8
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
Board Editorials <
Funding the Future
The proposal to build new cancer and biotechnology centers would benefit
the state by creating jobs and by promoting medical research.
It’s not every day when you can get two things
for the price of one.
But it could happen if the N.C. General
Assembly gives final approval to an economic
incentives package that, among other things, calls
for the creation of anew cancer treatment center
and a biopharmaceutica! research center.
Senate leaders laid out plans for the creation of
anew $l3O million, 272,000-square-foot cancer
center at UNC Hospitals last week.
The plan also devoted $45 million toward the
construction of anew biopharmaceutical and bio
process manufacturing training center at N.C. State
University. The new centers would be funded
using monies from the national tobacco setdement.
But the House Finance Committee stripped the
centers from the bill Monday, saying that they might
not have time to fully discuss the provisions before
the session ends. Removal was a poor decision and
diminishes the potential merits of the bill.
Asa whole, the incentives package offers a good
way for the state to boost its flagging economy
through the creation of new jobs. The bill, which
originally cleared the House on Aug. 26, is
designed to entice out-of-state companies to set up
shop in North Carolina in exchange for receiving
a portion of the new employees’ income taxes.
But the benefits of the new cancer and biophar
maceutical centers are twofold. Not only could
these facilities bring up to 100,000 new jobs to the
state during the next decade as officials have pre
dicted, but the researched performed at the centers
could also improve the health and well-being of all
North Carolinians.
Jeffrey Houpt, dean of the UNC-CH School of
Medicine, said last week that the current location
Equal Opportunity Pay
Having faculty pay more for their parking passes just because they can afford it
makes it harder for them to utilize their practical and well-deserved perk.
As the Advisory Committee on Transportation
works to develop a five-year transportation devel
opment plan, there are some potholes to avoid.
While tackling parking issues, ACT faces a mul
titude of options concerning who and how much to
charge for the limited supply of on-campus park
ing spots. One issue surfacing is the concept of a
sliding-scale pricing system for the different types
of employees here at UNC.
ACT members had a brief discussion at their Sept.
25 meeting of tying the cost of parking to salary, gen
erally meaning that faculty would pay more and
employees would pay less. Members agreed to dis
cuss the issue more in-depth at a later meeting.
Because faculty members, proponents of sliding
scale parking argue, are paid a higher salary on aver
age, they should be required to pay a higher fee for
a spot to balance the funding generated by parking.
ACT should not adopt this policy. Despite dis
parity in income, parking should not be treated as
a luxurious treat for faculty but rather as a practi
cal benefit to teaching here.
Although staff might have more of a barrier to
affording parking spots, there exists a fare-free tran
sit service in Chapel Hill that is more than a viable
alternative to having a campus parking spot. For
staff members who live too far from campus, there
are still a set number of spots set aside for staff.
If affordability remains an issue, there are a
number of off-campus parking places that are
located near bus stops. Staff members still would
be able to arrive at work at a reduced cost.
Parking is yet another resource that is granted to
UNC faculty. To raise the cost of parking only restricts
the ability of the University to give perks to faculty.
Raising their parking fee is somewhat of a ridicu
EDITOR'S NOTE:The above editorials are the opinions of solely The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board, which were reached
after open debate. The board consists of eight board members, the assistant editorial page editor, the editorial page edi
tor and the DTH editor. The 2002-03 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials.
DTH Editorial Page's Role Is to Share Opinions With Readers
Campus gray-hairs will recall the
“Weekend Update” greeting from
the early years of “Saturday Night
Live”: “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.”
Some readers are feeling a
similar sense of self-righteous
ness from The Daily Tar
Heel’s editorial board - with
out the comic relief.
Who are the people behind
the paper’s editorial board, and
what gives them the right to
sound off each weekday? They
are the 10 people who applied
for or agreed to take the job.
Editorial Page Editor Lucas
Fenske reports that he had six
seats to fill on this fall’s board but only
received three applications. Fenske selected
those individuals and recruited the remain
ing three members from the 40-person pool
of would-be columnists. Convincing poten
tial column writers to join the board is cus
tomary, says Fenske, as those slots draw
dozens of applicants each semester.
