Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 15, 1996, edition 1 / Page 3
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Sfjp Saily (Tar Hn>l r , i BRIEFS Stones from the University and Chapel Hill Professors Honored by Play Makers Company Dr. D. Soyini Madison, associate pro fessor in the Department of Communica tion Studies, was honored yesterday by the Play Makers Repertory Company and the Durham Chapter of Links Inc. for her work in theater and education in North Carolina. Two professors from N.C. State Uni versity and N.C. Central University were also recognized during the ceremony, which took place at the Paul Green The atre. Madison’s work focuses on African Americans with a particular emphasis on African-American women. She has writ ten a book entitled “The Woman That I Am: Literature and Culture of Contempo rary Women of Color.” Law School Symposium Examines Workers' Rights The School of Law will be sponsoring a symposium this Saturday which will focus on “The Jungle Revisited: Are Workers Better Off?" It will address the issue of workers’ rights. Registration will be at 9 a.m. in the law school lobby. Dan Pollitt, professor emeritus of law, will deliver opening remarks, and there will be various panel discussions before the final session on “Where Do We Go from Here?” The symposium is free and open to the public. Meredith College to Host MBA Information Session Meredith College will be hosting an information session for women interested in receiving a master’s of business admin istration on Thursday, April 11 between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Harris Building at the school. The session will provide information on becoming a graduate student at Meredith. There is no charge to attend. Those interested should call the John E. Weems Graduate School at Meredith at 919 829- 8423. Librarians' Association Will Host Conference The UNC Librarians’ Association will host a conference March 25 titled “Library Collections in the 21st Century” at the William and Ida Friday Center. The conference will feature library pro fessionals from UNC, Duke and the Triange Research Libraries Network. Ralph Ferragamo, chief executive officer of Softline Information Inc., producer of Ethnic News Watch, will deliver the key note address. Registration is $35 for association mem bers and UNC staff, $45 for non-members, and S2O for students and retirees. For further information or for registra tion, contact Lynn Eades, Health Sciences Library, Campus Box 7585, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599-7585; phone 966- 8012 or send e-mail to beades@med.unc.edu. Halperin to Receive First Friday Teaching Award Dr. David J. Halperin, professor of reli gious studies, will receive the first William C. Friday/Class of 1986 Award for Excel lence in Teaching at UNC. The award honors full-time faculty teaching undergraduates who have proven themselves to be inspirational teachers for their students. Halperin will receive S3OOO with the award. The teaching awards nominations were received from students, faculty, staff and alumni before being reviewed by a student faculty committee. The final recipients were selected by Chancellor Michael Hooker. All award recipients will be honored at a dinner in April, which Chancellor Hooker will host. College Teaching Will Be Focus of Workshop UNC’s Institute for Academic and Pro fessional Leadership will present a work shop titled “Evaluating College T eaching, ” will take place March 23 at the Friday Center. The program is intended to make it easier for those at research universities to evaluate instruction. Ed Neal, director of faculty develop ment at UNC’s Center for Teaching and Learning, will be among the workshop’s leaders. The fee is slls, which includes all in structional sessions, educational materi als, refreshments and lunch. The deadline to register is March 18. For more information or to register for the program, contact Conferences and In stitutes, Division of Continuing Educa tion, UNC-CH, Campus Box 1020, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599-1020; phone (800) 845- 8640; fax 962-6298 or e-mail crs.ce@mhs.unc.edu. Radio Show Will Feature Poet This Weekend On this Sunday from 5-7 p.m., North ern Hemisphere Live, WXYC’s weekly call-in talk show, will be conducting an interview with poet Allen Ginsberg. FROM STAFF REPORTS Federal Budget Cuts Could Force Bus Fare Hike ■ A decrease in federal funding for transportation may result in a raise in fare. BYAMYCAPPIELLO STAFF WRITER With additional cuts in federal funding for bus operation looming over the Chapel Hill Transit Authority, fare increases and a rise in the transportation tax are likely, town officials said Thursday. In the 1996 Federal Fiscal Budget, fund ing for operating systems for public trans He Redeems Us From the Pit BY AUSTIN GELDER STAFF WRITER Church steeples poke through the trees lining Franklin Street, bastions of morality in this college town where weekend nights