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Doin’ the hokey pokey
Lori Walker, a UNC graduate who coaches at the University of Maryland, instructs Coree
Riggs, 15, on a technique during UNC's Girls Soccer Camp earlier this month.
Downtown businesses
survive slow summer,
anticipate fall boom
By Bill Blocker
Staff Writer
Although Chapel Hill retail shops
are competing with the summer heat for
business, the local economy is continu
ing to grow fueled in part by the Tar
Heel’s NCAA basketball championship.
“We’ve had about a $5-million in
crease in the past year,” said Joel Harper,
president of the Chapel Hill-Cairboro
Chamber of Commerce.
“You could judge the ebb and flow
(of the economy) to a small degree on
football games and that sort of thing,”
he said.
The chamber’s main effort is to work
with elected officials to ensure that lo
cal businesses keep with free-market
principles and do what is best for the
community, he said.
Shelton Henderson, owner of The
Shrunken Head Boutique, 155 E.
Franklin St., said the NCAA victory
had attracted visitors to Chapel Hill
from all over the country.
“Our business is wonderful,” he said.
“It’s always wonderful, of course, that
the national (championships) make ev
erything improve.”
Tim Ogbum, branch manager of
Wachovia Bank, said commerce in
Chapel Hill was busy. “There’s cer
tainly a lot going on. Construction, com
mercial properties are being built, and
businesses are opening,” he said.
“We have an increased demand for
banking services and credit services
which generally means businesses are
expanding.”
Chris Belcher, owner of C.O. Cop
ies, 169 E. Franklin St., said this year
seemed better than the last. “Everyone
knows Chapel Hill is slow in the sum
mer,” he said. “The summer confer
ences and the camps help a lot”
Belcher said local business people
and residents thought construction on
the new Rosemary Street parking deck
added to the normally slow business
climate during the summer.
“Hopefully when we have parking
again people will be encouraged to come
downtown,” he said.
Charles House, owner of University
Commissioners to consider revamping
By Jada Overton
Staff Writer
In two weeks, Orange County resi
dents will be able to air their concerns
about the way they could be better rep
resented on the Orange County Board
of Commissioners.
The Orange County Board of Com
missioners and the Committee for Fair
Representation will meet with area resi
dents Tuesday to determine whether the
election process for commissioners ig
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Chapel Hill retail
sales growth
1981 Ji $195,014,600 1.2
1982 $206,116,328 5.7
1983 $221,116,328 7.6
1984 $244,990,347 10.5
**■**' $288,124,108 17.6
1986 $315,984,975 9.7
1987 $319,892,920 1.2
1988 $349,259,998 9.2
1989 H $368,562,732 5.5
1990 $345,181,675 -6.3
1991 $363,815,953 5.4
1992 $400,862,436 10.2
Source: N.C. Dept, of Revenue
Florist and Gift Shop, 124 E. Franklin
St., said that in the past few months,
flower sales countrywide had improved.
“We’ve seen an up tick in sales,” he
said. “I feel we will have a modest gain
over the long haul.”
With the advent of malls and shop
ping areas only a car drive away, many
retail stores have not been able to sur
vive increasing rent downtown, said
Steve Kronberger, owner of Whims
Cards and Gifts, 122 E. Franklin St.
‘Traffic in general downtown hasn’t
improved in years,” he said. “(But)
there’s a slight increase. I don’t think
it’s going to get any worse.”
Ken Jackson, owner of Wentworth &
Sloan Jewelers Inc., 167E.FranklinSt.,
said his summer revenue had increased
because he did business outside Chapel
Hill. “Our business has done well over
the summer,” he said. “Traditionally,
summer is a slow time for us.”
John Woodard, Jr., owner of Sutton’s
Drug Store, 159 E. Franklin St., said
that with so many students and resi
dents traveling during the summer, sales
naturally decreased.
“We’re real excited about the pros
pect of a real good fall,” he said. “It’s
been a while since we’ve had a good fall
businesswise.”
nores the needs of the county ’ s rural and
more conservative residents.