The board meets on Sundays, Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and every member usually
writes one editorial each week. Topics are
typically drawn from articles in the DTH
and The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and
Fenske says he tried to seek diversity of
of the N.C. Clinical Cancer Center in the Gravely
Building is no longer suitable for the ongoing treat
ment needs of patients.
Plus, the treatment center would help support
the biotechnology center at N.C. State by testing
the products developed at the facility, Amy Fulk,
spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tern Marc
Basnight, told The Daily Tar Heel last week.
Under the Senate plan, the N.C. State biophar
maceutical training center also would oversee satel
lite training facilities at various community colleges
throughout the state. Only seven of the state’s 58
community colleges have curriculums designed to
provide training for the biotechnology industry,
while several more have programs that train in spe
cific areas needed by biotech employers.
Enlisting the participation of community col
leges to provide training for workers is crucial, par
ticularly in areas of the state that in the past have
been heavily dependent on tobacco and farming.
Without the new centers, the economic incen
tives package offers little to ensure that state resi
dents can receive the skills training required should
new companies move to the state.
If N.C. leaders hope to gradually phase out the
state’s traditional agriculture-based economy in favor
of other industries, then they must lead the charge
creating new jobs while also ensuring that state work
ers have the skills needed to perform these jobs.
Creating the new cancer and biopharmaceutical
centers, which would incorporate the state’s com
munity college system, is a good start and one that
should be reconsidered by the General Assembly.
The potential merits of these two centers should
not be pushed aside just because House members
are anxious to adjourn the session and go home.
lous notion. It acts as a penalty for working at
UNC.
A large number of faculty live far enough from
the University where driving to campus is the only
realistic solution to getting to work. Imagine if
every workplace demanded a high parking fee for
the right to work at its office. While UNC’s staff
provides a large service, don’t forget that education
is the University’s primary function.
The transportation administration should focus
on using parking to provide benefits for faculty and
give perks to the service industry. Although per
haps a harsh notion, it must inevitably take prece
dence in a competitive area such as parking.
Faculty must not feel as if they are being pun
ished for needing a parking spot on campus by
paying higher prices. Parking should still be offered
to staff but on the same basis as faculty, not at a dif
ferent price. Because of the existence of many pub
lic transportation resources available to staff, they
should not feel excluded from campus life.
ACT will be holding forums at four places today
to facilitate discussion on parking issues. University
students, faculty and employees should attend one
of the forums and share their concerns and ideas
about campus transportation.
The forums will be held
a 10 a.m.-noon at the Kenan Field House in the
Rams Room
a 2 p.m.-4 p.m. in Wilson Library’s Assembly
Room
a 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. in 1505 Student Union
a 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m. in the fourth-floor Clinic
Auditorium (4008 Old Clinic Building)
Speaking out at the fomm before ACT develops a
proposal is the best way to avoid bumps in the road.
background and opinion for the board.
An editor’s note reveals that DTH
Editor Kim Minugh, who last spring
chose Fenske as the board’s leader, opted
not to vote or write editorials
during her tenure. The note,
which was added this year to *
reinforce the board’s indepen
dence, also states: “The above
editorials are the opinions of
solely The Daily Tar Heel
Editorial Board, which were
reached after open debate.”
Open to members but not
interested students.
Participants at the initial
Association of Student
MICHAEL FLYNN
OMBUDSMAN
Leaders meeting in September wanted to
know how to inform the DTH about the
activities of their student groups.
Unlike the news editors, who encour
aged group leaders to forward informa
tion to their desks and even stop by the
newsroom, the editorial board was not
interested in receiving unsolicited com
munication, notwithstanding any group’s
desire to offer a competing point of view.
Assistant Editorial Page Editor Jon
Harris told the group that the board con
ducts its own research and that the opin
ions of the board are just that - like them
Editorial Page
If you have any concerns or comments about our coverage, please contact Ombudsman Michael Flynn at mlflynn@email.unc.edu or
by phone at 843-5794.
