Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 12, 1981, edition 1 / Page 6
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6H"he Daily Tar HeelfThursday. November 1?. 1981 iCasarda re for cities Jim Hummel, ham Susan Mauney. Mamt Edit Geoffrey Mock. abmuk Edit BETH BURRELL. Associate Editor Edwina Ralston, Univmity Editor Rachel Perry. cuy Edit CHARLES HERNDON, Suite and Natioml Editor Clifton Barnes. Spom Ediw LEAH TALLEY. Am Editor Keith King. Features Editor SCOTT SHARPE. Photography Editor Ann Peters. Spotlight Editor CHUCK JAMES. Ombudsman 89th year of editorial freedom Calendar confusion Students who like to get an early start on their Christmas shopping may run into difficulty a year from now if a plan to change UNC's calendar next fall is approved by Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III. The proposal, which has the lukewarm support of the UNC Calendar Committee, calls for the beginning of fall semester 1982 to be delayed a week. The result would mean that final exams would end on Dec. 22 or 23, fall break would take place the same weekend as a home football game (against N.C. State) and Christmas break would be shortened by one week. The plan, which the calendar committee originally opposed and then later approved after receiving pressure from the Committee on Instruc tional Personnel, should be rejected for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, is the complications faced by students try ing to plan Christmas vacations. For students who have to travel long dis tances, the revised calendar would mean a vacation of little more than two weeks and less time to get back and forth from home to school. But beyond scheduling logistics, there are other serious questions that seemed to have been overlooked during discussion of a calendar change. The University would have to spend additional money to heat dorms and classrooms during one of the coldest months of the year. Instead of ex tending the Christmas vacation and saving energy, as many schools are now beginning to do, UNC would be heading in the opposite direction. UNC Provost Charles Morrow, who heads the Committee on Instruc tional Personnel and who is expected to recommend the delay to Ford ham, argues that the calendar change is needed so University officials would have more time between the end of second summer session and the beginning of the fall semester. He also says the University should syn chronize its schedule with Duke University and N.C. State University. While it would be nice to have matching schedules for UNC students who take classes at those schools, it is ludicrous to adjust the calendar of an entire University of 20,000 to benefit several hundred students par ticular considering that Duke has not even established its own calendar yet. Two other options that have been overlooked are the shortening of the orientation period and changing the opening day of classes from Monday to the previous Thursday, as the University did three years ago. While not total solutions by themselves, these and other possible options might help alleviate the inconvenience the proposed calendar change would likely cause if approved. But the final decision is Fordham's. The chancellor should realize the complications such a switch could cause in the long run. While change often can be the solution to a problem, in this case, keeping the status quo and leaving the calendar as it is would serve the best interests of the University community. Expensive illness Solving the financial difficulties of the Medicaid and Medicare pro grams is as enticing to politicians as returning a campaign contribution. Whatever the proposal, it is likely to alienate certain politically important interest groups. Thus, last week's proposals by Secretary of Health and Human Resources Richard Schweiker to ease the financial burdens of those programs were welcome notice that Washington is aware of the gravity of the situation. But, unfortunately for the millions of Americans who depend upon the programs for badly needed medical care, those burdens fell on the wrong groups. Schweiker's proposals were mostly in the form of limits on federal re imbursements to provider groups doctors, nursing homes and hospitals for patient services. He also recommended requiring private medical insurance coverage for people over 65 who continue to work and levying the hospital insurance payroll tax on federal employees. Only the latter provision is justified. As it now stands, federal em ployees can receive Medicare benefits if they work in a job after retiring from the government. Benefits to these employees are a drain upon the program. Schweiker said forcing these employees to pay would provide a much-needed source of revenue. Unfortunately, the other provisions cut costs at the expense of those who depend upon the programs. Presumably Schweiker believes that by putting limits on federal reimbursements, doctors will think twice