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10 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005 BOARD EDITORIALS AN ACCEPTABLE PICK Wendy Kopp will be a fine commencement speaker, but it would have been nice if someone flashier and more exciting had been selected. Every Senior Class waits with bated breath for the announcement of who its class’s Commencement speaker will be. Historically, UNC has had some great speakers to send seniors on their way into the world. Comedian Bill Cosby was just one of the most recent in a long list of past Commencement speakers in our blue heaven. But this year, we find ourselves less than star-struck. This year’s speaker, Wendy Kopp, is the founder of Teach for America. That is no small accomplishment. And our disappointment is not to say that she might not move us during Commencement. But let’s be honest. She’s not a speaker to get excit ed about. Few seniors will be calling their friends at peer universities and saying, “Guess who we got to speak at graduation? The founder of Teach for America!” Even if someone does say that, excited gasps will not fill the room. Of all the possible speakers, she simply is not one that will get the class of’o6 all atwitter. Perhaps if students were given a say in who was to speak at Commencement, we would get someone who got us A STEP BACKWARDS The Kansas State Board of Educations preoccupation with teaching a nonscientific theory in biology classrooms is not good for education. Almost a century after the Scopes Monkey Trial, Americans haven’t settled the debate on how and where human life began. But a recent decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to adopt a policy discrediting evolution is simply a step backwards that harms public education. According to The New York Times, the board decid ed Tuesday on policies including a definition of sci ence worded specifically so as not to limit the subject to natural explanations. The standards don’t require the teaching of intelligent design, but the board did adopt strong language from intelligent design theory, highlighting problems with evolution teaching. Debate is a positive thing it gets people think ing about major issues and what they really know and believe, and it helps students develop critical thinking abilities. But in the public school setting of a science classroom, it just doesn’t apply. Scientific debate has to be based on facts, not simple conjecture. Intelligent design, in a nutshell, suggests that while we have evolved, the whole system was too complex not to have some sort of direction. Teaching a theory simply because it can’t be disproved is not a sound basis for adding anything to the curriculum. NOT A GREAT CHOICE ~w yr A welcome sign for the upper quad was a downright disappointing choice for a senior gift to establish a legacy for UNC’s class of 2006. All the senior class gift options this year hov ered around what generously can be described as mediocre. But there was still hope that the gift could be salvaged, should the best idea be chosen and carried out. But the announcement this week revealing the decision for the senior class gift destroyed said hope. The selection of a welcome sign on McCorkle Place leaves a less than stirring legacy for the class of’o6. It’s a shame that even among three lackluster ideas for the senior class gift, the most uninspired was chosen. For years to come, visitors and alumni will be reminded of this waste of perfectly good gift money. On the grounds of creativity alone, the proposal is feeble, but in regards to necessity and symbolic importance, it is an even weaker idea. There is no need for such a sign on McCorkle Place. There have never been any accounts of lost townies wandering aimlessly around the quad wishing only for a sign that might have proclaimed their arrival onto University grounds. Even first-time visitors tend not to have trouble identifying the upper quad as part of UNC’s campus. Yet the sign is being built as a sym EDITOR'S NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel editorial board and were reached after open debate. The board consists of three board members, the associate opinion editor, the opinion editor and the DTH editor. The 2005-06 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials. Address concerns to Public Editor Elliott Dube at dubee@email.unc.edu. Town elections are over finally CHECK PLUS 4l Whew. After all of that rigmarole and wrangling, municipal elections are over. While it’s always a hoot to spec tate on these things, most people are ready for a break. Let’s get down to business. Irregular specials at Top of Lenoir CHECK / Tapas are tasty, even at Lenoir. And it just