The Daily Tar HeelFriday, December 8, 198913:
Opinion
University cannot ignore
larger minority concerns
To the editor:
I read with interest Professor Joel
Schwartz's letter "Efforts to block Cell 's
reappointment unfair" (Nov. 29). I was
interested because as a political science
graduate student, I was sure that Dr.
Schwartz, himself a distinguished po
litical scientist, would add some wis
dom and useful insight and analysis to
this ongoing debate. I was disappointed
that he did not.
I agree with Dr. Schwartz that Gil
lian Cell, dean of Arts and Sciences,
cannot be held totally responsible for
the lack of racial and cultural diversity
among UNC's faculty, administration
and student body. I agree that she alone
is not responsible for the inattentive
ness toward minority concerns in gen
eral. However, Dean Cell, along with
Provost Dennis O'Connor and Chan
cellor Paul Hardin, is at least guilty of
poor leadership and poor public rela
tions where these issues are concerned.
In his letter, Dr. Schwartz seemed to
be unaware of, or he chose to ignore,
the broader, more pertinent questions
underly i ng these concerns. For instance:
Is there, among the faculty and admini
stration at UNC, a widespread commit
ment to a racially and culturally diverse
University community, or is this, as Dr.
Schwartz implies, simply and only a
"legitimate concern of the black stu
dent community?"
In what possibly can be interpreted
as an attempt to address this question,
Dr. Schwartz cites some American
Council of Education statistics on the
number of African-Americans complet
ing doctoral degrees. This is only stat
ing the obvious! Most of us in this
setting are well aware of the relatively
small number of African-Americans
receiving Ph.D.s. The more interesting
and relevant questions are: How many
of these few, 820 in 1986, did UNC
actively and seriously recruit? If the
current pool of African-Americans with
Ph.D.s was increased two or threefold,
would UNC with its current recruit
omit posnHrons retard reciru'Dtmeinit;
ack of black PhoOo a! no excuse
', I wish to applaud Dean Gillian Cell's
recommendation of Dr. Trudier Harris
to chair the Curriculum in African and
Afro-American Studies. Dr. Harris is a
distinguished scholar and a gifted
teacher who is held in high esteem by
her colleagues in African and Afro
American Studies. I welcome her lead
ership and look forward to a progres
sive new era of African and Afro
American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.
There remain, however, several
unresolved problems which could
hamper Dr. Harris' effectiveness. In
his Nov. 29 letter, "Efforts to block
Cell's reappointment unfair," Profes
sor Joel Schwartz said "it's desirable
for the director of the curriculum to
have a joint appointment in one of the
departments in Arts and Sciences."This
preference for joint appointments has
retarded the acquisition of new faculty
in the Curriculum for nearly a decade.
Over the years, departments have
rejected candidates who were accept
able to the curriculum faculty, search
and advisory committees. One depart
ment never communicated to the search
committee whether or not it was inter
ested in the applicants under review in
its discipline. Another department
merely stated that a candidate's spe
cialty did not fit in with its present
University loses its
moral conscience
. Given UNC's willingness to charac
terize itself as "the Southern Part of
'Heaven," it is not surprising that the
'administration, after labeling the CIA
'Action Committee "terrorist" last Feb
ruary, continues to clamp down on
dissent. By exposing the realities that
lie underneath the University's aesthetically-rich
facade, the protesters
provoke the ire of those who prefer to
ignore the evils being committed in our
name down here on earth.
Board of Trustees member John
Pope's comments and "resolutions"
threaten the University's free exchange
of ideas and students' freedom to dis
sent. It is more than likely that his
irresponsible and reprehensible state
ments and the administration's tacit
approval thereof influenced the
"Honor Court" trying of Dale McKin
ley and Jerry Jones and the Orange
County District Court's unreasonably
harsh sentencing of Jones, who climbed
a WCHL radio tower Oct. 30 in protest
'Of CIA recruitment on campus.
Though Jones was released last Fri
day after serving half of his 30-day
sentence, his incarceration was a sober
ing reminder that our courts refuse to
deal justly and humanely with acts of
political conscience. Jones was found
guilty of trespassing, destroying prop
erty and delaying and obstructing an
officer. As in the trial of activists
convicted for burning draft files in 1 969,
property and the letter of the law were
given priority over moral conscience
ment strategies (assuming some exist)
have a more diverse faculty?
