8
Friday, December 2,1994
<Jlj? Satlg (Tar HM
Kell? Ryan EDITOR
Worid Wide Web Electronic Edition;
[ A] http^/www.unc.eduidth/indexJml
JL Established 1893
BHH 101 Years of Editorial Freedom
It can’t be said that government and activist
groups have not raised consciousness about
AIDS.
Information is good, but it is only half the
battle in controlling disease. Equally important
are practical measures such as raising money or
fighting prejudice against homosexuals in main
stream society. Anew VISA card does both. The
new “Uncommon Gout” card is aimed at gay,
lesbian and bisexual communities.
Whenever the card is used, Uncommon Gout
contributes 10 cents into a special bank account.
The fund will be used to promote nonprofit
AIDS-related groups at end of each year. Each
cardholder will be able to “vote with dollars” to
promote equal rights for gay men, lesbians and
bisexuals. Cardholders also receive a free news
letter on gay- and AIDS-related issues.
The card also fights prejudice on a bare eco
nomic level. Domestic partners including
gay, lesbian and bisexual partners will have
the same benefits and shared privileges with
Here’s Some Advice
The General Assembly’s mandate that all
UNC-system schools attain a 15 credit hour
average per student per semester has caused the
Association for Student Governments to take a
second look at UNC’s flagging advising system.
Ultimately it is the responsibility of the stu
dent to graduate on time, but an effective advis
ing system is also crucial, especially for students
who change their major.
All advisers in the general college are cur
rently trained by Donald Jicha, associate dean
of the General College.
Although the General College has made a
genuine effort, the fact that so many students
continue to obtain their PIN numbers each se
mester without ever seeing their adviser makes
one wonder how well advisers are trained.
For those students who actually want to see
an adviser, it sometimes is a challenge to track
one down.
Because most advisers are professors, they
only have a limited amount of time to spend
advising students. This problem could be rem-
Fear Less, Learn More
To many people, AIDS is just a word. It is
four letters that represent a nebulous problem
that doesn’t affect their lives at all. But it’s a virus
that kills not just homosexuals or intravenous
drug users but potentially anyone. Without
awareness and concern for the fact that AIDS
might strike someone they know, people will go
stumbling on like ignorant fools.
AIDS kills without discretion. According to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), there have been 1 million cases of HIV,
tiie virus that causes AIDS, reported in the
United States to date. As of Dec. 31,1993, there
were 361,164 cases of full-blown AIDS in the
United States, 5,228 of whom were children
under the age of 13. There were 2,819 AlDS
related deaths of children under the age of 13 in
the United States.
Often AIDS is not regarded as a family prob
lem as well as a health problem. The virus is the
cause of family members’ deaths and lengthy
hospitalizations. When the children who have
contracted the virus die or must be hospitalized,
unnecessary stress is placed on the family, a
context in which many people do not think of
AIDS.
Heterosexuals are the least aware of the dan
gers of contracting the HTV virus. In fact, the
Tar Heel Quotabks
“There’s been a great deal of rumor and
inappropriate discussion concerning the
process. The decision was made not to
comment on any more of the rumors floating
around Chapel Hill.”
ftucilir March MMrittM Chairman JOHNNY NANUS
On the committee's decision to stop talking to the
public about the search following the withdrawal of
two top contenders for the post.
“They considered merging RTVMP and
speech communications my sophomore year,
and originally I was outwardly against it. I did
not see the connection between the two
programs. Now I find the connection between
the two, and it can work.” '
JOT Mini, SMtor NTVNP major
On the nowcombined RTVMP and speech communica
tion curriculum one year after the Department of
Communication Studies was formed.
“The instructors have limited time to work
with students anyway. The one thing we don’t
need is equipment failure to limit us further.”
Hratfiar yaAaata itwhrt PAWN CONNOY.
Referring to the often closed and broken bowling alleys
Carle Blanche
Uncommon Gout that married couples have
with regular credit cards.
The card accords gays, lesbians and bisexuals
the same basic financial rights straight people
have enjoyed for years. And VISA has shown
itself to be exceptionally open-minded, espe
cially since large corporations have often been
stereotyped as prejudiced.
The VISA card is an excellent idea that will
combine information with practical good works.
The card will be even more productive if it is
considered more than an instrument of gay
power.
If the card gains widespread use in society,
gay and straight people alike will be helping to
fund valuable AIDS research and education.
Fighting an incurable, life-threatening disease is
not a gay/straight or liberal/conservative issue.
