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INSIDE
TUESDAY
FEBRUARY 4,1997
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DTH/ALICIA ISENBERG
Julius Chambers, N.C. Central University's chancellor, spoke Monday at
NCCU about the importance of civil rights in today's society.
Chambers: education
still affected by race
BY WHITNEY MOORE
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
DURHAM Students must take
action to defeat racism, North Carolina
Central University Chancellor Julius
Chambers urged students Monday.
Chambers launched NCCU’s cele
bration of Black History Month by
encouraging students to find their own
meaning in the words of past civil rights
leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.
“Dr. King told us he believed in a
society where race wasn’t a factor,”
Chambers said. “What do you believe?
Can you dream of an America where
your race isn’t going to be a factor that
affects you?
"You need to develop a dream about
what America ought to look like. ”
Chambers cited welfare and educa
tion as two areas where race affects
equality. He also attacked anti-affirma
tive-action policies as discriminatory
and urged students to react more strong
ly to discrimination in its many forms.
“In 1997, we say we want people to
go to school where they live and get a
quality education,” he said. “How many
African-American students in Durham
do you know who are getting a quality
education? Or even an equal educa
tion?”
Festival’s keynote speaker
focuses on unity, diversity
BY KELLY O'BRIEN
STAFF WRITER
Mark Mathabane, author of “Kaffir
Boy,” spoke Monday night about the
opportunity within individuals to con
quer hatred and oppression and strive
for a more unified world.
“We must yearn to make the world a
better and more sympathetic place,
where all people, regardless of race or
creed, enjoy its many gifts,” said
Mathabane, who was the keynote speak
er for die 17th annual UNC
International Festival.
The goal of the International Festival
is to raise awareness and celebrate unity.
It includes a series of events under the
theme “Harmonia: Discovering the
Common Beat.”
Mathabane came of age under
apartheid in South Africa and was able
to escape in 1978. Although he wit
nessed dehumanizing crimes and indig
nities, he was able to overcome his bit
terness and hatred.
With powerful examples to follow,
such as his mother, Mathabane said he
realized that bigotry, oppression and
intolerance corrode die soul, leading to
self-destrucdon, and that individuals
Pages and pages
of history
Black history web sites
empower and educate
year-round. Page 2
Site Seeing
e ica Banov
Chambers went on to attack N.C. leg
islators’ passive reactions to blatant dis
crepancies in public school funding.
“How do you explain a school district
in eastern North Carolina with $2,000
per student and one in Charlotte with
$5,000 per student?” he asked. “Can
you say those are equal educations?”
A lack of opposition to the U.S.
Supreme Court decision ordering N.C.
legislators to redraw several N.C. con
gressional districts because of racial bias
also drew heavy criticism from
Chambers.
Chambers, a constitutional lawyer,
argued for keeping the districts in front
of the Supreme Court.
"Have you been to the legislature?
Have you talked to anyone about what
the (new) districts are going to look
like?” he asked. “Have you thought
about what you can do to ensure equal
(racial) distribution?”
Chambers repeatedly rebuked stu
dents for having apathetic attitudes
towards issues affecting them.
“We can’t compete with other peo
ple,” he said. “We aren’t going to have a
fair chance to make a difference in this
country because of our race or gender,
and we take it passively.
“We might mumble, but we are too
quiet.”
must express understanding and toler
ance to survive.
“Human beings have a responsibility
to do good, to care and to nurture,” he
said. “One should judge people by the
color of their hearts rather than the
color of their skin.”
Mathabane said the oppression, suf
fering and pain that existed during
apartheid continued today.
“We are experiencing the crime of
destruction of ourselves by ourselves,”
he said. “We’ve ceased to see each other
as brothers and sisters, as fellow human
beings. We regard each other as threats
and enemies.”
He said the way to overcome this was
to learn to individually focus on one’s
soul and love others.
“If we learn this lesson, we will be
less cynical and self-destructive and
break down the barriers that have made
us strangers,” he said. “If humanity is to
survive, individuals must care about the
fate of others.”
Mathabane added that stressing unity
and cultural diversity through events
such as the International Festival forced
the vision of brotherhood and sister
hood.
“If we took more time to celebrate
the marvelous diversity present, we
Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?
Ronald Reagan
Plates office hits
dead end
University Mali's
license plate office
closes down. Page 3
Students contest Greek constitution
BY KAITLIN GURNEY
STAFF WRITER
The Greek Judicial Board: it’s one
governing body with three constitutions,
and junior Karl Mundt would like to
know why.
