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Students, Faculty Examine Curriculum
Students with something to say
about graduation requirements
can air their views online or in
person at forums this semester.
Bv Kim Minugh
University Editor
Most college students know that free pizza
is worth the trek to South Campus.
But knowing how to define an educated
person isn’t so obvious.
Despite the difficult task at hand, more than
50 students met Wednesday night in Hinton
James Residence Hall to eat pizza and discuss
curriculum revisions. “We’re going to try to
Changes Afoot for Pedestrian Safety
Committee Created to Find
Ways to Make Campus Safer
By Elizabeth Breyer
Assistant University Editor
Bright-yellow signs and concrete
traffic islands are only the first of many
improvements planned for pedestrians
now that a permanent committee has
been formed to tackle safety issues.
Upon prompting from Chancellor
James Moeser, Director of Public
Safety Derek Poarch orchestrated the
formation of the Pedestrian Safety
Committee, to continue the work that
an informal group began last year.
Efforts to protect pedestrians began
in earnest after the death of Fusayoshi
Matsukawa, a UNC Dental Fellow
killed in November as he was crossing
Manning Drive.
Poarch, the head of the new com
mittee, said, “I feel, after having sub
mitted the report and receiving this
Walk This Way
Data shows that the most unsafe crossings on campus are on Franklin Street and South Road.
Campus Police Chief Derek Poarch orchestrated anew committee to make these areas safer.
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SOURCE NCDOTCRASH REPORTS. 10/1/94T09/30/99 DTH / TORI NEIVBERN
Provost Candidate Focuses on Dual Roles
By Mark Thomas
Assistant University Editor
One of five candidates for UNC
provost tackled issues Wednesday rang
ing from grade inflation to finances in
soft-spoken tones, expressing a desire to
balance the University’s role as both a
research and teaching institution.
Responding to questions from a
small, mainly faculty and administrative
audience in Wilson Library, Paul
Courant characterized professors as
both teachers and researchers and said
the dual roles can coexist.
“I can’t imagine a (university) where
teaching and research don’t go on
together,” he said.
Courant has experience of his own bal-
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answer the basic curriculum question, ‘What is
an educated person?’” said Tom Tweed, asso
ciate dean of undergraduate curriculum.
Tweed hosted the forum, which was open
to students, faculty and staff. He is heading up
efforts to revise UNC’s class requirements, a
process that will likely take three years.
The discussion was the first of four tenta
tive forums scheduled for this semester. The
forums are designed to increase communica
tion between students, faculty and staff about
future curriculum changes.
Tweed said curriculum changes have not
been made since 1978 and are needed to keep
up with the times. He introduced a three-per
son panel, including physics professor Laurie
McNeil, American studies department
Chairman Townsend Ludington and Annie
charter back, that the groundwork has
been laid for this year to put more
detailed plans into place.”
Appointments to the committee
have not been completed yet, but
Poarch said he hopes to fill the remain
ing spots by the end of September.
Meanwhile, visible changes have
been made to roads across campus as a
result of last year’s work.
High-visibility, yellow-green signs
have been permanently placed on South
Road and Manning Drive, alerting dri
vers of nearby pedestrian crosswalks.
A traffic island was also constructed
on South Road, and Poarch said a sim
ilar one will be put up near the School
of Dentistry on Manning Drive.
“It hasn’t even been a year (since the
committee began working on pedestri-
See PEDESTRIANS, Page 4
ancing diverse duties - he is currendy
both associate provost for academic and
budgetary affairs and professor of eco
nomics and public policy at the University
of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
UNO’s next provost will be forced to
juggle responsibilities as the chief acade
mic and financial officer for the
University and will be instrumental in
allocadng the University’s budget. “The
(responsibility of the) budget belongs in
the provost’s office," he said. “You just
have to make sure the budget gets in the
way of decision-making as little as possi
ble.”
Courant next turned his attention to a
source of contention at UNC - reform
ing grading standards.
He noted that inflated grades are a
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Pierce, student government’s chairwoman of
undergraduate affairs.
Each panelist presented their own definition
of what makes an educated person -a product
every major university hopes to turn out.
McNeil stressed the importance of being
well-rounded and said that educated people
never stop learning. “An educated person
knows enough about the world to realize how
much more there is to know,” she said. “A
good education expands your ignorance.”
Ludington said an educated person under
stands relationships within modem culture
and the surrounding world. “The habits of (an
educated mind) should be inquisitive,” he said.
Pierce said the University must revise its
curriculum to stay abreast of a rapidly chang
ing world. “If we want to be the best univer
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Students cross South Road on the new crosswalks. The safety areas
were added as part of a plan to make the UNC campus safer.
national problem, but he did not advo
cate any course of action on the part of
University administrators. Instead, he
put the burden on potential employers
and graduate schools to determine the
value of particular grades.
