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latlu ®ar lUppl J? Volume 101, Issue 128 A century of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 IN THE NEWS Top stories from the state, nation and world First Day off NATO Summit Produces Agreements BRUSSELS, Belgium President Clinton claimed “two giant steps” for glo bal security Monday with a breakthrough agreement for dismantling Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal and NATO approval of a plan for unprecedented cooperation with former foes in Eastern Europe. The upbeat mood at the 16- Experts Say Russia nation NATO Biggest Influence s “. V s On NATO Summit clouded by lin- See p age 4 gering division over how far the West should go to stop the war in Bosnia, which has claimed 200,000 lives. In the absence of consensus for tougher action, the leaders moved toward renew ing their unfulfilled threat of air strikes against the Serbs if they continued to shell Sarajevo and block U.N. humanitarian relief convoys. Trial of Davidians Begins With Selection of Jury SAN ANTONIO Eighty potential jurors today faced the prospect of spending the next two months deciding the fate of 11 surviving Branch Davidians charged with murdering four federal agents at their com pound near Waco. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith dis carded his black robe while questioning potential jurors, saying he didn’t want to intimidate them. The defendants, 10 men and one woman, paid close attention to the judge’s words during the 21 /2-hour morning ses sion, except for one 10-minute period when defendant Norman Washington Allison closed his eyes and appeared to doze. Fires in Australia in Check As Winds Ease, Rain Falls SYDNEY, Australia Hot, gusty winds abated and a light rain fell, giving firefighters the break they needed Monday against 136 brushfires raging across south eastern Australia. By nightfall, all but two major fires were in check. During the previous three days, the winds had whipped up huge firestorms, and firefighters had no chance of putting out the flames. More than 20,000 people fled their homes ahead ofthe fast moving fires, which came within five miles of downtown Sydney, and most have returned to un damaged houses. At least 185 homes were destroyed, 113 severely damaged and 30 ' other buildings lost. Four people, includ ing two firefighters, were killed, and thou sands treated for smoke inhalation. Mexico Increases Patrols In Wake of Rebel Uprising MEXICO CITY Police stepped up patrols and public buildings required visi tors to register Monday, but the capital rejected district requests to deploy the army to protect against spreading rebel violence. Chiapas state, site of the new year’s uprising, was generally quiet Monday. But a spate of bombings in the capital and other regions and rebel threats of a wide war prompted officials in Mexico City to tighten security in government and other public buildings as well as banks. Griselda Garcia, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said Monday that visi tors to public buildings were being regis tered when going in and out, and more police were assigned to the streets, the subway and other gathering places. Yeltsin Allies Threaten Russian Ultranationalists MOSCOW On the eve of the open ing ofßussia’s first post-Soviet parliament, President Boris Yeltsin’s supporters threat ened Monday to prosecute ultranational ists and blamed Communists for the deaths of millions of people. The new Parliament already is deeply divided, with extreme nationalists and Communists determined to undo Yeltsin’s reforms. Russia’s Choice, the main bloc supporting Yeltsin, said it would try to make Parliament members face criminal responsibility for statements that incited hatred or violence. The threat was aimed at Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose Liberal Democratic Party won 23 percent of the vote in last month’s election. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Weather TODAY: 30-percent chance of rain; high 40-45. WEDNESDAY: 70-percent chance of rain; high upper 40s. Board to Pursue Recall Measure for Burnette BYKELLYRYAN CITY EDITOR AND ROCHELLE KLASKIN ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR The Chapel Hill-Canrboro Board of Education did not accept member LaVonda Burnette’s announcement Monday night that she would resign July 1, 1995, and instead planned to petition the N.C. General Assembly for a recall provision that would empower voters to decide Burnette’s fate. Burnette said she picked 1995 as the year to resign so she could use the next two years to work toward her vision for equal educational opportunities for all students. “I feel I could face the voters again in ’95,” Burnette told the standing-room-only crowd in the multipurpose room of Estes Hills Elementary School. “If they want me off, it would allow me to prove myself and give me an opportunity to serve the community and let the voters decide. “Questions have been raised on whether or not I can be an effective member of this board I can.” But Burnette’s colleagues would not