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INSIDE
IHOW
MARCH 21,1996
UNC Afiimiative Action Policy Unaffected by UT Ruling
H After a federal court
ruling, race cannot be used
as a factor in UT admissions.
BYERINGUIU
STAFF WRITER
A federal appeals court decision threat
ening affirmative action policies at the
University of Texas will not affect UNC's
current admissions policies, said UNC's
legal counsel.
Race cannot be used as a factor in ad
missions in the UT system, the Fifth Cir
■ ■■ jiy 3
1 bSbb 818? MTTB 81
UNC student Mike Carreiro, left, hangs out with friends during Operation Desert Storm.
BY KATHLEEN BLILEY
STAFF WRITER
The fifth anniversary of Operation Desert Storm passed
quietly this year. Those who took time to reflea on the 39-
day air war that began Jan. 17andthe 100-hour ground war
that began Feb. 24 probably remembered the dramatic
television news coverage more than anything else.
But for some UNC students, the Gulf War was much
more than an aaion-adventure on television. It was part of
their lives. Gulf War veterans Todd Justice, Mike Carreiro
and Todd Strumke chose paths that led them to the battle
field long before they reached a University classroom.
Justice, a 26-year-old senior from
Morganton, joined the U.S. Army after his
1988 high school graduation. He said he had
always wanted to be a soldier.
“It’s the challenge, the camraderie,” Jus
tice said. “You probably don’t get as many
chances to test your honor, your honesty or
your dedication as you do in the military.”
Justice was a communication specialist in
an infantry battalion of the 82nd Airborne
Division at Fort Bragg when Saddam Hussein
invaded Kuwait on August 2,1990. Justice’s
unit arrived in Saudi Arabia on August 28.
Carreiro, a 26-year-old senior from Rhode
Island, took his high school finals early and
even missed his senior prom to enlist in the
U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. He said it was the
fulfillment of a life-long dream.
AtthetimeoftheKuwaitinvasion, Carreiro
was stationed at Cherry Point as part of the
Fourth Marine Expeditionary Brigade, an
amphibious task force. His unit was on a ship
headed for the Persian Gulf by August 12.
Minority Presence Grants: Are They Diversifying System Schools?
BY JAMES LEWIS
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR
While the cost of attending schools in
the UNC system has risen consistently in
recent years, a program to attract minori
ties has not seen a funding increase in a
decade.
The result is that the average minority
presence grant covers substantially less of
the cost of an education today than it did a
few years ago. In the fall of 1987, an aver
age minority presence grant covered 75
percent of the tuition and fees at a system
school. In the fall of 1994, a grant covered
60 percent of the average cost.
The grants are now the subject of a
lawsuit by UNC law student Jack Daly, a
Republican candidate for state auditor.
Daly contends the grants are unconstitu
tional because they are awarded on the
basis of race.
But while the grants were once called an
integral resource in diversifying system
campuses, new numbers raise questions
about whether the grants are effective.
According to numbers from UNC Gen
eral Administration, the General Assem
bly annually allocates $1,140,000 to fund
the program. That amount has remained
constant as far back as 1986-87.
The trouble with using experience as a guide is that the final exam often comes first and then the lesson.
Unknown
NCCU Students
Petition Against Ad
The students want NCCU
to recruit all minorities,
not just whites. Page 9
cuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
UNC’s Senior Legal Counsel Susan
Ehringhaus said Wednesday that UNC is
examining the ruling, but that it did not
apply to UNC because the ruling was made
in a different circuit.
“So far, we continue to believe that this
matter, as far as we’re concerned, is gov
erned by the appropriate Supreme Court
decisions rather than the Fifth Circuit deci
sions," Ehringhaus said.
She said until the Supreme Court makes
a final ruling on the case, UNC would
continue business as usual. “We believe
we are in compliance with the law,” she
said.
Strumke, a 27-year-old senior from Fishkill, N.Y., also
joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. His unit arrived
December 31.
None of them knew what to expea.
Strumke likened the experience of going to Saudi Arabia
to riding on the back of a speeding motorcycle.
“On one hand, you are like ‘Oh my God, we’re going to
die,’” Strumke said. “But on the other, you are so invigo
rated. You feel so alive.”
After arriving, Justice’s unit set up a line of defense 100
miles south of Kuwait on a six-lane highway following the
coastline, a likely direction for an attack from Hussein’s
troops.
r.nj.m-TT.I wrn mn
Todd Strumke, Todd Justice and Mike Carreiro are three
UNC students who are veterans of the Persian Gulf War.
UNC System Minority Enrollment Steady
After increases in minority enrollment during the 19705, minority enrollment
at UNC-system schools has leveled off in the past decade.
