WELCOME BACK ISSUE
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INSIDE
MOM
AUGUST 18,1997
UNC workers allege
race discrimination
■ Grievances against the
Grounds Department state
it has a “white ceiling.”
BY JOHN SWEENEY
EDITOR
JULY 24 ln a move that surprised
administrators, several UNC
groundskeepers filed official grievances
in mid-July, alleging racial discrimina
tion in hiring and promotion practices.
Seven groundskeepers have signed
the grievance, which states that the
Grounds Department had a “white ceil
ing” from its inception.
“All of the historical vestiges of slav
ery or Jim Crow, where blacks were able
to only be housekeepers or
groundskeepers (at
UNC) until 1960,
are still visible
here,” said Chapel
Hill attorney Alan
McSurely, who is
representing the
groundskeepers.
According to
the grievance, the
Grounds
Department has
repeatedly hired
inexperienced,
young white men
to fill vacant
supervisory posi
tions, roles experi
enced black work-
*9 lEjjjH
Executive Vice
Chancellor
ELSON FLOYD
stated an investigation
into the allegations
will begin
immediately.
ers could traditionally expect to move
into. In addition, the grievance states
that black groundskeepers were denied
access to training opportunities.
The primary bone of contention,
though, is what McSurely termed “the
close relationship between education
and employment.”
More and more, he said, the
Chancellor’s
tour of state
tightens ties
■ A group of professors
learned about N.C. culture
on the week-long trip.
BY SHARIF DURHAMS
SENIOR WRITER
MAY 15 Chancellor Michael
Hooker and 29 professors learned
lessons about the lives of tobacco farm
ers during a May 12 visit to Franklin
County.
The professors visited a tobacco farm
and Ford’s Tobacco Warehouse near
Louisburg during the first leg of their
five-day bus tour of the state.
Hooker said the visit to Franklin
County gave professors a history lesson,
enabling them to better understand the
role tobacco plays in the state’s econo
my and in the residents’ livelihood.
“We want the faculty to understand
the complex nature of the tobacco
industry in North Carolina,” Hooker
said. “We want people to understand
the human dimension of economic
change.”
Hooker made the visit as a part of his
goal to visit all 100 N.C. counties this
year. By May 16, Hooker visited 66
counties.
He wants the University to reconnect
to the state’s residents.
Professors asked local residents
about the families who farm tobacco
and how competition has affected small
farmers.
Tom Kemp, who works on the farm
the professors visited, told them larger
farms and attacks on the industry could
squeeze families out of business.
The professors piled on questions as
Movin’ on up
The Kenan-Flagler School
of Business is moving to a
new home next to the
Smith Center. Page 3B
University is opting to hire college grad
uates to fill non-specialized positions.
“What happened is the University
has condoned this idea that you need to
have a bachelor’s degree to be a manag
er in the Grounds Department,”
McSurely said. “There is absolutely no
relationship between going to school
and doing this work, just being a good
groundskeeper.”
The grievance also charges that
administrators are, through the hiring
and promotion practices, engaging in a
concerted effort to displace older
groundskeepers.
But all of this was news to adminis
trators, who said they were taken aback
at the announcement on the steps of
South Building.
“Supervisors —and many of the
other groundskeepers were unaware
of the concerns,” Associate Vice
Chancellor of Facilities Management
Bruce Runberg said.
Following the announcement,
Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd
issued a statement, responding to the
groundskeepers’ concerns.
“University administrators have just
this afternoon become aware of the con
cerns expressed by some of our
groundskeepers, and we regret that we
were not given an opportunity to sit
down and discuss the issues with them
directly,” Floyd stated. “An investigation
will be initiated immediately to explore
the complaints, and a thorough and
timely report is expected.”
To that end, Floyd established a com
mittee responsible for investigating the
allegations raised in the grievance.
Equal Opportunity Officer Robert
Cannon will chair the committee.
“They have been charged to do a
complete, full investigation of race dis
crimination in the Grounds
Department,” Runberg said.
See GROUNDSKEEPERS, Page 11A
What a long, strange trip it's been
Chancellor Michael Hooker and 29 faculty members began a bus
tour of North Carolina on Monday. The five-day trip will offer
greater insight into the state;s diversity. About 82 percent of UNC
students are North Carolinians.
Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five
Louisburg Duplin County Asheville Morganton Chatham County
Wilson Charlotte Balsam Old Salem Durham
Morehead City
Fort Macon
Beaufort
DTH/ELYSE ALLEY
they walked around the tobacco farm.
Franklin County was the first stop on
the professors’ tour. The tour stretched
from Fort Macon on the coast to the
Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains in
Asheville.
“They’re going to be able to be more
in tune with where the students are
from,” said Mattie Kemp, executive
director of the Franklin County
Chamber of Commerce.
Jamie DeMert, a senior at Louisburg
High School who will attend UNC as a
Morehead Scholar, said the opportunity
to meet instructors she would see in
classrooms next fall helped both her and
the professors.
“They don’t really have an under
standing of rural life,” she said. “It’s
really hard to make people understand
who don’t grow up around (tobacco)
that it’s not an evil thing."
Hooker said the professors learned
real lessons by seeing positive portrayals
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
Henry David Thoreau
♦ MdH
ran
Mh
OUT THE DOOR
***** jL
DTH FILE PHOTO
Hitching a ride on a friend's back was one way to get a better view of the festivities at Kenan Stadium
at UNC's 195th Commencement ceremony in May. See story, page 2A.
of tobacco farmers around the state.
“That was a great example of teach
ing,” he said. “They have now had the
experience of of having their horizons
broadened.”