It is a human imperative.
By using the Uncommon Gout card, we all
could take a small step toward affirming our
common humanity.
edied by hiring additional faculty to work only as
advisers. This would make advisers more acces
sible to students.
Another flaw in UNC’s advising system is the
small number of advisers. The student to adviser
ratio is 220-to-l.
The University could balance that ratio by
hiring graduate students as advisers. This would
benefit everyone.
Graduate students would earn extra money,
and students would have more advisers to work
with.
If the University cannot afford to hire more
advisers, they should consider making it possible
for students to work with any adviser available.
Even though students are assigned to a specific
adviser, we should be able to consult a large pool
of advisers if we have questions or problems.
An effective advising system makes all the
difference in whether students have successful
college careers or waste years trying to get enough
credit hours to graduate. And it’s time UNC had
one.
percentage of reported cases of AIDS within the
heterosexual population is rising faster than in
the homosexual population. The CDC indicates
that the percentage of AIDS cases reported by
heterosexuals rose by 21 percent between 1990
and 1991. The misconception that the virus is
restricted to the vacuum of large cities such as
New York or San Francisco is also an antiquated
view. The cases of AIDS reported in
nonmetropolitan areas rose last year by 5 per
cent, a sharper increase than in any metro area.
One in every 250 people is infected with the
HIV virus, according to the CDC. Statistically,
that means that a certain population of our own
campus is infected with the virus. In fact, the
CDC states that in 1989 the fifth leading cause of
death of people ages 15 to 24 was AIDS. It is
right here at UNC, and it is present among
people who are college age.
It is ridiculous for the public to take statistics
such as these and become terrified and fanatical.
The only way right now to prevent these statis
tics from continuing to rise in the future is to be
aware of the threat of the HIV virus that causes
AIDS. AIDS education is the base of its preven
tion, and the best way for people to guard them
selves against the virus is to stop living in the
dark.
in the Student Union. Some bowling students are
petitioning for a partial refund of the S2B student
activity fee they paid for the class.
“We knew coming into the game that we were
going to try and get it in to ‘Ra.’ We knew we
would live and die by that.”
Tar Heel fomnl JERRY STACKHOUSE
On UNO's strategy against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night
to get the ball into the paint to center Rasheed
Wallace. Wallace finished the night with 30 points.
“Dahmer had a death wish, and I know he
didn’t have the gumption to do it himself, so I
had predicted that the day would come when
he would be killed in prison.”
GERALD BOYLE, Jeffrey Dahmr's lawyer
On the gruesome prison killing of the former chocolate
factory worker who strangled and dismembered 17
boys and men and ate some of them.
“Anytime you have a community project and
you get kids involved, you are doing yourself
and the environment a big favor.”
Cantor* landscape architect CHRIS GERRY
Who worked with UNC students at a Kwanzaa tree
planting ceremony at Carr Court Community Center in
Carrboro.
HiiIUMB Cimbuii EDITORIAL PAGE HXTOfi
Amy Ptaiak university EDITOR
dm Nitkok cm editor
Jenny Heinien STATE 4 national EDITOR
Justin Seheef sports editor
Jon Goldberg FEATURES EDITOR
Vendy Mitchell ARTS/DIVERSIONS EDITOR
HoQy Stepp SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR
Kitbryn Sberer COPY DESK EDITOR
Jennifer Neekyfirow COPY DESK EDITOR
Katie Cannon photography editor
Robert Anderson GRAPHICS EDITOR
Jake MacNeDy editorial cartoon editor
EDITORIAL
W"f tol.d him
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"But DiD He M I
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& ad.
. .
Memories and Escapism Hold the Key to Exam Blues
To whom it may concern:
A simple remedy for the troubled
breast ...
Take a stick, a good stout walking stick,
severed by tightening and washed white by salt
tides. Taking this stick, journey west until you
find trestled mountains whose tips melt at sunset
(although you might want to indulge in the use
of an automobile for this 150-mile stretch of the
journey; there’s no point in taking Hinton James’
example too much to heart.)
Choose a mountain. A snow-capped one
would be nice, but at this time of year, beggars
can’t be choosers, so just start to climb.
At this point, you might discover the useful
ness of your stick, the slope veering more than
occasionally toward the vertical. Disregard all
romantic claptrap you might have picked up
along the way about choosing the path less
taken. Mountain trails are dangerous, and most
likely there’s a reason for the disuse of a trail.
