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10The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, February 28, 1990 hp laily QJar 3WI 9.fyi rar r editorial freedom Jfssica Lanning an d Kelly Thompson, Editors Jenny Cloning fh, Vnhvrsity Editor Kimim kly Kni NS, Eontm Editor Cami kon Tew, 67y iV7or Myuna Millek, Ecaturvs Editor Jamie Rosi nbekg, Sports Editor Kv.N Kile, Photography Editor Suae Wilson, M-us Editor Ml'LANlF. Black, layout Editor J ason Kelly , I 'nit vrsity Editor Lynetef. Blaik, Opinion Editor Staci Cox, State and Nation Editor Ciukyl Allen, Ecaturvs Editor Lisa Reiciile, Omnibus Editor Pin- Corson, Cartoon Editor JoAnn Rodak, Ncu s Editor Kkik Dale Fi.U'PO, Design Coordinator James Clu'df. Benton, Ombudsman Students work wonders Minor is major accomplishment Frustrations and setbacks are constants at any university. Students are continually trying to be heard and get their programs instituted, but too often Find themselves the victims of some administrative deci sion made in some building far removed from any student, while angered and frus trated they beat their heads against a wall of alumni and state legislators. Every so often, however, a miracle occurs; the students are well-represented and their concerns are heard. Such is the case w ith the academic minor as passed by the Faculty Council last Friday: starting next fall UNC students will have the same option to minor that most college students across the country have. What makes this program unique, however, is that it was initiated bv students. Students' involvement with the admini stration is usually reactionary; the admini stration makes a decision and the students find out too late to do anything but protest, like the location of the new Alumni build ing or the mandatory $100 meal card re quirement. But this program came from the students," by the students and for the students. Two years ago, Sandy Rierson, chair woman of the Academic Affairs Commit tee under former Student Body President Kevin Martin, polled students to deter mine if any demand existed for a minor piogram, and the students said yes. The committee found in October 1988 that 77 percent of the students who de clared or anticipated declaring a double major said they would have chosen to minor in the second field if they had been given the, option. They also cited that 31 1 students left UNC with a double major, about one-tenth of the graduation class. Those numbers, of course, missed the number of people who worked toward a double major but came up short in time and requirements. Unfortunately,these students had worked long and hard, but had nothing to show for it. Realizing the demand for an academic minor program, the Academic Affairs Committee made a proposal to the Faculty Council. This year the committee has urged the council to follow through. And last Friday they did just that. Just as it was the students who initiated this program, it is the students who will benefit. Those who have worked toward a second major but have come up short in time or requirements will now receive formal recognition for the hard work they put into another field. Many students who have vigorously structured their schedules to accommodate a second major will now opt for a minor. This will allow them to enjoy the broader liberal arts education that this University purports to offer. Members of the University Career Plan ning and Placement Services contend that neither a minor nor a double major are appreciated by an employer. But students who have extra electives could be using those hours more constructively toward a rrtinor, which would accomplish two things at once: they are able to explore an area of interest to them, and they are getting credit for it. An employer can hardly turn a stu dent away for choosing to use his or her time more constructively. Because many academic departments have not yet committed themselves to the program, students should be persistent in their efforts to make the program compre hensive and to give all students the oppor tunity to explore their intellectual curiosi ties. This success should .serve as an example of what students can accomplish when we go about it the right way. Student govern ment identified a need, devised a reason able solution and presented it to a faculty that also recognized the need. Together they were able to correct a glaring omis sion. The administration has often looked down on student government and students of this University as being part of a reac tionary group, and sometimes we deserve it. But students have rewarded themselves this lime by initiating a program that aims to serve them. They should be commended for it. Jessica Lanning Season of Superheroes, Slides and sleep Best of intentions Student Congress bill falls short Striving for racial and cultural diversity in student organizations is a worthy goal one that all groups should aspire to reach. Student Congress has initiated a drive to recruit more minorities in campus groups with the passage of BRJ 71-135. This bill requires campus organizations requesting student fees to submit a written statement committing to the active recruit ment of minorities. But before the bill goes into effect on May 16, clarifications need to be made for student groups to under stand and fulfill its goals. "Active recruitment of minorities" is difficult to define, especially when cam pus groups are left to hash it out for them selves. As it stands now, the results might not resemble the intentions of the bill's sponsors. One group may "recruit" by sending representatives to residence areas with high minority concentrations, while another may "recruit" by casually men tioning an upcoming event to an