JEFF HlDAY, Editor
Joel Broadway, Managing Editor
MICHAEL TOOLE, Editorial Page Editor
FRANK BRUNI, Associate Editor
KELLY SIMMONS, University Editor
KYLE MARSHALL, State and National Editor
melanie Wells, aty Editor
VANCE TREFETHEN, Business Editor
STUART TONKINSON, News Editor
Frank Kennedy, sports Editor
JEFF GROVE, Arts Editor
CINDY DUNLEVY, Features Editor
JEFF NEUVILLE, Photography Editor
Fancy but futile
The Reagan administration operates
in fairly predictable ways, and we have
certainly seen the following pattern
before: The administration feels it has
alienated a certain bloc of voters . . .
the administration extends a token
gesture to this bloc, knowing it may only
recover the favor of a few in the group
but banking on the appeasement of those
in tacit sympathy with the group . . .
the administration g6es on to brazenly
extol its record in the area in question
and to refer back to the token gesture
as proof of sincerity and good intention.
The end result Reagan, the Teflon
president, comes away smelling like Mr.
Clean.
The objects of the Reagan adminis
tration's most recent appeasement
efforts are teachers. Reagan announced
Monday that he had directed NASA to
carry an elementary or secondary-school
teacher as the first civilian to travel into
orbit aboard the space shuttle. He cited
the integral role teachers play in gua
ranteeing the United States a future as
proud as its past. NASA administrator
James M. Beggs echoed the president's
sentiments and assured skeptics that no
political considerations, namely the
silencing of those critical of Reagan's
first-term budget cuts in the area of
education, had influenced the decision.
"(NASA) lives and dies on whether we
can attract top talent," Beggs explained.
"A good teacher can have an impact on
an individual . . . all through his life."
The statements made by Reagan and
Beggs are indisputably true. The . irony
is how ignorant of these sentiments
Reagan's policies have been.
That President Reagan's actions in
this case are so out of sync with the actual
improvement of this country's schools
is lamentable, as is his administration's
belief that the American public can be
so easily placated by such tokenism. But
we shouldn't be surprised. This is, after
all, the administration of bipartisan
committees, of hunger reports conclud
Beyond the realm of relevance
Print journalists, such as ourselves,
take pleasure in ridiculing our TV
counterparts. We laugh disdainfully at
their preoccupation with appearance.
We think them arrogant more
concerned with maintaining their
perfectly coiffed hair, straight teeth and
applied makeup than with preparing an
informative product for their viewers.
Of course newspapermen, if pressed,
will concede that the nature of
television is largely to blame for the
faults of electronic journalists. Because
the time devoted to TV news is but
about 10 percent of all total
programming, balanced and complete
coverage is too frequently sacrificed for
that which is short and visually
appealing. Yet still we act righteous,
confident that we who are devoted to
the printed word do a better job of
informing the public. Perhaps the
reason is envy: anchormen with their
plastic smiles make the big bucks while
newspaper reporters' meager salaries
can hardly sustain the roaches in their
apartments.
However, two recent incidents of
televison "reporting" suggest that our
criticisms aren't all that harsh, our
presumptions of superiority not that far
off base.
The first occurred at the Democratic
convention in San Fracisco when CBS
The Bottom Line
If most of us were to find a bottle with a
worded message inside of it while on the beach
this Labor Day weekend, we would immediately
look downshore for the inebriated friend who
obviously launched' the glass vessel as a joke.
Our skepticism, however, would be ill-founded.
There are indeed message-filled bottles adorning,
if not exactly permeating, the high seas. And
they are there for a reason.
The reason, of course, has nothing to do with
pseudo-Gilligans stranded on uncharted islands,
but rather with the mapping of ocean currents.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceahographic
Institute in Boston, Mass., used to drop would
be beverage containers in the North Atlantic to
track currents. Between 1960 and 1979, the
scientists at the Institute dropped 165,566 coded
bottles into the North Atlantic. Counting on the
(Ufa?
92nd year of editorial freedom
flight
ing mere are no hungry people in the
United States. This is the administration
that paraded women like so many exotic
animals at its convention in an undis
guised attempt to show both voters and
the Democrats, a party whose nomina
tion of the first female vice presidential
candidate is too significant and risky an
act to be perceived as mere tokenism,,
that Republicans can be just as fair. Of
course, the Reagan administration only
intends to manipulate public opinion.
