The Tar HeelThursday, July 20, 10783
THE TAR HEEL
tate and Local News
Volume 85, No. 8
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
July 20, 1978
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The proposed addition to Health Affairs parking deck will add 842 spaces.
HEW must allow NAACP
review of UNC plans
Negotiations between the University of
North Carolina system and the
Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare will be influenced in the future by
the opinion of the Legal Defense Fund of
the NAACP, the civil rights group which
initiated the lawsuit that brought about
the dispute but no one seems to be quite
sure just how or how much their
influence will be felt.
Federal district judge John H. Pratt
ruled Friday that HEW Secretary Joseph
Califano did not follow the court's
guidelines for reaching agreements over
desegregation with the state university
systems of North Carolina, Georgia, and
Virginia.
Pratt said Califano must give civil rights
lawyers of the Legal Defense Fund more
time in the future to review and analyze
new aspects of the universities'
desegregation plans before HEW can
approve them.
The decision was the result of a follow
up suit by the Legal Defense Fund which
accused HEW of improper procedures in
approving the desegregation plans
without first submitting them to the
Fund's lawyers' scrutiny.
An HEW spokesman said that HEW had
only been trying to facilitate negotiations
when it took its action in approving the
plans.
Richard Beatty, deputy counsel for
HEW, said that HEW had not meant to
deprive the Legal Defense Fund of its
procedural prerogatives. "It was really
UNC that didn't want us to show it to
them beforehand. They wanted us to
approve it right away."
The UNC officials involved said
Tuesday that they would prefer to have
more time to study the court's order
before making any comment.
The original agreement between the
University of North Carolina system and
HEW, which formed a major part of the
Legal Defense Fund's complaint in its
recent suit, came in April of this yearasan
continued on page 11
Hospital parking deck
approved by Aldermen
by Sean O'Brien
Staff Writer
After months of debate with the
town and Student Government, the
University has won approval from the
Board of Aldermen for a special use
permit to build an addition to the
Health Affairs parking deck.
The board rejected a similar request
from the university last spring on the
grounds that the 842-space addition
would cause traffic problems on
Mason Farm Road, and that the deck
was only a short term solution to the
town parking problem.
Cordon Rutherford, UNC planning
director, told the board in February
that the deck (to be located on Mason
Farm Road behind the present deck)
would be filled by patient and visitor
parking in the next five to seven
years. In the meantime, he said, the
hospital staff and faculty would be
allowed to park there.
Major opponents of the deck were
Aldermen Gerry Cohen and Student
Body President Jim Phillips. Both felt
the deck would discourage use of the
bus system and greatly increase rush
hour traffic. They both changed their
minds on the issue after the
university took several steps to solve
these problems.
Steps the university took were:
To relieve the traffic problem, the
University agreed to work with the
town in blocking off Mason Farm
Road between Odom Village and the
Community Church, and to extend
the other end of Mason Farm to
Columbia Street, John Temple, vice
chancellor for business and finance,
said. The result will be to route traffic
from 15-501 to the parking deck and
away from narrow Mason Farm
Road.
To ensure the deck will be used by
patients and visitors, Temple said no
faculty or staff parking permits will
be issued for the deck after 1988. He
also said that parking fees for the deck
will be increased and that the
collection booths will stay open later
to discourage the faculty and staff
from parking there.
The university agreed to pay for
half ($2500) of a feasibility study on
the concept of Park-Ride lots, Temple
said. He said the university would also
join a joint town-university
committee to study the Park-Ride
concept.
The purpose of the Park-Ride lot is
to keep traffic away from congested
areas, Cohen said. The result, he said,
will be greater use of the bus system
which will lessen traffic and save
gasoline.
The university agreed to build a
fringe parking lot on Manning Drive,
behind Hinton James dorm for the
faculty and staff of the hospital.
Phillips said the University has also
agreed to increase its funding of the
bus system.
