Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s 10th annual Forest Theatre production, “The Living Sea of Memory,” opens Aug. 7 and runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Sept. 7, including Labor Day.

The theme looks at the human story through different lenses from the mythical to the personal and uses giant puppets, masks, stilts and shadows to tell the story, all performed to live music.

Shows begin at 7 p.m. with a different pre-show each night that begins at 6:30 p.m. Suggested donations are: adults, $10–$15; children ages 3–12, $7; and children 2 and under, free.

www.paperhand.org

One workshop remains on Aug. 6 for mandatory training for full-time faculty and staff members who are interested in joining the Federal Work-Study program.

The Office of Scholarships and Student Aid offers the training on topics such as institutional and federal guidelines, student payroll, the job classification system, documenting student hours in TIM, creating job descriptions and marketing jobs online.

No registration is required. Time Information Management (TIM) administrators and TIM back-up personnel are not eligible to participate.

The session is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room 121 of Hanes Art Center. Contact Michelle Klemens for information (962-4176 or michelle_klemens@ unc.edu).

Changes to mail delivery schedules that affect delivery and pickup of mail to campus departments began last week. To check departments’ current schedules, see snipurl.com/mbeaq.

University Career Services is holding its 2009 Part-time Job Fair on Sept. 1, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the FPG Student Union. The fair is open to all majors and class years except MBA, law, medical, dental and MAC students.

The registration fee for campus departments that are interested in hiring non-work study students is $20 and is due by Aug. 1.

For information, call 843-0844 or e-mail karent@email.unc.edu or estrader @email.unc.edu.

Although the August upgrade will affect most users of the system, teletime and badge terminal employees will not experience any changes in TIM. Training materials and manuals for the TIM system upgrade will be available online beginning July 27. 

The TIM system implementation was completed in March and is used by University staff, students and temporary employees to report and process time worked. TIM automates time reporting for payroll and special events and centralizes the leave reporting system. 

Managers of large units are now able to easily maintain their employees’ work schedules. Time allotted and used for the recently mandated Flexible Furlough Leave program can be tracked and managed for future pay periods using this central system.

The TIM Web site, www.unc.edu/finance/payroll/tim, offers more information on upgrade training and the latest news.

Authors Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle, with Nashville musicians Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman, will perform works at the North Carolina Literary Festival that inspired the musical “Good Ol’ Girls.”

The performance will be at 8 p.m. Sept. 12. Venue and ticket information will be announced in August with the festival schedule. www.ncliteraryfestival.org

The N.C. Children’s Hospital is one of the best children’s hospitals in the nation, according to U.S. News Media Group’s 2009 edition of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals.” The publication has recognized the hospital as 11th in the nation among those caring for children with respiratory disorders. The ranking is online (snipurl.com/mb2p7) and also will be featured in the August issue of U.S. News & World Report.

The University has been designated as one of 44 “Best Buy” schools in the 2010 edition of Fiske Guide to Colleges. To be qualified, the guide evaluates qualities such as four- or five-star academic ratings, inexpensive or moderate price category and quality of student life on campus.

Carolina finished the 2008–09 season in second place nationally in the Learfield Sports Directors Cup, the 14th time in the 16-year history of the award that Carolina was the highest finishing school in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The runner-up showing is Carolina’s best finish since a tie for second in 1997–98. UNC won the award in 1993–94 and also was second in 1994–95 and 1996–97.

The Directors Cup, run by the National Association of College Directors of Athletics, measures a school’s postseason success in men’s and women’s sports. Each school is ranked based upon its 10 highest men’s and women’s finishes.

