8The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, January 20, 1987
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Aiding future students
The Faculty Council endorsed a
plan Friday that, if adopted, would
attract $650,000 annually to finance
1 00 merit scholarships for needy UNC
students. Members of the Chancellor's
Committee on Scholarships, Awards
and Student Aid initially suggested the
financing plan last spring in a report
approved by Chancellor Christopher
Fordham.
Considering the alternative, an extra
dollar for a game ticket or textbook
is very little to ask.
The student financial aid picture is
nothing short of ominous. Based on
projections for student need compared
with revenue sources, UNC is expected
to be nearly $2 million shy of the
needed funds to assist students.
Meanwhile, recent changes in the
federal tax code classify scholarships
and grants as taxable income, taking
more away from an already decreased
award.
Early classes? Immmm.
In a study completed last spring,
: David Lanier, the University registrar
discovered that changing some class
times to 8 a.m. and to after 2 p.m.
would alleviate problems with
overcrowding.
Hmmmm.
Student responses to questions
posed by the study's researchers also
say not too many students are psyched
to drag their bodies out of bed early
and get the mental juices flowing. Low
attendance in 8 a.m. classes and
students' strong aversion to those
classes (so strong that departments
such as classics must combine 8 a.m.
sections to fill a class roll) are addi
tional testaments to this statement.
And it's unlikely that many classes
will switch to the afternoon, Faculty
Council Chairman George Kennedy
said. For one thing, faculty members
often like to teach between 9 a.m. and
1 1 a.m. to free their afternoons for
research. Department meetings are
also usually held in the afternoons.
Hmmmm.
There's a problem here, and when
the two forces student and teacher
desires and the new plan meet,
there's due to be a clash.
With the regulation of class times
next fall, both students and faculty
members will be forced to change their
schedules as classes are bumped out
of "prime-time" (9 a.m. to 1:50 p.m.).
All departments will be required to
offer no more than 60 percent of their
classes in prime time and no less than
Cold-blooded murder, she wrote
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e nere on trie dlu mats
Bottom Line desk, midway
between the Science desk and
trash can in our composing room ....
Anyway, we here on the BLD, through
all of our travails and hours of painstaking
research to bring to the public eye this earth
shattering, "l-wanna-know" column, have
seen some pretty bizarre stuff.
We've seen the stuff of which student body
presidents are made (the right stuff, hope
fully), the stuff of which bureaucratic red
tape is made (the wrong stuff) and that
gooey, yet undefinable stuff of which
Twinkies are made (yum!).
But never, in our years of pursuing the
great Pravda, have we ever uncovered
anything so bizarre, so mysterious, so
haunting as our latest find.
(And with luck, we may even gel to it
before the last line.)
It's better than "Attack of the Killer
Tomatoes," more dangerous than Howard
the Duck, more threatening to American life
than even "The Great American Tail."
Davis library is ALIVE. It's breathing,
it's panting, and it's not doing Jane Fonda's
workout, either. It's threatening the exist-
Jim Z(Xk, iiror
Randy Farmer, Managing Editor
KATHY NANNEY, Associate Editor
Tracy Him n Editor
Grant Parsons, university Editor
Linda Montanari. cuy i-Jitor
DONNA LEINWAND, State and National Editor
Scott Fowler, sports Editor
JULIE BRASWELL, Features Editor
Robert Keefe, Bu siness Editor
Elizabeth Ellen, a ns Editor
DAN CHARLSON. Photography Editor
This plan stresses a team concept,
seeking assistance from supporters
connected with the University on any
level. The bulk of the funds about
$350,000 would come from a $l
surcharge on tickets sold for on
campus athletic and entertainment
events. Students would contribute via
an increased allocation of $100,000
from Student Stores profits. About
$100,000 would be sought from alumni
encouraged to contribute in fund
raising drives conducted by the Carol
ina Fund and the University's Office
of Development. The remaining
$100,000 would be sought from a
variety of avenues, including senior
class gifts, faculty and alumni
organizations.
The strong resistance of the Reagan
administration to invest in higher
education makes the success of this
program imperative. Call your Univer
sity administrators and exhort them
to support this plan.
40 percent outside of that time.
While the change affects only about
10 departments those that currently
have over 60 percent of their classes
in prime-time - it will still have a sizable
impact. One department affected, for
example, is English, among the Uni
versity's largest.
The proposal is a double-edged
sword; designed to help students and
free up classrooms, it will both help
and limit students. More afternoon
and 8 a.m. classes will give students
some freedom, letting them gain
popular class times when they
wouldn't otherwise be able to. Lanier
said the plan will alleviate some closed
courses students create.
