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Daily ®ar MM © 818 104 yean of editorial freedom Serving the students and die University community since 1893 Carmichael Auditorium marred by fire early Tuesday morning ■ The fire only damaged the Carmichael Auditorium roof and injured no one. BYNAHALTOOSI UNIVERSITY EDITOR A fire that ripped through Carmichael Auditorium's layered roof early Tuesday morning caused an unde termined amount of damage as 33 fire fighters battled for hours to extinguish it. According to a press release, no one was injured in the fire, and although Carmichael’s wooden gym floor was exposed, it was not damaged by water as firefighters dug through the roof’s layers to put out flames. University Police officers guarding the scene Tuesday said at least three offices in Carmichael would need repair, partly because of the fire and partly because of the water that extinguished it. The University could not assign a dol lar amount to the roof damage as of Tuesday evening. Chapel Hill Fire Department Chief Dan Jones said the fire was apparently caused by a stray spark from welding work done on the 60,000 square-foot roof. Jones said he was uncertain whether the fire started within the roof’s layers or on top of it. All wired up JhH 1 > DTHISEAN BUSHES On Jan. 27, Hinton James Residence Hall conducted a virtual ribbon cutting to unveil the new connections made to the computers. All South Campus students are now able to access the campus network and the Internet. RHA candidate says his student focus should stave critics in Congress ■ This year, Congress created a committee to see how RHA spent its money. BY ASHLEY STEPHENSON ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR Despite Residence Hall Association efforts to increase awareness, some stu dents are still in the dark about its pur pose on campus. A year ago, current RHA President Aliena Hall’s platform emphasized mak ing students aware of RHA’s presence on campus. “I definitely think more people now know what RHA is than they have in the past,” she said. But Hall said RHA awareness did not increase as much as she hoped. “Where the fire started is exactly where the roofer showed us they were welding,” said a tired and coughing Jones. “It was a very difficult fire to fight. The roof had five decks. It’s just extremely labor intensive.” University officials believe that repairs to the roof would not take too long unless rainy weather conditions impeded the process, the release stated. Officers and firefighters arrived quick ly after students reported seeing smoke near Fetzer Gymnasium at 12:40 a.m. Officers on the scene at 1 a.m. started blocking off South Road in front of both Carmichael and Fetzer Gymnasium. Firefighters representing Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Parkwood and North Chatham County dug through layers and finally reached the interior by about 9:30 a.m., the release stated. According to the release, the layers were heavy and made mostly of metal. The firefighters also hosed a 25 square-foot trouble spot located above the lobby at the east side of the roof with gallons of water, the release stated. But by 11:30 a.m., the clean-up process had started, the fire engines and heavy hoses were gone, and the road was re-opened to traffic. Carmichael was surrounded by police ribbons warn ing people not to enter. The roof’s open section was covered with plywood and rubber sheeting. Bill Heeden, chairman of the Student Congress RHA Enhancement Committee, has spent the year try ing to figure out what RHA does and whether it is spending money responsibly. The committee attempted to examine RHA’s spending process but has scaled its investigation down to a survey. RHA President ALIENA HALL said she hadn't been able to increase awareness of RHA activities as much as she had hoped. Heeden said the committee would use a questionnaire and a phone survey to gauge students’ knowledge of the pur- When you have faults do not fear to abandon them. Confucius Wednesday, February 4,1998 Volume 105, Issue 146 The roofing project was started in June and in the hands of Howard Roofing Systems of Cary. The release stated that the project was estimated at SI.OB million. The new metal roof would have covered the old vinyl one. Howard Roofing representative Aaron Whaley stated in the release, “We were two days away from being out of here ... in terms of repairs, we’re not looking at a whole lot.” As of late Tuesday afternoon, offi cials in the Department of Athletics were unaware as to how the fire would affect the schedule of the men’s wrestling and women’s