“We need to discuss different forms
of government,” said Marc Marcoplos,
a member of the Committee for Fair
Representation. “We need to look at
different ways to elect the officials.”
Marcoplos, who ran unsuccessfully
for a county commissioners’ seat in
November, said he thought district rep
resentation, if crafted the right way,
could work in Orange County as an
alternative to at-large representation.
CAMPUS AND CITY
Administrator suing UNC
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associate Editor
When Associate Dean of Informa
tion Systems Kirk Aune noticed some
thing fishy going on with state resources
and School of Medicine employees, he
thought he would be safe reporting it.
But Aune claims in a lawsuit filed in
Orange County Superior Court that
marriage and money got in the way.
Soon after he told administrators
about the incident, he lost his contract
with the University. Aune claims in the
suit against the University and his bosses
that he is paying —with his job and
reputation due to conflict of interest
among some top UNC administrators.
Aune, who administers the Office of
Information Systems for the School of
Medicine, learned that some medical
school employees could be misusing
state resources. But when he reported it
in 1991 to Stuart Bondurant, dean of the
medical school, nothing happened.
UNC housing could be tight
due to large freshman class
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associate Editor
If you are a female student planning
to live in University housing, you might
find yourself living in extra close quar
ters this fall.
University admissions officers ex
pect this year’s freshman class to be one
of the largest in University history. And
the extra students are creating a strain
on the Department of University Hous
ing, which expects more freshmen
women than it can house under normal
circumstances.
If all the students who were accepted
to the University decide to attend and
live in the residence halls, some stu
dents might find themselves living three
to a two-person room.
Housing has sent letters to all women
signed up to live in residence halls ask
ing them to notify housing if they have
General Assembly expects
higher graduation rates
By Yi-Hsin Chang
Editor
The N.C. General Assembly sent a message to the UNC
system through two paragraphs inserted in the recently ap
proved state budget: improve 4-year graduation rates.
The section mandates that the universities improve the
average number of hours full-time undergraduates take to 15
credit hours by December 1997.
In addition, students who take more than 140 hours for a
degree in a four-year program or more than 110 percent of the
hours necessary to complete a five-year program will have to
pay 25 percent more in tuition.
Provost Richard McCormick said that it would not be
difficult for the University to meet the 15-hour average
requirement. “We’re already at 14.7 percent or something,”
he said, adding that it would not be necessary to require
students to take 15 hours to be considered full-time students.
The tuition surcharge also would not affect most students.
If a student takes 12 hours per semester, he or she could spend
5 1/2 years here without having to pay the extra 25 percent.
The 140-hour limit also excludes hours earned through
Advanced Placement exams or University placement exams
as well as hours earned in summer school.
McCormick called the legislature’s mandate a “warning
shot,” one that would have a marginal effect on students.
UNC-system President C.D. Spangler also said that the
change should not hurt students. “But we’re trying to do
everything we can to not penalize students.”
Student Body President Jim Copland said he and his staff
did not fight the mandate when it was proposed because it did
not seem to affect many students.
Graduation rates at UNC-CH are high and have increased
in the past few years to a four-year graduation rate of 64.8
percent. About 81 percent of the students graduate after five
years. UNC-CH has by far the highest graduation rates in the
UNC system, whose average for graduation after four years
is 28.4 percent. After five years, the average is 50.1 percent.
McCormick said it was unreasonable to expect all students
to graduate in four years.
“I’m unhappy seeing some kind of stigma on students who
District representation allows voters
from a designated area to elect officials
to represent that area’s interests.
County Commissioner Verla Insko
said she thought the issue should be
referred to a neutral body, such as the
League of Women Voters so a group
with a reputation for fairness to study
the issue.
“I would like for them to provide a
public forum to determine whether it is
possible to create a system that’s more
fair,” she said.
He tried again in June 1992 this
time with University Legal Counsel
Susan Ehringhaus. But again nothing
happened.
