Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 7, 1990, edition 1 / Page 10
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10The Daily Tar HeelFriday, September 7, 1990 GEORG-XE'S KXDS lailg afar BM 9St year of editorial freedom Jessica Lanning and Kelly Thompson, Editors ZJpP-n, Germany, Ancf ckII you ohzr b'4 oJ n Jus i-rt' ck I JENNIFER WlNG, University Editor Lynette Blair, Forum Editor Cameron Tew, City Editor MYRNA MILLER, Features Editor Jamie 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 JOE Muhl, Photography Editor JoANN RODAK, News Editor James Claude Benton, Ombudsman Corvf you k'Ck Enforced insurance Fees would obstruct mission of UNC Students without insurance coverage may soon be stricken by a viral proposal floating through the Student Group Insur ance Committee, a subcommittee of the Student Health Advisory Board. Interna tional students have already been nabbed: They are required by the University to purchase coverage from U.S. -based insur ance companies that includes premiums for outpatient psychotherapy and pregnancy for males and females. If insurance becomes mandatory for all students, those without coverage will find a nasty surprise waiting for them at the cashier's office. Although the committee has not esti mated the price of such a plan, the student group insurance plan currently offered by the University costs $682 a year. And if UNC follows the example of other schools that require insurance coverage, it will tack this premium onto students' semester bills. Supporters of the mandatory insurance plan claim that uninsured students face serious financial burdens if they contract illnesses requiring expensive hospital stays. Granted, some college students become seriously ill, but not enough to warrant a mandatory insurance policy. College stu dents are, in general, a young, healthy group. Students should not be forced to pay for an insurance policy they will never use. In addition, forcing males to pay a pre mium for pregnancy insurance is ridiculous. Federal regulations require all student group insurance plans to "treat pregnancy as any other illness," i.e., include premiums for pregnancy care in their policies. If preg nancy is an illness, it is one that men never have. Though making insurance premiums higher for women than men might secern unfair, it is also unfair to make men pay for something they can't and will never use. One of the University's main goals is to provide a quality, reasonably priced edu cation, and this education is one of the best bargains around. But it would not be a bargain if administrators required students to pay for an insurance policy with a price tag higher than a semester's tuition and fees. Many students who have difficulty paying for college come from families who do not have insurance policies. If insurance becomes mandatory, those students would be the ones paying an additional $682 or so to attend UNC something thev could not afford. Robbing students of their college educations merely because they cannot af ford to buy insurance is unfair. Forcing international students to buy an insurance policy to come here is bad enough. Forcing every student to pay insurance premiums on their student accounts is even worse. The N.C. Constitution requires that the state provide an affordable higher edu cation for all of its residents; making every student who wants to enjoy the benefits of an inexpensive UNC education pay high insurance premiums is inexcusable. And it only interferes with the University's edu cational goal. Crystal Bernstein . Senseless slaying Youths must learn consequences of violence Something frightening and bone-chilling is happening. In the wake of the Central Park trial where African-American and Hispanic youths are being tried for the attempted rape and beating of a white woman, more violence by minority youths has erupted. An article in The (Raleigh) News and Observer reported that Sunday night eight African-American and Hispanic youths allegedly were involved in fatally stabbing a 22-year-old tourist from Utah in a subway station in New York city. Police say the youths committed the crime because they wanted money to go to a nearby disco. All of the young men, aged 1 7-2 1 , are members of a gang that required mugging someone before being initiated. The question that echoes over and over from this incident is why. Why is a young man, who had his whole life ahead of him, now dead? If the charged youths did commit the crime, why would they feel so much hatred and disregard for the law and hu manity to commit such a rash, brutal act? : : The answers will vary depending upon whom you talk to. While backgrounds on the youths' lives weren't given, there are some that argue minorities commit crimes because they are victims of society. It is no secret that mi norities in this country have to work twice as hard and twice as long to achieve some of the same goals as whites. Perhaps young minority teenagers, frustrated with struggles associated with race, grow angry and mili tant. So they take it out on innocent white people. But then there are others, no doubt par ents and educators, who would say that some youths are just bad, wanting to do wrong. They have no respect for their lives and certainly no one else's. While society may have dealt them harsh blows, there is no excuse for this type of behavior. Chil dren with upbringing know they shouldn't put their hands on things that don't belong to them, and they certainly don't kill over them. No doubt, with all fairness, the latter argument holds much more weight. From the facts presented, it appears that the youths in this case, if guilty, struck out of greed. Nothing can justify a greedy act. Even if the eight were starving and had killed for food, while that wouldn't have made the circumstances any better, it