about prescribing expensive but perhaps unnecessary tests for the patients, thus saving the program's money. Instead, the effect of the limits will be to force patients to look for costly supplemental private insurance that will impose an undue hardship upon them. A more equitable solution would be to place a higher burden upon the provider groups that reap most of the financial benefits from the pro grams. Only when these groups pay an increased share of the costs will unnecessary tests be eliminated. Care must be taken, though, to ensure that provider groups do not simply pass these costs back to the patients. Schweiker's proposals have opened the debate on the solutions to the problems Medicaid and Medicare currently face. Providing inexpensive but quality medical care to millions of Americans depends upon the suc cessful resolution of this debate. Proposals should now be put forth that provide a more equitable solution than Schweiker's. The Bottom Line A wack and a smile San Francisco police may have found paradise during a raid last month. Inspector Alex Fagan's nar cotics officers tripped upon the pos sible replacement for HiC. It's called Hi Brew. When the officers confiscated a six-pack of "The Wacko One," con cocted of marijuana, purified water, sugar, malt, yeast and citric acid, a voice from the crowd quickly warn ed, "Don't drink more than a quar ter bottle of that stuff." The inspector replied, "For $5 a bottle, that must be the best drug high in the city." The brew, which is guaranteed to By GEOFFREY MOCK Eighty years after the Progressive Era first sparked widespread interest by Americans in the problems of their cities, the solution to these problems seems to be no closer now than it was then. UNC sociology department chairman John Kasarda said the future would hold no solutions until urban policy-makers realized that old policies do not fit the new realities of the post-industrial period. "The reason for this lack of success, in my judgment, rests with the failure of urban policies to give adequate recognition to contemporary dynamics underlying the locational decisions of people and firms and correspond ing changing functional roles large cities most effectively perform in advanced service economies," Kasarda said. As a consultant to the President's Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties under the Carter ad ministration and a contributor to the Reagan administra tion's 1982 National Urban Policy, Kasarda has worked with a number of leading urban policy-makers. He said cities should not attempt to challenge outlying areas for manufacturing industries, but should concentrate instead on developing their economic strengths as centers of in formation exchange and service provision. send imbibers reeling, comes com plete with a label listing serving direc tions and a warning about possible side effects. It's hard to guess what the pro duct's social implications will be. Maybe the generation gap could be bridged when adults sit down for their 5 o'clock drinks and the kids can get high at the same time. Or does Chapel Hill have new horizons to conquer: to become the Hi Brew drinking capital of the world? Who knows? Who cares? But. after that next big exam or paper, head downtown during Miller time and have a Hi Brew, "When you're having only one." And that's the bottom line. (Hie.) Mn Quotes "Rather than trying to re-create the industrial city of a bygone era, urban policies should foster the cities' new rapid-growth service-sector activities," he said. "It would be an expensive mistake to attempt to draw larger pro duction facilities back to the metropolitan cores or con tinuously prop up declining urban industries that are no longer competitive." Kasarda said that the growth cities have experienced had come mostly from tourism and white-collar office and professtional jobs. Further development of these in dustries is vital to the easing of urban economic prob lems, he said. "Along with continuing to foster the development of administrative, financial and professional office jobs in the central business districts, the cores of our major cities should be revitalized into culturally rich, architecturally exciting magnets for conventions, tourism and leisure time pursuits of regional, national and even international" populations," he said. With blue-collar industries continuing to move from , urban centers, Kasarda said governmental policies should provide employment retraining and should facilitate the relocation of urban unemployed to outlying areas with more job opportunities. Unfortunately, current policies and discriminatory practices in outlying areas often pre vent such a migration, he said. "National urban policies should work to break down the restrictive covenants, zoning regulations and barriers of racial and income housing discrimination that exist near many suburban and non-metropolitan blue-collar job bases," he said. "Building more public