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* New
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Mb 104 yean of editorial freedom
Serving the students and the University
community since 1593
Technology leaders leave University posts
■ The employees left the
University for positions at
a Florida research institute.
BYEVANSAUDA
STAFF WRfTER
William Graves resigned from his job
as director of the University’s only
group researching information delivery,
the Institute of Academic Technology
early this month.
Days later, 12 of his co-workers fol
lowed him, leaving the institute with six
members and an uncertain future.
A place
to turn
BY ALISA GUMBS
STAFF WRITER
Each time Megan Hagler’s beeper
goes off, she knows one more victim
is in need of help.
Hagler, a UNC senior, has worked
as a companion for the Orange
luimt
A
County Rape
Crisis Center
for a little over
a year. One
day a month
she is on-call
for 24 hours
and must be
prepared to
offer sound
advice or a
strong shoul
der to the vic
tim of a sexual
assault.
“Sexual vio-
A weeklong series
shedding light on
the problem of date
rape on college
campuses.
lence is something that I’m really
committed to working against,” she
said. “I’m working on a level where
I can serve as a direct personal advo
cate for someone.”
Her work ranges from simply talk
ing on the phone with someone seek
ing advice to counseling a victim
minutes after the assault. “The most
difficult thing is encountering some
one right after the incident,” she said.
“Everyone reacts so differently, so it
is important to be stay open and lis
ten to what (victims) are saying.”
It is this type of service that has
been the driving force behind the
Orange County Rape Crisis Center,
which has spent 23 years helping vic
tims cope with their assaults.
This experience in the field cou
pled with current statistics has
prompted the center to double their
efforts to promote awareness of sex-
Change in ID numbers
might cause confusion
■ In March, students will
no longer be identified by
social security numbers.
BY KERRY OSSI
STAFF WRITER
Planned changes to the system that
holds all students’ records could cause
some confusion in the spring during reg
istration for fall 1998 classes.
The system change will assign every
one affiliated with the University anew
personal identification number, which
students will need to register in March.
Bob Culp, Administrative
Information Services director of
Administrative Applications, said the
change would cause some disruption no
matter when it took place and would be
worth the extra benefits the new PID
numbers would provide.
After the conversion, the student
information system will no longer
access and identify individual records by
social security numbers. By using new 9-
digit PID numbers, Culp said, adminis
The institute’s new director, Lowell
Roberts, said that, at the request of
Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd,
the emaciated institute would step back
and decide in the coming months what
role it should play.
The institute will then make the final
decision on whether to replace its 13 lost
members.
“What I’ve asked them to do is to
think of ways to identify their highest
priority needs,” Floyd said.
“We want to make sure that the prod
uct that is developed is one that can be
used at the University.”
Floyd said he didn’t have a time frame
for when he expected a report from
ual assault. “National statistics
say —and our experience backs
this up that at least between
50 and 70 percent of all sexual
violence takes place between
people who know each other,”
said Amy Ellison, the center’s
companion services coordinator.
In addition to companion ser
vices, the center —with more
than 130 volunteers has sup
port groups and community edu
cation programs to assist vic
tims. “Everything we do is on a
broad basis, and we tailor it to
the individual case,’’said
Rochelle Williams, cooridinator
of administrative services.
Ellison said date and acquain
tance rape took many forms. “It
could be an acquaintance, a
friend, a prospective date,” she
said. “Or it could be that they
were involved in a romantic rela
tionship with the person but they
didn’t want to be sexually
involved and their partner forced
the issue anyway.”
That’s why it is so important
to teach communication skills,
said Nina Yamanis, coordinator
of community education. “A lot
of people assume things from
body language, and we teach
that it’s better if it’s more direct
because then people don’t have
to assume,” she said. “You can
have that conversation before
you put yourself in a situation
where the heat is on,” she said. “It’s
all about respecting the relationship
so they don’t read the signals wrong.”
Williams said the center had pro
grams geared to those who are just
beginning to date. “We have pro
grams for middle and high school
students on dating and communica-
“There's going to be
a period of time before
students can be notified of
their new numbers.”
808 CULP
Administration Information Services
Director of Administrative Applications
trators hope to protect the privacy of
social security numbers and avoid them
being misused. *
“There’s going to be a period of time
before students can be notified of their
new numbers," he said.
“We’re working with the registrar’s
office to get the information out to stu
dents.”
Lacey Hawthorne, a student govern
ment representative on the PID Campus
Coordinating Committee, said the
University should make sure students
know about the conversion so they
would keep track of their new numbers
See PID, Page 4
A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Wednesday, November 19,1997
Volume 105, Issue 114
Lowell on the path
the institute
should take, but he
said the institute
was still commit
ted to its purpose.
He said pro
jects, such as the
LEARN N.C. pro
ject which inte
grates the Internet
with elementary
and secondary
schools should
not be abandoned.
Since his arrival
two years ago,
Executive Vice
Chancellor
ELSON FLOYD
asked the institute to
identify its highest
priority needs.
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DTH/JON GARDINER
Karen 0 Neal, coordinator of Support Group Services, is one of several who
help run the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.
tion so that they don’t end up in a
date rape situation, or so that they
can be a better friend if they know
someone who has gone through it.”
Younger students aren’t the only
ones who can benefit from these pro
grams, Williams said. “We’ve done
variations of that program at UNC
I—
jf c < .