would have at least been more understanding. But a young man's dying because eight wanted to go dancing is unforgivable. These young men, it seems, may have written their own death notices. Their lives, it seems, may be beyond all hope. However, this entire horrible situation could have one positive effect. Perhaps it can teach other youths that violence is not the answer to life's problems nor should it be used ran domly to create fun and excitement. All it does, in fact, is ruin lives. Lynette Blair Oto (Mb m IjM) - Business and advertising: Kevin Schwartz, director. Bob Bates, advertising director; Leslie Humphrey, classified ad manager. Business staff: Allison Ashworth, manager, Kimberly Moretz, assistant manager,Gn& Berardino, office assistant;Mchee Gray, Annice Hood and Tina Payne, receptionists; Ken Murphy, subscriptions. Classified advertising: Kirsten Burkart, assistant manager; Laura Richards and Angela Spivey, assistants. Display advertising: Lavonne Leinster, advertising managenQhai Boswell, Lora Gay, Ginger Wagoner, Carole Hedgepeth, Carrie Grady, Mimi Holman, Tracy King, Tina Parish, Sherrie Davis and Kim Solomon, account representatives; Kim Blass, creative director. Heather Bannister, Kelly Bohart, Chris Berry, Maribeth Layton and Stacy Turkel, sales assistants; Deborah Bumgarner. proofreader. . Advertising production: Bill Leslie, manager, Anita Bentley, Chad Campbell, Greg Miller and Lome Pate, production assistants. Assistant editors: Randy Basinger, arts coordinator, Karen Dennis, ayouf; Doug Ferguson, city; Vicki Hyman, features;Usa Lindsay, news; Johanna Henderson and Jenny Cloninger, ombudsman; Charles Marshall, Omnibus; Mark Anderson and Scott Gold, sports; Glenn O'Neal, state and national; Stephanie Johnston, university. Newsclerks: Kevin Brenan and Amy Dew. Editorial writers: Crystal Bernstein, Lynette Blair and Tim Little. University: Marcie Bailey, Elizabeth Byrd, Jennifer Dunlap, Thomas Healy, Doralyn Hickey, Meredith Hogg, Stacey Kaplan, Susie Katz, Dionne Loy. Brian Lynne, Kenny Monteith. Shannon O'Grady. Jennifer Pilla. Michelle Smith, Aimee Watson, Lee Weeks and Carrie Wells. ' City: Jennifer Dickens. Kris Donahue, Elizabeth Murray. Erik Rogers. Christine Thomas, Sharon Till and Peter Wallsten. State and National: Wendy Bounds, David Etchison, Kevin Greene, Mark Griffin, Andre Hauser. Eric Lusk. Kyle York Spencer and Grant Thompson. Arts: Kitt Bockley, John Freeman. Mondy Lamb, Philip Mcadoo. Greg Miller, Brian Springer, Jeff Trussed, Lisa Weckerle, Beverley White and Jessica Yat6$ ' Features: Noah Bartolucci. Randy Basinger, Christy Conroy, Mara Lee, Christina Nifong, Heather Smith. Stephanie Spiegal, Beth Tatum and Laura Williams. Sports: Kenny Abner. Neil Amato, Jason Bates. John Bland, A. J. Brown. Robert Brown. Laurie Dhue, Warren Hynes. Doug Hoogervorst. David Kupstas. Bethany Litton, Bobby McCroskey, Brock Page, Eric Wagnon and Steve Walston. Photography:.Milton Artis, Kevin Burgess, Steven Exum, Cheryl Kane, Caroline Kincaid, Kathy Michel, Edward Moorhouse and Greg Thacker. " Layout Christy Conroy, Lara Spence, Jeff Workman and Doug Zemel. , Copy Editors: Bob Boyette, B Buckberry, Lorrin Freeman, Melissa Grant, Angela Hill. Jennifer Kurfees, Robin Lentz, Amy McCarter. Emily Nicholl, Natalie Poole, Kristin Scheve, Angela Spivey and Clare Weickert. Cartoonists: Alex De Grand, Chris DePree, David Estoye and Mike Sutton. Editorial Production: Stacy Wynn. manager, Brandon Poe, assistant ' Distribution: RDS Carriers. Printing: Village Printing. - ' Ombudsman: James Benton. Phone: 962-0245; Office hours: Mon., Wed.-Fri: 1-3p.m; Sun., Tue.: 4-6 p.m. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the DTH Publishing Corp., a non-profit North Carolina corporation, Monday-Friday, according to the University calendar. ' Carters with questions about billing or display advertising should dial 962-1 163 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Classified ads can be reached at 962-0252. Editorial questions should be directed to 962-02450246. T Office: Suite 104 Carolina Union Campus mail address: CB 5210 Box 49, Carolina Union U.S. Mail address: P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-3257 ' mmA fat r. ( mi fr ur bo y-j 'in ck. -Few 01 READERS' FORUM Need exists for an honors building Editors' note: This letter is in response to the Aug. 31 editorial titled "Wrong place, wrong time" about building a new facility for the Honors Program. To the editors: First off, I sympathize with objections to the noise and mess of construction. It is a nuisance to live, teach or study near a con struction site and I would hope that much of the construction of the proposed building would take place during the summer. (Judging from the way most noisy operations on campus are scheduled for prime class time, I am not optimistic, however.) Long-term benefits should outweigh temporary in convenience, though, as they do in the case of Davis Library, the construction of which was a real pain to all of us who work near it. As to whether UNC needs a new building when the financial picture is so bleak, I think we do. The proposed building would provide small classrooms, some thing we desperately need on this campus. Furthermore, there is a good chance that at least one of these would be fitted out with all the most modern equipment. One of the rooms I frequently teach in in Murphey does not even have an electrical outlet, as I found to my chagrin when I came to class armed with a cassette to play in my tape recorder. The same room does have a room air conditioner, but it makes so much noise you have to turn it off to teach. I long for a cool, even minimally equipped seminarroom! Yes, we do need more small classrooms at UNC. Even the two or three that the projected new building would offer would help, and they would