UNC Chapel Hill is getting the word out.

That's my conclusion, anyhow, from a new analysis of the nation's colleges and universities and their ability to get their brand out into the public realm via global print and electronic media, Twitter, blogs and social media.

The analysis comes courtesy of the Global Language Monitor. UNC-CH ranks 9th and is one of four major public universities in the top 10. Michigan tops the list, ahead of MIT and Harvard.

The top 10:
1) Michigan
2) MIT
3) Harvard
4) Columbia
5) University of Chicago
6) University of California-Berkeley
7) University of Wisconsin-Madison
8) Stanford
9) UNC-CH
10) Cornell

Duke placed 24th on the list.

Sam Stephenson, the director of the Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, will be interviewed by Ann Curry on NBC’s "Today" show tomorrow morning (Friday, Nov. 13).

The Jazz Loft Project, based at the CDS at Duke, is promoting the release of a new book: The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957–1965.

The book tells stories of life in a dilapidated, five-story loft building in Manhattan’s flower district where some of the biggest names in jazz jammed with underground musicians and crossed paths with assorted other figures, from famed writers and artists (Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus, Salvador Dali) to thieves, addicts, prostitutes, local cops, marijuana dealers, and photography students.

According to CDS, the segment is scheduled to air at 9:43 a.m. EST. Tune in to NBC, or you can visit the Today Show website tomorrow to watch after the broadcast.

Duke broke ground today on a big new cancer center, one half of a $700 million construction project designed at least in part to enhance the health care system's global brand.

The cancer center, slated to open in 2012, follows a similar project at UNC Chapel Hill, which just opened its own cancer hospital.

The Duke facility will put cancer research and clinical services under one roof and will come as cancer rates continue to rise. The N.C. health department has predicted a 16 percent hike in cancer cases from 2006 to 2011, with a 21 percent hike in the Triangle over that same time period.

Jarring stuff, and sobering enough to prompt Gov. Beverly Perdue, who attended the Friday ceremony, to say "I don't ask if I'll be diagnosed, but when, because it's so prevalent among us."

For more, read Saturday's News & Observer.

At UNC Chapel Hill, student leaders are bringing back an old tradition: the homecoming parade.

Homecoming is this weekend in Chapel Hill, and Carolina takes on Duke in football at 3:30 p.m. The parade will start at 11 a.m. at the Columbia Street/Cameron Avenue intersection.

As Student Body President Jasmin Jones writes today in the Chapel Hill News, student leaders want the event to be a town/gown initiative.

The last homecoming parade is believed to have been in 1993, according to this Daily Tar Heel report.

The number of high school seniors applying to Duke University through the Early Decision process rose 32 percent from last year.
 
Those who apply via this process commit to enrolling at Duke if accepted. That decision comes in December.

“Last year, we received 1,535 Early Decision applicants, which had been our second highest total,” Christoph Guttentag, Duke's undergraduate admissions dean, said in a Tuesday news release.  “This year, we’ve recorded 2,040.”
 
Guttentag attributed the increase to a number of factors. For one, a rise in applications last year - 17 percent over the previous year - that got people's attention. Also, Duke and other universities have in recent years placed a greater emphasis on student aid, leading more students to apply.

At Duke University, layoffs are still a possibility as the university works its way through budget problems.

So said Kyle Cavanaugh, the university's head of human resources, in a recent information session for employees interested in a retirement incentive program.

But Duke has made progress so far. In October, Duke offered the first incentive program to 198 salaried employees.  Then, an incentive plan for hourly employees attracted nearly 300 participants.

Duke is trying to shave $125 million from its annual operating budget.

Duke will hold more information sessions for employees this month.

For more info, read this.

Duke University has set an ambitious goal: Become climate neutral by 2024.

Plenty of universities are going in this direction, making public declarations of their intent to cease harmful carbon emission activity. But most have set a 2050 goal. Duke's is far more aggressive.

Read more here.

Duke Trustee David Rubenstein has donated $5.75 million to the university's Sanford School of Public Policy.

The gift will be used in three areas, Duke officials said in announcing the gift Tuesday. It will provide $3.5 million for the school's endowment to support its program in Environmental and Energy Policy; $1.125 million will be used to fund a speakers series, and $1.125 million will support internships for master's students.

The gift lets Sanford, which recently transitioned from an institute to a formal "school" designation, hit a $40 million fundraising benchmark. The school ultimately hopes to raise $65 million.

Rubenstein is a Baltimore native and 1970 Duke graduate. He is the co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms. Rubenstein Hall, which opened in 2005 on campus, bears his name in recognition of a previous $5 million gift.

Duke University joined other colleges across the country on a list it would have preferred to avoid: academic institutions whose endowments have been rocked by the recession.

Duke's endowment lost 24.3 percent of its value for the year that ended June 30, reports our brother blog, Campus Notes. The endowment has returned an average of 10 percent a year for the past decade.

Duke, like major research institutions across the nation, was hit hard by turmoil on Wall Street. The endowment is now worth $4.4 billion.

Duke University's endowment lost more than 24 percent of its value last year.

Duke, like major research institutions across the nation, was hit hard by the recession last year. The endowment lost 24.3 percent of its value and is now worth $4.4 billion, according to this new report.

With less money to pull from its endowment for operational costs, Duke officials spent much of the last year looking for ways to ease, over three years, a $125 million budget shortfall.

They did so in part by offering incentives for workers to retire and by freezing construction projects.