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Baity aor Herl Student Health programs provide quality service, care As we begin anew school year, I look with great satisfaction on two major campus initiatives which will positively effect the health of our students and of our community. First is the decision to support health insurance as a benefit for graduate stu dents working for the University. The establishment of this program represents the combined efforts of many: adminis trators, including vice chancellors, the provost and the chancellor; student effort organized through student government and the Graduate and Professional Stu dent Federation; numerous members of the staff; and, in addition, members of the Legislature who supported the Uni versity in its wish to positively enhance academic programs by supporting gradu ate student recruitment while providing a needed benefit for an underinsured group. Student Health will continue to administer the program which these stu dents will join. Second is the renewed initiative to look at the role of substance use and abuse on this campus. The chancellor has taken a clear lead in this issue with his appointment of a broadly representative task force to study the issue and bring forward recommendations. This action is augmented by his recent letter to alumni calling attention to the existent problem and the potential role of alumni in pro moting a positive change in the rites of passage so prevalent now in America’s colleges and universities. Student Health has developed major initiatives in sub stance abuse prevention and treatment and will continue to play its appropriate role in what must be a total community effort. With the expected increase in the use of Student Health associated with insur ance changes and with the arrival of new students on campus, this would seem an ideal time to review the services that Student Health offers. Basic or core services covered by the Student Health fee include: Unlimited professional visits to all primary care services including Clinical Medicine, Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy. (Most office gynecology is car ried out in the Clinical Medicine Section as a primary care offering). Basic psychological services offerings, including psychological evaluation, brief intervention and treatment, initial medi cation evaluation, immediate follow-up and referral if indicated. Health educational offerings includ ing contraceptive counseling, confiden tial HIV testing, substance abuse evalua tion, initial treatment and referral if indi cated. Evaluation, treatment and referral are also offered if indicated for eating disor ders. There are also visits to nurse practitio ners in the 08-GYN clinic, whose prac tice is limited to GYN problems. Several specialty services are offered within the Student Health facility. These are often contracted with physicians on the faculty ofthe School ofMedirine and are not covered fully by your health fee. Included are: Orthopedics Timothy Taft, M.D. Ear, Nose and Throat Kim Jones, M.D. Dermatology Robert Briggaman, M.D. and Associates Obstetrics and Gynecology UNC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecol- University Mail chooses outsourcing alternative TO THE EDITOR: Of the 51 functional service areas to be evaluated by the Outsourcing Steering Committee, two belong to University Mail Services. We CHOSE to contract the preparation of our international mail because it is labor intensive. We CHOSE to outsource the sorting of our domestic mail because the cost of the equipment necessary to do it is prohibitive and the space requirements are not available. We still control most aspects ofthese services (billing, preparation, etc.). I can’t speak for the other 49 services, but in this case, it was simply a management decision. Tommy Brickhouse ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER UNIVERSITY MAIL SERVICES Bookstore, fluoridation represent communist plot TO THE EDITOR: I must heartily agree with J.E. William’s letter entitled “Textbook store? More like hub of leftist political ideas” in the Aug. 29 edition of The Daily Tar Heel. There is no doubt that the Maoist ilk are attempting to subvert our great nation through the propaganda spewed forth at “Internationalist Books.” Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dan gerous communist plot we have ever had to face? Do you realize that in addition to fluoridated water, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? I, for one, can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist in doctrination, communist subversion and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurity all of our precious bodily fluids. God willing, we will prevail in peace JUDITH COWAN ogy, Wendy Hansen, M.D., coordi nator GUEST COLUMNIST We are pleased to have these quality offerings within Student Health where they are readily accessible and offered at less than would be charged if the same personnel were seen outside Student Health. Further offerings by Student Health require additional charges for utilization. These include: Laboratory and X-ray offered at significantly discounted prices to stu dents. Pharmacy Services —Student Health operates a well-staffed, well-stocked phar macy which provides medication to stu dents at a 3 5 percent to 40 percent savings as compared to average prescription prices across the country. Hospitalization Student Health operates a licensed acute care hospital facility. 