The Chi Psi fraternity member sus
pects it might have something to do with
Director of Greek Affairs Ron Binder,
who has had possession of the docu
ment since its inception.
“I can say with
a good degree of
confidence that
the person doing
these changes is
Ron Binder,”
Mundt said. “All
copies of the con
stitution have been
distributed by his
office. Second, the
most recent copy
was brought off
his hard drive.”
The changed
document grants
Binder significant-
c\'
Director of Greek
Affairs RON BINDER
said he did not want
to comment
about the charges.
ly more power, he said.
Fraternity and sorority members
established the Greek Judicial Board in
January 1995 to regulate themselves,
similar to the University’s Honor Court.
Its original constitution states that it can
only be amended by a two-thirds vote of
the Interfratemity Council and the
Panhellenic Council.
Mundt has since discovered two
more constitutions, neither of which
were ratified by the stipulated process.
Both PHC and IFC members told
Mundt they had never considered any
amendment, he said.
Mundt acquired the second constitu
tion in September 1996 and the third
constitution on Jan. 21. He discovered
more than 45 changes from the original.
Senior Joe Tunstall, also a member
Elections Board to tally votes using computers
BY FORREST ANDERSON
STAFF WRITER
To insure that they accurately report
results in next Tuesday’s student body
elections, members of the Elections
Board are preparing to tally votes using
scantron sheets instead of counting bal
lots by hand.
“During last year’s election, we hand
counted the runoff election’s votes,” said
Ange Dicks, Elections Board chair
woman. “Now Student Congress has
passed a bill stating that we have to use
scantron, starting with this election..”
Last year’s race for senior class presi-
IP Is
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ft ;
DTH/DAVID SANDLER
Mark Mathabane delivers the keynote address during the International
Festival on Monday night. The festival focuses on international awareness.
would have accomplished what I con
sider the most important goal forging
to a better world."
Mathabane closed his speech with a
line from poet Langston Hughes:
“Come my friends, ’tis not too late to
of Chi Psi, has been working with
Mundt. “There’s no one to go to on
this,” he said. “Every higher power goes
to the Office of Greek Affairs, and that’s
just one person.
“I think Ron Binder knew what was
going on,” he said. “This is a pretty big
ethics violation, and it bothers me.”
Binder said he would not comment
about the changes. “First of all, these
are private documents,” he said. “It’s
been through lots of revisions since it
has been up and running.
“It’s all within the fraternity and
sorority community, and so I don’t want
to talk about it.”
Mundt, a former IFC member, said
he had talked to Binder about the differ
ences.
"Basically, he’s told me it’s an evolv
ing document, changing as it goes,” he
said. “Now ratified, this document has
a life of its own, and we need to go by its
procedures.”
Mundt said he saw the Greek Judicial
Board becoming more of a “puppet
institution,” with Binder amending the
constitution to meet his needs. He cited
Binder’s 90-day renewable contract as
one of the reasons for this.
“With his contract up for renewal
every 90 days, he (Binder) is not given
any incentive to listen to students,”
Mundt said.
Tunstall said the alterations take
away the Greek community’s self-gover
nance. “It puts the Greek community at
a disadvantage because it is being gov
erned by something it doesn’t even
know about,” he said. “The only way
people find out about this is if they vio
late the rules something I don’t think
they try to do.”
Mundt said, “I find this disrespectful,
with all that is going on about reform
and the talk of self-governance. This is a
case of the administration going over
our heads."
Mundt stressed changes where juris-
dent and vice
president was
affected by the
hand counting
of runoff
votes.
SBP candidates
square off in Ist
debates
See page 3
“Last year, the Elections Board had a
problem with not being accurate in
counting the votes,” said Marc
McCollum, chief of staff for the execu
tive branch.
The initial vote count, which was tab
ulated using scantron forms, showed
Katie McNerney and Minesh Mistry
winning the runoff by two votes over
Ladell Robbins and Amelia Bruce.
seek this newer and better world.”
The main sponsor of the event was
the Association of International
Students. Co-sponsors included the
Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center,
Haverim and Students for Students
Today's
Weather
" Light rain; mid 50s.
Wednesday Scattered
showers: mid 60s.
Leaving nothing
in their Wake
A look at how the Tar
Heel women are rising
up the ranks. Page 5
2 too many constitutions?
Chi Psi fraternity member Karl Mundt said he found more than 45 changes
in the Greek Judicial Board's constitution, which affects the Interfratemity
Council, the Panhellenic Council and the UNC National Pan Hellenic Council.
hem Original
111 Jurisdiction covers
'IFC/Panhellenic
Risk Management
and/or Rush
Policies.'
