10fThe Daily Tar HeelTuesday, April 24, 1990
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98th year of editorial freedom
Jessica Lanning and Kelly Thompson, Editors
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JENNY CLONINGER, University Editor
Jennifer Wing, Forum Editor
Cameron Tew, City Editor
lyRNA MlLLER, Features Editor
Jamje Rosenberg, Sports Editor
EVAN ElLE, Photography Editor
Steve Wilson, News Editor
MelaNIE BLACK, Layout Editor
NANCY WYKLE, University Editor
Crystal Bernstein, Opinion Editor
STACI COX, State and National Editor
CHERYL ALLEN, Features Editor
ALISA DeMao, Omnibus Editor
PETE CORSON, Cartoon Editor
JoANN RODAK, News Editor
ERIK DALE FLIPPO, Design Coordinator
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James Claude Benton, Ombudsman
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Making history
New districts need student input
-.':You might be living in a historic district
next year. And if you want any say in
whether the Historic District Commission
will have to approve changes to your home-sweet-home,
you'd better take action be
fore leaving Chapel Hill for the summer,
The Chapel Hill Town Council received
a proposal to declare historic all buildings
in the neighborhoods around Cameron
Avenue and McCauley Street and will'
hold a public hearing on May 21 for those
who wish to voice their opinions on the
issue. If you will not be in town but want
your opinion to be taken into consideration
when the council makes its decision, you
need to write a letter to the town manager
telling her how you feel.
:The historic district will encompass
several fraternity houses, one sorority house
and five University buildings: the Carolina
Inn, Alumni House, Nash Hall, Miller Hall
and Whitehead Residence Hall. If these
and the other buildings within the district's
boundary lines are declared historic, their
owners will have to submit for approval all
external renovations such as repainting,
adding a room or building a deck to be
made on the structures.
c By recognizing the CameronMcCauley
area as a historic district, the council is
acknowledging that the area is special, but
it is also giving itself the power to control
all outside improvements made to build
ings in the district. While it is all well and
good to make the. area historic in hopes that
homeowners and others will keep their
properties in good condition, subjecting
University renovations to the town's ap
proval might not be such a good idea.
ApjDlylhg'to the Historic District Com
mission to make changes on building exte
riors involves paperwork and a small fee.
And since the commission meets only once
a month, renovations could be held up for
a while. But these matters are fairly trivial.
The real problem lies in letting the com
Finishing the editorial
Former "hot" issues still warm
When I first joined The Daily Tar Heel
editorial board last spring, I swore I would
never write one of those insipid "last edito
rial" spews that seniors and edit board
members seemed so incapable of avoiding
oo-.the last occasion their names would
;ever appear in the paper. But throughout
;my four years at the DTH, the one thing
"that I've realized is that you can't really
understand anything until you've been there
yourself so, please indulge me.
; Today I glanced through the pages of
'the 1986-87 DTH, the Class of 1990's
freshman paper, and I realize how much
this campus had changed in the last four
years. Officer Keith Edwards' grievance
against the University police was just
beginning, Student Congress funding of
the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association
and UNC divestment from South Africa
weje the hot campus topics, and William
, Friday was UNC-system president. Many
of the people who just read that sentence
.will have no idea what I'm talking about
, at least, I hope so. That's my point.
r It seems ironic that at a university with
such a strong tradition, students are oper
ating at an extreme disadvantage for this
, y.ery reason: specifics change very quickly,
wjiile general themes student disem
jpqwerment, Ram's Club omnipotence,
University Housing's disdain for student
.opinion change little, if at all. And while
these examples are massive generaliza
tions, they are easily translatable into spe
cifics, specifics that students have been
; trying to change for decades.
..Students need to educate themselves
.about their status and power on this cam
pus, not just during their four years but also
.the past four or eight or twenty years. Only
iien will they have enough perspective to
.prevent the past from repeating itself. The
administration uses student ignorance as a
. tool, and it is a very effective one. If a move
, to, reduce student input fails now, it can be
re-introduced in five years and, if no one
'rjqtices, it can pass easily. The only thing
thVt can stop this is student awareness. And
;,while the Jeffrey Bealls and the Gene
! Devises and the Dale McKinleys come and
mission decide which renovations it will
allow the University to make.