Education is the area most often
targeted by politicians attempting to
balance a budget. The effects of poor
schools only manifest themselves years
later and in subtle, immeasurable ways;
in a democratic society where a politician
may come up for re-election as often as
every two years, our public servants
cannot help but worry more about the
short than the long term. But Reagan's
budget cuts have exceeded those of most
of his predecessors, and many of his
gestures, such as his efforts to grant tax
exemptions to citizens sending their
children to private schools, cast serious
doubts on his commitment to public
education.
What we have in the place of actions
are words. "When that shuttle lifts off,"
Reagan proclaimed Monday, "all of
America will be reminded of the crucial
role teachers and education play in the
life of our nation." Bravo, Mr. President,
for the overdue recognition. But is the
fancy flight of one teacher going to help
the more than 2 million other educators
in the United States pay the rent? Is it
going to redirect into the classroom the
many talented college graduates who
might once have chosen to teach but now
find more lucrative careers? Is it going
to improve ailing public school facilities
and student-teacher ratios? Of course
not. Reagan's directive is an empty, if
benevolent, gesture. We might do well
to remember in November that we will
be choosing the leader whom we feel
can best effect change, not the mere
illusion of progress.
correspondent Tom Bradley concocted
his own little media event by bringing
together Chicago Mayor Harold
Washington and his much-loathed
political opponent Eddie Vrdolyak for
questioning. Neither knew the other
would be present, and the result was
an immediate display of fireworks.
Outraged, Washington , called Bradley
the "lowest human being on Earth"
while Vrdolyak smirked and CBS
anchorman Dan Rather chuckled from
his booth above.
The intention behind Bradley's
staged show undoubtedly was the same
that lay behind Sam Donaldson's
recent persistence in hounding Nancy
Reagan about what she thought of the
furor over Geraldirie Ferraro and John
Zaccaro's finances. Nancy replied she
wasn't qualified to answer - a
legitimate response - but Donaldson
continued on camera to press the point
until Mrs. Reagan could only utter a
helpless protest.
While a reporter should try his best
to ferret out any information that the
public has a right to know, enough's
enough. Dogged pursuit of sensational
moments, while not confined solely to
television journalists, is .especially
rampant among that group. Our
counterparts in network studios should
stick to what's relevant.
general willingness of people who happened
across the bottles in the surf of Atlantic beaches,
the Institute's messages included a plea for the
finder to contact sceintists at the Institute and
inform them of the place and date of the bottle's
diacovery. The message also included promise
ot a 50 reward.
But only 10 percent of the original fleet has
been recovered, and while the reason may be
the interminable voyages of many of the bottles,
human flippancy may also be to blame. Or so
the case of a woman from Vero Beach, Fla.,
would seem to indicate. The woman, apparently
displeased with the Institute's frugality in award
giving, wrote them:"I have one of your bottles.
I collect things of this sort when I find them.
I also collect $2 bills. That is what it will take
to get the number off this bottle and where I
found it."
Only in America.
uilding the expedient solution
By PAUL PARKER
For many students, coming back to school
is a pleasant return from a" deserved summer.
For most, however, it a renewal of an old battle:
trying to find a place to park. A record 2,000
students have applied for limited hardship'
parking permits most of which are located
in the infamous, remote F-lot near the Student
Activities Center. Faculty and staff members
continue to complain that available parking
space on campus is both inconvenient and scarce.
An amazing '61, 000 parking tickets were issued
last year.
With the campus parking problem having
reached critical proportions, one would have to
wonder how anyone could oppose building a
parking deck on the Bell Tower lot seemingly
the easy way out. What could be better than
porviding 2,700 centrally located parking spaces?
After all, the two main criticisms of such a plan
have been readily rejected. The $14 'million price
tag had seemed prohibitive, but for such a deck
. the Educational Foundation (Rams Club)
recently has shown interest in helping to defray
most of the costs. involved. Secondly, the
assertion that a. parking deck would take away
from the natural beauty of the land hardly seems
valid the current black asphalt lot that would
be covered by the deck is hardly a piece of art.