basketball teams, both of which practice and compete in Carmichael. But the women’s team practiced in Carmichael on Tuesday anyway, partly to the rhythm of a fan blowing away remnants of smoke. “If we can play there we want to stay there,” said Beth Miller, senior associate athletic director for Olympic sports. Miller said that, if necessary, Sunday’s women’s basketball game against Georgia Tech would be held in the Smith Center. Saturday’s wrestling matches against Georgia State and Virginia Tech universities could be held in Fetzer Gymnasium, she said. The decision about relocating events would be made Thursday, a release stat ed. Miller said people with offices in Carmichael would be affected most. BY KELLI BOUTIN STAFF WRITER A fter months of broken A promises and missed A JLdeadlines from administrators, cable and Internet services are mere weeks away for South Campus residents. And the candidates for stu dent body president have ideas of how to prevent delays and how to make the University more accountable in speedily spreading the ser vice throughout campus. The candidates have differ ent ideas, but they agree on one thing. “The University needs to stand by its promises. That's specifical ly true in the case of cable,” can didate Lacey Hawthorne said. After years of delays in first lay ing the cable on South Campus and then finding a contractor to put a satellite on campus, Department of University Housing officials say they will get cable up and running by March. South Campus residents also recently got the same direct Internet access through Ethernet connections in their rooms that students in Old East and Old West have had for two years. So far, 3,500 South Campus rooms have live network connec tions, Director of Networking and pose RHA serves on campus. Heeden said he could not comment on anticipated survey results, but the sur veys would paint an accurate picture of RHA’s involvement on campus. Hall said the committee’s investiga tion brought attention to RHA, but she said scrutiny regarding RHA’s use of funds was unwarranted. On-campus students currently give $9.25 of their student fees to RHA each semester. Hall said $2 pays for items like pool tables, air hockey games and vacu ums that are distributed to various resi dence halls. Programs RHA sponsors are paid for by $ 1.25 of the fee. Hall said the remaining $6 goes to the residence area to pay for enhancement items like vacuums and videocassette recorders as well as programs. Morrison Residence Hall Governor David Jernigan, who is running for ' | . - -£™-. . ■ _3%j * i If r- - zz.' - ~ jo* yyM fmm • Mi . iHiSfii w wifi?*' :- v [p ~ jflj hhb ! MBIBI § Me * mmmmb h h DTH/VICTORIA ECKENRODE A fire broke out Tuesday morning at Carmichael Auditorium, due to welding sparks. It hasn't yet been decided if events in the gym will be rescheduled. Governing by remote Student leaders had a hand in several aspects of bringing cable to campus residence halls including helping University housing officials choose the channels. The campus network will start with at least 48 channels when it comes online in March. 2 Campus originpiion (ATN-1) 22 Student Programming 3 WUNC (PBS) 33 ESPN 5 Campus origination (ATN-2) 34 USA 6 WRAL (CBS) 35 MTV 7 WTVD (ABC) 36 TNT 8 Planned program guide \ 37 EBPM2 9 WNCN(NBC) tWj 38 WTBS 10 WLFL (FOX) W 39 WGN 12 WRDC (UPN) 40 BET 13 WRAZ (WBN) 41 ABE 14 CNN 42 Nickelodeon 15 CNN Headline News 43 CNBC 16 C-SPAN 44 AMC 17 C-SPAN II 45 Family Channel 18 Discovery Channel 46 TNN 19 Weather Channel 47 Lifetime 20 Learning Channel 48 Home Team Sports 21 SCOLA 49 QVC SOURCE ACADEMIC TECHNOLOGY AND NETWORKS DTH/JAKE ZARNEGAR Communications James Gogan said. And Gogan said about 15 per cent of those connections are being used. Some North Campus residents of Old East and Old West resi dence halls have had Internet access in their rooms since fall 1996, and the University is installing wiring on Mid Campus to ensure that all campus residents have cable and Internet access by Spring 1999. This means all of the work of previous student government administrations is finally paying off. See Cable/Internet, Page 2 RHA president, said he was surprised the committee was able to draw conclu sions about RHA when no members had attended any RHA functions. Some students are questioning whether Hall’s goal of RHA awareness has been accomplished. Charlie Dietz, a junior from Charlotte and resident of Old West Residence Hall, said he was not sure of RHA’s purpose. “Are they the ones that come up with all the programs we never see?” Dietz said. “I really don’t know what they do.” Jernigan said