" IM.WW jpini- mm---, J mm Weather With highs in the low 50s and lows in the mid-30s. Partly cloudy tonight. Whew! -This is the final issue of the DTH for the fall semester, but we'll be right back the day classes resume. A i i! Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Copyright 198J The Daily Tar Heel. All rights reserved. Volume 91, Issue 107 Friday, December 9, 1983 Chapel Hill, North Carolina NewsSportsArts 962-0245 BusinessAdvertising 962-1163 Choir's victory expected to cool funding controversy By MARK STINNEFORD Staff Writer Action by the Student Supreme Court has pro bably put to rest the long-running controversy over the allocation of student fees to the Black Student Movement Gospel Choir. An analysis In an unanimous opinion handed down Sunday, the court upheld the allocation of fees to the choir, accepting the BSM's contention that the group is cultural not religious in nature. The showdown for the choir's funding was pro bably made inevitable by a new amendment to the Student Constitution. The amendment, approved in a student body referendum in February, pro hibits the CGC from appropriating Student Ac tivities Fees "to programs, services or events of a political or religious nature." The CGC's budgetary rules have long contained restrictions against the funding of religious and political activities, but council members could not agree on the terms "religious" and "political." Hoping to force the issue, members of the 1982-83 CGC began pushing for the constitutional amendment. The amendment put the issue within the jurisdiction of the Student Supreme Court. Frustrated by the refusal of the CGC to strip the choir of funds, council members Steve Reinhard (District 1) and Allan Rosen (District 7) brought a complaint against the choir in April. The Supreme Court heard the case on Nov. 16. The choir emerged from the case largely unscathed. Opponents had long demanded that the choir drop the word "gospel" from its name and add more secular music to its repertoire. But the court ruled that the choir was not violating the constitution by singing gospel music. "It's important that the choir remain a gospel choir," Choir President Fletcher Gamble said Wednesday. "It's part of the culture that we are a gospel choir rather than a choral group." 'It's important that the choir re main a gospel choir. It's part of the culture that we are a gospel choir rather than a choral group. ' Fletcher Gamble, BSM gospel choir president The ruling will bar the choir from reciting prayer or scripture during its performances. Reinhard, counsel for the plaintiffs, had charged that the choir opened an April campus performance with prayer. The court's opinion stated: "The Gospel Choir regularly opens its performances with a prayer and scripture reading. There is evidence that the Gospel Choir president can direct the choir to discontinue this practice in future performances." But Gamble said Wednesday that the choir had no part in p aver or scripture readings that had oc curred before its performances. "Sometimes we were not even in the churches when that happened," Gamble said. "All we do is sing." Included in the court's ruling was a religious nature test that is likely to be used by the CGC to guide future and fund allocations. A program, ser vice or event will be determined to be religious in nature if its "primary character ... looked at in the entire context, including all surrounding cir cumstances, ... promotes or advocates a non secular idea or belief or solicits the reasonable in dividual to a non-secular belief." A performance also violates the constitution if it contains prayer or scripture-reading or is held as part of a religious service. CGC Speaker James Exum said he supports the court's suggestion that the council modify its budgetary rules to take the court's opinion into account. "In the past, we had all come up with our own idea of what religious-in-nature means," Exum said. "Now we have guidelines." Rosen expressed fear Sunday that the court's opinion would open the door for choirs of campus ministries such as the United Christian Fellowship to make cosmetic changes and seek funding from the CGC. But UCF President Robert Harrell said his groip had no intention of seeking student fees for its choir. "We make no bones about it, we're a religious organization," Harrell said. "The rule (against funding religious activities) makes sense to us. We don't intend to fight it." The court apparently has sought to limit its own power to punish organizations whose activities are declared unconstitutional under the religious nature test. The court may issue an injunction to stop the funding of an activity found to be See BSM on page 5 Q I Fowl stay DTHZane A. Saunders It's not an oil rig. A small flock of birds relaxes on the television antenna on the roof of Swain Hall. The birds probably paused in their migration to enjoy North Carolina's mild temperatures. But predictions for a cooling off in the weather may persuade them to leave their perch for sunnier states further south. easan considers moving Marines The Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon U.S. Marines wiped out a Shiite militia sniper nest and bunker in a fierce ex change of fire Thursday, and the Reagan administra tion said it was considering plans to move the Marines out of Beirut airport to safer positions. The Marines retaliated when the northeastern perimeter of their base came under a sustained barrage of mortar fire, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifle fire at 9:26 a.m. (2:26 a.m. EST). The shooting came from a fortified position in the Shiite Moslem stronghold of Hay el-Sellum, and the bunker was destroyed with 60mm mortars, M-60tank guns and Dragon missiles, Marine spokesman Maj. Dennis Brooks said. In addition to the bunker, the Marines shelled a building that had been used by Shiite snipers to fire at leatherneck positions