The hosts also tried to show the pro
fessors similarities between Chapel Hill
and Franklin County they might not
have known existed.
Louisburg Mayor Lucy Allen said
Franklin County looked around the
world for new industry to support the
local economy.
“Franklin County is a blend of both
that agricultural-based background and
new industry,” Allen said.
Deb Aikat, professor of journalism
and mass communication, said he
learned about the great potential
Franklin County has for using advanced
technology to help boost local industry.
“(The tour) will help me to address
some of the concepts I teach much bet
ter,” he said.
In the running
Candidates gearing up for
Chapel Hill and Carrboro's
November town elections.
Page 8B
Insider Baddour takes over AD job
BY HARRISON RAND
SPORTS EDITOR
JUNE 26 The search is complete,
and the wait is over.
Dick Baddour, currently the executive
associate athletics director in charge of
NCAA compliance at UNC, was rec
ommended by Chancellor Michael
Hooker on June 26 as the replacement
for outgoing Athletics Director John
Swofford.
“This is anew era for UNC athletics,
and we will pass the baton of leadership
to Dick Baddour,” Hooker said. “He
knows the University inside and out.
And not only does he know it, it knows
him.”
Baddour began work at his new posi
tion July 1, after the Board of Trustees
approved the five-year contract Hooker
recommended. “It is an honor to have
the opportunity to be the successor of
Physics professor strikes prosecution deal
STAFF REPORT
The UNC physics professor charged
last week with two counts of contribut
ing to the delinquency of minors made
a deal on July 21 with District Attorney
Carl Fox under which he can avoid a
criminal conviction on delinquency
charges, according to the Associated
Press.
If William Jackson Thompson, 58,
meets the conditions of paying a $l3O
fine and completing 48 hours of com
munity service, the charges against him
will be dismissed.
Thompson was arrested June 10 for
allegedly providing a 13-year-old boy
and a 14-year-old boy with alcohol, cig
arettes and a sexually suggestive video.
Thompson had been mentoring a
troubled juvenile, his attorney, Marilyn
Ozer, said June 18.
Top o’ the world
Football News magazine
ranked North Carolina tops
in the nation in its presea
son poll. Page 128
* 04
John Swofford,
and my deepest
appreciation goes
to Michael
Hooker,” Baddour
said. “Thirty years
at this University
have prepared me
to be in this capac
ity.”
Baddour, also
celebrating his
30th wedding
anniversary June
24, thanked
Swofford for giv
ing him the oppor-
tunity for involvement in collegiate ath
letics in 1986 when he became
Swofford’s assistant athletics director.
“I thought so much of him and his
administrative abilities that I thought he
could be a tremendous asset to (the ath-
Ozer said
Thompson had
spent up to 30
hours a week for
the past year try
ing to help the
teenager.
The investiga
tion into
Thompson’s activ
ities began the
evening of June 9,
when he called
police to report the
two boys, the
youth Thompson
had been mentor
ing and a friend of
that youth, miss
ing from his Chapel Hill residence.
Late on the night of June 9, police
SBP, students
fight possible
rise in tuition
■ The increase would raise
tution by five percent
for out-of-state students.
STAFF REPORT
Out-of-state students returning to
North Carolina this week might have a
not-so-pleasant surprise waiting for
them when they get here.
That’s because the N.C. General
Assembly spent much of the summer
arguing over a proposal to increase out-
of-state tuition at
UNC-Chapel Hill
and N.C. State
University by five
percent. That
works out to
almost SSOO.
In-state stu
dents would also
see their tuition go
up by three per
cent, or $42.
The proposed
increase came as a
surprise to student
leaders and
administrators
alike.
“It’s bewilder-
ing to me that with the (state) tax cuts
over the past two years, there is a pro
posal to increase tuition,” former UNC
system president C D. Spangler said in
June. “Right now actually seems like a
good time to consider lowering it”
The proposal, introduced in June in
the N.C. House of Representatives, also
calls for a two percent, across-the-board
increase during the 1998-99 school year.
The N.C. Senate voted unanimously
not to improve it, though.
See TUITION, Page 11A
letics department),” Swofford said.
Baddour served as the assistant dean
for administration and student affairs at
UNC’s School of Law and as the assis
tant director of UNC’s Office of
Undergraduate Admissions before tak
ing on athletics responsibilities.
The new director of athletics said he
had some plans to improve football
Saturdays and said he would continue to
face gender equity issues head-on. “We
want to continue to build women’s ath
letics without diminishing the quality of
our men’s program,” he said.
He also said that the completion of
Kenan Stadium construction will be a
big step for the football program that he
said he hopes will be able to match the
success of the basketball program.
The 14-member search committee,
headed by Executive Vice Chancellor
See AD, Page 11A
Athletics Director
DICK BADDOUR
took the reins from
John Swofford on
July 1.
. t 1 .
•<
r *
were in the home of one of the boys’
parents when the boy called. Police
located the two boys early on the morn
ing June 10 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
agreed. They removed wine coolers and
cigarettes from Thompson’s house.
The youth Thompson was mentoring
supposedly invited the other boy who
was present the night of the arrest.
Ozer said the second teen was there
without Thompson’s permission.
Thompson has taught at UNC for 27
See PROFESSOR, Page 1 LA
Physics professor
WILLIAM JACKSON
THOMPSON
must pay $l3O and
complete 48 hours of
community service to
avoid prosecution.
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ChapclHiU, North Carolina
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Student Body
President
MO NATHAN
said the tuition
hike made no
sense and was
unfair to students.