Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 27, 1989, edition 1 / Page 8
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8The Daily Tar HeelMonday, November 27, 1989 IWf tfecTribDC 97th year of editorial freedom Sharon Kebschull, Editor MARY Jo DuNNINGTON, Editorial Page Editor JUSTIN McGuiRE, University Editor KAREN DUNN, Slate and National Editor TOM PARKS, Business Editor Dave Glenn, Sfwts Editor MeLANIE BLACK, Design Editor TAMMY BlaCKARD, Editorial Page Editor WILLIAM TaGGART, University Editor Jessica Lanning, City Editor CARA BONNETT, Arts and Features Editor Kelly Thompson, Omnibus Editor DAVID SurOWIECKI, Photography-Editor JULIA COON, News Editor Scholarship shortfalls Officials must put education first Students who have " trouble making finan cial ends meet can expect little to no - board opinion assistance from the University next year. The Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Student Aid announced in its annual report to the Faculty Council that funding for the William R. Davie and Chancellor's Scholarships will be cut in half. The cut of these merit and need-based scholarships . means the University must search for other revenue sources or slam the door on some qualified students. The cutbacks were necessary because of a loss of revenue due to Student Stores .renovations and state funding decisions. :The lost revenue means the number of ;Davie and Chancellor's merit scholarships ;will each be cut from 25 to 12. The decline 'of financial support also means the Uni versity will have only a meager 3 percent '.increase in funding for need-based schol jarships, postponing any thoughts of creat ing any new scholarships, which are sorely needed. ; The Chancellor's Scholarship program .'was started by former Chancellor Christo pher Fordham for 25 academically gifted ; minority students each year. These schol arship cutbacks will be a serious blow to ;UNC's struggling minority student popu lation. Faculty Council members are dis cussing possible alternative revenue ; sources to fill the financial void for all ; students, but it has no final say in the ; allocation of University funds to scholar i ship programs. If the University hopes to j fulfill it's promises of aggressive minority recruitment, it must find sources that can Artistic economics High art prices disregard aesthetics ', 'The old saying that a picture is worth a "thousand words is only partially true today it also can be worth $53.9 million. The fast paced, hard-driving economics of today have : swept the art world, forcing art prices to rapidly accelerate to record-breaking costs. Regardless of whether the multimillion-dollar tags truly ' buy the customer what he is paying for, this auctioning of art works diminishes the aes thetic and emotional representation of art and distorts these works into mere financial assets. The few who are able to afford these works are becoming more reluc- igT.LriesTecau ot Pretentiousness has insurance costs, thus . , hurting the quality of pUShefi artlSllC museums and placing the public at their appreciation into the mercy. The most recent tinnkomilllH multimillion-dollar UUUU. transaction brought in $40.7 million at Sotheby's for Picasso's "Au Lapin Agile," although this does not win the prize for the biggest amount paid for a painting. This honor belongs to the $53.9 million for Van Gogh's "Irises," paid by an Australian tycoon. Only 500 people in the world reportedly are willing to dish out this much money, limiting the fantastic world of art to a handful of people and their friends. Thus, the general non-millionaire art lover misses out on famous works. And the bidding process has transformed into a sneaky, behind-the-scenes affair with the introduction of guarantees and loans. Auction houses are setting minimum prices on art works, guaranteeing a set amount to be paid to the seller. When that is accompanied by loans to j prospective buyers, it is no wonder that the art world has become a money-making forum. ; Auction houses that receive commissions from ; these works are greedily driving up the prices I with their guarantees and loans they are going beyond their realm of intermediary to The Daily Tar Heel The Daily Tar Heel is published Monday-Friday, according to .the University calendar. Callers with questions about advertising . should dial 962-1 163 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Classifed ads can -be reached at 962-0252. Editorial questions should be directed to 962-02450246. The Daily Tar Heel's office is in suite 1 04 of the Student Union. The campus mail address is CB 5210 Box 49, Student Union. U.S. , Mail may be addressed to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 3257. Daily Tar Heel board opinion editorials are the majority view of ' the editorial board, which consists of the editor, the editorial page editors and assistant editor and two editorial writers. Signed editorials are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion Y of the entire board. Cartoons and guarantee financial assistance. Some council members have suggested that the University could increase