some 150 yards away. Brooks said the Marines suffered no casualties in the battle, which ended at 10:40 a.m. (3:40 a.m. EST), but the Marines remained in foxholes and bunkers on their highest state of alert. Hay el-Sellum is a stronghold of Amal, the domi nant Shiite militia in Lebanon. Shiite fanatics were suspected of masterminding the suicide truck bombing on Oct. 23 that killed 240 American troops at the Marine base. The Marines also face the Druse who control the hills above the airport, and Druse gunners were responsible for an attack that killed eight Marines Sun day. Because of the increasing attacks, the Reagan ad ministration is considering plans to move the Marines away from the airport to more sheltered positions, presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said in Washington Thursday. "There have been discussions on this matter. . .par ticularly since they came under attack and even more so since the car bombing" of Oct. 23, he said. Speakes declined to give details, but said no con sideration is being given to withdrawing the Marines from Lebanon. The New York Times said the plans under con sideration include redeploying the Marines to positions south of the airport or to amphibious ships offshore, and that they came in response to domestic and foreign pressure. Observers in Beirut said moving the Marines south of the airport would still put them in range of Druse batteries, but they would be more protected than at the airport. They said putting the Marines aboard ships, while protecting them, might tend to eclipse the U.S. peacekeeping presence in Lebanon. In Rome, Italian newspapers said Prime Minister Bettino Craxi's government wanted to gradually reduce its 2, 100-man contingent in the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Rome newspapers said the government fears Italian peacekeepers might become entangled in Lebanon's escalating violence. The other members of the peacekeeping force are France and Britain. U.S. involvement in the fighting, rose sharply Sun day with an air strike against Syrian-controlled posi tions in the central mountains. The Syrians downed two U.S. fighter-bombers, killed one airman and cap tured another. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato said in New York Thursday that the captured airman, Navy Lt. Robert O. Good man, will be allowed to meet with representatives of the International Red Cross. D'Amato, a Republican, said State Department of ficials passed that word on to lam. He also said the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Taganelli, demand See LEBANON on page 15 Scholarship athletes 66 graduate over last 15 years By LEE ROBERTS Staff Writer Approximately two-thirds of all scholarship athletes enrolled at Chapel Hill in the last 15 years graduated with degrees, according to Phil Ben, academic counselor for the University's athletic association. Ben said that 66 percent of the female athletes and 63 percent of the male athletes enrolled in that period had graduated. "I was surprised to find that less than five percent of those who did not get degrees did not because of academic reasons," he said. "Most of the athletes who didn't graduate from here withdrew for personal or athletic reasons." Ben said the Athletic Association con ducted a survey last year. to see how graduation rates changed between the five years before and the 10 years since the Atlantic Coast Conference lowered its minimum academic standards in 1973. "Surprisingly, they remained pretty constant," he said. At most schools, student-athlete graduation rates are much lower than the student body's graduation rate, accor ding to Tim Sanford of the Registrar's of fice. But UNC athletes' graduation rates are only about 10 percent lower than those of the student body. Second team academic All-American Sue Walsh said her coaches had always emphasized academics strongly. "I. was recruited to swim, but I'm a student first," she said. "Carolina has a great reputation. We are always thought of as student-athletes, not just athletes." Women's and men's soccer coach An son Dorrance said that academics were definitely first priority for all of his student-athletes. "Earlier this season, we had one man who was cutting a class con stantly, and his teacher told us about it," Dorrance said. "We told that player that he'd be benched if he skipped any more classes. He's been to class." Dorrance said it was good to have a strong academic reputation when recruiting, because he mainly recruited in upper to middle class areas. "We try to pick athletes who are going to be good students," Dorrance said. Men's basketball assistant coach Bill Guthridge said that, like Dorrance, Dean Smith and his staff started out by recruiting only the athletes who would be good scholars. This may explain the athletes' high graduation rate from the basketball program. "We cannot take every Tom, Dick and Harry that can play basketball," Guthridge said. "Academics are number one." i "SPA J? 1 W ' SAC structure safe, investigation shows 3 Vi, 'iff," Sue Walsh Guthridge said that Smith was so dedicated tp seeing his athletes graduate that he woul$ change the team's schedule so they would miss as little school as possible. " See ATHLETE on page 14 N. C. officials confront women 's economic problems By LINDA QUEEN Staff Writer Editor's note: Third of three parts. Women often face special problems in the employment and economic world, ranging from scarce jobs to low pro perty holdings. To find solutions to these problems, business and government officials in North Carolina have begun working together, and they say conditions for women workers are beginning to improve. