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(She Daily ®ar MM f? SB 104 yean of editorial freedom Servmg the students and the University community since 1893 UNC rushing to fix computers by 2000 ■ The Year 2000 Resource Team has been working on the problem since 1996. BY KERITARLTON STAFF WRITER As Jan. 1, 2000 approaches, UNC officials are forced to plan for more than how they are going to spend their New Year’s Eve. Decades ago, computer programmers abandoned true dates in data fields and opted to use the “year-in-century" for mat. This means many hardware and software systems use data which only stores the final two digits of the year. The “Year 2000” problem, dubbed by some as the “millennium meltdown” or “Y2K,” will arise when many comput ers assume “00” to be “1900” rather Referee still serious; public offers support BY ALEC MORRISON SPORTS EDITOR The cold reality of referee James Knight’s stunning collapse at Kenan Stadium continued to spread across campus Monday. Knight, a 51-year-old Charlotte native, suffered a massive heart attack Saturday while working the UNC foot ball game against the University of Virginia. His condition worsened from serious to critical early Monday morn ing but improved to serious as of 6 p.m. Monday evening. Well-wishing students turned out in the Pit during the day to sign sympathy cards provided by the Carolina Athletic Association for Knight and his family. At his weekly press conference, UNC football coach Mack Brown offered words of encouragement for Knight before taking any questions. “All of our thoughts and prayers are still with Jimmy ... as he continues to fight for his life,” Brown said. “Everybody felt like the situation was handled as good as it possibly could have been handled.” UNC Hospitals spokeswoman Pam Colleges find programs to fight drinking ■ Personal responsibility is the focus of several college anti-drinking programs. BY ADRIENNE BRANCHE STAFF WRITER College programs discouraging all alcohol consumption recently have taken the back burner to a more realis tic message: students must be responsi ble for the alcohol they drink. Alcohol’s continuing prominence in students’ lives, found in the Core Institute Alcohol and Drug Survey at the Southern Illinois University f EDUCATION X at Carbendale, forced officials to search for new ways to deal with the issue. Some schools, such as the University of California at Santa Barbara, pursue creative alternatives to alcohol. “We have a Mock-tail catering ser vice,” said Judy Hearsum, director for alcohol and other drug programs at UC SB. “(It) provides interesting non-alco holic beverages.” Several universities have focused on presenting students with a realistic idea of how much their peers drink. At East See ALCOHOL, Page 2 than the year 2000. Computers will be unable to distinguish between a day in 1905 and one in 2005. The “meltdown” could have effects ranging from stopping watches to eras ing bank accounts. For students, “Y2K” could pose threats to student records sys tems by altering such information as graduation dates, their financial status, and UNC alumni records. Ahmed Abdelkhalek, a sophomore computer science major from Cairo, Egypt, has already thought about pro tecting his finances in the year 2000. “Basically, I plan to get a hard copy of everything,” he said. Considering the large amount of data entry required by a university the size of UNC, “Y2K” has serious implications for UNC officials in charge of student and faculty records. Ken Thom of the UNC Administrative Information Systems Pearce said Monday afternoon that Knight’s condition had changed to crit ical in the early morning hours. But a message left on UNC Hospitals voice mail at 6 p.m. said Knight had returned to serious condition. Knight’s family, which continues to decline questions from the media, issued a statement through UNC Hospitals thanking the public for its sympathy. “We whole-heartedly appreciate the outpouring of concern and support,” Knight’s family said in the statement. Knight collapsed on the UNC 12- yard line just before a Tar Heel snap in the second quarter Saturday. Medical personnel and the other officials at the game rushed to his side. Knight had a defibrillator applied to his chest to restart his heart, which stopped beating four times before he arrived at UNC Hospitals. “Jim is one of our very best officials, and he has served our league in exem plary fashion for many years,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford in a statement released Saturday from Atlanta. “This kind of thing certainly puts life and the games we play in per spective.” BY HUGH PRESSLEY STAFF WRITER Joshua Chansky faces a challenge many young adults have to deal with everyday finding a job. “Right now I’m looking for carpentry, like being a carpenter’s assistant," he said. “But I have a lot more I’m looking at, like a cook or a plumber jobs like that.” However, unlike many young adults, 20-year-old Joshua has a mental illness that makes it difficult for him to find work on his own. For three months, he has turned to the staff at ’'bwal niify y,-.... jWW i|| §f|l^^j jmm DTH/JON GARDINER Joshua Chansky (left) goes through the classified ads in search of a job, while Darlene Head assists in the process. An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought. Simon Cameron Tuesday, September 30, 1997 Volume 105, Issue 80 heads a committee called the Year 2000 Resource Team. The team, formed in May 1996, has been compiling informa tion on data-sensitive and data-depen dent programs at UNC to prepare for the coming computer crisis. “Fortunately, we had the foresight in the late ’Bos to set a University-wide standard requiring the use of four-digit year dates,” Thom said. “We’re making the necessary changes in applications and programs still in two-digit dates.” Thom said programmers in AIS ana lyzed current UNC computer codes and made the necessary changes. They then test the computers to make sure they are year 2000 compliant. “We’ve bought software to make the computers think that it is in the year 2000,” Thom said. “This way we can manipulate dates to test the systems.” David Lanier, University registrar, said the registrar’s office, which falls M^MMg ■HF” .***!