In April, his contract came up for
review. Aune, who has received regular
raises or promotions since he was ap
pointed director of information systems
in 1986, says the review panel looked
only at negative information.
After the review, his contract was not
renewed. Aune stops working at UNC
at the end of April 1994.
Aune claims that he lost his job be
cause of a conflict of interest inherent in
the system. Ehringhaus and Bondurant
are married.
“The review considered primarily
negative information or didn’t look at
positive information,” Aune said.
Neither Ehringhaus nor Bondurant
could be reached for comment. Both
were out of the office Wednesday morn
ing. Bondurant reportedly was to be
gone until Aug. 9.
alternate plans so housing officials can
determine how many students they have
to place.
“We’re hoping cancellations will
come in so we can start placing stu
dents,” Housing Director Wayne Kuncl
said. “We’re hoping that if there were
upper classmen who signed a residence
hall contract and will not be living in the
residence halls, they will let us know.
“I think we will be able to accommo
date everyone, we just might have to
assign more students to a room than we
normally would.”
Kuncl said housing officials could
assign three people to two-person rooms.
Residence halls on North Campus most
likely will have to take up the extra
students, Kuncl said. North Campus
rooms are older and larger than rooms
on South and Mid-campus.
The extra students reverses a trend
housing has experienced in the past few
UNC-Chapcl Hill
11980 58.2 72.9 75.7 76.9
1981 56.2 71.3 74.6 75.7
1982 54.9 71.2 74.2 75.3
1983 57.4 74.7 78.4 79.8
1984 53.0 72.2 76.1 77.6
1985 59.4 77.3 80.6 81.3
1986 60.4 79.2 81.7
1987 61.3 80.9
1988 64.8
UNC system
1980 28.7 45.7 49.7 51.6
1981 26.6 44.6 49.2 50.6
1982 26.8 44.9 49.4 51.0
1983 25.5 45.4 50.7 52.6
1984 25.6 45.9 51.3 53.2
1985 26.5 46.4 52.5 ! 54.3
1986 25.6 47.5 53.0
1987 27.8 50.1
1988 28.4
Source: UNC General Administration
take more than four years to graduate,” he said. “It assumes
a norm that is not reasonable.”
He cited inadequate high school preparation, work, double
majoring, changing majors and taking a leave of absence as
some reasons why students may not take 15 hours each
semester or graduate in four years.
“There are lots of good reasons why students take more
than four years to graduate,” he said. “Not every student
should be taking 15 hours.”
See GRADUATION, page 5
election process
“We could see which precincts (in
1990 and 1992) were carried by candi
dates from rural areas. That would be
one way for me to measure whether
rural residents were unhappy.”
Marcoplos said he thought either
cumulative voting or single-transfer
able voting could help to ensure fair
ness in the county elections. In a cumu
lative voting system, a voter would have
one vote for each commissioner, so a
voter possibly could give all of his votes
to one candidate.
The Daily Tar Heel/Thursday, July 29, 1993/.
Chancellor Paul Hardin did not re
turn phone calls to his home and office
Tuesday, and on Wednesday, his secre
tary said he had left for vacation.
Aune claims in his lawsuit it was
negligent of Bondurant to ignore his
complaints and that Ehringhaus did not
act on them because she was married to
Bondurant.
Bondurant violated the N.C. law that
protects whistle-blowers by failing to
renew his contract, Aune claims.
“It is the belief of the plaintiff that the
decision was made in retaliation for the
aforesaid reports,” the lawsuit reads.
Aune would not comment on the
alleged misconduct of medical school
workers, and it is not explained in detail
in his lawsuit. But he said that after he
reported the incident, his relationship
with his co-workers took a turn for the
worse.
Until the complaint, he had had a
good relationship with Bondurant and
others at work, he said. “I would like to
years. Last year, several residence halls
had vacancies.
The University has about 6,800
spaces available for students. On aver
age, between 2,700 and 2,800 freshmen
live on campus. In addition, Granville
Towers can house about 1,300 students.