If this area were declared historic, the
council would have the power to prohibit
all changes on the exteriors of buildings
that it thought did not maintain the historic
nature of the district. Of course, no one
wants to replace the graceful brick build
ings of the Carolina Inn with ultramodern
cement-and-steel monstrosities; almost
everyone would agree that the traditional
look of campus structures should be main
tained. But not everyone will agree that a
town commission is the best judge of what
improvements would maintain the historic
character of the town. And with financial
and other obstacles to overcome, Univer
sity officials do not need the extra hassle of
being forced to wait for the commission's
approval every time they want to make
additions to historic buildings.
Making the CameronMcCauley neigh
borhoods of Chapel Hill historic would
give area homeowners some nice perks,
such as tax deductions for owners of rental
property and better bargaining power for
sorority and fraternity members seeking
renovation donations from alumni. But it
could result in an increase in bureaucratic
headaches. Homeowners should not get
too caught up in the excitement of living in
a "historic" house to consider the red tape
they might have to cut through to make
exterior improvements on their homes.
Students who will be living in the desig
nated area next year should take a few
minutes to consider their own feelings on
the issue and make the town council aware
of their thoughts. After all, we live here for
almost nine months of the year; Chapel
Hill is our chosen home away from home.
As students, we should make sure our
wishes are reflected in any changes the
town council chooses to make in the status
of our community. Crystal Bernstein
go, the administrators know this. While all
administrators are not "out to get" stu
dents, it is obviously easier for things to get
accomplished without student protests and
editorials and policy statements.
It is also time that student advocacy
groups started working together, rather
than childishly bickering with each other
(witness the relationship between congress
and the Executive Branch this year). The
Daily Tar Heel is also guilty. While it is a
newspaper's job to be a watchdog to those
in power, and this includes those students
in power, our primary concern should be to
keep an eye on the powers that be. We
, would be far more effective if we would
work together as students and perhaps if
we stopped paying so much attention to
Student Congress, it would start meriting
more (but I wouldn't bet on it.)
If more students made the attempt to
educate themselves, all would be able to
make better use of the vast resources avail
able to us. This University has an amazing
tradition of strong student government,
strong student journalism and strong stu
dent service to the state and national
communities. This tradition should be
augmented by student awareness of the
incredible academic opportunities that are
also available. Too many undergraduates
go through four years without exploring
their own curiosities or taking advantage
of the nationally and internationally re
knowned faculty at the University.
And above all, while we should never
lose the awareness of how lucky we are to
have been able to spend four or five years
in this wonderful place, we should also
never stop working to make it better for
those who follow us.
It has been an honor and a privilege to
work at this newspaper with these people.
During my stay here, whenever anyone
made a mistake, misquoted someone or
got a fact wrong, former Editor Jean Lutes
would always say the best thing about
working for a newspaper was that you
always get another chance tomorrow. Only
now, on this my very last day, do I realize
how right she was. Kimberly Edens
Student leaders sole yoke
The recent student protest about student
government highlighted the lack of
ethics and abundance of politics that
marred the student elections and actions of a
few in student government this past year. Cries
of an inactive and unresponsive government
abounded.
Student leaders are entrusted with a tremen
dous amount of responsibility. They are first
and foremost students with presumably simi
lar concerns as other students but with the
sound judgment that makes them leaders. As
advocates and watchdogs of student interest,
student government has had no equal voice in
recent years.
At the last Buildings and Grounds Commit
tee meeting discussing the site of the Business
School, students were the ones who offered a
proposal with difficult alterations. Why not
place the building in the navy fields and shift
the practice sites? We as student leaders were
concerned about the inconvenience of a Busi
ness School by the Kenan Center. Students
were the ones who found a solution to the
meeting by suggesting an open information
session to discuss the site of the building.
With student schedules and, yes, student
apathy, it is very difficult to convince large
numbers of students. We do not need to be
more representative by soliciting a broader
base of student input on issues. This has to be
a joint effort of the Student Congress and the
Executive Branch.
