Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Aug. 21, 1986, edition 1 / Page 17
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Sexism runs rampant in the Saturday cartoons, p. 6 Daily Tar Heel cartoonists mug for the camera, p. 4 Stye latlg (Har Mni D) Thursday, August 21, 1986 Tar Heel Forum debate: Senate Sanctions, p. 2 ID) E Drags rob atMetiic iEimoceince TT"t was so simple when we were young. A sandlot baseball game JjLw as never more than three phone calls away, and when you snowed up to play, no one had to take a drug test, knew what an SAT score was or had a more pressing problem than finding a good enough stick to mark second base. Our age of athletic innocence has been replaced by one of cynicism. Athletes, who have long been ste reotyped as dumb, partying jocks, have seemingly justified the reputa tion this summer. The top story in the last two months was Len Bias' death due to cocaine intoxication and subsequent revelations that Bias did not pass a single class his spring semester and Maryland basketball players did not attend 35 to 40 percent of their classes, according to a former academic counselor. Sports Editor We have also heard about three former Virginia football players Barry Word, Kenny Stadlin and Howard Petty who have been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. And Proposition 48 has finally taken effect in a slightly watered-down form, rendering approximately 400 freshmen inelig ible for college sports this season because of low SAT scores or grade point averages. Kevin Madden has been declared ineligible by UNC basketball coach Dean x Smith this season for not meeting academic expectations. As a result of the negative pub licity, great athletic performances on the field are greeted with: "Boy, someone gave that kid some good drugs.'" As Virginia football tri-captain Antonio Rice said, discussing how his team will be viewed this season, "It's a Catch-22. If we do well, they will say, 'Of course they did well, they're on drugs.' " "If we do poorly, they 11 say, 'Of course they did poorly, they're on drugs.' " Part of the reason off-the-field antics have received so much atten tion this summer is due to the relative lack of other major sports news. Baseball pennant races have yet to heat up, Wimbledon had two repeat winners and the Goodwill Games flopped. The one notable exception was Bob Tway's miraculous sand wedge that won the PGA over Greg Norman a couple of weeks ago. Tway hugged his wife and tried to give a TV interview, but barely managed a "I'm the happiest man in the world" before bursting into tears. That's what sports would be about See INNOCENCE page 9 Word from wise to freslhmeirii: it9 -a It's a jungle out there." How many times has that sentence been used to describe a competitive environment, a world beyond one's control? The descrip-. tion is almost a cliche, yet it's still a good way of visualizing life's more difficult tasks, such as competing for jobs. Attending school is another dif ficult task. Students especially college students -- compete for high grades, teacher kudos, friends and mates, while at the same time pretending not to care about any of those things. That's damned hard to do. Here at UNC, with more than 20,000 students, the story's the same. It's a college out there. And like all good boy scouts, college students should be prepared. First-time matriculators, take note of the following bons mots: a Clean your room every 3 months or whenever your neighbors complain of the smell whichever comes first. B If it moves, ask it to a party. (Unless it's in the cafeteria, in which case you should alert University Police at once.) D If it's piza, it's got to be good. B Make plans according to the Mm Decree to expire; future recruiting remains uncertain ixteen years ago, the 300 or so black members of this year's UNC-Chapel Hill freshman class were just pre schoolers from across the coun try, dealing with the typical problems two-year-olds handle? Today, those freshmen are dealing with the problems asso ciated with adjusting to college life. But their university finds itself still grappling with a issue that was also in its infancy in the early 1970s minority enrol lment in the University of North Carolina system. A majority of administrators, both on the Chapel Hill campus and with the UNC system, agree that although non-white enrol lment on predominantly white campuses has decreased, the University has done its best to attract minority students. In fact, non-black enrollment at the five predominantly black institutions has increased since 1981. How ever, University records show that minority enrollment has decreased at the 11 predomi nantly white universities. The debate originated in the early 1970s. North Carolina was one of six Southern states that officials with the U.S. Depart ment of Health, Education and Welfare claimed was practicing de jure segregation. Negotiations ensued, but the two sides remained divided on the key issues of duplicating programs at predominantly white and black universities. In 1978, then-HEW Secretary Joseph Calif ano set the wheels in motion to cut off $89 million in federal research grant money unless the system complied with HEW's demands. All grant appli cations from UNC faculty members were denied. The fol lowing year, UNC retaliated by filing a lawsuit seeking temporary, injunctions to block the cutoff of the federal funds UNC was sche duled to