Parking problems solved! Seeems tpo good
to be true? It is. A comparison of costs and
benefits implies that the construction of a parking
deck on the Bell Tower lot would be undesirable
and unfortunate. These points must be
considered:
The University traditionally has been porud
of its commitment to the positive relationship
that exists between buildings and remaining open
spaced Though the deck itself would not cover
any existing "green space," the access roads that
would have to be built in order to accommodate
the traffic flow would mean the removal of trees
on the south side of Kenan Stadium. The
increased volume of traffic in this concentrated
area would result in increased air pollution and
congestion. Automobile, pedestrian and bicycle
mobility would be greatly reduced.
The construction of a deck is a mojor long
term land use commitment and would preclude
that any academic buildings could be built in
that space. A deck would allow little flexibility
to respond to changing parking demands. As
Pestered by a
By MARK STINNEFORD
OKAC
The wizened instructor did little
to alleviate the feeling of unease
that's been dogging me lately.
"Most journalism students want
to work for The New York Times
or The Washington Post, but the
truth is that most of you will end
up at a weekly newspaper some
where," he said with a finality that
suggested his words had come
directly from the Book of
Deuteronomy.
Not surprising, but not exactly
the kind of thing that you want to
hear. Most students reacted to the
news about as enthusiastically as if
they had just been told: "Hey, I just
saw your sister heading for the
Naval Base." -
While the idea of writing pet
obituaries for a mimeograph news
paper in Swain County doesn't thrill
me, I've never been one to spend
my evenings scanning the classifieds
in Editor and Publisher.
From the start of my college
career, I've vowed that I would seek
learning for its own sake. If I wanted
to go to school to. earn a trade and
make a bunch of money, I could
have gone to a vocational institute
like SherrilFs Academy of Hair
Styling or worse, N.C. State.
But there's something about
starting your senior year that makes
you say: "Flush the intangible
benefits of learning." Instead of
singing along with the Tar Heel fight
song this year, the senior class
(except those ready to move into
the family construction business)
will want to shout the Jesse Jackson
refrain: "We need JOBS."
For me, the employment worries
started once I wrote my first resume
and bought that darn tie. It's not
so much getting a job that worries
me. It's the uncertainty. Like
whether the people in Swain County
speak English and what the legal
penalties are there if the people
discover you're a UNC graduate.
I'm also bothered by the thought
that IVe done everything I can do
in three years of college to get a
job. Senior year seems a little
superfluous. I sit in class and
wonder why I need to memorize the
name of the company that bought
If youVe got an opinion you'd like to share
with us, whether it be in regards' to an issue
you've seen discussed on the back page or one
that you feel merits discussion, we'd like to hear
from you. That's what this page intends to be:
an open format for the discussion of issues that
touch our university, our state, our nation and i
our world. We also entertain criticism on stories
youVe read in the paper. Letters to the editor
and editorial columns should be typed on sixty
character line and should be triple-spaced.
Deadline for letters and columns is 2 p.m. on
the working day before publication, and
contributions should be placed in the green box
outside the offices of The Daily Tar Heel in
the Carolina Union annex.
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Coming to a campus near you?
construction on South Campus continues, so
changes the central focus of the campus. The
deck would do little to meet the growing parking
demand on South Campus.
We can hardly afford to lose the current 700
spaces of the Bell Tower lot. Construction of
a 2,700-space deck would take at least two years.
The 700 spaces would be lost for that time and
the entire net gain is only 2,000 spaces. If the
existing resources could take care of the current
demands of the Bell Tower lot, then it would
seem that an additional 2,000 are not needed.
Feasible solutions to the parking crisis have
been suggested, yet remain unimplemented. An
extensive study by the Department of CLity and
Regional Planning for the Office of Business and
Finance has, in addition to providing, the
criticisms of the Bell Tower deck plan, suggested
four other management options that would work
to resolve many of the currrent parking
headaches. Given the criticisms against construct
ing a parking deck, these options should be given
full attention.
What to do? The University currently does
not have explicit goals with regard to parking
or campus construction. According to the
"Delegation of Duty and Authority to the Board
of Trustees" as adopted by the Board of
Governors, the Board of Trustees is responsible
powder puff world
yL(0J CA rt
Y i WANTTo JOfciTH Ml
the Voice of America transmitters
after World War I. Many under
classmen, lulled into a false sense
of security by the promise of a few
more comfortable semesters here,
probably don't question the need to
ingest such trivia. They probably
think it will help get a job with IBM.
