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Connerly’s visit met with student protest
BY ANGELA MERS
STAFF WRITER
Hundreds of people filled the
Student Union lobby with chants, signs
and shouts advocating affirmative
action Tuesday night before affirmative
action opponent Ward Connerly’s
speech.
The Alliance for Creating Campus
Equity and Seeking Social Justice and
Black Student Movement members
gathered outside the Union and
marched in, protesting Connerly’s anti
affirmative action views and advocating
the right of an education for all stu
dents.
“I think student input is essential,”
ACCESS member Ali Fischer said.
“The fact BSM and ACCESS are work
ing together will create an incredible
front.”
Students shouted chants of
“Education is our right, not for just the
rich and white” to a group of onlookers.
ACCESS member Tasha Venters
said it was important that people know
why they were protesting.
“The protest is not about shouting
Connerly down,” Venters said. “He has
freedom of speech, and we want to hear
what he has to say.”
The main thing is people know the
students at UNC support affirmative
action, she said.
“I hope this will get the word out that
the majority of people at UNC are for
affirmative action,” Fischer said.
Students who opposed affirmative
action said they thought it was good
that everyone got their views across.
“I think it will open up discussion
around campus about the topic,” said
See ACCESS, Page 2
Speech sheds
new light on
racial debate
BY VICKY ECKENRODE
STATE AND NATIONAL EDITOR
Ward Connerly mentioned in his
speech that his staff warned him against
speaking on college campuses, saying he
would encounter hostility they
couldn’t have been more right.
Connerly, a leader in passing
California’s anti-affirmative action mea
sure Proposition 209, spoke to a highly
polarized audience Tuesday in the
Great Hall concerning the controversy
of race-based admissions.
“I don’t know a campus in America
that isn’t practicing racial preferences
sometimes at a very obscene level,”
Connerly said.
Throwing out affirmative action poli
cies from university admissions was the
only way to level the playing field and
end unfair discriminations, Connerly
said.
“When you talk about race, invari
ably your attention is drawn to the acad
emia,” he said. “We practice race pref
erences more than any institution it
scraps out of every pore of the univer
sity."
While Connerly said he envisioned a
colorblind society, he admitted that dis
crimination and racial tension still exist
ed in society. “White people are saying
Judge to study Meadowmont case documents before issuing verdict
■ Attorney Mike Brough
said property values would
decrease on Pinehurst.
BY REYNOLDS RICHTER
STAFF WRITER
Superior Court Judge F. Gordon
Battle ended the hearing in the continu
ing case of Meadowmont developers
and the neighbors of the proposed com
plex Tuesday in Hillsborough.
Battle will review four notebooks of
testimony and several sets of site plans
on Meadowmont before issuing a ver
dict.
The Chapel Hill Town Council
approved Meadowmont, a 454-acre
mixed-use development near the Friday
Center, in 1995 after public hearings and
Not actual suffering but the hope of better things incites people to revolt.
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Freshman Lamar Mack voices his opinion outside the Great Hall on Tuesday night. A large group of opponents to Ward Connerly's appearance
on campus gathered outside the Great Hall to let their position be known.
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Ward Connerly speaks to a packed house in the Great Hall on Tuesday night.
Connerly is an avid supporter of California's Proposition 209.
there’s no racism, and black people are
saying, everywhere I go, there’s racism,”
he said. “Somewhere along the way
there’s truth.”
Connerly compared the objectives of
anti-affirmative actions to the Civil
Rights Movement of 1964.
“Why, today, do people who would
have embraced the words then,
renounce them today?” he said.
After Connerly's speech, the floor
was opened to the audience for ques
tions, releasing a flood of questions
attacking Connerly’s stance.
One audience member asked
Connerly if he felt that admission poli
cies should also disregard all special
debate. The development includes multi
family housing, a shopping center and a
school.
Attorneys for both parties completed
their arguments concerning the pro
posed shopping center and road con
necting Meadowmont to Pinehurst
Road.
Attorney Mike Brough said the
Council violated its own ordinance
when it approved an infrastructure per
mit for the Meadowmont subdivision.
The permit would allow the construc
tion of the connecting road, as well as
400 lots and water and sewer service.
An existing ordinance governing spe
cial-use permits requires that the new
developments not decrease the value of
neighboring property.
Brough said Monday two indepen
dent appraisers calculated a 10 percent
decrease in the value of several proper
Wednesday, December 3,1997
Volume 105, Issue 122
preferences.
“I’ve looked as hard as I can, and I
can’t find anything about athletic pref
erences or legacy preferences in the ’64
Civil Rights Act,” Connerly responded.
The final question of the program,
posed by Lee Gause, a UNC senior
from Wilmington, resulted in a back
and-forth exchange over the issue of
Connerly’s race.
Gause criticized the promotion of
Connerly as a “black conservatist"
rather than simply a conservative. When
Connerly retorted he was not the one
who wrote the description, Gause sup
plied a heated counter. “No, but the
ones that brought you here did.”
ties along Pinehurst Road as a result of
increased traffic from the proposed
Meadowmont connector.
“We’re simply asking the court... to
require Town Council to follow the law,”
he said.
Although Pinehurst Road currently
receives little through-traffic because it is
incomplete at one end, it could handle
7,500 cars a day, Town Attorney Ralph
Karpinos said Monday.
But Brough said the road’s maximum
capacity was inflated.
“While it was always true that it
would be planned for some extension...
it’s not 7500 cars a day,” he said.
Robert Marzulla, attorney for the
Meadowmont developers, said Brough’s
suggestion that the development would
lower property values was leading the
court on a “wild goose chase.”
