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10The Daily Tar HeelMonday, March 27, 1989 (Ute latly 97i year 0 editorial freedom Sharon Kebschull, E&tor WILLIAM TAGG ART, Managing Editor LOUIS BlSSETTE, Editorial Page Editor MARY Jo DUNNINGTON, Editorial Page Editor JUSTIN McGuiRE, University Editor JEJSJNY ClONINGER, University Editor TaMMBlACKARD, State and National Editor CHARLES BrITTAIN, City Editor ERIK DALE FlIPPO, Business Editor DAVE GLENN, Sports Editor CAR A BONNETT, Arts and Features Editor JAMES BENTON, Omnibus Editor VUA COON, News Editor DAVID SUROWIECKI, Photography Editor Kelly Thompson, Design Editor Use common sense for safety College campuses are simply not very safe places, a situation which students seem all too inclined to forget. When they do, an attack such as the recent one near Joyner Residence Hall can serve as a cruel reminder that students must be responsible for their own security. According to police reports, the, attack occurred somewhere between Joyner Residence Hall and Cobb tennis courts around 3:35 a.m., March 6. Anyone who has walked through that area late at night can picture the shadows from the buildings and the bushes lining the parking lots and walkways; a person alone would be extremely vulnerable to an attacker. Reactions to the attack depended upon who was attempting to assign responsibility. Dean Frederick Schroeder dismissed the lighting as a possible contributor to the attack, while Leslie Foster, area director for Cobb and Joyner, said the woman was in no way to blame for being attacked. Both are correct in a fashion, yet both also ignore the University's history of attacks and the message such a history contains. Lighting is not necessarily a moti vating factor in an attack, and it often provides a false sense of security that can be more dangerous than shadows. Last year, two women were robbed at gunpoint in front of Carmichael Keeping clean During the final weeks of the semester, it's easy to lose sight of the world beyond this campus. But as members of the University community worry about finals and pre-summer tans, there are people throughout the world worrying about something much more profound hunger. For this reason, the Campus Y's Hunger Action Committee is provid ing UNC students with the opportun ity to help fight hunger. By partici pating in the UNC Hunger Cleanup on April 15, students can raise money to support local, national and global agencies that aid the hungry. Many unique aspects make the cleanup an especially worthwhile service project for students. First, it requires of participants a minimal time commitment a mere three hours on a Saturday afternoon. Few students can honestly say they do not have three hours to donate to a worthy cause. Participants raise money by obtain ing sponsors who can donate a lump sum or pledge an amount per hour of participation in the cleanup. How ever, unlike projects in which the money raised is the only real service accomplished, participants spend their donated hours working in teams to "clean up" the community. Activities may include painting a classroom, collecting canned food and old clo thing or beautifying a park. All activities directly benefit the local community. In addition, participants in UNCs cleanup are joined by students across the nation participating in similar projects through the national Hunger Cleanup. Sponsored by the National As you may have noticed, something looks very, very wrong with this page today. It's not that there are problems with the content of this page it's that there is no accompanying opinion page. Putting an editorial page next to news does not follow the style of this newspaper, but as of Sunday afternoon, we had no choice. It's not that we have only badly written letters, or letters that are personal attacks on people we have a few of those, but that few is all we have. I know it's the middle of exam and paper time, so I guess people just don't have the time to write, or we're just not making people very mad. I don't expect students to always write earth shaking letters, but even our faithful, twice-a-month writers have been silent recently, in spite of a number of major issues floating around campus, Chapel Hill and the nation. Actually, I did have a small choice Sunday. I could either run no opinion page, or I could publish lots of columns written by DTH staff writers. But while staff ular dormitory, along the well-lit and well traveled Stadium Drive. Four years ago a UNC student was abducted in early evening in the Morehead Planet arium parking lot; she was later found dead. This year women have been victimized by a sexual offender in Davis Library, of all places. Obviously, attacks are not limited to the more forbidding regions of campus (which points to the folly of lighting the Arboretum). Students are most vulnerable when they are least con scious of their own safety. As for Foster's statements, students certainly do deserve freedom from constant fear and apprehension, and women who are singled out for an attack should never be blamed. How ever, walking through deep shadows in an area empty of people and crowded by shrubs and cars means defying common sense. The tragic result is an extreme example of what students must not do: take a chance, whether large or small, assuming that tonight you can make it home alone. The administration can only do so much in the way of security. The rest is up to students. If attacks can occur on Stadium Drive and in the library, students must be prepared to avoid attacks by any way possible, even if such precautions seem ridiculous. The dangers are too real and too constant to do any less. David Starnes for hunger Student -Campaign Against Hunger, the country's most extensive network of student hunger and homelessness activists, the Hunger Cleanup is the largest student-run community service event in the United States. The event has grown nationally from 250 par ticipants in 1985 to 8,000 last year. UNC students should be proud that this university is involved in such a vast and effective student organization. The leadership and planning of UNC's cleanup have been sound. The Hunger Action Committee is taking applications to determine where the cleanup sites will be, so participants can feel they are making contributions that are truly needed. In addition, a fundraising committee will seek con tributions from businesses, which are often willing to support