its reve nues through trademark royalties earned from licensing the use of the UNC logo. While universities such as Stanford give 100 percent of their trademark royalties to student aid programs, only half of UNC's trademark revenues are distributed annu ally to students through scholarships. UNC officials need to seriously consider this as a possible solution. Another source of revenue could be obtained through more aggressive alumni contribution campaigns. The University should encourage former UNC students to channel their financial support to the areas where it is needed most. It should be diffi cult for alumni to support the construction of a new business school, an alumni center or additions to Kenan Stadium when stu dents may be forced out of school or turned away from the start because of scholarship cuts. Alumni support should always be appreciated, but contributions to academic opportunities and achievements must take priority over shiny new buildings. With the cost of higher education sky rocketing, too many qualified people with limited resources must abandon dreams of a college degree. With few increases in aid coming from the federal government, col leges and universities must accept a greater responsibility to supply funds for scholar ships. The administration should not ac cept the cutbacks to scholarships and fi nancial aid without exhausting every pos sible alternative solution. After all, stu dents, not buildings or sports facilities, make a university great. make a fast buck or a million bucks. The New York City commissioner of con sumer affairs, after investigating the Sotheby's and Christies, the two largest auction houses, discovered some unethical practices. Reports of "bidding off the chandelier," or planting false bids in the auctioning audience to force the price to rise, and stopping the sale of a painting if the guaranteed price is not met are two of the more serious infractions discovered. And those who attend the auctions look to them as affairs to display wealth. Dress has nHMMBHBH become highly formal and the bidding proc ess is a means for the rich to throw their weight around. This sort of pretentiousness has pushed artistic ap preciation to the back ground. Because of tax laws, ammm owners of fine art are no longer encouraged to donate paintings to galleries, and artists evade more tax penalties by selling their paintings rather than giving them to museums. While loans to museums by the owners appear as a viable option, the cost of insuring a painting is often too high for most to risk. As a result, museums have to sell their own pieces to buy others. There are many dangers to this new "busi ness," such as fakes invading the art scene. The public is scarred by this financial censorship, and galleries lose respect if they cannot keep up with the quick turnovers. If dealers and buyers start looking at art as more than a good financial investment, then maybe this situation can be changed. Many classical painters did not re ceive a cent, and an effort should be make today to look at those works in the same appreciative, non-financial light. As a dealer in Chicago aptly said, "When a work of art passes through our doors, it should leave the world of economics." Jennifer Wing columns represent the author's view. R Stop belittling students' In the past week, there has been some ram bling and rather arcane talk in The Daily Tar Heel and elsewhere about Dean Gillian Cell, reappointments, favorable recommendations ' and discontent within the African-American community. And yet, the scope and signifi cance of this situation remain unclear. The purpose of this letter is to clarify the reasons African-American student leaders have de cried the reappointment of Cell as dean to the College of Arts and Science. Upon the January 1988 vacancy of the asso ciate dean position of the Office of Student Counseling (OSC), an office that has served greatly in the retention of minority students and their adjustment to UNC, Dean Cell spoke of her commitment to maintaining the support services this office provided. However, when the post remained unfilled from January 1988 to July 1989, with an acting associate dean serving only during the fall 1988 semester, students began to doubt her degree of commit ment. Suspicions seemed confirmed when Cell proposed to expand the OSC, an "expansion" which, ironically, would have eliminated this associate dean position. Her intention to eliminate this post, one of the few links between students and Dean Cell's office, begins to explain students' frustrations when confronting her inaccessibility. Only after a protest held on the steps of South Building did Cell agree to confer regularly with student leaders of campus groups regard ing a replacement for the OSC. On an individ ual level, her responsiveness has been equally as retarded, attested by officers of the Black Student Movement, representatives of student government and various professors. Regarding the recruitment and retention of faculty, Dean Cell's efforts have been mini mal. In 1984 the University established a post doctoral program that was