The Tar Heel Thursday, May 26, 19883
Student leaders frustrated by lack of imiput
By SHARON KEBSCHULL
Editor
Student leaders expressed surprise
and disappointment this week at the
change for Teague Residence Hall
from an all-male dormitory to coed
and at the manner in which that
decision was made.
Residence Hall Association Pres
ident Jimmy Randolph and Student
Body President Kevin Martin said
they were unable to offer input into
the initial decision to move the
residents and the final decision to go
coed, since they were uninformed of
any changes until last Wednesday.
The decisions came after problems
with Teague throughout the past few
years culminated in racial incidents
following an end-of-the-semester
party April 21, said housing director
Wayne Kuncl.
At that party, students clashed with
two women driving by the residence
hall and with Area Director Iris Hunt.
Hunt was later harassed racially and
sexually by men who are thought to
have been Teague residents.
Although housing officials met
with dormitory leaders immediately
after the incidents, they did not
contact Randolph until May 16.
Kuncl said he had not met with
Randolph earlier because the incident
was an area problem. "Once we
reached the point that we might take
action, we contacted Kevin (Martin)
and Jimmy (Randolph)," he said.
"The problem with this whole
.
A
Kevin Martin
incident is that student leaders who
should've been involved early
weren't," Martin said. "Specifically,
Jimmy should've been brought in
when the whole problem arose in the
residence hall, and he wasn't."
Foster Blair, representative of the
Black Greek Council, and Alia1
Younger, representative of the minor
ity concerns committee of the Student
Government, met with Kuncl and
Hunt last Wednesday. At this meet
ing, also attended by Randolph and
Martin, they agreed to the relocation
of the 72 men who were to return
For the Record
The May 19 article, "On-campus
parking available, transportation
department says," incorrectly
reported that students with parking
fines would not receive grade reports.
Rather, students would receive grades
and can be awarded degrees without
receiving the diploma. Students with
overdue accounts cannot receive
official transcripts and cannot receive
the diploma itself until accounts are
cleared.
The Tar Heel regrets the error.
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Jimmy Randolph
to Teague this fall. But Randolph and
Martin expressed concerns over the
wording of a draft of the notification
letter sent to the 72 men, which they
described as "punitive." Randolph
said he and Martin suggested a
softening of the original language.
A passage referring to Teague
changes was removed as well because
the decision to go coed was not final
then, he said.
Kuncl and Martin met on Friday,
and Kuncl told Martin he was leaving
his options open on future changes.
Martin said he thought the matter
was still under consideration, and he
had planned on discussing it with
Kuncl later in the week.
Kuncl announced the change to
coed Monday, and Martin and
Randolph first heard of it from
media.
"Once again, you have a major
policy action that's going to be taken,
and students can merely react, rather
than being active in the process,"
Randolph said. "We were not
involved in the formulation of the
letter or the relocation.
"Reassignment was the only prac
tical solution, but I would Ve liked to
have been involved from the begin
ning and arrived at that conclusion
with them.
"If there is any way to eliminate
the problems within Teague, an
environment and conditions that we
all agree are deplorable and cannot
be tolerated at this University,
without automatically jumping to the
conclusion that we have to make it
coed, then we need to keep this an
all-male dorm," Randolph said.
Younger said that while he could
not see enough reason to keep Teague
all-male, he was upset with Kuncl's
lack of communication with student
leaders.
"The housing department, rather
than feeling an obligation to involve
us in the decision-making process, too
often feels an obligation to inform
us of decisions after they've been
made," Randolph said, stressing that
he and Martin have not encountered
this in other University departments.
"It could be construed as a total
disregard for student opinion, but
hopefully, in light of this controversy,
they will place more of an importance
on student opinion in the future."
"I'm sure (the decision) could affect
the relationship next year between
housing and government," said Area
Governor Brian Sipe, who met with
Kuncl about the problems repeatedly
at the end of the end of the semester.
"We worked very hard to solidify
relations between the two . . . We're
making an effort to have a student
voice in the decision-making process
that's a goal we consciously set.
"(Kuncl) recognizes the govern
ments as there. I'm not sure he
seriously considers the advice and
perspective they deliver."
The ultimate decision was his,
Kuncl said.
"I didn't ask (Martin and Ran
dolph) to vote whether they agreed
or disagreed," he said. "They didn't
have a role in the final decision
because I don't have to ask them
about administrative problems."
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