Dr. Schwartz suggests that "the so
lution" to the African-American fac
ulty shortage is to increase the number
of African-American students who
pursue academic careers. I agree that
this is one important solution to the
problem. However, this again is noth
ing more than the obvious. Equally
important is the following question:
What have individual departments, the
Graduate School and professors like
Dr. Schwartz, a distinguished under
graduate teacher, done toward this end?
I was somewhat amazed at Dr.
Schwartz's implicit questioning of
"protest" as an effective, positive po
litical act. As a social scientist, particu
larly one who for some 20 years has
taught a course entitled "Race, Poverty
and Politics," he should know that
groups that are disenfranchised (or
perceive themselves to be), often resort
to "non-traditional" means of political
and social action. In fact, this has his
torically been the "American" way.
Finally, I do not in any way mean to
imply that what is obvious is unimpor
tant or irrelevant. I simply wish to
suggest that the issues at hand deserve
much more than the simplistic treat
ment given them by Professor Schwartz.
Perhaps Dr. Schwartz's analysis was
limited by the space and format re
quirements of the DTH. At least, I hope
so.
KERRY L. HAYNIE
Graduate student
Political science
Acting on beliefs doesn't
offer excuse for actions
To the editor:
In Charles Brittain's editorial "Brav
ery in Beijing: Student doesn't deserve
punishment" (Dec. 4), he asks, "Should
an adult be place on trial for doing what
he thinks is right?" While I agree that,
based on the limited information made
public about Timothy Bell's Chinese
adventures, he should not be severely
O - O
Sonja Stone
Guest Writer
focus. The fate of African and Afro
American Studies should not hang on
the priorities of academic units which
may be indifferent or even opposed to
the black studies mission.
Toward the end of his tenure, Dean
Cell's predecessor, Samual William
son, relaxed his earlier rigid require
ment that all new faculty in the curricu
lum must hold a joint appointment with
a traditional department. When Dean
Cell assumed office, she reinstated the
policy of joint appointments and re
lented only after the abortive 1987
1988 search for a chair. Because the
policy of joint appointments has proved
dysfunctional for the growth and de
velopment of African and Afro-American
Studies, I urge the dean to allow Dr.
Harris to recruit faculty for both single
and joint appointments.
Since departments generally initiate
faculty appointments, a Department of
African and African-American Studies
would ensure that those who are com
mitted to this enterprise would be pri
marily responsible for hiring African-
James Gardner
Guest Writer
and the spirit of the law.
The University too has chosen to
value property and "business as usual"
over moral conscience. Instead of prais
ing activists for focusing attention on
an urgent and deadly serious problem,
and for spurring debate, the administra
tion, opposing dialogue, attempts to
quash the dissent. Meanwhile, it invites
and welcomes to campus the CIA, an
organization infinitely more deserving
than the student protesters of the label
"terrorist."
If we were not so willingly and firmly
locked into our treks toward diploma
andor tenure, and if our self-imposed
blinders were not so tight, we would be
asking different questions: Which is
crazier climbing a radio tower to
protest CIA recruitment, or signing up
for a job interview with the CIA? Is the
gap between word and action, between
ethics and academics, so great that when
a student actually attempts to practice
what he has learned, he is condemned?
Why aren't more of us students,
teachers, administrators in jail? What
happens if we do not protest, if we do
not go to jail?
James Gardner if a visiting instruc
tor in religious studies.
disciplined, I object to the general di
rection of the question. Of course lots
of adults should be put on trial for doing
what they think it right! It's silly to
think otherwise. If you read and thought
about the news even a little bit (a very
good thing for newspaper staffers to
do, incidentally), you would realize
how much is done by "adults" who
believe they are doing the right thing.
Just look at the outrages committed
every day by: Jews who think Moslems
need to be taught a lesson; Shiite Mos
lems who object to Sunni Moslems on
principle and vice versa; Moslems,
Druses, Maronites and Catholics (and
others too, from time to time) who
think all groups other than their own
should be used for landfill; Hindus and
Sikhs who are deeply offended by each
others' outrages; Buddhists, Hindus and
Christians of various denominations
who are certain that the other groups
are taking all of the jobs, or tax reve
nues, or land, or anything else that
some have and others want; Catholics
who want Protestants to "go home"
after they've lived on the old sod for 15
generations and Protestants who have
distaste for the native element.
All of these groups are full of adults
who believe in what they are doing, but
sometimes they just seem to do things
that any reasonable person would like
to see them placed on trial for doing!