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that only 5 per cent of women will not be in the work force by 1990. In North Carolina, 54 percent of working-age women already hold jobs. At the Governor's Conference on "Women and the Economy," held in November at the Raleigh Civic Center, some 1,000 participants compared ideas on various topics regarding women in business. Conference director Laura Carpenter Bingham said the objective of the effort was to include citizens in the public policy creation process. Conference participants made 125 recommendations on education, employment, finan rial security and business development and prepared a final report to be sent to Gov. Jim Hunt and the N.C. General Assembly in February. "In the education group, we want to stress increased career counseling from kindergarten through adulthood, so that women can be able to start to choose non traditional, higher paid jobs," Bingham said. The reason why women get paid less most of the time is that they usually choose traditional female jobs, which are by nature lower paying, she said. "We also want to increase financial aid abilities to women of all ages through public and private funds," she said. On employment, Bingham said the state is pursuing a study on the concept "comparable worth" the idea of equal pay for equal work. The idea is for the state to become a model employer. "Also, we're asking that employment benefit packages be modified to reflect the modern family. Usually, they (packages) revolved around the idea that the male was the main breadwinner of the household. But only 16 percent of American families actually have men as the sole workers of the family." She said that the packages need to reflect the fact that more women spouses are working now. "There is also a plan for a 'cafeteria style' benefit plan, in which a company. offers a certain amount of different types of benefits, and the women can choose benefits that fit most to their own situations," she said. Eighty percent of N.C. working women still occupy low-paying, low-skilled jobs with less likelihood of ad vancement, according to the N.C. Department of Labor. Yet the average female worker is better educated than her average male counterpart. Also, 45 percent of the N.C. work force consisted of women in 1980, up from 43.5 per cent in 1970. But the state does not collect data on female-owned businesses, Bingham said. The conference recommended that an annual directory of such businesses be compiled. Meanwhile, women still in college are choosing careers that once were dominated by men, according to Peggy McAllister, counselor for the University Career Planning and Placement Service. "A lot more women arc choosing careers like account ing or business, whereas 10 years ago you never would have seen that," she said. See WOMEN on page 3 By DICK ANDERSON and KATE COOPER Staff Writers An independent investigation into al leged structural flaws in the $30 rnillion Student Activities Center has found the center safe, according to Paul Zia, head of the civil engineering department at N.C. State University. Zia said the results of his preliminary in vestigation found minor construction faults that did not weaken the overall structure. UNC officials had asked Zia to conduct the investigation after University and con tract engineers determined in November that there were some defects in the con struction of the facility. "Zia is awaiting final information from the architectural design team before mak ing a final report," said Ray DeBruhl, director of the Division of State Construc tion of the N.C. Department of Ad ministration. The final report is expected to be completed before Christmas. Zia was not available for comment. "Zia is providing us this as a service to the state,, without compensation. We did not enter into a contract," DeBruhl said. "Because of his expertise, there was not a selection process," he said. Allegations made in a letter to UNC President William C. Friday by former subcontractor Sterling Jones of Jones Construction Company prompted the in vestigation in November. In the letter, Jones charged that steel reinforcements in the concrete were inadequate in three places. At a news conference Nov. 3, University and contract engineers partially confirmed one of the allegations that some of the steel ties were missing. DeBruhl said Monday that the precau tionary measure outlined on Nov. 3 by Farris Womack, vice chancellor of business and finance, was approved last week. The measure will consist of drilling holes through the wall which will receive post tension bolts. "Plates at the exterior of the wall under the bolt heads will provide the confinement that the ties shown on the original contract documents were meant to provide," Womack said. In a related matter, one-third of the SAC construction team has been named a codefendant in a $4 million lawsuit filed by the Florida state Board of Regents in April. The lawsuit filed against New York based Geiger-Berger Associates said there were design errors in the construction of the University of Florida's O'Connell Center and the University of South Florida's Sun Dome, both dome-covered structures similar in design to the SAC. The facilities differ in that the areas in question in the two Florida structures are made of precast concrete, while the SAC problem areas consist of poured concrete, DeBruhl said. The SAC is approximately 30 days behind schedule because of problems with the weather, said Charles W. Davis Jr., architect of engineering and construction. "The investigation hasn't held up the project at all," Davis said. Asked who paid for the investigation, he said, "At this point, no one. It may get into litigation and probably will." When completed, the SAC will be the third largest coliseum on any U.S. cam pus. The 22,000 seat facility will house a basketball arena and new Olympic swim ming and diving facilities. The SAC is targeted to open February 1985. n , i ii..i'-ti,.ir in.r " .nf t -ii" m .i" .niJ" f1.jiTr. in'T tKjium.mm t.uTrn r-n ifm i r r m"1 -" i' " 11 " m ' ""' - i " " 'i ' ' "" "' f - i" "'' ' , ' ' t" r- 1 f mf i i'n " ' " m'- " i "