"TP
10The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, December 3, 1987
latlu
QJar Iteel
95? year of editorial freedom
Don't waive rights goodbye
Few of the peo-
pie at the David
board
Floyd concerts this "Hil,tu"
semester probably
realized that by entering the Smith
Center, they had given officials per
mission to search them.
- On the back of their tickets in tiny,
crowded type reads: 44 You are admitted
on the condition and by your use of
this ticket, you consent to a reasonable
search for alcohol, drugs or weapons
.
Ticketron, the national company
that sells tickets for Smith Center
concerts, says the disclaimer came
about in response to their clients'
concerns. Steve Camp, director of the
center, has said the disclaimer was
needed to protect concertgoers from
flying bottles or bullets.
Few would dispute that his concern
is legitimate. But the disclaimer could
violate the Fourth Amendment pro
tection against unreasonable search
and seizure.
In response, Camp has amended the
disclaimer and given it to Ticketron
lawyers. He wants it to read "a
reasonable, legal search" instead of "a
reasonable search."
For a search to be legal, a person
must consent to be searched, police
must have a search warrant or officers
must have seen a person holding an
illegal substance in plain view.
Senator No ignores education
Senator No is at it again. While the
Senate overwhelmingly approved
programs for. elementary and secon
dary education on Tuesday, Jesse
ijlelms formed a minority of one and
opposed the bill.
Despite support for the bill from
fellow1 ultraconservatives, such as
Secretary of Education William Ben
nett, Helms saw it as yet more
"Interference with state and local
.government.
) During the debate Helms even
l.blamed federal government involve--ment
for the problems of education.
5While problems certainly exist in
education, it is ignorant to consider
them the product of federal
intervention.
! Without federal intervention and
Readership, the states never would have
adhered to the U.S. Supreme Court's
Brown vs. Board of Education deci
sion declaring "separate, but equal"
Schools unconstitutional. Without
federal initiative and funding the
rHeadstart pre-school program never
Would have been created. Without
federal action and assistance Pell
Grants would not exist.
j In each of these examples the
government acted with great foresight
and skill to solve ethical and educa
tional problems yet these are areas
inon sequrtur
Listening to a rhythm often unheard
She was a Beatles fan who, when the
time came, didn't know who the oldest
Beatle was. That's not really important, but
it's what I remember. She had a friend who
knew all there was to know about buildings, -and
another friend who just knew all there
was to know, and who once traveled over
a hundred miles to see foliage. She was great
to talk to because she was happy, and
because she wanted to share her happiness.
There were times when she was like a John
Coltrane song, exuberant and ecstatic, and
yet somehow elegantly spiritual.
She had a best friend, who loved
Hemingway and ate at the Waffle Shop,
and owned many of her books. He liked
to play basketball and, if I got him in the
right mood, I could talk to him for hours.
He had a sort of hesitant laugh that was
good to hear. He was content, and after
a while he made it easy to see my own
contentment. There were silences when I
talked to him, but they became silences of
comfort, moments when it was enough to
eat my steak sandwich.
He was a writer. She should have been.
But she didnt write. She celebrated through
her living instead of through her prose or
her verse. But she was such a good writer,
and I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted
Jill Gerber, Editor
DEIRDRE FALLON, Managing Editor
SALLY PEARSALL, News Editor
JEAN LUTES, University Editor
DONNA LEINWAND, State and National Editor
JEANNIE FARIS, City Editor
JAMES SUROWIECKI, Sports Editor
FEL1SA NEURINGER, Business Editor
JULIE BRASWELL, Features Editor
Elizabeth Ellen, Arts Editor
Charlotte Cannon, Photography Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
Rather than clarify the Fourth
Amendment concern, the addition of
"legal" only raises more questions.
Under the original disclaimer, a
concertgoer consents to a search by
walking into the Smith Center with
ticket in hand. The addition of the
word "legal," then, seems superfluous.
If the word is not superfluous, it
must mean that the ticketholder
consents to be searched only if, upon
being asked, he consents to be
searched. If he refuses, the search
would be illegal, provided no search
warrant or probable cause was present.
