the United States; and into the most likely threat scenario posed by Iran.

With flawless balance, Walsh responded to the most aggressive questioning of any of the flag officers we met, but one query seemed to touch his nerve. When asked about the then-recent spate of criticism of the Secretary of Defense by retired generals, Walsh’s tone grew stern, and he became sharply passionate. It is honorable to resign on principle over a deeply held disagreement with defense department policy, Walsh intoned, but not so to retire and then to criticize one’s superior while collecting a departmental pension check.

Views from a floating city
Following the NAVCENT commander’s briefing, our group broke into smaller gaggles for an afternoon of dockside demonstrations of noncompliant boarding procedures and other responsibilities of the U.S. Coast Guard. Afterward, we toured the Al Fateh Grand Mosque, one of the few Islamic holy shrines in the Middle East that welcomes non-Muslim visitors. That evening our group enjoyed a reception and a “rug flop” at the home of a Navy enlisted officer, where Mohammad — who regularly hosts such private sales for guests of the U.S. Navy in Bahrain — appeared to make a killing from his captive audience’s hopes of capitalizing on the promise of deeply discounted prices under the implicit guarantee of quality that the Navy’s auspices conveyed.

The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is a floating city — home to more than 5,000 military personnel while at sea.

Hands down, however, the highlight of our visit unfolded the next day when we had the pleasure of spending an afternoon on board the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan during the ship’s maiden voyage to the Middle East, in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Stationed out of San Diego, Calif., the Reagan is the newest of the Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier fleet and the largest weapon in the U.S. arsenal. The ship is as long as the Empire State Building is tall.

The Reagan is powered by two reactors that can operate for 20 years without refueling, and it is home to more than 5,000 sailors, six air wings and nearly 70 aircraft. Deployed for as long as six months at a stretch, the operations of this virtual floating city are awe-inspiring, from the synchronized execution of discrete staff functions by deck crews whose jerseys signal their team’s role to the machinations of the master tracker of all aircraft movement on the upper flight control deck.

Impressive as the ship may be, nothing is more awesome than the orchestrated take-offs and landings of FA-18 Hornets and Super Hornets from the carrier’s flight deck. Like the queen bee in a busy hive, everything that happens on board the carrier, ultimately, is organized around the comings and goings of these $14 million marvels and their pilots, whose mission is to provide eyes and ears and defensive cover to troops on the ground. Every month, pilots from the Reagan fly several thousand information and combat support sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq, and we were present for several dozen in the couple hours we were on the ship.

Afterburners light a fiery orange and blue as each Hornet is propelled off the bow by a steam-powered catapult so powerful that it could move the Empire State Building a full six inches. Each inboard jet comes screaming in at 150 miles an hour, brought to a halt in no more than 300 feet by the simple, physical restraint of the tail hook as it catches a metal cable strung taught across the ship’s deck. If the pilot misjudges his landing by mere inches and his tail hook misses its catch, he must quickly throttle the plane’s engines, nose up and come back around for another try. The stakes are high. If the pilot fails to catch the hook or to pull up sufficiently quickly, a
$14 million plane — and most likely a career, if not a life — easily can be lost.

Amid the thundering power and impact of flights taking off and landing on deck, I was touched by two quieter encounters. While visiting troops in the hangar bay, I met Lt. Jon Clary, a Carolina graduate and FA-18 fighter pilot who will be returning to Chapel Hill this fall to begin the MBA program at Kenan-Flagler. Clary will bring extraordinary experience and 11 years of military leadership to Carolina. During lunch in the captain’s quarters, I also met the ship’s chaplain who — noting my last name — pulled me aside and escorted me down into the bowels of the ship to the prayer room, where he unfurled a 500-year-old Torah.

The chaplain explained that the Oppenheimer family had survived and successfully sheltered the Torah through the Holocaust. When they befriended President Reagan many years later, the Oppenheimer’s bequeathed the Torah to the Reagan with strict instructions that it shall remain on the ship at all times.

