lailu Hfri
INSIDE
TUESDAY *
OCTOBER 1,1996
Lawyers pick
housekeepers’
suit mediator
■ The mediator’s schedule
could change the judge’s
Oct. 9 settlement deadline.
BY JAMIE GRISWOLD
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Attorneys for the University and the
UNC Housekeepers Association took
another step towards resolving their five
year-old lawsuit Monday when they
agreed on a mediatorto negotiate a settle
ment in the case.
Attorney Jonathan Haikavy of Greens
boro was selected for the position during
a Monday night conference call between
Judge Brenda Becton, Housekeepers at
torneys Alan McSurely and Mark
Dorosin and Special Attorney General
Thomas Ziko, who is one of the attor
neys representing the University.
Harkavy said Monday night he would
accept the job pending the approval of
the University and the Office of Admin
istrative Hearings in Raleigh.
“I have no knowledge of the case, ” he
said. “The only expectation I have is that
the parties will work with me to resolve
their dispute.”
Harkavy said he worked with
McSurely and University attorneys in
1995 when he served as a mediator in the
case of UNC Police officer Keith
Edwards. Edwards, a black female of
ficer, claimed University Police and UNC
administrators violatedher constitutional
rights when they passed her over to pro
mote a white male officer with less expe
rience. Thatlawsuittookmorethan eight
years to resolve.
“I’ve been active in litigating a num
ber of civil rights cases involving work
ers, ” Harkavy said. “I presume the attor
neys chose me for that experience.”
McSurely said Harkavy was not the
Housekeepers’ first choice for the posi
tion, but he said he was pleased with the
decision.
“He wasn’t the person we proposed,
butheiscertainly satisfactory,’’McSurely
said.
The Housekeepers suggested a differ
ent mediator, whom the University re
fused, he said.
On Thursday, Judge Brenda Becton
ordered the University and the House
keepers to begin mediating the case as
soon as possible and to have the media
tion completed by Oct. 9. Harkavy said
he would have to ask Becton to modify
that time line to accommodate his sched
ule and to allow him time to familiarize
himself with the case. “I just need a little
breathing room," Harkavy said.
The Housekeepers Association has
been in a legal battle with UNC since
1991, when a group ofhousekeepers filed
a grievance charging the University with
institutional racism and asking for higher
wages, stronger training programs and
influence in decisions that affect house
keepers.
The case was scheduled to go to trial
Sept. 23 but was postponed to give attor
neys for the Housekeepers and the Uni
versity the opportunity to enter into court
supervised mediation.
Most recently, Chancellor Michael
Hooker told the UNC Board of Trustees
that he believed the negotiations would
be settled soon.
Forum for us
We hope you enjoy today's kickoff of
The Daily Tar Heel's campaign issues coverage,
which will highlight important subjects every
week until election day.
In addition to the weekly series, the paper is
cosponsoring a forum Wednesday with Carolina
Vote Project
The forum, which will focus on election issues
related specifically to higher education, will be
held in the Carolina Union Auditorium at 7:30
p.m. All University members are encouraged to
attend to find out more about issues that hit close
to home -and to the pocketbook.
The forum features a panel discussion and
loads of information.
In addition, a question and answer session will
follow the panel discussion, so the audience can
find out information specific to its circumstances.
For more information, contact Kirti Shastri at
962-5210 or Jeanne Fugate at 9624086.
-The Editors
Closing shop
SEAC’s national
headquarters, located in
Chapel Hill, will close on
Oct 4. Page 2
Governments debate control of future landfill
■ Chapel Hill now controls
the landfill, a subject of
controversy for six years.
BY MARY-KATHRYN CRAFT
STAFF WRITER
Landfill governance and control,
whether by the Orange County Board of
Commissioners or anew body comprised
of eight elected officials, was the key
issue debated at Monday night’s Assem
bly of Governments meeting.
Elected officials from Chapel Hill,
Carrboro, Hillsborough and Orange
County met at the Homestead Commu
nity Center in Carrboro to try to reach
some decisions in a solid waste manage
ment debate that has been going on for
six years.
For the politics of hogs
and hazardous waste,
turn to page 5.
ISSUES
Ictiltf (Har lirrl
Top 5 Campaign Issues
The Daily Tar Heel conducted an
intercept poll of 395 people on
campus from Sept. 10 to Sept 15
to determine which issues were
most important to the University
community. Of 24 possible answers,
respondents chose the following five
issues as the most important.
Schools and education
Crime
Abortion
Balancing the budget
(''s7 Environmental issues
Students pay more at campus stores
■ Competitors buy in
bulk and get better prices,
the director of CDS said.
BY KAITLIN GURNEY
STAFF WRITER
Unfortunately for penny-pinching col
lege students, bargains are difficult to
find on campus. Both the South Campus
Mini Mart and Lenoir Grand Market
place Food Court are significantly more
expensive than off-campus counterparts.