“We must really look at what depart
ments the inflated grades are coming
from,” he said. “Students and faculty
know what the easy courses are; poten
tial employers take that into account.”
Courant discussed his own academic
background as well as his plans for the
University’s intellectual climate.
In past interviews, Chancellor James
Moeser has said he wants a provost who
has a background in the sciences.
But Courant lacks expertise in scien
tific fields. “I don’t know how that will
sity, we can’t be stagnant,” she said. “We have
to continue challenging ourselves.”
And while most students acknowledged
the importance of breadth in curriculum, sev
eral expressed reservations about perspectives
courses.
Freshman Kelly Owensby said that she
came to UNC knowing her major but that the
curriculum is inhibiting her progress.
“I feel like (the University) locked the door to
what I want to do, and it’s frustrating,” she said.
“It just feels like high school classes all over
again, 30 times bigger.”
But more seasoned voices in the room sup
ported UNC’s standing requirements.
Senior Leticia Bennett said that being forced
See CURRICULUM, Page 4
affect my being selected,” he said.
Courant noted that the role of studies
in the humanities and arts are essential
to the learning experience.
“I think the humanities describe and
enrich our lives in ways the sciences
don’t,” he said. “It is impossible for me to
conceive of a university without them.”
He said UNC would present a unique
and significant opportunity to its next
provost, and he would like to accept the
challenge if the position is offered to
him. “I am a pretty good technician and
want to get a sense of how things work
(at UNC),” he said. “It is something I
have only begun to do.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
Charlotte Passes
Death Penalty
Moratorium
The vote makes the city the 7th municipality
in North Carolina to approve a resolution
expressing opposition to capital punishment.
By Cheri Melfi
Staff Writer
The city of Charlotte became the country’s largest munici
pality to pass a moratorium on the death penalty Tuesday
night when the City Council overrode the mayor’s veto with
an 8-3 vote.
Charlotte is the 29th community in the United States and
seventh in the state to pass an anti-death penalty resolution.
The other state municipalities with similar moratoriums are
Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Davidson, Hillsborough and
Orange County.
The Charlotte Observer reported that Mayor Pat McCrory
vetoed the resolution because he said the the city council does
not have jurisdiction to decide on a death penalty resolution.
But Stephen Dear, a member of People of Faith Against the
Death Penalty, said the City Council should have the respon
sibility of malting such legislative decisions because executions
are paid for with taxpayers’ money.
“If Charlotte residents’ taxes are supporting executions, it
is the responsibility of the City Council, which represents
these citizens, to decide if those executions are fair or not,”
he said.
He said the resolution will be an example other towns can
follow for passing death penalty legislation.
“This vote will have tremendous reverberations throughout
the state in the support of a moratorium,” Dear said. “It shows
lawmakers and community leaders throughout the state that
politicians can stand up for equity and fairness in the judicial
system."
Ted Frazer, who calls together meetings of the Charlotte
Coalition for a Moratorium Now, said the moratorium will
also help provide a fairer system for criminals.
“People of income do not get the death penalty,” Frazer
said. “It’s basically the poor who can’t afford attorneys and get
court-appointed attorneys.”
He said rural and poorer counties usually had a large num
ber of criminals put to death because they could not pay for
better attorneys.
“North Carolina counties that have only 65,000 people
have as many people on death row as Charlotte, whose pop
ulation is 10 times that," Frazer said.
He also said race is an important factor in many judicial
decisions regarding the death penalty.
“Race is always an issue,” he said. “If you’re an African
American or non-U.S. citizen who has committed a murder,
you have a much better chance of getting put on death row.”
Frazer added that it costs the state $2 million more per per
son to carry out executions than to keep a person in jail for life.
North Carolina has 211 inmates on death row, he said, and
10 are projected to be executed this year. “If the state isn’t
compelled by the human end of this argument, it should be
compelled by the financial end.”
Dear said another reason the moratorium is important is
that it gives innocent people sentenced to death more time to
prove they are not guilty.
“North Carolina has released 87 people from death row
because they were proven innocent,” Dear said.
Frazer said the moratorium will reduce the number of inno
cent people put to death while giving lawmakers more money
and resources to find ways to prosecute those who are guilty.
“You need to ask yourself if you can make a system that is
fair,” Frazer said. “If you can’t, you need to ask yourself how
many people you want to sacrifice, and if you want to live in
a country that sacrifices.”
The State & National Editor can be reached
atstntdesk@unc.edu.
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Provost candidate Dr. Paul N. Courant, from the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor, discusses his future plans for UNC at a forum Wednesday.
Sun's Out!
Today: Sunny, 75
Friday: Sunny, 80
Saturday: Sunny, 84
Thursday, September 7, 2000