Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Jan. 18, 1989, edition 1 / Page 10
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10The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday, January 18, 1989 hp Hath fflar n 96th year of editorial freedom KAREN BELL, News 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 WILLIAM TAGGART, State and National Editor Dave Glenn, spom Editor LEIGH ANN McDONALD, Features Editor BRIAN FOLEY, Photography Editor Kelly Thompson, Design Editor All for some or some for all? The campaign spending limit for all candidates in campuswide elections is $400 and another $200 if a run-off occurs that's a lot of money, more than most students have on hand or are willing to accept or borrow from parents. Obviously, any proposal to reimburse candidates for campaign expenditures has its roots in a very real need on this campus. According to research done by the Rules and Judiciary Committee of Student Congress, UNC is one of the only public schools of its size which does not have a student political party system or a reimbursement program for its candidates. Some action has been taken to make the system more fair unfortunately, it could have the opposite effect. Under the new system being used for this year's campus election, student body president candidates would retrieve one-half of their campaign funds after an election, provided that they meticulously document their expenditures and that they receive at least 7 percent of the votes cast. All this is well and good. Student Congress hopes the reimbursement will encourage students who may not otherwise be able to fund campaigns. Obviously, the richest candidate is not always the most qualified. But the system should not be limited to student body president candidates, when candidates for Daily Tar Heel editor and Carolina Athletic Association president are allowed to spend the same amount of money on their campaigns. The rationale behind this limitation is somewhat confusing. When the program was first pro posed, congress members didn't feel it was their place to fund political candidates, nor did they feel that students should bear the financial burden for candidates with whom they disagreed. But that's democracy, and that's politics. As a compromise, the congress agreed to pass the bill in a limited, experimental form, funding only student body president candi dates. If this "experiment" increases confidence in student government, congress members reasoned, it could be considered a success and DTH and CAA candidates could receive match ing funds as well. Student body president candidates were chosen as the guinea pigs for this February's elections because their race is traditionally the tightest and most contested. Supporters of the reimbur sement could argue that these candi dates must expend the most money to persuade voters and hence need the matching funds more than those in the traditionally less crowded fields of DTH or CAA. If this is indeed the case, then perhaps the congress should consider lowering the spending limits of DTH and CAA candidates. It's not written in stone that all three must be permitted the same amount of money. Through this proposal, the congress has shown consideration for this campus and for the students who want to help run it. Unfortunately, its present form is unsatisfactory. If one field of candidates is eligible for the matching funds, then all should be. Laura Pearlman Peepholes mean dorm safety "Someone's knocking at the door Now you can check to see who it is without opening the door. The University has begun installing peepholes in dorm room doors in an effort to upgrade safety on campus. This standard feature in most apart ments and houses was long-overdue in residence halls. Peepholes have already been installed in Odum Village, Hinton James, Scott College, Spencer Triad Old Well College, women's residence halls in Olde Campus, Joyner and Ehringhaus. Work is in progress in Cobb and Morrison and is scheduled for Henderson Residence College and the men's dorms in Olde Campus. The $ 1 .75 and 1 0 to 1 5 minutes spent on installment of each of the 3,400 peepholes could save someone's life or prevent a rape or other violent crime. With the now-nightly closing of the arboretum and student patrols on campus, University administrators and student government leaders have continued to install more safety measures as both the need and demand for them increased. Campus crime is not unique to UNC. Last December, two Duke University students were raped one in her on-campus apartment. Two other Duke students were raped in their dorm rooms last April and May. All were raped by strangers. Kathleen Benzaquin, associate dean of students, said she knew of no reported rapes in UNC dorm rooms. "Of course, you and I both know that doesn't mean there weren't any," Benzaquin said. "Many are not reported. Dorm rooms are thought to be the frequent site of date or acquain tance rapes, because often it (the dorm room) is the only place students have to entertain." The installation of peepholes should make on-campus students feel more secure in their homes-away-from-home. The University has initiated a good