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Monday, August 19,1996
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BOARD EDITORIALS
In the Affirmative
JULY 11 The Supreme Court’s failure to
rule on an affirmative action case should not
sway administrators in their efforts to make this
campus reflect the state’s diversity.
The high court let stand a federal court ruling
that race-based admissions to the University of
Texas law school were biased against white
applicants.
The ruling threatens affirmative action pro
grams in three southern states —Texas, Louisi
ana and Mississippi —and leaves other schools
wondering where they stand.
UNC, which is facing a pending lawsuit re
garding race-based scholarships at the School of
Law, might cower before the judicial branch’s
lack of support. But to do so would severely
jeopardize UNC’s educational mission.
Diversity among the student body lends itself
to more diverse discourse. Discussion stagnates
among students with cookie-cutter backgrounds
and ideologies.
And no one has ever claimed that students
with the highest GPAs and test scores will nec
essarily contribute the most to the institution.
Affirmative action opponents further ignore
JUNE 27 Chancellor Michael Hooker
announced three measures to crack down on the
risk management problems that have plagued
Interfratemity Council members this past year.
The new measures would shorten rush, tighten
alcohol policies and expand educational pro
grams.
Hooker has gone far beyond the flaccid ef
forts of past years.
An administrator has finally looked beyond
the Greek community’s higher-than-average
grade point averages. But that does not mean he
will easily change years of tradition.
Shortening rush is a bad idea.
Fraternities that have elaborate plans to woo
freshmen will not drop their investment with the
loss of official sanction. Instead, what is not
allowed to go on during the formal rush period
will happen one week sooner.
And while tighter enforcement of alcohol
policies would be admirable, it would take an
unbelievably iron-fisted director of Greek Af-
JUNE 20 As the Chancellor’s Task Force
on Alcohol seeks answers to the alcohol prob
lem, they can harrumph all they like about the
declining values of today’s youth.
All of this commentary will do little if not
tempered with the perspective of those who
understand best the problem’s lack of easy an
swers: students.
Students might not choose to recline under a
tree and pore through Plato, as Chancellor
Michael Hooker so idyllically remembers spend
ing free time. But there is more to drinking than
mere stress relief.
Whereas students used to choose between the
sole watering hole, a bordello or books, today’s
students have any number of outlets that have
little to do with books and everything with
risking their lives.
When Allen Ginsberg said he had seen the
best minds of his generation die, he hadn’t seen
anything. Visit the 19905. Watch the best minds
of this generation abuse their minds and bodies.
With excessive drinking; casual, unprotected
JULY 3 UNC-system President C.D.
Spangler has asked Chancellor Michael Hooker
to bring the University up to snuff with a
systemwide goal of 150 school days per year,
compared to the current 146 days.
Four days of extra reading, writing and
’rithmetic poses less of a problem than the N.C.
General Assembly mandating a systemwide
calendar, as they have threatened to do if schools
do not comply with Spangler’s request.
Such a calendar would be disastrous. Traffic
snaffs on shared vacation dates for area institu
tions would drive evennon-UNC affiliates crazy,
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problems with these measures of ability.
Manufacturers of standardized tests admit
that their products are not race blind. Because of
cultural references, students of certain ethnicities
might be less prepared.
And not all students come from backgrounds
that allow them to focus their full efforts on
maintaining high GPAs.
Campus admissions officers recognize these
faults and already weigh other variables in the
admissions equation.
And sometimes the barely quantifiable fac
tors will make one student shine at UNC or
gain more from college than other equally
qualified students.
Students who can bring a badly needed per
spective to a campus fraught with institutional
racism should be looked at in a different light.
The Supreme Court should have issued a
decision to end the affirmative action debate.
But maybe UNC’s educational mission will
be benefited by its silence. For now, the Univer
sity can continue to serve the entire state, rather
than be mandated to serve only its white, middle
and upper echelons.
