12The Daily Tar HeelMonday, March 21, 1988
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Readers' Forum
96 th year of editorial freedom
Jean Lutes,
KATHY PETERS, Managing Editor
Karen Bell, News Editor
MATT BlVENS, Associate Editor
KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor
SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor
MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor
Kelly Rhodes, Am Editor
MANDY SPENCE, Design Editor
Editor
JON RUST, Managing Edttor
KAARIN TlSUE, Newt Editor
AMY HAMILTON, Associate Editor
KR1STEN GARDNER, University Editor
Will Lingo, aty Editor
LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor
CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor
DAVID MINTON, Photography Editor
Students suffer with poor profs
At Friday's Faculty Council meet
ing, Chancellor Christopher Fordham
reported that UNC appears ready to
enroll more black students this fall
than in the past. He called for stronger
efforts to attract black faculty
members, urging search committees to
consider more black candidates for
faculty positions.
Recognizing that a University com
mitment to retain incoming black
students will demand an effort to
attract and keep black professors,
Fordham's request must not fall on
deaf ears. The number of black UNC
professors fell from 50 in 1984 to 48
in 1987. Meanwhile, the demand for
top-notch black professors continues
to increase.
But the difficulty of attracting black
professors is a symptom of a larger
problem. In the past, the reputation
of the University, the strength of the
faculty and UNCs setting were often
sufficient to draw top-rated faculty
members to Chapel Hill. Now, uni
versities across the country are offering
the same. For a professor considering
positions at UNC and the University
of Michigan, salary may be the
deciding factor. If that is the case,
Michigan wins.
Faculty salaries at UNC are becom
ing less attractive. In 1980, compen
sation at UNC ranked in the top 20
percent for all faculty positions at
major U.S. research institutions. By
1986, UNC was no longer included in
the top 20 percent for professors, and
was not listed in the top 40 percent
for associate and assistant professors.
In 1987, the average faculty salary
at the University of California
Berkeley was $54,600. At UNC, it was
$42,100.
At this month's Board of Governors
meeting, UNC-system president CD.
Spangler said he is pushing a 5 percent
faculty salary increase as a high
priority in the General Assembly's
summer session.
Spangler's push should be bolstered
by student support. One possibility for
action is an organized student lobby
to secure the faculty salary increases.
Working with the Faculty Council and
other UNC administrators, the lead
ership of student organizations
student government and the Black
Student Movement, for example
could effectively pool ideas and
resources for a strong, legitimate voice
in Raleigh. Legislators may be more
likely to listen if the University's
requests are voiced by a unified group
of students, faculty and
administrators.
If the University must hire mediocre
teachers, it is students who will suffer
the most. They should step forward
and assume part of the responsibility
for attracting and maintaining a
diverse, committed faculty. Kelly
Clark
Jordan sticks hisiQQtjiiputh
Hearing a politician make a candid
remark is almost as rare as having the
Smith Center filled with screaming
Duke fans. Chapel Hill residents were
treated to both last week.
The raucous Duke cheers have
faded into the Carolina blue rafters,
but Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan's recent
comments to a group of black leaders
continue to echo. It's a hollow sound.
Jordan, the likely Democratic
nominee for governor, told a group
of black newspaper executives and
civic leaders in Greensboro that he
needed the black vote to win the
election. However, he said he could
not support blacks on certain issues
because he also needed "the white
redneck vote in Eastern North Caro
lina." He continued: "I'm not going
to come out with programs that will
defeat me, no matter how I stand on
that program, because I want to get
elected. There may be some programs
that you believe in and I believe in
that will not be campaign issues,
because if they are, I won't be
governor."
Jordan says he was trying to tell
black leaders that he must reach out
for the conservative vote. But he
cannot legitimately ask black voters to
support him, based on an agenda he
refuses to fully reveal. Such an
approach implies that black-oriented
programs are not important enough
to make campaign issues. It also
requires black constituents to trust
that, if elected, Jordan will keep
campaign promises that he has not
even made. Trust is one thing, but
blind trust? Come on, Bob.
Calling the whites of Eastern North
Carolina "rednecks" wasn't a bright
move, either. Although the lieutenant
governor insists that he did not use
the term in a derogatory manner,
calling someone a redneck is rarely a
compliment. To almost everyone, it
brings to mind the image of unedu
cated and even racist people.
Politicians have to get elected, and
catering to different interest groups is
a fact of life for all candidates for
public office. But Jordan did more
than that. He readily consented to the
political tradition of doublespeak,
coupling that consent with a remark
that was potentially insulting to at least
two large groups of constituents.
