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12The Daily Tar HeelMonday, November 5, 1990 98th year of editorial freedom Jessica Lanning and Kelly Thompson, Editors JENNIFER WING, University Editor LYNETTE BLAIR, Forum Editor Peter F. Wallsten, City Editor VlCKI HYMAN, Features Editor Jamie Rosenberg, Sports Editor JOE MUHL, Photography Editor Lisa Lindsay, Newc 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 JoANN RODAK, News Editor At fx Dr Grand. Cartoon Editor James Claude Benton, Ombudsman The last straw Chancellor growing impatient with Greeks UNC fraternities are in danger of losing control to campus officials Administra- their freedoms because campus adminis- tors have enough policy problems to worry trators are n pleased with the negative about without added Greek concerns, and mages crea"ea by recent fraternity-related fraternities have their own watchdog the iXrAnotherfraternityscandalcouId Inter-FraternityCounc.l.toestabhshpo hey esuU in a severe clamp-down on now and impose punishment on fratermt.es that unrestrtoed fraternity activities. don't comply w.th the councl s rules. Chancellor Paul Hardin and Vice Theoretically, with thts system m place, Chancdlo for Student Affairs Donald the Greeks should be able to patrol them- Boulton have both expressed displeasure selveswithoutadrmn.strat.vemtervent.c with recent well-publicized happenings Unfortunately, the IFC has fallen short mvolving fraternity members or taking of its expectations. Granted, tt has tmple- pbee near fratemky houses. Hardin has mentedadryrushpohcyandmademouons threatened to exert control over fraternities toinstallpoliceofficersatfratem.typart.es. if they aren't more careful about what But it doesn't have the power to enforce .ts happens at their functions. policies. Fraternity are not even required Although the fraternity system is an easy to be members of the IFC . Thus, for the " ft i,.nihi indiscretions organization to work effectively, changes 7ZZn on c;T.ege campuses, Hardin's need to be made that wil, , make fratermUes complaints are not unfounded. The recent SAE "chicken kickin might nave oeen the straw that broke the chancellor's back. Tension between administrators and the fraternity system has been building ever since take the rulings more seriously. This may be the only way administrators will teel comfortable allowing fraternities a free rein. Hardin is meeting with IFC President LtLn;t tHoPc were caught Robb Beatty this month. With any luck, streaking last year in the parking lot of they will be able to restructure the IFC so Morehead Planetarium. A tear gas bomb thrown at an all-campus fraternity party added to the strain. Whether the fraterni ties in question were responsible for these incidents or not, their mere association has left a nasty taste in administrators' mouths. The situation can be improved, how ever, without fraternities relinquishing all that it does not greatly infringe on frater nities' freedoms yet establishes concrete guidelines that fraternities must follow. Allowing fraternities to police themselves might not solve all fraternity-related problems, but it is the only reasonable solution for the situation. Crystal Bernstein from the Ombudsman ... This column is both a tribute and an explanation to those of you who, from time to time, are compelled to use one of the ways available to gain direct access to the pages of The Daily Tar Heel. FirstTiStfibute: This semester, many of you in the University community have put the Readers' Forum to excellent use in voicing your opinions and contributing to the marketplace of ideas in this commu nity. It is a definite change from the spring of 1989, when a shortage of letters caused cartoonist Pete Corson to shut down the cannot be guaranteed immediate publica tion, may be printed with slight or major editing, or may not be published at all. The letter's topic is also important be cause the forum editors try to choose a wide range of topics and the diversity of viewpoints they may bring. This ensures an issue will not become so dominant it chills discussion of other topics of inter-" est. The most recent example of this was during the first week of the statue con troversy; in that week, 50 letters to the editor about the statues were not printed due to space and time limitations. Some readers say the DTH purposely forum with an editorial cartoon saying it pubiishes letters that instigate contro- was closed "due to severe apathy. Topics you have chosen to discuss this semester include the battle between bi cyclists and pedestrians for walkway space, the Davis Library statues, gay and lesbian rights and DTH reporting andor coverage. Now, the explanation: How does the DTH handle the letters you send to the forum lor publication? The answer is