acquain tance who happens to be a minority. If the bill offers no clear definition of recruit ment, it will produce no clear results. Organizations that specifically serve minorities are not addressed in the present form of the bill. How are the Carolina Indian Circle, the Black Student Move ment and the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association to recruit minorities, and what constitutes a minority group in relation to these organizations? Career-specific or ganizations may also face problems in recruiting minorities because they draw from a specif major or school. Why should their budgets be jeopardized if low minor ity enrollment limits "recruitment?" And how does Student Congress, whose mem bership is dominated by white males, pro pose to increase its own minority represen tation? Congress members cannot force minorities to run for office if they don't want to. The bill also lacks enforcement meth ods, making it difficult for Congress to achieve positive results and adherence to the rules. While the Rules and Judiciary Committee can investigate an organization and retract or freeze its funds, the commit tee can act only if it receives a complaint from students at large. Few students would go around analyzingcampus organizations' recruiting efforts, and even fewer would make an effort to report it. At the same time, the chance to freeze or retract an organization's funds for any reason is a powerful political tool that might appeal to some of the more manipulative members of student government. The bill's supporters argue that requir ing organizations to formulate a statement of active recruitment will force organiza tion leaders to think carefully about how they can diversify their membership. But how long will they think about it? If the issue is raised only during budget alloca tions, will it really have a deep effect on student organizations? It is easy for groups to promise to change, but good intentions are much more effective if the organiza tions are held accountable more than once a year. BRJ 71-135 is more than a little tooth less at this point. If Student Congress can go back and establish some practical defi nitions and structures to accompany the bill's grand goals, this legislation could be a positive force on this campus. Without it, however, the bill is just a well-meaning gesture that will cause many headaches in the years to come. Crystal Bernstein rn. j ..I.. i - : Buy, uu iuiks uespcraieiy neeu a spring break around here or what? Maybe it's the bizarre weather fluctuations, maybe some sort of heavy-duty laxative leaked into the water supply, or just maybe everybody peed in everybody else' sCorn Flakesall month, but there seems to be a burr in the britches of every person I've seen lately. A more logical explanation is that it's Happy Magical Mid term Season here in Chapel Hill, and us kids are having to spend these blustery days memorizing stuff that is looking pretty incon sequential at this junction in our careers. If November is the "roommate trouble" month, when you start having vicious thoughts about the roommate you grew to hate, February is the "angst-filled God-where-art-thou depres sion" month, when we start to question our futile existences on this planet and question why we need to know what the 'paradox of phenomenology' is in order to get a diploma. But I assure you, these academic things are purely transient professors mess up Febru ary because it's their job. Although I have an infinite amount of respect for someone who was smart and caring enough to devote their life to professorship and although I think that the "those who can, do - those who can't, teach" quote was made up by a bunch of disgruntled welders who hated second grade I still feel a primal urge to purge my list of The Five Kinds of Professors at UNC. The Ramblin' Man Professors be come profes sors for a rea son, and the Ramblin' Man did it because he knew more about his sub ject than any one else in the solar system. He can't teach for the same reason good musicians can't dance; they know way too much about some thing to express it naturally. Also known as "Mr. I Wrote the Book," he quotes long, delirious passages from his own textbook in a monotone that would put eighteen-wheel trucks to sleep and when asked a question, he will ramble on a long, delirious tangent that will send most students into the stratosphere, drooling on their desks with sugarplums danc ing in their heads. Quote: "And if you'll turn to page one thousand seven hundred and fifty in the text book, read along with me .is we t.ike a voyage through die wondrous woiid o! Jidactic rela- m Ian Williams Wednesday's ru:ii tivism ..." Anal Retentive T.A. from the Ninth Circle of Hell There are professors in this world who seem to delight in the academic flogging of their student captives, but much, much worse are their Igor Teaching Assistants, the Grad Students With Very Serious Attitude Problems. These guys probably had a crudload of sand kicked in their faces in grade school, and now carry this primal sandbox grudge to the poli sci class room, where they finally have the power over us durn bratty schoolkids. With snake venom spewing from their lips, the T.A. tears through a paper like an angry tiger through a gazelle, knawing on bad punctuation and flawed argu mentation with cackling glee. Quote: "Let it be known that attendance to the 8 o'clock recitation section counts as 47 percent of your final grade ..." Mr. Everybody's Buddy This teacher spices his lecture with frequent references to the students' alcoholic and sexual passions, in a vain attempt to "relate" to us kids in our obvi ously pleasure-driven lives. He'll set up office hours at