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WEEKLY SUMMER ISSUE ®b t Haifa ®ar UM INSIDE THURSDAY JUNE 19,1997 BOG approves plan to purchase aircraft ■ The Board of Governors also turned down Barry Nakell’s appeal Friday. BY JOSEPH ROUSON EDITOR The trip from Murphy to Manteo just got a lot shorter for incoming UNC-sys tem President Molly Broad. At its Friday meeting, the UNO Board of Governors approved a plan to pay for part of a lease on a turboprop plane that both Broad and the UNC medical school’s Area Health Education Center will use for traversing the state. Marshall Rauch, chair man of the BOG’s Budget Roptr KMMfI dean of public health See Page 3 and Finance Committee, said AHEC would use the plane two-thirds of the time, and Broad would utilize the craft the remainder of the time. Though some concerns about the plane’s funding arose when the idea came up last month, AHEC will pay the majority of the bill. The UNC-system will pay $35,000 to $53,000 per year, as well as a proportion of gas and maintenance costs and pilot salaries. AHEC will pay the rest of the $105,000 to $160,000 yearly lease on One King Air 200. “This item has had unnecessary debate in the papers,” Rauch said. “This plane will meet the needs of all UNC official pulls name from search ■ Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd won’t vie for the Nebraska chancellorship. STAFF REPORT One of UNC’s top administrators was one of four candidates being con sidered for the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, but reported Tuesday he plans to remove his name from consideration. The Omaha World-Herald reported Friday that Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd was one of the finalists for the post. “While I am extremely flattered by the interest the University of Nebraska at Omaha has expressed in me, I am removing my name from con sideration for its chancellorship,” Floyd stated in a release Tuesday. “I am immensely proud of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and feel a responsibili ty to finish the work that I have begun here.” After almost 20 Executive Vice Chancellor ELSON FLOYD said he was flattered to be considered but will stay at UNC. years at his post, Del Weber, the current chancellor at the Omaha campus, is leaving at the end of the month. Floyd is a graduate of UNC and returned to the University in September 1995, almost three months after Michael Hooker was named chancellor. Currently, Floyd is heading the search committee for UNC’s new ath letic director. Floyd and the commitee must find a replacement for outgoing Director of Athletics John Swofford, who will become ACC Commissioner later this summer. Anew home for Carrboro police? The Board of Aldermen OK'd purchasing Carrboro Baptist Church. Page 2 (its users).” Last month, outgoing UNC system President C.D. Spangler, who uses his own airplane for cam pus-to-campus travel, said Broad also needed use of a plane. “The next presi dent needs to have a way to go places where she can speak to people who have real rights to access to the president of Incoming UNC system President MOLLY BROAD will have an airplane available for use when travelling the state. the University,” he said. Also Friday, the BOG declined to hear a final appeal from fired UNC- Chapel Hill law professor Barry Nakell, who was arrested for shoplifting deli food and a book from A Southern Season in Chapel Hill last fall. UNC-CH Chancellor Michael Hooker fired Nakell earlier this year despite a faculty committee’s recom mendation that Nakell receive a lesser punishment. The UNC-CH Board of Trustees upheld Nakell’s dismissal in April. Nakell’s shoplifting arrest was his sec ond in five years. Doctors testified dur ing Nakell’s faculty hearings that he has a mental disorder. See BOG. Page 2 Attorney: Accused professor served as juvenile’s mentor ■ William Thompson will stay on at the Univeristy during the investigation. STAFF REPORT The UNC physics professor charged last week with two counts of contribut ing to the delinquency of minors had been mentoring a troubled juvenile, his attorney said Wednesday. Marilyn Ozer, counsel for William Jackson Thompson, 58, said Thompson had spent up to 30 hours a week for the past year trying to help the teenager. Thompson was arrested June 10 for allegedly providing a 13-year-old boy Judge rules in favor of fired worker ■ A judge stated June 4 Diane Riggsbee-Raynor should be reinstated. BY MOLLY GRANTHAM UNIVERSITY EDTOR A black female UNC employee had a rude awakening in the fall of 1995 when she was fired from her job for allegedly falsifying her work record by not docu menting overtime hours. But Judge Sammie Chess Jr. ruled June 4 that Diane Riggsbee-Raynor, a former administrative assistant in die School of Medicine’s Plastic Surgery Division, “was held to a different stan dard than (UNC’s) white employees,” and said the University did not have just cause to dismiss her. Riggsbee-Raynor said Wednesday she felt the “dismissal had to do with my new boss.” After she was fired, Riggsbee- Raynor’s case eventually came to UNC’s Grievance Panel, which recommended she be reinstated. But Chancellor Michael Hooker, three months after arriving at the University, rejected the recommenda tion. Hooker was unavailable for com ment. Balancing act GPSF President Katherine Kraft juggles academics, motherhood and a hectic work schedule. Page 5 •fil " 1 - asSfi? S ' Vs £ ' >- ' .fgT-j JJ?* : p|, ■ vHiilglk. . Jr W ‘ * pF .; * i js.