Besides, the advice of a dead scribbler of pedes
trian and sentimental doggerel seems less than
appropriate. If he were to advise you on which
hearth to buy well, that would be a different
matter.
No, stick clearly to the marked trail, strictly
following the rules suggested by the friendly
local park ranger. Never forget that you are not
Yogi Bear. You can’t fool the ranger. Ignore any
will o’ the wisps, pots of gold or crashed drug
planes that might tempt you to stray from the
path.
Eventually, near dusk, you might approach
the peak, or another appropriate surface con
tiguous with a precipitous incline from which a
view commonly stigmatized as “breath-taking”
may be obtained.
Our jury of experienced theologians and phi
losophers are still out on whether such views
were ordained by heavenly design, or whether
their existence can be ascribed to the sheer fluke
of geological process. Irrespective of which of
these explanations proves to be correct, one
thing is for certain:
No matter how many “awe-inspiring” land
scape paintings one comes across in galleries, no
Writer Needs to Learn the
Facts About Vlad the Impaler
TO THE EDITOR:
DRACULA IS NOT REAL!
Reading the letter by Charlie Sarratt on Nov.
16 (“Native American Halloween Ghouls an
Absurd Prospect”) I couldn’t restrain myself
from clarifying a small problem that might shine
some tight into the debate.
Mr. Sarratt wrote: “In some parts of the
world, namely Transylvania, Romania, Dracula
is real.”
Well my friend, I am from Transylvania, I
lived there for more than two decades, and I can
tell you that Dracula is NOT real!
Dracula is a fictional character from Bram
Stoker’s novel. He was inspired by the life of the
Wallachian (Romanian) prince Vlad Tepes
(known as “The Impaler,” for his severe attitude
against the criminals and enemies).
This has nothing to do with Dracula’s bloody
adventures, as they are known to the American
public, and I could say that the majority of the
Romanians are not even aware of the Dracula
myth in the Western concept.
For further details you can read: “Dracula,
prince of many faces: his life and his times” and
“Dracula: a biography of Vlad the Impaler,”
both by Radu Florescu.
Marcel Madam
GRADUATE STUDENT
CHEMISTRY
Chiming of Bell Tower Too
Noisy and Often Nonsensical
TO THE EDITOR:
I wish to express my annoyance with the
excessive and unnecessary noise emanating from
the Bell Tower.
Due to the close proximity of the tower to
Davis and Undergraduate libraries, the noise
from the Bell Tower can be heard inside these
buildings.
I frequently visit Davis in the evenings to try
to locate a quiet place to concentrate and study.
The last thing I want to hear while studying is a
Bell Tower concert.
While I was writing this letter the Bell Tower
was playing a 15-minute concert. On occasion I
have even heard such nonsense as "Old
McDonald” being played during the evenings
from the tower. Please silence this unnecessary
noise!
matter how many
“emotion-stirring”
National Geo- 4HKNfg|B
graphic specials play
themselves out in
glorious
Technicolor as you
are slumped before
your television ___
screen, the effect this
view will have on
youwillbeinstanta- LEGAL ALIEN
neous and absolute.
Perhaps it is the fullness and utter actuality,
the terrifying “right-here-and-right-now”-ness of
the valley that sweeps majestically before you, or
perhaps it is the fair linger of pine cones whose
scent the needle-sharp air carries up your nos
trils.
It must have something to do with the ex
traordinary silence, the delicate, inhuman re
pose of what ties before you. Who knows what it
is; all that matters is its effect.
Now, I’m not advocating any of that “alterna
tive” medicine hocus-pocus, and perish the
thought that I would cast aspersions on the
abilities of the fine people in lab coats who
brought you Thalidomide, AZT and Prozac.
Feel free, gentle reader, to cram your cheeks with
wee fistfuls of whatever narcotic, anti-depres
sant or meat substitute piques your taste buds.
It cannot be denied, though, that there is
something infinitely stirring, something that truly
can be called “wholistic,” in standing on top of
a mountain, watching the sun go down. It’s an
effect that secret laboratories from Switzerland
to darkest Colombia have tried in vain to repro
duce. Who will mourn the countless legions of
lab rats who have died for the sake of this fruitless
quest?
Not wishing to labor a point too heavily, it is
a perspective you can't get anywhere else. And
while all your papers, crises and hemorrhoids
aren’t going to vanish tike the dead leaves of
yesterday’s trees, they do suddenly appear in an
utterly different tight.
No longer is that history paper the instrument
ReJUPoRUM
The Daily Tai Heel welcomes reader comments and
criticism. 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.