Lanier believes dispersing class
times will create new popular times.
But this change is not due to happen.
Because UNC's curriculum is fairly
flexible, students needing a certain
course usually can wait a semester or
add a different course to fulfill the
requirement. The new plan will lead
students to fight even harder for fewer
prime-time classes, cause more close-
outs during those times and only take
8 a.m. and afternoon classes if they
must.
What University officals are trying
to do is reshape student lifestyles, to
get students to take classes at times
now considered undesirable. They
assume students will.
But will they ever change students'
mindsets?
Hmmmm.
The Bottom Line
ence of every man, woman, child and
Chinese grad student reading the Tokio
Times. Aghhhh!
Sunday night, a concerned DTH reporter
slunk through the halls of Davis library on
her nightly campus rounds. She found the
seventh floor (gasp) almost completely
empty, with only five souls brave enough
to traverse its treacherous paths.
One poor student lying outstretched amid
her Marx-Engels Reader, buried in her
notes, pen still laying in her chilled,
exhausted hand after her struggle with the
proletariat. Another sat speechless mulling
over French verbs - to fall to the claws
of this menace to society in a few slow
minutes, d'etre mart. Helpless babes!
Just what IS Davis doing to these people?
And how many of UNC's most precious
minds have been eaten alive as a noonday
snack for this monster? How long is this
plague to last?
Midtems, research papers, projects Ye
gods! come save us, we beg you.
Scrap bowls in favor of
I he Giants have won themselves a rosy
nook in Super Pasadena, the Mets
11 have captured a World Series, and
Clemson's basketball team has shown they
belong in the ACC for the first time since
the mid-Foster era. But major college
football still has no playoff system. Five
years ago, had I been forced to place a bet
on which of the aforementioned phenomena
would first occur, I would have put my
money on college football. abandoning its
Dark Ages post-season format in favor of
a national tournament.
But prognosticating has been left to the
Beano Cooks and Jimmy the Greeks of the
world.
With the recent success of the Fiesta Bowl.
it has become apparent that not only is a
playoff system necessary, but the bowls
cannot and should not be excluded from
the process. As suggested by many football
fans looking to remove the qualifier
"mythical" from the present title "national
champion, a worthy compromise can be
reached by allowing bowls to be sites lor
each round of the playoffs. Here's the
proposal.
First, the NCAA should require teams to
finish the regular season by the third
weekend in November. Recently, because of
television, many major rivalries have been
rescheduled from November to early
December. By making a mid-to-late
November deadline for completion of the
regular season, the NCAA will be creating
some extra time during which the playoffs
can take place. It is imperative that the post
season not consume any more time than the
present 18-bowl format, so as not to drag
out the season.
Second, the NCAA must set appropriate
dates for each round of the playoffs. Perhaps
the best schedule would allow one week off
before the single elimination tournament
begins, making the start of Round One the
first weekend in December. The second and
third rounds would then be played the
following two weeks, allowing at least two
weeks preparation prior to the final round,
played New Year's Day.
Third, and most crucial, each game of
each round should be played at present bowl
sites. With a four-round slate, 16 teams
would participate, with a total of 15 games
played - eight in Round One, four in
Round Two, two in Round Three and the
championship game. Eighteen bowls capped
off the 1986 season, and this would mean
that only three of those games would be
eliminated, thus preserving nearly 85 percent
of the bowls while establishing a viable
playoff system.
Fourth, the tournament field would be
selected much as the Division I-AA field
is chosen. Champions of the Big Ten, Big
Eight, Southeastern, Southwestern, Pacific
Ten, Atlantic Coast and Western Athletic
Conferences would receive automatic bids,
allowing an NCAA selection committee to
offer nine other teams at-large berths. This
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Small sum
It started as a challenge. So far, I had
escaped the misery of long lines and lost
classes, and I intended to hold that
record as long as possible. The story ends
successfully but only after near-disaster
. and is written in the hope of preventing
another student from stumbling into the
same quagmire of Carolina red tape.
Until this January, I'd managed to escape
being in drop-add for more than 30 minutes.
I'd waited in no long lines, and had had
incredible luck in obtaining desired classes.
My only bureaucratic problems thus far had
been efforts to obtain my financial aid loan,
which was late, and being allowed to
preregister without it. But I preregistered,
the loan came through, and I was back on
track.
The trouble started with a prescription.
Last semester, on Dec. 3, 1 went to Student
Health Services with a bad cold. Being a
student a momentarily poor student
I put the bill on my account. My assumption
was that the medical cost would carry onto
this semester's bill.
