Satlu 3ar Meri
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Volume 103, Issue 143
102 years of editorialfreedom
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
INSIDE
FRIDAY
Judge Questions Merits of
Open Container Ordinance
BYERICABESHEARS
ASSISTANT STATE a NATIONAL EDITOR
The future of Chapel Hill’s open con
tainer ordinance remains uncertain after a
district judge threw out a University gradu
ate student’s citation Jan. 25, calling the
ordinance unenforceable.
UNC graduate student Jonathon
McMurray was given a citation Oct. 19.
He claimed his container was a non-alco
holic beverage and vowed to fight the va
lidity of the open container law. McMurray
had his day in court Jan. 25 and won.
Orange County District Judge Lowry
Betts said in an interview that he would
continue to throw out citations for violat
ing Chapel Hill’s open container law, be
cause the law was vague.
“It didn’t define what a malt beverage
was,” Betts said. “It could be anything
from a malted beer to a chocolate malted
milkshake. It did not even say what the
OIT Fee to Be Distributed Throughout University
BY KATIE TYSON
STAFF WRITER
The proposed s3l technology fee increase will be
split among four departments and will be used to
upgrade e-mail and purchase new software and hard
ware, according to University officials.
For the 1995-1996 academic year, each student
paid $lB3 forthe educational and technology fee. The
proposed increase would raise the fee to $214.
Four areas will receive money from the s3l in
crease, said Kathleen McGaughey, assistant provost
for finance. She said $8 will go to the Office of
Information Technology, $10.60 to the College of
Arts & Sciences, $6.20 to the School of Information
and Library Science and $6.20 to the School of Jour
nalism and Mass Communication.
The Board of Governors will vote on the fee in
crease at a meeting Friday, Feb. 9. The fee has already
been approved by the Board of Trustees and Chancel
lor Michael Hooker.
Student Body President Calvin Cunningham said
raising the fee was not the correct way to meet the
needs of the University.
“The need on this campus is over s2l million,”
Patrolling the once drug-infested Carr Court neighborhood
in Carrboro, police officer Pete Lannon is known as the
Community Cop
BY MICHELLE CRAMPTON
FEATURES EDITOR
In a neighborhood where drag dealers once reigned
supreme, different men now confidently cruise cleaner
and safer streets, waving and greeting the residents they
encounter along the way. Officer Peter Lannon of the
Carrboro Police Department is one of those men.
Having policed the Carr Court and Broad Street areas
of Carrboro on bicycle and on foot for more than a year
with officer Elden White, Lannon has become quite
familiar with the community and its inhabitants.
“I try to get to know the people by name,” he said.
“It’s that type of rapport I like to have with people.”
When riding through the neighborhood, he pauses
frequently to wave at residents or chat briefly with them.
Passing vehicles honk their horns and wave as they meet
him on the road. He routinely stops for coffee at Carrboro
DTH/ERIK I’EREL
Carrboro community police officer Peter Lannon pays regular visits to the
neighborhoods he patrols and works with the residents in an effort to rid
the communities of drugs and crime.
Swimmers in First
The women's swim team won four
of six events on the opening day of
the ACC Championships. Page 5
% <■■■"■
Council member
MARK CHILTON said
the council needed to
look into changing the
ordinance.
alcohol content
would have to be.”
Chapel Hill
Town Attorney
Ralph Karpinos
said the ordinance
was based on a state
statute that defined
a malt beverage as a
liquid containing
between .5 percent
and 6 percent alco
hol content. He dis
agreed with Betts’
decision that the law
was vague.
Betts said he
thought the problem in the ordinance was
technical and could be fixed easily by a
little rewriting. He said that he would con
tinue to drop any cases he hears until the
ordinance is revised. “I’d have to reach the
same decision,” Betts said.
Cunningham said. “That is $ 1,200 per student to meet
that need, and that is outrageous.”
Michael Williams, student government co-coordi
nator for information technology, said he supported
the increase as long as the expenditures were docu
mented by the College of Arts and Sciences.
“As long as it will benefit students through technol
ogy, then I am thrilled,” Williams said. “I just wish
that they would be very specific with their spending. ”
McGaughey said last year money was allotted to
the following areas: OIT, $100.76; College of Arts and
Sciences, $52.51; School of Business, $12.72; School
of Journalism and Mass Communications, $6.85;
Career Services, $5; School of Education, $3; School
of Information and Library Science, $ 1.95; and School
of Social Work, $0.21.
Associate Provost for Information Technology Bill
Graves said significant changes in e-mail will be made
within the next year.
Graves said 8,000 e-mail accounts were used last
year. This year about 26,000 accounts are in use.
