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4 Monday, April 1,1996 Late Elections Delay Senior Class Transition ■ Ladell Robbins said senior class marshal applications were available in the Union. BY NATALIE NEIMAN STAFF WRITER The delayed election for senior class president has hindered President-Elect Ladell Robbins and Vice President-Elect Amelia Bruce in selecting a transition team and spreading the word that senior class marshal applications are available, Robbins said. “Basically, two days after the election we had to put senior class marshal applica tions out,” Robbins said. “We wanted to spread the information to as many groups as possible.” Panel Focuses On Literacy, Social Justice ■ A panel of literacy experts highlighted this weekend’s national SCALE conference. BY DEBRA HEIGHT STAFF WRITER A panel discussion led by literacy ex perts highlighted a national conference on literacy and social justice issues held at the University this weekend. The panel was hosted by the Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Educa tion, an organization that unites commu nity programs to increase literacy in the workplace, community and school. Patsy Medina, former Director ofTrain ing for Bronx Education Services, said literacy provided anew way to leam. “Literacy is the opening up of a window that’s allowing you to fly,” she said. “It is learning to see a different way. Before I was existing, now I am participating”. Tony Sarmiento, assistant director of AFL-CLO’s education department, said literacy is used as a form of personal em powerment in the professional commu nity. “Literacy can be used as a weapon,” he said. “There’s an unequal relationship between workers and employers.” Sarmiento said the program he worked with involved a federation of unions that setup educational training programs. The' unions and their companies provide work ers with additional education, such as GED programs, to put workers on an equal basis with employers. Ilene Jones, director of Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership, said individuals must empower themselves by becoming literate instead of allowing literacy to be used against them. She said LEAP provided enrichment activities and encouragement to children between the ages of 7 and 14 who come from low income families. “Saying and helping isn’t enough,” she said. “It’s not enough to set high expectations if you don’t have any thing for them. Our job is to feed them with experiences and hope that they ’ and empower themselves.” Doris Williams, director of the Youth Leadership Academy, said, “Literacy is about access and basic human rights. At some point, we’ll recognize it’s not about color; it’s about class and economics.” Phillip Lyde, an undergraduate at Fayetteville State University, said he en joyed the panel discussion. “It was orga nized and developed well,” he said. “In terms of tutoring kids, I learned how to look at each situation differently. I have more insight about handling situations.” Haircut] J NOW ONLY $6.95 w/coupon Exp. 5/1/96 J H HOURS: M-F 10am-Bpm I Sat. 9am - 6pm | Sun. 12pm-spm I (located off of 15-501-On the Bus Route) 1 Wia\td : HcaJthy aJults ovr 18 yr s. old & lio Its. ri If** to p&rticip&fe ii\ plMbrApkrsis proyrMw ]/ -APPROX X HOURS PER WEEK— Y SERA-TEC BWLOGKALS 1 1091/2 E. FRANKLIN ST. • M-F 10-6 • 942-0251 Applications for marshals went out Thursday and are due Monday, April 8, Bruce said. Around 40 to 50 marshals will be selected, she said. Applications are avail able at the Carolina Union Desk. “We’re definitely going to have to move very quickly to get everything accom plished,” Bruce said. The transition team will select the mar shals and will be formed a few days after the marshal application deadline, Robbins said. The team will interview applicants starting Thursday, April 11. “You want to make sure that people view the transition team as fair,” Robbins said. “But if2oo people apply, how do you put together a team big enough to inter view them all, yet small enough to be able to talk together about the different appli cants? It’s a very complicated process.” Bruce said she invited anyone who ran New Schools Prompt Request for Increased Budget ■ Taxes in the Chapel HiU- Carrboro district would aid funds for a budget increase. BY LESLIE KENDRICK STAFF WRITER Growth and decreased federal handing in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools have caused school system officials to ask Or ange County Commissioners for a 20 per cent increase in the district’s budget. