8
Tuesday, November 23,1993
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Yi-Him Chug EDITOR
Jennifer Talhelm associate BXTOR
Established 1893
A A century of editorial freedom
A Face-Saving Solution
The deadline has passed, and the UNC House
keepers Association and the University admin
istration now stand at a stalemate.
Earlier this month, the housekeepers held a
press conference and issued a list of demands—
some reasonable, some obviously misdirected
—with the threat of a possible strike or sick-out
if their demands were not met.
In response, the administration released a
statement to the press that addressed each de
mand and explained why the University would
not be meeting the housekeepers’ demands.
The deadline for meeting the demands passed
Friday with no action from University officials,
and the housekeepers now are mulling their
options.
It never should have come to this.
Chancellor Paul Hardin or other administra
tion officials should have made the effort to meet
with the disgruntled housekeepers long before.
The two sides should have met face-to-face rather
than further antagonizing each other by having
their discussions through the media.
The administration should meet with the
housekeepers to listen to their concerns. The
dissatisfaction and problems simply won’t magi-
End of Apartheid
Last Thursday signaled the death of apart
heid in South Africa and the beginning of anew
era of democracy for the country.
The political transition was not a smooth one.
The formal negotiations involved many politi
cal parties that endured two years of intense
bargaining.
However, the end result of their efforts is a
laudable democratic agreement promising liber
ties to all South Africans. These include freedom
of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of
movement and the freedom of political activity.
The new constitution also replaces the country’s
black townships with nine new provinces that
will send representatives to the Senate, but ulti
mately be bound under South African law.
This change could not be more dramatic. The
old system of white domination denied blacks
their fundamental rights and segregated them
from whites both geographically and culturally.
The new constitution makes any form of
racial discrimination illegal and will grant citi
zenship to all South Africans regardless of color.
The new order will take effect after people
vote in the first multiracial elections this April.
Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National
Congress, is favored to win the presidency, mak
ing him the first black South African to hold that
office.
Tar Heel Quotables
“You’re making a terrible mistake to say it is a
disrespect for you for us to change the policy,
when we have to go out and face the public.”
WALTER DAVIS, UNC Board of Trustees member
In response to student concerns about the board's
intention to revoke the 24-hour pilot visitation program
“The University is not here to teach us
morals. The University is not here to teach us
character. The University is here to teach us
academics.
JAN DAVIS, Residence Hall Association president
On why the BOT should not repeal the visitation policy
“What will happen is we will just walk, and
we won’t tell anyone, the press or the adminis
tration.”
LARRY FARRAR, member of the Housekeepers
Association Steering Committee
On a possible housekeepers' strike
“I think the idea of discussing whether a
magazine is political is diving into questions
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Michael Workman UNIVERSITY EDITOR
KeDy Ryan city editor
Stephanie Greer state S national editor
Steve Politi sports editor
Amy L Seeley features EDITOR
Kim Costello features editor
Wendy Mitchell ARTS J ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Marty Minchin special assignments editor
Robin Cagle COPY DESK editor
Justin Williams PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Justin Seheef graphics editor
Erin Lyon layout editor
Kas DeCarvalho editorial cartoon editor
John C Manuel sportsaturday editor
cally go away.
A good employer puts his employees first.
Even if the University does not have the author
ity to adopt or implement a better pay schedule,
the administration should better communicate
with the housekeepers so they can work together
to lobby the General Assembly for higher sala
ries for the underpaid housekeepers.
But members of the Housekeepers Associa
tion also must be more careful in making their
demands and threats of a strike. Misdirected
demands, such as calling for an end to “the
patronizing policy of distributing turkeys as the
holiday bonus for housekeepers” —a program
founded and sponsored by well-intentioned stu
dents, faculty and staff, not the University
only takes away from the housekeepers’ cause
and alienates die very people who are their
biggest supporters.
Now that the deadline has passed, University
administrators can meet with the housekeepers
without losing face. They should do so immedi
ately.
Maybe by actually communicating, the ad
ministration and the housekeepers will see that
they are on the same side.
Such an outcome would be a far cry from the
days when college students of our generation
petitioned for Mandela’s release from more than
a quarter century of imprisonment.
It is a blessing that Mandela and President
F.W. de Klerk have realized their mutual inter
ests and common vision for a free, peaceful and
just land.
Their cooperative efforts and political
wrestling has won them and South Africa a
foundation for anew country that can renounce
its racist past and embrace equal rights for all its
citizens.
Their work deserves praise, and as they em
bark on the daunting task of establishing anew
constitution, they should be guaranteed interna
tional assistance.
Many obstacles still lie in the path to a peace
ful and democratic nation, but President de Klerk
has promised to prevent dissidents, includingthe
Inkatha Freedom Party and white separatists
from the Afrikaner fringe, from disrupting the
pact.
Apartheid is history. But a tumultuous elec
tion and a shaky first few months in government
lie ahead, and there is still much to do toward
reforming South African politics. This new South
Africa needs as much support from the world as
it can get.
of free speech and questions of censorship of
ideas and thoughts.”