He said the current system has a limit of 260
simultaneous e-mail logins. The upgrade will allow
See Off, Page 4
Expresso, where he is greeted warmly.
Terry Braxton, assistant manager of the K-Line Train
Station shop, which is located in the same building as
Carrboro Expresso, said she has come to trust and like
Lannon even though his uniformed presence was once
intimidating.
“It was hard at first to get to know a police officer,”
she said. “ You have to go past the uniform to realize he’s
just like one of us. Now he’s like part of the family.”
Lannon said a small area with a telephone in K-Line
has been reserved for his use.
“They give me a little area and in the summer when
I’m on my bike, they leave out a big pitcher of ice water
for me so I can fill my water bottle up when I go back
out,” he said.
Lannon even gets his car serviced by the people he has
met in Carrboro.
“I know people here,” he said. “Instead of going out
My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they’re in August.
Ronnie Shakes
Chapel NHL North CaroHaa
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2,1996
Assistant Dean Departs
Sibby Anderson Thompkins is
leaving UNC to take a position at
Spelman College. Page 3
JQL
Town administrators are divided over
what needs to be done to the ordinance.
Council member Mark Chilton said he
did not find the ordinance’s description of
a malt beverage vague. However, he said
he thought reducing the penalty from a
criminal offense to a civil penalty would
lessen the town’s burden of proof.
“The burden is beyond a reasonable
doubt,” Chilton said. “Change it to a civil
penalty, and it would be possible to prove
by the greater weight of the evidence.”
Chilton said if 51 percent or more of the
evidence said the beverage was alcoholic,
then that would be enough to issue a cita
tion.
The Chapel Hill Town Council might
address rewriting the ordinance in their
meeting Feb. 12, Chilton said. “I don’t
know what exactly will become of the
ordinance,” he said. “It’ll probably come
See OPEN CONTAINER, Page 4
Where Does the Money Go?
A breakdown of the $lB3 education and technology fee for
the 1995-96 academic year and how the proposed s3l
increase will be spent
TECHNOLOGY COMPONENT
$100.76 Office of Information Technology
EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT
$52.51 College of Arts and Sciences
$ 12.72 School of Business
$6.85 School of Journalism and Mass Communication
$5.00 Career Servioes
$3.00 School of Education
$1.95 School of Information and Library Science
$0.21 School of Social Work
$183.00
s3l INCREASE FOR 1996-97 BUDGET
SB.OO Office of Information Technology
$ 10.60 College of Arts and Sciences
$6.20 School of Journalism and Mass Communication
$6.20 School of Information and Library Science
$214.00
SOURCE; KATHLEEN MCGAUGHEY. ASSISTANT PROVOST FOR FINANCE
ested in working with people,” she said. “I admire him
because on his days off he’ll come to our committee
meetings or answer a call.
“Some people in all professions work because they
want the money, but you can’t put a time limit on
working with people,” Jones said. “You work to get a
job done. Officer Lannon cares and he really feels for
what he’s doing.”
Braxton said the residents’ trust in Lannon came
from knowing that he cares about Carrboro and its
people.
“We feel really at ease with him,” Braxton said.
“We know if there’s a problem, he’d take care of it
because he’s looking out for us.”
Lannon has declined two promotions, both of which
would take him out of the Can- Court area.
“I want to show people that we’re in this together,”
he said. “If I bail out on them, they have to get used to
anew person. They have to start all over again.
“I’d hate to get out and see it fold,” Lannon said.
“Who knows, maybe it would be better without me,
but when I see something that’s working I hate to leave
it."
See LANNON, Page 2
oftown, I’drather come here
and give the business to the
people I know.”
Even when he isn’t
working, Lannon often gets
calls from Carrboro resi
dents who are worried or
need help. Lannon said he
didn’t mind the calls.
“Almost all of them have
my pager number, ” he said.
“I get two or three calls a
week when I’m off-duty.
They know they can reach
me that way.”
Mary Norwood Jones, a
Chapel Hill resident in
volved with the Carrboro
Head Start program, said
she had seen Lannon go the
extra mile for his work.
“He goes beyond the call
of duty because he’s inter-
Playing With Fire
,1 Jill; .... fl*.,
DTH/RYAN MATTHES
Revelers dance as they watch fellow students run through flames on Franklin Street on Wednesday night.
Despite UNC's victory over Duke, there were fewer students than usual. See story, page 4.
DTH/ ERKPEREL
Lannon is well known in 'his' communities;
residents address him by first name.