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said the proposed $3.6 million increase was prompted in part by the opening of two new district schools this fall. The school district will need almost $2 million to open East Chapel Hill High School and McDougle Elementary School. Residents Can Seek Help Through Various County Services ■ Orange County services provide help for women, the elderly and victims of abuse. BYSUZANNEWOOD ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR Most residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro have probably heard of the Or ange County Women’s Center, Meals on Wheels, the Orange County Rape Crisis Center and the Freedom House. However, most residents probably do not know what these organizatlbfe Actually Ho. Informing the public has been a prob lem for the Women’s Center located at 210 Henderson St., said Jen Barr, office and program manager. “We’re so busy, we don’t have time to do outreach,” she said. “That is something we will be working on. We could always use more volunteers.” County Ranks 15th in N.C. Seat Belt Violations BY MARGO HASSELMAN STAFF WRITER A major statewide effort to enforce seat belt laws Wednesday showed that Orange County had more violations than most counties with comparable populations. In the Click-It-or-Ticket campaign, Chapel Hill police found 21 passenger re straint violations at the two Orange County checkpoints, according to information re leased by the Governor’s Highway Safety Program. Two of the 21 violations were child safety seat regulations. Orange County had the 15 th highest total violations out of 99 counties state wide. “The time span has made everything complicated, but we 're finding ways to deal with the challenges and make sure everything runs smoothly." LADELL ROBBINS Senior Class President-Elect for a senior class office to apply to be a senior marshal. Robbins said he had al ready talked to Alex Thrasher, former can didate for senior class president, and some of the campaign workers for former senior class candidates Katie McNemey and Minesh Mistry. The increase also reflects increased staff salaries, Pedersen said. “We’re anticipating there will be about a 5 percent increase in state workers’ sala ries, which would apply to local workers and would cost this district about $600,000,” Pedersen said. The district will also be serving about 267 more students, causing an increase of around $250,000 in operating costs. Fed eral budget cuts to reading and substance abuse programs will saddle the district with an additional SIOO,OOO in personnel costs, Pedersen said. Funds for the budget increase of $3.6 million could come from both county prop erty taxes and a city school district tax. “We’re basically asking that the per pupil appropriation for the city district be increased to $ 120 per pupil, ”he said. “This would be accomplished by a 3.3 cent in The Women’s Center offers legal, edu cational and professional, personal and financial counseling, Barr said. The center also offers continuing education classes and workshops at night. The Women’s Center has been in Chapel Hill since 1979 and has 1,800 members and volunteers. The Center focuses on helping women help themselves, Barrsaid. Like the Women’s Center, the Chapel Hill-Canboro Meals on Wheels program would like more community involvement, said Jeanie Amel, the part-time director and bookkeeper for the program. “We’re always looking for more recipients and volunteers,’ 1 she said. The Meals on Wheels program delivers $3 meals to residents throughout Chapel Hill and Carrboro who are in need of assistance or daily check-ups, Amel said. The program delivers meals to 70-75 re cipients, Monday through Friday. The Meals on Wheels volunteers are “The whole point of the programs is not to ticket people, it's to save lives." BARBARA THOMPSON Director of Public Information for the Governor's Highway Safety Program Click-It-or-Ticket is the name of the campaign the safety program started in 1993 for education and enforcement of passenger restraint laws. The program cracks down on people who don’t wear seat belts and on parents who don’t properly restrain their children. “The whole point of the program is not to ticket people, it’s to save lives," said Barbara Thompson, director of public in formation for the GHSP. This year’s campaign focuses on child safety, she said. Neighboring Durham County had the highest number of restraint violations in Carolina Dining Services & Carolina Brewery Welcome You To “A Night on the Town” nfUSf Wednesday. April 3 from 5-7:3Qpm Ala Carte Menu in the Cutting Board, Lenoir Dining Hall T-shirts and other apparel available. This fine restaurant is kind enough to join us for dinner and prepare some of their signature selections. They are located in the immediate area and would like to invite you to dine with them at any time. NEWS “I would encourage anyone who worked on the campaigns to apply,” he said. “Ob viously, these people are interested in be ing involved with the senior class, and I think that is a very important quality for a marshal.” Robbins and Bruce said they planned to talk to current Senior Class President Thad Woody and Vice President Terius Dolby within the next three or four days for ad vice on marshal selection and marshal com mittees, Robbins said. A late start would not prevent Robbins and Bruce from selecting qualified mar shals and transition team members, he added. “There was a potential month and a half for these things to occur, and now there’s like a week and a half,” Robbins said. “The time span has made everything complicated, but we’re finding