Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 5, 1996, edition 1 / Page 13
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®ljp Eaily sar Uppl \StuJ^t Student Body President Candidate Platforms Sean Behr For Student Body President The student body president is a repre sentative of and an advocate for student concerns. The most important word in the previous sentence is student. I do not want to be president of the student body, and I don’t want to work for students. I want to work with students and be the president with the student body. A student body president is useless without student sup port. Professor Chuck Stone said it best, “United we stand, divided we fall, together we kick ass!” With two years of student experience under my belt, I will utilize our best asset, students, to tackle the tough issues facing our University and provide realistic solutions. In the coming year, I will be an advocate for all student con cerns. However, I will begin the year with a focus on community, student services, external relations and graduate issues. Community I propose to: ■ Improve the intellectual climate by increasing the instances of, and opportuni ties for, faculty-student interaction outside of the classroom. I would like to facilitate social and service-oriented interaction be tween the chancellor, faculty, administra tors and students. Rather than attempting to blame the declining quality of the intel lectual climate on alcohol, the University should foster the intellectual climate by encouraging this interaction. ■ Encourage and facilitate education and communication on gender issues, race relations, alcohol and sexuality issues. I will focus on the realistic aspects of these issues that affect students today. ■ Ensure the safety of local apartment complexes by issuing a report card each semester that would rate the security levels of apartments. Along with the Chapel Hill Police Department, members of the com munity and students, we will look at the availability of close, well-lit parking; safe, well-lit bus stops and paths; and the records of past crimes in the area. These aspects will result in a grade for the apartment complex that can be published for stu dents. The report card will reward safety conscious apartment owners and force Michael Farmer For Student Body President We can improve government in three areas: ■ Expansion of student government. Student government should reflect the rich diversity of this university. We can create an executive branch which relates to the students and moves with the interests of our entire student body. Let’s open our government to the entire constituency which it serves. ■ Accountability of student govern ment. Our government must face up to its shortcomings and be ready to readjust to the needs of students and administrators. ■ Accessibility of student government. The executive branch has to inform stu dents of its accomplishments and its goals. So many pertinent issues bounce around Suite C, but very few of those issues ever reach the general public. Let’s create the web page that students use to communi cate with student government and that we can use to communicate to students. Our newsletter will tell the students what goes on during executive and cabinet meetings. We, the students, want: ■ Funding for student scholarships. A responsible student government must de velop an assertive strategy for academic fund-raising. Our University has success fully raised millions of dollars to finance our athletic scholarships. Our academic efforts for must be on par with our athletic fund-raising. To do this, we will develop a Department of Student Scholarship in our administration which will work hand in hand with the Chancellor’s Committee for Scholarships, Awards and Student Aid. This group will develop plans to increase student binding while working with ad ministrators to accomplish these tasks. ■ Protection against inappropriate fee increases. Student government must de fend student finances when dealing with administrators. ■ Move for housing enhancement. Stu dents have a right to live in a comfortable area so that they may concentrate on their academic goals. Student government can make so many improvements simply by having open communication lines with our Department of University Housing administrators. What we can look for in the Farmer Administration: ■ Classrooms in Areas. Right now, Student Funded P2P Xpress Failed Safety Test TO THE EDITOR: At 10:45 p.m. on Jan. 24,1 brought my car to the Newman Center. Not wanting to walk to the library alone, I decided to catch the P2P Xpress. I stood outside 10 min utes, when the Jbus came, followed by the P2P Xpress. As the J bus slowed and I waved it on, the P2P Xpress completely passed. I waved at the driver to no avail. The P2P Xpress stops in front of the ... : : ■: ' " ’me***#* those who are not to address the safety concerns of students. Student Services I propose to: ■ Make the Carolina Course Review more dependent on student support rather than on faculty support. Why do we need to go to the professor for a syllabus when 100 students also have a copy? Students can write their name on a copy of the syllabus and put it in a box in the Pit. The winners will be chosen randomly and re warded for helping the CCR and the stu dent body. Additionally, I will pressure the University and the academic departments to make the evaluations of their professors public record. ■ Push the University to replace older copiers with environmentally sound double-sided copiers. ■ Ensure that all proposed fee increases be subject to a critical