Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 7, 1988, edition 1 / Page 10
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
10The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, April 7, 1988 ullj? Satlg ufar Mnl Resume notes: job offers welcome 96 th year of editorial freedom JFAN LlJTi:S, Editor KATHY PlTlRS, Mutugmg Editor KARl.N Bn.I., Ncu-t Editor y Matt IMviim, Auuute r.j,tor KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor Kelly Rhodes, Arts Editor MANDY SPENCE, Design Editor Jon Rust, Managing Mor KAARIN TlSUE, Neus Editor AMY HAMILTON, Associate Editor Kristen Gardner, University Editor Will Lingo, aty Editor LEIGH ANN McDONALD, features Editor CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor DAVID MINTON, Photography Editor Paying a 200-year-old repair bill Maintenance is not a elamnrnm word it brings to mind images of cleaning supplies, broken windows and burned-out light bulbs. But unless the University receives more funds to maintain its nearly 200-year-old campus, students and admin istrators alike may soon be talking about maintenance problems, as the heating fails in classrooms and water leaks through roofs onto administra tors' desks. The University has a $56.5 million backlog of repair and renovation projects, according to a 1987 report by UNC's Physical Plant, which .handles campus maintenance projects. The long list of projects includes .repairing roads and parking lots, removing barriers to the handicapped, replacing and improving utility sys ;tems and replacing obsolete furniture. Officials, who hope to air-condition all classrooms eventually, now don't even -have enough money to replace floor tile or keep the paint from peeling around gutters and windows. J: A quote from Richard Moll's book, "The Public Ivys," describes the .problem bluntly: "The saddest aspect "of the UNC campus is that the whole place looks a bit tattered, despite spanking news structures. Someone .cut the maintenance budget and it .shows." The lack of maintenance funding is not a new problem; nor is it unique. The same problem has built up at all 16 campuses in the UNC system it's just worse at Chapel Hill because that campus is the oldest. UNC officials, recognizing the magnitude of the problem, are peti tioning the state legislature for more maintenance funding. The 1987 Phys ical Plant report says the University needs $11 million a year for each of the next 10 years to bring campus maintenance up to par. Although UNC administrators don't expect to receive an extra $11 million each year from the legislature, the huge request should indicate the huge nature of the maintenance problem. The problem of inadequate main tenance funding is easy to ignore; state legislators have proven that already. But their unwillingness to spend money on campus upkeep could have disastrous results. The time to allocate funds for maintenance is now. In a recent report to the Board of Trustees, the chancellor noted the serious need for increased Physical Plant funding. If state funds don't come through soon, even the chancel lor's office in South Building may have a leaky roof. Jean Lutes ordan's actions self-serving Political expediency must be second nature to Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan. On Monday, the gubernatorial candidate took advantage of Robeson County's tense racial situation by going behind Gov. Jim Martin's back to get support from residents for the creation of a new area judgeship. Martin had met last week with rcitizens who supported recently mur ;'dered Lumbee Indian leader Julian Pierce, the only minority candidate in the race for a newly created Superior : Court seat. Pierce's death left District '-'Attorney Joe Freeman Britt, a white, ;:winner of the race by default. : According to Pierce's campaign .manager, one of Martin's first sugges tions at the meeting was to create a :-jiew judgeship. But, he said, their discussion focused on what Pierce's supporters were calling for a special session of the legislature. Though Martin's new-found inter - est in Robeson's residents may have ; been due to the election year, he was trying to handle the situation in the manner the Lumbee Indians Z requested. v Jordan, instead of involving himself : in this process, decided to "counter" .. Martin's actions by talking to Pierce's supporters himself. His meeting with C them may create a new judgeship, and ihis incident may be resolved. But Jordan's sneaking around the gover nor to personally intervene in the ; matter is ultimately harmful. !p Qip-n-Save I hate preregistration. You read these six :t word descriptions about the courses, and l then are forced to make choices that could if haunt you for a whole semester. It's like ' picking a cereal because "the moose on the cover looked kinda friendly." Preregistra J tion is the aisle 12 of college life. You read these descriptions, and each course is asking something different. In geology they ask, 'l "Is the earth really moving? And if so, will we still get cable?" In psychology they ask, ;.; "How does the mind work? And, should we keep the receipt in case it doesn't?" ;t I'm a rising senior, and I've fulfilled most f my perspectives and major requirements. t Now, I would like to stretch a