No Rush
fairs to stop overeager members from sneaking
cheap beers to wide-eyed prospectives.
Education seems to be the suggested cure for
all societal ills, but in this case it is probably not
enough.
Additional policies could help. Students
should be required to have a minimum GPA
before being allowed to rush. The University
should mandate study halls and additional, con
tinued educational sessions. When a Greek or
ganization does something that damns its com
munity, it should face significantly more than
having its collective mouth rinsed with soap.
While administrators must tread warily to
rein in the little control they have over private,
off-campus entities, they hold the power of stu
dents’ enrollment above recalcitrants’ heads.
It is easy to blame this particular group for a
pervasive campus problem. But Hooker should
make sure not to forget the 82 percent of under
graduates who do not belong to a Greek organi
zation, yet who fall under similar influences.
Driven to Drink
sex in an age of life-threatening sexually trans
mitted diseases; skyrocketing drug abuse; and
escalating physical violence, students today face
a world unlike any other. And students choose
this.
This generation has been given too much for
doing too little. Society has produced food
enough to continue our reign as the fattest nation
—and we’ve turned out a nation with eating
disorders. Society has provided money, and we’ve
turned out a nation of people who waste it
seeking unnatural highs.
Society has given us everything, and we’ve
spent it trying to find something to challenge us
and to provide a built-in excuse for failure. If
students succeed in even turning out marginally
successful despite self-made “ challenges”—like
drinking to excess—they ha ve passed a different
test than past generations.
And if all ofthis fails, this generation will have
an excuse. Unlike our parents who blame poor
beginnings or societal prejudices, we can blame
substances. It’s enough to drive you to drink
Four Us?
not to mention the difficulties parents with chil
dren who attend different institutions will face.
Students will complain about four more days
of classes. And perhaps veteran professors who
have grown used to copying tried and true sylla
buses will groan. Administrators are already
moaning about having to alter class schedules
they have arranged up to the year 2000.
But some students and professors will enjoy
the additional four days to delve more deeply
into subjects that have had to be skipped over in
the interests of time. If not, they can waste the
four days complaining about being in class.
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EDITORIALS
Coalitions Divide, Conquer More Than Societal Ills
Forget the summer oflove, now decades past.
Our generation —as demonstrated by one
national student organization that visited
campus this summer—throws all such camara
derie to the winds. Ironically enough, they do it
in the name of “coalition building,” or, working
within your special interest group to further
shared goals.
The United States Student Association or
rather, one USSA delegate let me in on this
height of social awareness. The lone delegate,
looking more dejected than would be expected
from a participant in the largest student lobbying
group’s conference, wandered into my office.
But he said he had good reason.
“I feel excluded,” he said. “I’m a white male.”
And he went on to describe the various coa
litions being built in the Student Union that
evening—like so many walls being built around
special segments of the USSA delegation.
USSA, meant to represent over three million
of my peers across the nation, fractured off into
caucuses for students who are: disabled, homo
sexuals, homosexuals of color, transgendered,
veterans, Jewish, women, nontraditional, people
of color (broken down into those of African,
Native American and Arab descent and Na
tional Asian Pacific students), internationals of
color, international, from private colleges, from
community colleges, from public colleges, men
of color and from graduate schools.
Whew.
And the group further mandates that certain
HNERtXHAFFGIRS
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Sorrow Can’t Be Roped Off With Police Tape
This column originally appeared in the May 16
edition of The Daily Tar Heel.
On graduation morning, my giddy senior
friends and I made our way to Kenan
Stadium. One of us made a joke about the
fire at the Phi Gamma Delta house. Another
friend silenced him, saying that someone was in
the hospital because of the fire.
At that early juncture, none of us suspected
that anyone had been critically injured, much
less killed. It was only after the ceremony, as we
gathered with our families for backyard parties,
that the details began to emerge. By early after
noon, too many of us had learned that we had
lost friends, classmates or family forever.