I didn't find out otherwise until it was
almost too late. When my class schedule
arrived over Christmas break, I had received
all the right courses at the right time. So
I decided not to return until Jan. 6, just
in time to pick up my registration.
Instead, I received a white hold slip, telling
me to report to the cashier's office at Bynum
Ail-American Bowl
Citrus Bowl
Liberty Bowl
Sugar
Holiday Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
Freedom Bowl
Bluebonnet Bowl
Cotton Bowl
Sun Bowl
Orange
Hall of Fame Bowl
Gator Bowl
Peach Bowl
Dec. 13
Dec. 6
Mike Hill
Guest Writer
would leave plenty of room in the playoffs
for quality teams unaffiliated with a major
conference or for teams who came extremely
close to winning their conference
championship.
Of course, there are those who feel that
this proposal is too exclusive, allowing only
16 teams to participate. And you know,
ladies and gentlemen, maybe they're right.
After all, several bowl teams in 1986 had
impressive 6-5 records, including those
powerful Indiana Hoosiers, Minnesota's
Golden Gopher Machine and the invincible
Tennessee Vols. If these teams deserved post
season rewards, our campus needs another
brick walkway.
Others may argue that teams with
marginal records who would normally go
to a minor bowl will be cheated out of
additional revenue by having to stay home
during the holiday playoffs. This is simply
not the case. The University of Georgia
played in the Hall of Fame Bowl in Tampa
this year, and according to their athletic
director, they barely broke even. The same
IN THE GULAG
before Gomcmv
costs writer
Nicki VJeisensee
Staff Writer
Hall. There 1 did what all students with early
semester problems do 1 waited.
As I was nearing the front of the line,
Bynum officials shut and locked the bottom
doors. It was 3:15 p.m.
How was I supposed to go to class the
next day? At the Registrar's office, an
assistant registrar gave me a copy of my
schedule. He told me I owed $14.79 for
the cold prescription and until it was paid,
I could not obtain my registration card,
athletic pass or actual schedule.
1 decided to pick up my financial aid check
before returning to the cashier, figuring to
pay both the prescription and this semester's
tuition at one time. There was a problem
with my practical solution. Workers at
Vance Hall refused to give me the financial
aid check because 1 did not have my class
schedule.
"Wait a minute," 1 said. "I can't pick up
my schedule until I pay that bill. I need my
check."
1 would just have to find the money
somewhere, they answered.
I squeezed $14.79 from my slender
b, car-: -mv-
playoffs
HYPOTHETICAL
PLAYOFF
FORMAT
Bowl
NATIONAL
Rose Bowl
CHAMPION
Bowl
Jan. 1
Dec. 20
thing happened last year when Clemson
played in the ever-popular Independence
Bowl in Shreveport, La. We all know how
crazy football fans are at Georgia and
Clemson, and if they have trouble selling
tickets and making profit from minor bowls,
then there can't be many (if any) other
schools who roll in the dough as small bowl
participants.
So now it is up to the NCAA, which has
already formed a committee to study the
prospect of making Division I-A football
the very last sport to institute a post-season
tournament. There are several options, only
one of which I have detailed. Whatever the
NCAA decides, however, it must realize that
there is great demand from the sports
community for some sort of change to occur
in determining the national champion of
college football.
. In the meantime, football fans can only
hope that something is done to rectify the
situation before Tampa Bay becomes a
Super Bowl threat, Northwestern catapults
into the upper echelon of Big Ten football,
and David Addison and Maddie Hayes
finally sleep together.
Mike Hill is a freshman RTVMP major
from Clemson, S.C.
IN THE GULAG
AFTERGORBACHEV
bundles
checkbook, paid my bill at Bynum and went
to collect my schedule.
Only there was no schedule to collect.
Because I had failed to pick up my
registration, I was officially no longer a
student. My status had been cancelled.
All for the paltry sum of $14.79.
It took a trip to General College for
reinstatement before I was able to breathe
again. Another day or so and I would have
had to go class to class, begging to be allowed
entrance.
It seems only fair to suggest that Bynum
work but a different way to handle student
accounts and bills incurred late in the
semester. Many other people returned to
school this semester expecting to receive
schedules, receiving instead white slips.
Some of these students had cleared their
accounts, but had paid their bills late. Others
had incurred charges such as damage fees
over Christmas break and had no idea of
this until they returned.
A system which inconveniences so many
is one which needs change. - '
My trials are over for this semester. But
now it's time to fill out that Financial Aid
Form again.
Nicki Weisensee is a sophomore journal
ism major from Laurinburg.
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