Abraham Lincoln believed (let us as
sume) in what he did. So did Stalin. So
did Hitler. Believing in what one does
is a very poor rationale for doing it. Let
our actions be judged by their out
comes. Timothy Bell believed in what he
was doing: It appears that he did some
good and hurt no one. Excellent! I like
him immoderately. Dale McKinley
believes in what he does. Very good so
far! What he does is (sometimes) to
annoy people and interfere with the
free exchange of ideas. It is also to alert
people to very real abuses of human
rights, sometimes. That's fine: Here we
have a balancing act. Why not judge his
actions individually? Some of it is very
good; some is nothing but childish and
intolerant. Eddie Hatcher probably
ists and African-Americans. A con
structive rather than obstructionist
approach to this situation would be to
support single appointments in a De
partment of African and African
American Studies.
Deans recommend department
chairs. One criterion by which chairs
ought to be evaluated and reappointed
is their record on minority faculty re
cruitment and retention.
The so-called shortage of black
Ph.D.'s has been a convenient defense
for lame recruitment. In a recent book,
"Affirmative Rhetoric, Negative Ac
tion: African-American and Hispanic
Faculty at Predominantly White Insti
tutions," co-authors Valora Washing
ton and William Harvey chip away at
that defense. According to Dr. Wash
ington, who is vice president of Anti
och College and a former UNC profes
sor, the proportion of African-American
and Hispanic faculty at predomi
nantly white institutions "has never
come close to the percentage of African
American and Hispanics" with doc
toral degrees.
At the College of Arts and Sciences
at UNC, only 2 percent of the tenured
tenure-track faculty are black. To be
consistent with the national percentage
(4 percent of all doctoral degrees are
believed it was the right thing to walk
into a newspaper office and hold the
staff hostage with a shotgun. Some of
the hostages may have felt it wasn't a
good idea for him to do so, but he had
the shotgun, so the floor belonged to
him. Some say he had no intention of
shooting anyone, but just needed to get
some attention. Well, most of the hos
tages would have left if they truly be
lieved there wasn't a risk of being killed.
Some courts would (choose as many as
fit) call what he did kidnapping, reck
less endangerment, violation of the civil
rights of the hostages andor assault
with a deadly weapon. This could be a
matter that belongs in court, don't you
think?
Pol Pot believed, and perhaps still
believes, that it is proper to bash in the
skulls of people who are not ideologi
cally sound or who don't look right.
(Hmm ... I'm a graduate student, wear
eyeglasses, come from a professional
family and am ideologically at vari
ance with Mao Zedong ... I fear I
wouldn't have fared well in Cambodia
a few years back or a few years from
now.) Please learn something about
what goes on in the real world and get
over the foolish notion that doing what
one believes to be right is an excuse for
anything one chooses to do.
JEFF FRAWLEY
Graduate student
English
Campus' subtle racism
confronted by proposals
To the editor:
Although the letter ("Some race re
lations proposals unrealistic," Dec. 4)
may have been well-meaning, Ross
Berrier does not seem well-informed of
the subtleties of racism on our campus.
Though not apparent to many, preju
dices and racism are all too common on
this campus and must be confronted
and overcome by practical means. The
Black Cultural Center forum members
had this aim in mind. No one has sug
gested that segregation at Carolina is a
held by blacks), we would need to
double the percentage of black faculty
in Arts and Sciences.
UNC is in the enviable position of
having a minority post-doctoral schol
ars program from which black faculty
could be recruited. Whatever happened
to the 30 minority post-doctoral schol
ars who were not hired by UNC? And,
what was Dean Cell's role in recruiting
them? These questions should have been
addressed during the administrative re
view of her term of office.
In meetings with black faculty and
staff, neither Chancellor Hardin nor
Provost O'Connor offered the shortage
of black Ph.D.s as an explanation for
the minuscule number of black faculty.
Instead, they called for a vigorous and
innovative recruitment campaign.
In closing, I feel that the "tone" of
the student protests is symptomatic of
race relations on this campus. What I
hear is righteous indignation over stu
dents' grievances being relegated to a
footnote in the assessment of Dean
Cell's performance. Clearly, their po
sition is that tokenism, paternalism and
apologia are no substitute for equity.
Sonja H. Stone is an associate pro
fessor in African Afro-American studies.
direct, obvious policy of the University
as Berrier seems to have inferred. Fi
nally, an attempt to cope with a prob
lem that has too long been ignored has
been made.
Berrier failed to address the racism
issue on this campus. We feel he may
not realize that there is an issue or
perhaps he could have suggested alter
native proposals to the ones of which he
so disapproved.