evaluation and sig nificant student debate in order to see if students approve and that a specific service will be provided. '• ■ Continue to assist the fund-raising efforts for the Black Cultural Center. ■ Add more touchtone courtesy phones Ehringhaus has a pilot program underway that allows students to have class within their own housing community. This al lows for late night classes and greater ac cess to classroom resources. With a stu dent government that focuses in on educa tional advances in the realm of housing, we can expand this program to other dor mitories. ■ Information technology in dormi toiy rooms. In discussing campus issues with Wayne Kuncl, the director of Univer sity Housing, he relayed to me the up and coming improvements in dormitories. We can enjoy modem day comforts of infor mation technology in our own rooms. ■ Promotion of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center and the Women’s Center. To invest real energy into the fund raising for the BCC would stand as a testa ment to student power. What we have wished for so long can come closer to reality as the Farmer Administration pushes for fund-raising through the Office of De velopment. Working hand in hand with our administrators and the new BCC in terns, we can establish our own freestand ing BCC. Using all of the resources avail able to student government, we can lay the blueprints for a Women’s Center here on campus. ■ Move to Union renovation. We at tend this nation’s original state university HEADERS’ FORUM Newman Center no more than two times a night. That does not give the driver permis sion to pass by. I pay student fees and expect to be able to take advantage of the across campus. External Relations I propose to: ■ Set up a network of students from across the state. With two students for each member of the state General Assembly, the students can communicate with the representative from their hometown. The network puts a face with our University’s name. The organization will also serve as a way to gather newspaper articles and other information from across the state. ■ Ensure a strong effort to encourage and educate students on the issues and candidates seeking political office in 1996. I will ask any candidate seeking student support, “Is education your number one priority?” The goal of our state and na tional leaders should be to make our public education system the best in the world within 10 years. Graduate Issues I propose to: ■ Encourage the University to elimi nate the burden of tuition for TAs and RAs. Graduate students are already paid abysmally low salaries and then the Uni versity makes them pay tuition. Graduate students are being forced to take on second jobs, which leads to more years of study before they can complete their degrees. ■ Push for the availability of affordable health insurance for all graduate students. Graduate students have a significant role in helping the University run, through teaching and conducting research. There fore, they should receive the benefit of comprehensive health care. ■ Work closely with the GPSF presi dent. I will not pretend to understand ex actly what it is like to be a graduate student. I will need the GPSF president to help me and my staff understand more about gradu ate issues. While this is my platform, it is not set in stone and certainly not com pletely inclusive. I will handle all issues in the same manner by asking students what they want. I have the energy, com mitment and experience to represent stu dent concerns as your student body presi dent. On Feb. 13 please vote for the Behr. and the state’s flagship institution, yet we do not have a Union facility that reflects our status. N.C. State and UNC-Charlotte both have adequate student conference fa cilities, but we do not. This University deserves to have a centrally located confer ence center that allows students access to the best accommodations in conferencing, student services (such as student organiza tion meeting places and office space) and relaxation. Let’s build a better Union through private fund-raising. ■ Increase Dean Dome usage. In the report that I issued to the executive branch last fall, I reported the possibilities of reviv ing the Smith Center. With a change in state law, which pro hibits the Smith Center from promising funds up front, we can draw more events to the arena. With more acts coming to the Dean Dome, UNC can use more money to fund student needs (such as scholarship funding and facility/info-tech improve ments). ■ Food service improvement. Marriott executives have us believing that they are the best deal in Chapel Hill. I have person ally witnessed lack of customer service, and we want a response to our complaints. The contract comes up for renewed at the end of this academic year. Marriott can either respond to our needs, or they can leave. ■ Safety developments. We must take the input from this year’s lighting tour to make changes that enhance safety for stu dents on campus. With the help of our Building and Grounds committee, we can place new lighting structures on campus. We will also enterprise to reshape the P-2-P van service to meet student needs. ■ The Experience: Executive Branch Facilities Use Coor dinator Chairman Carolina Union Activities Board Ad vertisement Committee Administrative Director - Brown Skin Philanthropists Battle Administration Greek Affairs Committee Resident Assistant, Ehringhaus Minority Student Recruitment Volun teer Kenan Center Business Researcher UNIT AS Publicity Director services that they provide. The P2P Xpress has a specific route, with designated