But through the actions of student leaders,
faculty and staff on the Buildings and Grounds
Leaders fail to fulfill
senior expectations
To the editors:
As a senior I was disappointed
to learn who our graduation
speaker will be. I mean no offense
to Hugh McColl and his person;
however, I think UNC students
hope for and expect a well-known
speaker for Commencement (note
Roger Mudd and Charles Kuralt
as past examples). It seems Bobby
Ferris procrastinated in finding a
speaker does late petition ring
any bells? I suppose it didn't oc
cur to Ferris that if no well-known
speaker were available the senior
class would have enjoyed hearing
from one of "Carolina's own,"
Professor Leuchtenberg or
Schwartz for example. I feel I am
not alone in my discontent with
the upcoming ceremony. Juniors,
take note!
KRISTIN GARNER
Senior
History
Academic needs
outrun athletic
To the editors:
I read with interest assistant
Safety, manners prove cyclists' superiority
To the editors:
It seems the DTH has recently established
an anti-bicycle policy on its editorial page.
First came Jessica Lanning's "An overlooked
majority: Student concerns ignored in bicycle
race," (April 9) where she scolds Chapel Hill
officials for planning a professional criterium
(bike race) on Saturday, May 5, without con
sulting students first. Next came a letter to the
editor ("Bicyclists run over campus safety,"
April 17) berating students who ride bikes on
campus walkways. Finally came Kimberly
Maxwell's "4th Irk" in her latest column
("Don't you even look at my chair..." April 19)
which expressed her dissatisfaction with
campus riders.
I would like to take this opportunity to make
a couple of clarifications and hopefully avert
any ill-will against campus riders from being
directed against a smaller, more misunder
stand group of riders called cyclists. First, let
me clarify the difference between campus riders
and cyclists.
Campus riders ride those pseudo-mountain
bike things with the fat tires and straight handle
READERS'
F0R9M
Joe Andronaco
Committee a hasty decision was averted.
Many issues are addressed by student govern
ment. We allocate our own parking because of
student leaders. The University now offers an
academic minor as a result of student
government's efforts. We have exam time
parking freedoms, a better (word) service, a
library (word),' an expanded safety network,
undergraduate teaching awards, a student tui
tion fund, a Chapel Hill and Carrboro Town
Council all due to student government and
the "groupies" which have been much ma
ligned in recent months. Student leaders have
asked for a re-evaluation of the Chancellor's
Committees to make them more useful and
effective.
A new Development Task Force initiated by
student government will be in place to study
the development concerns of the University.
And the list of accomplishments goes on.
This year's Executive Branch under Brien
Lewis' leadership did an extraordinary job but
was tarnished by petty politics and dumb ethi
cal blunders. This by no means should shake
students' perceptions of their government. It is
hard at work and for the most part for the right
reasons.
Bill Hildebolt and his staff as well as Matt
sports editor Mark Anderson's
article paying homage to the Rams
Club, "Critics too quick, too harsh
in judging Rams Club." (April 19)
I was especially intrigued by Rams
Club executive vice president
Moyer Smith's claim "...alumni
have made this University what it
is and will make it better." What a
pompous statement.
A university is an academic
community based on learning,
teaching and research. What makes
Carolina an outstanding institu
tion of higher learning are not the
alumni, but the students, profes
sors and academic facilities (e.g.,
libraries, laboratories and com
puter resources), and the resulting
dynamic environment.
Alumni are beneficiaries of this
excellence, and to the extent they
support these academic functions,
can claim to have made this uni
versity what it is. Smith may try to
rationalize the skewed, self-centered
priorities of the Rams Club,
but the academic community and
public will no longer be deceived.