The 2008–09 season was one of the finest in Carolina history. The women’s soccer and men’s basketball teams won NCAA championships, men’s soccer and women’s lacrosse reached the NCAA finals, the baseball team advanced to the College World Series for the fourth year in a row and the football team played in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

The University Employee Occupational Health Clinic (UEOHC) moved to a new location in late June and is now located at 145 Medical Dr., on the second floor under the Health Affairs Bookstore. See map: ehs.unc.edu/ueohc/map.shtml. The UEOHC’s campus box number and phone number (966-9119) remain the same. snipurl.com/mb3jf

Submissions are due by Sept. 18 for the Center for Global Initiatives’ 10th Annual International Photography Competition. The amateur photo competition is open to all faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Photos must represent an international or cross-cultural experience and be submitted in digital format with preference for 300 dpi images in jpg or tiff format. E-mail up to three photos to bkutchma@email.unc.edu. An online entry form must also be submitted. snipurl.com/maxrp

The University and Nike Inc. signed a new 10-year contract for Nike to be the exclusive supplier of athletic footwear, apparel and accessory products to the Tar Heels, effective retroactively to July 1, 2008.

“The University of North Carolina is proud of its long-standing relationship with Nike,” said Dick Baddour, director of athletics. “This partnership has benefitted all 28 varsity sports and provided millions of dollars for academics and student scholarships at the University.”

In addition to the apparel and equipment, which constitutes the majority of the value of the contract, Nike will give $2 million to the Chancellor’s Academic Enhancement Fund. Chancellor Holden Thorp said he would direct the funds to faculty support. And among other terms of the contract, Nike will provide annual summer internships for two students to honor the memory of Rut Tufts, the former UNC licensing director who was instrumental in crafting fair labor practice standards, and Eve Carson, former student body president. snipurl.com/mbpul

Blackboard will undergo a key upgrade this summer. The scope of the upgrade requires a total Blackboard outage. Blackboard (https://blackboard.unc.edu) and its contents will be completely unavailable from July 28 through Aug. 6.

If any Blackboard materials will be needed during the outage period, they must be downloaded or extracted prior to the outage. For assistance downloading a Gradebook or extracting course materials with bFree, contact 962.HELP. To learn more, see its.unc.edu/BBNews/blackboard_upgrade.

Anyone who is teaching during the outage window and is worried about the need to access the system during the planed outage should contact the UNC Blackboard Team (bb8upgrade@unc.edu).

PlayMakers Repertory Company is offering UNC faculty and staff two extra tickets to its opening Mainstage production, "Opus," with the purchase of new subscriptions to the 2009-10 season through Aug. 1. "Opus" runs Sept. 23 - Oct. 11.  Call the box office to purchase subscriptions (962-7529) and mention promotion code 505. snipurl.com/mb45x

The Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling has scheduled three recycling facilitator training sessions in the next few weeks to give employees the information necessary to be their building’s recycling contact, to throw a green event or to learn more about recycling at UNC.

R.S.V.P. to Amy Preble (amy.preble@facilities.unc.edu) for one of the following sessions:
July 16 – 1:15–2:15 p.m., Toy Lounge, Dey Hall;
Aug. 5 – 1:30–2:30 p.m, – Magnolia Conference Room, Giles Horney Building; and
Aug. 12 – 2:15–3:15 p.m., 4052 Bondurant Hall.

fac.unc.edu/wastereduction

President Barack Obama has chosen geneticist Francis Collins, whom he termed “one of the top scientists in the world,” to head the National Institutes of Health. “His groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease,” Obama said. Collins led the Human Genome Project that, along with a private company, mapped genetic code.

A Morehead Scholar at Carolina, Collins graduated from the School of Medicine in 1977 and served two residencies at N.C. Memorial Hospital, now UNC Hospitals.  He delivered Carolina’s commencement address in May 1994 and most recently spoke at the Friday Center on “Genetics, Health and Faith” in 1999. He released a best-selling book in 2007, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”

Collins spent 15 years working at the NIH as chief of genome research before stepping down to work on other projects. He helped found the BioLogos Foundation, a Web site formed by a group of scientists who believe “that faith and science both lead to truth about God and creation.”