Under this interpretation, then,
adding the word "legal" to the clause
renders it meaningless. Ticketholders
would retain their Fourth Amendment
rights even after entering the building.
If Camp has elected to protect
concertgoers from an unreasonable
search, then he should be praised for
his civil-mindedness. If not, he still
deserves credit for acting so quickly
on the situation.
Concertgoers, however, deserve an
explicit statement of the rights they
retain or lose upon entering the Smith
Center. If they are clearly aware of
the building's policy, they can decide
whether attending a concert is worth
the risk. Couching the status of an
individual's constitutional rights in an
ambiguous, barely legible disclaimer
on the back of a ticket is not enough.
in which Helms wishes the federal
government was never involved. He
believes only states and local school
systems can solve problems, but he
does not see that school systems are
failing because they lack sufficient
funds money the federal govern
ment can provide.
The bill for which Senator No so
bravely cast the lone dissenting vote
targets money to improve educational
programs for disadvantaged children,
especially those living in impoverished
areas. This is precisely the strategy the
federal government should take to
ensure that all Americans have access
to a decent education.
Before he opposes federal assistance
Helms should think of poor children
whose parents are often illiterate and
need special assistance to overcome the
illiteracy cycle. As the senior senator
from North Carolina, Helms should
take the lead in sponsoring, not
opposing, federal assistance for
education.
No child should be punished by
virtue of living in an impoverished
school district. If Helms is truly the
guardian of Jeffersonian ideals that he
envisions himself to be, he must
remember that an ignorant, illiterate
society cannot sustain a democracy.
Eric Fullagar
to read what she had to write. I told her
that, and she laughed quietly.
But she had to find again a room of her
own. It had to become a question not of
cleansing, but just of telling. She could tell
others about why college is good, tell others
about watching kids learn and about being
in love in the rain at Cambridge.
And so one day she did, like we always
knew she would. And her stories sang with
joy and with sadness, and when you read
them you knew, like you did when you were
with her, why it mattered to be alive. Her
best friend became a writer, too, and
explained why it was different when
Hemingway wrote about religion, and had
brilliant essays in The Atlantic.
But that they were great, or that they
were famous, wasn't really what mattered.
What mattered was that they were honest,
and that they were willing to be happy. And
when they were together and I talked with
them, it was like we were sitting in the
bleachers on a warm Iowa night, drinking
Cokes and eating hot dogs, and we were
watching the game and we were smiling.
I've never been to that Iowa ballpark,
but I know what it's like. I understand that
kind of joy and I understand magic.
Because, after all, they are my friends.
Black Cultural Center is
Since blacks began attending the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, our cultural and social
rights have not only been thwarted, but
also manipulated and ignored. Almost
every aspect of social and cultural expres
sion at UNC caters to students other than
those of the black persuasion. Practically
all campus activities and programs have
little or no appeal and offer little support
for the black student. As a member of the
Black Student Movement and a former
minority recruiter, I have been fortunate
enough to witness, firsthand, the Univer
sity's hypocrisy, inconsistency and political
manipulation ot black students.
A pnme example ot the tarce ot equality
deals with the installment of the Black
Cultural Center. For the past three years,
students concerned about the survival of
black culture and support for minority
students have argued, debated and pleaded
with campus officials for the center. The
proposal was based on the immense need
for the unification of black students and
the desire to instill a sense of belonging
in them.
The cultural center, which was intended
to be used for everything from appearances
of inspirational speakers and organiza
tional meetings to concerts and displays,
had been on the agenda of University
officials since 1984. Finally, last month,
the students christened the small room in
the Carolina Union as the Black Cultural
Center. Ironically, the acceptance of the
proposal proved that black students' needs
are not taken seriously at UNC. It took
Christmas cheer
goes overseas
To the editor:
The Christmas Season is
upon us! The decorations
around Chapel Hill remind us
of the coming holidays and fill
us with a sense of happiness and
joy. We college students are
lucky we are here with our
friends to enjoy the holiday
season. We anxiously antici
pate going home for Christmas
to be with family and loved
ones. In this respect, college
students are a very lucky group
of people.