Right now, the privately-owned resi
dence hall located off-campus has a
waiting list of about 60 students.
The admissions office expects this
year’s freshman class to be the largest in
University history with more than 200
more students than usual. Classes aver
age about 3,200, said Anthony
Strickland, associate director of Under
graduate Admissions. Last year’s fresh
man class numbered 3,211.
This year, 3,484 students have said
they planned to attend UNC although
admissions officials still expect some
See FRESHMEN, page 5
“It improves the situation for blacks
to be represented and brings rural people
to the table.”
The single-transferable vote would
prevent residents from “wasting” votes,
Marcoplos said. After a particular can
didate receives the number of votes
necessary to win, the excess votes are
transferred to the voter’s second choice.
“These methods are being used all
over the world. It’s just that the United
States is still in the ‘winner take-all’
mentality,” he said.
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think so,” he said.
“I was employed as a result of a
national search,” Aune said. “And my
contract was renewed after five years.”
In addition, Aune claims his reputa
tion has been seriously damaged.
Aune was hired as the director of
information systems in the medical
school and as a research associate pro
fessor in the Department of Biochemis
try and Nutrition. He earned $84,000
then. In 1987, he received a raise to
$89,040. In 1988, he received another
to $94,382.
In 1989, he was appointed associate
dean for information systems, and he
received another raise in 1990. In 1991,
he was reappointed director and associ
ate dean for information systems and
research and associate professor of bio
chemistry and biophysics. In 1992, he
received a raise up to $108,209.
It will be difficult to get another job,
Aune said. But he does not ask for his
job back in the lawsuit.
Two more
to vie for
board seats
By Bill Blocker
Staff Writer
Two Chapel Hill residents entered
the race for a seat on the Chapel Hill-
Carrboro School Board this week, in
creasing the competition among five
candidates for three open spaces.
Bea Hughes-Werner and Mark
Royster, both members of the Blue Rib
bon T ask Force, announced their candi
dacies this week.
The Blue Ribbon Task Force is a
group of about 70
people, designed
to set goals and
recommenda
tions for the
school system to
aid in the aca
demic success of
black students.
Hughes-
Wemer said she
was concerned
about several problems facing the school
system, with deterring violence being
her top priority.
“In sending your child to school, you
have to know the schpbVif safe,” she
said. “Finding arid the be*t
teachers should be a higffjniority, sec
ond only to safety.
“(Students) keep repeating violent or
veiy aggressive behavior in different
forms,” she said. “I’m talking mainly
about middle school kids.”
Currently, there is no policy to handle
problems with students who are violent
in school, she said.
“I want them removed from our
schools so that they don’t present a
safety problem to our kids.
“There should be another school
where they would be required to go
every day.”
Hughes-Wemer, a 20-year resident
of Chapel Hill, said she would like to
consolidate the best academic programs
from each of the schools in the system
to use them for the entire district
“I want to look at all current pro
grams, figure which are working the
best and put them in all the schools.”
Hughes-Werner said the Head Start
program was a high priority. Head Start
provides preschool education for chil
dren of lower-economic families.
“I feel very strongly that’s the most
important,” she said. “I think early in
tervention is the best way.”
Because individuals can make a dif
ference, Hughes-Werner said she was
motivated to seek public office.
“You can bring changes and make
government what you see as more fair
and equitable,” she said.
A parent of two children enrolled in
the school system, she said her work
experience included teaching and do
ing work in environmental genetics.
She added that she was active in the
Inter-Faith Council and the League of
Women Voters.
Mark Royster, the current chairman
of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, an
nounced Tuesday that he planned to vie
for a seat on the school board to pro
mote the work of the task force, help
improve the performance of the aver
age student and work toward decreas
ing violence among students.
“We need to realize that there is
violence in our school system,” he said.
“The majority of our students are aver
age-performance students. We must not
lose sight of that fact so that they don’t
fall into the cracks.”
See SCHOOL, page 6
3