8
Friday, March 1, 2002
Opinion
(Jlip mi] (Bar lied
Established 1893 • 109 Years of Editorial Freedom
Katie Hunter
Editor
Office Hours Friday 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Kim Minugh
MANAGING EDITOR
Russ Lane
SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR
Kate Hartig
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Lizzie Breyer
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Kellie Dixon
CITY EDITOR
Alex Kaplun
STATES NATIONAL EDI FOR
lan Gordon
SPORTS EDITOR
Sarah Sanders
FEATURES EDITOR
Sarah Kucharski
ARTS k ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Terri Rupar
COPY DESK EDITOR
Kara Arndt
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Beth Buchholz
DESIGN EDITOR
Cobi Edelson
GRAPHICS EDITOR
Jonathan Miller
ONLINE EDITOR
Michael Flynn
OMBUDSMAN
Concerns or comments about our
coverage? Contact the ombudsman at
mlfiynntfflemail.unc.edu or by phone at
843-5794
Readers' Forum
Applications for
Student Government
Now Available Online
TO THE EDITOR:
Applications are now available
online at http://ils.unc.edu/student
govt/applications/ to be an officer in
next year’s Cabinet.
This Includes the offices of stu
dent body vice president, student
body secretary and student body
treasurer.
All students are encouraged to
apply, and applications, along with a
resume, are due this Saturday at mid
night.
General Cabinet applications will
be made available before Spring
Break and will be due by March 23 at
midnight. More information will fol
low next week regarding these appli
cations.
Please contact me with any ques
tions about the offices via e-mail
(daum@email.unc.edu) or phone
(260-3051).
Thank you, and good luck!
Jen Daum
Student Body President-Elect
3iA twom ttfi, so ftuuZL \a^3(iL.
Board Editorials
A Seat at the Table
Students have a representative to the UNC-CH Board of Trustees faculty deserve the same
For years, students have had a seat on
the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.
But another important group in the
University community has found itself left
out of this august body. That group is the
faculty, and they too deserve their own seat
on the BOT.
The student seat on the BOT has been a
valuable tool for communicating student
needs. That tool becomes even more
important when the issue of tuition comes
up. Students are the people most affected
when the BOT considers tuition increases,
yet they often have the smallest voice in the
matter.
The BOT seat allows students to at least
bring their concerns directly to the deci
sion-makers. Now it is time to allow the fac
ulty to do the same.
It is difficult to understand why the fac
ulty have been denied a seat on the BOT
for so long, especially when the students
have their own.
Whenever a possible tuition hike is pro
Why They Hate Us
Anew study raises disturbing questions about how the Islamic world views America
Why does the Islamic world view
America so unfavorably? What U.S. poli
cies could have triggered the kind of ani
mosity that culminated in the most heinous
act of terror on American soil?
These are difficult questions
whose answers are often con
troversial. In fact, many peo
ple in America disdain such
questions. These people are blinded by ide
alism, convinced that there are peaceful
solutions to some of the most violent gov
ernmental atrocities in the world.
This is no longer the Cold War. Our era
encompasses myriad uncertainties in an
increasingly hostile, multipolar world.
This week a Gallup Poll of nine Islamic
countries revealed some alarming statistics.
The Gallup Organization found that 53
percent of people in the nations polled
view the United States in an unfavorable
manner. Even though two-thirds believe
the terrorist attacks were morally unjustifi
Newspaper’s Portrayal
Of Jen Daum, Election
Incompetent, Biased
TO THE EDITOR:
In my time here at Carolina, 1 have
learned to live with The Daily Tar
Heel’s notoriously biased approach to
the news and stories that it reports.
Like most students here, I have always
accepted it as a facet of the University.
However, I was especially disappoint
ed by the DTH’s gross misrepresenta
tion of the campaign for student body
president and Jen Daum’s subsequent
victory.
In my tendency to excuse the
DTH’s slanted reporting of the facts, I
can almost excuse the blatandy wrong
and gendered reporting found in its
opinion articles, which declare on
numerous occasions that Jen Daum,
regardless of having the support of
Fred Hashagen, Brad Overcash,
Bennett Mason, and the majority of
those students who voted, was only
elected because “freshman guys ...
think she’s hot.” However, not only
have the opinions of the DTH been
one-sided, but so have its alleged news
stories which are also continuously
posed at UNC, an increase in faculty
salaries has usually been listed among the
reasons for it.
Back in 199!), the BOT cited UNC’s
lower faculty salaries as the main reason for
the University’s decline in U.S. News &
World Report’s annual college rankings.
That decline did in fact affect the decision
to raise tuition, regardless of what admin
istrtors today would like students to believe.
