The Daily Clips

Foxboro, Mass.

Published: Thursday, December 13, 2012 11:43 AM EST

‘Yellow is,’ a photograph by Katie Murray.

Murray captures a moment in life

By Caroline Smith

What does ‘still life’ mean in today’s fast-paced world?

Foxboro High School grad Katie Murray was asked that thought-provoking question and answered it with a photograph. As a result, the senior at East Carolina University earned a spot on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art with her work entitled “Yellow Is.”

The museum asked college students to submit works based on that question for their new exhibition, “A Life, Still.” The exhibit was created to correspond with “Still-Life Masterpieces: A Visual Feast” from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Educators and both ECU faculty and students collaborated for more than 10 months to plan, create and promote the exhibition for entries. Following the promotion, there were 182 submissions. The works included both 2-dimensional and video art from students of 21 universities, 13 states and two continents.

Murray’s entry was chosen to be among just 29 selected pieces.

Her still life photo, “Yellow Is,” shows a plate of fried eggs and a glass of orange juice sitting on top of the morning paper. This scene is caught by the light of the morning sun shining through the window onto a wooden table.

In Murray’s artist statement, she explains, “Life is continuously moving and changing but I’ve found that no matter how much time goes by and how much is going on in our lives, there are certain moments that remain still…They are a part of you because they are still, even when everything else around you is not.”

The judges agreed. “The clean, organized composition sets this moment apart from the other hours in life,” they wrote. It is clear that this piece has clearly given new insight on the meaning of still life.

Murray’s passion for art, of course, had to begin somewhere. “As a kid I enjoyed art and being creative. I took art classes, which were always my favorite, throughout high school with Ms. Cahan.”

Mary Anne Cahan, an art teacher at FHS, had influenced her love for art greatly. “I looked forward to her class everyday.” Murray also gives credit to English teacher Walter Mitchell at FHS for impacting her interest in art. “I had told him that I wanted to make a positive impact on at least one person and he was just really encouraging.”

Murray is dual-majoring in graphic design and photography at ECU.

“It’s a lot of work balancing both but I love what I get to study, create, and work on every day because I’m dealing with concepts and meaningful ideas” Murray says.

Although initially majoring in business and marketing at ECU, Murray soon realized how much she had missed being involved in art and switched majors her freshman year. “My intuition inspired me to continue art in college.”

“She’s great at everything she does” says Sharon Murray, Katie’s mom.

Katie had worked as a design intern at Snap Fusion in Andover over the summer.

“I absolutely loved every minute of it,” she says. “I kept pinching myself being like I can’t believe I found a passion that I really enjoy and at the same time allows me to continue learning, questioning, discovering, and creating.”

Murray’s work, along with the other pieces of “A Life, Still,” will be on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, N.C. through Jan. 13.

Published: December 13, 2012

CHRIS SEWARD – 2004 NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Terry Holland shows off his ECU cap at a press conference in 2004 where it was announced that Holland would be the school’s new athletic director.

ECU’s mission is to find another Terry Holland

Caulton Tudor – staff columnist – ctudor@newsobserver.com

Terry Holland, at age 70, deserves to have a long, happy retirement, but East Carolina is fortunate that its athletics director will continue to have some impact on the department’s future.

Holland announced his pending retirement Wednesday but will remain as AD emeritus and play a role in the selection of his successor.

The news coincides with preparations for the second bowl appearance in football coach Ruffin McNeill’s three seasons and the recent news that ECU football will move from Conference USA to the Big East. Jeff Lebo’s third basketball team will take a 6-1 record into Saturday’s game at UNC.

HARRY LYNCH – hlynch@newsobserver.com
From left, UNC freshmen Laura Gamo and Lucas John and sophomore Haley Ross got some hands on time with Mickey, an 11-year-old basenji, Wednesday in the Park Library. Mickey was one of this fall’s therapy dog exam week diversions.

Published: December 13, 2012

Therapy dogs are stressed students’ best friends

By Gloria Lloyd – glloyd@newsobserver.com

CHAPEL HILL — As students studied for exams at UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday, smiles were hard to come by – except in the journalism library.

There, students took a break from leads and libel law and lined up to high-five Mickey, an 11-year-old therapy dog, who went from student to student so they could pet him, scratch his ears and rub his chest.

As four students surrounded the dog, he calmly extended his neck to make it easier for them to pet him at once.

Mickey was one of three therapy dogs taken to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help students to de-stress on Reading Day, a day set aside for studying. In addition to Mickey, therapy dogs Bear and Whiskey each took shifts snuggling with students.

A staple program of hospitals and nursing homes, therapy dogs are appearing on campuses as colleges work to reduce stress for students. Librarian Stephanie Willen-Brown got the idea after hearing about a similar program at the University of Connecticut. The dogs went over so well with students last December that last semester the journalism library expanded the program to two days, and this semester the undergraduate library held its own therapy dog hours.