IN PERCENT MINORITY ENROLLED
30
Although tuition levels throughout the
system have been climbing at an almost
annual rate for the past decade, funding for
the grants program has not kept up.
In 1985, in-state students attending a
school in the UNC system paid out an
average of $757 per year in tuition and
required fees. In the last school year, 1994-
95, in-state students paid out $ 1,467 for the
Beer Patriot
Strikes Again
Jonathan McMurry vows
to keep fighting the open
container law. Page 3
The current affirmative actions policy
gives special consideration to blacks and
American Indians in admissions decisions,
said Jim Walters, associate provost and
direaor of UNC admissions. UNC also
conducts special recruitment programs for
minority students.
The Texas decision has sent shock waves
aaoss colleges anduniversities nationwide.
Asa result of the decision, UT Chancellor
William Cunningham has suspended the
admissions process for one week to allow
the university to consider the effeas of the
decision and establish a plan of action.
“We are saddened by the Fifth Circuit’s
sweeping determination... that past racial
same education, an average increase of
51.7 percent.
When the UNC system was organized
in the early 19705, the 16 schools were
identifiable as white, African American or
Native American institutions. Case in
point: In 1972, UNC’s student body was
See MINORITY, Page 4
Going for the Gold
In Summer School
UNC will offer summer
school courses examining
the Olympics. Page 2
05b
discrimination and diversity no longer jus
tify affirmative aaion in admissions,”
Cunningham stated.
The Fifth Circuit handles cases from
Texas, LouisianaandMississippi. Thecase,
known as Hopwood vs. Texas, was first
brought to the U.S. Distria Court in 1992
by four students who said they had not
been accepted to the UT School of Law
because of reverse discrimination.
In the 1994 decision, Cheryl Hopwood,
Douglas Carvell, Ken Elliott and David
Rogers were granted the right to reapply to
the law school and were awarded $1 each
in damages. Judge Sam Sparks held that
the school could use race as a faaor in
“When we got there, we thought we could we could be
fighting Iraqi tanks any day. We did not know,” Justice
said.
But the fighting did not come until much later. The
months leading up to the ground war were used for training
and adjusting to the harsh life of the desert, Justice said.
Soldiers had to contend with 115 degree heat, hot fur
nace-like winds blowing constantly and sand that resembled
dry mud, Justice said.
Bathing and clean clothes were luxuries, said Justice,
who had only one hot shower during his eight months in
Saudi Arabia.
Carreiro spent his first 110 days on a ship off the coast of
Kuwait, and the only times he saw land were during his
unit’s praaice amphibious landings on the coasts of Saudi
Arabia and Oman.
Carreiro, who is now married and has a baby daughter,
said he spent a lot of time reflecting on his religious faith and
that he had not yet had the chance to have a family. He said
he also thought about going into combat.
“It seemed almost unnatural to feel like you would be
walking into an instance where you could easily get killed,
but you would keep walking anyway, ” Carreiro said. “Maybe
it was stupid youth, but I was never really scared.”
Strumke said he had heard 10 percent of a unit typically
got killed or injured in combat and that he remembered
wondering who the six were going to be out of the 60 men
in his unit.
“I remember thinking that thousands upon thousands of
Americans were going to get killed,” Strumke said. “That
was my belief.”
As it turned out, Strumke, Justice and Carreiro said they
saw little of the combat they had expeaed during the ground
war. Justice said many of the Iraqi soldiers had been aban-
See GULF WAR, Page 2
UNC-CH Officials: Minority Grants
Have Little Impact on Recruitment
BY JOHN PATTERSON
STAFF WRITER
Minority presence grants, intended to
help attraa minorities to UNC-system
schools, no longer serve as effective re
cruitment tools at UNC-Chapel Hill, sev
eral UNC-CH officials said Wednesday.
Eleanor Morris, direaor of the Office
of Scholarships and Smdent Aid, said the
original intent of the minority presence
grant program often went unrealized at
UNC-CH.
“Using these grants to recruit minor
ity students to UNC becomes almost not
necessary because the amount of money
is so small,” Morris said. “I don't think
students see the grants as a recruitment
tool either.”
The grants are the subjea of a lawsuit
against the UNC system filed last week
by law student Jack Daly.
Daly, who is a Republican candidate
Today's
Weather
Partly cloudy; high
upper-40s.
Friday. Partly cloudy high 50s.
admissions. The Fifth Circuit’s decision
forces UT to allow the plaintiffs to reapply
to the school. The decision also requires
the distria court to reconsider damages
awarded to the individuals.
Circuit Judge Jerry Smith wrote that the
school’s policies violated the constitutional
rights of the applicants. “The law school
has presented no compelling justification
... that allows it to continue to elevate
some races over others,” Smith wrote,
“even for the wholesome purpose of cor
recting perceived racial imbalance in the
student body.”