He's Not Here on Friday evenings, where he'll suck down a brewski and make thinly-veiled sexist comments relating the subject material with boob size, and then get angry when we don't take him seriously as a professor. Quote: "I'd schedule a quiz for Friday, but I know you'll be out pillaging all night ... (winks) ... right, Gloria? Heh heh heh." Madame Slide This professor's class room has a living room quality to it because you talk about the same stuff you would at three in the morning with drunk house mates. The text S IS for the class is coursepak that consists of three or four newspa per articles vaguely related to each other, all stapled together. Students either get in deep philosophical discussions or sleep, and the teacher gets in trouble every se mester for giving out too many A's; unfortu nately, Madame Slide's class never fulfills anything close to being a perspective, so it is commonly known as 'Two for One at the Pass Fail-o-Rama." Quote: "I really don't believe in the conven tional grading system ... how do y'allee about that?"" The Academic Superhero This profes sor is the veri table god among men, the one teacher that suc cessfully com bines his own personal intel lect with a work ing knowledge of our own at tention span. Passionate yet not a freakazoid, our Superfri end casts off the common shackles of regurgi tation list memorizing and lets us learn tough material without leaving us feeling like we just got our teeth cleaned. The Superhero comes along every two years or so in our college career, so look out for them! Quote: "I've got a convention in Boulder, so there'll be no class on Thursday ..." Anyway, good luck on all these midterms, and don't let them stop you from looking up at the beautiful trees this February. And as my Mom says, if everyone does badly, it's the teacher that fails even though I do have the worst academic attitude west of the Atlantic Basin, and my G.P.A. would almost be legal on a breathalyzer, and these horrible weather fluc tuations are killing me, and the whole world can just go to hell for all I care ... Ian Williams is a music and psychology major from Los Angeles w ho assures all his professors that they are Superheroes. Greg Humphreys, a December graduate, ain't so sure in retrospect. Editorial Policy The Daily Tar HecTs board opinion editorials are voted on by the board, which is composed of the co-editors, opinion editor, f i i um editor and three editorial uriters. The opinions reflect tlie board s majority opinion. Signed editorials do not iitresscnly reflect the entire board's opinion. 't i )i ;v Tar Heel has three regular.sttiff columnists ho write once a week. Their opinions also do not necessarily reflect li.t i pii. 'uiii i f the hoard. READERS' FORUM African-Americans need cooperation, unity to survive To the editor: African-Americans wake up! We are slowly but surely killing ourselves and our race. We are seeing an increase of black-on-black crime. What is even sadder is that we are becoming oblivious to the hate and violence that has surfaced within our race. In South Africa, Nelson Man dela pleads for peace among the black South Africans. Mandela urges blacks to stop fighting each other and to fight apartheid in stead. In our own back yard, we are also fighting. Our problem is that we are not fighting to abolish apartheid or any other worthy cause we are fighting each other. We are damaging ourselves instead of improving standing conditions. When we have brothers and sisters struggling against apart heid what can be so important to take arms against another brother? When we have brothers and sisters addicted to drugs and alco hol what can be so important to take arms against another brother? When we have brothers and sisters living in poverty and un employed what can be so important to take arms against another brother? If there is a logical answer to these questions, please let me know. We have a definite prob lem w hen more college-age black men are in jail than are enrolled in college. An incident this weekend when two black men fought against each other at a UNC social event may explain why some college students here are not in much bet ter shape than some of those in jail. We have been calling each other brother and sister for years; it is now time to act like brother and sister. I hope this letter will open the eyes of a few individuals. We must learn to unite and work to gether for the advancement of our people. Wake up and stop fighting each other. Love your brother and your sister for they are each a reflection on you. KIMBERLY ELLINGTON Sophomore Political Science GSU concerned with more than just salary issues To the editor: "UNC's main mission is to educate, not to employ" conveys a provocative insight far beyond what Jeffrey Beall ("GSU fails to represent grad assistants," Feb. 27) intended. Education is the founda tion of our nation's health, wealth, and well-being. Take a look at nations without strong educational systems if you have doubts. If the state fails to support educational issues even a "living wage" for graduate students then the state has taken another step toward fail ure. Graduate Students United (GSU) advocates issues of far greater importance than some may realize. Issues of pay raises and health benefits are only represen tative of the problems confronting this University today. Take a moment to read the headlines in the Feb. 27 issues of the DTH and The (Raleigh) News and Observer. Nursing school students protest budget cuts (DTH. 1; N&O, IB), UNC-system library budget cuts threaten institutional reputations (N&O, 2B), the senior class at UNC works to endow a teaching position (DTH, 3), and an edito rial places blame for a poor U.S. educational