ways to deal with the challenges and make sure crease on county property tax rates.” Pedersen said the increased property taxes would mean equal increases in per pupil appropriations for the Orange County school district. In addition, the new budget proposal would increase a tax on the Chapel Hill- Carrboro School district residents by 6.3 cents to 21.7 cents, Pedersen said. Orange County commissioners will dis cuss the school system’s proposal and ex plore different ways to frond it, making its final decisions on its budget by June 26, Commissioner Alice Gordon said. “I think the commissioners have been very supportive of education and that they are ready to continue that, but I don’t know to what extent that will translate into ac tion in this particular case,” shesaid. “Right now we’re just at the beginning of the budget process so we’re just starting to instrumental in looking after the welfare of the recipients, Amel said. “We serve more than meals, ” she said. “We are sort of like a watchdog group. We can refer people to other agencies or contact the family mem bers about problems.” The Orange County Rape Crisis Center offers a 24-hour-a-day rape crisis telephone line. Volunteers who have gone through a 58-hour training session assist callers in issues ranging from nightmares to prepara tion for upcoming court proceedings, said the center’s executive director, Margaret Henderson. The crisis center tries to inform children in the Chapel Hill-Cariboro area of sex abuse through programs like puppet shows presented to elementary school students, Henderson said. “Sexual violence is a preventable in jury, and we should be working to prevent it,” Henderson said. “It happens because we don’t go to enough pains to stop it.” the state, with 164 violations at one check point. Five were child safety seat violations. The statewide average was about 10 occupant restraint violations per county, but some counties had no violations while a few had well over 100, a press release stated. Violation of an occupant restraint law carries a fine of $25, according to informa tion released by the Chapel Hill Police Department. About twice a year the GHSP embarks on a two-week blitz of seat belt law en forcement, Thompson said. Every county in the state operates at least one checkpoint during a blitz. Highway Patrol officers and local po lice check seat belt use, child restraint and traffic violations at each checkpoint, she said. Click-It-or-Ticket is an effective tool to encourage seat belt use, Thompson said. Seat belt use across the state has risen from about 65 percent in Click-It-or-Ticket’sfirst year to about 81 percent this year, she said. 1 ■‘CC. T LADELL ROBBINS and AMELIA BRUCE were elected last week. everything runs smoothly.” Senior class marshals work at com mencement exercises and plan senior class activities. look at the district’s needs.” Pedersen said a rejection of the budget increase would affect resources at the district’s new and existing schools. “If we don’t receive the requested fund ing, we may have to open the new schools without the resources that the other schools have, or we may have to take resources away from the existing schools in order to staff the new ones,” he said. Pedersen said the proposed tax hikes reflected the reality of a school district made up increasingly of residential property. “We have to fund ourselves this way because the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district is becoming more and more resi dential,” he said. “And without a strong commercial tax base, we can expect tax increases to continue to support the grow ing number of students and schools in our district.” In order to prevent and detect instances of sexual abuse, the Crisis Center could use morecommunityvolunteers. “We’reneed ing a more diverse group of volunteers to more effectively reflect the county,” Henderson said. “We would like more African-American and men volunteers.” The Freedom House, a 25-year-old al cohol and other drug detoxification facil ity located at 477 Airport Road, runs a half way house for women, said Trish Huffey, the executive director. The Freedom House just received funding for a recovery center for men to be opened in the near future, she said. The medical attention and support groups offered by the Freedom House are crucial services for people with alcohol or drug addictions, Huffey said. “(The Free dom House) is a recovery program that helps residents regain the life skills neces sary to lead a productive and sober life,” she said. CAROLINE FROM PAGE 3 that the Voice FX computer system was having problems maintaining sessions with the UNC computer system, which caused the calls to be disconnected. He said Sunday afternoon that he be lieved the problem had been resolved. However, some students ended up call ing Caroline to register for classes instead of using the 800 number. “I heard that they had anew 800 num ber out, so I thought I would get in more quickly this year,” saidsophomore Vanessa Ysunza. “But I’ve spent more time calling Caroline this year than I ever did in