stops, and the driver should be required to pass directly in front of each stop, no matter how infrequently students are picked up there. This wasn’t the fact time that the P2P Xpress had passed me by at the Newman Center stop. It’s bad enough that I can’t feel safe wallring at night, but it’s worse when services provided to insure my safety fail entirely. GimDeFranco SENIOR BIOLOGY OP-ED Lee Conner For Student Body President When I was deciding to run for student body president, the words of former Stu dent Body President George Battle kept coming back to me: “Student government exists for one reason to do good things for students.” The needs of students must be para mount because UNC will face many chal lenges in the year ahead. Our next student body president must exemplify vision, ex perience and hard work. It is only through these qualities that student government will be able to do good things for students. The Vision... Academics ■ The Buck Stops Here: Fight against future tuition increases,, and work dili gently to keep student fees as low as pos sible. ■ Advising Reform: Students must have a role in the training of advisers. Advising must become more specialized to accom modate students who switch majors. Also, more peer advising should be available, especially during C-TOPS. ■ Pass/Fail: Extend the declaration period, and allow declaration to be done via CAROLINE. ■ Longer to Move Out: Extend the move-out period for people who have Sat urday exams until 24 hours after their exam. ■ Transcripts: Reduce the cost to stu dents. ■PE Requirement: Give credit for com peting in club sports, and offer more PE classes in the evening. ■ Students Helping Students: Devote more resources to the Office of Student Counseling. The minority advisers devote large amounts of their time to helping freshmen and should receive better pay, and the program should be better funded overall. ■ Diverse Faculty: Increase efforts to recruit and retain women and minority faculty. Campus Safety ■ Lighting Corridor: Identify the path ways on which students walk at night, and increase the brightness of the lights. Also, insure that an adequate amount of call boxes exists throughout the corridor and that it is well-traveled by the Student Pa trol. ■ModifyPoint-2-PointPhone System: Instead of receiving a busy signal, callers will be placed bri hold, and music \inll play. Radio stations will be charged a fee foY Aaron Nelson For Student Body President The fundamental responsibility of the student body president is to advocate stu dent interests. At UNC, I have devoted my time to working for students and building a better University community. As student body president, I will con tinue to seek student opinion and fight for changes that improve our lives. OUR MONEY In a year when we’ve seen increases in both tuition and fees, money is a primary concern. When this university was under attack from the General Assembly last spring, I helped organize a 2,000-person rally in front of South Building to protest budget cuts. When the Board of Trustees met to consider the S4OO tuition hike, I spoke against the proposed increase at their meet ing. I also authored a resolution opposing cuts in federal student aid which was deliv ered to the entire North Carolina Congres sional delegation. As student body president, I will: ■ Continue to fight unfair tuition and fee increases. ■ Lobby to increase graduate student stipends and tuition remissions. ■ Implement the Student Fee Audit Committee to monitor how our fees are spent. ■ Fight federal cuts in student loans. ■ Work with the Office of Financial Aid to increase merit-based scholarships. UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY Building an effective community re quires good communication. Members of our university community students, faculty, staff and administra tors —often lack an adequate understand ing of each other’s perspective. As student body president, I will: ■ Establish a University Council with representation from students, staff, faculty and the administration. ■ Establish a Student Advisory Com mittee to the Board of Trustees to increase student input. ■ Increase student government accessi bility by holding regular student body meet ings. ■ Encourage Greek self-govemance through an effective Greek Judicial Board. ■ Establish a community relations of fice to foster University involvement in the community. ■ Initiate executive branch community service projects. HUMAN RELATIONS Much of my time at UNC has been spent working for the advancement of hu- '' rrs* r being played, and this money will be used to hire more phone operators and drivers. ■ 500 More Spaces Per Night: Increase lighting in Bell Tower parking lot and add a security guard and a P2P Express stop to make it a safe place to park at night. ■ Extend Safe Escort to Men. Student Services ■ Surfin’ the Net: Install connections to access Netscape from off-campus at no additional cost to students. We already pay enough, and we deserve better. ■ElectronicMailßoom: Establishcom puter labs that are e-mail-only to speed up process of checking e-mail. ■ Courtesy Phones: Place more free courtesy phones throughout campus. ■ Voice Mail: Give all on-campus resi dents the option of having answering ma chine-style voice mail. ■ South Campus Convenience: Install copy-card machines, photo copiers and stamp machines in Chase. ■ UNC ONE Card: Expand the use to Franklin Street restaurants and Chapel Hill Transit. ■ Food Services: Accept the recom mendations of the Food Services Task Force, and support improvement of on campus dining facilities. ■ Finding A Parking Space: Fight for a greater share of existing daytime, on-cam pus parking for students. Caini>us Community ■’Greek Systeni: Encourage ahatmo- 1 1 f .jul man relations on campus. I am currently involved in both the Coalition for Eco nomic Justice and the Coalition for the Advancement of Human Relations. I was also a Human Relations Execu tive Assistant for the Residence Hall Asso ciation. As student body president, I will: ■ Advocate a Women’s Center and increased gender equity among faculty. ■ Actively support fund-raising for the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Cen ter. ■ Advocate better minority student and faculty recruitment and retention. ■ Expand institutional support for ori entation and advising of Asian and His panic students. ■ Work for the housekeepers: oppose contracting out, advocate a living wage and increased training opportunities. STUDENT SERVICES As an Resident Assistant, a member of the Housing Advisory Board and a three year on-campus resident, I have seen first hand the problems with some campus fa cilities. As student body president, I will work make campus services more responsive to student needs: ■ Computer labs: keep labs open longer and increase the number of computers. ■ Housing: open residence hails earlier and keep them open longer. ■Cable and Internet: have students de cide what services they want. ■ CAROLINE: keep it open 24 hours, put it on-line, and include information from an improved Carolina Course Re view. ■ Campus safety and security: increase Monday, February 5,1996 \StuJom i^mtions sphere of autonomy and fairness in rela tions between Greeks and administrators. ■ Human Relations Summit: Revive and expand the Human Relations Sum mit. ■ Black Cultural Center: Aggressively support continued fund-raising and site development efforts. ■ Women’s Center: Establish a Caro lina Women’s Center. ■ Environment: Place more double sided copiers and recycling bins through out campus. State and Local Relations ■ Lobbying the Legislature: Create a team to lobby legislators in Raleigh and Washington. ■ Student fora Day: Bring legislators to campus so they can experience a day in the life of a UNC student. ■ Voting Districts: Push to have Or ange County voting districts changed so that all on-campus students can vote on campus. Graduate Students ■ Financial Respect: Fight for subsi dized graduate student health insurance, higher TA, RA and GA stipends and more tuition remissions. ■ Mentorship: Make sure all TAs are receiving effective guidance and evalua tions from their departmental supervisors. Student Government Effectiveness ■ Staying In Touch: Hold office hours in the Pit, and have quarterly student body meetings. Also create a student govern ment homepage to keep students informed. ■ Diverse Student Government: Ac tively recruit a diverse executive branch. Experience and Hard Work ... Student body presidents must have the experience to see their visions through. My experience includes: ■ Student Body Co-Secretary ■ Chair, Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor ■ Publisher, Carolina Course Review ■lntemwithPresidentProT empore of the NC Senate ■ Transportation and Parking Advi sory Committee Over the past three years, I’ve worked with many people to get things done. My experiences have taught me that only by working together can we make UNC a better place for everyone. With yourhelp; we can do gdotf things for stu dents.' on-campus lighting, free phones, emer gency call boxes and patrols. ■ Libraries: extend weekend hours. ■ Food services: encourage student in put on the Food Service Board of Direc tors. ■ Point-2-Point: establish an interac tive answering service and put P2P Xpress on a set schedule. ■ The environment: advocate more recyclables in the dining halls as well as energy-saving and cost-efficient lighting in campus buildings. ■ Work to establish health care and child care for graduate and professional students. ACADEMIC AFFAIRS A university must provide an education that is responsive to our needs. As student body president, I will: ■ Initiate a co-op program so we can earn while we learn though paid intern ships for academic credit. ■ Improve advising by hiring full-time advisers and developing a comprehensive, computerized graduation plan. ■ Give credit where credit is due: more credit hours for labs. ■ Extend the declaration deadline and our options for the pass/D/fail program. EXTERNAL RELATIONS Chapel Hill is more than a place we pass through. What happens in our community and state impacts our lives and deserves our involvement. I have represented UNC at the state legislature and the Town Council. As stu dent body president, I will: ■ Implement the Ambassador Program: student representatives to act as liaisons between UNC and the 100 counties of North Carolina. ■ Lobby the General Assembly for our deserved funding. ■ Improve town relations by bringing town council meetings to campus. ■ Lobby to make the Open-Container Law an infraction instead of a misde meanor. ■ Empower students: coordinate a cam pus-wide voter registration drive. We are cun-ently conducting a campus wide survey to determine the most impor tant issues for students. This survey already has 2,oooresponses. When completed, it will show the Uni versity community what our top priorities are. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at 914-4207 or amnelson@email.unc.edu. On Feb. 13 please vote Aaron Nelson for student body president. 13
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 5, 1996, edition 1
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