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SEPTEMBER 18,1996
Hooker tries to settle
housekeepers’ lawsuit
■ Housekeepers’ leaders
say they will not end their
suit, despite the offer.
BY SHARIF DURHAMS
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
An offer of higher wages and better
training programs will not prevent the
UNC Housekeepers Association from
suing the University for racial discrimi
nation, members said Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Chancellor Michael
Hooker announced a settlement offer
including several initiatives and reim
bursement for attorney’s feesifthe House
keepers would abandon their suit.
However, Hooker said he would con
tinue to work on improving working con
ditions for the University’s lowest-paid
employees regardless.
“We will go forward with these initia
tives, regardless of whether the house
keepers proceed with their grievance,
because it's the right thing to do for our
employees and the University,” Hooker
stated in a press release.
The Housekeepers announced they
would continue to negotiate with Uni
versity administrators while pursuing
their lawsuit in a hearing set to begin
Monday.
“We instructed our lawyer that the
better way to negotiate is quiet, good, fair
talks building trust and confidence on
each side,” the Housekeepers stated in a
press release.
Marsha Tinnen, a representative of
the Housekeepers, said the offer, which
provides University employees in the four
lowest pay grades in-range salary in
creases, was not adequate to stop the suit.
“We’ll still be going to court,” she
said.
Several housekeepers filed a class-ac
tion lawsuit against the University in
1992 charging racial discrimination.
Fran tuition promise not high on Riley agenda
BY CHARLES HELLWIG
STAFF WRITER
No government officials have heard
yet about a Cabinet member’s statement
this weekend, which promises financial
aid to students who suffered from Hurri
cane Fran’s destruction.
On a stop Saturday, in Raleigh with
President Bill Clinton, Secretary of Edu
cation Richard Riley briefly outlined a
plan to assist these college students.
SETTING UP A SWEEP
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DTH/BRAD SMITH
UNC outside hitter Maya Starks sets a ball during the Tar Heels' 15-9,
15-3, 15-7 sweep of East Carolina on Tuesday night. See story, page 7.
Happy holidays
The Calendar Committee
decided Tuesday to keep
Thanksgiving and Fall
breaks intact. Page 2
n
The Housekeepers offered a settlement
to the University last year, which Hooker
termed “excessive in the extreme.”
The University’s settlement, which is
its first to the Housekeepers, includes in
range salary increases for housekeepers
who received performance appraisals of
good, very good or outstanding effective
Nov. 1, Hooker stated. The proposal
would further establish new programs,
funded at SIOO,OOO annually for three
years, thatwould provide job training for
employees.
The housekeepers were eligible for the
pay raises because of a July 1 decision by
the Office of State Personnel.
The raises solve the problem of salary
compression, which has held salaries
down for the past decade, said Laurie
Charest, associate vice chancellor for
human resources.
“If you are salary grade 52, you will
stay in salary grade 52,” she said. “This
will mean more pay in that range.”
Charest said while the N.C. General
Assembly has given all of the state’s low
est-paid workers raises, it has not given
specific raises to longtime employees.
“If you started out at the minimum
(pay), 10 years later you’re still at the
minimum,” she said.
Hooker announced when he was hired
at UNC last year that he would address
the Housekeepers’ complaints.
Since then, he has restructured the
Housekeeping Department under new
director Barbara DeLon and has initi
ated a certified nursing assistant training
program and a light construction train
ing program for employees in the lowest
pay grades. The University has also put a
supervisor training program in place.
“We do not think there is any rush,”
the Housekeepers stated. “We have
waited over five and a half years. We
know any settlement we negotiate will
have to be reviewed by the judge to en
sure we have represented our class ad
equately and fairly."
“For higher education students, we
would like to look into having student
loans for students who are having special
difficulty (due to Fran),” Riley said to
several hundred state and local leaders,
national guardsmen, relief workers and
residents.
He added that in addition to loans, his
office would be considering deferred pay
ment plans to ease the financial burden
Fran inflicted on students who received
financial aid.