FRANK MOLINEK
Graduate Student
School of Information and
Library Science
Throw the book at
library vandals
To the editors:
During the first week of the
spring semester, I went to Davis
Library in search of a book for my
English 66 class. When I opened
the book ("The Augustan Vision,"
in case you want to try this your
self) I found the following mes
sage taped to the first page:
"You have just opened a book
that has been so thoroughly de
faced by some filthy shit that it is
illegible to other readers. Should
you ever see someone defacing a
library book in this way, here is
the proper procedure: 1) kick the
person in the face, hard, until blood
streams from the mouth and nos
trils, 2) repeat, with each kick,
'Don't write in library books,' 3)
when face has been thoroughly
kicked in, report the person to
library authorities."
The message came to my mind
several times over the semester,
when I would pull a book off the
shelves at Davis or the Under
graduate library only to find it
illegibly defaced, no good to any
one anymore. B ut recently the situ
ation seems to have worsened.
bars which, judging by the triple-digit RPMs
achieved by the riders when climbing hills,
can't be shifted above first gear. These riders
are the ones who zip past you on the walkways
on campus (the furiously spinning legs are a
dead give-away).
Cyclists, on the other hand, generally ride
1 2 to 1 4-speed bikes, are rarely in first gear and
wouldn't be caught dead on a sidewalk. We
wear helmets and Lycra clothing, and yes,
many of us shave our legs too. We generally
ride on county roads and perimeter city streets
so as to avoid automobile traffic and its perils
(i.e. angry horns, hurled bottles from passing
motorists and the occasional comedian who
swerves at us).
It seems to me that common courtesy on the
part of the campus rider such as riding on inner
campus roads or fringe sidewalks and not lock
ing bikes to handrails would solve the
pedestrian's problems without incident. The
seemingly increasing ill-will towards cyclists,
however, is another matter.
On almost every road in the United States,
there is enough room in each lane to accommo
for concerns
Heyd and the Congress have benefited from the
recent clamor for change. They will make every
effort to be more responsive, to seek more
student input. This is all impossible without the
interest of the student body. Regardless, "rep
resentation" should be a main goal of student
government.
Students have demonstrated their leadership
and activism in China and Eastern Europe.
They have pushed impetuously and vigorously
for change. With stagnant problems, we need to
seek change and ask difficult questions:
Why is the campus segregated?
Why is there not a BCC or a form thereof?
Why is there not a Native American faculty
member?
Why, when trademark money and athletic
revenues are doing well, does the University
face financial aid woes and library shortages?
These are all difficult questions which many
ask, but few dare answer. The University is at
a time when it adds minors but eschews even
more critical challenges. The University should
stimulate more faculty and staff involvement.
As part of our effort, we need to form a
student voice on many of the critical issues. A
network of student leaders needs to organize,
write and push for these needed changes. Petty
indignation will get us nowhere. A fiery, con
certed effort, tempered with sound judgment
will get us everywhere or at least as far as our
vision can see.
Joe Andronaco is a senior history major
from Ocalo, Fla.
Three students who sit near me
in classes have been writing in
library books during class. Don't
students realize that writing in
library books is vandalism? Espe
cially with funding so limited now,
how can students merri ly ru in their
own University's resources?
I'm not asking you to kick
anyone, but take some responsi
bility for your University. Report
vandalism to library authorities.
And if you write in library books
yourself, stop.
JESSICA GREEN
Senior
English
Letter 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:
B All letters must be dated and
signed by the author(s), with a
limit of two signatures per letter.
H All letters must be typed and
double-spaced, for ease of edit
ing. B Letters should include the
author's year, major, phone num
ber and hometown.
date roughly one and a half average-sized cars.
An experienced cyclist uses only about three
feet on the right side of the lane; the law allows
a bike rider to use the entire lane in the same
way a person riding a motorcycle is permitted.
Just think how slow traffic would get if we all
exercised our legal rights.
I have been riding seriously for several years
now and have competed in a number of road
races and criteriums as have many of the cy
clists you see on the roads. We know how to
handle ourselves and our bikes on the road; and
we have a hard enough time dodging potholes
and out-sprinting vicious dogs without having
to worry about being run off the road by some
one in a rush to get a six-pack before the game
starts.
So please, don't let your anger at some
sidewalk-streaking jerk lead you to hassle a
cyclist. Our lives could depend on it. Thank
you, and remember, share the road. :
JOHN T. FERGUSON
Senior
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