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Law School Information
Day to Bo Held Friday
A Law School Information Day spon
sored by the UNC School of Law, Blade
Law Students Association and Studait Bar
Association will be held Friday at 8:30
a.m.
The conference is open to anyone con
sidering law school.
The session will provide information
about preparation, admission, financial aid
policies and job opportunities. It will also
offer a realistic view of law school and its
demands on students.
Winston Crisp, assistant dean of stu
dents for the law school and a 1992 UNC
graduate, will deliver the conference key
note address.
Assistant Dean for Admissions J. Eliza
beth Furr will offer an overview of admis
sions.
Three concurrent midday sessions will
allow students to attend a simulated class
taught by a law faculty member.
The program is free and will be held at
the Institute of Government and the nearby
law school. Registration is required.
UNC Biologist to Receive
Lifetime Mentoring Award
The American Association for the Ad
vancement of Science will honor Lawrence
Gilbert, William Rand Kenan Jr. profes
sor of biology, for promoting science ca
reers for women, minorities and people
with disabilities.
Gilbert will receive the 1995 AAAS
Lifetime Achievement Mentor Award at
the group’s annual Meeting in Baltimore
on Feb. 10.
The professor’s former students nomi
nated him for the award.
Gilbert is a 1950 graduate of Long Is
land University. He earned his master’s
degree in 1955 at New York University
and his doctorate from Cornell in 1958.
He taught at Northwestern University
from 1958 until 1980, when he joined the
UNC faculty.
Fraternity Raises 3,000
Pounds for IFC Shelter
The Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity col
lected 3,000 pounds of canned goods for
the Inter-Faith Council Homeless Shelter
last week.
The project was an effort to help meet
the food needs of the surrounding areas.
The effort was part of the North American
Food Drive, the fraternity’s national phi
lanthropy.
Lambda Chi Alpha has been donating
canned goods to the IFC shelterforthe last
three years. The largest food drives tradi
tionally occur around Thanksgiving.
Business Students Win
Consulting Competition
A team of four MBA students from the
Kenan-Flagler Business School were
awarded the grand prize for the Third
Annual Deloitte & Touche LLP MBA
Consulting Cup Challenge on Nov. 2.
UNC’s and Duke’s business schools
competed, with each school represented
by ten teams.
Competing teams of students were given
an actual case performed by the manage
ment consulting division of Deloitte &
Touche LLP and prepared presentations
in front of a mock board of directors.
Visiting Artist to Speak
On Black Equality Tonight
Asa part of the Hanes Visiting Artists
Lecture Series, Kerry James Marshall will
speak on the “psychological inability on
the part of white Americans to see ‘black’
people as equal and American.”
The free lecture will take place tonight
at 7 p.m. in 218 of Hanes Art Center.
Sale of Nutcrackers to
Benefit Local Charities
Revco Drug Stores will be selling holi
day nutcrackers from now until Dec. 24 or
while supplies last.
Proceeds will benefit the Ronald
McDonald Houses in Chapel Hill and
Durham.
Nine different nutcrackers are available
to choose from; they range in price from
$5.99 for smaller nutcrackers to $9.99 for
larger ones.
Last year, the Chapel Hill and Durham
houses received a total of $12,000 com
bined.
The Ronald McDonald House is a non
profit organization that provides a home
like setting for families of seriously ill chil
dren receiving treatment at nearby hospi
tals.
Mayor-Elect to Address
Leadership Program Grads
Chapel Hill Mayor-elect Rosemary
Waldorf will be the keynote speaker at the
Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Pro
gram graduation Friday at The Siena Ho
tel.
The graduates of the program, which is
sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Chamber of Commerce, spent 10 weeks
meeting community leaders and discuss
ing issues such as local government, Or
ange County health care and crime.
Twenty-six businessmen and business
women will receive their graduation cer
tificates during Friday’s special commence
ment program.
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Five-Foot Python Slithers
Into Apartment’s Kitchen
■ The snake apparently had
lived behind the apartment’s
refrigerator for six months.