Jordan wants to be elected gover
nor. North Carolinians may prize
candor in their elected officials, but
it's doubtful that they will prize
stupidity. And nothing else can des
cribe a candidate who manages, in one
fell swoop, to alienate all voters who
supported him based on his stated
platform. Jean Lutes
The Daily Tar Heel
Editorial Writers: Kelly Clark, Stuart Hathaway and Bill Yelverton.
Editorial Assistants: Laura Pcarlman and Becky Riddick.
Assistant Managing Editors: Hannah Drum, Barbara Linn, Felisa Neuringer, Laura Pearlman and Clay Thorp.
Assistant Design Editors: Cara Bonnett and Teresa Kriegsman.
Design Assistants: Ashley Campbell, Katherine Hortenstine and Laura Ross.
News: Kari Barlow, Jeanna Baxter, Katie Beck, Crystal Bell, Laura Bennett, James Benton, Tammy Blackard, Patricia
Brown, Brenda Campbell, Lacy Churchill, Jenny Cloninger, Staci Cox, Robin Curtis, Jackie Douglas, Carrie Dove,
Laura Francis, Eric Gribbin, Amy Grubbs, William Hildebolt, Kyle Hudson, Suzette Hughes, Sonya Jackson, Helen
Jones, Patrice Jones, Susan Kauffman, Chris Landgraff, Barbara Linn, Laura Mayfield, Brian McCollum, Rebecca
Nesbit, Helle Nielsen, Susan Odehkirchen, Laura Peay, Cheryl Pond, Beth Rhea, Mark Shaver, Christopher Sontchi,
Laura Summer, William Taggart, Clay Thorp and Amy Weisner. Laura DiGiano, assistant city editor. Amy Winslow,
assistant state and national editor. Mark Folk and Justin McGuire, senior writers. Peter Lineberry, Lisa Poole and
Juliellen Sarver, wire editors.
Sports: Jim Muse and Chris Spencer, assistant sports editors. James Surowiecki, senior writer. Robert D'Arruda,
Chris Chapman, Steve Giles, Dave Glenn, Dave Hall, Clay Hodges, Ginger Jonas, Brendan Mathews, Patton McDowell,
Keith Parsons, Andy Podolsky and Langston Wertz.
Features: Jo Lee Credle, Myrna Miller, Jim Mock, Corin Ortlam, Leigh Pressley, Carole Southern, Ellen Thornton,
Linda van den Berg, Julie Woods and Holly Young.
Arts: James Burrus, senior writer. Scott Cowen, Stephanie Dean, Kim Donehower, David Hester, Julie Olson, Alston
Russell and Michael Spinas.
Photography: Christie Blom, Janet Jarman, Elizabeth Morrah, Jeff Shuler and Julie Stovall.
Copy Editors: Cara Bonnett, Carrie Burgin, Julia Coon, Whitney Cork, Bert Hackney and Sherry Miller.
Cartoonists: Bill Cokas, Jeff Christian and Greg Humphreys.
Campus Calendar: Mindelle Rosenberg and David Starnes.
Business and Advertising: Anne Fulcher, director: Pat.icia Glance, advertising director; Joan Worth, advertising
coordinator; Peggy Smith, advertising manager; Sheila Baker, business manager; Rita Galloway, accounts receivable
clerk; Michael Benfield, Ashley Hinton, Kellie McElhaney, Amy McGuirt, Chrissy Mennitt, Stacey Montford, Lesley
Renwrick, Julie Settle, Dave Slovcnsky, Dean Thompson, Amanda Tillcy and Wendy Wegner, display advertising
representatives; Diane Cheek, Stephanie Chesson, Tina Perry and Lisa Poole, classified advertising representatives;
and Jeff Carlson and Kris Carlson, secretaries.
Subscriptions: Tucker Stevens, manager; Cody McKinney, assistant.
Distribution: David Econopouly, manager; Cindy Cowan and Billy Owens, assistants.
Production: Bill Leslie and Stacy Wynn. Genevieve Halkett, Leslie Humphrey, Stephanie Locklear and Tammy Sheldon, i
production assistants.
Printing: The Chapel Hill Newspaper.
Rigid perspectives stifle education
ules, rules, rules. A lot of the time
it seems like our whole education
.is nothing but the maze of rules
we have to follow to graduate. "Do this,
do that, and do it in such-and-such a way.