However, some Americans
are not so lucky. Some of our
most dedicated citizens will not
be able to be with their families
this Christmas. These are the
servicemen stationed overseas
in the Persian Gulf. It doesn't
seem quite fair for the people
who guard our nation's inter
ests and work for world peace
to be separated from their loved
ones at such a special time of
the year. This Christmas there
will be no bowl games on
television for them. They won't
help pick the family Christmas
tree or decorate it. They won't
see their children's faces light
up with excitement when they
see the gifts Santa Claus has
left. Whether or not you think
the United States should be
involved in overseas activities,
you certainly have to agree that
the holidays will be very empty
indeed for those stationed in
the Persian Gulf.
There is a way we can make
the holidays less painful for
Foreign language classes
Two weeks ago, as I left Dey Hall,
I was confronted with a most
disturbing piece of graffiti scribbled
on the door. It simply said, "Why French?"
This question has disturbed my sleep
patterns and made me irritable on the eve
of my impending cumulative Spanish final.
I find myself unable to satisfactorily answer
the question "why?" when I sit down to
study hundreds of Spanish vocabulary
words. I am not a xenophobe and I do
enjoy my course. But, I do not understand
why those who do not wish to take a
foreign language are forced to do so for
three semesters to meet their General
College requirements.
One of the arguments for this require
ment is its value in the cultural education
of the scholar. Through a study of a
society's language, one will learn about its
culture. If cultural knowledge, however, is
the object of the foreign language require
ment, I cannot think of a more circuitous
or inefficient manner of teaching it. A
foreign culture class could provide students
with much more cultural data in a much
smaller time frame. Instead of learning a
little bit of French culture in one semester
of French language, a concentrated culture
course could teach the student more than
a little about French culture, with time to
include the same amount of information
about German or Russian speaking people
as well.
Other proponents of mandatory foreign
language schooling attempt to justify their
position by suggesting that the goal of such
a requirement is more subtle. They propose
that by requiring a student to speak a
foreign tongue, he will learn to think in
a way new to him, thus making him more
open-minded. If this ability is the actual
goal, then perhaps the University should
require a foreign philosophies class as well,
so that students are exposed to foreign
Sophia Gatewood
Guest Writer
almost four years for the proposal to be
accepted and for the center to become a
reality. However, there is one major
problem the center can seat no more
than 80 people. UNC has 1,700 black
students. How can this room fulfill the
purpose of unifying the black students if
only 80 people can gather at one time?
Black students must realize that this
center was not given to us out of concern
for our well-being. It was presented as an
attempt to cool our anger over the delay
in accepting the proposal. The installment
of the center was put off as long as the
University could avoid the issue of black
students' rights. Thinking on a political and
financial level, UNC decided to give us just
enough room to call it the Black Cultural
Center, and just enough of a center to say,
"They have their center, let's move on to
something else."
These officials also realized that with the
ever-growing need for minority recruit
ment and enrollment, there had to be a
compromise. There had to be something
to put on the list of pros to impress the
recruits with the so-called many outlets and
support systems for minority students. The
center would appeal to the recruits enough
to make them enroll, helping UNC reach
its minority enrollment goals in order to
receive government funds. So, thanks to
COMING SOON TO THE
these people. The Pentagon has
established a mail route for the
public to send holiday cards or
letters to Americans stationed
in the Persian Gulf. The depart
ment said it could not handle
packages. I think this is a very
nice way to show our service
men that someone is thinking
about them over the holidays.
The address is as follows: ASU
Bahrain, FPO New York
09542. Any holiday greetings
would be appreciated, I'm sure.
Please add an American ser
viceman to your list when you
send out your Christmas cards
this season.
ALICIA WORRELL
Junior
Math
Thanks for
your support
To the editor:
On behalf of the UNC field
hockey team, I would like to
thank the fans and the band
members for their deafening
involvement in the Nov. 21
championship game against
Maryland. In our years at
Carolina, the five seniors have
participated in the growth of
coach Karen Shelton's pro
gram from top-10 contender to
national dominance. We have
also seen fan support and
knowledge of the game grow
from a few handfuls of con
fused stragglers to the vocal
mass of blue frenzy that sur
Blan Holman
Guest Writer
modes of thought.