Any devaluing effects of increased
Move to increase fees
for technology delayed
BY JESSICA GALAZKA
STAFF WRITER
Conflicting opinions on how best to
pay for technology kept the Chancellor’s
Committee on Student Fees from reach
ing a consensus on a proposed $26 fee
increase.
“The general consensus is that stu
dents are against it, and others are for
it,” said Roger Patterson, associate vice
chancellor for finance.
At Monday’s committee meeting,
members expressed mixed feelings
about passing the increase, which would
enable Academic Technology &
Networks to handle the increased
demand for its services.
The Student Fee Audit Committee
recommended that the chancellor not
approve the technology fee because the
state, not students, should pay for tech
nology, since it is so essential to stu
dents’ educational experience and cen
tral to the University’s mission.
“Our concern is that this fee has a
history of being increased over the past
years,” said Katherine Kraft, president
of the Graduate and Professional
Student Federation.
"It’s time to put the skids on. It’s an
objection of principle.”
Student Body President Mo Nathan
traffic would be overshadowed by the
residents’ proximity to anew school,
park and shopping center, Marzulla
said.
“If you’re on the ninth hole of a golf
course, chances are that your property
value has increased because of the golf
course being there,” he said.
Marzulla said the property concerns
of individual residents should not have
so much influence over the development
process.
“If this is the case, any time a citizen
of Chapel Hill wants to stop a school,
pool. . . or a house on a neighbor’s lot,
all he has to do is hire a property
appraiser,” he said.
On Monday Brough questioned the
Town Council’s ability to make Town
Manager Cal Horton responsible for the
creation of a plan to ease traffic in the
Pinehurst Road area.
said, “(Technology is) mission central
having benefits too important to be
(paid for by) students.”
But faculty and administrators said
they feared that if students did not pay
for increased technology needs, the N.C.
General Assembly would fail to make
up the difference.
“We should not be surprised the tech
nology fee is growing,” said John
Oberlin, executive director of ATN.
“We are on the cusp of a technological
era.”
Patterson expressed some faculty
members’ fears that the state legislature
would be unable to fund technology.
“I certainly understand students’ con
cern that the state should bear more of
the cost, but the difficulty we face is the
situation the state is in with the budget,”
he said.
Nathan and Kraft agreed students
understood the implications and were
willing to forego services to make a
political statement.
“This is a high-stakes game of chick
en,” Nathan said. “We’re willing to take
it to the next level.”
Some possible solutions were offered
to the problem.
Oberlin said he could not foresee any
See FEES, Page 2
Karpinos defended the Council’s
decision. “Our position is that there was
no such improper delegation to the man
ager,” he said.
Brough also said the amount of retail
space granted to the Village Center
exceeds the set proportions for retail
space. The special-use permit requires 60
percent of die development to be office
space, although the shopping center is
slated to contain 38 percent, he said
But Karpinos said Brough and the
town interpreted the ordinance differ
ently. Karpinos said the area in question
consisted of 70 acres, which can be
legally developed under its mixed-use
zoning.
The Town Council voted on five spe
cial-use permits for Meadowmont in
July. The two permits currently chal
lenged were not approved unanimously;
both were passed by 6-3 votes.
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Ail rights reserved.
Former UNC
police officer
files lawsuit
■ The lawsuit claims UNC
wrongfully fired C.E. Swain
and conspired against him.
BY LAURA GODWIN
MANAGING EDITOR
A former University Police officer
fired after months of controversy filed a
lawsuit Tuesday claiming the University
conspired against him.
C.E. Swain filed the suit against
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary
Services Carolyn Elfland, University
Police Maj. Jeff McCracken, Human
Resources Administrator Drake
Maynard, individually and in their
capacity as University officials, the
University, as well
as “other
unknown
University offi
cials,” seeking
compensatory
damages in excess
of SIO,OOO.
The suit claims
the University vio
lated Swain’s state
and federal consti
tutional rights,
wrongfully fired
him, discriminat
ed against him, as
well as conspired
against him.
Swain was fired
on Nov. 19 for fal-
Former University
Police Lt.
C.E SWAIN
said his suit was filed
for those scared to
speak about the
wrongdoings of UNC.
sifying his timesheet. In a letter to
Swain, McCracken wrote that Swain
conducted personal business at the
Chapel Hill News offices on Franklin
Street while still on duty. Swain denies
incorrectly reporting hours.
In a statement, Swain said he filed
his suit on behalf of University employ
ees and students who “might be scared
to speak their minds about wrongdoings
for fear of being fired or expelled.
“The lawsuit is not for me. Yes,
University officials have hurt my family,
my career and my reputation. Yes, they
fired me abruptly, cut off my pay and
threw me into the street after 10 years of
loyal service,” Swain stated. “Yes, I
want my injuries compensated and I
want my reputation back. But the law
suit is based on more important values.”
Senior University Counsel Susan
Ehringhaus said she had received the
suit, but could not comment. “I can’t
comment beyond to say I have no com
ment,” she said.
The suit claims the University retali
ated against Swain for being a “whistle
blower.”
The allegations stem from a Sept. 27
incident following a UNC home foot
ball game in which Swain cited Board
of Trustees member Billy Armfield’s 18-
year-old daughter Caroline Hancock for
underage possession of alcohol.
Swain claims University Police offi
cers, including McCracken, pressured
him to remove Hancock’s citation
because of her father’s status. Swain
said he refused to remove the citation.
The citation was removed for three
days, but police officials said it was for
investigative purposes only. Armfield
See LAWSUIT, Page 2
INIJE
UNC students all fired up
The use of
marijuana at UNC
is on the rise. One
out of six students
describes himself
as a frequent user.
The focus page is
a pictorial of a
world dominated by bongs. Page 4
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