Sunday’s fire struck quickly and lethally, kill
ing five and barely sparing three.
But unlike past tragedies, there’s no insane
gunman or careless bartender to point our col
lective finger at. A cigarette butt, a garbage can
and some pine panelling are the new killers.
And that, along with the timing, make this
tragedy so hard to accept, and so easy to believe.
When other people die, we usually comfort
ourselves: “That could never happen to me.”
But most of us who graduated—and most of
the students who stay cannot find that com
fort. Most students have been to fraternity par
ties. Lots have spent the night in one. Countless
numbers have flicked a cigarette into a comer.
These normal actions conspired early Sun
day morning to create an inferno that has swal
lowed up not only a group of loved people, but
the fragile sense of security in our community.
On Sunday afternoon I wasn’t the only per
son saying, “It could have happened to me.” It
could have happened to any number of my
friends whom I saw Saturday night on their way
to the Phi Gam late-night. Dazed friends re
Greek Organizations Provide Quality, Safe Experience
I want to update the University community on
recent initiatives in the fraternity and sorority
community.
■ This fall, fraternity and sorority pledges
will be required to attend three educational
seminars. The first, Risk Management, covers
the alcohol and hazing policies. Dan Jones,
Chapel Hill fire chief, will present an expanded
section on fire safety at this seminar.
■ The second seminar is about expectations
of dating in college. It will be presented by
student leaders and staff from the Office of the
Dean of Students, Student Health Service, the
Department ofHousing and the Orange County
Rape Crisis Center.
■ The newest seminar, which will be pre
sented by Student Health personnel, is about
alcohol and substance abuse.
■ Some chapters already have sprinkler and
fire alarm systems. A number of other groups are
installing such systems this summer and more
woman, a minority
wary of abandoning
one quota system for HmIUII
another. Why jump out of the frying pan requir
ing testosterone to succeed into the fire of requir
ing an ethnic or cultural background for success?
And it just gets so tiresome always to repre
sent your background and “special interests.”
Call me reactionary, but I get tired of fulfilling
some cliche of what I’m supposed to stand for.
I get sick of being labeled a woman, a woman
of Floridian descent and a woman of feminist
bent. I get sick of being categorized as believing
certain things and being required to profess cer
tain beliefs because I am a woman, a woman of
Floridian descent and a woman of feminist bent.
Sometimes I act quite zany and argue things
merely because I happen to believe them, regard
less ofhowmy background has carried me along.
And sometimes I like people even if they are
not women, women of Floridian descent or
women of feminist bent.
called saying, “See
you tomorrow,” on
Saturday night, only
that the anonymous aK ‘
“victims” included
Commencement ppk...,>
The fire—so raw,
horrifyingandindis
criminate in its
power tarnishes GUEST COLUMNIST
the usual happiness of Commencement. But as
with any terrible event, the human reaction first
is to accuse, then to try to learn. On a day when
so many of us were thinking about the future, the
fire reminded us how precarious plans can be.
The graduation exercises were held a 10-
minute walk away from the Phi Gamma Delta
house. Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize-win
ning poet, said that May 12 will be an unforget
table day for us. A few hours later, firefighters
carried body bags out of the fraternity house.
UNC will leave a mark on all its graduates;
May 12 might leave a scar, too. Heaney con
veyed an unconventional message of hope in his
commencement address. He told us not to fear
unexpected things, and that life brings with it ups
and downs that we must face with our indi
vidual, personal arsenal.
Again and again in his speech, he emphasized
that at every juncture in our lives we will have to
make a constant effort to start again.
I’m glad I paid attention. Within hours of
leaving Kenan Stadium, his words echoed with
a sadder ring. Heaney’s wisdom, which surely
he intended more optimistically, helped prepare
me for the news I received later that day. One of
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■We support the GUEST COLUMNIST
city ordinance on
sprinkler systems and expect it to pass.
