The Tar Heel
Thursday, June 24, 1971
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Fred Venn
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One of the biggest problems facing the
Chapel Hill summer school students is the
twice daily problem of trying to find a
place to eat.
A noted restaurant consultant, Mr.
Ave A. Rottengutt was in town recently
to do a survey for a food service
interested in building an eatery in Chapel
Hill.
"I feel there is a tremendous need for
decent restaurants here in Chapel Hill,"
Mr. Rottengutt said, "but I fear there is
ro market for the firm I work with.
"Chapel Hill is filled with what we in
my business like to call 'Class A Joints.'
That is of course differentiated from
what the public would call a Class A
restaurant. For us Class A denotes a
restaurant which returns maximum
profits on minimum expenditure. There
are several ways in which this can be
done, and Chapei Hill has at least one
eatery doing it each possible way. Some
of them even use two or three of our
methods."
Could you tell us, Mr. Rottengut, what
you found in the Chapel Hill restaurants
when you made your survey?
"Certainly, boy, I'd be glad to."
Well, what did you find?
"The first place I went to is one of
these where they give you fancy
ousing-UNC blows
it
The rumors which the University '
Administration denied so
vigorously all spring are true.
There are too many students
required to live in dormitories for
the dormitory space available.
We sarcastically suggested last
week that the University take the
5,000 students who are required to
live in dorms and draw their names
out of a hat to determine which
500 would be allowed to live off
campus.
Although we were being
sarcastic, our solution appears to be
better than the one offered by the
University.
The solution which the
University thinks best will place
three students in small, bleak,
dreary dorm rooms which are
equipped to handle two students.
University regulations require
that all freshmen, junior transfers,
and, for the first time this fall, all
sophomores, must live in dormitory
rooms. We contended when the
sophomore rule was made, and
again this spring when junior class
officers tried to amend the junior
transfer rule, that there was no
need for such policies.
Dean of Student Affairs C. O.
Cathey said at that time, the
University "does not contemplate
any crowding." Student leaders
insisted the University was hell-bent
on a course which would cause a
great deal of trouble if there was no
liberalization of the policy.
The University refused to
liberalize either the sophomore or
the junior transfer policy but Dean
Cathey did say "if there is any
crowding, there would be a
liberalization of the policy to
but
background music to eat with. It's
supposed to soothe your nerves and make
digestion easier, and apparently it works.
The people use what I call top flight
music, and second-rate food. The
restaurant is actually better than some
I've seen since the food is better than it
needs to be, but the service isn't all that
good.
"One of the waiters makes it a point
to talk to the customers as much as
possible. That nearly undoes all of the
good the music does, and the food turns
out to be second-rate, simply because the
music, which would make it a first-rate
place, is negated by the babble of the
waiter.
'There's another restaurant
downtown, patterned after one I often
visit in New York, that does everything it
can to make money, and absolutely
nothing to make the food any more
palatable.
"First they've got prices so high they
are ridiculous. Then they've got the most
expensive juke box in town-two songs
for a quarter-and they rig that so that
only the booth that puts in the money is
the one that gets any sound. And thirdly,
they've got the wall painted in the most
unsettling colors one could imagine.
'Then to top it off, as if the food
prevent above-normal occupancy of
any room or dormitory."
Obviously "above-normal
occupancy" means one thing to the
University and another to the
student who must live in dorms.
Since the University refused to
listen to student leaders and
liberalize the required residence
policies there isn't much left to do
but live with a bad situation.
We can only offer one suggestion
to students now that the University
policy has been set.
In a mood of obvious
benevolence, the University will
deduct 10 per cent of the normal
room rent from the bill of those
who triple-up.
Pay them one-third of the rent.
The University should not be
allowed to make a profit of 70 per
cent of the room rent from
students who are forced to live in
cramped conditions.
The University should not be
allowed to profit from its own
stupidity.
Education will suffer
if tuition bill passes
A bill that would nearly double
the tuition of out-of-state students
has been sent to the Senate Finance
Committee after passage by the
N.C. House.
The bill would raise tuition from
its present $950 per year to $1,800
per year.
We oppose this bill vigorously.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. William
T. Watkins (D-Granville), said the
raise in tuition would help equalize
the cost of putting a student
through the University. That cost is
presently estimated to be $2,455
per student per year.
Watkins also asserted that the
raise in price would not reduce the
number of out-of-state students.
With this, we agree. It simply
means that out-of-state students
would have a more wealthy
background than most of the
present students attending the
University.
Having out-of-state students is
beneficial to the University because
it helps North Carolina students see
some of the different life-styles of
other states in America.
North Carolina sends plenty of
students to out-of-state schools and
they are required to pay both
higher tuition there plus state taxes
to support UNC.
It seems a more logical idea to
leave the tuition at its present rate.
The state taxes paid by families of
students who never attend a
state-supported school should make
up the difference.
And it means the out-of-state
students who do attend UNC would
not have a background vastly
dissimilar from their UNC
classmates who are from North
Carolina.
can sne coo
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could possibly be edible in that
atmosphere, they hire the world's most
surly waiters. You're lucky if you get
waited on within 30 minutes after you sit
down."
What about- some of the other
restaurants in town?
"Well, you've got some sandwich
shops and about three or four places that
specialize in 'continental' cuisi :. They
all put so much grease on the food it
slides right down your throat, and then
you have to race to the nearest bathroom
before it slides the rest of the way."
How do these places stay in business if
they're so bad?
"The people around here, especially
the students, don't have anywhere else to
eat. They ain't got no choice, especially if
they don't have a car. The University
won't let them cook in their dorm rooms
so what else are they going to do? Eat
cold pork and beans?
If you were in the same
situation-going to school and not having
a car-what would you do for food?
"Well, there are a couple of things that
one could do. Either find a girl who lives
in an apartment and cooks well or thumb
to Durham every time you want to eat."
Wkp Hat Iff A
Mike Parnell
Editor
Terry Cheek
Managing Editor
Bruce Mann
Feature Editor
Lana Starnes
News Editor
Robert Wilson
Business Manager