And it's all for your own good." Well, let's
take a closer look. Here are a few examples
of how academic rules and regulations
"enhance" the educational experience of
students at UNC:
An acquaintance of mine is a political
science major. As a graduating senior, she
wanted to take a music course to broaden
her horizons. But her schedule was full:
she had to take a course to fulfill her Social
Science perspective, even though she had
had four years full of poli sci. In this way,
the perspective system, supposedly
designed to ensure a wide-ranging aca
demic program, effectively narrowed the
scope of her education.
I took a philosophy course one semester,
and the vast majority of the students were
there to fulfill a perspective. Most students
approached the course as something to "get
through," and the professor adopted a
similar attitude. Needless to say, the class
was less than stimulating. When they
finished class, a lot of people who enjoy
philosophy found themselves disliking
Philosophy, resentful that the experience
had been forced upon them.
A friend is taking a massive load of
classes and recently realized the burden is
too great. He wants to keep all his classes,
but he's too late: he missed the deadline
for declaring a "pass fail." Now he faces
a semester in which his ability to perform
in all of his classes and other activities is
threatened. In short, the early, strict pass
fail deadline will only serve to damage his
educational experience.
These may sound like isolated cases, but
my experience suggests that they are all
Bryan Hassel
Symposium 1988
too common. Rules apparently intended
to enhance our academic experience end
up hindering our intellectual development.
Furthermore, the regulations reflect a
condescending attitude on the part of the
"powers that be." The faculty may have
an excellent sense of the general shape an
education should take, but to apply this
broad approach as a blanket policy to all -students
is to ignore the fact that individual
students know themselves best. Rather
than impose restrictions on the undergrad
uates, the faculty should find other ways
to transfer their valuable experience to the
students.
For instance, why not train advisers
intensively on how to help students choose
a direction in their education? The time
advisers spend on filling out forms and
ensuring compliance with all the require
ments would be better spent teaching
students how to use their brains to tailor
an academic program to their own interests
and strengths. And students can help
students: a pilot program of student
advising is in the works now. The rules
could be abandoned; students and their
advisers could be trusted to work together
on an educational plan that makes sense
to them.
I know this would be a big departure
from current trends. In a transitional
phase, requirements could be made more
general, allowing individual students and
faculty to design courses of study that fulfill
general guidelines but meet particular
needs. Restrictions (like the pass fail drop
deadline) could be made more flexible. If
students can make reasonable cases that
their educations will be helped and not,
hindered by bending the rules, then the
rules should be bent. And students
shouldn't have to go through cumbersome
appeals and other bureaucracy. Why can't
advisers and students work these things
out? Requirements and rules are not ends
in themselves. If they don't achieve their
intended purposes, they should be
changed.
But in the long run, all academic
decisions should be left up to students and
faculty. I think everyone will be pleased
at how well people yes, even students
can make choices about their own lives,
especially when they're guided by intelli
gent people who know how to give good
advice. Combining the student's personal
sense of direction with their peers' and the
faculty's general knowledge of education
would generate an atmosphere in which
better decisions would be made.
Education should not be a mass pro
duction line where every product (student)
must, go through a series of processes to
emerge as a fully formed human being.
Instead, the University should be an
interactive community in which its
members cooperate to create an educa
tional environment that allows both
individuals and the whole to improve.
Excessive rules and regulations eliminate
the critical process of self-determination,
which should be the very essence of
education. So let's start looking at some
ways to loosen the process up, giving
students the flexibility they need to get the
most out of what Carolina has to offer.
Bryan Hassel is a senior history major
from Nashville, Tenn.
Rally coverage
one-sided
To the editor:
When did the DTH become
a public relations agency for the
Palestinians? Journalists
should provide information in
a way that lets readers develop
their own opinions about
issues. However, an article
published on the March 14
front page, "Rally supports
Palestinian freedom," is a one
sided view to a multi-faceted
conflict and provides only a
small portion of the informa
tion needed by readers.
Some people might say that
the article was about a political
organization, not an issue. Still,
the DTH shouldn't have
printed accusations of torture
and human rights violations
without some effort to verify
the facts or at least balance
them against conflicting
assertions.
How difficult would it have
been to find other points of
view? If the reporter had called
the Hillel Foundation on cam
pus or one of the five syn
agogues in the Triangle Area,
any of those resources would
have provided information and
names- of people who might
respond to the allegations. In
fact, on March 15, the Israeli
Consul General was scheduled
to speak in Hamilton Hall. An
interview with him or coverage
of the speech would have made
the article more fair.
I don't object to the article
because of the position taken
by the organization; rather, I
object to the article because it
was given the same status as
any other news story even
though it was clearly biased.