thing. Students should take advantage of this latest safety measure by locking doors when alone, and looking to see who's at the door before opening it. With a few precautions, students can ensure their college days really are the best of their lives. Sandy Dimsdale Death rests uneasily with us living types The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Writers: Louis Bisscttc, Sandy Dimsdale, Dave Hall and David Starncs. Assistant Editors: Jenny Cloninger and Justin McGuire, university. Felisa Neuringer, managing. Myrna Miller, features. Andrew Podolsky and Chris Spencer, sports. News: Lynn Ainsworth, Crandall Anderson, Kari Barlow, Jeanna Baxter, John Bakht, Crystal Bernstein, James Benton, Tammy Blackard, Charles Brittain, James Burroughs, Brenda Campbell, Lacy Churchill, Daniel Conover, Staci Cox, L.D. Curie, Karen Dunn, Laura Francis, Lynn Goswick, Susan Holdsclaw, Jessica Lanning, Tracy Lawson, Dana Clinton Lumsden, Helle Nielsen, Glenn O'Neal, Dana Primm, Thom Solomon, Will Spears, Larry Stone, Laura Taylor, Kathryne Tovo, Amy Wajda, Sandy Wall, Amy Weisner, Leslie Wilson, Jennifer Wing, Nancy Wykle. Elizabeth Bass, Laura Hough, Dorothy Hutson and Peter Lineberry, wire typists. Sports: Neil Amato, Mark Anderson, John Bland, Robert D'Arruda, Scott Gold, Doug Hoogervorst, Bethany Litton, Brendan Mathews, Jay Reed, Jamie Rosenberg, Natalie Sekicky, Dave Surowiecki, Lisa Swicegood and Eric Wagnon. Features: David Abernathy, Cheryl Allen, Craig Allen, Jo Lee Credle, Jackie Douglas, Mary Jo Dunnington, Jackie Greenberg, Hart Miles, Cheryl Pond, Leigh Pressley and Ellen Thornton. Arts: Randy Basinger, Clark Benbow, Cara Bonnett, Beth Buffington, Ashley Campbell, Andrew Lawler, Julie Olson and Jessica Yates. Photography: Steven Exum, David Foster, Becky Kirkland and Dave Surowiecki. Copy Editors: Cara Bonnett, Michelle Casale, Yvette Cook, Julia Coon, Whitney Cork, Erik Flippo, Joy Golden, Bert Hackney, Susan Holdsclaw, Anne Isenhower, Gary Johnson, Angelia Poteat and Steve Wilson. Editorial Assistants: Mark Chilton, Jill Doss and Sandi Hungerford. Cartoonists: Jeff Christian, Adam Cohen, Pete Corson, Bryan Donnell, Trey Entwistle, David Estoye and Greg Humphreys. Business and Advertising: Kevin Schwartz, director; Patricia Glance, advertising director; Joan Worth, classified advertising manager; Chrissy Mennitt, advertising manager; Sabrina Goodson, business manager; Dawn Dunning, Beth Harding, Sarah Hoskins, Amy McGuirt, Maureen Mclntyre, Denise Neely, Tina Perry, Pam Strickland, Amanda Tilley and Joye Wiley, display advertising representatives; Leisa Hawley, creative director; Dan Raasch, marketing director; Stephanie Chesson, Alecia Cole, Genevieve Halkett, CamilSe Philyaw, Tammy Sheldon and Angela Spivey. classified advertising representatives; Jeff Carlson, office manager and Allison Ashworth, secretary. Subscriptions: Ken Murphy, manager. Distribution: David Econopouly, manager; Newton Carpenter, assistant. My guess is that most people don't like reading about death; excit edly looking around a new class for our friends, sitting in the sharp, sunny cold of a Carolina winter it's just too nice to be back in the saddle here in Chapel Hill to cloud our thoughts with our own mortality. Yet I came back to school with the strange and horrifying news that a good friend of mine had been shot in the head four times, and no matter how much I pretend to know about college, music, ferrets, Freud and life, I can't explain how to feel about his death. Death absolutely freaks everybody out, from those who are close to the person who has died, to people who just overhear the incident with a certain morbid curi osity. "Tell me again what happened," they pry, "How many times was he shot?" Stories get passed around from one "informed party" to another, until reality gets lost in a quagmire of gossiping sensationalism. It's a little like playing the game "Operator," where even the simplest of grade school phrases gets garbled into something pornographic. That's one way of dealing with that which scares us so badly make it so grotesque and distant that it could never hurt us. Finality, as a concept, has no meaning to us living types. We don't want anything to end, ever true love, movie sequels, our youth, frozen meat some times we extend everything we consider important long past its natural lifespan, and it gets us into trouble. When someone close to us dies, we're forced, by whatever means, to make sense of the hollow, horrible fact that well never see his face again. The most ancient way around this is to develop an elaborate game plan of the afterlife that leads us to believe that the party is only beginning. Our ancestors weren't about to take this Ian Williams Wednesday's Child death thing lying down. The Egyptians had in every schoolbook a map of Ro-Satau, an intricate detailing of the afterlife that consisted of two roads (water and fire) that led to Anru-Tef, or Region of the Happy Ones. The whole point was to get to Happyland, where the deceased would hitch a ride on the Sun God's chariot and accompany Ra on his daily journey across the sky. The Greeks had similar scenarios, as did the Tibetans, with their amazing ' Bardo Thodol the Tibetan Book of the Dead. My own heritage, strangely enough, is Mormon. They live under the fervent belief that the husband and wife who are married in the temple of Latter-Day Saints will meet again with all their children in the Celestial Kingdom. Mormons, known for their procreative style, are also firm believers in life-at-conception, so that one of my 1 x 10 to the eighth cousins used to taunt me when I was a child, saying that I was going to have to take care of my mother's six miscarriages in heaven. Obviously, all these stories are far fetched and ludicrous. And not a one can put a dent in the loss we feel. What we're left with is all the bickering, confusion and crap that surrounds something so horrific. Only seniors at Chapel Hill will remember the story of Sharon Stewart, the angelic grad student who was kidnapped in the Morehead Planetarium parking lot in September of 1985, while we were still dazzled freshmen. Her companion gave a description of the assailant, and for weeks, her picture and the police composite of her abductor were posted in every dorm bathroom. Finally, the man was caught on a parking violation miles away, and after lengthy negotiations, led the police to an old oil drum south of Greensboro, where Sharon's body lay cold, handcuffed and lifeless. UNC students discovered that not only were their hopes in vain, but that the killer was a 17-year-old boy who looked nothing like the composite. How were we supposed to feel about that? A few days later, on what was obviously a banner week for my psyche, I witnessed a man stumble out of a bar in Norfolk, Va., only to be riddled with bullets by a man still inside. The stricken man fell into the gutter, and I could do nothing but stare. Sharon Stewart had the sympathy of the entire campus, memorial services, and there was even talk of making a scholarship in her name. The man I saw shot got a 2-inch blurb on the bottom of page seven of the local newspaper. Which may illuminate the sad fact that in the end, it's not so much how you live your life, it's where you happen to end it. My friend who lost his life last week lies somewhere in between. He was a happy, jovial sort who bears no resemb lance to the morbid statistics in the newspapers. There is considerable confu sion as to the logistics of his death, but I don't really care, because again, I can't do anything about it. I know of more than a few people who lost close friends and relatives this Christmas break. I want to wish them deepest sympathy, and for the rest of you, take your buddies out for a beer sadly, we're sometimes only as close to sadness as our best friends safety. Ian Williams is a senior music and psychology major from Los Angeles who apologizes for being so damn morbid! Readers9 Forum Faculty suffer their share To the editor: I would like to thank you for your lengthy and factually accurate editorial of Dec. 1 on the parking situation on cam pus. As chairman of the Trans portation and Parking Advi sory Committee and a faculty member, I do not share all of the interpretive positions that you took in the editorial. In particular, I feel that the stu dent government conviction that students have borne an unfair amount of the sacrifices for parking reform is largely unwarranted. It is true that students are now being asked to assume a portion of the parking and transit burdens, but these burdens are not unfair and the students are not the only campus transportation constituency that has made important concessions. The faculty and staff feel that they have already made their com promises with the system and concessions to it. That convic tion is borne out by the figures of the transportation and park ing budget. Despite our differences on this point, I would hope that reasonable people can differ on such matters without taking or giving offense. More impor tantly in my mind, I would like to commend the editor and staff of the DTH for their handling of these contentious issues. As one interested in solving our transit and parking problems, I would like to thank the DTH for taking a consistent interest in transit and parking issues on campus and for having kept the issue before the University public. That is exactly where it belongs. Just as important, you have fre quently explained the root cause of the parking crisis on campus, which is the failure to relate the building program to the parking needs of the cam pus. When buildings take park ing away, the parking must be replaced, a fact that the DTH has unfailingly recognized. It is this failure to link parking to land-use decisions that has created our dilemma and it is this failure rather than any LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE ' '' malice toward students that has set students and faculty staff against one another in the parking realm. That is one of the most unfortunate outcomes of this policy. ROGER LOTCHIN Professor History Ticket policy needs work To the editor: After one try, the new ticket distribution policy has already outworn its welcome and left questions seemingly without answers. There are 2,000 lower level seats for students, and as number 605, I was entitled to a pair. So why