Having ferried over to the ship on an MH-53 Sikorsky helicopter, my group returned to Bahrain from the Reagan on a “carrier onboard delivery,” or COD, the kind of aircraft regularly used to ferry crew, cargo and mail on and off an aircraft carrier. Common as the aircraft looks and sounds, a take-off in one from the deck of a carrier relies on the same steam-powered catapult that launches Super Hornets out over the ship’s bow.

After a safety briefing that instructed us to be sure our legs were not under the seat in front of us — else the power of lift off would thrust them upward and crack our shins — the engines of the aircraft grew deafening and a wave of the airmen’s arm above the seats in front told us we were about to take off. Accelerating from 0 to nearly 200 miles an hour in under three seconds, the gravitational force on our bodies from the catapult reached 2Gs. The experience was exhilarating — though too brief for my tastes — and soon we had reached cruising altitude on our way back to Bahrain.

On to Qatar
Upon landing back at the Navy base there, we moved quickly to our C-17 to continue our trip to Qatar. As if in unspoken rivalry with their Navy brethren, the Air Force crew of the massive cargo ship cautioned us to strap in tightly and to stow away all loose objects, and they announced we would be undertaking a defensive ascent like that employed when military planes fly out under hostile fire. I would like to view a film of a C-17 in such a take-off, as it is impossible to imagine how an aircraft of that size can maneuver in any manner to produce the physical sensations that ensued. For what seemed like the next 15 minutes, shouts of raucous glee rang out among us as our group enjoyed what is best described as the most fantastic roller coaster ride of my life!

Just about an hour after take-off, the C-17 began a dramatic, corkscrew descent to our next landing site at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. In contrast to the relatively liberal culture of Bahrain, the majority of Qatari citizens observe a more conservative version of Islam that takes a literal interpretation of the Quran. The Wahhabi Islamic doctrine is much less strictly observed in Qatar than in Saudi Arabia, from whence it was imported, however, and while virtually all Qatari women wear the black abaya, foreigners are not expected to don this conservative dress.

Doha, the capital of Qatar, is a rapidly growing and sophisticated city on the Arabian coast. To our delight, our overnight accommodations were at the elegant new Four Seasons Hotel, right on the waterfront of a sparkling new business and residential development called the Corniche. Replete with marble walls and ornate gold fixtures throughout, the Four Seasons is one of the supreme luxury hotels in the developing world. A world away from the sands of Kuwait, we arrived at the hotel with just enough time to wash up quickly before attending a Bedouin-style banquet on the hotel’s private beach.

Our host for this evening was Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of the 9th Air Force, U.S. Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF), and the Coalition’s Combined Air Operations Command (CAOC). Imagine my delight when the general approached me immediately and began to rib me about our beloved Tar Heels. North, it turns out, is an East Carolina University graduate! I was delighted too to meet Brig. Gen. Darren McDew, Commander of Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and my official sponsor for JCOC.

Both generals were dressed in civilian attire and unassuming though they appeared to be, early impressions often are misleading. Gen. McDew, for example, once served in the White House, where he was responsible for accompanying the president with the nuclear “football,” and North — reputedly the last American pilot to shoot down a Russian-made MIG (in Iraqi combat) — was responsible for coordinating the Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcons munitions strike near Baquba, Iraq, in June that killed Al Qa’ida’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

While our Air Force hosts and official guests departed at a respectable hour, a spirit of conviviality gripped the group gathered under the Bedouin tent as we passed around the hookah — a traditional, Bedouin water pipe filled with sticky sweet tobacco — and some of our JCOC group remained on the beach until well after midnight. Early the next morning, our last in the Middle East, we piled on board buses and headed to Al-Udeid Air Base, 20 miles south of the Doha.

