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Volume 103, Issue 93
102 years of editorial freedom
Serving the students and die University community since 1893
Meadowmont Approved After 5-Year Debate
■ In a 6-3 vote, the Town
Council decides the proposed
development will be a reality.
BY LAURA GODWIN
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted
Monday night to approve the controver
sial Meadowmont development proposal,
ending five years of public hearings and
petitions.
The proposal was contested by some
residents of Chapel Hill until the last sec
ond. At the start of Monday’s meeting,
town attorney Ralph Karpinos informed
members of the council that a lawsuit had
been filed and delivered to the town that
afternoon, just a few hours before the be
ginning of Monday’s meeting.
“It is a lawsuit challenging the action
that is now under consideration to rezone
the property which is the subject of
Meadowmont,” Karpinos said. Karpinos
explained that the lawsuit asked for a tem
porary restraining order against the town
to keep the council from acting on the
proposal Monday night.
Karpinos told the council that because
he had not received any information stat
ing the court order had been issued, the
council was to proceed with their delibera
tions of the matter.
In his final presentation to the council,
Roger Perry of East West Partners, the
development team in charge of
Meadowmont, changed the direction of
Meadowmont Lane and officially offered
to donate 16 acres of land to the town for
the construction of anew school, rather
than the 10 acres he had originally pro-
DTH / MURRAY DAMERON
Tom Wolfe speaks in the Faculty Lounge of Morehead Planetarium on
Monday. Wolfe was the speaker for the first Douglass Hunt Lecture.
Novelist Tom Wolfe Describes
Decline in American Morals
BY DEAN HAIR
ARTS & DIVERSIONS EDITOR
In a Monday night lecture, author and
commentator Tom Wolfe said American
political life in the 1990s has shifted its
focus to ethics and morality more than ever
before.
"Every historical period has its own
moral tone, and no matter how much you
may want to resist that moral tone, you
cannot,” Wolfe said. “It is going to influ
ence your life deeply, no matter what your
idea may be.”
Wolfe delivered the first Douglass Hunt
Lecture to more thanlOO people, a part of
the Carolina Seminars Program, in the
Morehead building on Monday evening.
Designed as a vehicle to serve the people of
North Carolina, the program enables di
verse groups to address a broad range of
social and scholarly problems.
Recognized as one of the greatest social
commentators of modem time, Wolfe pre
sented a lecture commenting on American
mass culture titled "Moral Fever in the
905.”
During his lecture, Wolfe spoke of how
great a change has occurred regarding
morality and ethics in the last century and
how it affects people individually. He re
marked that politics in the ‘9os have been
focused on ethics and cultural codes rather
than the “money fever” of the ‘Bos.
Meadowmont Meets and Bounds
I Meadowmont has been divided
/ into three zone types
HR ■ Residential 1 Limits residential
units to 3-acre increments
lilt ■ Residential 5-C Limits residential
units from 1-15 acres
/ ■ Mixed-Use Residential 1 Allows
/ up to 20-acre increments to be
/ developed as long as they are
yd tor mixec^se developments
/ I ■ Any of these increments can be
/ \ ;increased through use of a
/ \ Special Use Permit
/ ’\ b 4 / J Friday Center
/ f fintoyGoßf
I Course Rd I
SOURCEiMEADOWMONT MATERIALS: READERS GUIDE DTH/CHRIS KIRKMAN AND DANIEL NIBLOCK
posed.
Mayor Ken Broun read a letter by Chapel
Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent
Neil Pederson calling the donation of the
school land “a workable site that can work
with careful planning.”
Broun said he thought the proposal,
with the changes added by Perry, was a
sensible solution.
“In reflection onlooking at this, it strikes
me that the proposal that is now set up
makes sense.”
America currently has a “moral fever,”
which is not necessarily a good or bad
thing, Wolfe said. “A fever is just a fever,
it’s information,” Wolfe said. “It doesn’t
mean things necessarily change.”
Wolfe said he believed there was a defi
nite need for improvement in morality in
America. “I would not mind seeing moral
ity improve, particularly if you have chil
dren,” Wolfe said in a press conference
held earlier Monday.
