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INSIDE
THURSDAY
OCTOBER 3,1996
‘Date rape drug’ becomes Chapel Hill, UNC problem
Police report two assault cases
BY JEANNE FUGATE
EDITOR
The “date rape drug of choice” has
slipped into Chapel Hill.
At least four instances of Rohypnol,
or "roofies,” use have been reported in
Chapel Hill, though only two included
alleged sexual assaults.
“It’s definitely here, there’s no ques
tion about that,” said Matt Sullivan, sub
stance abuse prevention counselor for
the University. “I have had anecdotal
information from students.”
Rohypnol, an extremely potent tran
quilizer that causes relaxation and short
term amnesia, has gained increasing ac
ceptance among college students since
the early 19905, police sources say.
Chapel Hill Police Department offi
cials said at least two sexual assaults in
the past year have involved the drug.
“There’s been two blind reports that
have been submitted by two separate
victims in response to what they believe
has been the usage of (Rohypnol),” said
Sabrina Garcia, a CHPD crisis counse
lor. The anonymous reports give only
statistical information for police use.
But Garcia said the two female vic
tims believed the drug was used in their
drinks. One assault occurred in the latter
partof the spring semester and one in the
summer.
Garcia would not comment on where
the assaults took place.
Sullivan said the two students who
reported using “roofies” to him had not
Debate over
speech limit
splits group
■ The proposed bill would
limit the speech of ex officio
Student Congress members.
BY DAIRA JARRELL
STAFF WRITER
Discussion often became tense
Wednesday as members of the Rules and
Judiciaiy Committee debated a bill that
would limit the speaking privileges of
Student Congress’ ex officio members,
including the student body president.
The bill was introduced to the com
mittee by Rep. Bryan Kennedy, Dist. 4,
following a potentially unconstitutional
resolution passed Sept. 25 by Student
Congress. The earlier resolution would
prohibit Student
Body President
Aaron Nelson
from making mo
tions or objections
from the floor.
Currently Nelson
is allowed to com
ment on all issues
Student Congress
undertakes as well
as addressing
members before
actual debating
begins.
Voting on the
bill was post
poned until the
committee’s next
GPSF President
KATHERINE KRAFT
said she thought the
bill would 'excommuni
cate” the student body
president from Student
Congress.
meeting in two weeks. The time will
allow members to decide if a bill signed
two years ago by former Student Body
President George Battle provides ex offi
cio status to two other executive branch
members. The 1995 bill had never been
incorporated officially into the Student
Code, and therefore members questioned
its legality.
If determined legally acceptable,
Kennedy said the bill would have to be
revised to deny ex officio status granted
to the Graduate and Professional Stu
dent Federation president and the stu
dent body vice president in the 1995 bill.
Kennedy’s bill currently only suggests
ending ex officio status for the student
See JUDICIARY, Page 10
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been assaulted. One woman reported
passing out after drinking at a bar during
a holiday last year. “But her friends took
her home,” Sullivan said. “She thought
the guy had put something else in her
drink. It probably was Rohypnol.”
Sullivan said Student Health Service
had not tested anyone for the drug, al
though it can be screened in urine samples.
“The one case I wish we had tested was
when the woman came in, but we didn’t
know what we were dealing with.”
Another woman reported having prob
lems after voluntarily taking the drug this
summer, he said.
Dean of Students Frederic Schroeder
said his office had not gotten any report
ofstudents being drugged. “Butthatdoes
not mean it has not occurred,” he said.
“Avery small proportion of alleged sexual
assaults get reported to us.”
University Police Lt. Angela Carmon
said no instances had been reported to
her department, either.
Community leaders said they were
worried about the lack of information
about the drug.
“People don’t even know about it,”
said Katie Smith, co-chairwoman of
Greek Women’s Issues Group, which is
working with other organizations in
spreading the word about this new drug.
Garcia said the lack of awareness was
compounded by the drug’s disturbing
qualities. “It has no taste and no odor and
it cannot be visibly detected when dis
solved,” she said. “And it is very easily
accessible and very cheap.”