well-organized and meaningful projects such as this. Finally, half of the money raised here will remain in Chapel Hill to fight hunger locally. The other half will be donated to a well-digging project designed to bring relief to drought victims in Ethiopia. Last year 75 UNC students partic ipated in the cleanup, raising $2,000. This year the committee hopes to generate even more interest in the project. Students should make every effort to support the program by donating either time or money. Three hours or a few dollars are not a high price for such benefits to the commun ity and to hungry people. And the personal satisfaction that comes from helping other human beings is price less. Mary Jo Dunnington the last word columns can be interesting and deserve space in this paper, that's not what the opinion page is for. The op-ed page we run on Mondays was created by last year's editor, Jean Lutes, to give more space to student opinion and to print letters that are too long for the daily editorial pages. The page is dependent on opinions from outside this office, and I want it to stay that way. This campus reads the opinion of at least a few people at the DTH every day, so Mondays should give others a greater chance to be heard. Which means that, when it comes right down to it, I had no choice. It's hard to write a column on demand that is, to come in Sunday and be told to fill some space. We could have done that, but it would detracted from the purpose of the page. So, at least for this Monday, the paper looks a little funny. I apologize, but I think the absence of the page says almost as much about this school as a full page would have. Sharon KebschuII Mixed feelings TTN resident Bush's recent compromise -with Congressional Democrats con JLL cerning the provision of $49.5 million in non-lethal aid to the contras is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I agree that the lack of bipartisanship on issues such as Central America and Vietnam have been disastrously debilitating to U.S. foreign policy. I applaud the efforts of both sides to reach a consensus. Furthermore, I salute Secretary of State Baker for admitting that the Reagan policies of seeking military solutions in Central America have been a failure. On the other hand, I am deeply concerned by the U.S. government's oversimplification and disregard for both international law and the sovereignty of Third World nations. First of all, the agreement to supply the contras gives the Sandinistas the moral high ground. In effect, this decision negates the recent agreement by five Central American pres idents to disband the contras. The U.S. is telling other countries in our hemisphere that Shorten buy hack lines To the editor: At the end of every semester, students who wish to sell their . books back to Student Stores must wait in endless lines to do so. As if this isn't bad enough, many students get to the front of the line only to be told that Student Stores is not buying back any of their books. It seems to me there is an easy way to prevent these needless waits. Student Stores should give the DTH a list of all books which they know for certain are not going to be bought back. The DTH should then print the list, and students could then determine if they need to endure the lines at Student Stores. In addition, Student Stores should provide a prelim inary price list showing what they expect to pay for students' used books. This list should also be printed in the DTH. This would enable students to determine roughly how much they can get for their books and whether or not they should keep a particular book or sell it. None of the prices published in the DTH would be guaran teed, since they might change. If the list of books was too long to print in the DTH, Student Stores should at least make a price list available to students before they decide whether or not to sell their books. JIM HOCK Senior Charlotte Safety should come first To the editor: I know the subject of the ice storm we had just before spring break may no longer be timely, but I heard something just the other day that really upset me. A friend told me that on the Tuesday of that week when the ice was the worst, one of her classmates died in a car acci dent on the way to class. I'm sure that during those few days many discussions took place among students who did not understand why classes were not cancelled. I personally never heard any good reasons, although a staff member did tell me that the University schedule does not allow for make-up days. 1 wonder if the family of the woman who died would find that to be an acceptable Sports, support, software and sense " wish we could have played Minne sota. " Basketball coach Dean Smith, talking to reporters on the way back to the dressing room at the end of UNC's loss to Michigan Thursday night. BBB "(I hope) the University will pay more attention in the future to student needs and what student concerns are. I hope it realizes that good teaching needs to be paid more concrete attention." History lecturer Gary Freeze, speaking on the controversy over the department's decision not to offer him a permanent professorship. Students supporting Freeze have gathered 750 signatures on petitions protesting the decision. "I've never heard of an attack so close by. It really scared me. " Melanie Gettys, a Cobb resident, speaking about a recent attack on a woman near Joyner Residence Hall by two men. "It put us completely out of business for a couple hours on Wednesday (March 8) afternoon. We had to shut down all the Macintosh computers." Linwood on Contra aid Philip Sheridan Guest Writer they cannot make treaties which we disagree with. How can we force .the Sandinistas to comply with the Escupildes agreements, which are designed to promote democracy in Nicaragua, if we force Honduras to break its legal commitment to disband the contras? In addition, assuming "democracy" is a product of fair "elections" and the rule of law, and that as Secretary Baker says, we should not "pick and choose" among duly elected regimes, must we not also pressure undemocratic countries to reform for the sake of democracy? Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are nations in which the military corrupts the democratic process. The latter two countries have hideous records of human rights violations. Where will we draw the line on legally elected Readers9 Forani Rime, of the Exxon mariner explanation for why their daughter wife mother was driving to class that day. As I'm sure everyone knows, the weather was so treacherous those couple of days that Chapel Hill Transit was forced to suspend bus service, effec tively isolating some students from the University. I believe the University should take steps in a case like that to assure the safety of off-campus students by taking away the ambiguity of the eternal question "Should I go to class today?" The decision to cancel classes should not be left to professors or TAs; the University should take an official stand. I'm sure there were many South Cam pus residents like myself who braved the icy hills in front of Kenan Stadium to get to their classes that day, only to find that their professors couldn't make it in. And, I'm sure there were some whose professors decided to lecture because "If I can get here, so can you." Regardless of whether or not professors are understanding, students should not feel forced to attend class when weather conditions are that dangerous. After all, fewer than 8,000 students actually live on cam pus. It is true that the wheels of bureaucracy must .turn; however, when there are so few days during the winter when the weather is that bad, it seems that some leeway could be given for the protection of students and staff. RHONDA THISSON Senior Sociology Knowledge on SI needed To the editor: We would like to write in response to an article by Mary Jo Dunnington entitled "Bring back the sports." In her article, Ms. Dunnington attacks Sports Illustrated for its annual swimsuit issue.- Furthermore, Ms. Dunnington argues that "sports," and not swimsuits, are the rightful subject matter for Sports Illustrated. Our first question is this: Where was Ms. Dunnington a month ago? Sports Illustrated has published six issues since the swimsuit issue; neverthe less, Ms. Dunnington only now addresses the issue. Needless to say, her opinions would have been much more appreciated six weeks ago. We suspect that Ms. Dunnington was caught without a topic and chose to revive a dead issue. A word of advice to Ms. Dunnington: if you have nothing about which to write, then write nothing at all. Finally, Ms. Dunnington's knowledge of her resurrected topic is itself suspect. Has Ms. Dunnington ever been a regular reader of Sports Illustrated or is she simply another one-time female critic of a particular issue? Sports Illustrated is published weekly, not monthly, and the swimsuit issue is a special issue that is but one of many issues published in Feb ruary. In addition, the issue featuring Michael Jordan is but one of many issues published in March. There were four Week in Quotes Futrelle, Microcomputing Support Center lab director, speaking on the virus found in some students' software. Officials said this week that the virus had been eliminated from MSC software. BBB " We certainly have found a program that, as best we can tell, is very cleanly run and concerned about student welfare and educational progress. The program is certainly not like Oklahoma. Tiiere are definitely going to be problems at any large-scale athletic program." Henry Landsberger, a sociology professor and member of a special committee formed by the Faculty Council to investigate the athletic department, speaking on the committee's findings. An interim report from the committee may be released in April. BBB "For the first time in 70 years, people have started to think about their fate. " Valery Savitsky, a lawyer and civir rights specialist running for a seat in the new national Congress of People's Deputies in Moscow Sunday. For many voters, Sun day will be the first trip to the polls. compromise regimes? After all, Adolf Hitler first rose to power as a duly elected government official. . Again, I salute the spirit of bipartisanship in Washington and our government's determination to achieve peace and demo cracy in Central America. Sandinistas and right-wing extremists are far from ideal. Western-style democrats. 1 believe, however, that the U.S. should seek the moral high ground by supporting a universal standard of human rights in our foreign policy and by showing a commitment to the rule of law both through our conduct and within other countries. We need to fight with vigor for the form of government which offers the ; best way of life for our country and others ; willing to embrace it democracy! God bless. Philip Sheridan is a political science economics major from East Setauket, N.Y. on 7 other issues published after the swimsuit issue and before the Michael Jordan issue. Only when Ms. Dunnington has some knowledge of Sports Illustrated should she begin to suggest its appropriate subject matter. TOM MURRAY Sophomore Business KEITH HILL Junior Economics Letters policy The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticisms. When writing letters to the editor, please follow these guidelines: B Students should include name, year in school, major,' phone number and home, town. Other members of the University community should, include similar information. . B All letters must be typed . and double-spaced, for ease of j editing. marked "Letters to the Editor" outside the DTH office in the Student Union. b i ne u i n reserves tne right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. -Remember, brevity is the soul . of wit. ; , ti.. rTU . L "There is a realization that we have got to get our own house in order, particularly when we are beating on other people for tolerating chemical deals that we don't like." A State Department official, commenting on the concerns within the Bush administration over U.S. rules on exports of chemicals that could be used to make poison gas. BBB " haven 't thought whether I'd call or maybe send flowers. " Speaker of the House Jim Wright, commenting on Rep. Newt Gingrich's election as House Repub lican whip. Gingrich initiated the ethics investigation against Wright. "I wasn't thinking rationally. I was concerned for security. None of what I did made sense. It was a very stupid thing to do. " Fawn Hall, Oliver North's former secretary, speaking at North's trial Wed nesday. Hall was referring to the days at the White House when she carried secret documents out under her clothing, altered compromising memos, and shredded classified documents to protect her boss. Compiled by editor Sharon KebschuII.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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