“When I was growing up there was a
word, co-habitation; this word was a stigma
for an unmarried male and female past the
age of puberty living together. Now co
habitation is the standard form of Ameri
can courtship at every level of the popula
tion. There used to be a thing called dating;
now everyone just hangs out, gathering in
a place where there might be some action. ”
For over two decades Wolfe has
chronicled and analyzed American cul
ture, carefully weaving a modem web of
social satire in his written works.
His runaway best sellers “The Bonfire
of the Vanities” and “The Right Stuff”
carefully commented on the politics of
New York City and the lives of Mercury
astronauts.
Considered by many to be the father of
“New Journalism,” Wolfe has brought
irony and cynicism into his subject matter.
Nicole Quenelle contributed to this story.
Council member Lee Pavao said the
changes made by Perry were more than
what the council asked from the develop
ers in the previous meetings.
“We basically asked for this, and he has
come back with something that is better
than what we asked for,” Pavao said.
Council member Joyce Brown cau
tioned thatthe connection ofMeadowmont
to existing areas would not be an easy one.
“This is not connecting neighborhoods to
neighborhoods, this is connecting major
Hooker Cancels Brochure on Sex
■ A proposed pamphlet
offering students suggestions
on alternatives to intercourse
will not be published.
BY JOHN PATTERSON
STAFF WRITER
After an administrative review, Chan
cellor Michael Hooker announced Mon
day afternoon that Student Health Service
would not publish a brochure called
“Outercourse.”
SHS’s Health Education Section pro
posed the brochure, “Outercourse (Being
Sexual Without Intercourse),” as a means
of promoting abstinence. However, Hooker
canceled the pamphlet after he deemed it
an inappropriate expenditure of student
fees.
INSJLDE
■ T msissOS
Community ~~
Heineman wants e|B
banks to give back NS
to the community.
State & National News, ML
♦
Student Fee Increase: Officials want
more money to support the free U-bus
and e-mail services.
University News, Page 3
*
OIT Week: The
looking into
offering a minor
in information
technology.
Page 3
*
■ Back to Basics:
Leon Johnson led a
rejuvenated UNC
running attack
Saturday against
Wake Forest.
Sports, Page 7
Weather
TODAY: Mostly sunny; high 75.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny; high
70.
Sex is natural, but not if it’s done right.
Unknown
TuS ) OCTOBER2n99S
DTH/IOHN WHITE
Chapel Hill Town Council member Joe Capowski listens to an argument from a representative of the development
team in charge of the Meadowmont project Monday night at Town Hall. Capowski voted against the measure.
transit areas to major transit areas,” she
said.
After the vote, Perry said the council
had a lot of courage to approve the plan.
Perry also said the revised plan was accept
able to him.
Chief of Staff Elson Floyd said Hooker
made the decision at Monday’s Adminis
trative Council meeting. “It was the
chancellor’s view that student fees should
not be used for this brochure, ” Floyd said.
“That (student fees) was clearly a primary
concern of Chancellor Hooker.”
SHS Director Judith Cowan said
“Outercourse” was intended to focus on
the growing emphasis on abstinence. “This
(brochure) was initiated out of our Health
Education Section,” Cowan said. “I think
what we have become aware of is an in
creased awareness of students practicing
abstinence.”
Now was not a good time to produce
“Outercourse” because of the publicity the
brochure had received said Edith Wiggins,
interim vice chancellor for student affairs.
“It is going to be real hard at this time to
design a booklet or brochure to serve the
purpose that it was intended for, ” Wiggins
Student Protests Open-Container
Law in Civil Disobedience Action
BY MARY-KATHRYN CRAFT
STAFF WRITER
After a two-week effort, a UNC gradu
ate student got his wish Friday night: He
was cited for possession of an open con
tainer.
Jonathan McMurry said he has been
trying to receive a citation by using nonal
coholic beverages to prove the town is
“wasting its time” pursuing people who
are breaking the open-container law.
“There are a number of sympathizers
that visit bars that believe that the Chapel
Hill Town Council's open-container law is
infringing on our civil liberties,” he said.
McMurry said he had an Old Milwau
kee nonalcoholic beverage in a cup Friday
night when he was cited for the violation
by University Police officers. McMurry
Six Jurors Seated in Williamson Trial
BY WENDY GOODMAN
CITY EDITOR
HILLSBOROUGH The scene in
Orange County Superior Court House on
Monday was one of intense and strategic
moves, as defense and prosecution attor
neys carefully selected jurors for the first
phase of the trial of double-murder suspect
Wendell Williamson.