Temple said bids for the addition
will be taken on July 25. If the bids fall
within the $3,157,000 budget then
construction will begin 30 days later.
Temple said.
He said that about 200 parking
spaces would be lost during the
construction. These spaces, he said,
will be made up by more efficient use
of existing spaces, so that students
will not lose any parking spaces.
Phillips said tha t he decided to favor
the new deck because of the
"concessions" made by the university,
but both Cohen and Temple denied
that the university actions were a part
of a compromise to gain approval for
the deck.
"I wouldn't say it was a sudden
dialogue (between the board and the
university)," Temple said. "The Park
Ride concept was not something for
us to get involved with. Now it seems
like an idea whose time has come."
"I don't think there
compromise," Cohen said.
was
Desegregation ruling caused drop in birth rates
by Karen Eagle
Staff Writer
The Supreme Court's 1954 ruling
requiring desegregation of the nation's
public schools resulted in a significant
drop in the birth rate among Southern
whites, according to an article by
sociology professors at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
According to the article, which was
published July 14 in "Science," a
Washington-based weekly journal of
news in the scientific community, fertility
rates in nine of the 11 former Confederate
states decreased about 5 percent, while
white birth rates in North Carolina and
Florida increased.
The article, "A Fertility Reaction to a
Historical Event: Southern Whites and
the 1954 Desegregation Ruling," was
written by Dr. Ronald R. Rindfuss,
associate professor of sociology, Dr. John
S. Reed, associate professor of sociology
and Craig St. John, a doctoral candidate.
In an interview, Dr. Rindfuss said that
the decrease in birth rates actually began
in the late spring and early summer of
1955, almost 12 months after the May,
1954 ruling. Rindfuss attributed the time
factor to the time involved in conception
and gestation.
Rindfuss explained that the decrease
was especially noticeable because it came
during a "baby boom" when men
were returning from the Korean War.
Rindfuss said that there were sustained
increases all over the country during the
period, and that the increase in white
births in the South around 1954 was
nearly three times that of the nation as a
whole.
Rindfuss pointed out that birth rates
also dropped in Northern states affected
by the desegregation ruling. These states
included Kansas, Pennsylvania and
Indiana. Rindfuss said, "We could not find
evidence of any other contributing factors
(for the decrease). We looked, of course."
The desegregation ruling came on May
17, 1954 in the case of Brown v. Board of
Education oj Topeka, Kansas. The Supreme
Court ruled at that time that it was
unconstitutional to separate children
according to race in' public schools. The
decision struck down a previous ruling
giving school districts the right to
segregate as long as the quality of
education remained equal.
Rindfuss said that birth rates among
Southern blacks also decreased in the
period, although the decrease was "not as
consistent or as big as for whites. The
decision was probably viewed by blacks
with mixed feelings." Blacks probably
feared a turbulent transition period in the
schools, but also felt their children would
eventually get a better education,
according to Rindfuss.
Rindfuss commented that the decision
affected "the tony in which children might
be educated, which is one of the most
important things to parents. Parents will
often pick a place to live based on the local
school available.
"The depression in fertility did not last
long," said Rindfuss. "The slack in birth
rates picked up again in the late summer
and early fall of 1955." The trend in the
South was once again on the increase,
along with the rest of the nation. Rindfuss
attributed the upturn to the perception
th.it "nothing was going to change soon in
the South."
The article was based on a more general
study examining regional trends in
fertility rates. Rindfuss said that
researchers had looked at the South
between 1945 and 1969. Rindfuss
commented that the study proves that
particular historic events can influence
the reactions of parents. For example,
according to the study, birth rates in 1947
were one-third larger than in 1945, due to
the numbers of people returning from
World War II.
Rindfuss explained that it would be
beneficial to be able to understand and
predict fertility rates. - Currently the
fertility rate of the nation is at an all-time
low; how this trend develops could be of
tremendous importance to our society.
However, Rindfuss said, "We are limited
in our knowledge because of course we
cannot predict historical events."