will I be sitting in the upper deck when the State game rolls around? Per haps because roughly 200 peo ple formed a second line and received numbers for their efforts. I thought the new deal's purpose was to eliminate line cutting. Consider that if I hadn't held number 605 in my sweaty little palm, I wouldn't feel cheated out of my lower level seat. The CAA was pretty liberal with numbers. I saw people carrying slips of paper ranked higher than the planned 1,000, which leads me to wonder how many non-numbered people got tickets. Did going down to the Dean Dome twice in one day really work to anyone's advantage or cut down on waiting time? I can't say, but I doubt it did. A lot of people camped out, as they will for a game against State. Maybe it was poor judgment trying a new system for such a big game, but more likely this policy needs to disappear. No one policy can please every body, but does this one have any fans aside from Carol Geer? ANNE BLEYMAN Senior English Thrifty students help community To the editor: On behalf of the thousands of children now attending the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, we would like to thank the student body of UNC-Chapel Hill for their enthusiastic sup port of the PTA Thrift Shops. Your thrift shop purchases and donations support programs that would not exist if this additional financial support were not provided. Last year, you helped us fund computer labs, assembly pro grams, art and science pro grams, teacher workshops and a host of other projects: With out your support of the thrift shops, this community's repu tation for educational excel lence might well be compromised. The executive committee for your continued support. MARY CAY CORR Publicity Chair PTA Thrift Shops Provide more work-study To the editor: I recall Paul Hardin saying on University Day, October 12, 1988, that he would encourage every student who was eligible for admission to UNC not to be turned away due to financial need. If this is so, then why aren't there many work study stu dents? Have you noticed the part time employment sign at the Wilson Library front desk?. Our department also needs , a work study student. PEGGY RAVITCH Secretary Statistics Department Letters policy B Students should include name, year in school, major, phone number and home town. Other members of the University community should include similar information. . fl All letters must be typed and double-spaced, for ease of editing. CAA's new ticket policy commendable To the editor: This letter is written to acknowledge Carol Geer and her ticket distribution committee for the fine job in the distri bution of N.C. State tickets on Sunday. Although several people in the long line adamantly voiced their disapproval to Carol and her committee, I feel that as an observer of different forms of ticket distribution for four years, this system is the best way to do it for the thousands of students who want to see the big games. First of all, spending many nights on the cold pavement in front of the Smith Center (and before in front of Carmichael), I have become frustrated to see literally hundreds of fully rested people who are "the friends of a friend" blatantly jump in line 15 minutes before distribution. I am sure that the people who waited out Saturday night can appreciate the fact that they should get good tickets and others that didn't have to stay up all night should not. These experiences lead one to realize that in order for ticket distribution for a big game to be fair for everybody, it has to be fair to those who had gone through the most distress. In other words, it adequately rewards the people that endured the elements with the best seat possible. Also, a random unannounced number distribution time eliminates the potential for people who slept from coming out at the last second to get a number. The people that waited up all night got lower level seats (as they should) and most of the people who didn't still got tickets. Of course, there are those purists who believe that "survival of the fittest" is the best way to get tickets to see Carolina hoops, but there is another blue and white school just down the road where they would certainly welcome such a supercil ious attitude. I also heard many complaints about waiting in line twice for tickets. First, the numbers system accomplished an impor tant goal of the CAA in that it cut down on long lines outside the Smith Center. Also, the fact that people had the entire day to do other activities (like buy books or sleep) was certainly better than playing Nerf football at the Smith Center for 10 hours and missing the UNC-Virginia game because it was shown only on cable. Finally, it is safe to assume that this distribution is one of the largest (Duke too), and the numbers system will probably not be used for the entire year. However, it seems that this system is the best way to reward a large amount of people that want to see Carolina basketball. And by the way, for all my good State buddies, GO TO HELL STATE!!! WALTER MORRIS. First year Medical student
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 18, 1989, edition 1
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