Student Congress Rep. JOEY STANSBURY, Dist 11
On why The Carolina Review should
get student funding
“The Carolina Review is definitely politically
partisan. It mocks other organizations, student
government, staff members and the students
themselves.”
SNEHA SHAH, congress speaker pro tempore
On why the Review should not receive funding
“It was a great feeling to have all the seniors
on the field.”
MIA HAMM, UNC women's soccer player
On the game Sunday in which the team won its eighth
consecutive NCAA championship
“When he missed it, I think everybody in the
gym knew he was coming out.”
DONALD WILLIAMS, UNC basketball player
On Jerry Stackhouse's ill-advised reverse slam attempt
EDITORIAL
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School Demonstrates Real Value of Education
In the past few years, there has been much
concern about our school’s lack of funding.
And certainly UNC’s budgetary woes and
the attendant slide in the various rankings are
worthy of substantial concern, although hope
fully the sterling Bicentennial Campaign fund
raising effort and the sale of bonds will go a long
way toward alleviating the problem.
It was with such matters in mind that I re
cently read about a black shack dweller in South
Africa who created a high school for 10,000
pupils on a budget of less than a dime!
Allow me to recount the astonishing tale of
the “Chicken Farm School,” which certainly
sheds a different light on our budgetary woes.
The school is located just outside
Johannesburg. From afar, it looks just like a
derelict poultry farm, which is exactly what it
was when a squatter named Mzwandile
Khumalo annexed it in 1989.
Khumalo marched through shack land like a
Pied Piper with a makeshift megaphone, calling
the multitudes forth. Next thing, there was an
almighty hammering and sawing going on, and
a school arose from the feeder bins. Four years
later, Khumalo is the “Honourable Owner” as
the plaque on the wall puts it, of a complex of
seven schools. Six ofthese are housed in chicken
coops. The seventh, Black Forest High, was
formerly the stables.
The complex now has classrooms, 250 staff
members including carpenters and 10,000 stu-
Chancellor Hopes Students
Believe in Board's Intention
Editor’s note: The following is an open letter to UNC
students from Chancellor Paul Mardin.
DEAR STUDENTS:
I understand your disappointment in the de
cision of the Board of Trustees last Friday to
rescind and reconsider the recently inaugurated
open visitation trial period in six of our 29
dorms. This letter is prompted by press reports
that some students are considering various forms
of protest.
As you know, I urged the trustees not to
rescind the trial period.
I did so because I liked the safeguards built
into the trial and because I respect you, and I
take at face value your assurances that your
quest for open visitation is not “all about sex”
butisallabout your desire, as young adults, to be
trusted to manage your private lives with
responsible maturity and as few rules as pos
sible.
I suggest, respectfully, that you and I also
should take at face value the stated intention of
the trustees to re-examine the issue with open
minds and with the aid of a committee that will
include students.
I hope you will work with the committee,
soon to be appointed by BOT Chairman John
Harris and will refrain from attacking either the
sincerity or authority of the board.
The trustees have expressed disappointment
in the administration over procedure. They as
sure us of their respect for the students.
Although I support the right of peaceable
protest, I hope you will take advantage of that
good will rather than risk losing it just as new
deliberations begin.
Some of the trustees and many letter writers,
particularly those in my approximate age group,
have expressed opposition, not only to the lack
of broad advance discussion of the visitation
trial, but also to the substance of the trial pro
gram, fearing that more liberal policies might
encourage promiscuous behavior. Let me take a
stab at explaining the intensity of that negative
response.
Many people of my generation have found
great happiness in reserving sex for marriage
and making that ultimate physical expression
part of a total, loving commitment to a lifetime
partner.
They we hope that members of your
generation will not carelessly pass up the oppor
tunity to nourish that kind of enduring, exclu
sive relationship.
I also express the hope, as a man, that the men
of Carolina will respect the women they date.
I worry especially about acquaintance rape, a
serious problem most often related to excessive
use of alcohol (and probably not related directly
to official visiting hours in dormitories).
It is a privilege, to share with all of our
students, faculty and staff the experience of
being at the nation’s first state university. I wish
for all great health and happiness at this season
of Thanksgiving.
Paul Hardin
CHANCELLOR
dents, eachpayingsß
a year and bringing
in empty bottles to
collect the deposits.
Today the schools
receive a small state
grant that amounts
to 15 percent of their
running expenses
and pays for the
teachers’ salaries of
S9O a month.
Old bus seats
make the classroom
chairs.
|al\.\ hartd’fgen
OUT OF AFRICA
The school gates are welded scrap-iron, and
the administrative quarter, formerly the farm
house, is incongruously decorated with
blockmounted Cosmopolitan covers—donated,
of course. They take anything and find a use for
it.
Officially, each of the schools has its own
headmaster and Latin motto, but unofficially
everyone calls the whole collection Chicken Farm
School and perceives Khumalo as the boss. And
a strict boss at that.
Rules are simple: arrive on time and stay to
learn. The gates close at 8 a.m., and that’s it. If
you aren’t in, then you don’t get in at all. And as
for strikes and boycotts that are so prevalent in
black schools in South Africa... those are things
of another world.
READEmORUM
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments and
critcism. Letters to the editor should be no longer
than 400 words and must be typed, double-spaced,
dated and signed by no more than two people.