Though I would like to believe that
cultural fluency and open-mindedness are
the goals of the language perspective, I ajn
told that more pragmatic aims exist. There
is the perception of a growing need for
American businessmen to be equipped to
communicate and subsequently excel in an
increasingly competitive business world. If
competitiveness is the target of language
instruction, we must consider who actually
uses, or will use, their linguistic prowess
in the business world those who deal
with businessmen from other countries.
The businessman who lives in Utah all
his life does not need to know a foreign
language to increase his effectiveness as a
worker. This person would be better
served, if he were employed in high
technology business ot production, by
taking technology-intensive courses of
obvious and direct use to his line of work.
Those who need to take a foreign language
to improve their performance should take
more than three semesters so that it will
be a properly developed skill; those for
whom three semesters of a foreign language
would be useless should take courses which
would instead improve the quality of their
work.
However, no one knows what field they
are going into when they choose these
courses, so choosing the most useful course
is impossible. This is exactly why, from
a socio-economic standpoint, mandatory
foreign language courses are wrong. First,
it should be clear that there are many more
jobs which do not require polyglots than
jobs that do, and therefore requiring
courses which provide useful skills for a
a handout
political necessity, blacks got their center.
The first program held there was "A
Salute to Black Leadership." The furniture
consisted of about 80 chairs and two tables;
there was no wallpaper and the floor was
bare. If not for the sign outside the door,
one would have thought it was merely an
abandoned Union room. By the time the
program started, students of all races were
crowded into the room and outside the
door. A cruel, degrading injustice had been
done to the black students. It is disturbing
that we are expected to accept this poor
excuse for a cultural center. Obviously
black students are not taken seriously at
UNC. We are expected to settle for any
handout given to us.
University officials want government
money to put into the UNC system. Black
enrollment is the way to get it. It is all
too clear that once the minority students
are enrolled, UNC stops painting the
beautiful pictures of minority support and
equality.
This is not an institution of equal rights.
UNC is a political and financial institution,
insensitive to the rights of minority
students. We must fight this injustice by
protesting our plight, and our label as
second-class citizens. We must protest
being treated as unimportant and trivial
when our financial and cultural contribu
tions are essential to the continued growth
and status of UNC.
Sophia Gatewood is a junior English
major from Wadesboro.
PERSIAN GULF!
rounded the field on Sunday.
We trust that neither the team
nor the interest has peaked.
We came up short of some
expectations (including our
own), but we did not come up
empty. UNC showed hospital
ity and pride in hosting the
Final Four. With only one
week to prepare, the athletic
department ran the tournament
flawlessly. Students and other
supporters showed their class,
creating a championship envir
onment under the Carolina
blue sky. The team came in
second, but thanks to all of you
we seniors can go out winners.
KATHY MULVEY
Senior
English French
impractical
greater number of people, such as in the
area of computers, would be more
profitable.
Secondly, the inability of freshmen and
sophomores to choose courses which
would benefit their professional perfor
mance shows the need to make career
oriented courses required only of students
who are further along in their studies. My
point is simply that if a foreign language
course is career-oriented, it should be
treated as the others are, and required only
of those who are pursuing such a career.
Some people suggest that those who are
pursuing specialized fields of study need
to be able to read monumental works in
their field in the work's original language.
The number of people involved with such
translations is too small to outweigh the
disadvantages of forcing all students .to
take a foreign language. It is dubious that
three semesters of a language would enable
any student to translate with greater
accuracy than scholars whose job it is to
translate. Also, the ability to translate
would certainly fall under the category of
professionally valuable skills which should
be taught to those in that field of study,
as mentioned above.
With this look at both the pragmatic
and philosophical sides of possible justi
fications for requiring three semesters of
a foreign language, it appears that such
a system is groundless. I believe that the
answer to the original question "why?" is
for pleasure or more practical reasons. I
do not believe in American isolationism,
economically or culturally. I do, however,
believe that the way in which we become
a more open and competitive society is to
follow the most efficient means.
Blan Holman is a freshman, major
undecided, from Columbia, South
Carolina.
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