These will be my last words for 2008. It has been great to hear from people who got our holiday e-card — some were alumni who’d lost touch with the School. Welcome back! We love hearing from you.

I hope you had really good holidays. And if they were muted in terms of shopping and spending, I hope they were abundant in love and friendship.

As most people left the School for holiday celebrations, a number of us across the School and UNC worked on projections for how we would deal with budgets cuts of 3%, 5% and 7%. Of course, we’d have liked to just tell President Bowles to take the cuts elsewhere, but that isn’t an option. So, we tried our best to cut services and programs where we could (painful as that is) and to preserve the most important resource we have, our people.

Wednesday afternoon before Christmas, I met with Barry Jacobs, one of our Orange County commissioners. We’d been introduced in August when Chancellor Thorp invited local leaders to a UNC leadership retreat. Chancellor Thorp said he wanted to find ways to help the state economically, and I wanted to follow up on this. Commissioner Jacobs and I talked about how we could work more closely to achieve our common aims. The county is building a processing facility for local foods, and this may be one avenue. There are a lot of questions about the benefits of using local foods, and our School is trying to answer some of them. The Gillings Innovation Lab, led by Professor Alice Ammerman, focuses on a number of topics that relate to local foods and addresses the environmental, economic and health impacts of foods. Local foods may (but do not always) have a smaller carbon footprint because they do not travel thousands of miles. They also are likely to put dollars into the local community, and may be healthier because they are fresher.  In addition, our Nutrition department has been working with the Atrium Café to sell fresh vegetables, such as tomatoes, when they are available. And I have told our caterers that when we have events, I want them to use local foods whenever possible. Our School also could work with other parts of UNC to show people how local foods can be purchased and used.

It’s been a good week to catch up on journal articles, work on a slide presentation for our External Advisory Committee and start working on our School’s 2009-2010 budget submission. Because I have been the only person in the Dean’s Office for a couple days, I have been answering phones, and it has been interesting to talk with a number of applicants who were seeking information.

I am trying to learn yet another PDA (personal digital assistant) as part of what seems like an interminable quest to get a device that accurately synchs with our UNC Oracle calendar. Worse than having no calendar at all is having one that seems to inadvertently delete items — causing me to miss appointments occasionally. Anyone who knows me would know this creates a major crisis. Anyway, a few days into the new Fuze gives me hope that we may have found something that works. Joseph Love, in our information services group, worked really hard to learn yet another PDA so that he could help me adapt to the new device. As dean of a school at a public university, I should be reachable most hours of the day, making a working PDA a pretty important communication tool for me to have. Now I am carrying three but hope to give up one of them soon — and make it available to someone else in the School.

On December 24 and 25, my husband Bernard, labs Tyler and Faulkner, and I discovered some new trails in the area where we live. It’s amazing how lovely the woods are this time of year (Robert Frost had it right.). We walked for nearly 4.5 miles and did not see another person. It may be snowy in Michigan, icy in New Hampshire and cold and rainy in New York City, but here in North Carolina it’s been in the 60s.

This week, we count down as the year ends, and we welcome the new one. It has been a year of great highs and lows, but we are ready for change.

Happy Monday and enjoy the week. Barbara

Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni and Other Friends,

It may feel like a spring day in Chapel Hill, but Christmas is just a few days away. I’ve heard from some of you in Maine, Boston and Michigan where you are enveloped in snow—much nicer (except when you lose electricity) than the fog that’s surrounded us the last few mornings. The School is so quiet that even the guards commented on it to me last night as I was leaving. I miss the enthusiastic conversations in the atrium of our School and the lobby outside Rosenau Hall. It’s been a strange holiday season, because of the economy, more muted, less frenzied and maybe in the end, that will be one of the few good things about a bad economy.

My husband and I spent a couple days in Blowing Rock, and it reminded me what a beautiful state this is, and how accessible much of it is to Chapel Hill. Here’s a picture of the mountain. I’ve decided that whenever we can, we should buy local and spend in the state.

Last week, Tyler Hansbrough broke the Tar Heels’ basketball scoring record, and Chapel Hill rejoiced. It was wonderful. Here’s a picture my friend Penny Hodgson caught on camera!

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing over the holidays, I hope your days are pleasant and healthy.  For some of you, the holidays may be bittersweet. You have lost wives, husbands, partners, parents, children and friends. My thoughts are with you. We remember Michelle Mayer, Patricia Meador, Laura Zaks and others who died in the last year. We will miss them, but their spirits live on in their legacies. Some of our faculty, staff and students are battling life-threatening diseases. Our thoughts are with you. And some very special people are retiring—like Ramona Womble, who has been head of HR at the School since 2000.