Environmentally
appealing
State Senate candidate
Eleanor Kinnaird spoke with
SEAC members. Page 5
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our
DTH FILE PHOTO
About 300 housekeepers and supporters from across the state gathered in Raleigh last spring
to protest the privatization study mandated by the General Assembly.
Repeated calls to the U.S. Depart
ment of Education had yielded little re
sult as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” said
Stephanie Babyak, in the student aid de
partment of the Department of
Education’s public affairs office. “I will
look into it though.”
UNC’s Office ofScholarships and Stu
dent Aid was not aware of any special aid
programs coming from the Department
of Education due to Fran.
Sexual violence victims find
support at rape crisis center
Part three of a five-part series
BY KELLY GILBERT
STAFF WRITER
Last year, a date rape trial involving
two UNC students made the community
talk about rape in anew light. But, in a
Rosemary Street office, as many as 130
volunteers talk daily about these issues as
part of their work.
Founded in 1974, the Orange County
Rape Crisis Center was the first rape
crisis center in the state. But the center
has changed over the two decades.
Margaret Henderson, director of the
rape crisis center, said the center’s mis
sion changed two years ago from just
assisting victims of sexual violence.
“(Now) our primary function is to end
sexual violence through community edu
cation,” she said. “We want to put our
selves out of business.”
The center volunteers are not thera
pists, Henderson said. They are trained
individuals who focus on support and
advocacy.
Of those who say nothing, few are silent.
Thomas Neill
Random assault
Chapel Hill police are still
searching for suspects in
connection with a Friday
beating. Page 5
“We haven’t heard anything about
this kind of program yet, but I wouldn’t
be surprised if (DOE) did do something
like that,” said Eleanor Morris, director
of the student aid office. “Special pro
grams to help those hurt by disasters are
typically what they do in these situa
tions.
“I think the idea of deferments for
students and their families who were
See TUITION, Page 4
“Our primary function is to
end sexual violence through
community education. ”
MARGARET HENDERSON
Orange County Rape Center Crisis
Director
The almost 130 volunteers, up to one
half of which are University students,
reflect the diverse community, Henderson
said.
Although the majority of the volun
teers are women, the center has the larg
est proportion of male volunteers in the
state, Henderson said.
All volunteers have to go through an
intensive training session. They meet
twice a week for two and one-half months,
a total of4o to 50 hours, Henderson said.
Jay Reynolds, a second-year medical
student, has been volunteering at the
center for one year. He works at the
center because he said he felt the experi
ence would help him in his future career.
“It’s important for physicians to recog
nize symptoms of violence,” he said.
Reynolds serves as a Community Edu
cator. These educators give seminars to
See RAPE CRISIS, Page 2
Today's
Weather
Mostly sunny; low
70s.
Thursday. Sunny low 80s.
Housekeepers look to
day in court after five
years of controversy
BY SHARIF DURHAMS
UNIVERSITY ASSISTANT EDITOR
In 1969, Michael Hooker, a UNC senior, protested in
support of better working conditions and against privatization
of primarily black cafeteria workers.
Next week, Chancellor Hooker will be on the other side of
the picket line. Housekeepers’ lawyers and the University will
meet in court Monday to determine whether UNC has done
enough to better working conditions for the University’s low-
est-paid employees.
Some housekeepers, who
have been at odds with the
University since filing a griev
ance in spring 1991, hope the
lawsuit will resolve some of the
problems.
“We were hoping that it would already be over by now, ’’said
Marsha Tinnen, a member of the UNC Housekeepers Associa
tion. “We don’t feel like we’re going anywhere or doing
anything.”
The housekeepers began their fight in spring 1991, when the
filed the first of the four-step University Grievance Policy.
“Basically, the whole idea in the early stages was to give the
University a chance to do the right thing,” said Chris Baumann,
a supporter of the housekeepers and UNC sophomore in 1991.
“We kind of went to them in a good faith effort.”