Freshman Anne Schaap of Atlanta,
Click and learn
UNC is on its way to being
a ‘virtual university' where
learning happens on the
World Wide Web. Page 4
*d
At the heart of this debate was who
should control and maintain the landfill.
Currently, Chapel Hill controls and main
tains the landfill but must report to the
county.
Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf
said accountability was extremely im
portant for the body who controls solid
waste management. “lam definitely lean
ing in one direction tonight,” Waldorf
said. “For a variety of reasons, it’s easier
for people to find county commissioners
than an individual solid waste (board).”
Waldorf said an additional advisory
board that would direct commissioners
on landfill related matters could consist
of elected officials from Chapel Hill,
Carrboro and Hillsborough.
“I want to suggest that it would be very
good for the commissioners that there
would be a 2-2-2 elected advisory board, ”
she said.
Generation
green
Today's coverage of environmental politics begins a five-part series on campaign
issues that will appear every Tuesday leading up to the Nov. 5 election.
BY ROBIN SMITH
AND JEFF YOUNG
STAFF WRITERS
Realizing that environmental ac
tivism is more than peace signs and
bumper stickers, college students are
entering the 21 st century —and vot
ingbooths—with heightened aware
ness.
“Instead of worrying about being
wealthy, our generation is looking at
the quality oflife,” said Brian Lewis,
a senior from Greensboro. “It’s gone
past being a fad to becoming a way
oflife.”
David Leith, professor of envi
ronmental sciences and engineering
at UNC, said young people have
typically been involved in environ
mentalism.
“There is a lot of interest in envi
ronmental studies at UNC. We’re
swamped with people who want to
be in the undergraduate programs,”
Leith said. “As they finish college
and go on with their lives, they tend
to put less emphasis on it.”
Douglas Crawford-Brown, direc
tor of the Institute for Environmen
tal Studies at UNC, agreed that as
people aged, active environmental
participation declined.
As for college students, he said he
believed activism had leveled off in
the past five to six years. The larger
impact, he said, was from more fo
cused activism, not necessarily from
a greater amount of activism.
“The recognition of ‘bad indus
try, good EPA’ is dropping away,”
Crawford-Brown said. “Student en
vironment groups are becoming
aware of the fact that there must be
cooperation between citizen, indus
try and government.”
In 1989, one such student envi
ronmental group was bom.
Andrew Pearson, co-chairman of
the UNC chapter of the Student
Environmental Action Coalition,
said, “The desire was there, they just
Ga., said the mini mart was the only
place she could shop because she didn’t
have a car and it was convenient because
she lived in Hinton James Residence
Hall.
The average item at the mini mart,
however, is at least 20 cents more expen
sive than the same item at Harris Teeter
on N.C. 54.
Breakfast foods reveal an especially
high price discrepancy. A 15 oz. box of
Cheerios at Harris Teeter costs $2.89,
while the same item costs $4.27 at the
mini mart. Abox of eight Pop Tarts at the
mini mart costs $2.19 but is $1.67 at
Harris Teeter. The half gallon of skim
Fortune favors the bold.
Juvenal
Supreme election
Two UNC law school
graduates are duking it out
for N.C. Supreme Court
chief justice. Page 7
. £-
Chapel Hill Town Council member
Mark Chilton said he disagreed with
county management of the landfill. He
said the county was not accountable to
those people who are residents of Chapel
Hill but who live in Durham County.
“Turning it over to the county com
missioners is not accountable,” Chilton
said.
“I think we all have too much at stake
to leave it up to the county. The county is
one of the four governments that is the
least (fiscally) impacted (by the land
fill).”
Chilton said he was in favor of a newly
createdboard consisting of two members
from each of the four elected bodies gov
erning the landfill. He said that in addi
tion to this equally distributed board,
certain large decisions such as tipping fee
increases would be reviewed by all four
governing boards.
needed a name.”
The name SE AC has sprung from
its Chapel Hill roots to include more
than 2,000 chapters at universities
and high schools nationwide.
“(Students) are much more in-tune
to environmental destruction—con
sumer waste and fast-food packag
; yfeSt • tJ • ]gs I . mE§ .
DTH FILE PHOTO
During a demonstration last spring, environmental groups left bags of trash in
the Pit to highlight the amount of garbage students throw away every day.
milk that is $ 1.49 at Harris Teeter is $ 1.87
at the mini mart.
Prices at the Texaco Gas Station Mini
Mart on Airport Road, however, were
much more comparable to those at the
mini mart. In many cases such as the
$1.99 half gallon of skim milk, $2.79 Pop
Tarts and $1.99 Pringles the South
Campus Mini Mart had cheaper prices.
Texaco offered lower prices for cereal
and soft drinks.
Scott Myers, director of food services
for Carolina Dining Services, said Harris
Teeter was not the best comparison.