little and ' take some courses in some new fields. I ; would take a course in classics, but I'd hate to get in there and have to do a paper on Shakespeare when I thought we were just going to listen to the Beatles' White album ' and maybe discuss "Animal House." A sex education course seemed interesting ;.'; enough, but I understand you have to get ; I special permission from the instructor, and J ; she just wasn't my type. ' In the religion section, I noted a new I course being offered in Hinduism. This I looked hopeful (I know because I had taken When the governor and lieutenant governor desire the same ends, they are most effective when they work together. It is one thing for the lieutenant governor to act when the governor isn't, but when the governor is executing the duties of his office working toward goals that both support the lieutenant governor should not intercede. In pursuing the request of a special session, Martin sought his lieutenant governor's advice; however, Jordan was working on his own agenda. By not cooperating with other state officials, Jordan used the fears and doubts of Robeson County's residents, the hopes of its minorities, and Pierce's tragic death to further his own political ends. When Jordan described his role in proposing the judgeship, he said, "It's an issue where I can show I got something done." But Robeson County's plight is not a game. Its residents are not pawns, and the resolution of its problems is not a prize to be won. Politicians like Jordan who approach the situation with such a perspective are disgraceful. The creation of another judgeship may be the best action to take for Robeson County. But in deciding what to do, everyone should have agreed that the needs of its minorities come first. Everyone did except Jordan. Stuart Hathaway the class in a previous life with Shirley J Maclaine) but it requires a lab in which J you have to bare your soul. Besides, I have i i 1 1 bad karma. I I would have liked to take a course in I peace, war and defense, but I have flat feet. I Besides, I burned my preregistration card. j I was becoming frustrated and time was J running out. In desperation, I signed up ! for a speech course that "fosters commun- J ication through puppetry." What's worse is that the final is cumulative. And I signed I up for Music 666: "An introduction, I analysis, and critique of modern kazoo." 1 The only reason I chose MED 42, Advanced Neurosurgery, was because it requires no j prerequisite. I had one more to find. There ! was library science, but I couldnt see myself j in the periodicals section with goggles and a bunsen burner. There's also naval science, I but for some reason the idea of studying I a guy named Harvey because he has an I "outie" didn't appeal to me. I So, finally, I did what every mature, j concerned student does in this situation. My J eyes closed, I randomly stuck my finger j through the course guide to make my j decision. PHYS ED: Intermediate Cliff i Diving. I What the hell, I could have done worse. I lUsmess maxims carry a kind of .supreme authority. Not as clever as 'Nietzsche's aphorisms or as enrthv as old wives' tales, these maxims plucked straight from The Street nevertheless convey tried-and-truisms older than Brooks Brothers itself. And as with God's commandments, one violates their laws only at great personal risk. After all, what could beat the irrefutable wisdom, the sublime beauty of "Buy low sell high"? So I listen. The story from Walker Percy's "The Last Gentleman" goes something like this. Years ago, a now-famous industrial counselor entered the office of a small manufacturing concern. "How would you like to increase sales 200 percent the first year?" the man asks the company presi dent. The latter naturally wants to get rid of this loon. Before leaving, however, the counselor scrawls some lines on a pad and says, "Read this. Think about it. If you put it into practice, send me a check a year from now for what it was worth to you." A year later, the counselor receives a check for $25,000. The scribbled lines had been: (1) Make a list of your problems, numbering them in the order of priority! (2) Devote all your time, one day, one month, however long it takes, to disposing of one problem at a time. Then go to the next. That company executive, so the story goes, is now president of the world's third largest corporation and draws a salary of $400,000 a year. Now I know Percy places little faith in such a maxim. Running one's life is a bit different from running a company. With our emotional natures, problems tend to linger in our subterranean pools. Floating on their backs smoking cigarettes, they Louis Corrigan From the Womb thumb through the latest Atlantic Monthly and quietly meditate on themselves while we wait for their decisions in our dreams. But the two-part maxim keeps rolling through my head, seducing me with the orderly ruled lines of my notepad and the grand, nearly Platonic, prioritized list of problems. And in my mind, 1 eventually draw a line through each problem with my black Expresso pen. How pure and precise life might be! The list I could make. It's the second part that trips me up. How many hours could I spend on the steps of Lenoir sunbathing and chatting, or at ye