McDade house’s future in doubt;
town lacks space for moving plan
■ The historic house could
face demolition if officials
can’t agree how to save it,
BY ANGELA MOORE
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Saving the historic McDade house
from demolition may not be as easy as
the Chapel Hill Preservation Society and
the Downtown Commission had hoped.
The 150-year-oldbuilding, thelasthis
toric residence in the downtown area,
has a date with the wrecking ball if the
society and the commission cannot find
a way to move it from its current location
next to University Baptist Church on
Franklin Street. The church owns the
property the house sits on and wants to
Elections issues forum addresses higher education, student needs
■Carolina Vote Project, the
Campus Y and The Daily Tar
Heel sponsored the event.
BY HOLLY HART
STAFF WRITER
Threats to the education budget and
the importance of student involvement
were two of the issues discussed Wednes
day night at the Higher Education Issues
in ’96 Forum.
The forum, which was sponsored by
the Carolina Vote Project in conjunction
with The Daily Tar Heel and the Campus
Y, featured a four-member panel that
spoke on education issues at the state and
national levels. “We all know as students
that these are important issues, and hope
fully we can shed some light onto them,”
DTH Editor Jeanne Fugate said.
Kazim Ali, president of the United
States Student Association, presented the
changes to the national education budget
for 1996. Ali said despite the
government’s intention to cut the educa
tion budget, portions of the budget were
actually increased, including the need
based Pell Grants.
Ali credited the increases to student
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Garcia said victims also might be less
willing to report the incident because of
the memory loss. “They can remember
the beginning of this incident but they
cannot recall any of the detailed factors
in between.”
Smith said, “And this is as bad as it
gets knowing that it knocks women
out.”
Being knocked out also knocks out
chances for testimony about the assault,
Sullivan said.
“A woman who has no memory of an
“This is the last historic
residence in downtown. Off
Franklin Street it loses its
importance. ”
ROBERT HUMPHREYS
Downtown Commission chairman
use the land to build anew education
center.
A plan to save the house by moving it
across Franklin Street to a parking lot
owned by the town and leased to a pri
vate company was sidetracked.
Local developer Tom Heftier had of
fered to spend $200,000 for transporta
tions, renovations, landscaping and mak
ing the house available to offices, but the
involvement and said students needed
to continue to be involved in order to
avoid cuts to the budget in the future.
“It needs to be clear that students need
to get out there and vote for their con
cerns,” Ali said.
Student financial aid and higher edu
cation issues in North Carolina were
discussed by Mo Nathan, vice presi
dent of the Association of Student Gov
ernments.
Nathan said the perception in North
Carolina was that financial aid wasn’t
really an issue because of the generally
low tuition rates. “That image is very
false and misleading,” Nathan said.
Tuition has been rising in North Caro
lina, and Nathan said many students
had been turning to financial aid to
make up the difference. “Low tuition is
the best financial aid of all,” Nathan
said.
Eleanor Morris, director of scholar
ships and student aid, echoed Nathan.
“For 200 years this state has provided
quality education at low prices,” Mor
ris said. She added that current trends in
education showed that, as tuition in
creased, so did lo.i airdens.
Student activism is important if these
See FORUM, Page 2
A world of
knowledge
A U.S. diplomat is teaching
international studies at UNC
this semeser. Page 10
§
incident cannot testify in court.”
Local groups are working to spread
information about the drug.
Smith is helping organize campus
awareness activities, including informa
tion tables in the Pit and a workshop
during Rape Awareness Week. A ses
sion on Rohypnol might also be added to
the Greek Rape Prevention Seminars.
Organizations are also starting a peti
tion drive to ask that the company manu
facturing the drug add a taste or odor for
identification.
town might not be able to make the space
available.
Robert Humphreys, chairman of the
Downtown Commission, said the com
mission was considering moving the
house to the same spot.
“Because of (Hefner’s) experience and
the fact that he would be doing it with his
own money, we thought it would be
more prudent to throw in with his plan,”
Humphreys said.
The commission’s and Hefner’s plans
are contingent on the town and the leaser,
FGI, giving up the property so the house
can be moved, a scenario Preservation
Society attorney Bob Epting thinks is
unlikely.