goes to show that Carolina Dining Services can pro vide really good things. So why can’t they provide such delights to our taste buds on a more regular basis? Poor planning of construction work CHECK MINUS S- Cameron Avenue continues to see sporadic construction, creating a headache and traffic hangups for pedestrians and drivers alike. Throw in work along Country Club Road and N.C. 54 and it’s just getting ridiculous to navigate roadways around here. Some better planning, please? pumped. That suggestion given, Kopp will be this senior class’s Commencement speaker, and we are confi dent she will do a good job. Now the focus must turn to Bobby Whisnant and Jenny Peddycord, the senior class president and vice president, as they find us a senior speaker. Last year’s inaugural senior speaker was Mo Rocca, who gave seniors a tun, goofy send-off into continuing education or the work force. Bobby and Jenny need to make the senior speaker a tradition and get someone similar this year. They need to find someone fun who will get seniors excited and who will have them really looking forward to something other than getting those lambskins. Wendy Kopp is likely to be a good Commencement speaker. She might prove to be inspiring to the class of ’O6 and send them off to lives fully dedicated to public service. But after four years at one of the most prestigious universities in the South, seniors deserve some fun someone to brag about. It falls on Bobby and Jenny to deliver that, and it would be a shame if they left us disappointed. In addition, it brings in the issue of religion, more or less injecting creationism into the classroom. A science class is not the place for religion nor should a religion class be forced to teach evolution. In addition to its recent mistakes, Kansas stripped evolution from curriculum standards six years ago. If it’s debate we want, that’s not how to go about it. And it’s not to say that the theory of evolution is air tight It isn’t possible to suddenly know how it all works, and over time, scientists put more and more pieces of the puzzle into place. Until we find more answers, stu dents should hear about evolution’s weaker points. If we’re going to teach students comprehensive evolutionary theory, then it should be done in the manner of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Mexico or Ohio four states that employ critical analysis of evolution as part of the scientific process. And if anyone is going to decide what students will hear, it ought to be individual school districts. Every district is different and entitled to decide what the students learn within reasonable standards. The Kansas decision might be a victory for intel ligent design. But it’s one heck of a defeat for sound public education. bolic division between the University and the town. Don’t we already have that wall that runs between Franklin Street and McCorkle Place? If the welcome sign had been the least of three evils, then its selection would be forgivable, but even the public art was a better proposition. At least art would have been something to go see no one wants to stand around discussing the deeper meaning of a sign. Art had the potential to be interesting, even exciting. Though it would have required more leg work, art could have been worth the money. The disenchantment that has accompanied this year’s senior class gift need not be the defining moment of Bobby Whisnant and Jenny Peddycord’s tenure as senior class officers. We have full faith in their ability to win redemption as the year proceeds. Needless to say, however, the entire process behind this year’s gift decision was a letdown. Future senior classes need to be more involved in the process by contributing original ideas. Future senior class offi cers should try to do more to incite creativity. And to the current senior class, do not fret your gift won’t become the butt of visitors and residents’jokes until after you’ve graduated, when it’s built. READERS’ FORUM Equality should be about more than sexual pleasure TO THE EDITOR: I’m sick and tired of people mak ing a big deal out of sex. Wait, I got that backwards: I’m sick and tired of people not making a big deal out of sex. A poster attached to the lovely “Orgasm Awareness” display read, “Positive attitudes toward our sexuality are a crucial step in attaining gender equality.” Well, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Sex should not be a power struggle. The truth is, there’s much more to sex than merely reaching orgasm. When you have sex with someone, you’re both in the most physically and emotionally vulnerable posi tion possible. It has nothing to do with power, and everything to do with