settle with her resignation in 1995. They chose instead to pass a resolution asking local representatives to the General Assembly to look into the possibility of a recall election for the local school board. A recall provision would allow a registered voter in the community to draft a petition calling for a special election and to collect signatures. Board Chairman Ken Touw said the petition probably would be modeled after the procedure used by the Chape! Hill Town Council. “One of the reasons I find difficult the idea of a resignation in 1995 is the fact that, in my mind and in a lot of people’s minds, this is not an issue of individual forgiveness but a question of public trust,” said board member Mary Bushnell. “A lot of the changes that we will have to ask the district to do require a trust in the school board and a basic trust and integrity in us." Although the recall resolution passed, the board also supported the idea of investigating certain allegations against Burnette brought out in the Dec. 9 edition of The Daily Tar Heel. The resolution focuses on the false name Burnette gave the DTH concerning a course she said she was taking at UNC. The DTH contacted the teaching assistant “Jeff Jones,” who English department officials Hardin, University Officials to Discuss Replacement for Crawford Wednesday BY HOLLY STEPP UNIVERSITY EDITOR The search for an interim replacement for outgoing Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center Director Margo Crawford is at a standstill forthe moment until Chan cellor Paul Hardin returns from a business trip, University officials said Monday. There has been no official discussion about Crawford’s replacement between the chancellor and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Donald Boulton, said Diane Fisher, Boulton’s administrative secretary. Fisher said Hardin and other student affairs officials would meet Wednesday to discuss finding a replacement for Crawford. “At the moment, we don’t know what procedure will be used to determine (Crawford’s) replacement,” Fisher said. Crawford, who had been with the Uni versity for 14 years, announced Thursday that she would leave UNC to take a job with a consulting firm in Glencoe, 111. Her resignation is effective Jan. 31, and her new job will begin Feb. 1. Hardin said Thursday that Crawford 900 Schedules Cancelled During Break BY MARISSA JONES STAFF WRITER Every UNC student experiences the frus tration ofregistering for classes on Caroline, but for hundreds of students the ordeal did not end with the phone call. University Registrar David Lanier said about 900 schedules were canceled be cause students did not meet the Dec. 9 deadline for paying University bills. Lanier said the number of spring semes ter classes canceled was less than in past years but comparable to the number of cancellations for the fall 1993 semester. “We felt pretty good about the number of cancellations,” he said. “ About 900 (schedules), we expect, is probably what it will remain in future years.” He said about 1,400 schedules were canceled last spring, which was about 1,000 less than the year before. Fall cancellations usually number 900 or 1,000, he said. Lanier said notifications sent to each student’s billing address had helped to lower the number of cancellations by publicizing . Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. Oscar Wilde Chapel Hill. North Carolina TUESDAY, JANUARY 11,1994 said was not a TA. Touw said he thought it was necessary to begin the investigation for safekeeping in case the state legislature could not consider a recall measure during its short session in May. He then noted that because the reportets involved in the story might not be available for a future investigation, school board attorney John McCormick should begin the investigation immediately. “To me, over and over and over, I have heard in the last weeks about how people feel the board would be taking away voters’ rights,” board Vice Chairwoman Sue Baker said. “A recall is our big chance to gauge how strongly we feel that the real answer lies with the voters, but we will act with the (current) law if needed to do so.” Under state law, local school boards can investigate and unseat a board member if evidence suggests that the member acted in an “immoral or disreputable” way. To jeers from the audience that the school board was being “ludicrous,” members then voted to remove Burnette from one of the three committees to which she had been appointed and also to prevent , her from attending a spring National School Board Association conference. Touw told the school board that it had mistakenly appointed two members to the Professional Personnel Policy Committee and that member Mark Royster should be the board’s only representative. “It’s a committee requiring that people have confidence in the truthfulness and good intentions of one another,” Bushnell told Burnette. The board also told Burnette that at tending the April conference was a privi lege for veteran members but then voted that Royster, a newly elected member, be the only one to attend. Burnette