olde hoops court clearing the boards, if I were devoting all my time disposing of those ominously heavy first few problems. To give you an idea, my list might begin: (1) job metier, (2) women, (3) God (i.e. if the first two turn out to be insufficient). These matters are hardly the kind that disappear. I avoid them only with growing guilt. I must make the concerted effort, gather my resources, state my case. Begin with problem one. (1) Summer Job Internship (with the correlaries employment fall 7 career decision). Let me make some notes for a resume . . . Position desired: Internship or summer job. Something challenging and fulfilling that would put me in contact with lots of intelligent, interesting and beautiful people. Credentials: Graduate of UNC with B. A. Honors in English. Fine GPA. Never a Morehead or Mellon. Prefer Moosehead and strawberries. Never a Bullfoot or member of any secret society. Experience: Intensive work editing manuscripts in creative writing classes and for literary magazine. Over four years of sometimes college journalism, beginning with a piece called "Sex in closets: What's going on in there?" and ending, probably, with this column. Work as editorialist, columnist, arts and features writer, a' smithering of professional experience. Long humored by friends and colleagues. Other: Can think, wait and fast. Urbane yet rural. Earnest and serious-minded. Indolent, yet possess a latent, seldom tapped work ethic. Slow but eager to learn. Can tie a knot with a cherry stem using my tongue, which is supposed to mean you're a good kisser. I am. Have a unique ability to produce up to ten grams of belly-button lint daily. Colorful, never gross. Thought once of selling my services to Burlington Coat Factory. Don't believe I look especially good in a suit but will gladly give it a try for enough money. Make lovely strawberry daiquiris and love to drink them by a swimming pool. Can build a roaring fire without using lighter fluid. Have been told I have great rhythm (should I include this?). Available: First week of June. This is rough, but it's only a provisional version. Yet, don't for a minute think I'm joking. Send this column home to your corporate executive mommies and daddies. I'm willing and able. IVe got to dispose of this first problem before going on to problem two. And I'm a little anxious to return to the steps and get on with problem two. Louis Corrigan is an Evening College Muueni jrom Atlanta, Ua. Readers' Foraim Cheers and jeers To the editor: Congratulations are in order for Associate Athletic Director Paul Hoolahan and Gene Swecker, associate vice chan cellor for facilities manage ment, i or meir Handling of the "errant baseball" problem reported in Tuesday's DTH. Evidently, a number of cars parked in the spaces adjacent to Ehringhaus Field have suf fered damage from misguided baseballs hit from the field. Special marks go to Residence Hall Association President Jimmy Randolph, who observed that "the problem has persisted over a number of years because no one has taken action," a remark exceeded in profundity only by Yogi Berra's "It ain't over 'til it's over." Our heroes, Hoolahan and Swecker, have determined that the problem calls for immediate discussion. "We are in the process of talking about put ting a net up," says Hoolahan, "but no definite decisions have been made." Evidently, the department wishes only to take action that is acceptable to the whole campus. Perhaps it should circulate surveys to determine whether the campus as a whole is "pro-net" or "con net." Personally, I would recommend that we put the issue up for referendum in the next campus election. Of course, the other issue that Hoolahan and Swecker must sort out is where the money will come from. Ehringhaus Residence Hall Governor Mike Sullivan believes that the athletic deDart- ment should pay for the net. "By putting up the net," says Sullivan, "the athletic depart ment would show that it isn't being negligent to student concerns." Evidently, he per ceives the net as a symbol of the athletic department's com passion and munificence. In conclusion, I would again like to congratulate all those involved in this problem. It is a relief to know that the bureaucracy of the University is as efficient as ever. DAVID McCOLLUM Sophomore Chemistry EVAN MECHAM-THE GOVERNOR vjho 3ust WOULD NOT U-fcAVt SotfE PARTY. YoU GOT ANY tf&RE DIP I.IWLil . M t.w r-ia r ?y5 i UA J A 11 a .. '07 - ' ' Pornography cheapens us all To the editor: William Knorpp and Bailey Irwin's letters of April 4 ("Sel ling Playboy in UNC Student Stores does not oppress or exploit women" and "Porno graphy not the problem") truly enlightened me. How? They freed me from the naivete of believing that women are more than desirable pieces of flesh. That was news to me I always thought there was just a little more of me here than what met the eye. These fine gentlemen have a point. Why even bother trying to capture a "whole person" in a photograph? Not only is it impossible, but who wants a "whole person" anyway? Cer tainly not readers of Playboy or Playgirl which, according to Knorpp and Bailey, should be just about the entire human population. Sex objects are what really matter, not individ ual personalities or (God for