housing in the inner cities will only aggravate the problems of the residence-job opportunity mismatch and ensure that a large portion of their inhabitants remain dependent on the state." Well-intended government policies have unintentionally worsened this problem by tying the unemployed to inner city areas of economic distress. "It is becoming increas ingly apparent that some urban-targeted welfare pro grams may be inadvertently anchoring the disadvantaged in areas of economic distress and thereby damaging their long-term economic prospects,' he said. "Dependent on public housing and place-oriented income transfer pay ments, the disadvantaged cannot easily follow low-skilled jobs that have left the city." Kasarda dismisses the contention of some that the urban-targeted welfare programs he criticizes have not been fairly tested for effectiveness. "It's a tired, old alibi that if the program wasn't working, the problem wasn't with the program but that there wasn't enough of it," he said. Instead, Kasarda said, the rise in economic status by the unemployed depends on job growth in the private sector. "Despite massive federal efforts during the 1970s to create jobs directly in cities and prop up sagging inner city economies, overall employment opportunities for the disadvantaged continue to decline," he said. "We MCy1 sjCtr .a i urn i jtt wwii mi lit . fauwwmmi n -mm' 1 1 r r n ii Jr n 1 1 1 t r n ti T r lai rr n -j Saving the cities The Renaissance Center in Detroit (right) and the Inner Harbor in Baltimore are ex amples of cities building upon their strengths as centers of information ex . change and service provision. UNC soci ology professor John Kasarda said cities could no longer count on attracting manu facturing industries and that they should instead develop those industries that are most cost-efficient in urban centers. J it r j ; i 5 1 ir:$ , ii-iT jj2- "WW -r 1 t : t sirs V Si wmmmmwmmmmmiem 1 L ! M - i h. im.. til t 4 Courtesy Baltimore City Planning Department AM.... John Kassrda BTHFaitn Quintewl1 have come to the sobering realization that programs for socioeconomic progress must be built on a solid, private sector foundation." Kasarda said emphasis on growth in the private sector rather than on government aid did not mean that policies limiting such aid were unsympathetic to the needs of the unemployed and underemployed. "I consider mine the most compassionate policies," he said. "They will create opportunities for the disadvantaged. The idea is that Under a program of economic recovery, jobs will be cre ated. In periods of stagnation, it is the poor who suffer the most." In addition, the government should act to break down barriers inhibiting the movement of urban unemployed to areas of employment growth and also encourage the development of white-collar professional jobs in the cities. "The government should enforce open housing and non-discriminatory practices in hiring and be certain that its current policies are not interfering with the move ment of people." Without these policies, Kasarda said, the flight of middle-class whites to suburban and rural areas would continue, leaving the cities predominantly populated by lower-income minority groups with declining prospects of employment. Some argue that further suburbanization would be haphazard "sprawl," but Kasarda disagrees. "New re search is demonstrating that peripheral growth is not nearly as random or inefficient as once believed," he said. "Without the guidance of any conscious master de sign, the suburbs are evolving their own relatively self sufficient hierarchy of activity centers." Because of this, traditional suburban and urban pat terns are breaking down. The advantages that made cities attractive to manufacturing industries are gone, and be cause of that the key for urban leaders is to find new eco nomic advantages and develop them, Kasarda said. These advantages will not be found in reconstructing the his toric employment bases of cities, but in promoting new urban-growth industries which enhance the roles computer-age cities most effectively perform. National urban policies must clearly recognize that the era of massive, centralized industrialization is over and that large, dense concentrations of people and factories have become technologically obsolete," he said. "This implies a fundamental reorientation of national urban policies from emphasizing expensive stopgap pro grams to counter market and job redistribution trends to emphasizing economic development programs that will stimulate private-sector investment and job expansion. As long as the policies are dominated by programs that work against, rather than with, the modern forces of change, the policies will fail." ' Geoffrey Mock, a senior political science major from Baltimore, is associate editor for The Daily Tar Heel. Student musters the 'science ' of astrology By RANDY WALKER At college we think we're civilized. We have dropped the crystal