So, it's no wonder I'm feeling a
little detached. Still, there's more to
my morale prolem than concern
about employment. If Jimmy Carter
had to pick a name for my mental
state, he'd call it "Senior Malaise."
things are so bad I can't even get
worked up about textbook prices,
which seem to be pegged to Israel's
inflation rate. I don't even have the
energy to cuss the Rams Club over
the cluster of hereditary fiefdoms
they're building on a hill behind
Hinton James.
Like I said, it's bad.
- For the first time since I got here,
I'm feeling my age a little bit. The
problem is not helped by the fact
that I, as a 27-year-old navy veteran,
am nine years older than the average
member of the Class of 1988.
Standing amidst a fl6ck of freshmen
in the bookstore the other day, I
felt that I had been transported back
to the 5th rade. I was worried that
if I looked at any of the freshman
women too long I would be arrested
on a morals charge. I swear one of
them went to the counter and asked:
"Where do you keep the phonics
books."
The increased emphasis on
fashion on campus also has me
looking for an exit. When I was in
high school in the mid-1970s there
wasn't any fashion. Anyone show
ing up wearing more than jeans, a
T-shirt and maybe sneakers was
laughed out of the school. In the
Navy, clothing choice was also
reasonably easy, for obvious rea
sons. Nowadays, people seem to
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for "preparing and maintaining a master plan
for the physical development of the institution,
consistent with the total academic and service
mission of the institution. ..." Though a stated
land use policy is being developed, one does not
currently exist. Without such a policy, even under
the best managment, the University is forced to
look narrowly at current needs instead of
planning appropriately for the future. This
assertion can be evidenced by the rapidly growing
maze of buildings that seems to bear little
similarity to one another.
Before further campus construction is
approved, the University must complete an
appropriate land use policy and master plan for
this campus. As Arthur C. Nash, the University's
architect in 1920 and one of the developers of
the most recent comprehensive campus plan
(vintage 1921), stated: "An official plan for the
University's future growth can be best regarded
as a sort of Architectural Constitution subject
to amendments now and then; but of value chiefly
as a stabilizing influence, and as a valuable break
upon popular fads and fancies, as they come
and go."
Paul Parker, a senior international studies
and French major from Jacksonville, Fla., is
student body president.
spend more time in front of a mirror
than in the library. I've thought
about catching up with the times,
but I just can't bring myself to put
on Bermuda shorts stretching to my
knees of the regulation square
framed sunglasses complete with a
wimpy headstrap.
Perhaps it's best that I'm leaving
for Swain County.
All the thing that once seemed
so quaint about Chapel Hill are
getting on my nerves. I'm getting
edgy in this blue powder puff world,
where much of the citizenry act as
if they're sewers run with ice cream.
I feel like telling the street corner
musicians to get a job.
I thought college would be a neat
way to extend my youth a little
longer, but now I feel that IVe been
around too long, like a bunch of
overripe bananas that has become
infested with fruit flies. The chimes
on the Bell Tower seem to be saying:
"Time to move on. Better get out
in the real world before you hit
retirement age." Old men in leisure
sutis may try, but you just can't
extend your carefree youth forever.
Maybe this itch isn't such a bad
thing. A child who sucks his thumb
when he's six is considered abnor
mal. Perhaps it's equally abnormal
to want to extend the pacifiers of
keg parties and pom-poms into your
late 20s. There's a time to turn to
the realities of a steady job, financ
ing an automobile, buying life
insurance and fixing the plumbing.
Yet, even with my urge to leave,
I have the strange sense that four
years of college is far too fleeting.
My thoughts turn to courses
untaken, lectures unattended, oppor
tunities missed, women not asked
out. During my years in the Navy,
I dreamed of college as some
glorious leap to adulthood, the
chance to become literate, knowl
edgeable and well-spoken. Before
summer returns again, 111 have my
diploma, and I don't even know
Spinoza from Mickey Spillane.
To bastardize the words of Lyn
don Johnson: College is not the end.
It's not the beginning. Maybe it's
the beginning of the beginning.
I hope I keep that in mind as I
head off to Swain County.;
Mark Stinneford is a senior
journalism major from Raleigh.
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