24 hour Urgent Care Student Health is open 24 hours a day with phy sician extenders on duty and physicians immediately available for case consulta tion and direct evaluation if needed. With this array of services and others designed particularly for students and the University community, Student Health can meet about 90 percent of the service needs of utilizing students. To ensure maximum coverage, the Student Group Insurance Plan has been directly integrated with the services fully covered by your health fee. All services carried out within Student Health are fully cov ered by the supplemental insurance plan with no deductible charge. An exception is the use of the pharmacy. Drugs are covered at 80 percent after a SIOO deduct ible. Services coordinated with outside agencies such as 08/GYN and UNC Hospitals may require additional copay from the student. The coverage in the Student Health Group Insurance Plan is exceptionally broad and cost effective. The $704 pre mium includes SSO toward catastrophic coverage, which brings covered expenses to a $1,000,000 level. It is because most medical problems can be taken care of at Student Health that this excellent, low cost plan can be offered. The Student Health Advisory Board has direct input into coverage, and the plan has been remarkably stable in the past ten years. The insurance is good anywhere in the world but, if the student is in the area, it requires the student to go Student Health for initial evaluation if die situation is not emergent or life threatening. Student Health is highly interested in students receiving appropriate care and will not delay referral when indicated. Outside care, however, cannot be covered at 100 percent as is care offered within Student Health. Students Health welcomes new stu dents and new enrollees to the Student Group Insurance Plan. Quality of care will always be the major goal of Student Health. Our 10 years of accreditation by the Joint Commission for the Accredita tion of Health Care Organization is an external sign of this commitment. We continue to pursue our mission: “Serving a Special Community with Quality Care at a Reasonable Cost.” Dr. Judith Cowan is the director of the Student Health Service. and freedom from fear and in due health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. DavidT. Chen GRADUATE STUDENT COMPUTER SCIENCE Winston-Salem history began long before R.J.R. TO THE EDITOR: I am writing this letter in response to the article by Wendy Goodman (“To bacco rules anger, unite gubernatorial candidates,” Aug. 26). Miss Goodman needs to do a little better historical research before writing her articles. In the first line of her story, theauthor states that Winston-Salem was named after cigarettes. Winston-Salem was actually named after two different cities, Winston and Salem. Salem was founded in the mid-to-late 1700s by Moravian settlers from Pennsylvania and Winston was established later. The two cities decided to join together to make the city Winston-Salem in the 1800s. These events occurred long before Richard Joshua Reynolds and his company were bom. The hands of cigarettes were named in “honor” of the city in which they were created. Chris Miller GRADUATE STUDENT NUTRITION Real surprise: Student Stores buys wrong books TO THE EDITOR: When I ordered my course texts through Internationalist Books, I did so with the intention of supporting a valu able community resource and exposing my students to the Internationalist’s wide variety of alternative discourses and poli tics. When I learned that Student Stores Student government makes food service a top priority During the summer your student government has been busy ad vocating for students. We have worked to make sure that students are always included and that the administra tion realizes they are here to serve the students. Though we have had many successes and made significant improvements on this campus, one area I would like to highlight is food service. In the past it has not met our needs or been responsive. It has served poor quality food with below average service. You may have noticed all the balloons hanging on the banister ofLenoir Dining Hall last week and probably wondered what all the fuss was about. I am sure you assumed, “It’s the beginning of the year and administrators are working to hype a new and improved Carolina dining expe rience.” But this year is different. No longer does the administration push their new vendors and ideas for food service. Food services has been turned over to the hands of the students. We will decide how food service ought to happen at UNC. It should be our deci sion. This summer was spent planning the changes to Lenoir and Chase Hall. After a lengthy bidding process, students and administrators decided to renew their contract with Marriott Corp. We know that students have a general apprehen sion, and maybe fear of Marriott. The students who served on the committee which made this decision will assure you this was the best choice of available op tions. Our other option was a vendor who had been thrown off campus by a student referendum back in the 1980s. This vendor’s offer was incompatible with stu dents needs and not sufficiently flexible. Students helped set the terms of the con tract and students will now comprise a majority