bid) souls. Listen very carefully. I am not saying that sex is dirty. I am not saying that sexuality is wrong. I am saying that the "relatively innocuous" Playboy and Playgirl tend to cheapen the value of human beings. (Human rights? What's that?) There is much more to any person than what can be por trayed in a photo, and these magazines constantly deny this with their one-track photos. The argument that a "healthy, normal" libido needs such photos is utterly ludicrous. I know plenty of normal, healthy people who don't need them. There is more to life than sex, and the sooner you find that out, the better for all of us. SUSAN MONK Sophomore Education Crucifixion was reasonable To the editor: I agree with editorial writer Matt Bivens that last Wednes day's InterVarsity Christian Fellowship-sponsored mock crucifixion was upsetting. The serenity of my afternoon (which was otherwise destined to be gorgeous and dull) was smashed by the cries of "Romans" marching Jesus to the Pit. But I take exception to his critical analysis of the appropriateness of the drama. Bivens' comparing the IVCF to the CIA Action Committee seems ill-founded. The general consensus is that the CIA Action Committee, through its actions, violated the legal rights of others: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, etc. The same could not be said of the IVCF. The mock crucifixion was disturbing, but it was not unethical. A fairer analogy could be drawn between the IVCF pro gram and the mock arrest sponsored by an anti-apartheid group of a black person eating with white people in Lenoir Hall last year. The actors in that drama played out a scene common in South Africa: the harassment and arrest of a black person sharing fellowship with white friends. The group members shouted and pushed, handcuffing the black man and leading him away. The scene was followed by the announcement (by a group member standing on a chair) that such injustice occurs every day in South Africa. To those of us trying to eat at the time, the drama was disruptive and disturbing; to some it may have appeared tacky. But its purpose was to raise students' awareness of life in South Africa not by running a white South African out of town, but by reenacting real events to expose their cruelty. As I saw it, the IVCF mock crucifixion was a reasonable reenactment of an historical event. To compare it to the irresponsible actions of the CIAAC seems to be stretching it a bit. Admittedly, it was not plea sant. Are we to believe that the real crucifixion of the real man a man who by all accounts was as undeserving of such cruelty as anyone could be was any less sensational or shocking? MATTHEW EISELE Sophomore Undecided Negotiations must represent all involved To the editor: I found a recent article by guest writer Charles Balan ("Don't include the PLO in negotiations," April 4) to be intensely frustrating to read as a result of its dependence on inaccuracies and wordplay. A number of his points need to be addressed, as they are extremely misleading. First, Balan incorrectly concludes that from the viewpoint of the PLO, "negoti ation with Israel is out of the question" and that the PLO "exists to exterminate the state of Israel." This is not in step with the current position of the PLO, as it has evolved over the course of more than 20 years. In fact, the PLO has offered to recognize Israel in an international peace conference, in which they would negotiate with Israel. It is Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir who has consistently refused this prospect for peace. Secondly, much of Balan's argument seems to be based on a virtual denial of the individual national identity of the Palestinian people. Ironically, it is his own argument for the nationality and identity of the Jewish people which can most adequately describe the legitimate national identity of the Palestinian people. That is, that they hold among themselves "a common language, the same ancestral lineage and the same homeland from which they have been expelled." Finally, I must also disagree with his overall argument for the exclusion of the PLO from any negotiations over the future of the Palestinians. In a recent meeting with George Shultz, professor Ibrahim Abu Lughod correctly pointed out that it is fruitless to negotiate with Palestinian "representatives" who cannot deliver on what they agree to! In short, for any agreement to be more than simply a piece of paper, it must be signed and sanctioned by those whom the majority of Israelis and Palestinians view as their own legitimate representatives: respectively, the govern ment of the state of Israel representing the Israelis, and the PLO representing the still stateless Palestinians. Contrary to the knee-jerk reactions of some observers, it is important to stress that the argument to include the PLO in negotiations is not anti-semitic, anti-Israeli or in favor of terrorism. Rather, it is an argument for legitimate and fruitful negotiations for peace, based on mutual recognition, statehood and secure borders for Israelis and Palestinians. CURTIS RYAN Graduate Political Science
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 7, 1988, edition 1
10
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75