The DTH is a newspaper,
not a position paper, and, as
journalists, the staff has a
responsibility to publish arti-
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cles that give a balanced view
of the issues involved. There is
space on the back page for
editorials.
HEIDI AYCOCK
Graduate
Journalism
More hypocrite
than sinner
To the editor:
In response to Jeanne New
man's letter, "True Christians"
(March 14), I would like to help
her understand why "the entire
nation is up in arms" about
Jimmy Swaggart's scandal. I do
not believe that Swaggart's
involvement with a prostitute
is the main issue. Swaggart's
"pious" attitude and his holier-than-thou
sermons are juxta
posed to his fascination for
pornographic acts. A man who
can stand in front of millions
of followers, week after week,
and preach about God's word
while sneaking around with a
prostitute is a . . . dare I say
it . . . hypocritel
Newman's comparison of
Michael Jackson to Jimmy
Swaggart is ludicrous. Michael
Jackson does not profess to be
one of God's chosen mes
sengers. Neither does he plead
for people to send him money
or attend his concerts. Swag
gart has one of the most luc
rative ministries in America. In
addition, Swaggart must have
forgotten that old Indian say
ing about not judging someone
until walking a mile in his shoes
when he, quite vocally, spoke
out against Jim Bakker's sins.
Swaggart has asked for for
giveness for his sins, and I think
it should be granted. However,
perhaps Swaggart should take
some time to re-examine the
Christian doctrine of grace and
redefine his principles and
morals before returing to his
ministry.
DEANNA RAMEY
Sophomore
English
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Abortion is myrder of the innocent
In the March 18 column, "Conflict of
Rights Clouds Abortion Issue," Patri
cia Hurst states that by "surveying the
philosophical literature on the morality of
abortion, one quickly determines that the
debate centers around definitions of
personhood." She points out that there is
broad disagreement as to what this
definition is, and suggests that feminists,
instead of focusing on the issue of
personhood, should concentrate on the
relationship of abortion to the "patriarchal
domination of women." ,
To begin with, it is true that there is
an extensive amount of debate in the
philosophical literature as to the "person
hood" of the unborn. However, this does
not mean that the morality of abortion
centers on whether the unborn child is a
"person." Simply put, the annals of
philosophy are incapable of disproving
what science has told us and what the
author herself admits: that an unborn child
is a living human being and that after an
abortion, that human being is dead.
An extremely odd phenomenon has
occurred over the past 20 years. Before the
advent of ultrasound imaging and micro
photography, there were two diametrically
opposed views of abortion. One view was
that a fetus is a living human being and
is therefore entitled to protection under the
law. The other view was that there is no
Mark Yavarone
Guest Writer
proof that a fetus is a living human being,
so abortion on demand can be justified.
Since that time, a shocking number of
people have synthesized these views into
the position espoused by the author of the
March 18 column. They admit that the
victim of an abortion is an innocent, living
human being, admit that we have des
troyed over 17 million of these human
beings since 1973, but have somehow
convinced themselves that this fact is not
the key issue.
" Today, we know that the main organ
systems of human beings are formed by
the eighth week after conception. (Consult
any embryology textbook.) This fact
explains what we see during ultrasound
imaging of even first trimester suction
abortions: the dismembering of a tiny
human body. Yes, people can make many
seemingly convincing arguments for why
abortion on demand is needed, but let's
not kid ourselves into forgetting the
overriding issue: abortion is the brutal
killing of innocent human beings.
By now you have probably read my
name and noticed that I am of the male
gender. Since I am never going to need
an abortion, what gives me the right to
impose my views on others? I think we
need to realize that by opposing abortion,
we are standing up for the rights of millions
of preborn Americans more than half
of whom are female. It is paradoxical that
the majority of those who claim to support
women's rights also deny the most basic
right of any human female the right
to life.
The column writer says that she "won
ders if abortion would even be an issue
if men could get pregnant." I cannot help
but wonder if abortion would even be an
issue if its 4,000 daily victims were capable
of speaking for themselves.1 What gives us
the right to impose our views on them?
Abortion is admittedly a complex,
emotional and controversial issue. As a
society, we need to treat its root causes
and to do more to provide alternatives to
women with crisis pregnancies. But we
cannot forget that the fundamental issue
in abortion is that it kills innocent human
beings. To do so is to claim that the essence
of abortion is something other than
abortion.
Mark Yavarone is a graduate student
.studying cell biology and anatomy from
Belmar, N.J.
I