14
Thursday, April 11,1996
cTljf Satly (Tar Uni
Thanassis Cambanis EDfTOR
Amy Piniak MANAGING editor
Peter Roybal managing editor
World Wide Web Electronic Edition
| , A I http://www.unc.tdu/dth
|
Established 1893
B 103 Years of Editorial Freedom
BOARD EDITORIALS
Checking the Menu
■ The Board of Governors and C.D. Spangler are acting appropriately in their
handling of a proposal to revamp UNC food services.
Last week, student leaders expected a Board
of Governors committee to discuss the proposal
to overhaul campus food services. The proposal
was approved by referendum in the February
student elections.
The food services renovation won’t be on the
BOG agenda until next May, and it may have
little chance of passing. But the actions of the
BOG and of UNC-system President C.D.
Spangler have been entirely appropriate.
Rather than rubber-stamping a time-consum
ing, expensive and questionably funded con
struction project, Spangler and the BOG are
taking time to research the proposal before it
imposes potentially astronomical costs on the
student body at Chapel Hill
Some supporters of the plan have intimated
that the delay at the BOG level is a slap in the
face to student self-governance. The student
body, the chancellor and the trustees all have
approved the plan, which would cost $13.5 mil
lion over two and one-half years of construction.
So why are Spangler and the board even
questioning it? Because that’s their job. Any
time a UNC school approves a fee increase, the
BOG has the right to veto it. Institutional checks
and balances are one of the few positive things
Don’t Buy Into Contracting Out
The rally held yesterday in Raleigh was an
impressive and commendable way to raise aware
ness about the issue of privatization of Univer
sity housekeepers. By maintaining visibility be
fore the legislature, housekeepers and students
can hopefully communicate their desire to fight
privatization and retain housekeepers as em
ployees and part of the University family.
As evidence of the undesirability of
privatization, housekeepers from East Carolina
University were given the day off by their chan
cellor to join the protest. ECU has recently
contracted out its housekeeping services. After
privatizing, students and faculty at ECU found
themselves dissatisfied with both the conditions
for workers and thequality of the services deliv
ered. If privatization cannot fulfill its purpose of
efficiently gamering better service at a cheaper
price, it should not be pursued as a policy option.
If one UNC-system school has had a horrible
experience with privatization of housekeeping,
administrators and legislators need no more
evidence to debunk any remaining myths about
privatization. It is important the UNC commu
nity learn from ECU’s negative experience and
continue its efforts in opposing contracting out.
BAROMETER
Blacklisted?
Kudos to the organizers of Race
Relations Week for inviting conservative
talk-show host Armstrong Williams.
Williams, who is black, writes a
syndicated column and often faces
derision from other black leaders for his
attacks on affirmative action. You asked
for diversity, you got it!
i
Thumbs Down
Thanks to a broken thumb, former UNC
hoopster Jerry Stackhouse has most
likely dropped out of the running for
the NBAs Rookie of the Year award.
Stackhouse will miss the remainder of
his inaugural pro-season (though a
similar injury hasn't kept another Tar
Heel rookie out of the headlines).
A#
Tadd Wilson EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Browen Clark UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Nancy Fonti university editor
Wendy Goodman CITY EDITOR
Robyn Tomlin Hackley STATE & national EDITOR
James Lewis SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR
Robbi Pickeral SPORTS EDITOR
Marshall Benbow FEATURES editor
Melissa Steele FEATURES EDITOR
Dean Hair arts/diversions editor
Chante LaGon copy desk editor
Courtney fiver copy desk editor
Kristin Rohan design editor
Candi Lang PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Chris Kirkman GRAPHICS EDITOR
Michael Webb EDITORIAL CARTOON EDITOR
Justin Williams STAFF DEVELOPMENT
about the way North Carolina’s public univer
sity system is organized. Rather than turning this
into an issue of respect for Chapel Hill’s au
tonomy, supporters of renovations should be
glad the BOG is taking a close look.
Some critics of the plan have said the food
services improvements would come on the backs
of students, many of whom don’t eat on campus.
These objections notwithstanding, Spangler and
the BOG are well within bounds to research
funding for the proposal before taking action
Recently, Spangler has taken a personal inter
est in the issue, as well as in a proposed fee
increase at UNC-Greensboro for anew baseball
stadium. Unlike the fee increase for Chapel Hill’s
food services, student leaders at Greensboro
have opposed student fees funding the stadium.