It is true that in 1999, UNC lagged behind
its peer institutions in faculty pay. But it
should have been the faculty members them
selves telling the BOT that they were losing
potential faculty to other colleges because of
comparatively lower salaries.
If the problem of low salaries had been
tackled in its early stages, perhaps such a
drastic increase in tuition would have been
unnecessary.
A faculty seat on the BOT would allow
the group most able to assess faculty needs
to directly communicate the group’s needs
to the board.
able, 77 percent think the U.S. military
campaign in Afghanistan is not morally jus
tified. Perhaps the most shocking statistic,
however, is that 36 percent of Kuwaiti citi-
zens considered the terrorist
attacks morally justifiable.
These results are astonish
ing to a country that promotes
human rights and democrati-
Mark Seeley
Editorial Notebook
cally elected governments.
That commitment comes with the oblig
ation to oppose repressive regimes. One
cannot deny that the majority of Islamic
lands are oppressive according to
American standards of government. This
makes the findings of the Gallup Poll seem
more unsettling.
America is viewed unfavorably because
of its prosperity, its individual liberties and
its status as the supreme world power. The
Islamic world appears to envy what
America has. Because it is the lone world
superpower, its role as a champion for
peppered with gendered language at
the detriment to other candidates. For
example, when Jen and Will won the
initial election, Will was portrayed as
composed and gracious, whereas Jen
was said to be emotional and crying. I
think it is sad that the DTH chooses to
condemn a “real” person with feelings
and emotions. I am not sure who
should be more offended by your
incompetence, Jen herself, or the stu
dent body; who, according to the DTH
are unable to recognize and elect ihe
most qualified candidate, regardless of
gender and personal appearance.
The DTH is given the privilege and
responsibility to report the news and
other stories to the students of this
University. Instead of reporting the
success of the democratic process and
the election of only the third woman
student body president in the history
of our University, the DTH attempts
to substitute their preference for the
will of the student body and exasper
ate this by lampooning the duly elect
ed student body president and chastis
ing the electorate.
Lauren Cook
Sophomore
Journalism
In the past, the BOT was able to play stu
dents and faculty off one another in a
divide-and-conquer strategy to achieve its
goals.
A faculty seat on the BOT could exacer
bate the problem, but it could also let stu
dents and faculty members present a a unit
ed front against any proposals that would
be detrimental to both groups.
Such cooperation would depend on the
willingness of each group to compromise.
But a student-faculty partnership could be
a powerful weapon that the BOT would be
unable to ignore.
The idea of faculty representation on the
BOT is not anew one. Faculty members
have been pushing for a seat for some time
now, only to have their overtures rejected
by the BOT on at least two occasions.
There is no legitimate reason to deny the
faculty a seat on the BOT.
Their voice deserves to be heard -and
the BOT should make room for them at the
table.
democratic ideals is vital.
During the Cold War years many Islamic
regimes had Soviet support; their lands
were provided with an ally that was an
equal to America in its power. The mutu
ally beneficial relationship was abandoned
11 years ago with the collapse of the Soviet
Union. These countries have no security
and what’s more, America is condemning
them. America is attempting to uphold its
democratic goals overseas and an endeav
or that necessitates a whole slew of inter
ventions that are loathed by Islamic gov
ernments.
The dramatic increase in terrorist plots is
a direct result of America’s superiority in
the world and its foreign interventions to
preserve democracy. How long will this go
on? A give-and-take relationship must
occur in order to make peace a reality.
These nations, as they stand today, are not
willing to commit to such a proposition,
making peace virtually impossible.
F
The Daily Tar Heel wel
comes reader comments
and criticism. Letters to
the editor should be no
longer than 300 words
and must be typed, dou
ble-spaced, dated and
signed by no more than
two people. Students
should include their year,
major and phone num
ber. Faculty and staff
should include their title,
department and phone
number. The DTH reserves
the right to edit letters
for space, clarity and vul
garity. Publication is not
guaranteed. 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:
editdesk@unc.edu.
Barometer
sound you hear is the total collapse of Western
civilization.
*2^
the same. Opening bid: 25 cents and a Tic-Tac.
Tar Heel Quotables
“The nuclear bomb. Does that bother you?
I just want you to think big.”
Former President Richard Nixon
Discussing the possibility of a nuclear strike against North
Vietnam on a 1972 tape released this week. And to think
we got uptight about oral sex in the Oval Office.
“My job is pretty cool, drinking and hang
ing out.”
Comedian Dave Attell
Wow, what a coincidence! That’s our job, too!
First, Learn
How To Fail:
A Brief Lesson
Do you ever wonder what would happen if The Little
Engine that Could failed? Would the preschool
dropout rate skyrocket?