simple. Due to exams, newsmaking incidents (or lack thereof), timeliness of an issue or something in the DTH that either encouraged you or rubbed versy . That may very well be true. But the important thing to remember is that the material printed is supplied by the read ers and moreover, it is printed in a forum where views can be discussed, whether they prove to be out of step with the readership or not. The letters are not printed for the mere purpose of sparking controversy, but for sparking discussion and the expression of different ideas. So keep watching, and if some issue catches your eye, write your feelings down and make your contribution to the mar- ti ,nr Fnrnm Editor Lvnette ketplace of ideas known as the Readers' BlairandOpinionEditorCrystalBernstein Forum. And if you'd like to make some receive between 15 and 50 letters per comments on these or other issues, my assistants ana l will De in me ru uns wcck from 1 1 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and week for publication. The number of letters they receive is crucial; it determines whether a letter will run, how much it will be edited and how fast it can be printed. It also means letters as"" Wednesday and from 1 1 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. See ya. James Benton A vote not cast is better than an ignorant vote Two years ago, I asked a 1 6-year-old friend whether she considered herself a Repub lican or a Democrat. She stared at me blankly, shuffled her feet a bit and replied: "Well, I mean, I always thought Republicans were the good guys and Democrats the bad ones." She is eligible to vote in tomorrow's election, and this worries me. My concern is not of her party stereotypes. The "accolades" could be reversed, and I'd be just as nervous. The dangerous implications of her answer are woven within the next minutes of our conversation. I asked her opinions on specific, high-visibility issues such as abortion, the death penalty, tax raising, etc. She didn't know where either party traditionally stood on each issue and in many cases she had their stances mixed up. That is OK. No one has to be politically aware. A lot of people find politicians, elections and parties to be absolutely boring and undeserving of their attention. But if we think that way, and we don't know about the issues and don't care about the candidates, we shouldn't vote. We hear all the time, "It doesn't matter for whom you vote, just use your con- Wendy Bounds stitutional right and vote." This advice is both unsound and dangerous. What is the point of helping to elect someone whom we know nothing about and giving this individual the power to change our lives, sim ply for the sake of "using" our rights? Our right to vote is guaranteed; it has been since 197 1 . 1 am not meaning to imply in the least that we should not be utterly grateful for this privilege. But we cannot abuse this right, which is what we do if we vote uninformed. I ask, which is worse: to postpone using our right to vote until adequately informed or to abuse the right by electing officials through ignorance and heresy? Some might argue this mentality encourages people without political interest to never use their constitutional right. I believe, in time, some political figure or issue will awake the conscience of every person, driving him or her to care about an election. Interest and awareness will grow from there. Until then, I hope this individual will vote only for the candidates about whom he or she is informed. This courtesy will protect the sig nificance of votes cast by those who do know for whom and what they are voting. One might insist that this philosophy only encourages voter apathy. Possibly. But the in tent is to protect the purity of the voting system (if such an ideal exists) and not to mindlessly elect officials because we like their commer cials or see one name on bumper stickers more than another. And if we vote one way because our parents and friends do, let us be certain our ideals truly match those of these people whose advice we are trusting. Until each of us as a voter is at least informed on the major issues to which candi dates adhere, we should be selective and par ticular for whom we vote. And tomorrow, if we say we have voted for less, it may well mean we have voted for more. Wendy Bounds is a sophomore journalism Spanish major. She writes for the state and national desk of the DTH. FORUM brought to an end along with the cuts. Besides, no one is going to help us until we at least try to help ourselves. GWEN W ATKINS Freshman Computer science town needed services To the editors: This is in response to Chris Martin's letter, 'New town library a waste of tax money,' (Oct. 19). I am amazed the DTH would print a letter from someone who obviously