Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Dec. 5, 1988, edition 1 / Page 8
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8The Daily Tar HeelMonday, December 5, 1988 If. they could sit on Santa's lap 96th year of editorial free Jam Karen Bell, New Editor MATT BlVENS, Associate Editor KlMBERLY EDENS, University Editor JON K. RUST, Managing Editor Will Lingo, aty Editor Kelly Rhodes, Am Editor CATHY McHUGH, Omnibus Editor SHELLEY ERBLAND, Design Editor Jean Lutes, Editor KAARIN TlSUE, News Editor LAURA PEARLMAN, Associate Editor KRISTEN GARDNER, University Editor SHARON KEBSCHULL, State and National Editor MIKE BERARDINO, Sports Editor LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor DAVID MINTON, Photography Editor Kelly Thompson, Design Editor nvesting in a moral decision The long series of student efforts to force the University to divest from companies doing business in South Africa finally succeeded in 1987, when the Board of Endowment voted to divest. Although many disagreed with the attention-getting methods of the anti-apartheid protesters, the unavoid able fact is that they got what they wanted. Or did they? To this day, the University has refused to officially acknowledge a moral basis for with drawing funds from South Africa. The Board of Endowment felt it improper for the University to criticize the role of corporations in South Africa. Many of these companies had made sizable grants to many areas of the University community. This factor once prompted Board Chairman Robert Eubanks' to remark: "Why should we be willing to take their money and spend it, but not be willing to let them earn it?" Such logic failed to convince cam pus activists, who saw the refusal to divest as racist and reactionary. Around the mid-1980s, student groups began to form to educate the public about the existence of legal segregation in South Africa. Raising awareness of the problems of a people living thousands of miles away was difficult, however, and students soon began to focus on divestment to bring the issue of apartheid closer to home. Scores of programs were planned to inform the student body: Movies were shown and black leaders and artists were invited to speak and perform. But their success was understandably limited. Working for Divestment 386: Anti-apartheid protesters build shanties. College Republicans respond with Berlin Wall. 1186: More shanties built. Board of Endowment partially divests. Protest ers arrested for refusal to take down shanties. 387: Trustees defeat conscience buy ing resolution. 587: Special committee of students, faculty and administrators formed to discuss divestment. 487: Board of Endowment votes to divest. T Soon student protest leaders shifted gears and began to concentrate on attracting a wider audience for their cause. Passionate and arrogant in the belief that their cause was correct, they saw vocal protest as the best way to bring about change. But not everyone was convinced that divesting was the right move, and the divisiveness of student opinion lessened its impact. Said former Chancellor Christopher Fordham: "We the board heard them (the protesters), but you must remember that the students themselves were not unanimous in their views. Am I not right in saying that there are both conservative and liberal students? After some of the students built shanties, others placed a wall around them. I think the trustees heard all of the groups." The word from Shantytown Following the lead of pro divestment activists across the nation, in March UNC protesters resorted to constructing shanties in front of South Building. Soon afterward, the College Republicans, who held more conser vative views, retaliated by erecting a "Berlin Wall" of wire and sheets around the shantytown. An important issue quickly degenerated into a fight for media attention. Although building shanties seemed to encourage disrespect rather than heightened awareness among officials, the students built another shanty in November 1986. The administrators' attitude was well expressed by the comment of S. Bobo Tanner, then endowment board chairman: . . . to make a mess of the campus I just don't see that as necessary to make their point." When the board met on Thursday Students: Playing David to the University's Goliath? of that week, members did not divest entirely, although they did decide to disinvest some $1,000,000 from four companies that were actively involved in South Africa. The gesture, which seemed obviously designed to placate the protesters, did not please them. On that Friday, the students did not take down the shanty as they had been asked and subsequently were arrested, bringing more publicity to their cause. Continuing the pressure The meetings of the Board of Trustees were frequently disrupted by the students, who wanted the board to recommend that the Board of Endowment divest. Yet the trustees refused to budge, perhaps more so because of their exasperation with the student protesters. The constant pressure seemed to polarize the board's views. On March 2, 1987, the board rejected a "conscience buying" resolu tion that was far more innocuous than , any proposal to divest. It simply called for the University to limit the purchas ing of goods from corporations that dealt in South Africa. Only two board members the sponsor of the reso lution, William Darity, and Student Body President Brian Bailey voted in favor of it. As Darity, the only black on the board, said, the motion seemed defeated before it was even proposed. By this time, the trustees were spending much time discussing the divestment issue and wished it settled. In May 1987, a special committee on divestment was formed with Tanner at its head. But the committee, which had no formal powers, only met once and made no visible progress toward finding a solution. Thus it seems that the protesters' politics of thunder achieved little. Though it is safe to say that many students and faculty were won over to the cause of divestment, a great number were also turned off by the building of the shanties and other protests. Divestment at last In October 1987, three weeks after UNC student