receive. The compromise that resulted in 1981 is now known as the consent decree, a document that requires the UNC system to make "good faith efforts" through specific programs in the recruit ment of minority students. Those programs included mailings to all N.C. minority high school stu- Ed Bracked Associate Editor College Attendance Corollary (adapted from the Church Attend ance Proposition): 1) If the weather is extremely bad, class attendance will be down; and 2) If the weather is extremely good, class attendance will be down. B On a similar vein: If all else fails, go to class. That last item presents a fright ening thought, indeed, but there is some truth to the rumor that classes are an integral part of college. Just something to keep in mind. One of the interesting things about college is the radically different lifestyle it brings to students, espe cially the first-time kind. For exam ple, you may have come from Just Plain Folks, U.S.A., to here the Land of Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses. There's no weekend drag strip, no Main Street gazebo, no drive-in nearby. Just classrooms, .libraries and fast food restaurants. Dante's Inferno should look so bad. Then you look around, searching for positives among negatives. You nitty Fecmitrng mm Jim look Editor dents who took the SAT and PSAT college board exams, providing publications specifi cally for minority students and visits to all N.C. high schools with at least enrollment. The system has submitted bi-annual reports to the federal government. Many of those programs were already in place. Years of tumultuous debate preceded the decree, which has had a tangible impact on non black enrollment at predomi nantly black universities. As for the Chapel Hill campus, though, there has been little actual change result from the decree. "I said when the decree was released that it wasn't worth the paper it was written on," said Hayden Renwick, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Renwick, Chapel Hill's asso ciate director of admissions in charge of minority recruitment from 1969 to 1973, has been an outspoken critic of the Universi ty's minority recruitment practi ces. He was the only administra tor contacted by the DTH that was critical of the university's minority recruitment programs. System administration officials said that between 1981 and 1985, black enrollment in the UNC system has increased from 21,980 to 23,297. Meanwhile, black enrollment at Chapel Hill, for example, has dropped from 1779 to 1,712. In that same period, black enrollment in all 11 pre dominantly white institutions has increased from 7,676 to 9,056. Raymond Dawson, system vice president of academic affairs, said there were a number of outside factors not expected in 1981 that affect minority recruitment in 1986. Dawson (and several Chapel Hill administrators) cited increased competition for minor ity students, the rapid rise in higher education costs, and espe cially changes in the federal financial aid programs. "The fact is that an increasing notice that: B Your parents aren't around. B The campus is attractive. B Your parents aren't around. B Your resident adviser seems like a nice person. B Your parents aren't around. B The bricks on the sidewalks are pretty. B Your parents aren't around. After a while, the gazebo perco lates to the nethermost reaches of your memory, and you're no longer interested in this week's drawing cart! at the drag strip. YouVe grown accustomed to the college expe rience. Before you know it, you have (drumroll please) ... an altered perspective. What more could a transformed collegian want? Culture, of course. College offers many ways for students to "get culture." There are a number of activities that appeal to the intellect, each offering an opportunity to enrich the soul with life's noblest offerings. Speeches from prize-winning authors. Litera ture readings. Political seminars. Symphony concerts. Shakespearean dramas. Tar Heel basketball games. At the same time, there are many See SURVIVAL page 10 T ' I I ' " I T"rXrr X 1 1 .T - 5fedG-;- r i proportion of the programs are now in the form of loans," Dawson said. "There has been a shift from grants to loans. Those things will affect your enrollment." Lois Dawson, (no relation to Raymond) associate director of undergraduate admissions in charge of minority recruitment, said Chapel Hill's intense compe tition for aid money can hinder minority recruitment. 1 1 i - VV if fn.O : o ij f yiYi r4 peaks to "Because Carolina is such a competitive school in the sense of admissions and academics, many top black leaders don't get any thing (grants or scholarships) here that they can easily get at other places," Dawson said. Renwick, however, attributes it the low minority enrollment at Chapel Hill to the amount of resources expended in luring minority students. "I haven't noticed any kind of coEece onut tlnere 3rr Hon - ! Students at UNC not a parent in sight s6 drop in the number of football players we get who happen to be black," Renwick said. "Youget what you work for." The final report will be submit ted in December, followed by an overall review. No adminstrator expects any new mandates to result. . Jim Zook is a senior journalism and political science major from Little Rock, Ark. DTH Dan Charlson V
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Aug. 21, 1986, edition 1
17
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