of the Food Service Board of Directors, the body overseeing food ser vice on this campus. Students were not satisfied merely to sit in a committee meeting watching as top-notch administrators decided what we would eat, how much it would cost, where we would eat and during what hours we would do it. Instead, students have taken hold of thereinsandmadedecisions that will not only affect us this year, but will affect on campus dining for years to come. This is thanks to the many students in student government working hard to bring cam pus dining where it belongs in the hands of the students. The Food Service Task Force, set up last year by the Cunningham-Swan ad ministration, surveyed hundreds of stu dents at UNC on issues involving cam pus dining. They traveled to Boston to examine other universities’ dining services and discovered what most of us already knew —that our food service didnotmatch up. The University has hired a national food service consultant as well as architecture and food service design firms. We have also hired an executive chef to oversee the meal preparation in Lenoir, and he is awesome. Students and student govemmenthave the power to make positive change at our university. The administration listens to us when we express our voice. It is stu dent government’s job to seek out stu- READERS’FORUM The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticism. Letters to the editor should be no longer than 400 words and must be typed, double spaced, dated and signed by no more than two people. Students should include their year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and phone number. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Bring letters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail forum to: dth@unc.edu. had scouted the Internationalist and placed the texts I had ordered on their shelves as well, I thought, “Oh well, there goes that old free market magic; the big guy is dumping on the little guy yet again.” I didn’t like this turn of events, but I wasn’t surprised, either. But I was surprised in my classroom today when I discovered that Student Stores had placed the WRONG book on their shelves. I learned this as I was teach ing, when I asked the class to turn to a certain page in the book I assumed they had. But the book most of my students hadintheirhands was the wrong edition, the one that Student Stores decided to tell them was the book I had ordered. So, as a result of Student Store’s combined ra pacity and stupidity, I was unable to teach my class the way I had prepped it. Yeah, I was just a little angry. To recap: Student Stores misrepre sented my course list to my students, who thus purchased a text that is entirely useless in my class. Asa result, they needlessly spent their money on some thing they don’t need, and my teaching was hampered. Meanwhile, Student Stores is taldng away business from people who arc involved in the community, were OP-ED GUEST COLUMNIST dent issues and concerns and advocate on students’ behalf. This sum mer we have been hard at work advo cating for stu dents and making change. When sev- eral students and I went on a tour of the basement ofLenoir this summer, we sug gested knocking out the dividing walls and putting in new floors. We also rec ommended that Carolina Dining Service and Auxiliary Services spend money to brighten the place up to make it a more appealing dining experience and they did it If you have not been downstairs in Lenoir, I encourage you to do so. The appearance and food quality has im proved significantly. Later, when CDS proposed getting rid of The Cutting Board, we suggested that they not, and they didn’t. When CDS told students about their plan to get rid of the Firehouse Grill and add a fast-food Chinese venue, we endorsed it, and they put it in. Additionally, South Campus dining has expanded with the addition of BW-3 wings, pizza and a Korean-style salad bar in Chase. There will also soon be a bank of ATMs outside of Chase to serve the stu dents on South Campus. There is also a Taco Bell in Union Station. Now, we know that Taco Bell is not a “weight watchers delight,” but it is good old fash ioned cheap college food. To solve what has been one of the greatest problems with food service on campus the service CDS employ ees have undergone intensive customer service training. Students made these changes happen, and we thank the ad ministration for being so responsive. Most importantly,lastweek when stu dents were complaining about the lack of mobility in their meal plans and that they were frustrated with the inflexibility of meal equivalency, we pushed and got the equivalency plan back. Yes, this means you now can get any $4.50 worth of ala carte food and count it as a meal. Currently UNC-Chapel Hill is one of the only universities which has no man datory meal plan and no mandatory mini mum balance. In order for us to continue to avoid these things, CDS must be finan cially successful. If CDS fails to turn a profit, we will all be forced to pay through a fee increase or mandatory meal plans. Please eat at Lenoir, Chase and Union Station often. We’ve worked hard to improve on-cam pus food service. I think you will notice the difference. If you have any concerns, ideas or suggestions about campus dining, please feel free to call Scott Hammack or Jen Kim, the executive branch Student Ser vices Committee co-chairmen, at 