News Room

Short-term investors are widely seen as bad for they companies they invest in, because they are likely to focus on immediate changes in stock value — potentially at the expense of the company’s long-term profitability. But new research suggests that there may be times when a short-term focus can actually help companies perform better over the long run. The study, expected to be published in the scholarly journal Management Science, found that companies with more short-horizon investors — who trade stocks regularly — adapted more quickly when their competitive environments changed “radically.”

COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented disruptions to American life, and these disturbances extend to elections. Increased voting by mail can help ensure participation in the midst of pandemic while also protecting the voting public and poll workers. Poll workers are especially a concern, as they would interact with potentially hundreds or thousands of voters on Election Day. A majority of poll workers are above the age of 60, placing them in one of the most vulnerable groups for the coronavirus.

Professors and researchers from institutions across the country are working to understand how changing circumstances in student’s lives are affecting their well-being during the current pandemic. University of Iowa College of Engineering Dean Harriet Nembhard is working to survey students during the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters with North Carolina State University professors Julie Ivy, Maria Mayorga, and Julie Swann, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University professor Lauren Davis.

As colleges across the US continue to close and suspend classes because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the University of Illinois is taking a different approach. While some schools are testing students when they first arrive on campus, the University of Illinois is requiring its students to be tested for COVID-19 twice a week, using rapid saliva tests that provide results within hours. Students are only allowed inside campus buildings if they receive negative test results, which are kept up-to-date on a health-tracking app.

Robert F. Orr, a retired associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, has been a conservative his whole life. He realizes his politics might seem at odds with his vehement objection to the NCAA, a position that’s blossomed over the last decade. In 2010, when University of North Carolina fullback Devon Ramsay was under investigation for alleged academic impropriety, Orr advised him and his family as they dealt with the NCAA’s appeals process. Ramsay was a little-known player when his team became infamous that year. Several star players were investigated and suspended for receiving improper benefits from agents, a scandal followed by more allegations, this time of academic malfeasance. The school’s probe resulted in Ramsay being accused of plagiarism and withheld from competition.