The United States and Qatar enjoy extensive diplomatic and economic connections, yet the Qatari government strictly limits what can be said about the American presence there. What can be shared is that Al Udeid has the longest runway (2.8 miles) in the region and the base can accommodate up to 120 aircraft. In addition to roughly 3,000 American military personnel and a British Royal Air Force detachment, Al Udeid is home to the Combined Air Operations Command, or CAOC, a nerve center of intelligence on operations in the theater of war.

Once on base, we enjoyed breakfast with enlisted troops and junior officers, and I was pleased to meet several young North Carolinians whose good spirit and joy in their jobs was abundant and clear. Afterward, we toured Al Udeid’s air fields; climbed aboard F-15E fighter jets and other intelligence-gathering craft; joined security forces teams in a paintball exercise against ersatz enemy forces; and visited the floor of CAOC, where all aerial intelligence from the region is integrated and where combat operations -— including the Zarqawi hit earlier this summer — are planned and executed.

At the CAOC compound, North briefed us on the immense mission the Air Force manages in support of coalition and Iraqi forces. In addition to transporting troops, their supplies and materiel throughout the CENTCOM theater, the Air Force (much like the Navy) serves as eyes and ears for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on the ground. Flying over 155 combat, surveillance and refueling sorties each day, Air Force assets such as the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), and the Predator, provide valuable intelligence that reduces coalition casualties by alerting ground forces of possible danger.

In constant contact with tactical operators on the ground, a great deal of effort is directed to spotting signs of improvised explosive devices and other insurgent activity and to watching over convoys from above. And, when called upon to do so, the Air Force provides close-air support to kill insurgents or to take out strategic targets.

The final word
Topping off our weeklong journey, our group was honored by a closing conversation on base with Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command. Recalling descriptions of an execrable enemy we first heard from his deputy before we left the United States, Abizaid argued that “the biggest untold story of this war” is that of the enemy. To Abizaid’s mind, the American people do not know how truly abominable is the force we fight, and he wondered aloud where the center of public opinion would be if this story was more forcefully told.

Abizaid reiterated too the unambiguous reality that security in the region cannot be achieved by military might alone. Rather, success will require every element of U.S. power and diplomacy and a more genuine and comprehensive international effort.

But Abizaid’s main message was simple, and he delivered it directly. Despite multiple imperatives to America’s mission — from denying al-Qaida safe haven, to protecting the flow of oil, to keeping an eye on Iran — “the single most important thing we have to do in the region is to stabilize Iraq.”

America is weak in the eyes of Islamic extremists, Abizaid explained, and they believe they can overcome military disadvantage by convincing our people that the fight is not worth the costs.

“This is a test of wills, and the enemy intends to stay in the fight,” the general admonished us. “We have to have the will to see [this battle] through.”

Accomplishing our objectives will take more time, he cautioned, and probably a good bit more.

“We came into this war with a short-war mentality,” Abizaid acknowledged. “This is going to be a long war.”

Lessons learned
And so we ended our week in the Middle East with the U.S. Central Command: honored by the opportunity; excited by the exotic environs; impressed by America’s war-fighting capability — and possibly more so by the professionalism and amazing morale of our troops; and sobered by the stakes of the seemingly few choices and the abundant challenges that lie ahead.

In the wake of Abizaid’s challenge to us, the trip home felt a bit like flight from the uncertain future our troops and military commanders — and the Iraqi people — cannot escape. The relief was welcome, however, as it was time to step back from the action and to begin to reflect, and our spirit in the air was high. The smiling faces of the Air Force crew on our C-17 by now looked like those of real friends, and in no time, we were standing again in the lobby of the Marriott in Tampa, where folks began to peel away to catch flights home and to reunite with their families and their jobs.

As I tried to bid goodbye to several of our Department of Defense hosts who had organized this brilliant trip, the tears began to flow and I felt like a child who had come home suddenly and before she was ready for the end of summer camp.