Robert Berdahl, president of UT-Aus
tin, was disappointed with the court ’ s deci
Sixty Books
Found Marred
With Swastikas
BYSHENGLEE
STAFF WROER
When senior Rachel Burton went to the Undergraduate Li
brary on Tuesday, she did not anticipate seeing anti-Semitic
epithets and swastikas. However, that is exactly what she found on
the second floor.
About 60 books concerning socialism and communism had
been marked with swastika signs, Burton said. She said the books
had been randomly marked. “I was abhorred at the faa that racist
symbols persist our campus today,” Burton said.
Burton said she notified a librarian on duty after the discovery.
The librarian reported the incident to David Taylor, head librarian
of the Undergraduate Library.
“Our student fees go to pay for books,”
she said. “I felt the students should know.”
Taylor said he contaaed library admin
istrators and checked to make sure vandal
ism had not occurred at other campus li
braries. The Undergraduate Library had
not removed the books from the shelves
Wednesday.
Taylor said officials at the library had
mixed feelings about how to handle the
situation. He said officials were worried
that if they publicized the incident, it might
provoke similar acts by other persons. Li
brary officials had not filed a police report.
Diane Strauss, associate University li
brarian for public services, said she thought
the aa was a random aa of vandalism and
not direaed specifically at Jews. “Vandalism is a continuing
problem for libraries,” she said. She said she was not aware of
another case of anti-Semitic epithets written in a publication on
campus.
Darin Diner, direaor of the campus J ewish organization Hillel,
said he thought the library was not addressing the problem
correctly. “I think it’s a shame the library can turn its head and
pretend this didn’t happen,” he said.
He said the aa of vandalism should be considered a criminal
activity. “There should be an investigation, “ Diner said. “I hope
that the library doesn’t ignore this and let whoever did such a
disgusting thing think they can get away with it. That’ll be the
worst thing that can happen.”
However, he said he thought swastikas were “anti-everything, ”
not just ahti-Semitic. He said he thought the University should
look at the vandalism as a hate issue. Diner said he feared that a
climate of hatred was brewing on campus.
Student Body President-Elea Aaron Nelson announced the
vandalism during Wednesday night's meeting of Student Con
gress, calling the incident "frightening."
forstate auditor, says scholarships should
be awarded on the basis of need or merit,
not skin color.
According to reports dating back to
1987, UNC-CH receives almost
$160,000 of the $1,290,000 allotment
that the N.C. General Assembly appro
priates each year for minority presence
grants. The grants, available at UNC
CH to in-state freshmen, transfer stu
dents and graduate students, averaged
about $1,200 per student during 1994-
95. In-state tuition and fees were $1,524
that year.
Statistics show that the grants, which
were implemented in 1980 at each of the
16-member UNC-system schools, only
affea a few minority students at UNC
CH. Of the 4,400 minority students dur
ing the 1994-95 academic year, UNC
CH distributed 262 grants to minority
See UNC, Page 4
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Serving the students and the University
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sion. “The Hopwood decision has serious
ramifications,” he said, “including the vir
tual resegregation of higher education.”
Monty Williams, the direaor of news
and public information for the UT system,
said the ruling had implications beyond
Texas. The decision, as it is currently inter
preted, wouldimmediatelyapplyto schools
throughout the Fifth Distria.
If the Texas secretary of state decides to
appeal the court's decision as expeaed, the
case would go before the Supreme Court.
In that event, consequences of a decision
would affea the entire nation and could
potentially change affirmative action poli
cies at public universities.
Student Beet,
President-Elea
AARON NELSON said
he was frightened by
the display of anti-
Semitism.
One Last Chance
Do you want to help choose the direction
of The Daily Tar Heel? Are letters to the editor
not enough for you? If so, today is your last
chance to turn in an application for the board
that will select the next DTH editor.
Any student who is not a member of a
student government or an elected officer of
a student organization can apply for one of
the eight at-large spots on the board.
Members of the selection committee have
the momentous and exciting responsibility
of choosing who will lead the DTH over the
next year.
Applications are available at the Student
Union front desk and are due to the DTH
office in Union Suite 104 by 5 p.m. today.
Selection board members must be available
for a one-hour briefing on March 28 at 5 p.m.
and all day March 30 for candidate inter
views.
Members of the DTH Board of Directors
will choose the seleaion committee mem
bers and notify them by March 25.
This year's editor selection process prom
ises to raise vital questions about the role of
the paper in the University community. If you
have a keen interest in seeing the paper
improve, you will be able to ponder these
issues and make a choice whose impact will
resonate through next April.