962- 4994 or stop by Suite C of the Union. Student government is dedicated to improving the lives of students. Please call on us to help you. Aaron Nelson is a senior philosophy major from Raleigh and student body president. very helpful to me when I ordered my books and got the order right in the first place. If Student Stores is going to be rapa cious, they should at least have the good sense not to be stupid. Adam McKible INSTRUCTOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Article misleading: FSU dealings not unethical TO THE EDITOR: As an alumnus and fan of Florida State University, I would like to correct a misconception in your Aug. 29 story about the selling ofhome games by Wake Forest andMaryland (“Schools rewarded for sacrificing home games”). The story notes that those schools sold their home games “to the Seminoles” and implies that FSU initiated the arrangements and paid the other schools for the games. In fact, the officials of the Citrus Bowl in Orlando and of Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami initiated the contacts and it is they who are paying for the games. Wake’s and Maryland’s Athletic Di At UNC School of Law, excellence ‘on the move’ I write in response to the Aug. 23 editorial, “Briefing the law school.” The editorial asks: “What is hap pening over at UNC School of Law?” One answer IS major construction. Lit erally and symbolically, our new wing represents the law school’s bold effort to build for the future—of our students, the state and the world. New facilities are the outward manifestation of a school that is really “on the move, ” building on a tradi tion of excellence through times of finan cial stringency to accomplish important goals. Let me cite a few examples from the last 12 months: Earlier this month, the UNC School of Law joined The New York Times Magazine and a handful of other winners in receiving the American Bar Association’s “Oscar,” the coveted Sil ver Gavel Award, for its video produc tion “Loyalty on Trial” and the resulting contribution to public education about the law. Law faculty received national awards recognizing the best legal book published in 1995 and the year’s pre-eminent article on bankruptcy law. I served as president of the Association of American Law Schools, legal education’s learned soci ety, representing 160 law schools around the nation. Other faculty colleagues re ceived a Fulbright F ello wship and Kenan leave to work with colleagues in Eritrea and South Africa, helped develop a work shop on the moral foundations oftortlaw to be co-sponsored by the National Hu manities Center, organized the first UNC Banking Institute for leading lawyers and bankers and guided law reform as chair man of the N.C. General Statutes Com mission. A UNC law school graduate was cho sen to serve in the coveted position of judicial clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist (one of a small handful of recent graduates to serve the Supreme Court each year), while more than 20 of his classmates will clerk with other leading judges. The law school received two major foundation grants: one to support cur riculum development in alternative dis pute resolution and the other to create a seminar on judicial sentencing forjudges and law students, using case files from actual North Carolina cases. UNC law students advanced to the national finals in the Jessup Cup (inter national law), client counseling and the Frederick Douglass moot court competi tions and won the International Space Law Competition in Oslo, Norway. Oth ers published a handbook on the rights of womeninNorthCarolina, helpedpresent., a conference on representation of juve niles and organized a symposium on worker’s rights. These accomplishments evidence the excellence and vitality of this outstand ing law school. They reflect hard work and ingenuity using very limited finan cial resources. The law school is well aware —as is the University —of the fiscal constraints under which all of us labor. We do not need U.S. News & World Report to remind us that the law school ranked 101 out of 170 law schools nationally in financial support. Thatrank is an improvement from its rating on fiscal resources in 1994 (when it was rated 115th), and reflects continuing strides in building strong private support (the law school community raised more than sl3 million in the recent Bicenten- rectors contacted FSU’s Athletic Direc tor to make sure there was no objection to the moves, and obviously, there would not be. But the fact is that FSU did not buy these games or give any money to Wake or Maryland. These games are business arrangements between Wake, Maryland and the stadiums in which the games will be played. I must admit to a certain resentment at the way this story is portrayed in the media (not only The Daily Tar Heel), as it usually implies that FSU has sought some unfair advantage here and has done something unethical. While I understand the irritation felt by Atlantic Coast Con ference coaches and fans about these arrangements, I suggest that it would more logically be directed at Wake and Maryland than at FSU. Jim Morgan INTERNET READER Cartoon wrongly portrays NORML, president says TO THE EDITOR: I am writing in response to the edito rial cartoon of Aug. 29 (“Why NORML accomplishes little”). It is this type of misrepresentation and stereotype that makes it difficult for The National Orga