activist Dale McKinley spoke before a special United Nations Committee Against Apartheid, the Board of Endowment finally divested. Students were mollified; they inter preted the board's action as a moral statement. Yet to this day most of the board members, including Fordham, main tain that the decision was purely economic and had no moral implica tions whatsoever. Said Eubanks: "They (students) focused a lot of attention on the issue. But the final reason was that it simply did not make a whole lot of sense to keep devoting hours to the divestment issue." Student activism must be directed toward conducting an intelligent and convincing discourse with officials; too often the anti-apartheid groups seemed more interested in embarrass ing those officials instead. However, it cannot be denied that the students were persistent, and that in the end their persistence was the most crucial factor. Ex-Student Body President Bryan Hassel perhaps best summed it up: "If anything, it (div estment) is just going to remind administrators and the public that it's the students who have kept this issue alive." ate baturday night, alter dealing about the 12th round of cards in what was turning out to be an intense game of poker, I glanced over at the fat man in a vain effort to see some reaction to the cards he was dealt. I tried to study his eyes through the smoke drifting over the table. But it was no different than any other time that night; his face was unreadable, save for tweaking his finger by his nose again. Then he finally stirred, and bellowed that same deep, smug and unnatural laugh again, exhaling smoke into the drifting haze. I couldnt take it any longer. Okay, Santa, ante up!" "Ho, ho," he giggled, lowering his pipe to his lap. Ill ante and bid that stereo youVe asked for in your letter." This was senous, but I had a good hand. MIH see that with five New Year's Reso lutions and I was going to go for it all "put all my past year's niceness up against your List!" You see, I knew all my naughtiness wasn't going to fly with Ole St. Nick, and I figured he was bluffing. 'Hmmmm," he pondered. Then, through his white beard, I saw a smile spread across his rosy-cheeked face. 'Done!" he said. Maybe Father Chnstmas had a pretty good hand, after all. Well, it was probably the biggest payoff in the history of the world. 1 could tell Santa wasni happy when I put my five aces on the table, but there they were. I don't think IVe ever seen Santa so down as when he handed me that huge scroll, and then hopped into his sled and rode off into the dark sky. The Big List includes more than all that niceness and naughtiness business it also has everything weVe asked for for Christ mas. So I thought I d share some of items with you. Chapel Hill High School students want Santa to move the Smith Center up to the corner of Hector's and the Post Office so Stuart Hathaway I Spy that they aont have to walk so far at the next Def Leppard and Poison concerts. The UNC football team wants translu cent helmets because, they say, "everyone knows who the basketball players are. You dont see Rick Fox or J.R. Reid having a tough time getting a date, do you? You ought to try convincing a lady you're Torin Dorn or Reggie Clark off the field. It's not easy." Dean Smith wants a trip to Seattle, a year's supply of cig-arrest and any recruit to commit to coming here. Student Body President Kevin Martin wants a cure for a chronic case of the White Rabbit Syndrome. Realizing that his line for being late to the various things student body presidents go to "Oh, I thought today was Daylight Savings Time" was losing its effectiveness because of daily use, Kevin has asked for an electrically charged wristwatch that is set for his schedule each day and that delivers a 10,000-kilowatt shock every minute he's late for something. The Rams Club wrote: "Santa, it's basketball season again, you know, and we really, really need a truckload of Ronco Heavy Duty Lint-Eaters because those cushioned seats in the lower level of Smith Center really leave a lot of fuzz-balls on our butts after every game." Campus Watch didn't ask for anything, but they did send, as part of another mass mailing campaign, a questionnaire (addressed Dear Red-Toy-Giving-Commie-lover) about the delivering of toys to UNC student groups. On the margin of Santa's List, next to Campus Watch, was penciled Coal. Lots of coal. And switches, too. Lt. Gov.-elect Jim Gardner was the only one who responded to the mailing. N.C. State students wrote to Santa in . big, block letters asking for "sum chaw, an ahwtograph pho-to of our heero Frank Purdue, and that new-fangled, high falutin' outhouse," beside which was written they mean indoor plumbing. The UNC faculty asked for a pay raise, asking as evidence of their need, "when was the last time you saw an administrator in a knit tie?" Vice Chancellor and Dean of Student Affairs Donald Boulton tells Santa that he "wants what students want" but quickly : adds that if that's too much trouble hell settle for a seven handicap. The skateboard rats in the Pit want the -new ultra-fiberglass, high-powered, aero-1 dynamic, Captain Zoom XTD5000 skate--jet. Pit-sitters want Santa to put a bed of; iron stakes in the Pit to make the viewing of performances of the skate-rats a little more interesting. Jean Lutes and the DTH's female desk editors want pom-poms and mini-skirts and the chance to cheer at the next basketball game as the UNC Editorettes. Mickey Mouse has asked for a Dan Quayle wristwatch. And Chancellor Paul Hardin, seeking to be more "in touch" with students, wants' to be invited to every campus mixer, to take three semesters of a foreign language and two maths and to be addressed as "the Big Dude.". ' Well, there it is. While, the rest of us are still trying to pile up a lot of good deeds in the remaining days before the holidays, take a warning from the Rams Club wanted and got last year. As the music group Talking Heads says, "Watch; out! You might get what you're after!" Stuart Hathaway is a junior political science and history major from Charlotte. Readers9 For em Volunteers deserve respect To the editor. As the sister