said she thought her colleagues were trying to make her ineffective. “I’ve been fair to you a11.... I’ve already been isolated,” she said. “You can laugh and try to make a joke out of me, but I don’t think it’s fair to take away my committee. ” The school board’s decisions came after emotionally heated statements from the audience. Of the 14 residents who spoke on the issue, eight touted Burnette’s youthful enthusiasm and asked that the school board not ignore the 4,811 voters who chose her in the November election. “The electorate chose her not because she was perfect, not because she wouldn’t make mistakes, but because we believed would spend a month working with the interim director, and the University would begin a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. Crawford will take a position as a senior associate at Bea Young Associates, a cul tural diversity consulting group. Bea Y oung Associates assists businesses, universities and schools nationally with cross-cultural communication training and management consulting. Bea Young, a longtime friend of Crawford, is a former professor. Crawford said in a press release Friday that Bea Young was not the only person who approached her with a job possibility. “I have also been asked by another former professor and great educator, Dr. Barbara Sizemore, dean of the School of Education at DePaul University, to con sider joining a major project in Chicago City Schools to teach all children to suc ceed in school,” she said in a press release. Crawford also said she had been en couraged by others to become “more na tional” in her work with the black culture. Crawford was a driving force behind the policy. He said the number of fall cancellations probably had been less in the past because students had more time between the regis tration days and the payment due date for the fall semester. Students have about two weeks to pay their tuition and fees after registering for spring classes in the fall. Senior Chris Nichols said his schedule was canceled this semester for the fourth time since he enrolled at the University. Nichols, who is from Wilkesboro, at tributes the first three cancellations to his own negligence, but he said that this time the cancellation was unfair. Nichols, a financial aid recipient, said he returned the aid deferment form by the due date. “To the best of my recollection, I gave them my deferment in person at the cashier’s office,” he said. “I’m quite used to it, but this time it was especially disappointing. This time I feel like I have legitimate beef.” Nichols said he had difficulty register 8F — ~ t&i iiHiPiWk 1 Bp : - . Wm ** -v / 1 at sJB ” ’’;; a Maaßssmi. I her issues were vitally important,” parent Peter McDowell said. But resident Kevin Mitchell, who was verbally accosted by a Burnette supporter during his speech, said he thought her supporters were blind to the real controversy. “My children don’t lie. If they lie, they’re in trouble,” Mitchell said. “I wash out their mouths with soap. LaVonda Burnette should be washed off this board. All we want is the truth.” Monday’s meeting was only Burnette’s second as a school board member. At her first, the other members voted unanimously to ask her to resign for damaging the board’s credibility by misrepresenting her educa tional background. Burnette billed herself as a UNC stu dent during her campaign, but the University registrar confirmed last month that she had never enrolled at the University, paid the $lO auditing fee or UNC students’ struggle fora free-standing black cultural center. The Board of Trustees voted in July to approve the construction of a free-standing BCC between Coker Hall and the Bell T ower on the site knownasCokerWoods. Students who fought alongside her dur ing BCC protests were shocked by her decision to leave. ButinaletterreleasedFriday, Crawford praised the work of students and some administrators in the BCC efforts. She said the letter was to inform people about Sonja H. Stone so they could know why the supporters were so passionate about the movement. Crawford said that Stone was a “bridge between the Black Student Movement and the Campus Y.” Crawford listed several students in her letter who she said “laid the foundation for the BCC center, ” among them BSM Presi dent John Bradley, Campus Y Co-presi dents Michelle LeGrand and Ed Chaney, and BCC Advisory Board member Dacia Toll. Crawford thanked the students for support over the past year. ing for new classes during the second reg istration period and was not satisfied with his new schedule. “I’ve had a really hard time getting anything I need,” he said. “There are fresh men here with better schedules than mine. ” Nichols said he had suggested to the Registrar’s Office that they notify students before dropping their schedules so they could arrange to pay their bills and save their places in classes. Nichols said the office had not been receptive to his idea. Lanier said the Registrar’s Office helped many students upset by their schedule can cellations to reregister for classes after pay ing their bills. “It’s