“In the long run, the property is very
valuable to the town,” Epting said.
See MCDADE, Page 2
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Association of Student Governments Vice President Mo Nathan speaks at the Higher Education Issues in '96 forum.
The forum focused on funding for universities across the nation and the state.
Today's
Weather
Partly sunny, chance
of rain; low 70s.
Friday: Sunny: mid 70s.
‘Roofies’ growing on campuses
■ Colleges in Texas,
Florida, California and
others report the drug’s
use.
BY JENNIFER WILSON
STAFF WRITER
Suppose it’s the weekend, and you’re
a female college student.
After a hectic week, you go to a party
with friends at a fraternity house or an
apartment. Then a guy you barely know
offers you a drink.
That’s the last thing you remember.
You wake up the next morning by a guy
you’ve never seen with no idea where
you are or how you got there.
Such scenarios are occurring at an
increasing rate at college campuses across
the nation. The reason rohypnol is
a depressant 10 times as powerful as
Valium that can cause “blackouts,” or
memory loss, lasting eight to 24 hours
when taken with alcohol.
This tasteless, odorless drug can easily
be slipped into a drink without notice.
Cases of sexual assault associated with
rohypnol first occurred at universities in
Florida, Texas and California, but the
drug has made its way across the nation.
“Reports state that cases of rohypnol
use started on the East Coast and are now
showing up on the West Coast,” said
Darryl Inoba of Haight Ashbury Free
Clinics in California.
He said cases of the drug being slipped
Law professor suspended
after arrest for shoplifting
■ Barry David Nakell was
charged with shoplifting
from a local grocery store.
STAFF REPORT
A UNC School of Law professor was
suspended with full pay Wednesday fol
lowing his arrest earlier this week on
shoplifting charges, according to a state
ment issued by Chancellor Michael
Hooker.
Chapel Hill Police reports stated that
Barry David Nakell, who teaches a crimi
nal procedure class at the law school, was
arrested and charged with one misde
meanor count of shoplifting and conceal
ment. According to reports, Nakell con
cealed a Triangle Dining Guide, valued
at S3O, underneath his jacket while shop
ping at A Southern Season, located in the
Eastgate Shopping Center. Reports also
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Chapel Hill, North Carolina
© 1996 DTH Publishing Corp
A2 rights reserved.
m
in drinks happened
on college cam
puses as well as at
bars.
Several cases of
female students be
ing drugged by
rohypnol without
their consent have
occurred at the Uni-
CAMPUS
CONNECTIONS
versity ofMississippi since February 1996.
The most recent case occurred Monday,
said Georgia Nix, executive director of
the Rape Crisis Services at UM.
She said it was becoming a problem
on campus, and the Rape Crisis Center
has created a task force to educate stu
dents about the dangers of the drug.
Nix offered advice on the best defense
against falling victim to this drug. “(Be)
street-smart and stick together in big
groups when you do not know everyone.
This sets the example when facing the
unknown, and rohypnol is the unknown. ”
Many cases have occurred in Texas,
specially at the University of Texas-
Austin. Ginger Eways, executive direc
tor of the Rape Crisis Center at UT, said
rohypnol had been identified in cases
involving sexual assault on campus and
in high schools within the past six to nine
months. However, it is difficult to deter
mine exactly how many cases have oc
curred because the victims often suffer
from amnesia or “blackouts.”
“The health department is very con-
See ROHYPNOL, Page 10
stated that Nakell concealed $6 worth of
deli food.
Reports stated Nakell was escorted
outside the store and cited by police. He
was then released and assigned a Nov. 26
court date.
Following a recommendation from
Dean of the School ofLaw Judith Wegner
that Nakell’s employment with the Uni
versity be terminated, Hooker suspended
the professor pending the conclusion of
discharge proceedings.
“I have accepted (Wegner’s) recom
mendation and have initiated discharge
proceedings against Professor Nakell,”
Hooker’s release stated. “The proceed
ings will be handled in accordance with
the ‘Trustee Policies Governing Aca
demic Tenure in The University ofNorth
Carolina at Chapel Hill.’”
In a letter issued to law school stu-
See NAKELL, Page 10