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DTH/ION GARDINER
Shoshana Silverman attempts to break through the opposing team's line with all the force she can muster. Silverman is a cast member of Lab! Theatre, a
campus drama group that played 'Red Rover" as a warm-up activity Tuesday afternoon.
Data fails to explain
crashing on campus
■ Scientists in Colorado
and on campus continue to
study Tuesday's shaking.
BY ELLIE MCGINNESS
STAFF WRITER
Scientists, police, students and facul
ty are still trying to explain the mysteri
ous campuswide phenomenon that
shook windows and disrupted classes
Tuesday afternoon.
The loud boom that rang throughout
campus just after 1 p.m. is a mystery to
most students. Rumors of a sonic
boom, a bomb, and an earthquake have
been flying around campus.
But UNC geology Professor
Christine Powell said she can put most
of those rumors to rest.
“We know now that we did not expe
rience a sonic boom,” she said.
After initial tests at the U.S.
Geological Survey in Golden, Colo.,
the scientists only know that some kind
of energy was put into the ground yes-
See BOOM, Page 2
UNRAVELING SUMMER
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DTH/LAURA GIOVANEUJ
Gustavo Vazquez, a freshman biology major, removes wires that hold and
guide the Coker Arboretum growth to prepare for the fall refurbishing.
BREAK ON THROUGH
Earthquake
researchers
study N.C.
BY ADRIENNE BRANCHE
STAFF WRITER
Although residents might not always
feel them, earthquake tremors shake
North Carolina on a regular basis.
Scientists in UNC’s Department of
Geology study the quakes, which occur
about every three years in the Piedmont
and yearly in the mountains.
North Carolina lies on many fault
lines that were created millions of years
ago, said geology Professor Christine
Powell.
“They are all over this state and
North America,” she said. “There is a
major fault that runs through Brevard
See RESEARCHERS, Page 2
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Janis Joplin
Thursday, September 18,1997
Volume 105, Issue 72
Minority, other student groups hit communication snags
■ Student organizations
appear to be misunderstood
by those not involved.
BY MOLLY GRANTHAM
SENIOR WRITER
The communication breakdown that
almost cancelled this year’s
Homecoming step show illustrates the
difficulties student groups can have
working together.
Student government’s human rela
tions committee wants to find ways to
help student groups prevent similar com
munication problems.
Reyna Walters, a member of the
human relations committee, said last
week’s conflict just reflected old prob
lems.
“Minority student groups on campus
have been misunderstood for years and
years,” Walters said.
Residents reflect on spirit of town
while debating future of public art
■ In the next two to three
months, a design for the
sculpture should be done.
BY BARRETT BREWER
STAFF WRITER
Like a New England town meeting
more than 50 people gathered inside the
Chapel Hill Post Office courtroom
Wednesday night to discuss and debate
the fate of the first public art piece for
the town.
“We are now in the design phase,”
said Barbara Barnes of the Chapel Hill
Public Arts Commission.
The public forum was held as a vehi
cle to share ideas and information on the
proposed design of this first-ever project
for the town.
Barnes said a design for the sculpture
should be ready in two to three months.
Local artist Thomas Sayre, who was
chosen to complete the art project, was
on hand to interact with residents and to
hear their stories about the significance
of the plaza in front of the Franklin
“The (Carolina Athletic Association)
and (National Pan Hellenic Council) sit
uation just magnified it.”
The dispute between the CAA and
the NPHC has since been resolved, but
has left the NPHC president to question
her position on campus.
“Minority student organizations are
very misunderstood on campus,” said
Michele Causey-Dugger.
“This past week just brought the issue
to the forefront.”
The problem started last week when
the NPHC turned down the CAA’s first
proposal for the funding of the step
show, a popular Homecoming event.
But the CAA introduced anew plan
Friday night, which the NPHC accept
ed.
CAA Co-president Charlie Roederer
said the problem between the two
groups had nothing to do with racial dif
ferences.
“Our differences came from a differ
ent understanding of the show in past
Street Post Office where the sculpture
will be placed. “I think people spoke
honestly, and I learned a lot about what
has happened (here),” Sayre said of the
residents’ emotive edntributions.
Two years ago, Sayre raised contro
versy when he first proposed a town
sculpture featuring gun paraphernalia.
Sayre said he wanted the artwork to
be a piece that did not draw attention to
itself but rather to be an added layer to
an already well-composed space.
He said he wanted the proposed
sculpture to be reflective of the history
of the plaza and possibly to represent
the public discourse that had often taken
place there.
Residents at the meeting spoke of the
numerous events that had occurred at
the plaza, including candle light vigils in
protest of the Vietnam War, huge cele
brations announcing the University’s
1957 basketball championship and
efforts by various organizations to speak
out for civil rights activities.
