8The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday, March 29, 1989
Satlg Olar Iferl
97th year of editorial freedom
Sharon Kebschull, Editor
William Taggart, Managing Editor
. LOUIS BlSSETTE, Editorial Page Editor MARY Jo DUNNINGTON, Editorial Page Editor
JUSTIN McGuiRE, University Editor JENNY G.ONINGER, University Editor
TAMMY BLACKARD, State and National Editor CHARLES BrITTAIN, City Editor
ERIK DALE FlIPPO, Business Editor DAVE GLENN, Sports Editor
CARA BONNETT, Arts and Features Editor JAMES BENTON, Omnibus Editor
JULIA COON, News Editor DAVID SuROWIECKI, Photography Editor
Kelly Thompson, Design Editor
Teacher versus teacher
The saga of Gary Freeze continues.
As an extension of his petition
campaign on behalf of Freeze, a
visiting lecturer on N.C. history, junior
Gene Davis has claimed that the
history department violated the Amer
ican Historical Association's code of
ethics for fair practice in recruitment.
The department ran an advertisement
last year for the position of assistant
professor of N.C. history stating that
candidates must have their doctorate
by July 1, 1988. James Leloudis, the
graduate student recommended for the
position, will not get his Ph.D. until
May.
The history department should be
taken to task for unfair advertising.
It should not claim that candidates
must have certain qualifications in
advertisements for a position if the
candidates really don't have to have
those qualifications. That's just com
mon sense.
Davis justly points out that this
practice can also discourage candi
dates from applying. The history
department may not be legally bound
to require those qualifications because
the ad is not a contract, but it is
ethically bound. In the future, it should
follow its own rules.
Besides, this situation is easily
avoided. All the advertisement had to
say was, "candidates should have their
doctorate by July 1, 1988," and the
whole problem would have been
solved. .
But Davis' call to re-open the entire
search process is too extreme. Freeze
already has accepted a job at another
university, and Leloudis is only a step
away from being confirmed by the
chancellor. Nothing more can be
accomplished at this point with either
situation.
The irony here is that the people
being hurt the most are the two
teachers each side so fervently sup
ports. What the protest has done, in
effect, is create "Freeze versus Lelou
dis," an uncomfortable and unfair
position for both men: Freeze is being
pitted against one of his own col
leagues, and Leloudis must start
teaching next fall amid controversy
intimating he is not qualified for his
position. Students should consider
themselves lucky that the history
department had such a difficult
decision to make, considering the
quality of some teachers at this
university. While UNC may have lost
a good teacher in Gary Freeze, it seems
to have gained another in Jim
Leloudis.
What this whole controversy has
pointed oit, albeit in a backhanded
way, is that students, both graduates
and undergraduates, must be involved
in the selection of new professors.
Davis said this latest chapter in his
protest is all part of that larger goal
of eventually involving students inti
mately in the selection process. That
goal is admirable. But those students
upset about the loss of Freeze should
work with all academic departments
toward that goal, rather than making
one teacher look good at another's
expense. Kimberly Edens
Companies out of control
Because of the cold, harsh winds
that have blown over Prince William
Sound, Alaska in the last four days,
Exxon officials have been able to clean
up less than 1 percent of the 240,000
barrels of oil that spilled from a
stricken tanker. While the storm
surrounding the area is going to have
major environmental impact, the
storm over the condition of the
tanker's crew should prove even
greater.
The tanker lost its oil when it hit
a shallow reef Friday, while, according
to the president of the Exxon Shipping
Company, the third mate of the 978
foot tanker was in charge. He was not
certified to command the tanker
through the Prince William waters at
the time of the accident.
Exxon's president had no explana
tion for why Capt. Joseph Hazelwood
was not in control of the vessel. Results
of a blood alcohol test given hours
after the spill to Hazelwood, the third
mate and the helmsman, should be
back by Thursday. Now, the tests have
taken on a special importance in light
of news reports about Hazelwood's
record of drunk-driving indictments.
Last September, Hazelwood was
convicted of driving under the influ
ence of alcohol in a New Hampshire
incident. His license has been revoked
ever since. That conviction followed
his guilty plea in 1985 to driving while
intoxicated in New York. On Nov. 2,
1984 four months after the incident
which led to the 1985 conviction
Hazelwood's license was suspended
after he stopped and refused to take
a Breathalyzer test.
It is incredible that a man who is
not allowed to drive a car is permitted
to continue as commander of a 978
foot tanker. Exxon should have acted
long ago to prevent this man from
endangering other lives when he's
already endangered his own at least
twice. To allow a third mate who is
obviously not trained to pilot a tanker
through shallow waters is simply
another example of the captain's lack
of good judgment, following Exxon's
similar lack.