rarely pass untainted by drugs and violence. Many students claim religion courses are their favorites, yet basketball scores and Melrose Place usually beat out the Ten Commandments and Hindu ism as topics for conversation. But Gary Birdsong, Hell’s Angel-tumed-Pit preacher, wants to change Chapel Hill’s ho-hum moral and religious atmosphere. That’s why, since 1983, he has visited the Univer sity and other college campuses across the nation to spread his message of repentance and faith in the Christian church. Birdsong has a knack for grabbing people’s atten tion. Taunts, accusations of sin and promises of dam nation are the tools he uses to draw crowds. “The worst thing he does is call people names, ” said Perry Burkholder of the Waymaker Christian Fellow ship. “I’ve seen him call girls whores.” Women aren’t the only ones Birdsong offends. A man who’s not afraid to be politically incorrect, he targets fraternity and sorority members, homosexuals, feminists and anyone who has sex outside of marriage. Birdsong has been criticized by some for his con demnation of others. “I’d like to tell him to quit condemning people,” Tar Heel Band to Masquerade as Gators at Cameron BYROBBIPICKERAL SPORTS EDITOR The UNC-Duke rivalry just keeps on percolating. Although the North Carolina women’s basketball team was not invited to partici pate in the NCAA tournament this year, the Tar Heel pep band was. They will be playing at Cameron In door Stadium, and perhaps against the Blue Devils. The UNC band was asked Tuesday to stand in for Florida’s band when the Florida V I * Vkkk " ■ , 9K m P^IBI: I _jd dth/jasonhm; Public Works employee Steve England speaks at the Affirmative Action Day speak out in the Pit on Thursday. England said that workers' wages should be raised to help them cope with the high cost of living in Chapel Hill. Speak Out Participants Bash Daly Lawsuit BYPETEKAVADLO STAFF WRITER Community and University activists defended affirmative action and called state auditor candidate Jack Daly’s lawsuit against minority scholarships divisive and exclusionary at a speak out Thursday in the Pit. “I think Jack Daly gives us an opportu nity to do something, to explain why affir mative action is so important and why it offers practical solutions to real problems, ” said Student Body President Calvin Cunningham. Daly, who is a law student, filed suit against the 16-campus UNC system Mon day, claiming that race- and sexual prefer ence-based scholarships are discriminatory and violate the first and 14th amendments. “The fool that filed this lawsuit will have to agree that the only race-based policy UNIVERSITY & CITY portation was slashed by 47 percent, said Bob Godding, Chapel Hill Transportation Director. That decrease was just one in a long line of budget cuts, he said. “In 1991, we were getting $1.4 million in federal funding,” Godding said. “In the manager’s budget for next year, we’ll re ceive $325,000.” Godding also said it was expected that federal funding would be cut even more in the next fiscal plan. All operating costs for the buses are supplemented by federal funds. Therefore, items such as fuel, bus maintenance and driver salaries could be affected, Godding said. said Burkholder. “He doesn’t do Christ or his believ ers any good.” Birdsong admitted his approach to preaching could repel people. But he said that even if his listeners disagreed with him, he still would have accomplished his goal of making them think about what he was saying. “When I talk about mastuibators and homos, it draws a crowd,” he said. “Most people will be turned off by what I’m preaching about sin, adultery and homosexuals, but if they don’t like my message, at least they’ll start thinking about the Bible.” Students find Birdsong to look cool and unimpos ing for someone who has devoted his life to warning against sin and fiery hell. He bottles any hint of irritation when students argue with him in the Pit, and his blue eyes keep a glassy twinkle, even as he calls onlookers sinners bound for hell. “Biker Turns to Christ” is the title of the pamphlet he hands out when he preaches. Inside the pamphlet is an account of the path he has followed, from husband and father to Hell’s Angel to becoming a preacher. Before he bought a motorcycle, Birdsong was mar ried with two children, a job and a house. “Something was missing,” he said in his smooth, eastern North Carolina accent. “It was then that I decided to buy myself a Harley Davidson chopper.” A strongly built man with uneven sideburns and See BIRDSONG, Page 7 women play in Durham this weekend. The fifth-seeded Gators play San Fran cisco, the No. 12 seed, Saturday evening. If Florida wins, it will then take on the win ner of the Duke-James Madison game Monday night. Mike Hill, the marketing promotions director at Florida, said the Gators were forced to try to find another band because the school is on Spring Break. “To be honest, we thought it was going bealongshot,” Hillsaid. “We didn’t really have this idea until