be available not just to the Honors Program, but to any department or curriculum that wanted to make use of them. Speaking now as an honors ad viser, I can attest to the need for more space for advising. Four ad visers are assigned to one office. The office is so small that it barely holds the necessary furniture. We can't even fit a second chair for advisees in the space available. Each of the four advisers has to schedule eight advising hours in that office, around all our other commitments at UNC and around the other advisers' schedules. This is very difficult. (I find I can nearly always get the office from 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday afternoons!) , The question of el itism that tends to come up when an honors pro gram is mentioned is one that concerns us all. UNC's program is probably the least elitist I know of. About 1,000 students a year are involved in the program and more would be if we had the staff to teach more honors courses. We have many good students taking honors classes whether they are "in the program" or not. If the proposed building is approved, funded and built, as I hope it will be, I imagine it will be named after someone, as the rest of the build ings on campus are; I doubt that anyone wants to call it The Honors Center. I don't think that students would know or care whether their friends were seeing an adviser in Steele or in the new building. And since the classroom space in the building would be used by anyone who could get hold of it for a small class, and the lounge would be available for any kind of small gathering with an intellectual focus, students would be in and out of the building all the time, so no one should feel uncomfortable going into it. The building would be entirely funded by donations from bene factors who are interested in en hancing intellectual life at UNC. It is clear that we need financial help from all possible sources at this time. Surely those who want to make major contributions to UNC by funding a new building should not be discouraged from doing so any more than should those who wish to support the basic ongoing programs. If the proposed building is not suited to the proposed site, it should not be and will not be approved by the Facilities Planning Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Com mittee, the Chancellor, and the Trustees. In the abstract, at least, I find the site excellent. The build ing would physically bridge the gap between classrooms and dorm room. Perhaps it would bridge the gulf between what many students perceive as their studies and their "real lives." If exciting intellectual ex changes were to go on in what is now a dusty void between school and home, maybe some of that intellectual excitement would spill over into life in the dorms. I can think of nothing better. SARA MACK Professor of Classics Acting Associate Dean of Honors Freshman misses mark on budget cuts To the editors: Julie Davis, a freshan econom ics major, is absolutely right about one thing: she doesn't know much about the budget problems at UNC. She is absolutely wrong about an other thing: these cuts are not just temporary. This year the General Assembly not only cut the University's allo cation by 2 1 fl percent, but also cut the base budget by 3 percent that is forever. Further, the Uni versity has little flexibility in ad ministering its budget in the face of these cuts. The University had to raise $750,000 out of endowment funds and other sources to keep the graduate program afloat this year. This is something that it cannot afford to do year after year. It is akin to eating seed corn. UNC is going on its fourth year of budget cuts and reductions. Graduate student and faculty salaries lag far behind those of peer institutions. This means that recruitment of both top-flight fac ulty and graduate students is at a disadvantage to other schools. This year, visiting professors had to be turned away; library ac quisitions are at a four-year low, continuing to decline; graduate students are taking longer and longer to finish because they must take second and third jobs to live week to week. Until the state's lawmakers re alize that the people of North Carolina are demanding better education at the secondary and university levels and decide to raise taxes to support these demands, we are in for many more years of budget restrictions. This translates into lost graduate students, lost faculty and ultimately lost prestige for UNC. The sol ution to this year' s cuts is merely a Band-Aid. This is not a question about pencils and pens. It is about the future of an excellent institution being squan dered by myopic politicians. At a time when UNC should be moving briskly into the 21st century, it is backsliding. I hope Julie Davis and all un dergraduates who are concerned with the quality of their school will attend the informative sessions and rally sponsored by the Graduate Students United at "Save UNC Day" on Tuesday, Sept. 11. We should all work together to keep UNC strong as well as move ahead. This means that we must be vocal. JERRY BRADSHAW 3rd-year Ph.D. student, Department of Economics Co-chairman, Graduate Students United Letters policy The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and criticisms. We attempt to print as many letters to the editors as space permits. 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. B All letters must be typed and double-spaced. B Letters should include the author's year in school, major, phone number and hometown. B The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit. B Please include a title relevant to the topic. 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 Student Union annex.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 7, 1990, edition 1
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