BY OLIVIA PAGE
STAFF WRITER
Laura Gross had plans to spend Friday
night with Michael Stipe in a sold-out
Smith Center. But when she arrived home
with her arms full of groceries, she was
greeted by a 5-foot-long ball python, and
her plans changed dramatically.
Gross, a senior from Charlotte, and her
two roommates were warned prior to mov
ing into their apartment on Merritt Mill
Road that the previous renters apparently
had misplaced their pet snake while mov
ing out in May.
But almost six months later, having
seen no signs of the snake, the roommates
had forgotten almost completely about the
missing reptile.
“The snake was sort of a concern when
we moved in, but we really weren’t too
worried about it,” Gross said. “We always
spoke of the snake in a half-joking way, but
we didn’t really think that it was still here.”
On Friday night, however, Gross found
out the “disappearing snake” had reap
Officials: North
Campus Needs
Better lighting
BY RUTH BORLAND
STAFF WRITER
After touring the campus to assess safety, students and Univer
sity officials agreed Wednesday that lighting improvements were
most needed on North Campus.
More lighting is needed in the quad between Hanes and
Gardner Halls, behind Lenoir Dining Hall, in between Lenoir
and Davis Library, in the alley behind Winston Residence Hall
in the Olde Campus Upper Quad and near many North Campus
residence halls, officials said.
The tour route originally did not include any North Campus
dorms, where lighting is poorest, but University Police Chief
Donald Gold and Susan Gelb, University watch coordinator for
student government, asked officials to extend the tour to include
the area.
Some of the lightposts and fixtures on North Campus were
installed when gas was used to light the University.
They do not illuminate the campus as well as the newer lights
on South Campus, said Phil Brooks, a secretary with UNC
Hospitals. Officials said they planned to replace the old lights as
soon as they could, but the process was still in the engineering
stage, he said.
Members of the tour also suggested that the best way to address
exterior lighting concerns on the University was to build a system
of lighted corridors through the heavily traveled parts of the
campus.
“Think of the Student Union and the library as the hub of a
wheel and the dorms and other buildings as spokes off that
wheel,” Gold said.
He said he wanted a system of lighted pathways starting at the
library and extending across campus.
Gelb said she wanted to work with the Buildings and Grounds
Committee, the Physical Plant and the Department of Public
Safety to create a campus map highlighting the brightest path
ways and marking the emergency call boxes.
The tour identified spots on campus that needed better lighting
and monitored people’s feelings about campus lighting and safety,
said John Laetz, the electrical engineer for the Physical Plant who
organized the tour.
“Because of people’s changing feelings, we are always trying to
improve lighting,” Laetz said.
“When construction occurs, it can change the exterior lighting.
Tree and shrub growth can also affect it,” he said. “If something
has changed, this tour lets us find out about it.”
The officials found lighting adequate in the Pit, between Fetzer
and Woollen gyms and on most of South Campus.
‘Cave Painting’ Livens Up
Parking Deck Atmosphere
■ A local artist and students
have received much praise
for their mural on Rosemary
Parking Deck.
BYMEGAN MONTGOMERY
STAFF WRITER
It all began as a joke. But a local artist’s
idea of a joke ended up transforming a dark
parking deck into a multicolored, creative
mural.
Artist Michael Brown, with the assis
tance of many Chapel Hill public school
art students and art teachers, painted the
walls of the new parking deck on Rose
mary Street in the spirit of a “cave paint
ing” theme in April. Brown said the re
sponse from locals and out-of-town visi
tors to the mural had been very positive.
“People said, ‘Wow, that’sanice, funny,
witty addition.’"
Brown said even the parking deck archi
tect felt fairly positive about the alteration
of his work. “I received an overwhelm
ingly and extraordinarily positive reaction, ”
Brown said.
The painting came about as a result of
an art project for the Arts Downtown ‘95
Committee.
UNIVERSITY & CITY
peared. As she set down her second load of
groceries, she noticed a suspicious head
and tail lurking under the kitchen cabinet.