Tuesday ... and we didn't work out the details until (Wednes ofthis University that has been carried out is to favor white boys,” said Chapel Hill attorney A1 McSurely at the speak out, which was sponsored by the Coalition for Economic Justice. Other speakers included Gerald Home, director of the Sonja H. Stone Black Cul tural Center, Deborah Weissman, director of N.C. State Legal Services and coalition member Andrew Pearson. Pearson, who led the event, said race based scholarships were necessary because they alleviated discrimination. He said the claim that race-based and minority scholarships were a form of re verse discrimination was faulty because white males held the majority of power in the United States. “You need to have grown up poor, and you need to have been deprived of the opportunities that other people got to be discriminated against,” he said. In order to offset the budget cuts, the Chapel Hill Town Council discussed raisingfaresfrom6o to 75 cents and an nual bus pass prices from $lB9 to $204 at its meeting Wednesday night. A half-cent trans portation tax raise was also discussed. Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf said she Mayor ROSEMARY WALDORF said the increased fares would hit students hard. \ Jli 4 Jj I I DTH/JASON KIRK Gary Birdsong, a former Hell's Angel, preaches Thursday in the Pit to a large, heckling crowd. day). We weren’t sure anyone would want to do it. “But we thought if any band would do it, it would be North Carolina because of the rivalry.” Matthew Kovacich, a freshman mellophone player from Sparta, said the pep band was told about Florida’s quety, and the players were asked to volunteer. Kovacich said he decided to volunteer for the experience of playing at Cameron and the possible chance to play against the Blue Devils. “It’s a unique arena in itself, and then Pearson also attacked the idea of socio economic based affirmative action, which would help poor students attend college. He said this was slanted toward white males, because they would be awarded all the merit-based scholarships for their Scho lastic Aptitude Test scores. McSurely, who is representing the Uni versity housekeepers in their fight against privatization, said African-American stu dents were not admitted to the University until the 19605. McSurely said that minority represen tation at UNC had decreased in recent years. “There are fewer black faculty mem bers here than in the 1980s, and there are less black students here than in the 1980s, and (the University’s) commitment to af firmative action has lessened rather than improved.” Cunningham called the speak out “the first step on a journey of a thousand miles. ” wished that bus fares could remain the same, but she believed that was impos sible. “It would be wonderful if we could find a way to keep the fares constant, ’’ Waldorf said. “I hope people can understand the situation the town is in. We are continuing to lose federal operating money, and our sources of funding are fares, local taxes and whatever assistance we can get.” Waldorf said she sympathized with people who depended on the bus system as their means of transportation. She also said she believed student input would be very important during the deci sion-making process. there’s the whole thing about rooting for anybody but Duke,” he said. Florida will send Gator hats and T shirts to the Tar Heel band as a slight form of compensation, and as uniforms. Kovacich said that he thought UNC would send 30-40 people to Cameron. Anew NCAA rule stipulates that men’s basketball teams are not allowed to swap bands during the NCAA tourney, but that rule does not exist for women’s teams. “We even called the NCAA to make sure itwas legal,” Hill said. “Theygaveus the go-ahead.” Lawsuit Challenges History Of Minority Presence Grants ■ The grants encourage integration at all 16 UNC-system universities. BY KARRI LZAREMBA STAFF WRITER A UNC law student’s federal civil suit against the UNC system has put the spot light on the system’s minority presence grant program. Stripped of its context by law student Jack Daly’s claims that it is discrimina tory, the program cannot be understood without realizing that it was a result of decades of history, said Eleanor Morris, director of the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid. “To look at this program as a consequence of this lawsuit is confus ing,” she said. The $1.6 million system-wide program was developed in the 1970s as part of an effort to increase integration. Its desired effect was to help persuade students to overcome racial stereotypes, Morris said. “It was one part of a large, comprehen sive, long-term system of remedies to en sure that UNC was no longer segregated by race,” she said. “It was designed to foster racial integration by inducing more white students to enroll at predominantly black institutions and more black students to enroll at predominantly white institu tions.” The program was confirmed by a U.S. District Court consent