UNC School of the Arts alum Zach Seivers (Class of 2006) won an Emmy for Outstanding Sound and Editing for Nonfiction Programming at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmy ceremony. Seivers won for his work on "Gettysburg," which aired on The History Channel.

Seivers is originally from Mount Airy and this was his first Emmy nomination. Seivers was the sound designer on "Gettysburg" and shared the award with sound editors Charles Maynes, who was a guest artist in the School of Filmmaking in 2006, and Brent Kiser.

Seivers is the chief operating officer of SNAPSOUND, a post-production sound company in Los Angeles.

The North Carolina School of the Arts has announced that three of their alumni were included in Emmy nominations announced yesterday.

-Zach Seivers (2006) received a nomination for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming for his role as sound designer on "Gettysburg," which aired on the History Channel. UNCSA says other UNCSA alumni worked on "Gettysburg," which received a total of seven nominations. Seivers is originally from Mt. Airy.

UNC School of the Arts chancellor John Mauceri has released a new studio recording of the George and Ira Gershwin 1930 Broadway classic, "Strike Up the Band."

An earlier version of the score was released in 1991, but the final score, which was extensively revised by the Gershwins, was never fully tracked until now.

The disc was released by PS Classics, a label devoted to American theatre music and popular song.

Mauceri conducted the 28-piece orchestra featured on the score. The final project was completed this spring. You can get more details at Playbill.

Mauceri has been the chancellor at UNCSA since 2006. He was a consultant for music theater at Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for more than a decade, and for 18 years, Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein and conducted many of the composer’s premieres at Bernstein’s request.

And in other news, the sun came up this morning.

For the 10th straight year, Kiplinger's Personal Finance has named UNC-Chapel Hill the best value among public colleges.

The top ranking can be found in the magazine's February 2011 issue, which is now available on newsstands and at www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges.

Some parents may scoff at this particular ranking, given that tuition at Carolina and all public four-year universities jumped significantly last year thanks to a two-pronged tuition hike needed to help fill a state budget hole.

But Kiplinger says UNC-CH is still far ahead of the curve.

"Despite rising tuition costs, there are still many first-rate institutions providing outstanding academics at an affordable price," said Janet Bodnar, the magazine's editor, in a news release.

At UNC-CH, tuition and fees for an in-state undergrad runs about $6,665 this year, with the total cost of attendance, factoring room, board, books and other incidentals, is about $19,764.

Nationally, the average annual in-state sticker price of a public college is $16,140, according to Kiplinger.

The magazine specifically cites recent moves at UNC-CH to hire 120 junior faculty members, expand its honors program and create a new enrichment program for top freshmen, all while cutting $36 million in operating costs.

It's interesting that the junior faculty hires caught the magazine's eye, and points to the continued importance of private money at public universities.

Some of those hires were made possible by a $5 million private gift in March of last year from the William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust. That gift, coupled with a $500,000 anonymous gift for the same purpose, freed the university to hire 18 new junior faculty members.

In fact, even with tight budgets, universities across the region are still looking to add young faculty members. Given the nation's economic problems, universities that do have some money to spend are finding they have the pick of a talented crop of budding academicians.

Several other UNC system campuses make the list as well. N.C. State is 15th on the list, UNC-Wilmington is 27th, Appalachian State is 35th, UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem is 48th and UNC-Asheville is 58th.

The University of Florida is number 2 on the list.

Ethan Stiefel, the School of Dance dean at the North Carolina School of the Arts, will make a cameo appearance on the CW drama "Gossip Girl" Monday night.

Stiefel will appear with his partner, Gillian Murphy, a UNC School of the Arts alumna. Stiefel and Murphy (in the center at left) are both principlal dancers with the American Ballet Theatre, and they will appear on the show as themselves.

Oscar and Tony award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden debuted her role as surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Blair on USA Network's "Royal Pains" last night (she was also great as the morally conflicted corporate lawyer in Season 2 of "Damages" on FX). On "Royal Pains," it looks like her Dr. Blair is going to be Liz's hospital nemesis. Reports have her on the show for "several episodes."

Harden was the guest artist at the UNC School of the Arts School of Drama in April. Below is a photo of her with Drama Dean Gerald Freedman, speaking to students there.

"Royal Pains" airs on Thursday nights at 10pm on USA.

In the UNC School of the Arts, North Carolinians have a rare resource - a public fine arts school that routinely produces talented musicians, actors and the like.

North Carolina is just one of three states with such an institution, New York and Massachusetts being the other two. And while it's hard to argue with the talent created by the school, this question remains: Should such a school, which costs more per student than any other public campus in the state and caters to a small population, be supported by tax dollars?

That's the crux of a question tackled in a new report from the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. In it, author Max Borders questions whether a school that enrolls just 1,161, including 289 high schoolers who go for free, should be a public initiative.

In an accompanying column, the Pope Center's George Leef writes that the school's original purpose when created in 1965 - to help the state "escape the stereotype of being a 'cultural wasteland', " hasn't quite happened.

Put another way: What is the public benefit for North Carolina?

Click here to read the report.