Hilarious Returns
Five UNC alumni bring their
stand-up comedy troupe to the
Great Hall Saturday night Page 4
3
Biology Professor Justifies
Dismissal of Researcher
BY JAMIE GRISWOLD
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
HILLSBOROUGH Department of
Biology employee WilmaHanton was fired
for insubordination, and not because she
accused her boss of plagiarizing her re
search, a biology professor testified Thurs
day in the continuing defamation trial of
Associate Vice Chancellor Lawrence Gil
bert.
Biology Professor Edward Salmon said
he and three other professors asked Gilbert
to fire Hanton because she refused to docu
ment her activity in the University’s elec
tron microscope (EM) lab.
“The main factor (in the dismissal deci
sion) was that Wilma Hanton had refused,
after March 1,1991, to maintain a journal
of her activities in the EM lab, which was
part of her duties,” Salmon said.
Salmon said he believed Hanton, a re
search analyst who worked at UNC for 21
years, refused to document her activity
because she was devoting 5 0 percent of her
time to independent research projects. He
said independent research was not included
under Hanton’s job description.
Hanton’s defamation suit alleges that
Gilbert rained her professional reputation
in a May 1991 memo sent to approxi
mately 100 biology faculty members and
graduate students. The memo stated that
Hanton, “did not fulfill her job responsi
bilities and was given several
‘unsatisfactories’ onherperformanceevalu
ation.”
Hanton was the primary technician as
signed to the EM facility before she was
fired on May 24, 1991. UNC purchased
the EM in 1984 with grant monies awarded
by the National Institutes of Health, and
faculty could use the EM free of charge.
Because of financial difficulties in 1989,
the EM committee began to charge faculty
members for EM use and for Hanton’s
Women’s Empowerment Expo
Draws 30 Students From UNC
BY SHARIF DURHAMS
STAFF WRITER
More than 30 UNC students will learn
more about the modem feminist move
ment at an Women’s Empowerment Expo
being held in Washington D.C. this week
end.
UNC has one of the largest delegations
of students attending the trip. Amy Swan,
Women’s Issues Network member and
student body vice president said the trip
would help students understand modem
feminism.’Tt’s important to let the world
know that feminists are still out there,”
Swan said.
“There will be an opportunity for femi
nists to share ideas with other feminists
and discuss issues from a feminist’s per
spective.”
The three-day expo, sponsored by the
Feminist Majority Foundation, will have
more than 160 speakers. Some of the fe
male leaders include Ms. Magazine founder
Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal, the
president of the Feminist Majority Foun-
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time in doing microscopy work on faculty
projects. The new policy, which went into
effect January 1,1990, required Hanton to
document her EM activity.
Salmon testified that Hanton docu
mented her work from fall 1990 through
February 1991. For some unknown rea
son, Hanton’s documentation stopped on
March 1,1991, Salmon said.
Salmon said he reminded Hanton of the
importance of keeping a log on at least two
occasions and warned her that she would
be fired if she did not resume documenta
tion. When it became clear that Hanton
would not document her activity, the EM
committee drafted a letter asking Gilbert to
terminate her employment, he said. Salmon
andbiology professors Max Hommersand,
William Kier and Donald Misch signed
the letter.
“It was a difficult decision for us to
make, but the issue was whether the chair
man of the department was to dictate policy
for the EM lab or if the technician was to
dictate policy," Salmon said.
Hanton’s insubordination disrupted
activity in the EM facility, Salmon said. “It
created a very tense atmosphere in the
electron microscope lab,” Salmon said. “It
produced poor morale and general (lack
of) enthusiasm.”
In other testimony, prosecutors sought
to prove that Gilbert’s memo harmed
Hanton. Rosemary Wilson, Hanton’s psy
chologist, said she thought Gilbert’s memo
could have affected Hanton psychologi
cally because she had a strong investment
in her work.
“I think Mrs. Hanton relied on her pro
fessional identity,” Wilson said. “If that
confidence (in her job) was questioned in
any way, it would have a quite destructive
and devastating effect."
The prosecution rested its case Thurs
day. Defense testimony willresumeat9:3o
a.m. today.
dation.
Several U.S. congresswomen and po
litical leaders will be attending and speak
ing at the event. Becky Wishan, a junior
and member of the People’s Organization
for Women’s Empowerment and Rights,
said the trip would give attendees several
opportunities to network with powerful
women.
“I’m going to find out what’s available
for people who want to work with femi
nists,” she said.
Expo events will include roundtable
discussions, lectures, exhibits, a concert,
and comic relief from feminist
commediannes.
“It just seemed like an opportunity for
women at UNC to get together and do
something as a group. We could create a
network right here at UNC,” she said.
Steve Wendel, the lone male on the trip,
said the trip could be significant in helping
WIN implement changes on campus.
“It sounded like a good source of info, ’’
he said. “A planning session for coming
years.”
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