In the weeks that have passed since our return from the Middle East, I have found myself struggling to array America’s options in the battle still before us and to devise some formula for understanding the chances of success and the risks associated with any one choice our nation might make. Clearly, much of what will play out in the months, possibly years, ahead will be beyond our commanders’ control, and they know it. Sectarian violence in Iraq, for example, appears to be expanding, and there is a real risk it may overwhelm the nascent state.

Significant challenges are ahead, as the new Iraqi government develops a constitution and federal structures that must be acceptable to Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Iran remains a powerful wild card that threatens to destabilize the region, and both Syria and Saudia Arabia have hands to play.

Despite these many uncertainties and America’s increasing uncertainty, our confident commanders assured us we can achieve our objectives in Iraq. What they ask of us is our continuing resolve. Like most others, I imagine, I am ambivalent about what I think is best. On one hand, I want our costly effort to create a viable and reasonably peaceful, democratic state in Iraq to be victorious. On the other hand, I want America’s troops out of harm’s way just as soon as that becomes feasible.

About the author
Allison Rosenberg, associate vice chancellor for research, federal affairs,  is the University’s key representative in Washington, D.C., dividing time equally between the nation’s capital and Chapel Hill.

Study finds sleeping patterns may relieve ‘transformed migraine’ pain

Your skull feels like it’s cracking open. There’s a blazing fireball in one corner of your brain. You just want to go lie down in a dark room for a few hours. You’re experiencing a migraine headache. And if you’re one of the unlucky people who suffer from “transformed migraine,” this is all going to happen again — probably tomorrow.

But there is some good news: The way you sleep might help.

A study led by Carolina neurologist Anne Calhoun found that transformed migraine sufferers who improved their sleep behaviors experienced a significant reduction in headache frequency and intensity. Previous studies had shown that transformed migraine sufferers almost always sleep poorly. But no study had ever determined whether sufferers might be able to reduce their headache symptoms by changing the way they slept.

Calhoun and the study’s co-author, Sutapa Ford, recruited 43 women who were undergoing treatment for transformed migraine. They gave 23 of the women the following sleep behavior instructions: Go to bed at the same time every night, and allow for eight hours of sleep. Don’t read, listen to music or watch television while in bed. Don’t take naps. Eat dinner at least four hours before bedtime, and limit the amount of fluids you drink for two hours before bedtime. Use visualization techniques — imagine, for example, that you are filming a silent movie at the beach — to help yourself fall asleep.

The researchers gave the remaining women, who made up the control group, a different set of instructions that weren’t meant to have any effect on their migraines — for example, eat dinner at the same time every night.

After 12 weeks, the women who modified their sleep behaviors reported a 29-percent reduction in headache frequency and a 40-percent reduction in headache intensity. They were also less likely to experience regular, day-to-day transformed migraines: Many of them went back to having only occasional migraines.

The control group experienced no improvement until they began following the same set of instructions as the test group. By the end of the study, almost 44 percent of the women had reverted from transformed migraine to episodic migraine.

Calhoun said that researchers have known about the association between headaches and poor sleep for at least 125 years. Other types of headache, she said, are related to sleep stages, and certain sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea may contribute to chronic daily headache.

“Transformed migraine is the most common form of chronic daily headache, and is the most common reason that patients seek treatment at headache clinics,” Calhoun said. “Behavioral sleep modification appears to be an effective treatment for transformed migraine when coupled with standard medical care.”

Calhoun is a clinical associate professor in the School of Medicine’s department of neurology. Ford is a clinical neuropsychologist at Carolina. The National Headache Foundation provided financial support for the study.

ITS working on classroom renovations, upgrades

While some of the rest of campus slows down during summer break, Information Technology Services (ITS) continues to keep busy.

In addition to supporting summer classes, the ITS classroom hotline group is upgrading several campus facilities this summer.