See MINI MART, Page 2
Today's
. Weather
" Cloudy, chance of
rain; mid 60s.
Wednesday: Rain: mid 60s.
Carrboro Alderman Jacquelyn Gist
said she was afraid residents’ concerns
would be diminished if the county took
over landfill matters.
“I think part of democracy is to protect
the minority from the majority,” she said.
“I worry that the goal of protecting people
living around the landfill would not be
met if the county took over.”
County Commissioner Moses Carey
said he disagreed with claims that county
control of the landfill would not be ac
countable to residents.
“I think the county model amended
by (Waldorf) would be a fit model to
pursue,” he said. “To imply that because
five people make a decision, there is less
access... is ludicrous.”
Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson said he
thought county control of the landfill
would be more effective than any otheT
option.
ing. They’ve come to realize that
there will be no change without their
motivating it,” Pearson said.
Crawford-Brown also gave reasons
why recent generations of college
aged students might be so concerned
with environmental protection.
“The environmental movement is
fairly a young one,” he said. “People
nowinuniversitieshave already seen
something about environmental is
sues when they come; they are primed
to look for it in the media.”
Crawford-Brown said environ
mental issues received a lot of media
attention by popular figures in our
culture as well. “It’s also the first time
the environmental destruction in the
Third World is getting media cover
age,” he said. “People are simply
more aware of environmental dam
age around the world.”
Watch out for rising prices
Students who can get to off-campus supermarkets can find better bargains than
those who shop at the South Campus Mini Marl The costs of several common
items at the Mini Mart were higher than prices at a local supermarket
Product Harris Tartar South Campus
on N.C. 54 Mini Mart
Pop Tarts $1.69 $2.19
Cheerios 2.89 4.27
1/2 gallon of skim milk 1.49 1.84
12 pack of Pepsi 3.39 4.25
Can of Pringles 1.39 1.57
Fat-free Fig Newton 3.09 3.69
Bag of Starburst 1.35 1.97
Bottle of Snapple 0.79 0.99
DTH/PHniiP MOLARO AND MARK WHSSMAN
103 years of editorial freedom
Serving the students and the University
community smoe 1893
♦ News/Features/Are/Spons: 962-0245
Business/ Advertising: 962-1163
Volume 104, Issue 80
Chapel Mill, North Carolina
01996 DTH Publishing Corp.
AS rights reserved.
“The county commissioners are
elected by citizens of the county as a
whole,” he said. “The decision making
process of the county is far more effi
cient.”
Chapel Hill council member Richard
Franck said the county would not be as
effective as a separate board.
“This does involve a lot of work and a
lotofmeetings,” hesaid. “(Commission
ers) would tend to put a lot of weight on
staff and advisory boards. I don’t see that
as being productive.”
Franck, along with Chilton, Gist and
council members Joyce Brown and Julie
Andresen said they were not in favor of
handing solid waste management over to
the county. Waldorf, Nelson, council
member Pat Evans and Aldermen
Hilliard Caldwell and Diana McDuffee
said they were in favor of county man
agement.
Michael Kindt, a junior from
Boone, recalled his experience living
in China.
“There was a lot of coal burning. I
was in the city it was repulsive.
The air was thick and dirty,” he said.
“You come back here and notice a lot
of the same things.”
Nathan Bumore, a junior from
Asheville, saidhebelieved the largest
environmental problem the country
faced today was air and water pollu
tion. “Whenitgetstothepointwhere
we can’t breathe the air, we’re in big
trouble,” he said.
“You hear different news stories
about toxic waste being dumped in
rivers and streams and how pollution
leaking is causing health problems.
It’s not the kind of stuffthat should be
a problem in our day and age.”
Hog farming also is causing a sig-
nificant pollution problem in
North Carolina, Lewis said.
“Hog sewage is not regulated at
all it is dumped into pools,
called lagoons, which overflow
into tributaries and rivers.”
Megan Southern, editor for
SE AC’s national monthly news
letter, said there were many spe
cific environmental challenges
today.
“Toxins in the South, ranch
ing in the Southwest and log
ging in the Northwest are all
important problems.”
Southern noted that corpo
rate America might be the cause
of these concerns.
Pearson said his chapter has
another goal besides just fight
ing the environmental problems
of the day: making activism an
accepted part of student life.
“Activism allows you to learn
and grow yourself and ensure a
safe, healthy nation,” he said.
Some students demonstrate
their activism at the polls.
“I’d be willing to go along
with a candidate largely based
on his stand on environmental
issues,” Bumore said. “Ilikethat
A1 Gore is an extreme environ
mentalist and I know that
Clinton has done several things
to help the environment.
“I can’t imagine a Republi
can candidate going out and
supporting the environment.
Their history has supported big
business.”
Wendi Poplin, a senior from
See STUDENTS, Page 2