decree, signed by the University in 1981, which settled a lawsuit filed by the Department of Educa tion under President Jimmy Carter in 1977. “(The consent decree was) a legal docu ment (that) placed UNC under court over sight and set forth a number of actions the University was required to undertake to increase integration throughout the (UNC system),” said Joni Worthington, assistant vice president of communications in gen eral administration. Worthington said the court oversight expired in 1986, but the University had voluntarily continued administering the Friday, March 15,1996 “This is a subject on which we expect to hear from students and student govern ment,” Waldorf said. “We take their opin ions heavily into account. I’m afraid, though, that we’re all going to have to find a way to shoulder the burden.” Waldorf said the only alternative to raising fares would be to cut back on ser vice. Sophomore Karen Bethke said she would much rather have a decrease in service then an increase in price. “I already think 60 cents is too expen sive,” Bethke said. “Most likely, a fare increase will cause me to drive to school more often.” Birdsallto Step Down In 1997 ■ The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will return to the classroom. BY DEANNA WITTMER STAFF WRITER Stephen Birdsall, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Thursday that he would step down from his position and return to teaching when his five-year term is finished on June 30,1997. Birdsall, a professor of geography, has spent more than 13 years in administration at the University as senior associate dean, interim dean and dean. He began teaching at the University in 1967. Although he continued to teach and conduct research while serving in the dean’s office, Birdsall said he wanted to return to full-time teaching and scholarship. “I realized that the degree to which I missed contact with students and scholar ship made it irresistible,” Birdsall said in a telephone interview. A committee willbegin a national search for anew dean at the end of this semester. Chancellor Michael Hooker and Provost Richard Richardson could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Birdsall said he had known for some time that he wanted to return to full-time teaching, but his love for Arts and Sciences and its mission had kept him in the dean’s office. Birdsall said that about half of his time at the University had been spent in the dean’s office. He said he would miss the regular contact with the people in the dean’s office and the staff in the departments of Arts and Sciences. Birdsall cited the college ’ s success in the Bicentennial Campaign as a high point of his tenure as dean. “The most lasting accomplishment will be in the form of endowments and pro grams that have been developed and funded through the Bicentennial Campaign,” Birdsall said. He said the college raised more than SSO million in gifts and pledges See BIRDSALL, Page 7 program. The lump sum of $ 1.6 million is distributed among the 16 universities in varying amounts based largely upon en rollment. Morris said, “Before 1964, the state maintained racially dual segregation. (The program) was part of an effort to eliminate that. It pays a premium to individual stu dents where he or she constitutes a minor ity presence.” A general administration letter is issued each year, explaining general guidelines to all 16 campuses along with their specific allotment. The criteria for eligibility was race-based and need-based, said Dick Robinson Jr., assistant to the UNC-system president and chief legal advisor of general administration. He said applicants must also be N.C. residents. “Preference is given to entering (under graduate) students,” Morris said. “It’s a recruitment award.” Once the general guidelines are met, an individual institution may use its discre tion to implement the program. AtN.C. Central University, apredomi nantly black university, Jim Tyson, in terim director for scholarships and student aid, said the money allotted to the NCCU program was insufficient to successfully diversify the campus. “In order to work successfully, I don’t think enough money is being allocated for what needs to be done,” Tyson said. He said he would like equal enrollment opportunities to exist for everyone who wanted to attend NCCU. “We’re not looking to keep this institu tion predominantly black,” Tyson said. But advocates of the program argue that it does not discriminate against black or white students. Robinson said the pro gram considered which institution a stu dent wanted to attend and what the histori cal racial makeup of that institution has been. He said, “We’re not discriminating against anyone. This is a program you can take advantage of and benefit from. Both races are eligible under the total system. “We think it’s a good, sound, constitu tional program.” 3
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 15, 1996, edition 1
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