ball of supersti tion and picked up the test tube of science. We major in economics, but not fortune telling; in chemistry, but not mind read ing. It seems there is just no room for the supernatural among the classrooms, libra ries and laboratories of this University. The Daily Tar Heel is a good example. It carries comics, crossword puzzles and columns as any other newspaper does, but one thing is missing a horoscope. Millions of Americans believe in astrology and can't start the day without reading their forecasts. So, I have delved into ancient mystical tomes. I have spent endless hours poring over inscrutable star charts. I have stud ied with an old woman who lives in a dumpster behind University Mall. And now, having mastered the science yes, science of astrology, I have prepared this horoscope for the DTH. Aquarius: Focus on consolidating op tions. You receive communication. Be- Letters Reader objects to smug column To the editor: After reading the piece orr student apathy by Beth Burrell ("Students find security in sanctuary of apathy," DTH, Nov. 5), a prime example of such apathy came to mind. How do we unthinkingly let the DTH take our . activity fees and publish such detritus? Reduced to a sentence, Burrell's argu ment is, "If you don't agree with me, you're apathetic." Oddly, she reports no incidents in which a student was unable to reject her views with a reasoned argu ment. But I suspect she feels no need to, her views being too sound to be ques tioned by thinking people. In such smugness do all pieties fester. Rick Broida Durham ware of self-deception. Saggitarius, Libra or Pisces individuals figure prominently in changing plans. Emphasis on creativity is highlighted. Avoid Capricorns. Pisces: A piano falls on you at 5:21 p.m. It's no use trying to avoid it; you . might as well spend your last few hours watching The Love Boat or enjoying one last Greek grilled cheese. Don't try to get in touch with me; there's nothing I can do. Aries: Your hamster blows up. The. moon rising in Scorpio indicates that your package from Frederick's of Holly wood will arrive. You win a Big Mac. Stay away from Capricorns. Taurus: No data available. Gemini: See message for Taurus. Cancer: That incredible blonde you've been craving all semester knocks on your door. "Do you have the Botany 10 notes?" she asks sweetly. "Uhh, what?" you stam mer. She stays, supposedly to study, but you spend most of the time staring in her eyes. Finally, she asks you to walk her back to her dorm. As she opens her door, she says, "My roommate's gone for the night; you would like to come in?" You nearly faint. She locks the door, throws herself on you and cries: "I can't stand it any longer. I'm madly in love with you." Sorry, just kidding. Actually, you get a C minus on your statistics exam, blow $1 .50 on Asteroids and lose the notecards for your term paper. Leo: You catch the CBS Evening News, but miss the MacNeil-Lehrer Report. Your copy of U.S. News& World Report zmves. Virgo: You finally call that girl you met at the punk rock mixer. You could have saved yourself the trouble. . , Libra: You obtain insight. Dispute is resolved. Long-range plans move toward completion. Is this perfectly clear? Scorpio: Thank God you're not a Cap ricorn. Saggitarius: Friends, I hate to tell you what's in store for you today. Let me just say that the 1 1th floor of the Faculty Lab Office Building is open and the windows are unlocked. Capricorn: You don't need a horo scope; you need a miracle. Do everyone a favor and catch the next plane to Mars. Celebrity Birthday: Actor Ron Flagella is 38. Best known for his appearance as a parking lot attendant on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Flagella used to watch Gun smoke before his TV was repossessed. Fla gella rose to fame when he almost got the role of Eddie Haskell on Leave It To Bea ver. Other high-lights include his job as Frankie Avalon's stand-in in Beach Blan ket Bingo As a result of my intensive study of as trology, I have discovered several new constellations of the Zodiac squeezed be tween the old ones: Jimmy, the Pizza Delivery Boy: Persons born under the sign of Jimmy are prompt, courteous and efficient, and they always have the right change. ' Toro the Lawn Mower: Toros are loud and obnoxious and eat everything m signt. Galaxian the Video Machine: Beware of Galaxians; they hypnotize you and steal your money. They tend to congregate in bars and game rooms. I hope this horoscope helps you to deal with the problems of the day. If you find it beneficial, perhaps you will let me pre pare a personal forecast for you. Randy Walker, a junior journalism major from Richmond, Va., has a voodoo doll collection representing many of his favo rite Carolina professors. JUST AKLTXb' ni " ' J " - , irrK -T7"A"TWK' , 4ART TIMKmsi - tv- LI I I I I I
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 12, 1981, edition 1
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