designed to hire UNC Ph.D graduates as professors, with an emphasis on minorities. Since 1 984, there have been 32 post-doctoral fellows out of the Col lege of Arts and Sciences, and yet only two PLO acceptance of Israel dates to '70s To the editor: Please note the following cor rection (the typo was mine) to paragraph five of my letter to the editor ("Israel state wants more land, not peace," Nov. 20). The third sentence should have read: "Beginning in the mid 70s, the Palestinian leadership has pain fully acknowledged Israel's right to exist, though this has been met ArabIsraeli conflict not simple geography To the editor: Barry Flanagan's assault on Israel as a bru tal, imperialist state ("Israeli state wants more land, not peace," Nov. 20) was replete with hypocrisy and contradictions. Flanagan ini tially digs up the familiar argument that the state of Israel is the stolen property of the Palestinians. This extreme oversimplification ignores political realities. The Jewish people have claims to Palestine which predate those of modern Arabs by a couple of thousand years. Jewish dominance in Palestine's history faded when the Romans sacked Jerusalem, wrecking the existing civilization and dispers ing the Jews worldwide. The Jews that re mained (a substantial number) lived alongside the Palestinians first under Turkish domina tion and then under the British. Thus, the tide of Jewish immigration to Palestine which peaked after World War II did not represent the displacement of a sovereign Palestinian state, but rather the reclamation of land stolen from their forefathers. A second problem not properly addressed is that of the 1948 United Nations partition. If I recall correctly, a benevolent family of nations got together and decided that Arabs and Jews should share the land. At this time, Palestine was separated roughly along existing ethnic lines as fairly as possible. In response, the Arab states united and invaded the new state with the intent of slaughtering every Jew in the country. The plan backfired, and Israel re pulsed the invaders, capturing additional tracts of Palestinian territory. Although the Pales tinians may have been shortchanged by Pan Arabic ambitions, the Israelis paid for the eaders' Forum A. Ann Ards Guest Writer have been hired. In the last few years, African American faculty have been leaving UNC at an alarming rate. The University has done itself and minority students a grave disservice by allowing greatly respected scholars such as history professor Nell Painter and religion professor Charles Long to be drawn away by other institutions. With more diligent efforts from Cell and the administration, these profes sors could have been retained. The Curriculum in AfricanAfro-American Studies in particular has suffered from her mismanagement and lack of commitment. Not only have several tenure track positions been vacant continually, but this curriculum has lacked a chairperson for the last four years, forcing the program into a limbo-state shared by no other department at UNC. (Now you know why Afam 40 and 41 are always closed at drop-add.) Confirming our worst fears, in July 1989 Dean Cell appointed a white male, Dr. Robert Gallman of the UNC economics department, as acting chair of the curriculum. Needless to elaborate, Dean Cell had to confess that her judgment was faulty, and she agreed to a compromised position of co-chair for this cur riculum. Cell approached the English department's Dr. Thadious Davis, a well-respected choice of the AfriAfam professors. For some inexplicable reason, however, Cell did not finalize the appointment until more than six weeks after she agreed to the compro mise. Campus mail running slow? Power short age in South Building? When student leaders met with Provost O'Connor on Oct. 26, he agreed that the Uni versity needs a capable dean who is responsive to students as well as faculty, and confessed that Dean Cell has not been that kind of dean. with silence and distortion in the American media, enabling Israel to portray itself as the peace-loving victim of intransigent Arabs." In other words, it did not begin in the '60s, as I had inadvertently posited. In fact, the PLO acceptance of Israel can be traced to its support of a United Nations Security Council Resolution of Jan. 22, 1 976, call ing for peace and territo rial integrity for all states in the area. This resolution was vetoed by the United States and Israel. Numerous peace overtures by the PLO have since been thwarted by same. BARRY FLANAGAN Graduate student Geography Letters policy The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticisms. When writing letters to the editor, please follow these guidelines: captured land in blood. It's hard to give up what your sons and daughters died for. Additionally, much of Israel's Jewish popu lation was made up of Holocaust survivors. Add to these the growing number of immi grants who have fled repressive regimes in the Soviet Union, North Africa and the Middle East. It's a little late for the United Nations to decide that the Jewish state is a big mistake and everyone should just go home. That would