Six jurors five females and one male
were seated on the jury at court’s ad
journment Monday. More than 30 people
from the jury pool were questioned and
evaluated based on a series of questions
from the prosecution and then the defense.
Jury selection for the remaining six ju-
“ What they approved tonight is just as
satisfactory as what they approved the other
night.”
Perry said he had never been in a devel
opment process that had taken as long as
this one has.“ We’ve never been through
said. “It really does call into question
whether this is the best use of student fees. ”
Hooker made the right decision when
he chose to cancel the brochure, said Wil
liam Armfield, chairman of the Board of
Trustees. “lapplaudthedecisionby Chan
cellor Hooker,” Armfield said Monday
night. “I thought (the brochure) was abso
lutely ludicrous. When somebody first told
me about it, I thought it was a joke.”
Armfield said he did not think
“Outercourse” would have been popular
with the other members of the BOT. “It is
difficult for me to believe that any other
member of the Board of Trustees would
approve of this,” he said. “I think the good
news is that the chancellor has done what
is right.”
Cowan said although the proposed bro
chure had stirred up controversy, it was
important to remember that there never
was an actual brochure. “I think some
McMURRY was cited
for an open container,
which he says held
nonalcoholic beer.
said there was no
case against him
because the officer
did not taste the bev
erage.
He filed a harass
ment complaint
against the Univer
sity Police on Mon
day, and he plans to
file a complaint in
Chapel Hill also.
In response to his
citation, McMurry
has formed an orga
nization called The
Sons of Liberty to
advocate beer drinkers' rights.
University Police Lt. Angela Carmon
said officers are not allowed to sample
rors will resume today at 9:30 a.m. with a
new jury pool.
Judge Gordon Battle instructed poten
tial jurors at the beginning of the morning
that they would not be asked to decide the
death penalty in this part of the trial. The
first phase of the trial focuses on the mental
state of Williamson.
Battle also explained that Williamson
had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of
insanity to the charges, and the jury would
have to reach a verdict concerning the
mental state ofWilliamson based solely on
the evidence presented during the course
of the trial.
The overriding theme of questioning by
both the prosecution and the defense attor
Ncws/Fearares/Aitt/Spons
Busmess/Advertising
C 1995 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
any other process that has taken even one
fourth of this time.”
The final vote was 6-3 in favor of both
rezoning requests, with council members
Brown, Joe Capowski and Mark Chilton
voting against both rezoning requests.
people have registered their displeasure,
but there have not been any complaints to
us,” she said. “Ifl can stress one thing, it is
the fact that there never was a brochure
published.”
The emphasis of “Outercourse” was
directed at those students and members of
the University community who needed
help making decisions about sexuality.
Cowan said.
“I think this is really aimed at some
thing much broader than just the technical
question of what abstinence is,” Cowan
said. “The students need a choice, or a
chance, to choose a healthy alternative.
Whatever the peer pressure may be, they
have the choice to choose.”
SHS set up a booth in the Pit last week
and asked students to name creative ways
to avoid AIDS and other sexually trans
mitted diseases. Student responses were to
form the backbone of the brochure.
beverages when citing people for violation
of the open-container law. “If it was defi
nitely not alcohol, he (McMurry) can say
that in court,” she said.
McMurry said he intends to force the
issue to trial by refusing to cooperate with
law enforcement officials and refusing to
answer questions about the case.
He said he plans to visit bars to tell
people about the open-container law. He
said he also plans to make fliers informing
people how to launch their own protests.
Carmon said complaints such as the
one filed by McMurry are extremely rare.
“This is a total random incident,” she said.
“This is the first time I have heard of this
type of complaint.”
McMurry said he did drink beer earlier
in the evening, but he was not drinking
beer at the time of his citation.
neys was whether various complications
with the trial and the publicity surrounding
the trial “would prevent you (the juror)
from being fair and impartial.”
Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl
Fox began questioning potential jurors
about the publicity that has surrounded the
Chapel Hill shootings. He asked jurors
whether they had formed an opinion of
guilt or innocence in the case and whether
anything they had read or heard could
prevent them from being fair and impar
tial.
Most members of the jury pool said they
had heard of the incident and recalled
See WILIIAMSON, Page 2
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