[J I' % 5S P' ; 111 DTH/METI MCDANIEL Sebastian Gedey, 5, watches his sister Ashley, 3, have a star painted on her face by Morehead volunteer April Chambers. Sebastian and Ashley were attending the Family Day festivities at Morehead Planetarium on Saturday. See Story, Page 5. and a 14-year-old boy with alcohol, cig arettes and a sexually suggestive video. The investigation into Thompson’s activities began the evening of June 9, when he called police to report the two boys missing from his home. Late on the night of June 9, police were in the home of one of the boys’ parents when the boy called. Police located the two boys early Tuesday morning at an apartment complex near Thompson’s house. While talking to police that night, the boys accused Thompson of buying them alcohol and cigarettes on previous occa sions. Police then asked Thompson if they could search his house, and they said he University counsels Tom Ziko and Anne Brown are handling questions dealing with the case, but neither had returned phone calls by press time. In the recent court ruling, Chess said UNC should not only reinstate Riggsbee-Raynor, but should also reim burse her for attorney’s fees and back pay since her dismissal September 18, 1995. Chess’ decision also stated that 10 employees of the School of Dentistry were questioned for the same offense. All 10 were white. “Not one of the white employees investigated was disciplined for not reporting their hours accurately on their time sheets,” the decision stated. Ken Litowsky, UNC’s human resources policy director, investigated the dental school by conducting inter views with the 10 employees, Chess’s decision stated. The decision also stated, “To the con trary, Mr. Litowsky was very helpful and respectful throughout the process in helping them avoid the rules.” “The dental employees didn’t even get a slap on the wrist,” Riggsbee- Raynor said of the white workers. “They actually got help, and I was fired.” Neither the School of Medicine nor the University has ever dismissed an employee for filling out timesheets the way Riggsbee-Raynor did. Waste what you want not. Russell Byrne A family affair Kids and their dads played basketball for a worthy cause at Eric Montross' Father's Day Camp. Page 7 jt. SEEING STARS agreed. They removed wine coolers, cigarettes and a photograph from Thompson’s house. Chapel Hill Police officials have declined to describe the pho tograph. The youth Thompson was mentoring suppos edly invited the other boy who was present the night of the arrest. Ozer said the Physics professor WILLIAM THOMPSON was charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Riggsbee-Raynor’s dismissal occurred before the dental employee investigations, which began in November 1995. Riggsbee-Raynor said because her decision had already been made when reviewing the dental school employees, all decisions should have been consis tent. Either way, her attorney, Alan McSurely, said he could not believe someone would get fired for working too much. “Firing someone for working over 40 hours a week is just ridiculous,” he said. Riggsbee-Raynor said one reason she was continuing the fight was the princi ple of the issue. “The University is continuing to sup port their decision instead of admitting a mistake,” she said. Riggsbee-Raynor had been employed with the University since September 1987. She worked in both the plastic surgery department and a subsidiary, the hand center. Riggsbee-Raynor was also supposed to cover the front desk. She was working too much because the division of plastic surgery was understaffed and had no funding for another position, she said. “Everyone was aware I worked over time,” she said. “I was there when they got here and I was there when they left.” Today's Weather Sunny and humid, high 80s. Friday; Partly cloudy, high 90. second teen was there without Thompson’s permission. Thompson has taught at UNC for 27 years, and has been working with young people for several years, Ozer said. He is listed as an editor and reviewer for Computers In Physics magazine, has written several textbooks, and has pub lished more than 100 academic papers. Thompson teaches theoretical nuclear physics and nuclear reactions. He had reportedly been attempting to use his highly developed computer skills to teach the teen how to use a computer. Ozer said he also attempted to teach a work ethic to the juvenile. He set up a system where the young man could earn part of the money for things he wanted. Proposed hike in subsidies raises student leaders’ ire BY MOLLY GRANTHAM UNIVERSITY EDITOR While some legislators are eyeing a possible tuition hike at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University, a possi ble simultaneous increase in private school subsidies has raised some student leaders’ eyebrows. UNC-CH Student Body President Mo Nathan said the proposed budget looks attractive to some lawmakers but contains some unjustifiable sections. “If you look at the possible tuition increase in a vacuum, it looks reason able, and we look unreasonable for opposing it,” Nathan said. Want to be the neat Ed Yoder? If so, you need to get your journalism career rolling -and there’s no better place to start than The Daily Tar Heel. We're currently looking for new writers, photographers, copy editors, design and graphic artists and fea tures/arts writers. No experience is required - just a willing ness to learn and a few hours each week to give. All you need to do is stop by the DTH offices in Suite 104 of the Student Union and pick up an application. 104 yean of editorial freedom Servjig the midean andHte Umveroty News/Fratura/Aro/Sponif 962-0245 Maotf/ 962-1163 Thompson and the juvenile’s mother would then contribute the remainder of the money for the purchase. Ozer said Thompson’s motivation in working with and helping young people comes from his experiences as a child in New Zealand. She said an older man who was a police officer served as Thompson’s mentor. Although the police investigation into Thompson’s activities is continuing, Ozer said she did not expect the investi gation to turn up any evidence of allegedly illegal activities. Thompson continues to be employed by the University. He is not teaching summer school. “But if you put the proposal in the context of the rest of the budget, with things like the private subsidies and last year’s S4OO increase, then it is suddenly unjustified.” The private subsidy increase is a SIOO increase the House proposes to give to all North Carolina students going to state private institutions, such as Duke University or Davidson College. “They are proposing to take $lB mil lion from public institutions and give $15.5 to private ones,” Association of Student Governments President John Dervin said. See TUITION, Page 2 Fill the form out and return it to the front desk, and we’ll call you soon afterward. Remember, one bonus of joining in the summer is it's much easier to get on staff now than in the fall or spring. So come on down and become a part of a UNC institution. For more information or to ask any ques tions. call summer editors John Sweeney and Joseph Rolison at 9624086, or stop by the offices.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 19, 1997, edition 1
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