“As soon as I saw the snake, I knew
exactly which snake it was,” Gross said. “I
immediately ran out and looked for my
neighbors, but they weren’t home. Luck
ily, the father of one of my other neighbors
was visiting for the weekend, so he came
over and hit the snake with a broom and
told me to call 911.”
After calling 911 and learning an ani
mal control officer was on the way, Gross
perched herself on a stool four feet away
from the snake and watched it patiently as
she waited for help to arrive.
“I know it sounds strange that I just sat
there and watched it, but I didn’t want it to
escape into another part of the house and
lose it again,” she said.
The snake remained almost motionless
until the moment before animal control
arrived. As the officer came through the
door, the snake quickly headed for the
cover of the refrigerator and positioned
itself safely around the coils.
The officer was afraid of injuring the
snake because of the awkwardness of reach
ing it, so she called for more help. Eventu
ally, a snake specialist from animal control
arrived and removed the snake from its
hiding place.
DTH/CELESTE IOYE
Ed Donegan, owner of Judges Coffee Roastery, checks on the Diedrick roaster in the front of
the shop. Donegan says with the cold weather, the industry expects an increase in business.
“The painting was Michael Brown’s
idea,” said Robert Humphreys of the
Downtown Commission, who also worked
on the committee for the project. “It was
sort of a play on the idea people have of
parking decks being like a cave, a subterra
nean world, and he played off on the idea
of a cave. I thought it was kind of clever.”
Brown said the idea for the "cave paint
ing” theme began as a joke in his head that
he never imagined would become a reality.
“There had been some comment at some
point that although we’d put much effort
into putting together one of the nicest park
ing decks around, it seemed cavernous,”
Brown said. “People asked me what we
could do to make it look less like a cave. As
a joke, I told them that I couldn't make it
look less like a cave but could make it a
friendlier cave.”
The Arts Downtown project involved
all the public schools in Chapel Hill,
Humphreys said.
The “cave paintings” were conceived as
the work of semi-nomadic peoples who
lived about 12,000 to 9,000 years ago,
stated Phyllis Lotchin, chair of the Arts
Downtown committee, in a press release.
The figures and their activities, done in
warm brown, yellow and orange hues,
created a series depicting the year-long
travels of semi-nomadic peoples during
The snake was in good condition over
all but was suffering from mouth rot (foam
ing of the mouth) and bums on various
parts of its body. The bums probably were
caused by the refrigerator’s coils, which
most likely had been the snake’s home for
the past six months. The animal control
officers said the snake probably had been
surviving principally on a diet of mice but
was capable of eating small pets and even
newborn babies.
“The whole thing just kind of gives me
the creeps,” Gross said. “I’m not really
afraid of snakes, but I don’t like them that
much, either. I just wonder what it’s been
doing all these months. I wonder if it’s
been watching us every time we opened
the refrigerator.”
Gross’ roommates and neighbors were
relieved it was she who stumbled upon the
snake rather than one of them.
“If it had been me, I would have
screamed, ran out of the apartment and not
come back,” said Schuyler Quinn, a junior
from Gastonia. “It is really freaky to think
that we have been living with a huge snake
all of this time. I don’t like to go into the
kitchen now.”
Carly Bryant, a senior from Fayetteville
and a neighbor of Gross and Quinn, ex
pressed similar sentiments. “I’m very glad
it’s gone,” Bryant said.
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With the help of Chapel Hill area children, artist Michael Brown painted murals meant to create a cavelike atmosphere
in the Rosemary Street parking deck. The project was commissioned by the Arts Downtown '95 Committee.
that stage ofhuman development, she said.
Brown said about 100 to 120 students
worked on the mural and that all public
schools participated in the art festival. “The
students, came from art-related groups,”
Brown said. "1 had a lot of kids wandering
in and just asking to help, but many also
Infant Mortality lied
To Education, Income
BY JOHN PATTERSON
STAFF WRITER
Lack of education and income contrib
ute to the higher rate of infant mortality
among North Carolina blacks, said Irva
Hertz-Picciotto, professor mUNC’s School
of Public Health.