Would we be left with a class of aimless 3-year-olds, too
young to make peepee in the big-boy or big-girl potty yet
too cynical to return to a classroom that could teach them
how?
All my life I have heard people
say, “You can do anything you put
your mind to.” But I think we all
know this is a load of crap.
So, why do we allow this myth to
be perpetuated? Because we don’t
feel inspired by effort alone. In the
end we don’t feel good unless we win.
If Rocky had been knocked out in the
second round only to dizzily awake to
find Adrian sucking tongue with
Apollo Creed, I doubt we would we
leave the theater ready to take on the
world.
So what makes Rocky so great? He was a poor, regular
guy with an impossible goal, but he trained like a champ
and overcame adversity with heart - in other words, the
American dream. The equation looks something like this:
Big challenge plus lots of reasons you shouldn’t make it
plus trying like hell plus victory equals Academy Award. I
would like to take issue with the last part in our equation:
winning.
Our culture finds no value in effort unless it results in tri
umph. If we aren’t winning, we feel as if we have to explain
why or we just quit. Very few of us are comfortable with
our shortcomings.
Have you ever faced failure and later claimed that you
don’t care? I think we all do that from time to time. We say
things like, “I didn’t really have my heart set on being a
doctor anyways,” or, “I’m not really looking for a girlfriend
or a date right now. I’ve really enjoyed doing my own thing
for the past 2 1/2 years or so, and I would rather stay on
that track.”
Furthermore, if I had a nickel for every time I heard
someone at UNC say, “I’m smarter than most those people
getting a 4.0 and stuff. I just don’t care,” I would have a
huge bag of nickels.
While I’m sure this is true in a large number of cases,
does it really tell us anything?
Most people’s talents are inherent, not the result of any
thing they’ve done. The talent pool is completely arbitrary,
along with most other fate-determining factors in life.
What’s not arbitrary is our will. In other words, the only
thing we actually should feel good or bad about is the effort
we put in.
I recendy heard a speech to a group of college students
that had the central message of “Go out and fail.” I don’t
think I’ve ever heard better advice.
Now is the time to apply for 12 internships and get no
callbacks. It’s time to ask that special someone out and
have he or she inform you that he or she would like you to
leave and that he or she is already processing a restraining
order. (I’m not alone in having heard this one a few too
many dmes - right?)
I was attending church Sunday when the priest told us to
raise our hands up when we pray to show reverence to
God with our bodies, and I thought, “Do I really have to
do this? I would feel like an idiot.” (This is coming from a
guy who wore no clothing and a pumpkin as underwear for
Halloween.)
Almost everything we do is shadowed by a fear of social
failure. When we let that fear affect our behavior, however,
we miss out on so much depth in life.
Learning to embrace our failures is no small task, but I
think we are up to it.
Maybe we could start by rewriting the story about the
hard-working Litde Engine.
Children might enjoy reading about The Litde Engine
That Tried Like an 5.0.8. Yet Couldn’t Quite Make it Up
the Hill But We Applaud Him for Giving it All he Had
Anyway.
Or maybe I should stop drinking while I write my
columns.
Regardless, if you don’t learn a thing in our studies of
-isms and charts that scholars make up to get their names in
a textbook, remember there’s nothing bad about failure. In
fact, it’s the best thing you can do.
If you agree that what’s needed to truly motivate the
youth of today is more explicit profanity in children's
books, e-mail Ben Dickens at bdickens@email.unc.edu.
Together we can teach Americas youth that life is just too
short to give a #s%!
Apocalypse Now
Amy Fisher and Tonya Harding will
square off in a boxing ring for a
Fox TV special this month. That
Of Human Bondage
Student leaders auctioned themselves
off for charity at Masala's annual
date auction. DTH staffers plan to do
tTljv Hotly (Tar M rri
jg/Mganfa.
BEN DICKENS
SHAMPOOING
PEOPLE,
REPEATEDLY
REPORTED
Under the Gun
The U.S. military will provide
assistance to the lawless, backward
land of Georgia. They also plan to
*e%
assist other countries.
Stayin' Alive
The beleaguered men's basketball
team sent Clemson to its 48th
straight loss at Chapel Hill
Wednesday night. Some things
just never change.
“A bunch of rich white men in suits are
determining what’s happening in Iraq.”
N.C. State Graduate Rania Masri
Speaking at a teach-in Wednesday night. Wait, isn’t that
what we fought the war for?
“Everything has to be looked at carefully,
so there were delays in approval.”
Student Union Director Don Luse
Commenting on the oft-delayed Union renovation project.
A campus construction project delayed? We are shocked,
shocked at such a notion.