Roland Giduz, a resident of Chapel
Hill for more than 50 years, said the Post
Office plaza was the public forum of
Chapel Hill.
Report disclaims
racism grievance
BY SHARIF DURHAMS
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
The University does not have a
“white ceiling” holding down the
salaries of black groundskeepers,
according to a committee studying alle
gations of racism.
But a report released Wednesday by
the Grounds Revision Review
Committee stated that employees
should have more say in their jobs and
opportunities for training.
Alan McSurely, a Chapel Hill attor
ney representing the 19 groundskeepers
who filed complaints this summer, said
his clients still believed the University
practiced racism but that they would
look at the report’s recommendations
before responding.
“There has been an affirmative action
program at the University for white
males for years, and that program is
alive and well,” McSurely said. “The
real question is were (the recommenda
tions) the correct remedy for that.”
After Chancellor Michael Hooker
resolved a five-year conflict with UNC’s
housekeepers last year, 19 groundskeep
ers filed grievances in July accusing the
University of a history of racism, still
reflected in its treatment of black
employees.
Committee members did not find
that overt discrimination existed, but
they recommended several changes
from buying uniforms for the staff and
providing more first aid kits to putting
groundskeepers on a committee that
will recommend anew supervisor for
their department.
years,” he said.
“It had nothing to do with race rela
tions.”
Roederer said he believed the “step
show incident” could have turned into a
racial issue in some of the students’
minds.
Since most CAA members were
white and most NPHC members were
black.
“I think students thought it was a race
issue,” he said. “But really it was just a
misunderstanding about funding and
leadership from past years.”
Student government Executive
Assistant Bryan Winbush, a member of
NPHC who helped negotiate the settle
ment, said he did not believe that minor
ity student groups are the only student
groups on campus that are misunder
stood.
Winbush insists that all student orga
nizations are misunderstood by people
who are not involved racial differ
ences just happen to be the scapegoat
“This is a place where Chapel Hill
has dealt with its conscience continual
ly,” he said.
Yet some attendees of the forum were
concerned that the theme of violence
and guns eminent in Sayre’s earlier pro
posal was a negative and inappropriate
representation of Chapel Hill.
Franklin Street business owner
Kathleen Lord said, as a local business
owner, she was opposed to public art
work that had negative connotations of
violence.
“I think you can show there are two
sides to every issue,” she said.
“That’s the healthiest part of this
town that can be portrayed.”
Aside from any concerns about the
nature and design of the art project, the
residents who attended the forum
agreed Chapel Hill needed a piece of
public artwork and that the plaza in
front of the Post Office was ideal.
The Rev. Franklin Bowden of Chapel
Hill said having a sculpture in front of
the post office would fit well into the
identity of the town. “We need a sculp
ture here; it’s in our culture; it’s in the
air.”
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Chapel Hill, North Carolina
C 1997 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
“If they’re going to rise
in income level, they are
going to have to do so
in virtue of additional
training. ”
MICHAEL HOOKER
Chancellor
Hooker applauded the report, which
Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd
will begin putting into practice immedi
ately.
“I am delighted with it and thank the
committee,” Hooker said. “I think it’s a
very thoughtful and thorough job.
The committee did not recommend
any salary increases for the employees,
but Hooker said the recommendations
include job training that would give the
workers their only sure way to earn
more money.
“They would all like to be earning
more money,” Hooker said. “I’m sym
pathetic with that. If they are going to
rise in income level, they are going to
have to do so in virtue of additional
training.”
Leo Watford, a groundskeeper who
filed a complaint, said he and his fellow
complainants would read the settlement
in the next couple days before they
responded.
“I’m very much happy that they
responded to me,” he said about 10 min
utes after his supervisors handed him a
copy of the recommendations. “I’ll be
looking at it today.”
most often.
“Black and white differences are the
easiest ones to see,” he said.
“But differences are across the
board.”
But Archie Irving, the director of
minority student recruitment, said inher
ent differences exist between minority
organizations and other types of student
organizations that exist on the UNC
campus.
“There are differences in perspectives
and outlooks, whether the group is
based on race, ethnic orientation or oth
erwise,” Irving said.
“These misunderstandings between
groups come naturally. They are natural
in everyday human affairs.”
Irving said those in a majority of the
population have no idea what it feels like
to be in a minority.
“People in a majority aren’t placed in
a status or a number,” he said.
“You don’t have to stop and think
what the factors are.”
mm
Just can’t get enough ’Bos
Although it's only been a few years,
the 'Bos might seem like a distant
memory. But, movies, music and
fashion from the decade still play a
huge role in our pop culture. Page 5
♦
From space to Chapel Hill
Students at Guy B. Phillips Middle
School are studying satellite images
beamed to the school from space. The
program is the only one of its kind in
the state. Page 2
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