If Spangler and the board were about to rub
ber stamp the Greensboro increase, you could
bet students in the state would be mad. Why get
mad when the general administration questions
an increase at Chapel Hill?
UNC-system leadership often gets criticized
for doing nothing or having no accountability. In
this case, they are acting well within their bounds,
and the questions they have about funding for
the food services plan need to be answered.
When rendering decisions about privatization at
any UNC-system campus, the legislature and
the BOG must take into account the failure of
this policy already at one UNC-system school.
Students and housekeepers who have orga
nized and participated in this protest should be
commended. Rather than focusing
unproductively on only visible, campus figures,
the Coalition for Economic Justice, the House
keepers Association and other opponents of con
tracting out are taking their protest where it
matters most— to the legislature, the people
with the power to resolve this issue in the house
keepers’ and students’ favor. The actions ofthese
dedicated citizens will benefit the entire Univer
sity community by preventing the privatization
of UNC’s housekeepers.
Instances of solidarity such as this rally testily
that the University is truly a community. House
keepers and students are integral parts of the
University community. In fighting privatization,
students and housekeepers working together are
themselves the strongest evidence that a healthy
University community must be preserved intact.
A University without a solid base including all
members of the community has no mission.
Exam Time
Finally, the Chancellor’s Task Force on
Women has recommended that
Student Health Service hire a full-time
gynecologist, reducing the waiting
period on appointments from 3 weeks
to one. SHS should grab this opportu
nity - especially when it costs less
than $lO per female student.
*9-
One Order of Ramclwps
Rameses XXVI's former keeper found a
note at the scene of the killing
depicting a ram being slaughtered, two
crosses and the words "mob," “yellow”
and "loving father." Yeah, that group of
knife-wielding, millenarian pagans
wandering around rural Orange County
just had the munchies.
*
EDITORIAL
There’s Hell to Pay When You Stand Up for Truth
When I was seven years old, I went to a Pete
Seeger concert in Durham and swayed
with a crowd of nostalgic children of the
1960s singing “We Shall Overcome.” I felt a
nascent idealism I was convinced would serve
me well when I grew up and wanted to change
the world.
Later, as an 18-year-old interviewing UNC
alumni who were literally beaten and urinated
on during civil rights protests, I couldn’t help
thinking I had been bom at the wrong time—3o
years too late.
Now I see I wasn’t.
The recent debate over hate speech and anti-
Semitism on campus made me resize the struggle
lives on, and sometimes it’s almost as dramatic
as it was in the ’6os.
It’s simply not popular to stand up for a cause,
nor is it inspiring to go against the grain. My
fellow liberals—if I can call them such —sorely
disappointed me over the last few months. I’ve
criticized uniformity of thought and conformity
of action throughout my time at UNC, but never
thought progressive people would end up hating
me for doing so.
Usually the targets of my criticism have been
popular pinatas people like UNC-system
President C.D. Spangler, whose great wealth
and lack of accountability have put him on
many people’s hit list. Or the chancellor. Or
Charlton Allen. Or Student Congress.
And nobody really cares when a dry policy
wonk like me writes an 800-word diatribe about
some politico. I almost figured nobody really
cared what I wrote anymore, except for a couple
of fellow editors and my mother.
That was, until I violated the unspoken code
of my liberal fraternity—one I never knew I had
joined.
The transgression came when I started scream
ing about the thieves who stole, then returned,
copies of an offensive issue of The Carolina
Review.
Hypocrisy ran rampant all over campus, as
the student body president-elect embarrassed
himself with his smug, self-satisfied attitude,
and the chancellor jumped on the bandwagon to
censure the publication —but not the people
who took 1,500 copies of it.
The theft and return of the magazine have
been resolved. Those who took it are being dealt
with in the Honor Court, where they should. But
Paltry Pay, Endless Hours and Luscious Leftovers
I hope by now the publicity machine has
brought it to your attention that we graduate
and professional students are currently, if
only metaphorically, enjoying our moment in
the sun. Yes, at last, by gubernatorial decree,
this is Appreciation Week for Graduate and
Professional Students. Appropriately enough,
the week (or rather the Week) began Tuesday
with an appreciation rally organized by the
Graduate and Professional Student Federation.