■ A number of task forces are studying how to
improve fire safety by upgrading interior fin
ishes, renovating to increase compartmentaliza
tion and improving inspections of houses. They
are making recommendations to the Chancellor’s
Committee on Greek Affairs.
■ The fire safety education task force has
suggested producing a fire safety video that would
be shown to all chapters annually. A number of
University and city offices, as well as students
and alumni, have volunteered for this project.
■ Interfratemity Council Rush now runs the
first two weeks of school, ending September 2.
■ We are improving the flow of information
from fraternities to rushees and back. Our office
is widely disseminating the 1996 spring semester
(Fljp laily Ear Hl
It’s easy —and I have done this categoriza
tion myself to assume that because you share
a background with someone, you will necessar
ily share the same goals and beliefs.
A lot of times you do.
But that does not make for the most informed
discussion. Nor does it make for what the USSA
claims is the most powerful force people
coalescing from divergent backgrounds.
bell hooks, when she spoke in Memorial Hall
last spring, said I, as a white feminist, could not
in any way, shape or form understand what she,
as a black feminist, had gone through, and that I
was probably seeking goals that would be detri
mental to her.
Certainly, we of different backgrounds do not
face the same issues.
But there is no way that either of us will work
beyond the status quo—the feeling of kamikaze
fighting against The Man, the glass ceiling, mi
sogyny, whatever until we can keep from
being walled in by our special interests.
I am proud to be a woman, a woman of
Floridian descent and a woman of feminist bent.
But even more than that, I’m proud to be part
of a brand new caucus created in the space of
time it takes to write a column. It’s the caucus of
Caucuslessness. Interested parties please contact
me as soon as possible.
Even white males.
Jeanne Fugate Is a senior English and creative writing
major from Ocala, Fla.
the fire’s victims was a close friend of mine.
Of course life goes on. The fire chief and
Chapel Hill Town Council members are already
talking passionately about sprinkler laws. The
director of Greek Affairs is discreetly ensuring
that the fraternity system receive no criticism.
Student leaders are organizing a vigil.
Hope works that way. In the face of loss we
must do something, and it’s best to do something
constructive. But it’s good to see students mourn
ing openly and not boarding up their emotions in
response to Sunday’s senseless events.
Many of us are turning to wiser elders and
asking why it happened, and what we should
think. There are no simple answers, and what
happens makes no sense. Death rarely does.
Heaney’s words offer some explanation,
though. Sunday’s deaths were far more real than
the prepackaged fete of Commencement. And
hopefully what happened Sunday will turn the
Class of 1996 outward, rather than inward. Most
of us woke up worrying about our future and
how to keep in touch with friends. We went to
bed mourning the irrevocable loss of five peers.
We should remember always not to take life
for granted. Avery normal course of events
culminated in such destruction at the Phi Gam
house. An incredibly normal group of kids
kids like us died. No plane crash, no terrorist,
no virus was responsible; just a party, an old
building, some seniors and their friends.
Firefighters have officially condemned and
boarded up the charred house. Two benches
covered with flowers hold vigil over the eerie
building.
But we can’t rope off and board up our own
sense of loss.
Thanassis Cambanis graduated May 12 with a
bachelor of arts degree in history and creative writing.
fraternity report, which includes GPA rankings,
hours spent in community service and money
raised for charity. Also, rushees are being asked
to submit a brief informational form to our office.
We will distribute them to the fraternities. Fi
nally, a Rush Information Meeting the evening
of August 21 will allow rushees and fraternity
brothers to meet each other on an informal basis.
■ All recruitment functions will be alcohol
free. We already have been moving in this direc
tion, but we will see significant improvement.
■ IFC fraternities have a spending cap.
Some of these initiatives are new, while others
have been in place.
Taken together, they offer students a high
quality, safe experience that reinforces the four
principles of fraternities and sororities: scholar
ship, community service, campus involvement
and sisterhood or brotherhood.
Ron Binder is the director of Greek Affairs.