nization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws to function. Since the cartoonist is obviously biased and has done little re search, I would like to clear up a few points in hopes of preventing a campuswide reputation that we are “potheads with the munchies.” The Carolina chapter of NORML is now entering its third year of existence in Chapel Hill. Our mission statement as a nonprofit, nonpolitical organization is to educate Chapel Hill and surrounding communi ties about all aspects of marijuana and its uses. If the cartoonist had made an effort to leam about NORML, he or she would have approached us and found out many Tuesday, September 3,1996 | JUDITH WEGNER | nial Cam paign, and re ceives annual GUEST COLUMNIST gifts fr0m31.6 percent of its alumni —a level that sig nificantly exceeds most other public law schools). We have also worked closely with our students to develop a consensus for fee and tuition hikes when absolutely neces sary. In effect, we have built a three-way partnership involving state support, pri vate giving and student funding, but al ways with careful consultation among our student community. This teamwork helped secure funding for our building renovation. It has the momentum to do much more. Now to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine’s 1996 ranking methodol ogy considered five major factors: repu tation among academics, reputation among practitioners, student selectivity, placement success and financial re sources. While placement success and finan cial resources are not factors considered by U.S. News & World Report in rating most other types of academic programs, they carry significant weight where law school ratings are concerned. As noted above, UNC’s reputation appropriately places it in the top 20 law schools. It ranks in the top 25 on student selectivity. It ranks in the top one-quarter to one-third of law schools in placement success, although U.S. News & World Report’s methodology has had major flaws that work to UNC’s disadvantage. For example, the magazine gives weight to starting salaries, favoring schools whose graduates opt for corpo rate practice in major urban centers like New York and Chicago rather than the mix of corporate, small firm, public ser vice and nontraditional jobs elected by many UNC graduates. In 1994, UNC took major steps to redesign its placement program in light of the tightening legal job market, adopt ing an employer-focused job develop ment strategy and hiring a director with legal practice experience. The results of these changes are bearing fruit, but lag time in reporting has meant that they are not yet reflected in U.S. News & World Report rankings. The real dilemma —and a key factor in protecting UNC’s long-standing repu tation relates to limitations in finan cial resources. Some would say that quick fixes are possible, specifically a quick fix in the form of a major tuition increase. The law school community began con versation about, this tQpjf fast spring. The Student Bar Association and I co-spon sored a two-hour student town meeting to discuss all aspects of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Students expressed decidedly differ ing views about the advisability of fur ther tuition increases, particularly in light of those that have just been imposed, and the impact of tuition and student debt on access to law school and viable job op tions. Faculty, too, began collective dis cussion of this subject, as did the law school’s alumni board. The law school continues to raise significant private funds through gifts from alumni and friends, and will benefit from the recent financial support provided by the state. Judith W. Wegner is dean of the School of Law. of the “little” things we have accom plished. For example, the 1996 Carolina GREENfest last April drew a crowd of well over 1,000 people and raised over SI,OOO for our organization. This makes us one of the wealthier student groups that does not receive University funding. Likewise, the cartoonist might be in terested to know that in response to a letter writing campaign, Rep. Fred Heineman, R-N.C., voiced his support of providing medical marijuana to termi nally ill patients with a doctor’s prescrip tion. We are working now to gain signa tures for a petition urging Heineman to co-sponsor House Bill 2618, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., which would give doctors the right to prescribe marijuana to patients suffering from ter minal or crippling diseases such as HIV, cancer, glaucoma and cystic fibrosis. Marijuana has proven to be an effective, low-cost treatment for these ailments where chemical medication has fallen short. The nature of our organization, edu cating about a controlled substance, makes us face countless obstacles due to the stigma attached to marijuana in our society. The tasteless representation of NORML portrayed in this cartoon makes it harder for us to achieve anything and is a clear depiction of an uninformed mind. The cartoon is an unfair stab at the repu tations of all those who believe they have the right to choose what they put in their bodies. I would like to invite the cartoonist and everyone else to our first meeting Sept. 9 at 7:30p.m. in 209 Manning Hall. If you have any desire to know the truth, come and leam; we’ll have plenty of pizza. Brendan Moore POLITICAL SCIENCE PRESIDENT, CAROUNA NORML 1995-96 13