system on apathetic parents (N&O, 9A). Collectively, these articles should tell students, faculty, ad ministrators and legislators that something is amiss with N.C.'s educational system. How can anyone, especially graduate stu dents, be content to allow UNC to deteriorate before their eyes? As our nation's first state university we have too strong a tradtition in support of education simply to let it happen. Do you care what happens to your education? Do you realize that UNC's reputation has a direct impact on your future employ ment? Although it may be "com mon knowledge ... that the best professors are leaving UNC for other universities," should it remain common practice for fac ulty or graduate students? GSU is not the ultimate answer to these problems, but it is a begin ning. Join us at the next GSU meeting to find out if we "sit in a circle and agree how miserable (we) are," ask us about our "thinly veiled scheme to unionize," and ask us why we stay in graduate school instead of "enter(ing) the work force." I am afraid it is your logic that is bogus, Beall, not the existence of GSU. The future stares you straight in the eye. Don't blink. DAVID M. EGNER Graduate student History Letters policy The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticisms. We will attempt to print as many letters to the editor as space per mits. When writing letters, please follow these guidelines: D All letters must be dated and signed by the author(s), with a limit of two signatures per letter. UAll letters must be typed and double-spaced, for ease of edit ing. fl Letters should include the author's year, major, phone num ber and hometown. B The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit. B If you have a title relevant to the topic of the letter, please in clude it. B We will not print responses to responses. "Letter Tag" tends to get confusing. B Place letters in the box marked "Letters to the Editor" outside the DTH office in the Stu dent Union annex. Honor Keith Edwards with street name Editors' note: This letter is addressed to the mayor of Chapel Hill. t ff .1 IT Dear mayor jonaman nowes: Once in a lifetime our lives are touched by the wisdom, foresight and courage of a particular individual. A person who is so filled with the love of self, God and her people that she will even defy threats against her own existence to bring freedom indeed to a community who have hungered so long for it. We all know of the tremendous heroism of Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Ms. Daisy Bates and their uncompromis ing stand against oppression and tyranny, but sometimes we forget that right in our midst we have soldiers who are just as strong as the sisters of the fifties and sixties. I speak of Keith M. Edwards of McDade Street the heart of the black community in Chapel Hill. I contend that this lady is being used by God himself for a divine purpose to lead a people out of spiritual and mental bondage and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey just as the Scriptural Moses and the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., did. The courageous stance of Edwards against UNC is not an individual stance, but it is a stance coming from a strong voice who is willing to speak for all of those who suffer in silence. This city must honor this lady with the most honorable reward possible. Bruce Korriem ? SMI K1 t i lt? . - i Historically, we find that whenever there have been a people who have suffered continu ally and longed for a change, that nature has produced a change for that people. Edwards was born into the world to do the work that she is doing now. She is going to make life better for her beloved community of Chapel Hill. This is a bold, scholarly and Christ-like work. Indeed, a revolutionary work. And this is why we must honor her. Here is what I pro pose: In the black belt of New York City known as the village of Harlem, Malcolm X was honored in 1987 when Lenox Avenue was renamed Malcolm X Boulevard. For many years in Harlem, Seventh and Eighth Avenues have been known as Adam Clayton Powell Boule vard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. There is now a proposal before the Chicago City Council to rename Stoney Island Avenue for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I think that the black community as well as the whole city of Chapel Hill would burst with pride if McDade Street were renamed Ms. Keith Edwards Boulevard. What better way to create pride and self-respect in black children and Edwards own granddaughter if they grew up seeing a street named in honor of a coura geous freedom fighter. Edwards, you are one powerful sister and you have made a profound impact on my life in the short time that I have known you. I would like the world to know and honor you as I honor you myself. Mr. Mayor, thank you for reading my humble words, and now, here are the words of Martin Luther King Jr., written from a Birmingham jail: "One day the south will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered black women, symbolized in a seventy-two year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segre gated buses, and who responded with ungram matical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: 'My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." On this Freedom Day and King Day of 1990, let us do it right this time by honoring and hearing from the people that Dr. King, Jesus and Edwards love so much the little people of Chapel Hill, McDade Street and, eventually, Ms. Keith Edwards Boulevard. Bruce Karriem is from Durham.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 28, 1990, edition 1
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