Regardless of whether alcohol
played any part in this accident the
biggest oil spill in North American
waters the damage was done long
ago. Companies must take responsi
bility for their employees. How far
their power should extend over their
employees is debatable, but it defi
nitely extends to this sort of limited,
comparatively mild constraint.
Sharon Kebschull
The Daily Tar Heel
Editorial Writers: Kimberly Edens, Chris Landgraff and David Stames.
Assistant Editors: Jessica Lanning, city; Myma Miller, features; Staci Cox, managing; Anne Isenhower and
Steve Wilson, news; Ellen Thomicn,Omnibus; Andrew Podolsky, Jay Reed and Jamie Rosenberg, sports;
Karen Dunn, state and national; James Burroughs and Amy Wajda, university.
News: Craig Allen, Kari Barlow, Maria Batista, Crystal Bernstein, Victor Blue, Heather Bowers, Sarah Cagle,
Brenda Campbell, James Coblin, Staci Cox, LD. Curie, JoAnna Davis, Blake Dickinson, Jeff Eckard, Karen
Entriken, Deirdre Fallon, Lynn Goswick, Joey Hill, Susan Holdsclaw, Jennifer Johnston, Jason Kelly, Tracy
Lawson, Rheta Logan, Dana Clinton Lumsden, Jeff Lutrell, Kimberly Maxwell, Helle Nielsen, Glenn O'Neal,
Simone Pam, Tom Parks, Jannette Pippin, Elizabeth Sherrod, Sonserae Smith, Will Spears, Larry Stone, Laura
Taylor, Kelly Thompson, Kathryne Tovo, Stephanie von Isenburg, Genie Walker, Sandy Wall, Sherry Waters,
Chuck Williams, Leslie Wilson, Jennifer Wing, Katie Wolfe and Nancy Wykle.
Sports: Mike Berardino, senior writer. Neil Amato, Mark Anderson, John Bland, Christina Frohock, Scott
Gold, Doug Hoogervorst, David Kupstas, Bethany Litton, Brendan Matthews, Bobby McCruskey, Natalie
Sekicky, Dave Surowiecki and Eric Wagnon.
Arts and Features: Kelly Rhodes, senior writer. Cheryl Allen, Lisa Antonucci, Randy Basinger, Clark
Benbow, Adam Bertolett, Roderick Cameron, Ashley Campbell, Pam Emerson, Diana Florence, Laura
Francis, Jacki Greenberg, Andrew Lawler, Elizabeth Murray, Julie Olson, Lynn Phillips, Leigh Pressley, Kim
Stallings, Anna Tumage and Jessica Yates.
Photography: Evan Eile, Steven Exum, Regina Holder and David Minton.
Copy Editors: Karen Bell, B Buckberry, Michelle Casale, Yvette Cook, Joy Golden, Bert Hackney, Kathleen
Hand, Angela Hill, Susan Holdsclaw, Karen Jackson, Janet McGirt, Angelia Poteat and Clare Weickert.
Editorial Assistants: Mark Chilton and Anne Isenhower. Amy Dickinson, letter typist.
Design Assistants: Kim Avetta, Melanie Black, Del Lancaster, Nicole Luter, Bill Phillips and Susan Wallace.
Cartoonists: Jeff Christian, Adam Cohen, Pete Corson, Bryan Donnell, Trey Entwistle, David Estoye, Greg
Humphreys and Mike Sutton.
Business and Advertising: Kevin Schwartz, director; Patricia Glance, advertising director; Joan Worth,
classified manager; Stephanie Chesson, assistant classified 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; Leiia Hawley, creative directdr; Dan Raasch, marketing director; Genevieve Halkett,
Camille 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.
Production: Bill Leslie and Stacy Wynn, managers; Tammy Sheldon, assistant manager; Anita Bentley,
Stephanie Locklear and Leslie Sapp, assistants.
Printing: The Village Companies.
Useless diagrams and Bad Haiku Theatre
TT have sat through more boring classes
in my 17-year schooling career than
Jiyou could shake a Husky pencil at;
sitting bleary-eyed through elementary
school black-and-white film classics such
as "How Your. Letter Gets There," tiptoe
ing through junior high algebra droppings,
comatose and drooling during college
statistical psychology and all for the
ancient phrase "well, someday youH be
glad you've got all this information."
"But Mom," I said, licking a Dilly Bar
sometime in 1975, "This stuff we're doing
in school is so stupid . . . today we made
a map of Idaho out of paper plates."
"You'd be surprised, Ian. Why, just the
other day I needed to know the volume
of a cone."
" The volume of a coneT
"Well, yes," she said. "I had to get this
measurement just right."
"And did you remember what the
formula was?"
"Not really."
"So what's the difference?"
"Well I sure wish I had all that
information."