At the time, salaries for housekeepers started at $11,600,
about $1,500 lower than the federal poverty level. Housekeep
ers also complained about poor treatment by supervisors.
“When the housekeepers first started getting together, the
state had a freeze on (hiring),” said Barbara Prear, a leader in
the Housekeepers Association. Workers were written up for
minor rule violations such as drinking a soda while working,
Prear said.
“It wasn’t just that year,” she said. “This had been going on
for a long time.”
1991-1995
Housekeepers said dealing with former chancellor Paul
Hardin was one of the most difficult parts of the fight.
Baumann wrote in his honors thesis about how difficult it
was for the Housekeepers Association to schedule any meet
ings with Hardin.
“He always said he was doing all of this stuff, but we never
saw any results,” he said.
See HOUSEKEEPERS, Page 4
Western Carolina scandal
hurts election credibility
BY ROBIN SMITH
STAFF WRITER
At Western Carolina University, stu
dent elections went so awry in the spring
that a faculty committee had to step in
two weeks ago.
Student Body President Paul Locklear
said Friday that his administration was
working on recov
ering lost credibil
ity after a string of
improprieties
tainted WCU’s stu
dent government.
Andrew Brock,
WCU student
body vice presi-
What’s up with
m
the I NC system'
dent, said, “Things happened at such a
fast pace. The way our laws and statutes
were created left a lot of open areas with
no detailed explanations on how to do
things."
Last spring, graduate student Paul
Locklear came out four votes ahead of
former president Jessica Laverty, a jun
ior who ran again.
Locklear then was found guilty ofcam
paign violations for someone holding
his sign at a pollsite —and was given 15
hours of community service. But he was
allowed to participate in the April 25
runoff election.
The battle between Locklear and
Laverty was heated, students said.
“Initially, there were rumors that
Locklear had harassed a date rape victim
and had also participated in a rape, ” said
Tony Taylor, editor of the school news
paper, The Western Carolinian.
However, Glenn Stillion, vice chan
cellor of student affairs at WCU, said,
“There was an issue ofhis friend possibly
being guilty of sexual assault, but Locklear
was never accused of rape.
“Politicians get nasty sometimes,” he
said.
Locklear defeated Laverty 326-265.
However, he was removed from office
three days later for a campaign violation
similar to the first.
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Housekeepers Aseociation
a&Mttt-one of a four-part series
The student Senate then upheld an
Elections Commission decision disquali
fying Locklear.
However, because the vice president
of the Senate—Rhonda Cole at the time
—is also chairman oftheElections Com
mission, insinuations of a “stacked” Sen
ate fed tiie controversy.
“I know there was a lot of manipula
tion going on, ” Stillion said. “But no one
could know for sure people vote the
way they vote.”
Brock said, “A lot of rumors were
flying around.”
Unhappy with the decision, Locklear
and SGA public defender Bobby High
appealed to the student Supreme Court.
Locklear claimed that since the Elections
Commission lacked judicial power, he
had not been given due process.
The court invalidated the election and
ruled that anew election would be held in
the fall, along with anew Elections Com
mission, headed by Brock. Brock would
also serve as interim president until a
winner was declared.
Locklear, however, appealed to Chan
cellor John Bardo with a 10-page memo
randum about the spring elections.
Bardo appointed a Faculty Senate
Commission to rule on the appeal. The
committee, which met Sept. 3, heard
testimony from Locklear, former Vice
President Cole, current Vice President
Brock and former Chief Justice Aaron
Brunck.
Locklear also presented the faculty
commission with a statement written by
his SGA defender, Bobby High.
“(Cole) also told me that Dr. Stillion
and herself were looking at ways to keep
Paul from running in the upcoming SGA
elections,” he stated.
High said he knew Locklear had been
wrongfully criticized and convicted.
High also claimed that Stillion called
him the night before the Supreme Court
hearing at midnight. “He told me that he
had no doubt that I supported Jessica,
See WESTERN CAROLINA, Page 4