10
Friday, August 22, 1997
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BOARD EDITORIALS
Tearing down fences
■ While students have shown their dislike for the recently erected
Sigma Nu fraternity fence, the authorities involved need to talk it over.
If you build it, they will tear it down.
That’s the impasse that has been reached
between the Sigma Nu House Corporation and
the “vandals” who have twice torn down a
fence the owners of the Sigma Nu fraternity
house erected last week, blocking off the com
monly used walkway between Granville Towers
and Fraternity Court.
For safety and liability reasons, the House
Corporation decided it no longer wanted stu
dents, mainly Granville Towers residents,
traipsing through the shortcut on its property to
get to and from campus.
The Sigma Nu House Corporation has a
valid reason for erecting the fence, but those stu
dents, long accustomed to using the shortcut,
don’t agree. In the span of four days, the barri
er was tom down twice. Sigma Nu has yet to
rebuild it. It it is also the responsibility of
Granville Tower authorities to locate another
safe route for Granville residents to take to cam
pus or work at least out an agreement with
Sigma Nu.
Obviously, the owners of the fraternity
house have valid concerns. If someone hurt
themselves while crossing their property, they
would potentially be liable. Plus, hundreds of
students walking across the property pose a
security concern and make it difficult for the
owners to keep the area looking nice.
But blindly building the fence again won’t
help the problem, since it will probably only be
tom down again.
The owners of the house should work with
In recent years, we have all been aware of the
sometimes strained relationship between the
University and the community that surrounds
it Chapel Hill and Carrboro. And while we
have all continued to make a genuine effort to
understand each other, occasionally conflicts
arise due to a lack of communication. While
the University is trying to improve relations
with the new Director of Community Outreach
position that will be filled by Jonathan Howes,
a student is doing his own part to improve
town-gown relations.
UNC senior Jason Jolley is running for a
seat on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. Jolley
would strengthen those lines of communication
by lending a voice to the many UNC students
living in Carrboro who might feel that their
views are not equally represented in the com
munity.
The city of Carrboro makes important deci
sions that affect the everyday lives of these stu
dents, be it parking regulations or municipal
improvements. As voting members of the com
munity students have a right, and a responsibil
ity, to participate in the running of local gov
ernment.
Jolley is not the only student who can make
a difference in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, nor
should he be. Every student on campus has the
opportunity to help shape the policies of these
two towns.
The consequence of student concern, of
course, is that students must brush aside their
cynicism for a moment or two and make an
effort in defense of their own political efficacy.
A
the University, Granville officials and the town
of Chapel Hill to give students a reason to use
alternative routes.
Right now, going to Franklin Street and
walking around the University Baptist Church
adds minutes to the trek. Taking the Cameron
Street route is fine during the day, but the street
is very poorly lit at night, which causes obvious
safety concerns. The concerned officials should
decide the safest and quickest way for Granville
residents to make it to campus without march
ing across someone else’s private property.
Granville officials ought to search for alter
native routes more actively. After all, that quick
walk to campus they advertise runs right
through Fraternity Court.
The most obvious answer is to invest in bet
ter lighting for Cameron Street. There is
absolutely no reason for any street so close to
campus to be so poorly lit. Chapel Hill officials
have announced their intent to better light
Cameron Street, and UNC is considering emer
gency call boxes for the area. Student groups
should make sure these changes are made
quickly.
Finally, the Sigma Nu House Corporation
has let students walk through its property for
too long to just build a fence and expect people
to walk around it. The House Corporation
owes it to the University community to help
find routes all groups can live with.
And as long as they don’t find a solution
everyone can live with, students will make sure
the fence stays down.
Don’t be shy
Get involved. Read up on the candidates, talk
to other aldermen and council members (many
of whom work at UNC) and vote.
Yes, voting may seem rather passe nowadays
(at least until we can do so over the Internet and
every lackluster citizen can make a difference
from the comfort of his or her living room), but
municipal elections (coming up Nov. 4) do
affect students in a very real way.
Voting is not the only option for students
who care about their community. Want more
lighting around campus? Maybe more students
than just student leaders need to complain.
Want to park on the lawn of your house?
Maybe students need to voice their parking
complaints to the Chapel Hill Town Council.
Students should take the time to attend town
meetings, pay attention to town news and write
letters or call town officials.
The University and the communities of
Chapel Hill and Carrboro are permanently
intertwined. For those who don’t believe that
Jolley can actually win the election because of
his young age, remember former UNC student
Mark Chilton who, Alderman Diana McDuffie
noted, “turned out to be the best thing that ever
happened to Chapel Hill.”