selflessness. Raffling off sex toys and draw ing cute little clitoris cartoons sends the message that sex acts are casual recreational activities aimed at obtaining base, physical pleasure. This mind-set doesn’t lib erate women; instead, it increases a woman’s chance of facing an unplanned pregnancy, contracting an STD and being used by men who feel that sexually “liberated” women are easy targets. I understand that the goal of this project wasn’t necessarily to encourage sexual promiscuity, and Opinion that you also were handing out helpfhl literature on breast exams and pap smears. For this I whole heartedly commend you. However, we must think about the deeper implications of the project. Mary McPherson Senior English Ashley Tyndall Junior Psychology/Sociology Teach for America should better prepare volunteers Teach for America is a worthy cause, and I applaud everyone who has or will sign up for the program. I will not sign up, however, though I do plan on teaching after I grad uate this coming spring. I do not feel that Teach for America prop erly trains college graduates for the harsh realities of teaching. I plan on enrolling in the Masters of Arts in Teaching pro gram here next year. I don’t know if a one-year program is enough time to train properly, but I feel more comfortable with that than a 5-week program. Matthew Teal Senior History FROM THE DAY’S NEWS “It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom ofpress ... who has given us the freedom of speech.” FATHER DENNIS EDWARD O'BRIEN, sergeant; united states marine corp EDITORIAL CARTOON iitomums k-elected? aaaMß (3Gb ow mr it \nfte. vat ■ ,Ji i. U 1 rpASLI*. tufl* I **** rt ° WH " No # we ccn'f get take - backs. ' COMMENTARY Even college students can build healthy eating habits Despite the many, many calamities I have incurred in the kitchen, cooking and I, we get along just fine. I can’t say the same for me and food, and I know I’m not alone. For many years it has been the enemy, something not to be trusted. It didn’t help that I thought I wanted to be in a field where looks are prized and birthing hips are not. It’s only now as a senior that I’ve learned to balance things and not punish myself for eating poorly one day by mentally beat ing myself up. Writer Anne Lamott describes in an essay called “Hunger” how she learned to properly feed her self as a woman in her early 30s. We shouldn’t have to wait that long. Eating disorders are not uncommon on the college campus in general, but it doesn’t have to get that far in order to be a prob lem. The pressure students of both sexes face to look a certain way is real, as is the contentious relationship with food. Through talking about it, find ing support and obtaining infor mation about better, healthier choices, we can leave here happier individuals and better prepared for the future. Maria Thekkekandam, a senior nutrition major, is the chairwoman of the health and nutrition subcom mittee of Nourish International (formerly Hunger Lunch). The group focuses on the role nutrition plays in our community. While the money to eat well and the space to have fresh food in dorms are both limited, it isn’t as though a student doesn’t have options. Thekkekandam stresses the importance of becoming more educated about those options. The committee is working to help students learn about the Carolina students are being inconvenienced too readily TO THE EDITOR: I have two complaints with projects discussed in Thursday’s edition. The first is the shutdown of the front entrance of Student Stores. I would like to know why this could not have waited a few more weeks until Winter Break. Forcing students through the narrow side entrance is a hassle during exam time', when traffic will increase. Secondly, I would like to know more about the proposed mail center in the renovated Morrison Residence Hall. From Larry Hicks’ quote in the page 2 article on the renovations, all packages for all South Campus residents will be directed to this center in Morrison. Presumably the center will be accessible to those who do not have Morrison flex passes. Even if it is, I remember my years in Hinton James and Ehringhaus. I would not have wanted to walk to Morrison to get packages. Currently, packages and all other mail go to each dorm, and I see no reason to change that system. Dustin Ingalls District 1 Representative Student Congress Pff In AMY ROSSI LIFE OF SPICE healthier choices they can make. The produce market held last month at the Rams Head Plaza is one effort by the group, along with other health-focused orga nizations on campus, to provide students with an opportunity to fortify their diets with healthy alternatives. Thekkekandam said she found