Young N.C. Volunteers Needed
To Help Out the State's Children
This past Saturday, while most guests
to our campus were swarming into
Kenan Stadium, I met a woman
from Elon who was here for a different
reason. Her 6-year-old grand
daughter had undergone heart
surgery this past week but was
at the moment smiling, sitting
at a table surrounded by six
UNC students who were help
ing her with a crafts project.
What had brought us all
together was a social for
patients at the Children’s
Hospital organized by one of
the best-managed, most-effec
tive student organizations on
campus: the Dance Marathon.
Over the past four years, the marathon
has raised more than $330,000 to help
families with children being treated at the
UNC Children’s Hospital. A sick child
can put families under incredible emo
tional and financial stress. Huge medical
bills need to be paid at the same time
breadwinners are forced to take time off
from work to be with their children.
Money raised by the marathon goes to
relieving this stress by paying families’
non-medical bills and by purchasing addi
tional things to make their lives easier.
For example, Dance Marathon money
has gone to everything from keeping a
family’s home from being repossessed to
fulfilling a patient’s wish of receiving a
cotton candy machine for Christmas.
or not. Disgruntled readers can and do
submit letters or columns challenging its
viewpoints. But is the board’s aloofness an
appropriate reflection of editorial indepen
dence or a misguided exercise in secrecy?
According to Ferrel Guillory, director of
the Program on Southern Politics, Media
and Public Life, the DTH’s approach is
consistent with the conduct of other editor
ial boards. Guillory, who spent almost 25
years at The News & Observer, including
a decade as editor of its editorial page, says
his group had no public profile. “We didn’t
see it as our role,” he says. “We were com
menting on the news, not making it.”
Guillory says corporate and communi
ty leaders occasionally requested or were
invited by the board to present their
views, but, “It was not part of our job to
convene a group to hash out something.”
Fenske says he also prefers his group
to have a low profile to showcase the
ideas presented -r not the personalities.
Like many commercial papers, the
DTH board interviews candidates for
local political office and does the same for
students seeking prominent campuswide
posts. This fall it plans to invite officials
involved in the Honor Code revisions as
part of its consideration of that topic.
But unlike the N&O, The New York
alu' lath} ®ar TfH&A
Established 1893 • 109 Years of Editorial Freedom
www.dailytarheel.com
Kim Minugh
EDITOR
Office Hours Noon-2 Friday
Lucas Fenske
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Kelly Lusk
SPORTS EDITOR
Terri Rupar
COPY EDITOR
Adam Shupe
ONLINE EDITOR
1
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, _ 4U ’16 % effective co-rcYtv| - • vjf+S>int...
Times and other notable papers, the DTH
publishes the names of its edit board
members in the paper’s staff box. Such
identification allows readers to conduct
their own inquiries into a board’s makeup.
Fenske also refrains from censoring
contributing columnists or cartoonists,
despite regular requests from readers.
One student objected to the handling of
Tiffanie Drayton’s Sept. 13 piece on femi
nism, which also remarked upon the
responsibility of whites to end racism. The
reader called that notion over-broad and
said an editor should have objected to the
fine “and had it taken out or rewritten.”
The student hoped that similar “mistakes”
could be avoided in the future.
Cultivating campus discussion on
important topics is Fenkse’s role, however,
not constricting the columnists’ ability to
convey their views. And this year’s editori
al columnists have addressed a noteworthy
range of issues. Last spring’s group mistak
enly thought many readers were interested
in their dating and relationship travails.
Cartoons often prove to be the editori
al page’s most engaging, provocative or
offensive contents, depending, of course,
on the reader’s point of view.
A campus dean objected to Fenske’s
inclusion of Doug Marlette’s Sept 23 draw
Alex Kaplun
MANAGING EDITOR
Daniel Thigpen
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Aaron Fitt
SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
Kimberly Craven
PHOTO EDITOR
Sarah Sanders
WRITING COACH
UNC’s marathon is only the manifesta
tion of a much larger trend rippling across
the nation. Since 1973, when the first
dance marathon was organized at Penn
State, the number of college
dance marathons raising
money for children’s charities
has exploded. I was able to
find more than 50 of them
online in less than 10 minutes.