While the economy is in a downturn, this School has been blessed by truly great faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends. Our friends (some of whom work for the School) have pitched in to help with scholarships, unrestricted funds, professorships and other support for this spectacular institution. I am so grateful for all your support and counsel and awed by all you accomplish.

Best wishes to you all for wonderful holidays surrounded by family and friends. Thank you for all you do for this wonderful School.

With warmest regards,
Barbara

Commencement

I just got back from attending my 4^th winter commencement. Commencements are an acquired taste, and I have acquired the taste although I never enjoyed my own and ignored two out of my three graduations. Who could not love the congregation of 2600+ UNC graduates, their families and UNC faculty and staff! Who would not get a chill from looking out upon a sea of Carolina blue! Who wouldn’t enjoy the enthusiastic hoots and whistles of families and friends as their beloved graduates had their day! I love seeing the peach velvet hoods of our graduate students and knowing that some undergraduates are graduating with our degree as well. And it’s fun to stand next to Dean Williams (Dentistry) (We sit in the order we are called to read the names of our School’s degrees.) and link arms as we sing Hark the Sound. Today, about 170 of our students received degrees and certificates. We are proud of each and every one of you. It took a village to get where you are today—family, friends and faculty, staff and students at the School and University. Best wishes as you head out into the next chapter in your life journey. Please stay in touch with us and keep us up to date on your email address.

Valerie Ashby, PhD, Gordon and Bowman Gray Distinguished Term Professor (2007-2012) of Chemistry UNC, gave the commencement address. She did a great job, talked some about service and proved my hypothesis that all roads lead to the School of Public Health by talking about one of her students now in the Peace Corps who is planning to get graduate training in public health. Read her speech.

Happy Monday! Barbara

Last week

Last week ran in super speed as will this one. The closer we get to the end of a term, the faster we all run. That includes faculty, staff and students. It is hard to believe that winter commencement is a week from today (I am writing this Sunday night.)

A delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), led by His Excellency Secretary General Majid Al Mansouri, visited the School as part of a site visit for the contract Environmental Sciences and Engineering (ESE) has with The Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi (EAD). We are conducting a comprehensive environmental assessment and making recommendations for mitigation of risks and active steps to improve the environment. What’s really exciting is that we are collecting data at multiple levels, such as household, individual and community, and many of the collection methods are state-of-the-art (such as David Leith’s air monitors). In addition to environmental data, we also are collecting data about what people eat, their exercise and related issues. The society is in such a state of development that everything has changed rapidly in less than 50 years—that includes peoples’ diets. The project is multi-agency within the UAE, but at the School here, it is multi-departmental as well.

We had dinner Monday night at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. It was an impressive group that included not just the delegation and members of our faculty, staff and student body, but a number of local notables, including state legislators Sen. Ellie Kinnaird (D-Orange) and Representatives Verla Insko (D-Orange) and Bill Faison (D-Orange), as well as Don, Jennifer and Chelsea Holzworth, Joan Gillings, Dan Pollitt, Michael Cucchiara and many others. As usual, Jerry Salak showed that he really knows how to throw a party.

We had three full days of meetings and various tours. Jacqueline MacDonald, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor, ESE, is overall PI, with Ivan Rusyn, PhD, MD, Associate Professor, ESE, Andrew F. Olshan, PhD, MS, Chair and Professor, Epidemiology and Melinda Moore, MD, MPH, Senior Health Researcher, RAND Corporation as co-PIs. We have a great team. For more about the project, see our Web site.

Acting NIH director Raynard Kington, MD, announced the new head of NIEHS to be Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD, MS, DABT, ATS. She seems to be really a great choice and happens to be an adjunct professor in ESE.

Have you seen the beautiful quilt hanging in splendid color in the Michael Hooker Research Center atrium? It’s really an impressive sight.  The kite hanging in the School’s atrium features quilt squares honoring people living with HIV. A collaboration of the School’s Student Global Health Committee and the annual N.C. AIDS Walk + Ride fundraiser, the project is displayed in recognition of World AIDS Day, December 1.

More bad budget news

It was another depressing week in terms of the national budget—over 500,000 jobs lost in the most recent unemployment news. A friend was waiting to hear whether his name would be added to that list. It feels closer. At the School, we are doing various projections to determine how we would deal with different levels of budget cuts should the state income tax projections turn out to be far less than needed. Leaders across the School have been discussing budget issues. We all feel the pain of cuts. We especially want to protect the School’s human capital as we make budget cuts. The School now has a great finance team, led by Charlotte Nunez-Wolff, EdD. If only they could print money! :)

Final exams and vacations

Our students have been studying hard from what I can tell. I see them first thing in the morning and then see many of them late at night when I leave work. Best wishes to everyone for good exams and great vacations. We’ll miss you!

I know it is going to get better. I just wish it would hurry up! Happy Monday. Barbara