Multimedia classroom updates
Nine multimedia classrooms in Gardner Hall will be renovated this summer as part of an ongoing lifecycle program to keep facilities current. Each device in a classroom has a designated life cycle, after which it becomes out-of-date or difficult to repair. Classroom hotline staff will replace these older machines with their new and improved counterparts. In Gardner, ITS will add DVD players and network computers as well as upgrade existing technology. Four of the Gardner classrooms have been completed and the remaining five will be renovated by mid-August.

Two rooms in Hanes Art Center (116 and 118) will be upgraded this summer to multimedia classrooms. In Peabody Hall, room 08 is undergoing minor upgrades. Staff will run system checks on its current videoconferencing technology, and upgrade it to make it more user-friendly so that faculty and staff can run videoconferences themselves with minimal need for basic support from ITS staff.

Across campus, many minor upgrades will improve existing multimedia classrooms. Classroom hotline staff anticipate replacing 35 video projectors, 18 VCRs and 29 DVD players. They will also add more network computers, which allow instructors to teach using Internet pages, MS Office documents and even programs and documents on their own office computers using the remote desktop program.

Additional information about specific classrooms is available at hotline.unc.edu. For immediate support, please contact the classroom hotline at 962-6702. Please remember that classrooms are scheduled through the University Registrar’s Office.

CCI benefits students, faculty and staff
While ITS is engaged in classroom renovations, it is also participating heavily in Carolina Testing and Orientation Program Sessions (CTOPS.) Each year, first-year and transferring students transition into life at Carolina with the help of CTOPS. The orientation program is also designated as the time for the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) hardware distribution.

CCI requires all undergraduate students at UNC to own a laptop computer that meets or exceeds the minimum specifications for their class. All incoming undergraduate and graduate students can purchase an authorized computer model through the CCI program, and during CTOPS they pick up their purchased computers. In reality, the students are purchasing much more than the laptop. They also receive a four-year warranty, insurance and security software. Before the summer ends about 3,400 personal computers will be distributed to students.

But CCI benefits extend to faculty and staff, who can purchase computers for personal use through the RAM Shop at Student Stores at the same CCI prices available to students.

Faculty and staff can choose from among two models of laptops, with either a three- or four-year warranty, and two models of desktops, with three-year warranties. Visit
www.unc.edu/cci/faculty_staff/ to find specifications and prices for CCI machines.

Laptop guide available
The laptop guide is an interactive instruction tool designed to educate students about using and maintaining their CCI computers and about taking advantage of the available computing resources at the University. Anyone new to computing at UNC or needing a refresher course, however, can use it to learn about computing services and policies at the University.

Developed by ITS, the laptop guide covers topics that range from Onyen authentication services to copyright infringement. This year’s version has been updated to reflect changes in computer models, computing policy and other areas.

“The Laptop Guide covers almost everything from a getting started perspective,” said Chris Williams, program director of Residential Networking (ResNet). “It gives basic information and directions where to go for more detailed support.”

To download the laptop guide, visit www.unc.edu/cci/ctops.

Have questions about technology or ITS?

Send your question to Beth Millbank, public relations manager, at its_communications@unc.edu, or Elizabeth Evans, manager for training and education, at LearnIT@unc.edu. You can always visit the ITS web site (its.unc.edu), the Help site (help.unc.edu) or the Help Desk at 962-HELP if you have a pressing need.

Reverse auction initiative process in place for campus

Purchasing Services within Material and Disbursement Services recently announced the launch of the reverse auction purchasing initiative. The online reverse auction is a tool that allows fair and open competition among vendors to provide the best price, service and quality.

In a reverse auction, the vendors lower their prices throughout the bidding process. By using the interactive purchasing system (IPS) along with the Internet, multiple vendors can compete in an open and interactive environment to provide goods at the lowest selling price.

The decision to use reverse auctions is one way Material and Disbursement Services is committed to giving the University the best bang for the buck.

A reverse auction gets the absolute lowest price a vendor will offer, as opposed to a bid price that may not be the bottom line price. Reverse auction also represents a new way of partnering between Purchasing Services and its customers to achieve lower acquisition costs.

