Jewish Center
Gets Eizenstat
Professorship
ADistinguished Professorship in
UNC’s Center for
Jewish Studies —
named in honor of
Stuart E. Eizenstat
’ 64, who has held
senior positions in
three presidential
administrations —
has been created
after meeting funding goals.
Eizenstat served as
the lead negotiator
for Holocaust reparation agreements during the Clinton
administration, helping acquire more
than $8 billion in
compensation from
European companies
for victims of the
Holocaust and Nazi
era. He was UNC’s
Commencement
speaker in 2000,
when he was deputy
secretary of the
Treasury. (Audio coverage is available at
alumni.unc.edu/
commencement.)
He returned to
Chapel Hill in
October for Zeta
Beta Tau’s alumni
reunion, where he
gave the keynote
speech about
“Megatrends in
Politics” of the 21st
century. The
reunion, co-chaired
by Gene Oberdorfer
’ 53 of Atlanta and
Jerry Kanter ’ 49 of
Kinston, celebrated
the conclusion of
the campaign to
raise $1,333,000 for
the professorship.
Researchers Reap $11.8 Million
in NIH Challenge Grants
Greek Board Comes
Down Hard on DKE
Researchers at Carolina have secured backing for several projects funded by a new, highly competitive federal grant program that aims
to tackle high-impact scientific and health challenges.
The National Institutes of Health’s Challenge
Grants initiative was announced earlier this year as part
of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Nationally, competition was fierce for the program,
with the NIH receiving more than 20,000 applications.
Thirteen UNC projects received Challenge Grants
totaling about $11.8 million over the next two years.
Under the program, the NIH has defined a number
of challenge areas — focused on specific knowledge
gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data
generation and research methods — where an influx of
funds could lead quickly to results.
Including the new grants, UNC researchers have
been awarded grants or awards worth more than
$127.4 million for 258 individual projects. Meanwhile,
Duke University has received $159 million through the
recovery act; the two universities make North Carolina
fifth in number of jobs created by the stimulus program and sixth in NIH stimulus funding.
Among the UNC projects, all for a two-year period:
n Researchers will use a $1 million grant to evalu-
ate the influence of gene variations and epigenetic
expression on risky behaviors such as binge drinking,
smoking and illegal drug use. The project will use data,
including saliva DNA samples, from the UNC-based
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
n A $954,000 project based at the UNC Center for
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention aims to help
low-income and overweight women in rural eastern
North Carolina. The project will recruit women to
join support groups for weight loss, financial literacy
and moving out of poverty.
n The Eshelman School of Pharmacy will receive
$873,000 to study proteins involved in regulating the
genetic material chromatin and to explore how chromatin’s control of gene expression and gene silencing is
relevant in normal and disease biology.
The University’s Fraternity and Sorority Standards Review Board made it clear in early December that UNC continues to monitor Delta Kappa
Epsilon closely amid a turbulent 2009. In a letter sent to
the fraternity, the board established 24 recommendations
and directives to serve as a blueprint for improvement.
Melissa E. Exum, associate vice chancellor for student
affairs and dean of students and the board’s chair, said in
the letter that DKE’s failures to demonstrate improvement dating to an April 2009 appearance before the
board had necessitated a new set of standards. Exum
wrote that DKE’s own remedial and educational efforts
“do not appear to have produced sustained, positive
change in your chapter, nor, minimally, consistent adherence to applicable University and IFC policies.”
The student-run Greek Judicial Board handed
down heavy sanctions in September to DKE as punishment for what it found to be violations of alcohol policy. That board cited two violations at a party just more
than two weeks after the death of DKE President
Courtland Smith and during a period in which the fraternity was facing an investigation by the University
and the judicial board. The judicial board’s one-year
social probation also covered what it called an extensive
two-year record of violations.
Exum wrote that immediate removal of University
recognition was not yet warranted. She cited DKE’s artic-
ulated commitment to “positive cultural change” and the
benefits of educational and organizational measures.
The board commended DKE for the exploration of
a substance abuse program, dedication to community
service, expansion of leadership and the drafting of new
policies. But, Exum wrote, the board also determined
that “these initiatives, standing alone, are insufficient to
produce ‘long-term culture change.’ ”
The board still could consider removing University
recognition. DKE’s compliance is expected to be
reviewed in February, May and September.
A more detailed version of this report is
available online at
alumni.unc.edu/DKE-sanctions.
ONLINE:
n Carolina is tops in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance mag-
azine’s latest survey of the best values in public higher
education, a position it has held since the magazine
started the survey in 1998.
n A freshman died from complications related to the
H1N1 virus. Lillian Chason developed a large follow-
ing as her father chronicled her illness on Facebook.
Online Digest
Read these stories in detail and more in From the Hill Online at
alumni.unc.edu.
n The William Richardson Davie Award has four
new recipients: Fred Eshelman ’ 72,
Richard Krasno, Gov. Beverly Perdue
and Richard “Stick” Williams ’ 75.
n The troubled Citizen-Soldier Program has been
restructured to focus on the behavioral health needs of
returning combat veterans and their families.
ONLINE