And from then on, I schooled and
schooled in dire fear that I would be caught
somewhere, my car would break down, or
there was a medical emergency and I would
totally forget the formula for the volume
of a cone. But now I'm a little older and
a little wiser. IVe wonderfully puttered
along on this planet for more than two
decades, and IVe discovered something
scary IVe never needed any of that crap!
WeVe been duped! Herded like academic
cattle! How many of you were changing
a tire on the freeway and suddenly needed
to know the capital of Laos? Are folks
who suffer from hemorrhoid more spir
itually intact if they know how to spell
it? I think not!
Actually, the genesis of this uselessness
has its worst roots in the English classes
of fourth through seventh grade. You may
remember these as the lunchmilk years,
when everyone had the brain of a seventh
grader when they were in fourth grade, and
everyone's sexual maturity level was in the
fourth grade when they were in seventh.
Here's a few of my most hated conventions
of those fabled days.
Handwriting Now here's a useful way
to gradually eat away at a 9-year-old 's
Ian Williams
Wednesday's Child
stomach lining; stand like a vulture over
his tiny little desk and make him write the
letter "p" in cursive until the sun sets. In
a matter of years, this:
becomes this:
And suddenly, we learned the first, worst
lesson of our school career it doesn't
really matter what you say, as long as it
looks good on paper. Now, in the age of
computers, if a kid is forced to cross "t's"
through recess, there's really something
wrong going on out there.
Fifth Grade Poetry This was a time
when we already knew the basics of
English, and the folks who were creative
enough to end up teaching fifth-grade
English tried to pool their artistic and
semantic talents to make this a year to
"branch out" and "find oneself" verbally.
In Iowa, this meant the mastery of that
dubious art form known as the haiku,
whereupon hundreds of us kids were forced
at gunpoint to write these 3-line, 5-7-5
syllable poems that the Japanese had given
up on sometime in the Bronze Age.
"Let's see your first one, Ian," my teacher
would drone.
The rabbit ran fast
But gosh, the fox ran faster!
Silence in. the woods.
"That was a little morbid, Mr. Williams.
Why not express yourself a little more?
Use more vivid images!"
like green soap
I make my kitty eat it
Urine sure tastes bad.
"Uhh ... I don't think youVe got the
hang of it. Tell a little story, use emotion,
and remember five-seven-five!"
I drowned a bug once ;
Do you know the sound he made?
"Blub blub blub blub blub " :
And with that, 1 was in the corner for
the rest of the day, sharpening faculty
pencils while the rest of my class slaved
feverishly over their haikus, cinquains and
poems about soybean fields written in
iambic tetrameter.
Sentence Diagrams Has there ever
been anything more unequivocally useless
that God has spawned, besides wasps and
Smurf-Berry Crunch? Will we have to
diagram our sentences for extra credit on
tax forms and love letters? Unfortunately,
I recognized the futility of this practice way
early on, and dished up a few of these for
my satanic seventh-grade English professor
to grade:
diagramming
is load
crap.
1 1 think )
I
And of course, some insightful commen
tary on my peers: -
Neil
wets
night
I bed
. And yet again, I would get the papers
back with the giant red "See Me" scrawled
angrily over my name, and yet again I
would dream of master races of pubescent
kids that are frozen in seventh grade and
thawed out around 10th grade in a giant
high school microwave ceremony.
Am I angry? Not really. WeVe spent too
much time in classrooms for there not to
be a lot of futile busy work crammed in
our skull cases perhaps it's just a pity
that our young life's toil ends up as witty
trivia.
Ian Williams
I Is major
Los Angeles 9-
Readers9 Forami
SDI not the SIHliSHSffliiKilSS
answer
To the editor:
I was disturbed by Daniel
Jolley's guest column ("Oppor
tunities ripe to deploy Star
Wars," Monday, March 23)
praising SDI. I disagree.
Let me remind the reader
that SDI, as proposed by
Ronald Reagan (the "intellec
tual" giant who once errone
ously stated that a nuclear
missile could be "recalled"),
was conceptualized as a blanket
covering to protect the nation.
After years of debate and
research, we have seen a grad
ual shift in SDI's purpose from
defense system to bargaining
chip. Now there is pretty much
unanimous agreement that
SDI's costs will never outweigh
its effectiveness. The Soviets
could easily send rocks into
orbit to disable these billion
dollar satellites.
By stating that the United
States has 1,500 first-strike
targets and that the Soviets will
have 8,000 first-strike weapons
by 1995, Jolley hopes to pro
vide a reason for SDI: "If SDI
were only 50 percent effective,
it would make a Soviet first
strike a gamble at best." Not
according to my statistics.
Assuming that SDI could be
made 50 percent effective (a
very optimistic figure), 4,000
Soviet missiles would still get
through to our 1,500 targets
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I'd take those odds in Atlantic
City!