Students should include their year, major and phone
number. Faculty and staff should include their title,
department and phone number. The DTH reserves
the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity.
Hardin's Meaning Muddled
By 'Newspeak' Associations
TO THE EDITOR:
I was dismayed to read that Chancellor Paul
Hardin lapsed into Orwellian Newspeak at the
Faculty Council meeting Nov. 12.
The Daily Tar Heel quotes Chancellor Hardin
as saying, “We want to avoid groupthink ....
Groupthink is when opinions of certain mem
bers of the faculty shouldn’t be attributed to the
group” (“Chancellor Urges End to Ticket Aigu
ment,” Nov. 15).
Never mind that the chancellor appears to
have said the opposite of what he intended; the
point is that groupthink sounds as if it comes
from Newspeak, the fictional language invented
by George Orwell.
In Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” a re
pressive government uses Newspeak as a tool to
crush intellectual freedom and destroy the
memory of history.
If Chancellor Hardin said what is attributed
to him, he should be reminded that words such
as groupthink serve to muddle rather than to
clarify his meaning and that such words have
disturbing associations associations that are
particularly unfortunate during the 200th anni
versary of the founding of the University.
Chris Moseley
GRADUATE STUDENT
MATHEMATICS
DTH Should Cheek All Facts
Before Fassing Judgment
TO THE EDITOR:
I was delighted to read the article by Chris
Gioia in last week’s issue of The Daily Tar Heel
“Merger of Two Departments Successful, Stu
dents Say.”
While I was acting chair of the Department of
Radio, Television and Motion Pictures last year,
our External Advisory Committee recommended
the merger of RTVMP with the Department of
Speech Communication.
It did so because it was obvious that such a
step would ultimately result in one of the finest
departments of Communication Studies in the
country.
There was a great deal of negative reaction
ufyp Baity (Ear HM
Khumalo doesn’t believe in waiting for gov
ernments to sort things out or even to give you
permission to sort things out yourself. You sim
ply go ahead and worry afterwards about offi
cials and consent.
And in that way, the land that the schools
occupy was eventually officially expropriated
and handed over to the community.
When asked his vie ws on education, Khumalo
said it was essential to introduce relevant living
skills early on, instead of focusing on academic
subjects that produce mainly white-collar work
ers.
He also said that “a child must remember his
culture, but what happened in 1652 (the date
when the Dutch first arrived in the country) is not
as important as where the new technology is
going.” And the children are taught in English
“so that they become international.”
What this man has achieved is truly remark
able. For his efforts, he was presented with an
“Unconventional Hero” award worth $3,500.
God alone knows what he’ll be able to do with
that.
This little tale is not intended to make light of
UNC’s financial woes it certainly has more
lofty intentions than the chicken farm —but
rather to add a vastly different perspective to
them.
Alan Hartdegen is a junior economics and political
science major from Johannesburg, South Africa.
from students and alumni of RTVMP, and I do
believe that most now realize that the disciplines
served by the former department are being pre
served and nurtured in the new department.
I certainly can understand how die loss of the
RTVMP department saddened those individu
als, but I still feel that the decision made was in
the best interests of future generations of students
and faculty involved in the disciplines served by
RTVMP.
The main reason for this letter is to remind the
editor that The Daily Tar Heel vilified me and
the college administration during the yearlong
examination of the Department of Radio, Tele
vision and Motion Pictures that resulted in the
formation of the Department of Communication
Studies.
It is a reminder that before a newspaper of
excellence publishes adolescent cartoons depict
ing “hatchet men” and repeatedly prints nega
tive statements, the staff had best check all the
facts pertaining to motives and possible ramifica
tions of a departmental review.
I trust that case of RTVMP and the new
communication studies department will stand as
an object lesson for future staff of The Daily Tar
Heel.
Lawrence Gilbert
PROFESSOR
BIOLOGY
Carolina Athletic Association
Forced Unfair Ticket Choice
TO THE EDITOR:
To put it mildly, the Carolina Athletic Asso
ciation did not make my week start off very well.
I woke up early enough Monday morning to get
to the ticket window before 8 a.m. to get leftover
Clemson and Butler basketball tickets.
However, when my turn at the window came
up, I was told that I would not be able to get any
tickets because I did not have my athletic pass.
No problem, except for one thing my
athletic pass was sitting in a box next to him in
the warm ticket booth with the other football
block tickets.
He basically told me that I had chosen football
over basketball and that I “should have woken
up on Saturday.”
First of all, there should not have to be a
choice between the sports that I would like to
support.
Second, I was out of town Saturday and was
unable to make it out to the ticket window.
Third, I had all of the needed paperwork
required to get a ticket on the same side of the
window without getting a ticket.
Fourth, the “gentlemen” on the CAA staff
that “helped” me were very rude in their han
dling of ffie situation.
I just do not understand the logic behind
screwing over the students that they are sup
posed to be helping and then being rude to them
in the process.
I guess it is easy for the CAA employees to
take their lower-level tickets for granted because
they do not have to camp out for them.
Dan Greenberg
SENIOR
CHEMISTRY