the past two years.” Ysunza said she called both the 800 number and Caroline. She said she got into the 800 number first, but after she entered her PIN number, the system hung up on her. Ysunza said shedecidedtocall Caroline instead of continuing to try to use the 800 number. She said she then had to call Caroline for about an hour and 15 minutes before she was able to register for her fall semester classes. Former Student Body President George Battle pushed for the 800 number two years ago when he learned it would be too expensive to expand the existing Caroline system. The University has a one-year contract with Voice FX. flnb Learn the answers from Bill Plante | CBS News White House Correspondent | 1996 Nelson Benton Lecture ■ Free to the Public Monday, April 1 in Memorial Hall at 11am Sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication dlje Bath} dar Heel Journalists Discuss Elections ■ A panel of journalists try to find balance in covering candidates and elections. BY CRISTINA SMITH STAFF WRITER Did the media do a good job serving the public’s interest while covering the 1996 presidential primary campaign? A panel of three journalists from The Washington Post and CBS News gathered at Duke University on Saturday afternoon to tackle that question along with other issues concerning the relationship between the press and politics. Geneva Overholser, ombudsman for The Washington Post and former editor in-chief of the Des Moines Register; Rob ert Kaiser, managing editor for the Post; and Barbara Cochran, political executive producer of CBS News, made up the panel that addressed an audience of about 75 people at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. As newspaper ombudsman, Overholser acts as a liaison between the readers and the newspaper staff, relaying readers’ con cerns to the editors. She said people were interested in seeing the person behind the candidate. “You cannot do enough profil ing,” she said. “Really telling people what these candidates are like, because we have access to them, is very important.” But Overholser said the contrast be tween the American hope for an ideal president and the depressing reality of what is seen on the campaign trail breeds cyni cism among reporters. She also said nega tive advertisements by candidates, although effective in the short ran, in the long run contributed greatly to the cynicism that exists among the American people. “Better news coverage is a very small weapon against the enormous size of pub lic cynicism and ignorance, ” she said, add ing that the quest to provide better cover age must be tackled again and again. She said giving the public the politicians’ own words and focusing on issues was one way of covering the campaign better. “It is not easy to do this in a way that is gripping to readers,” Overholser said. Cochran said CBS News attempted to provide comprehensive, issue-oriented coverage of the 1996 presidential prima ries. She said CBS tried to minimize horse race coverage and focus more on candi date profiles and issues, but she added that coverage this year was difficult because there were no debates. Kaiser said public ignorance and a lack of interest toward politics made it difficult to measure the success of political cover age. He said political candidates had a tendency to condense issues into simpli fied sound bytes. Kaiser said informing Americans about what was going on was the most important contribution journalists could make. “Americans know very little about politics and government, and they don’t care about their own interest,” he said, adding that a collapse of trust in human nature becomes a lack of trust in government. “Americans have been growing extremely distrustful of everything and everyone, starting with their next-door neighbor.” Kaiser said that since the Carter cam paign in the early ’7os, mud-slinging and negative advertising had become a popular form of campaigning, which has eroded faith in government. “It is not at all surpris ing; it’s a case of very just desserts.” But in order to foster intelligent debate on issues, a basic knowledge of politics is necessary, Kaiser said. Kaiser cited find ings from a recent Post survey that indi cated four out of 10 Americans did not know the name of the vice president of the United States. Two-thirds did not know who the Senate majority leader was, and one-half could not identify the speaker of the House of Representatives. Kaiser said U.S. culture allows people to live without being politically aware. After living in the former Soviet Union for three years, where politics is central to the culture, Kaiser said it was a shock to return to Durham. “Maybe the campaign isn’t the thing we should be covering better, ” he said. “Maybe the thing we should cover better is what is happening to American society and why it is happening.” Is the Washington press corps out of touch in covering politics? 'Does it sell sizzle instead of substance?
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 1, 1996, edition 1
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