be like giving the Southwest back to Mexico and ordering the evacuation of all Americans. Even if this fantasy scenario were justified, it would never happen (I don't see Mr. Flanagan pack ing up for Ireland and giving his house to an American Indian). The political dice have been cast, and we should acknowledge the legiti mate claims of both sides. Then there is the suggestion of Israeli impe rialism. What a joke! I guess the author visual izes Jewish vikings coming ashore and pillag ing Palestine in 1948. The reality is that they were starving refugees desiring simply to join their own people. Israeli militarization and capture of territory began only when they were taught by hostile neighbors the lesson of "fight or die." Israel's political ties to repressive regimes become understandable in light of their desperate situation. By no choice of its own, Israel is pitted against 90 million Arabs who have repeatedly pledged its destruction. Israel would shed its pariah status if the exter nal pressures were removed. Claims that a Jewish state is inherently rac ist dissolve under close inspection. If this is true, it would naturally follow that each of the concerns As an appeasing explanation for her nonre sponsiveness, the provost offered his behav iorist interpretation, describing Cell as a "too cautious" administrator wary of forcing more-conservative-than-you-think Chapel Hill and UNC out of their "comfort zone." At this meeting and a follow-up, the provost urged us "to work with" Dean Cell. Of course we de clined that abjuration, for working with an administrator as incompetent as Cell is as inef fectual as pinning a hole in the seat of one's pants. The gape is going to widen and, to the embarrassment of all, finally show. This is a new administration, and African American students have in no way explored all the channels through which we can facilitate dialogue. Yet, we already see a disturbing tendency of this administration to belittle our concerns. The insult of both O'Connor's and Hardin's favorable recommendations of Cell is worsened by their attempts to dismiss our protest all together, with O'Connor's calling an obvi ous petition, a document with strongly stated grievances and multiple signatures, a mere "letter" (DTH, "Groups fight dean's appoint ment," Nov. 10), and Hardin's calling a signifi cant sector of the campus community a "hand ful of students" (DTH, "Hardin to back ap pointment," Nov. 17). Since the majority of African-American students are in the College of Arts and Sci ences, it is imperative that we have a dean that is sensitive to our concerns. During her five years as dean, Gillian Cell has shown not only insensitivity and indifference, but incompe tence. To say that her favorable recommenda tion for reappointment is outrageous under states the matter. Chancellor Hardin believes that we have misunderstood the situation, yet we know that Cell's record substantiates our conclusion: five more years of Gillian Cell would be disastrous. Ann Ards is a junior English and African American Studies major from Dallas, TX. All letters must be dated and signed by the author(s), with a limit of two signatures per letter. Letters should include the author's year, major, phone num ber and hometown. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Remember, brev ity is the soul of wit. Place letters in the box marked "Letters to the Editor" outside the DTH office in the Stu dent Union annex. Soviet republics vying for a national identity is also a bastion of racism. Mr. Flanagan is ignor ing Israel's right to a secure homeland as well as the legitimacy of any national movements. In Israel, politics is kept very separate from religion. The Israeli constitution provides equal protection regardless of ethnic background (unlike South Africa) and specifically asserts the need for Jewish-Palestinian brotherhood. Human rights violations are unjustifiable under any circumstances, but in light of a political climate which lends itself to insecurity and distrust, Israel has shown great restraint. Israel has a long-standing tradition of justice and humanitarianism behind it. The great majority of Jews would extend this to the Palestinians if given the opportunity. I think it's obvious that some of Mr. Flanagan's letter could be construed as veiled anti-Semitism. Regardless of intent, compari sons between Israel and South Africa and claims of "Jewish imperialism" have disturb ing overtones. This type of rhetoric lumps Jews and Israelis together as a conspiring force and really doesn't belong in the discussion. The fact is that whether conservative or liberal, Israeli Jews agree that they will fight to remain in the country they built and made bloom with their own hands. This reality compounds deep seated Arab-Israeli hostilities and manifests itself in injustices and atrocities. Analyzing this dilemma and its political realities requires much more than a geography lesson. DAVID S. KAPLAN Freshman Political scienceeconomics
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 27, 1989, edition 1
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