not the end of the world, but it is pretty dramatic when you've worked so hard to get the schedule you want,” he said. “We took quite a few phone calls after the cancellation period. We told them to call Caroline, and many got their courses right back.” Please See REGISTRATION, Page 2 DTH PHOTOS BY JUSTIN WILLIAMS LaVonda Burnette (above) listens Monday night to fellow school board members discuss plans to seek a recall provision for school board members. Kevin Mitchell, a concerned parent (right) who argued with Burnette supporters during the public forum, demanded that Burnette be 'washed from the board' because of the controversy surrounding her statements about her educational background. # attended classes part time. She also called herself a “product” of the local schools in her campaign literature, but in fact had left Chapel Hill High School several credits shy of graduating. Burnette completed her degree at Durham Techni cal Community College. Football Player’s Trial Date Set for Jan. 20 BYRACHAEL LANDAU STAFF WRITER - One ofMackßrown’sstarfootballplay ers will be tried by the Chapel Hill district court Jan. 20 following his arrest for as sault of a fellow UN C student. Marcus Terrell Wall, 19, was arrested Dec. 7 after another UNC female student requested a warrant for his arrest. According to Lt. Jeff McCracken, a University Police detective, an officer re sponded to a call Dec. 5 from Stephanie Williams, 20, of Goldsboro about the inci dent. Williams said Wall struck her in the face after an argument between him and an unknown man. Williams was unavailable for comment Monday, but at the time of the arrest she said she would be willing to testify against him in court. Wall was taken to the magistrate’s of fice in Hillsborough and was charged with a misdemeanor physical assault on a fe male. Wall was released from custody on an unsecured bond of SSOO. He was not available for comment Monday. The charge of physical assault carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. Officials in the district attorney’s office said attorney James Woodall would handle the case for the office. Woodall said Monday that he had not had a chance to review Wall’s case due to a heavy case load in Superior Court and was unable to comment on the case. Football Coach Mack Brown was out of town Monday and unavailable for com ment. Rick Brewer, UNC Sports Informa tion director, said Brown and the athletic department were aware of the arrest, but had not taken any official action yet. Brewer said Brown spoke with Wall about the incident and was waiting until the case was tried before he took action. “After the trial, (Brown and Athletic Director John Swofford) will get together to make a decision from a department standpoint,” Brewer said. Wall is a sophomore wide receiver from Fayetteville who already has earned many titles in his football career. He was one of only two true freshmen to pay for UNC’s football team last year. He also was third in Atlantic Coast Conference punt returns this year and was the fourth-leading receiver for the team, News/Features/Arts/Spotts 962-0245 Business/ Advertising 962-1163 C 1994 DTH Publishing Corp. AD rights reserved. _ ——— with 22 receptions for 256 yards. y . Walls case is not ygg' /yfjSk the first time that rwBHR-; UNC student ath- ■Wj. 4(111111? letes have been in- W / ' volved with the i cnminal courts *%&£§& That incident was the.second time in five months that second-degree rape MARCUS WALL was charges were filed arrested for assault against a UNC stu dent-athlete. On Sept. 25, 1991, Carmen Edward Catullo was suspended from the UNC wrestling team when he was charged with second-degree rape. He was found not guilty in March 1992 after being tried by the Orange County Superior Court. Another UNC athlete was charged with rape that same year. Reginald Decarlo Harris, 21, turned himself into police May 8, 1992, after he was accused by a UNC student of rape. Harris was a three-time All-American and a 1991-92 ACC Indoor Track Most Valuable Player. He was given a three-year suspended sentence and five years supervised suspen sion Feb. 16 after he pleaded no contest, which signifies a conviction but is not an admission of guilt. Harris was suspended permanently from participating in any University athletics. Editor's Note Anew year, anew semester, anew beginning. The Daily Tar Heel is looking for new staff members for the spring semester. If you are interested in writing, copy editing, photography, graphics, layout illus trating or drawing editorial cartoons, come by the DTH office (Union Suite 104) and pick up an application. No experience is necessary, except for the photography and graphics desks. There is an additional application if you are inter ested in photography. All applications are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 18. Call 962-0245 if you have any questions. If s going to be a fun and exciting semes ter at the DTH. Don't miss out
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 11, 1994, edition 1
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