Results were better than expected during the first reverse auction on May 19. Competitive bidding resulted in an overall savings of
42.5 percent off of list price for a piece of network computer hardware.

Purchasing Services will continue to improve the online reverse auction under the guidelines of state requirements. The decision to initiate a reverse auction was based on established criteria and historical data where the requirements are well-defined.

The reverse auction will be used as another means to procure goods and services; however, it will not replace the normal bid process. The bid process, whether informal or formal, will continue to be used.

If you are interested in knowing more about the reverse auction initiative, e-mail Dale Poole at dale_poole@unc.edu or call 962-3477.

Help available for reference management software

You may be looking for an easier way to:

 Build your own searchable database of references to articles, books, and other research materials;

 Annotate those references and link to online versions of the resources;

 Format your citations and bibliographies, and reformat them according to different styles.

If so, take a look at RefWorks and EndNote, two bibliographic citation management programs that help you track, retrieve and use the information you need.

“These are terrific time-saving tools,” said Lisa Norberg, instructional services coordinator for the University Library and organizer of library classes that help users get started with both programs.

RefWorks and EndNote users include faculty members and graduate students conducting research and preparing publications, administrators who like to keep current citations at hand, and undergraduate students learning the ins-and-outs of academic citation. 

How do they work?
RefWorks and EndNote allow users to build a library of citations by importing references from online databases or library catalogs, or by inputting the information. When you need to insert a reference in a paper, the software works with your word processing software to retrieve the citation and insert it — using the style you specify — in your document. The programs will also build and format the bibliography for your paper.

“One advantage of these programs is their versatility,” said Norberg. “Perhaps a researcher wants to submit a manuscript to multiple journals with different style requirements. Or a graduate student may need to cite an article one way as part of the dissertation, and another way in an article. These programs can save hours of time.”

Getting the software
The University Libraries make RefWorks available for free to UNC faculty, staff and students via a campuswide license. Once you sign up for an account (visit www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/ and follow the links for “RefWorks Classes and Guides”), your citations are stored on RefWork’s server and are available to you anywhere that you use the Internet.

Some UNC schools and departments, including the College of Arts and Sciences, make EndNote available to their faculty and students. Individuals may purchase EndNote for use on personal computers.

Key differences
“The library chose to purchase a RefWorks license largely because RefWorks is web-based,” said Norberg. “That means somebody can use it here in the library, in their office, at home, at a conference, pretty much anywhere. Your personal library is totally portable.”

EndNote, by contrast, is computer-based, although the manufacturer has announced plans to move to a web-based delivery. Beyond that, said Norberg, the two programs have similar capabilities in many ways.

Norberg also said that personal libraries can be transferred from one software program to the other so the user isn’t locked permanently into a single choice.

Learn how
Ready to get started? The libraries can help with:

 Classes — For classes in Davis Library, see www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/ and follow the links for “RefWorks Classes and Guides” or “EndNote Classes and Guides.”  The Health Sciences Library also offers classes — see www.hsl.unc.edu and chose “Classes and Consultations.” The next RefWorks class will be July 27, 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in 246 Davis Library. Fall schedules will be posted soon.

 Online — RefWorks offers online tutorials and the Health Science Library has created an online tutorial for EndNote. Both are available via the links at www.lib.unc.edu/instruct, along with tips from the libraries for accessing these resources and correcting common problems.

 Consultations — Request one-on-one assistance by using the online form at www.lib.unc.edu/faculty/consult.html and choosing “RefWorks” or “EndNote” from the drop-down list of librarian contacts. One of our librarians will be in touch with you to find a convenient time and location for a consultation.

@yourlibrary highlights library services, collections, events and news of special interest to faculty and staff. Questions about this feature and requests for future topics may be sent to Judy Panitch (panitch@email.unc.edu), director of library communications. The website for the UNC libraries is www.lib.unc.edu.