1V.4.a.5. All hearings are
coed. In die event
of rush, court's sex
is determined by
whether violations
are committed by
IFC or Panhellenic
members.
V. Appeals are
determined by
the "discretion of
the Greek Advisor,
the Joint Chiefs
and the IFC and
Panhellenic
Presidents in
conjunction."
diction was altered from “activities
which may violate the IFC/PHC man-
agement and/or rush policies” in the
first constitution to "activities which
may violate the Greek Community
Alcohol Policy” in the third.
The composition of representatives
for hearing boards differed in each doc-
ument. And the board can now look at
previous records from up to three years
before the incident, compared to the
original constitution’s two years.
Three sections including the one
detailing amendment protocol were
However, Bruce and Robbins called for
a recount, which was conducted by
hand counting the ballots.
That count showed that Robbins and
Bruce had won the election by a count
of 367 votes to 366 votes.
McNerney and Mistry filed a suit in
the Student Supreme Court against the
Elections Board and Robbins and Bruce.
The court ruled in favor of
McNerney and Mistry and scheduled a
re-election. Robbins and Bruce won that
third and final election by a vote of 485
to 432.
Mistry said Monday that he and
McNerney would not comment on the
N.C. budget might give
graduate students little
BY JONATHAN SESSLER
AND JEFF YOUNG
STAFF WRITERS
State lawmakers say budget restraints
might inhibit attempts by graduate stu
dents across the UNC system to win
more financial support.
“Graduate stipends are not a high pri
ority,” said Sen. Betsy Cochrane, R-
Davie.
Graduate students, coming off a
minor victory in the N.C. General
Assembly last year, are preparing for
another assault on state funds.
Stipends for graduate students,
ranked the lowest in the land of research
schools, remain a priority on graduate
students’ agendas, despite a 10 percent
across-the-board increase divvied out by
legislators last summer.
Katherine Kraft, president of the
Graduate and Professional Student
Federation at UNC-Chapel Hill, said
stipends continued to top her agenda.
“It is a huge issue, critical to our mis
sion in education and our national
image,” she said.
Kraft said anew analysis of UNC
CH's stipend levels in comparison to
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Revision I
Jurisdiction covers
"IFC/Panhellenic
Risk Management
Policies.'
The item only reads
that "All Hearing
Boards will be
coed."
Appeals are
determined here
'at the discretion of
the Dean of Greek
Affairs, the Joint
Chief Justices, and
the IFC and
Panhellenic Council
Presidents in
conjunction."
Revision II
Jurisdiction covers
the "Greek
Community Alcohol
Policy."
The item only adds
to the second
version. Courts will
consist of three men
and two women for
fraternity violations
and vice versa for
sorority cases.
The item reads the
same as the second
constitution, except
for the insertion of
the NPHC in
between IFC and
the Panhellenic
Council.
DTH STAFF GRAPHIC
missing entirely from the second docu
ment.
Mundt said IFC and Judicial Board
members had different opinions about
what to do. “There’s two groups
some just don’t care, but others would
like to be able to act one their own.”
Tunstall and Mundt agreed on what
needs to be done,
“There’s only one tiling to do,”
Tunstall said. “We need to go back to
the original constitution, disband the
defunct Greek Judicial Board, and start
over. ”
results of last year’s election.
Dicks said that in order to ensure that
such confusion would not happen again
this year, a more systematic way of
counting the votes had been enforced by
Student Congress.
“Computers will continue to be used,
just like the past three years, in the tal
lying of votes,” she said.
However, runoff elections will also be
done by computer, which should pre
vent human error, she said.
Tom Black, associate registrar for sys
tems and plans, said the use of comput
ers would not affect the time it took for
votes to be tallied.
Back to '
i Part five of a fiv*part series
about educational funding
other public and private institutions was
in the works, and it would re-affirm the
paltry ranking of UNC-CH’s stipend
levels.
But legislators say rankings and com
parisons don’t mean much when the
state doesn’t have the money for
improvements.
Cochrane, ranked as the fifth most
effective state senator by the N.C. Center
for Public Policy Research in the 1995-
96 term, said the budget projections
revealed no surplus in funding, making
a stipend increase unlikely.
“The probabilities are very slim,” she
said.
Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland,
said he recognized stipends were impor
tant to the system’s future.
“It’s the most important thing we can
do to attract the very best graduate stu-
See GRADUATES, Page 7