RHA needed to fight the assumption that the group spends all of its money on pizza. “We spend money on things other than pizza,” Hall said, responding to claims that RHA abuses its funds. “We purchased movies for area offices and a Nintendo 64 system with games.” litStrlHMIS '9B The Daily Tar Heel surveyed 305 students to find out which issues they considered the most important in the upcoming student elections. This week the DTH presents the following issues: Tuesday: Food Service Wednesday: Cable B Internet Thursday: Tuition Friday: Ticket Distribution Monday: Parking And Jernigan said that feeding resi dents free pizza attracted them to pro grams in their residence halls. The committee has said low atten dance at RHA events did not warrant the amount of money spent on them, but Hall maintains that attendance at events, “seemed to improve this year.” One of RHA’s goals this year involved sponsoring academic and learning events. Hall said RHA received good student response when it brought six panels of the AIDS quilt to campus. Hall also said RHA sponsored an RHA Day in which Hall sat in the Pit and answered residents’ questions. Jernigan said increased publicity of RHA events would help RHA branch out and serve the students. He said a cul tural diversity festival, a spring semi-for- See RHA REVIEW, Page 2 News/Features/Arts/Sports: Business/ Advertising: Chapel Hill, North Carolina C 1998 DTH Publishing Carp. All rights reserved. Ohio ruling on records threatened ■ The U.S. Department of Education is using FERPA to sue two universities, BY JESSICA LUGINBUHL STAFF WRITER Freedom of information can cost. At least, that’s what the U.S. Department of Education has threat ened. The department filed suit against Miami University of Ohio and Ohio State University last week. It asked the U.S. District Court in Columbus to prevent the two schools from releasing students’ disciplinary records the Ohio Supreme Court ordered them to release. The depart ment has threatened to cut off federal funding if the schools comply. “The Department of Education has sued the schools, but the issue goes fur ther than that,” said Mike Hiestand, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center in Washington. It stems from a lawsuit filed by The Miami Student, the student newspaper at Miami University of Ohio, against the university requesting campus court records. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspaper, but the Department of Education said the rul ing violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. “What’s at stake is the integrity of Ohio’s public record law,” said Marc Mezibov, attorney for The Miami Student. “The Department of Education is basically saying ‘if you don’t play hy our rules, then we will withhold your money.’” Ohio State University joined Miami University in the dispute when The Chronicle of Higher Education request ed disciplinary records from both schools. “It’s a friendly lawsuit,” Mezibov said. “The universities basi cally wanted the Department of Education to sue them as a way to keep from opening the records.” Miami University of Ohio officials denied comment. FERPA states that schools that release “educational records” without students’ permission can be denied funding. At debate is whether disciplinary records should be considered “educational records.” The Department of Education refused to comment, but Mezibov said the amount could reach S4O million. Mark Witherspoon, president of College Media Advisers and newspaper adviser at Southern Methodist University, said he did not believe the department would cut funds. In 1993, a similar case involving the University of Georgia and its newspa per, Red and Black, opened campus courts. That time, the department did not react when the paper gained access. “Now, the Department of Education is probably embarrassed about what happened in Georgia,” said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center Hiestand said this case required close monitoring. “If a N.C. court sees a case in Ohio where there was a threat to deny funds, a judge is likely to consider that strongly,” he said. “This case could be very significant.” Jonathan Cox contributed to this story. iH* iS£ C r 4 “ s> I1 III© Hf* iPlr ! Wednesday Reach out, teach someone Senior of the Week Candis Mitchell plans to get a graduate degree in education or join Teach America. Page 5 riik Today's weather Rainy, windy; high 30s Thursday: Rainy, windy: high 30s H 9624245 962-1163
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 4, 1998, edition 1
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