Online library access procedure improves

The procedure for gaining off-campus access to online library resources changed July 6.

UNC libraries license more than 40,000 online journals, databases and other resources. Students, faculty, staff, hospital staff, and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) affiliates may use most of these resources from off-campus computers. In the past, a valid personal identification number (PID) was required to authenticate your affiliation with the University. Now, the libraries have implemented a more secure procedure:

 University students, faculty, staff and will supply their ONYEN and password;

 UNC Hospitals staff will continue to use their PID; and

 AHEC affiliates will continue to authenticate in the current mode.

When you first open an online resource that requires authentication, you will be prompted to supply the appropriate information. You need only supply this information one time in any computer session, even if you use multiple resources. All users will be able to continue using the PID to authenticate until Aug. 15.

To connect to online library resources, go to www.lib.unc.edu and select “Article Databases” or “E-Journal Finder.” To manage your ONYEN and to set up a challenge-response query in case you forget your password, see onyen.unc.edu.

Please direct questions about these procedures to the library’s proxy server team using the form at: proxy.lib.unc.edu/sendreport.html.

‘Word 2000: Advanced’ is featured course for CBT

If you would like to increase your skill with Microsoft Word, you might be interested in the “Word 2000: Advanced” computer-based training (CBT) course.

Log into CBT and enter “word” in the search box at the top of the display. Just above the list of self-paced courses, select the “More Results” link. You will find the advanced Word course (and many others) in the list that displays.

The advanced Word course will teach you about the autoformat feature, linking styles, creating and using a form template, using graphic effects, tables of contents, footnotes and endnotes, bookmarks and cross-references, using a concordance file to index, tracking, comparing, and merging documents, and using highlights and comments.

Remember that if you subscribe to the ITS CBT service between now and the end of September, you will be entered in a drawing for a prize.

In addition, you’ll receive an additional entry in the drawing for each CBT course you complete in the same time period. To subscribe to CBT, point your web browser to LearnIT.unc.edu and select “Computer-Based Training” from the right-hand side.

Oracle Calendar Tip
When using the Oracle calendar, you can mark meetings with different access levels: confidential, personal, normal and public. A meeting marked as “public” can be read by anyone who looks at your calendar, but you can define what the other levels mean to you. For example, you can define “confidential” to only be viewable by you, “personal” to be viewable by you and one or two other people, and “normal” to be viewable by your work group. Someone else can define them
differently.

It’s tempting to leave all the access levels defined with the same degree of protection so that you don’t have to think about what access level should be assigned to an individual calendar activity.

But we suggest that you do assign an appropriate level to each activity even if the access rights are the same for all levels.

If you decide at some later date that you want to have different access rights, you will have to retroactively assign different levels to events.

That will take a lot more work than assigning the levels to your activities as you schedule them. For more information on access rights in the Oracle calendar, point your web browser to help.unc.edu/?id=97.

LearnIT Workshops
Two upcoming workshops might be of interest to you. On July 20, you can learn about managing spyware on your computers at work and at home.

The U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance estimates that 91 percent of all PCs are infected with spyware. You can learn about the symptoms of spyware, how to remove it, and how to detect it by attending this 45 minute workshop.

If you are interested in the weblog or “blogging” phenomenon, you can attend a blogging workshop on July 26. Blogs are being used by individuals, by news agencies, by communities of practice, and by many others.

This workshop will teach you the basics of blogging, including how to create a blog of your own. You will briefly explore the educational opportunites that blogging can provide and leave with the knowledge to survive in the blogging world.

To register for these or any other LearnIT workshop, point your browser to LearnIT.unc.edu and select “Current Schedule of Workshops” from the right-hand side.

Find this information useful?
This LearnIT column should help you. Does it? If you have comments about what we include or suggestions for what we should include, please let us know: LearnIT@unc.edu.