“It definitely improved my mood,” said freshman Laura Gamo, 18, who has two exams left.

Mickey, a basenji that never barks, has been certified through Therapy Dogs International for seven or eight years, mostly visiting nursing, retirement and assisted-living homes, where older people enjoy his friendly, calm demeanor and curly tail. Owner Emily Silverman, who works for the Friends of the Library at UNC-CH, started taking Mickey along when she visited a family member in a nursing home and noticed his connection with the residents.

“Especially with older folks, he seems to prompt really great memories they had with their own dogs and pets,” Silverman said. “It seems to be a comfort.”

Several students said they miss dogs they left behind when they went to school. Junior Courtney Lindstrand’s black Labrador retriever, Duchess, is back home in Greenville.

“I miss my dog so much, especially during exams,” Lindstrand said as she took a break from studying for her media law class to pet Mickey. “I’ll be home on Friday, so this is my little placeholder right now.”

Lindstrand, who has one exam left, posted pictures of therapy dog Whiskey to her Instagram after last week’s event.

“It got a lot of likes,” she said. “We were all tweeting about it, because we’re journalism majors. That’s what we do.”

Willen-Brown and the journalism school’s event coordinator, Megan Garrett, created Facebook events and posted pictures of the dogs to Twitter with the hashtag #jomcdogs.

Staffers and professors stressed by grading and the holidays also enjoy the dogs’ visits. After last week’s event, assistant director of admissions Melissa Kotacka posted pictures of Bear on the admissions blog, with anti-stress tips she said were inspired by the fluffy dog, including, “Ask for a helping hand.”

“This is the event I plan every year that I need more than it needs me,” Garrett said.

She posts fliers with the dogs’ pictures so students with allergies can judge whether to visit a particular dog. Mickey and Whiskey have much shorter hair than the gregarious, long-haired Bear, who leaves the carpet covered in fur after his visits.

Published: December 12

U-Va. receives warning from accreditors after failed ouster of president in June

By Jenna Johnson

The University of Virginia’s accrediting body has placed the elite public flagship “on warning” for allegedly violating two compliance standards when members of the school’s governing board covertly planned an ouster of President Teresa A. Sullivan, privately asking her to resign in early June and then unanimously reinstating her 18 days later.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which accredits schools in 11 states in the South, had accused the U-Va. Board of Visitors of compromising the university’s integrity, not having a formal policy for involving faculty in making decisions and not following its governance requirements, which forbid a small number of members from controlling the board.

On Tuesday, commission trustees announced that they determined that the university was not in compliance in two of the three areas: those concerning faculty involvement and following governance requirements.

The U-Va. board has repeatedly denied the allegations. In written correspondence with the commission this fall, board leaders maintained that although mistakes were made during the failed ouster — which threw the historic Charlottesville campus into turmoil — the board never violated accreditation standards, state laws or its own policies.

The commission has placed the university on warning for one year and will send a team to Charlottesville early next year to investigate further, according to an e-mail U-Va. Provost John D. Simon sent to the school community Tuesday afternoon. Simon is handling the inquiry; Sullivan has recused herself from the process.

“This action does not imply any criticism of the University’s academic quality and programs, nor does it affect the institution’s ability to receive federal aid, including financial aid and sponsored research,” Simon wrote, adding that the university “pledges to work diligently to address the concerns cited by the commission.”

A warning is one of the commission’s lesser sanctions, though it could lead to a school later facing probation, according to a policy posted on the commission’s Web site. The longest a school can remain on warning is two years. Accreditation is required for universities to receive federal funding, and concerns about a school’s standing can hurt its reputation.

Belle S. Wheelan, president of the commission, has said that it would be “very unusual” for U-Va. to lose its accreditation. She described such a warning as “a black mark on an institution,” but said Tuesday that she expects U-Va. to address the commission’s findings.

“I have every faith that they will do everything they need to do in the next 12 months to come into compliance,” Wheelan said.

It has been six months since the university’s leadership crisis, but questions remain about what exactly happened, the specific reasons Sullivan was asked to resign and what changes occurred to motivate the board to unanimously reinstate her. In early November, the U-Va. board voted to extend Sullivan’s contract for another year, through July 2016.

The leader of the board, Rector Helen Dragas, has remained in her position despite hundreds of calls from faculty, alumni and others for her resignation. Soon after Sullivan was reinstated, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) reappointed Dragas to the board for another term.

The U-Va. board has also enacted changes aimed at preventing its repeating missteps that occurred in June. The board’s manual now requires that appointment, “removal, requested resignation, or amendment of the contract or terms of employment of the President may be accomplished only by vote of a majority (or, by statute, two-thirds in the case of removal) of the whole number of Visitors at a regular meeting, or special meeting called for this purpose.” The board also plans to institute quarterly evaluations of the president and to better involve faculty members.