has not a clue about the subject upon which he chose to comment. Martin insisted that spending tax money on a new Chapel Hill public library would be "one of the most absurd suggestions I have yet heard in this town," because the Advertising production: bin Leslie, manager; mua Dcmiey. oiwu campus... r Newsclerks: Kevin Brennan and Amy uew andYu-YeeWu. . .... t:.i:i i.,i;qmoIuD3mv Nirnie Pprarintto Nicole Perez. Erik Roaers. City.Tim Burrows, Janice Daughtry, Kris uonairo na V" !i h vmn Christine Thomas, Sharyn .11. Adam vva . VZZn m n a7h I ht Fric Lusk. Kvle York Soencer and Grant State and National: Wendy bounas.uaviat:iuiiiuii,icviiiuiccii-...u.n. . - Thompson. ,, . ,mK u;MeMa rirpn Miller Jonathan Poole and Jeff Trussell. Arts: Isabel Barbuk, Wtt BOCK.ey. "na na. Scott Maxwell. Ginger Meek. Features: Eric Bolash. Jenny Bray, unnsiy winiuy. m.u. " " ' Hunter. Warren Hynes uoug Deena Deese. Evan Eile. Steven Exum. Jonathan t$SFS$$ Kinca'd-Sarah Kin9-Edward Moorhouset Keith Ne,son' Sam Rollins. Stefanie Shepard. Debbie btengei anau.su . . Wn . . ion n Tf p r k i i rfpp t We n d v Le e . Gillie Murphy. Emily Nicholl. Heather Patterson. Susan rearsaii. Amy aee.ey. iwidiw Clare Weickert and Steve Wilson.. :j ct Cartoonists: Alex De Grand, tnns uer ree. uaviu ui i . ' kpr aMant Editorial Production: Stacy Wynn. manager; Kristen Jones and Greg Thacker. assistants. Distribution: RDS Carriers. Printing: Village Printing. ' Ombudsman: James Benton. Phone: 962-0245; Office hours: Mon.: 1-5 p.m., Fn.: 1-3 p.m. Tue. and Thur.: 1 1 a.m.-4 p.m.. Wed.: 3:30-5 p.m.. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the DTH Publishing Corp.. a non-profit North Carolina corporation. Monday-Friday, according to the UCaffi at 962-0252. Editorial questions should be directed to at-uouo. ; Budget cut solutions merit consideration To the editors: Recently, a fellow classmate posed the question, "Is your edu cation being screwed?" I was ap palled that such a question had to - ihraru ..,milri nf f Pt be asked. Not only are our educa- LlDrary WOUIU Oiler tions being screwed, they are cur rently being chopped up and beaten down, almost to the point where a degree from UNC won't mean anything by the time I graduate. Moreover, many students are complaining that they are tired of hearing about budget cuts. Of course they are! According to the co-chairman of the department of economics, third year Ph.D student Jerry Bradshaw, "the present re ductions are now Carol ina's fourth year of budget cuts." So ... why don't we do something about this problem, instead of waiting and wondering if the sharp blades will ever cease tearing through the threads that struggle to hold the bonds of our education's future together? A very good question! Many intelligent students have brought up some extremely interesting ideas in previous issues of the DTH that may prove to be beneficial to our situation. Maybe it is time that we listened to their suggestions and started putting them into use. To begin, Randy Basinger, a senior here at Chapel Hill, feels that we can delete many of our unnecessary expenditures in order to free ourselves from the tighten ing grip that these cuts have gotten on all of us. Some of these outra geous expenses include the build ing of the Alumni Center of which will not benefit the students or any canceled classes. Will we really suffer if we pay more attention to our failing University instead of another building project that prob ably won't be finished for a few vote for it. The academic flavor of this town makes it more necessary to have a better public library. So, is the difference between an academic and a public library clear yet to you, Martin? I certainly hope so. Why don't we make a deal? I'll promise not to write any letters about international studies if you promise not to write any letters about library science. OK? BETH LIEBMAN Graduate student Library science Raising tuition woul'd ease budget crisis of becoming another athletic gi antacademic midget like Nevada Las Vegas or Oklahoma where a game ticket is worth more than a degree. The University has questioned the state government's commit ment to education. When the University cuts funds to the history department and not the athletic department, then I question the University's commitment to edu cation. CHRIS VANN 1 st year law student Library bond deserves "yes" vote on Tuesday To the editors: Chris Martin, in his Oct. 19 letter New town library a waste of tax To the editors: For the past few weeks there has been a loud clamor raised by the TTn5veritv apainst the harsh state v,.wt rut The state, however, is money,' suggests that a new public inHpranina tnnph economic times library in Chapel Hill is a waste of neara in nus iuw , uctaust b 0 0 - , e . Chape. Hill