It seems if you want anyone to appreciate you,
you’dbetter start by appreciating yourself, a skill
grad students would be well advised to develop.
Of course, there’s nothing like years of power
lessness, footnotes and imitation-Kraft dinners
to build your self-esteem. (I’m talking about the
stuff in the two-for-a-buck blue box. I have no
idea what GPSF President Katherine Kraft eats
for dinner.)
An Appreciation Week (or month, or year)
usually signifies that someone has noticed a
particular group’s arrival at the bottom of the
barrel. That’s why the Year of the Child hap
pened well after many had noticed record levels
of child poverty and prenatal malnutrition, and
the Year of the Woman was brought about in
part to suggest that worldwide cultural practices
like female infanticide, clitoridectomy and the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue might not con
stitute giving women the right kind of attention.
If you’re optimistic, you could say your own
Year Of or Week Of gives you a chance to
educate others about your group's rich and wor
thy history, thus potentially improving your
position in the metaphorical barrel. If you're a
cynic, you might observe that announcing a
Week Of invites others to assume you don’t
deserve any attention the rest of the time. (This
interpretation bodes ill for Race Relations Week,
also in session.)
Graduate teaching assistants are, of course,
perfect candidates for widespread inattention.
On the one hand, we are well-educated and
trained professionals essential to the University’s
educational mission. We teach a substantial
number of introductory courses at UNC, pro
viding undergraduates with a solid educational
foundation and freeing up faculty for research
they really aren’t the
problem.
The problem is
with the people who
smiled and giggled
when they learned
about the magazine
theft. On election
night, Aaron Nelson
was prancing
around the Student
Union waiting for
returns to come in.
When I asked him
| THANASSIS CAMBANIS |
EDITOR
whether he knew who took the Review, he
grinned, blushed, turned away, then flashed his
winning smile: “No comment!” he gushed.
Ha, ha.
Now I ask this: What if arch-conservatives
Charlton Allen and Jonathan Jordan had gone
around campus at 1 a.m. and taken 1,500 copies
of The Catalyst, a very liberal opinion journal?
Would the student leadership, present and past,
been so complacent and amused? Or would they
have called for an immediate investigation,
pointed fingers and muttered about fascist cen
sorship?
Look at what happened instead. The person
who had the most hell to pay was not the student
leader who along with his top aides knowingly
turned a blind eye to the unethical act that went
on in his fraternity house. It wasn’t Nelson’s
campaign leadership, who should have known
what was going on with the Review if they were
competent managers and advisers, or else they
lied when they said they didn’t.
It wasn’t even the thieves themselves, or the
student attorney general who knew what had
happened, but took no steps to investigate. It
wasn’t University officials, who knowingly con
doned the magazine’s return.
No, the person who had the most hell to pay
was an editor who decided to pursue the story,
since no one in a position of public power or trust
was willing to stand up for ail obnoxious
conservative’s First Amendment freedoms.
I’m not trying to wallow in self-pity here; I’m
trying to make a point about the near-fascism of
the climate on this campus. I’m trying to explain
why I was so scared in March that I ran to my car
at night.
As soon as this paper started trying in
and upper-level
teaching, while we
conduct research that
will eventually con
tribute to the
University’s reputa
tion. On the other
hand, the University
knows it can replace
us at any time with a
new crop of highly
qualified students,
which is why we
work for low wages
and no benefits, pay
I HARYADEVOTO |
FROM HELL TO
BREAKFAST
tuition long after we stop taking courses and
regularly sign non-renewable contracts with
clauses empowering our employers to fire us
instantly for any reason.
Our college classmates are becoming com
pany vice presidents after six years of working;
we’re still at the same subsistence level, with no
promotions, no medical, no dental and no prop
erty. But we can’t walk out, because graduate
credits like frequent-flyer miles are non
transferable. And unlike medical or law stu
dents, who can justify a few years of dog-work in
view of their future moneyed prestige, grad stu
dents in many fields will eventually face a dirty
fight against their friends and colleagues for a
handful of low-paying, tenure-track jobs.