>: vtflHKsr r* •••>'-'Sffirr, >. ' m :***•*,.. ' ; ..... ' , | Mm DTH/LAURA GIOVANELU Graduate student Joanna Pi-Sunyer writes her ‘get well soon* message to James Knight. Well-wishers lined up Monday afternoon to sign enormous cards for the ACC referee. LFor the mentally ill, life has its challenges. But with the help of Caramore Community Inc., these individuals are building a future and ... EARNING TO LIVE Caramore Community Inc., to give him employ ment training and to help him look for a job. Caramore Community Inc., located on Smith Level Road in Canboro, is a private, nonprofit orga nization that provides training programs for severe ly and persistently mentally ill and handicapped adults ages 18 and over. Founded in 1974 by the late Caroline M. Livermore of Lumberton, Caramore offers job pro grams to enhance its clients’ employability and attempts to provide them the transition into inde pendent living. “We do a lot of training here to help our young “Because we've had to put so much manpower and resources on this, there have been other things we couldn’t d0...” KEN THORN Year 2000 Resource Team head under AIS computer management, start ed taking steps to rectify the "Y2K” problem more than two years ago. “Last fall we began printing four-digit years on transcripts, and this spring we started listing courses using four-digit years,” he said. “We’re almost finished.” Eleanor Morris, director of the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, said the financial aid office installed software more than six months ago. men get jobs,” said John A. Simonds, president of Caramore. “We run businesses which provide train ing on developing employment-related skills, and we run homes and apartments for our program clients.” Caramore accepts clients from across North Carolina and is staffed 24 hours a day, Simonds said. “We’re clinically coordinated in the community, and we’re staffed by trained people,” he said. Although there are no medical professionals at Caramore, Simonds said a professional psy chologist is on staff. Caramore funds come largely from the services it provides, Simonds said. “We earn every dol lar,” he said. “We have contracts with the state of North Carolina for specific services, and we earn a lot of our own money with the businesses we run. We don’t solicit any donations.” Before entering the program at Caramore, clients go through a thorough admissions process, Admissions Director Wendy Morrison said. "I screen the applicants that come into Caramore,” she said. “We have referrals coming into the program from hospitals and vocational rehabil itation offices from around the state, and we screen those referrals to see if they are appropriate for us.” The admissions process also includes a written application, a tour of the Caramore facility and a five-day visit, Morrison said. “Both (the clients and the referral agencies) use us on a trial basis,” she said. Once clients enter the Caramore program, they are introduced to a variety of job opportunities. Caramore has two self-run businesses, Caraflora and Caraclean, which specialize in lawn maintenance See OUTREACH, Page 2 “Some of the year 2000 fixes have already been installed,” she said. “We are highly dependent on what AIS does.” Although he could not give an esti mate, Thom said the year 2000 project has been costly for the University. In addition to purchasing the software, an opportunity cost arises because some AIS workers have been removed from their other duties in order to address the “Y2K” problem more effectively. “Because we’ve had to put so much manpower and resources on this, there have been other things we couldn’t do such as modify or enhance existing sys tems,” Thom said. The team has set December 1998 as a target date for completing the changes. “It’s not a negotiable deadline,” Thom said. “But we’re in good shape, because we got an early start and we have top-management support.” lommunity ' V • - News/Features/Arts/Sports: 962-0245 Business/Advertising 962-1163 Chapel Hill, North Carolina C 1997 DTH Publishing Coip. All nghts reserved. B-GLAD petitioning For exhibit ■ The “Define Queer” exhibit would feature a board for viewer comments. BY JESSICA GALAZKA STAFF WRITER B-GLAD is trying anew approach as it renews plans to display a controversial exhibit in the Carolina Union Gallery. The exhibit, called “Define Queer,” includes photographs of gay men and women and the effects of AIDS on them. It would be an interactive display that invites viewer comments. The Carolina Union Activities Board would not agree to feature the exhibit sponsored by Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians and Allies for Diversity last spring because of its interactive nature. Aninda Wilson, a board member in charge of the gallery, said most of the concern was with the free expression board that would accompany the exhib it. She said CUAB agreed to do the exhibit minus the free expression board. But the board is the display’s central part for B-GLAD members. lan Palmquist, co-chairman of B GLAD, said, “It’s something a lot of people don’t encounter, and calling attention to it is one of the most impor tant goals of the exhibit.” The display would be in an area sur rounded by windows that gets a lot of traffic and attention daily. “It’s a hard thing to supervise," Wilson said. For B-GLAD, that is precisely why the space is so important. “The gallery is the best place for it,” Palmquist said. He said he was optimistic about the renewed efforts. B-GLAD has distrib uted a petition to student groups to solicit support for the display. Student government officials met Sunday after receiving the petition to discuss what action they would take. “We tried not to focus on what hap pened last year,” said Reyna Walters, co-chairwoman of student govern ment’s Human Relations Committee. “The position we are taking is we need to find where people are at,” she said. “We are trying to start by initiating some conversations.” Palmquist said they were considering a completely different route this year by working with the Union Board of Directors. They don’t require all mem bers to agree on decisions like CUAB does, he said. CUAB President Amy Lawler said every idea is reviewed by the 13-mem ber activity board comprised of students who represent students on campus with differing views, she said. Lawler said the activities board oper ated on consensus so that “every deci sion we make is solid.” Student Body President Mo Nathan said the University needs a place where students and faculty can say what is on their minds. “I think B-GLAD is a good example of our need for this space.” mm The Bronco's battle Administrators at Fayetteville State University blocked the student newspaper's production in what some decried as censorship. Page 5 Today's weather Sunny; low 80s Wednesday: Sunny; mid 70s Awarding experience Spend this semester looking into an issue in depth. Apply for this fall s Joanna Howell Fund award. To be considered, submit a detailed pro posal to The Daily Tar Heel office in Suite 104 of the Student Union by Friday. Call DTH Editor Erica Beshears for further questions or details at 962-0245.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 30, 1997, edition 1
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