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18The Tar HeelThursday, -June 1 ; -1989-
Opinion
to the law
ace
LI J
It's time for UNC officials to
stand up and face the music com
ing from the mouths of Chapel
Hill merchants.
The recent controversy between
the University and local businesses
involves the legal limits of what
the University's campus stores can
sell without creating unfair com
petition for many shops in the
areas surrounding UNC.
Three words may be the only
constant in this ongoing fiasco
TheUmstead Act.
The Umstead Act, a state stat
ute, stipulates that campus stores
may only sell educational sup
plies, gift items and personal-use
items. The University finally re
sponded to complaints recently
by agreeing to stop selling cer
tain items when the present in
ventory runs out.
Also, the stores may only sell
these items to students and their
immediate families, employees
and their immediate families, and
to people who are on campus for
purposes other than shopping at
the store. Enforcement of this
would be difficult, if not impos
sible, and the University quietly
sits and hopes nobody will bring
this item to the agenda.
Finally, and most disturbingly,
the act stipulates that the campus
stores are "operated for the pur
Parking fee, well, OK
As students pay registration fees
for the fall semester they will
notice the tidy sum of $12.50
tacked on to the bill. Now wait,
before we go out and burn our
bills in protest of this fee increase,
let's get the facts straight.
This fee increase has been under
review by the administration for
more than one year in hopes of
finding a solution to the parking
problem, and through the deter
mination of former Student Body
President Kevin Martin, Student
Body President Brien Lewis and
Vice Chancellor Donald Boulton,
the students finally got something
for the money they shovel out.
The fee increase originally
began as a fee for "maintained
service" of the current transpor
tation system on campus. Fact
number one is that this fee would
shrink wallets and the administra
tion wouldn't have to produce a
new service for the student's
money. The administration gets
the money and the students, well,
hasta la vista, money.
Fortunately, Boulton came to
the student government and asked
what the students wanted out of a
fee the Board of Trustees was
going to pass. Through this feel
pose of assuring the availability"
of this merchandise and "not for
the purpose of competing with
stores operated in the community
surrounding the campuses of the
University of North Carolina."
In this instance, the law is as
tonishingly clear. UNC is blatantly
violating the letter and spirit of
the law by competing with local
merchants on items that are read
ily available in the area. When
was the last time it was difficult
to find a good T-shirt to buy?
Maybe the law is unfair. No
body liked to hear that the Stu
dent Stores' profits a portion
of which goes to a scholarship
fund were going to take a dive.
But that fact has nothing to do
with the law itself, and it's time
for University officials to stop
denying the facts and clouding
the truth.
Instead of crying on the shoul
der of the state's Attorney Gen
eral's Office, look into alterna
tive sources of scholarship money.
Instead of twisting the law in the
eyes of the public, look into po
tential changes in the law.
But don't deny the obvious
truth of the matter that the
University is clearly violating the
rights of Chapel Hill merchants.
Dave Glenn
ing that students needed some
thing for their money, a clause
was added to the fee increase.
Students would not go for just
"maintained service," but the
administration's increase would
have to include "new and im
proved service."
Fact number two is that the
students will see something for
their money. The Board of Trus
tees passed the new fee along with
a letter that carried the clause "new
and improved service."
Unfortunately, there is fact
number three. The Student Con
gress turned down the fee increase,
but without the benefit of debate.
They reacted as anyone would
when money is being taken from
them. Now, we can't say whether
or not the idea would have been
killed by the Student Congress
after a debate, but we know what
happened without one. Yet, ei
ther way the fee increase was
going to pass.
With the facts straight, lets just
say this. We have people in stu
dent government who are look
ing out for student interests,
enough so that this time, we were
n't totally robbed.
Randy Basinger
rite us
To the editor:
When a student or former student
laments during the summer months
about his days as a Tar Heel, the first
thing to come to his or her head is
sports.
Because of this, I was enthusias
tic about picking up the first issue of
the Summer Tar Heel and scouring
through the boundless sports events
that occured while I was at home.
Last year at the end of the spring
semester, I bragged to all of my New
W
A New Breeze Blowing
Reader's Forum
real letters, please
York friends about the plethora of
sports at UNC and most of all the
sports coverage by our own student
newspaper, but, much to my dismay,
upon returning to the Southern Part
of Heaven, there was a virtual void
of statistics, scores or otherwise use
less quotes from the pages of the
Summer Heel.
This year's long-awaited issue did
not let me down.
Not only were there scores, high
lights and quotes, but also there were
Harnessing Fusion Energy.
action photos and in-depth analyses
of baseball, lacrosse and basketball
which stimulated my sports palate
completely.
So, thank you Dave Glenn and
John Bland for your devotion to the
mainstay of this campus' bragging
rites, keep up the fine work and I
hope that your performance and dedi
cation will set a precedent for future
Summer Tar Heel editors to come.
JAY REED
Chapel Hill (for now)
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