Jolley has already served the student body as
a member of Student Congress and chairman
of the Student Congress Finance Committee.
His motives and his continuing attempts to
get involved even further are laudable. We can
only wait and see if the students he hopes to
represent will get behind him as he has for
them.
CuobtPipi EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
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Robin Kohli EDITORIAL CARTOON EDITOR
Stacey Kearney community OUTREACH COORDINATOR
Richard Ray WRITING COACH
EDITORIAL
Freedom entails responsibility for own actions
Look at my face.
Try to ignore my apparently miss
ing Adam’s apple, which some of my
friends pointed out while discussing my more
androgynous qualities the other night.
If you notice something on my face that
gives you an urge to tell me everything about
you, you’re not alone. Something about me
must scream, “I’m a sucker. Tell me every
thing, and I’ll hang on your every word.”
Maybe that’s why the best movie I saw this
summer was “Face/Off,” because sometimes
I wish I could scrape off my face and get a
new one. But even if my face screams for
information, there are just some things I don’t
need to know. And many of these unneces
sary factoids my friends tell me about revolve
around getting naked.
This summer I heard that some guys
planned to recruit their suitemates into mak
ing their suite a “Garden of Eden.”
Unfortunately, I found this out by visually
experiencing their taste for exhibitionism. If
we were intended to be “buck nekkid,” God
would have smacked Adam upside the head
and said, “Man, why would you suggest mak
ing fig clothes for your girl over there. You’re
wrecking the view!”
How about the time when I was helping a
friend move back into her apartment and her
Mormon roommate started complaining
about the people upstairs.
It seems that they made too much noise
when the girl’s boyfriend came by. No soon
er had she said this than we could hear some
sounds above.
“They’re sinning again!” she shrieked,
since she couldn’t bring herself to say the
word “sex.” They could just be making nois
es in their spare time, I thought. You never
know. But she insisted I go up and knock on
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Helms better to hold hearing
than thwart Weld nomination
TO THE EDITOR:
Partisan politics aside being reasonable
human beings with some measure of digni
fied sense of justice, and being supporters of
the democratic way of life in these United
States of America it would seem a por
trayal of positive power, and protocol on Sen.
Jesse Helms’ part, to concede to former
Massachusetts Gov. William Weld’s request
for a hearing on the occasion of his nomina
tion, by President Clinton, to the ambas
sadorship of the U.S. to Mexico. Moving in
that direction would also afford Helms the
opportunity to publically clear the air, as it
were. The public at large, I think, deserves
that much from a top-ranking public official
such as Helms.
I am hopeful that Helms will be blessed
with divine graces to do what is right, predi
cated on a democratic sense of responsibility,
and honor, rather than on the basis of poten
tial personal biases. In the final analysis, I
believe that “right makes might," that total
might belongs, invariably, to the Almighty.
None of us are ever that right. None of us can
truly believe that the crosses we bare are ever
that heavy, given our mortal fallibility. No
one, I dare say, should be in the position to
manifest such ill will as to slander the spirit of
truth, and fair play essentially, the spirit of
democracy in a world which cries out daily
for peace, love and social justice.
We, the people, entrust our representatives
in local, state and national government with
the responsibility of representing us to the
fullest measure and benefit of our
Constitution in a democratic system for
which we have, for so long and hard, fought
with body, mind and soul.
Myself, an immigrant from Portugal, a
high school dropout, a Vietnam War veteran
and, currently, an educator in the greater
Boston area, know only too well the high
price of freedom, and will always appreciate
living, and working, in this democratic land
of opportunity.
In war, I learned the awesome power of
holding life and death in my hands. Through
the turbulent post-war years, I have learned
an even greater power: to live, and let live.
It is, therefore, my steadfast contention,
and heartfelt recommendation that you, Sen.
Helms, with all due respect, open your heart
and mind and join me, as well as so very
the door. Sure
enough, their
shades were wide
open, and they
were definitely sin
ning.
Of course, this
was the same girl
who last spring saw
a want ad looking
for dancers. She
packed up her bal
let outfit and drove
up to Jacksonville
for the interview.
| DAVE SNELL \
IGNORANCE IS
STRENGTH
She didn’t think anything of the purple win
dowless exterior or the pole in the middle of
the dance floor until the guy asked, “So what
are ya gonna do with those shoes, honey?”