The latest installment of the biweekly
Blacks in the Diaspora Lecture Series,
“Racial Differences in Infant Mortality in
North Carolina: The Impact of Educa
tion,” focused Wednesday on factors that
contribute to the disparity in infant mortal
ity between blacks and whites.
“This is a problem that many people are
working on,” Hertz-Picciotto said during
her lecture at the Sonja H. Stone Black
Cultural Center. “The ideas about what
causes infant mortality have been evolving
over time.”
Factors such as education and income
may explain why blacks consistently have
higher infant mortality rates - deaths that
occur within the first year of life, Hertz-
Picciotto said.
“If you compare African-American
mothers to white mothers, among those
that have less than 12 years of education,
there was about a 30 percent higher chance
of infant mortality for the African Ameri
cans,” she said.
Hertz-Picciotto, who works in the De
partment of Epidemiology, said financial
security also affected infant mortality.
came with their art teachers.”
Brown said the students worked on the
painting for two days, and he spent two
months on it afterward, adding, amending
and refining.
The project cost approximately SB,OOO
and was funded by Glaxo and the Town of
Thursday, November 16,1995
“Making a higher income and holdinga
job with more status makes one more re
ceptive to health education messages,” she
said. “In this country, having higher in
come and job status definitely buys you
access to health care.”
Education also makes for a better rela
tionship between physicians and patients,
Hertz-Picciotto said.
“Physicians may themselves feel more
confident talking to a patient with a higher
education,” she said.
But factors such as marital status may
also contribute to infant mortality rates.
“The babies of single mothers die at a
higher rate than babies of two parents,”
Hertz-Picciotto said. “Personal behaviors
like smoking and alcohol can also affect
infant mortality. The epidemiologists’ job
is to disentangle which factors are playing
a role in infant mortality.”
Hertz-Picciotto said analyzing trends in
infant mortality was also extremely impor
tant.
“North Carolina has been consistently
having high rates of infant mortality in
relationtoother states in theUnitedStates,”
she said. “Within North Carolina, the coun
ties that have the worst infant mortality
rates are along the eastern section of the
state.”
Stress may also impact infant mortality.
Often black mothers must deal with addi
tional societal pressures that white moth
ers do not face, Hertz-Picciotto said.
Schools
To Provide
Job Training
■ The town and the high
school are cooperating to give
students an opportunity to
work and learn.
BY JENNIFER ZAHREN
STAFF WRITER
In the race to equip students for employ
ment in the 21 st century better, Chapel HiU
High School is pulling ahead with the
establishment of the Youth Apprentice
ship Program.
Geared toward giving students on-the
job training that will potentially benefit the
town, the program was opened officially
with a ceremony Wednesday.
One year in the making the program is
the result of a joint effort by the school, the
town and the N.C. Department of Labor.
“We have all put a great deal of work
into this program,” said George Small,
town director of engineering. “Determin
ing which areas of the town would be able
to successfully handle an apprenticeship
was the greatest challenge.”
Following much deliberation, program
developers narrowed the fields down to
two areas, the transportation department
and building maintenance and inspection.
The program allows selected high school
juniors and seniors to use technical skins
learned in course work to train for munici
pal jobs. Gosely supervised by an adult
mentor, participants master the specified
skills, and their hourly rate of pay is in
creased accordingly.
“If this program succeeds, it will be very
exciting forthe participants and the town,”
Small said. “Our biggest long-term goal is
to teach a trade to a young person who will
then return the contribution by either con
tinuing to work for the town or at least
making a concerted effort during their train
ing.”
See SCHOOLS, Page 4
Chapel Hill, Brown said. He said die busi
ness had donated about $3,000 and the
town had pitched in roughly $5,000. “This
donation by Chapel HiU is unusual, ’’Brown
said. “NormaHy, the town doesn’t give
anything, but the painting involved their
property.”
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