The majority of the black population
has chosen to live on South Campus,
but the reasons for this choice and the
resulting responsibilities of the rest of
the University community must be
examined. Perhaps if African-Americans
felt less isolated and more valued,
self-segregation might not occur.
In response to the statement that "the
group which designed these proposals
needs to think about the effects they
could have," we feel that the BCC ra
cism forum groups that formulated the
proposal are not only aware of the
problems here on campus but are in
volved in active, substantial undertak
ings to confront and solve the dilemma.
It is because of the effects these par
ticular suggestions would have, not in
spite of them, that they have been sub
mitted. We and the members of the
forum recognize the need for change
and applaud any efforts to that effect.
No one is saying that these suggestions,
if enacted, will end segregation or preju
dice; they are steps in the right direc
tion. The results of change might not be
ideal, but the situation right now, with
interracial relations, and also with room
mate choices, is not ideal either.
Wouldn't a few compromises be worth
while if their result were positive
change? We understand the writer's
point about the difficulty of adjusting
to college but do not believe that minor
losses would be worth the gains.
The purpose of the proposal to inte
grate South Campus further is to allow
social interaction between blacks and
whites as freshmen. Although there is
some integration in academic pursuits
at UNC, it is the fundamental area of
friendships that is solely lacking. Per
haps through daily dialogue and rela
Dean's support is
seen so many areas
To the discussion of Dean Cell's
reappointment, we wish to add a few
items of information. First, on the
matter of hiring more black faculty, a
need with which we very strongly
agree, readers of the DTH may not
realize certain procedural limitations:
the dean makes no departmental hires.
Such appointments must be initiated
in and supported by a department.
The dean then acts on the departmen
tal request and forwards her recom
mendation to the provost, who sends
his recommendation to the chancel
lor, on to the Board of Trustees and,
in some cases, the Board of Gover
nors. What the dean can do at the hiring
stage is offer support, including
competitive salaries, when depart
ments wish to hire qualified black
candidates. She has done so repeat
edly and for many departments, in
cluding the one in which we work.
Second, much of Dean Cell's
support of black faculty and students
is largely invisible to the general
public, as most of her administrative
efforts are. For example, she spends
considerable time making adminis
trative appointments which are
then subject to approval by the pro
vost, chancellor and boards. In these
tionships with one of another culture,
students will shed many of their preju
dices and ignorance.
Perhaps denying freshmen rights to
choose a roommate could be called;
"freshmanism" or "classism" but cer-'
tainly not racism as Berrier stated.
Racism specifically concerns power and
a belief that one race is superior , to.
another a much more fundamental
d i lemma than freshmen discrimination.
Regardless of what myths surround"
Silent Sam, the fact is that some of us do
not forget that he is historically a syrrr
bol of the Confederacy the South's
fight to maintain the oppressive, bane
ful practice of slavery. Although this
may not serve as a "symbolic reminder
of slavery" to Berrier, to disregard the
offense it is to others is insensitive. A
major problem on this campus is that
people are not aware or concerned with,
other's sensitivities. To have a statue of
a prominent black alumnus to represent
a significant part of our University is
one step toward a wider appreciation;
and understanding. , t . ,
Whether these ideas and proposals;
are easily digested is irrelevant; we as
students must begin now to do more,
than think about the poor state of race
relations at Carolina.
CLARK BENBOW
Sophomore
East Asian studies
JOHANNA MERRITT
Senior
Psychology
.;
We are outta here
This is the last day The Daily Tar
Heel will print this semester. We will
publish a spring registration issue ori
Jan. 12, just in time for you to read
while standing in line for drop-ad.
Letters to the editor and guest columns
for that paper should be turned in. by
noon on Jan. 1 1 or earlier. The DTH
will resume regular spring publication
on Jan. 16, the first day of classes. Till
then, have a nice holiday.
LongHardy
Guest Writers
and other assignments as well, she
works to promote minority candi
dates. In fact, Dean Cell appointed
the first black chairman of a depart;
ment in Arts and Sciences.
She also spends a great deal of
time fund-raising for the University.
That money supports many different
projects, including endowed profes
sorships. Dean Cell recommended
the appointment of a black endowed
professor in Arts and Sciences.
Finally, she spends her time in
extensive though not always overt
advocacy for a vast array of stu
dent causes, such as increasing the
Pogue Scholarships for minority
students.
This list could be much longer
We only wanted to indicate that the
dean's support of both faculty and
students takes many forms.
Beverly Whitaker Long and
Martha Nell Hardy are professors in
speech communications.
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