Excuse me, I think I’ve missed my stop. I’m
getting off now.
I wouldn’t have a problem with public
nudity as long as I didn’t have to participate.
When I was in fifth grade, we were required to
take swimming. And back then, all of us were
too embarrassed to simply change in the lock
er room so we came up with “the diaper.” You
would wrap a towel around your lower
extremities and pull your underwear over top,
creating a diaper-like contraption. Then you
had to pull the towel out the front with super
human strength, giving you both a rash and
rush as you yanked the towel through.
Eight years later, we’ve grown from kids
wearing diapers to fraternity boys jumping
nude into the Granville Towers pool. Ah, how
we’ve grown. If you were to ask one of them
where their sudden burst of immodesty came
from, they might say their brothers made
them do it, or they did it because they felt like
it. You certainly wouldn’t expect them to say
READERS’ FORUM
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4>
many others, in celebrating the richness of
democracy, and fair play to the fullest. In that
light, you will have true might. In that light,
you will inevitably be right.
Adalino Cabral, PhD.
BOSTON
Class waitlist cancellation
too severe for parking ticket
TO THE EDITOR:
Consider the appropriate consequences for
not paying a parking ticket: a hefty late fee,
being towed upon a subsequent violation, and
soon.
UNC has another punishment, one that is
highly inappropriate: derailing a student’s
education. Without any notice, law students
(and maybe those in other programs) are
removed from waitlists over the summer if
they have an outstanding parking ticket. It
makes no difference whether the class is a pre
requisite for many other classes or is exten
sively covered on the bar exam.
Students should have to do something fair
ly egregious for the University to stand in the
way of their education. In this situation, the
punishment does not fit the crime.
Mark Shelburne
FOURTH-YEAR
LAW AND CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING STUDENT
illjp Daily Sar Heri
it was because the University allowed them to
doit.
However, Wendell Williamson, the man
who killed two people on Henderson Street in
1995, has filed a negligence lawsuit against
UNC similar to the one filed by the parents of
one of his victims. By not forcing him to visit
his Student Health Service psychiatrist,
Williamson claims the University was respon
sible for allowing him to kill. And he is seek
ing $1 million in damages, more than what
the victims’ families may end up receiving.
The University simply cannot be held
responsible for the actions of its students. If I
choose to run across the lower quad in my
birthday suit or pull out a gun and fire at inno
cent people, UNC officials cannot stop me
beforehand. It’s called freedom, and with free
dom comes the responsibility to act at least
semi-civilized.
Even the victims’ families have no claim
against UNC, but their claim is at least based
on a real loss. The two deaths did not occur
on University property, nor can the University
provide protection for every individual stu
dent. Unfortunately, this is a price of liberty.
Now it seems that Williamson is finding it
difficult to be exposed and lain bare in the
nation’s TV camera spotlight.
According to his claim, he has “lost the
opportunity to be a meaningful member of
society” because of his tremendous burden of
humiliation.
Yeah, I don’t think he’ll be able to find a
date anytime soon or land a job higher than
minimum wage for quite some time. But the
two people he killed have lost their opportu
nity to be living members of society for ever.
Dave Snell is a junior political science major from
Wilmington who wants to hold your hand.
Road improvement for public,
not just wealthy UNC donors
TO THE EDITOR:
It is hard to express my sense of outrage
over the start of the construction of Ram
Road. Not only will the road serve only the
privileged few who have contributed large
sums of money to the Educational
Foundation, but the process and speed by
which it was approved was outside the accept
ed method of public review.
Contrast this with the painfully slow
Department of Transportation public process
to widen Hillsborough Road in Carrboro.
For years, we have asked for bike paths and
sidewalks along the roads leading to
McDougle Middle and Elementary schools
for the safety of our children.
When I protested to the Governor’s office
about the Ram Road, I was told that the
monies would not be taken out of our local
DOT funds. This is not correct. According to
the DOT, the funds will be counted against
our local Transportation Improvement Plan
projects.
To prevent this circumventing of the public
approval procedure from ever happening
again, I introduced a bill into the Senate this
year.
The bill would have required that any road
costing more than SBOO,OOO could not be built
without going through the public review
process. I was told that my bill would not be
heard in committee, much less brought to a
vote on the Senate floor.
When the projects of those who give
money in exchange for special privileges take
precedence over local citizens’ necessary pro
jects, we are in a sorry state of affairs. I won
der if campaign finance reform might make
a difference in who gets what from our gov
ernment.
Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird
DDRANGE
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