pubUc could use our and all state programs are be;ng M ? university library. cut. ine university hum Martin, there is a world of dif- thefactthat it will receive a smaner ference between a public library piece of the budget pie. University and an academic library. The col- leaders menacingly warn of the years anyway? Moreover, Chris Hunt, a freshman here at Carolina, suggests that students could help themselves by means of T-shirt sales, raffles, and even donations. Is it so horrible that we have to chip in to save the prestige of our school? As Homey would say, "I don't think so!" Finally, everyone must be will ing to help in defeating these dreadful budget cuts. The time has come to enact some of the ideas that have been suggested so that worries and complaints may be lections are completely different; yes, the undergraduate library does have a fiction collection, but it is definitely not their highest priority. A public library has a greater range of fiction and nonfiction, with less scholarly works, more magazines and of course, a complete children's collection. You forgot one of the biggest groups of 1 ibrary users! There are children's pro grams, story times and much more. I'm sure a six-year-old would have a ball in Davis Library. Also, a public library staff is geared to assist a different range of questions, more general questions about fiction, like "If I love Marg aret At wood, what else should I read?" Publ ic libraries have all sorts of special programs, film series, author series, and the like. A pub lic library is a haven of sort, a comfortable, safe place to spend an afternoon browsing the shelves Or reading newspapers. Another thing: Just getting on campus is impossible. We all know there isn't any parking. No Chapel Hillian should be limited to using UNC's libraries. Mart in, have you ever been near the Chapel Hill public library? There is barely any parking, there are books absolutely everywhere and there are also tons of people. This library gets a lot of use. They need more room, and if the people want more room, then they will hard choices that need to be made without specifying them. A solu tion to the crisis might be found by raising tuition and slashing the bloated athletic department. First, raise tuition. The tuition here is a ridiculously meager por tion of the total budget. Tuition should be increased by 50 percent for in-state students and 75 percent for out-of-state students over a four year period to cover the loss of state funding. Second, all the money raised by the Rams Club should go directly to the University to compensate for the loss of state money. Money should not be given by the alumni to build a palatial sports facility or to recruit star athletes so the Heels can stomp State. The University's mission is to educate, not to pro vide sports entertainment for alumni. If donors cannot accept this fact, tell them to give their money to the Charlotte Hornets. In dealing with the budget crisis, the University must look at what is important. Every student must be able to take the classes he needs with the best possible instructors and materials. In a budget crisis, campus. It is important for people to real ize that libraries are designed spe cifically to meet the needs of various users. Libraries cannot be measured solely by square foot age, number of volumes, or num ber of users. The services a library provides to its community are a far more important measure, and while the UNC libraries are large, they do not provide all the services that the Chapel Hill community re quires. A patron of the UNC librar ies would be hard-pressed, for ex ample, to browse shelves of the latest bestsellers in order to select some leisure reading. Parents with children, too, would find the li braries inhospitable. We don't show movies, or have a story hour, or arrange readings by local au thors, or provide community ser-. vices like voter registration. The libraries on campus wel come users from the community, the state and indeed from all over the country. We do not, however, have everything or provide all possible library services, and we rely on the public library for those materials and those services. Look at the public library as an extension of the library services available in your community and see the needs the athletic department must lose of others as well as yourself. Vote its exalted status. Even a basketball "yes tortne norary oona issue on or soccer team that wins hundreds Nov. 6. of games must be sacrificed before academics. RIKKI MANGRUM Otherwise the "University of Microcomputer services librarian National Champions" is in danger Davis Library
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 5, 1990, edition 1
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