Jolley also states that, with
out SDI, the only option for
the U.S. president during a
nuclear attack is surrender
do you actually believe that?
You know our missiles would
be off the ground before the
incoming missiles even reen
tered the atmosphere.
In continuing to believe in
SDI, Jolley and many others
have not kept pace with scien
tific reality. Currently, the most
Aalistic "star wars" program is
a derivative of the Smart Rocks
system called Brilliant Pebbles.
BP works on kinetic energy. A
BP satellite is actually a cluster
of miniature satellites under
ground control that can be
instructed to dislodge, seek out,
and ram potential targets.' Just
as effective as SDI, but
cheaper.
Einstein pointed out the
conflict of interest between
preparing for war and pro
moting peace. He also said,
"Peace cannot be kept by force.
It can only be achieved by
understanding." But if you
must have war toys, please
make them as inexpensive as
possible.
JOHNMARTZ
i Graduate
Social psychology
Letters policy
a All letters must be typed
and double-spaced, for ease of
editing.
a Place letters in the box
marked "Letters to the Editor"
outside the DTH office in the
Student Union.
Don't rush four years in Chapel
Hill
I he Old Well. Many times I walked
by it without even a glance. One cold
JLL March night, however, I stopped.
I stared. I remembered.
Number 23, Michael Jordan, dribbles
around two opponents, takes a half-step,
palms the basketball in one hand and leaps
into the air, his tongue protruding prom
inently. My heart pounds. I hear my yell
echoing in my ears. He slams the ball home,
on his way to a single-handed defeat of
Maryland in a classic Carolina come-from-behind
victory. Carmichael explodes.
The time is January, 1983. It is my
freshman year. I have just attended a UNC
basketball game my first since immi
grating from South Africa in 1982. I am
now addicted to UNC basketball.
An avid supporter of Reagan, I majored
in business, joined the College Republicans
and the UNC Investment Club. I dressed
in Alexander Julian and Polo shirts and
dabbled in the stock market. I sneered at
the misinformed vocal few who probably
could not find South Africa on a map,
yet constructed shanties on campus to
prevent injustices they did not understand.
I argued repeatedly with liberals who
claimed they knew more about South
Africa than I did and asssumed that any
white South African must be a racist.
Over time I became disgusted at the Dale
McKinleys of the world who embarrass
our campus. I grew weary of those who
refused to hear the other side of the
argument. Therefore, I stopped debating
the issue. I wondered why they didnt go
Brent Callinicos
Guest Writer
somewhere else if they were so displeased
with our college's administration. My
belief in UNC, however, was not shaken.
One learns in freshman economics that the
demand for a product (at a given price)
depends upon the availability of substi
tutes. For UNC, there are none.
By 1987, 1 had seen UNC lose the ACC
tournament four times. I watched help
lessly again and again as UNC was
denied another NCAA Championship. I
had grown to hate Duke. UNC's freshmen
became younger and younger. I still clung
to the beliefs of the Reagan administration,
a view no longer shared by my fellow
students. I stopped reading the increasingly
left-wing DTH (except for the sports
section), in favor of the Wall Street
Journal. Not yet willing to leave UNC and
lured by the thoughts of a higher starting
salary, I decided to attend MBA school.
I'm 23 now and on the verge of
graduating from the UNC MBA program,
yet I'm still young enough to be carded.
I am married to a beautiful girl I met my
sophomore year. I have accepted a great
job and have even purchased a house. I
am faced with mortgages, pension plans,
car loans and homeowners insurance. I
have finally seen UNC win an ACC
tournament, only to be eliminated in the
NCAA tournament by. an inferior team.
I still hate Duke. Kenny Smith, Steve Hale,
Brad Daugherty, Warren Martin, Joe Wolf
all have come and gone. So too have
all my friends from undergrad. We all
promised to write, but we never did. The
campus is without familiar faces; it is now
time for me to go.
Although I am counting the days until
graduation and the start of a long,
prosperous career, I cannot be happy about
leaving UNC. Just when I think 111 be glad
to depart, I see a piece of memorabilia and
a lump forms in my throat.
It's not as if Chapel Hill will even know
I was here. IVe done nothing out of the
ordinary. I don't get written about in the
DTH. The only proof of my six-year stay
is a pair of names carved on a table at
Troll's.
But, I will know I was here.
Whenever I hear James Taylor sing
"Carolina In My Mind," watch a UNC
game in my new home (500 miles away),
see the Old Well or the Bell Tower, tears
will come to my eyes. Perhaps I will be
looking up at the students of tomorrow
from my seats in the Dean Dome. Perhaps
my children will be fortunate enough to
attend school here. My advice don't
wish your years at UNC over too soon,
or they will be.
Brent Callinicos is a second year MBA
student from Greensboro. ; ;
i