of a volunteer at the Ramesses exhibit, I would like to clear up Brian McCuskey s ("A king, a god, a legend . . . and a man," Nov. 29) warped idea of who these volunteers, including shift cap tains, really are. My sister, her roommate, and a couple of thousand other people have been gracious enough to volun teer their time, despite the fact that most have a full-time job, so that we, the public, could ' have the opportunity to see such an exhibit: My sister not only attended five two and a half hour classes but also volunteered for a four-hour shift at least once a week, as she will continue to do until the four-month exhibit is over. Would you believe that she even paid $25 for training materials and then actually studied them? Hopefully, people like my sister are being thanked for their dedication to Ramesses the Great exhibit. I only regret that Brian McCuskey didn't have a question for my "volun teer" sister because only then could she have overcome the "toothy" misconception he has of her. LYNN LAVENDER Senior Administration of Justice Psychology Education prevents rape To the editor: In his article "Help take a bite out of crime," Michael Nuckolls, through his limited knowledge of violent crimes If W V against women, purports to impart to all females his sug gestions on the most effective ways to prevent the occurence of rape. I would dare to chal lenge his insistence on the "security guard method" as the solution to the problem at hand. Nuckolls loses credibility in his first paragraphs as he reveals his overall attitude toward women, namely in the use of such expressions as ulet (a girl) walk alone" and "made her take him with her." It is this type of mentality that propagates the tendency to control women; furthermore, it serves only as a temporary cure, not a real solution to the problem. Moreover, the assumption that the incidence of rape "should in itself deter females from walking alone at night" completely overlooks the attacks that occur in broad daylight, and most especially the most frequent type, namely date rape. Nuckolls' logic would have us assume, in following, that women should also refrain from walking unac companied even in the daytime, and should furthermore abstain from dating. That women are considered vulnerable targets for violent crimes should lead us to a more realistic solution; rather than band-aid the problem through the use of blanket protection by men, we can better prevent rape by educating women in how best to defend against it. The woman that Nuckolls cites, as having been "lucky" for not having been victimized has, in fact, most probably used tactics which are increasingly being taught to women for the explicit purpose of preventing attack. And the more that women become well-versed in the ways of self-defense, and especially of initially discourag ing a potential rapist, the more they can securely face poten tially dangerous situations. Indeed, caution and com mon sense are to be exercised, but in a more active and inde pendent sense. Mr. Nuckolls should come to realize that women are not "dead wrong" to demand a more practical alternative to the prevention of violence. CHARLIE ROWE Graduate German We goofed Wednesday 's editorial, "Building in the Big Woods," incorrectly reported that Student Body President Brian ' Bailey is a non-voting member of the Board of Trustees. The student body president serves as an an ex officio, voting the error. jLeuers poncy D All letters must be signed by the author(s), with a limit s of two signatures per letter. a Place letters in the box ; marked" Letters to the Editor"., outside the DTH office in the Student Union. Chick-Tii-A, best defense and sad surveys " s certainly an 11th hour search. There are certain people who are quite upset." Richard Edens, president of Inter-Faith Council, on the search for an alternative location for Chapel Hill's homeless shelter. Downtown merchants are unhappy with the shelter's present location because they think it hurts business. DDD " You can 't play defense if you don 't have any legs. " Basketball wisdom from UNC Coach Dean Smith. "The mayor has declared the area affected by the tornadoes in a state of emergency." Betty Hargrove of the Office of Public Affairs on the tornadoes that ripped through Raleigh early Monday morning. ODD "We don't want to go in on our own. Everyone's realized the dangers of working separately on it." Stuart Hathaway, student government executive assistant, on the breakdown of communication that led Week in Quotes to misappropriation of scholarship funds for the student aid office. ODD "Things are moving mighty slowly. The Lord willing, we will be open for spring semester." Thomas Shetley, UNC director of auxiliary services, on the Union Station, a snack bar now under construc tion in the Student Union. "We are racist. The main motivation of our organization is race. We 're very jealous and very protective of the history of white European people." Jon Metzger, director of the White Aryan Resistance Youth, on the purpose of his organization. BOD "There was an increase, but we're still not satisfied. We want more. " Richard Cashwell, director of admissions, on the increase in minority applications for the freshman class. "Well also have 'The Wheel of Good Taste' in which anyone who spins wins a prize." Jerry Johnston, publicity supervisor for Chick-fil-A, on the bacchan- alian festivities to accompany the chain's arrival in Chapel Hill. nun "The results were discouraging. Abso lutely ridiculous. " Kenneth Perry, Black Student Movement president, on surveys circulated to see how much black students knew about the BSM and the Black Cultural Center. Only 12 out of 269 respondents answered all seven survey questions correctly. ODD "Students on college campuses are especially at risk for the HIV infection if they don't know about protection." Judy Owen O'Dowd of the N.C. Depart ment of Health and Human Services on the necessity of AIDS testing on campus. Compiled by associate editor Laura Pearlman.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Dec. 5, 1988, edition 1
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