However, the success of the
marathon phenomenon is
indicative of a more significant
national trend. Young people
have become increasingly will
ing to devote their time to pri
vate charities but less willing to
JIM DOCGETT
REACH EXCEEDS
GRASP
work for political solutions to the prob
lems that their charities address.
While it’s wonderful that 577 college
students last February were willing to stand
on their feet for 24 hours to raise money
for the kids, it’s disappointing that it’s not
as easy to rally that many students to fight
for the kids’ interests in the political arena.
Money raised by our Dance Marathon
is so dearly needed for a reason: The state
of child welfare in North Carolina is
deplorable. The most recent data from
the Census Bureau shows that roughly
one in five children in North Carolina
live beneath the federal poverty line.
Gregory Malhoit, former director of
the N.C. Center for Justice and
Community Development, wrote in 1998
that one in eight N.C. children experience
ing depictingjanet Reno as the new Miss
North Carolina, claiming Reno’s hand ges
ture mocked her Parkinson’s condition.
The writer called the cartoon “a per
sonal, mean-spirited, scurrilous, base
attack on a person who did not deserve it”
and wondered whether Marlette’s
rumored friendship with Reno’s victorious
opponent in last month’s Florida guberna
torial primary motivated the cartoon.
Marlette, a UNC alumnus who taught
two University courses last spring,
responded that the drawing reflected his
customary rendering of a pageant crowd
wave and that the Parkinson’s connection
never occurred to him. Calling himself a
friend and admirer of Reno, Marlette said
that he had met her opponent but that his
many personal contacts were irrelevant to
his cartoons. “Stay tuned,” he concluded.
“I’m an equal opportunity offender.”
Whatever one’s view of the DTH edi
torial board and the contents of the opin
ion page, like many campus groups -and
unlike commercial newspapers - it seeks
new members each semester. Maybe in
December Fenske won’t be forced to find
new colleagues from the columnist pile.
Reach DTH Ombudsman Michael Flynn
at mlflynn@email.unc.edu.
Jon Dougherty
CITY EDITOR
Addie Sluder
FEATURES EDITOR
Beth Buchholz & Tiffany Pease
DESIGN EDITORS
Michael Flynn
OMBUDSMAN
extended periods of hunger, which makes
them more susceptible to illness.
The Child Welfare League of America
reports that 14 percent of children in
North Carolina have no health insurance.
Parents of children without insurance nor
mally are unable to afford preventative
care and put off seeking health care until
absolutely necessary, only giving their
children’s illnesses time to worsen.
To use a metaphor that’s become trite,
organizations like the Dance Marathon
treat the symptoms of these problems but
not their causes.
This isn’t to say that the marathon
doesn’t play an incredibly important and
helpful role. No government program
could ever replace the warmth of Dance
Marathon volunteers who spent time with
patients like the little girl from Elon I met
this Saturday. Nor could the government
ever be flexible enough to provide some
thing like a cotton candy machine to
make one individual kid happy.
But the marathon will never be able to
impact the number of sick children who
need help or the reasons why having a
sick child can bankrupt a family. Only our
government can impact these problems.
Although the Dance Marathon does a
fantastic job, its volunteers should realize
that the marathon isn’t the only thing
they can do “for the kids.”
Jim Doggett can be reached at
jdoggett@email.unc.edu.
tthp laili} (Tar Bed
Lizzie Breyer
PROJECTS EDITOR
Elyse Ashburn
STATE St NATIONAL EDITOR
Nick Parker
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Cobi Edelson
GRAPHICS EDITOR
i4fei
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
reader comments. Letters to
the editor should be no
longer than 300 words and
must be typed, double
spaced, dated and signed by
no more than two people.
Students should include
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number. Faculty and staff
should include their title,
department and phone
number. The DTH reserves
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space, clarity and vulgarity.
Publication is not guaran
teed. 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.