the event to be a success and looks forward to assisting with another sale. “There was a steady stream of people who were very interested in the fresh produce offered,” she said. Cooking classes are also a part of the committee’s plan. Last week, the group partnered up with Lazarus Move, an organiza tion started by Nathan Huening and Stuart Jeckel, for a healthy cooking class. Lazarus Move seeks to teach students to be more self-sufficient in a variety of areas including cooking before they graduate. It’s not about being an expert it’s about learning. The HN subcommittee has recently shifted its focus to building awareness, so creative outreach is still a bit of a process. Nonetheless, it is very optimistic about the impact it can have on the UNC campus. Member Megan Larson believes there is a definite student interest for the work the com mittee is doing. In turn, they are striving to get information out in a responsible way. She cites “myth busting” as one of the goals of the group. “Thankfully Atkins has died down a bit,” Larson sighed Speak Out We welcome letters to the editor and aim to publish as many as possible. In writing, please follow these simple guidelines: Keep letters under 300 words. Type them. Date them. Sign them; make sure they're signed by no more than two people. If you're a student, include your year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff: Give us your department and phone number. The DTH edits for space, clarity, accuracy and vulgarity. Bring letters to our office at Suite 2409 in the Student Union, e-mail them to editdesk@unc.edu, or send them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, N.C., 27515. All letters also will appear in our blogs section. (Btyp Hotly (Bar Hrri Established 1893 112 years of editorialfreedom RYAN C. TUCK EDITOR, 962-4086 RCTUCK@EMAIL.UNC.EDU OFFICE HOURS: TUESDAY, THURSDAY 1-2 P.M. PIT SIT: FRIDAY, 12-1 P.M. JOSEPH R. SCHWARTZ MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 JOSEPH_SCHWARTZ@UNC.EDU REBECCA WILHELM DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 BECCAO7@EMAIL.UNC.EDU CHRIS CAMERON OPINION EDITOR, 962-0750 EDITDESK@UNC.EDU BRIAN HUDSON UNIVERSITY EDITOR, 962-0372 UDESKOUNC.EDU BRIANNA BISHOP TED STRONG CITY CO-EDITORS, 962-4209 CITYDESKOUNC.EDU KAVITA PILLAI STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR, 962-4103 STNTDESKOUNC.EDU QJIj? Mg (Ear HM By Philip McFee, pip@email.unc.edu ruefully. While that particular plan might be the best choice for some when followed correctly, the way many diets take off as huge fads defies the nutrition mantra of “moderation is key.” Being able to learn about new diets and incorporate healthier choices into our lives in a setting that is not didactic —but with other students who are familiar with the lifestyle college entails can help a student deal with the pressure to conform to certain levels of attractiveness. It’s not easy. I know I, like many, struggle with what’s easy and what’s best when it comes to this kind of thing. We all go through it, but some times it’s hard to talk or ask ques tions about. If you feel like you might need to be equipped with better, healthier cooking skills, keep an eye out for the next cooking class. The Nourish International Web site is still under construction, but other events have been posted on the Center for Healthy Student Behaviors site. Students who have questions or who know they would like to see more events on campus that focus on healthy eating should voice their concerns. If there’s something you’d like to see the committee do, e mail Maria Thekkekandam at mariatt@email.unc.edu. Eating healthy at the collegiate level isn’t always easy with time and money constraints. But we’re not going to be students forever though it might seem that way right now. Learning to deal with food and to eat healthier now can prevent a struggle later in life. Contact Amy Rossi, a senior majoring in communication studies, at amrossi@email.unc.edu. www.daUylarlieel.com DANIEL MALLOY SPORTS EDITOR, 962-4710 SPORTS@UNC.EDU TORRYE JONES FEATURES EDITOR, 962-4214 FEATURES@UNC.EDU JIM WALSH ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, 962-4214 ARTSDESK@UNC.EDU SCOTT SPILLMAN CATHERINE WILLIAMS COPY CO-EDITORS, 962-4103 WHITNEY SHEFTE PHOTO EDITOR, 962-0750 JEN ALLIET DANIEL BEDEN DESIGN CO-EDITORS, 962-0750 FEILDING CAGE GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA EDITOR, 962-0246 CHRIS JOHNSON ONLINE EDITOR, 962-0750 ONLINEOUNC.EDU KELLY OCHS EMILY STEEL WRITERS' COACHES, 962-0372 ELLIOTT DUBE PUBLIC EDITOR, 260-9084 DUBEEOEMAIL.UNC.EDU
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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