DTH/LORRIE BRADLEY
Luke Meisner and Kai Monast enjoy a game of chess with their coffee at the Coffee Mill Roastery, one of
many restaurants that donated 10 percent of Tuesday's profits to charity.
Chancellor Michael Hooker’s has
pushed to put the University on the cut
ting edge of technology, both in terms of
research and accessibility.
John Oberlin, executive director for
Academic Technology & Networks, said
Graves’ absence wouldn’t affect
research. “His successo
r is very well qualified,” he said.
Lowell said the institute was founded
by Graves in 1989 to have a “place
where forward-thinking (ideas) about
how information technology could be
applied for instruction and learning
could be developed.”
Graves, who was first hired at the
University in 1967, left to create the
for different groups, dorm groups or
different organizations that have
asked us to come speak. Some people
have that kind of information by the
time they get to college but others
don’t,” she said.
See CRISIS CENTER, Page 4
COFFEE FOR A CAUSE
Learning Technology Research Institute.
This independent organization will
research ways to help universities use
information technologies, such as the
Internet, in teaching.
The research institute will work close
ly with COLLEGIS, a company that
provides internet services and support to
colleges across the nation.
“This is an opportunity for him to be
on the ground level of COLLEGIS,”
Floyd said. “This is a great career oppor
tunity for him.”
Graves, a mathematics professor and
professor in information and library sci
ences, took a leave of absence from
those jobs to take his new position.
f?ape / s
forgotten
BY KARA KIRK
STAFF WRfTER
Acquaintance rape, already one of society’s
least understood and most underreported prob
lems, becomes tougher to grasp when its effect
on another kind of victim is considered.
Once a person is falsely accused of rape, the
damage done to reputation and credibility can
be irreversible, said Christopher Rapp,
spokesman for the Center for the Study of
Popular Culture.
“A good example is the University of
Hawaii case involving Professor Ramdas
Lamb,” he said.
Lamb, who teaches religion at the universi
ty, was wrongly accused of rape by former stu
dent Michelle Gretzinger. The girl claimed she
was violated on several different occasions by
the professor.
Though Lamb was cleared of all charges, he
must deal with the damage done to his reputa
tion on a daily basis.
“Some students and teachers still look at
him with suspicion,” Rapp said.
National statistics show that Lamb is not
alone in his suffering. One-half of all rape alle
gations turn out to be unsubstantiated, said
Ralph Underwager, director of the Institute for
Psychological Therapies.
“There is confusion about what constitutes
rape, and any ambiguity now tends to be
resolved by saying it’s rape,” he said.
Ken Pangbom, a trial consultant who spe
cializes in sex crimes, agreed that about half of
all rape accusations turn out to be fabricated,
but he cautioned about the validity of that
number.
He said no one knows for sure how big or
small the percentages actually are.
“I have a sneaky suspicion false allegations
happen more frequently than people think,” he
said.
“At the same time, the actual percentages of
See ACCUSED, Page 4
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Business/Advertising: 962-1163
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
C 1997 DTH Publishing Corp.
Ail lights reserved.
Private firm
could run
new school
■ A plan could improve
education for students if
passed by the school board.
BY JON OSTENDORFF
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Students at the new Southern Village
Elementary School could head to class
with a lunchbox in one hand and a lap
top in the other if a proposal for a pri
vate firm to run the school passes the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of
Education.
At a press conference Tuesday, Neil
Pederson, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City
Schools superintendent, announced the
school board was considering contract
ing The Edison Project to run the new
school. The Edison Project is a private
company that specializes in reforming
public schools.
The new elementary school is sched
uled to open in May 1999 and will be
located in Southern Village develop
ment between Dogwood Acres and
Culbreth Road off U.S. 15-501.
The Edison Project, started by media
entrepreneur Christopher Whittle in
1991, has 25 partnership schools across
the nation.
Rich O’Neil, The Edison Project vice
president, said Edison’s emphasis on
progressive education has resulted in 10
to 12 percent increases, in test scores for
most of the schools that have contract
ed their services. “These are tremen
dous gains,” he said. “Most schools dis
tricts would make headline news out of
a 3 or 4 percent gain.”
O’Neil said dividing schools into
houses kindergartners to second
graders and third- to fifth-graders with
each house having 100 students and
four teachers was an important part
of the Edison plan. “Small schools
mean a better bond between student
and teacher,” he said.
O’Neil said the commitment to pro
viding the best teaching staff available
and more hours in the classroom would
help to improve the education of Edison
school students. Under the Edison
plan, students are in school for seven to
eight hours a day. This would be an
increase from the five to six hours stu
dents currently attend in Chapel Hill-
Carrboro City Schools.
He said The Edison Project’s empha
sis on technology would arm students
with the skills they need for employ
ment in the next century. “It is our belief
that students will require education at
higher levels, whether they go to college
or not,” O’Neil said.
Edison’s emphasis on technology
includes a companywide intranet link
ing of all Edison schools and providing
students with a personal computer if
See CONFERENCE, Page 4
mm
Reading is fundamental
This week’s
Senior of the
Week profile
highlights
Jennifer
Stallings, who
helps UNC
employees learn
to read with
Project Literacy. Page 2
Case closed
After an extensive investigation, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation ruled
out criminal activity in the crash of
TWA Flight 800. Page 5
Today's weather
Partly tunny;
mid 50s
Thursday: Mostly sunny
upper 50s