Little if any of this is going to change. We’re
going to go on helping our students write a better
paragraph, writing them recommendations for
jobs and scholarships and teaching them skills
they can’t learn from the guy at the front of a class
of 200. And we’ll continue to get less respect
than we want from our students (many of whom
feel we are less competent than professors), our
departments (who pressure us to speed through
our dissertations, while we fund our studies
through heavy teaching loads and simultaneously
try to get work published for an increasingly
tough academic job market), the Honor Court
(which has historically been soft on plagiarism)
and the University itself, which has been slow to
find funding for health benefits, tuition waivers
(standard in almost every other grad program)
Utyp Saily (Tor Heel
earnest to find out who took the Review and
whether members of student government acted
inappropriately, I began to receive threats. Con
versations I had were intentionally distorted,
and rumors began to surface —spread by people
who have known me for years that I was a
raving anti-Semite.
The DTH then printed a cartoon for freedom
of information day that many readers interpreted
as anti-Semitic. “Ah, proof,” these people
screamed, “that Thanassis Cambanis is on a
mission. First the Review story, now this.”
People came into my office, got in my face
and suggested that if it weren’t illegal, they would
take physical action against me. Others told me
that they could sue me for what? —but they
wanted to be nice, so they wouldn’t. Anony
mous threats landed in my mailbox.
People I had never met approached me and
told me to be careful “There are some crazy
people out there who really don’t like you.”
So what’s the point? The point is, you can’t
point figures at people in power, and you can’t
discuss “sensitive” issues, without facing some
amount of danger. I learned last month that
defending free press is not only stressful, it’s
risky.
When I wrote a column calling for the resig
nation of C.D. Spangler almost two years ago,
the richest and most powerful man in North
Carolina didn’t lash out against me. But when I
wrote a column calling the people who took the
Review “thieves” —people who probably share
my political convictions and social values —I set
off a torrent of fear and rage, with me as the
target.
We debate whether the intellectual climate
has atrophied. We complain about apathy. Some
of us long for the 19605, when activism had a
clear purpose, and injustices were obvious.
Maybe there’s no need to stand in the Pit
holding hands, singing “We Shall Overcome,”
although that’s not an entirely pointless idea. But
as far as I can tell, there’s plenty of work left to be
done today.
As long as there are people who want to
preempt dialogue and debate with silence and
violence, we still can fight, and we still can
overcome.
Thanassis Cambanis is a senior history and creative
writing major from Chapel Hill.
and non-teaching fellowships.
Grad school is never going to catch up with
the professional world in most of these areas; as
near-permanent pre-professionals, grad students
are caught in a thankless spot in the power
structure. I’m glad that the GPSF is seizing
Graduate and Professional Student Apprecia
tion Week to bring our contributions to light.
This is a great springboard for more substantive
discussions of how graduate student workers are
exploited. But let’s not let North Carolina legis
lators or the University get away with
giving us a cheap gesture of “appreciation.” It’s
much easier for the Governor to give us a week
of attention than it is for him to pressure the state
to come up with money for grad student em
ployee-health benefits. Let's embrace being un
der-appreciated all year, if it means more appre
ciation in our pay envelopes. Now put down that
Tar Heel and pay attention to your TA.
While you’re valuing things that are cheap
and under-appreciated, you might want to cook
up some chicken livers, the last delicacy avail
able for 99 cents a pound.
Sauteed Chicken Liven
Drain 3/4 lb. chicken liven. Over medium
low heat, cook 3 strips lean bacon until not quite
crisp; remove bacon, drain off all but 2 Tbsp. fat
and add 1 Tbsp. butter. Raise heat to medium
high; when butter bubbles, add 1 small onion,
sliced thin. Saute until soft, 4-5 minutes. Add 1
Tbsp. butter; when melted, add livers and saute
until just firm and pale pink inside. Return bacon
to pan and add 1/8 cup brandy (or 2 Tbsp. dry
sherry) and 3 Tbsp. cream . Lower heat and cook
for another 3 minutes. Serve over rice.
Marya Devoto is a sixth year graduate student in
English.
Just A Reminder
Fall 1996 columnist and editorial board applica
tions are available at the DTH office, Suite 104 of the
Student Union, and are due by 5 p.m. April 17.
Questions? Call Editor-Select Jeanne Fugate at
9624086.