Send e-mail forum to: dth@unc.edu.
Finally, the tower does not need to chime
every 15 minutes. Once every hour or half-hour
is sufficient.
Keith Holley
JUNIOR
PHARMACY
Order of the Bell Tower's
Strange Initiation Ceremony?
TO THE EDITOR:
On Saturday, Nov. 26, some friends and I
walked up to the Bell Tower only to find three
naked women prancing around it, hooting.
In but shoes and socks, two were wearing
miner's tights and one a bright pink jester’s cap.
We listened to them read aloud the dedication
and learned that it was the Bell Tower’s 63rd
anniversary.
Hooray for these women and their stout
recognition of history and tradition. If they
weren’t members ofThe Order of the Bell Tower
I’d like to suggest that the organization take a
hint for next year.
S. Wellman
SENIOR
BIOLOGY
University Does Discriminate
Against Qualified Candidates
TO THE EDITOR:
I read your editorial titled “Put Facts Where
Your Mouth Is” (Nov. 21) and I totally disagree.
Saily ©ar Hfel
of the Almighty’s vengeance (although Ma al
ways said that going to a place of Satan tike
Chapel Hill was a sure-fire means of buying a
one-way ticket to the infernal depths).
In six months, not only will you have forgot
ten every fact relevant to your current paper, but
you also will have forgotten the grade you ob
tained on this paper. And if you do remember it
well, then, you’re probably anal-retentive. As
for relationships, they come and go.
Suddenly you look at the person you would
have died for yesterday, and wonder how you
didn’t notice that nasty zit oozing from her chin.
The past becomes a different country; things
were done differently there.
As you look down from the mountain, the
land before you spreads out like the jetstream of
an airplane, tike the past in your wake, revealed
in all its tender and aching remoteness.
You wonder what this strange world was tike,
and who that shifting figure, who looks like you,
could be...
The biggest mysteries are not to be found
across the stars, or beneath the seas—but behind
our eyes and in our hearts.
Perhaps out of the alcoholic haze euphemisti
cally known by some as “college,” a few frag
ments of memory will emerge:
... sitting hunched in the Pit over a steaming
cup of coffee chatting furiously with friends,
while the sunlight plays a symphony across the
few remaining leaves...
... making a dash for Lenoir in the rain,
knowing how awful the dinner is going to be, but
turning, and seeing a rainbow rise from Wilson
Library...
... trudging out of the elevator on the eighth
floor of Davis, to see the sunset explode like a
supernova across the sky, spilling over the whole
campus, filling you ...
Perhaps these are not the best days of our
lives, filled as they are by wretched compromise
and aimless labor, but can that stop us from
filching from them a few meager gems of magic,
the distillation of a distant and echoing dream?
Aziz Huq is a junior history major from Great Britain.
I can tell you from personal experience that
the University does admit minority students with
lower GPA and SAT scores.
My daughter applied to UNC two years ago
with a high GPA, a class rank in the top 10
percent, all courses that were required plus more,
and numerous extracurricular activities.
Her SAT was not above 900, though. She was
told that her low SAT score was the reason she
was not accepted. However, her friend, who is a
minority, was accepted at UNC with a lower
GPA, lower class rank and about the same SAT
score.
I didn’t sue and have no intention of doing so.
I realize that all cultures must and should be
admitted to UNC and I’m very much in favor of
that. I just don’t tike to see in print something that
I know first hand is not true.
By the way, my daughter is very happy and is
excelling at another university.
Dianne Hill
BIOSTATISTICS
STAFF
Columnist Needs to Support
His Conservative Arguments
TO THE EDITOR:
I have a few questions I would tike Lance
McMillian to answer in an upcoming column.
I hope he considers these questions a chal
lenge and not a taunt.
1) A frequent rallying cry of conservatives is
that “big government” controls too much and
has legislated too many restrictions on the way
people live.
If this is true, why are school prayer and the
elimination of access to abortion part of the
agenda? Why is interference with business prac
tices “big government” and interference with
personal practices not?
2) If Jesus were alive today and living in the
United States, would he be apolitical, anarchist,
socialist, democrat, republican or libertarian?
Please support your hypothesis with Biblical
passages.
3) Finally, what do conservatives see as the
connection between democracy, capitalism and
Christianity? One is a political system, one is an
economic system and one is a religion. What do
they have in common?
J.P. SandeHin
GRADUATE STUDENT
INFORMATION AND LIBRARY SCIENCE