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iatht ®ar 11M © 104 jtm of editorial freedom SmrntAesaukmsmliuVmmty community smcc I >93 Candidates face off on STV debate ■ Runoff candidates asked each other about platform goals and campus issues. BY CHRIS HOSTETLER STAFF WRITER Student body president candidates and senior class president candidates went head-to-head Sunday in a runoff debate sponsored by Student Television and the Elections Board. The debates will be televised today at 6:30 p.m. on Cable Channel 11. Student body president candidate Lacey Hawthorne emphasized improve ment of student life as the foundation of her campaign. Opponent Reyna Walters said her experience and her relationships with students were reasons to vote for her. Brad Frederick SHMWI J asked the candi dates about the new requirement fpr freshmen in WHSHM* 81 2000 to own laptop computers. Both candidates agreed the idea was a good one but that more student input was needed. They also said the need to update computers and the cost of the requirement to students were problems. Each candidate also commented on her opponent’s campaigns. Walters criticized Hawthorne’s tuition-freeze pro gram, which would prevent tuition from being raised for students during their stays at UNC, as unre alistic. She Cwdtfjrtii debate STV 6:30 p.m. Tonight claimed the initiative would create ten sion between classes, but Hawthorne defended the idea’s feasibility. Hawthorne asked Walters how she planned to fund such proposals as keep ing campus libraries open later. Walters answered that state funding and private funding were available to the University' if its leaders looked in the right places. On the subject of private contracts with the University, Hawthorne and Walters agreed it was important to use the University’s resources but that stu dents deserved more input. Senior class president candidates Jeremy Cohen and Carrie Heise also debated each other. Cohen said his goals as senior class president would be to get the class involved in service projects and give the class more voice in student government. Heise said her administration would benefit the senior class through closer relationships with the General Alumni Association and University Career Services. Cohen said he and his running mate, See DEBATE, Page 2 Local tribe reconstructs village, struggles for official status wb life I DTH/JOHNKEDA John Blackfeather Jeffries, a member of theiOccaneechi Native Americans, sits in his workshop in Hillsborough. Jeffries is helping to buila a recreation of a traditional Occaneechi village. You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. Al Capone Gold still potential witness in Swain lawsuit BY SHARIF DURHAMS UNIVERSITY EDITOR Don Gold’s resignation will not end his involvement in the largest controver sy the department faced in his two years as chief. Attorneys still plan to depose Gold and several other University administra tors to find out if they know whether someone at UNC tried to fix a ticket written by University Police Lt. C.E. Swain. Gold announced Friday that he would retire from his 14-year career at University Police on Feb. 28, four months after he took a leave of absence. Gold took his leave after weeks of debate about how supervisors in his department handled a ticket Swain wrote Sept. 27 to Caroline Hancock, the daughter of Board of Trustees member Percentage of A's on the rise In the last 10 years, the percentage of A's awarded has surged while C's have declined. Now, three-quarters of all grades given are A's and B's. | Percentage of A’s I m 35% EH Percentage of C’s | m °" 15% ... wmmmmimmmm 0% 1 1 I — l 1 i i—i i i—i—i—l... ii ■ i ■ 'Bl 'B3 'BS 'B7 'B9 '9l '93 '95 Spr. Year '97 j SOURCE: REGISTRAR'S OFFICE A is for ‘average’ How hard is it to earn a 4.0 at UNC? Dave Moricca, a senior from Cherry Hill, N.I, attributes his 3.99 grade point average to good strategy. “It’s knowing how to work hard and also when to work hard,” said BY MARY DALRYMPLE ASSISTANT SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR Moricca, who was named to USA Today’s All-USA Academic Team last week. Others say that as impressive as Moricca’s near-flawless academic record is, it would have been unheard of years ago, when C’s were the rule and A’s the exception. An exam Monday, February 16,1998 Volume 105, Issue 153 Billy Armfield. “We intend to depose him,” Swain’s attorney Alan McSurely said Sunday. “He certainly is a key witness as to what happened in terms of the han dling of Armfield’s daugh ter’s ticket.” McSurely said his office has also sent out subpoe nas to depose Assistant Athletic Director of Former Police chief DON GOLD served as a key witness in another case against the University about 10 years ago. Operations Willie Scroggs; Ned Collett, managing director of the athletic associ ation; and Ellen Culler, assistant direc- ination of records from the University Registrar shows that times have changed. Nowadays, three-quarters of all grades given in undergraduate classes are A’s or B’s, according to the registrar. Last spring, in classes numbered below 100,38 percent of all grades were A’s, 37 percent were B’s and only 17 per cent were C’s. Eight percent were D’s or F’s. Beginning in 1981, the records show that about 25 percent of grades in such classes were A’s and 27 percent were C’s. BY AMANDA GREENE STAFF WRUER “ Waneni Hene” A Siponi winter prayer. “Great Chief of all the Land, the Skies, the Waters... Give to us the Sweet Fruits of Winter... Make our paths this winter good.” For Johii Blackfeather Jeffries, chief of the Occaneechi Band of the Siponi Nation in Hillsborough, his “sweet fruit of winter” could come in the form of a piece of paper. Jeffries’ wish for tribal recognition for “his peo ple” seems but a distant dream for now. The Occaneechi Band of the Siponi Nation was denied official state recognition Dec. 17., but Jeffries said the tribe has plans to spring back. What Blackfeather’s tribe does want, however, is a working reminder of its ancestry in its own town. So the tribe is making the dream a reality. Once completed, the tribe will have an authen tic, functional Occaneechi village on the banks of the Eno River, with huts and a sweat lodge. For the present, progress on the 15th-century huts and the brush arbor meeting site has slowed because of the less-than-fruitful winter weather. The palisade, authenticated by sharpening the tops with fire, forms the boundary of the village and gives portents of the village to come. Jeffries said building an officially recognized archaeological village site might enhance his tribe’s fight for recognition, but the reasons for the dig go tor of games operations. He said he wanted to interview the three in early March. McSurely has already interviewed Auxiliary Services Director Carolyn Elfland and acting Police Chief Jeff McCracken. The depositions should paint a clear er picture of what decisions were made in the police department, the athletic department and within University administration during the week after Swain wrote the ticket. They should also spell out whether administrators retali ated against Swain for talking about his case with local newspapers. “It is true every time we take one, we get a lot more evidence,” McSurely’s law partner Ashley Osment said. Gold served as a strong witness in a case years ago involving complaints that hiring practices at the police department Easiest, hardest classes? BSD Department Average SPA 1. Arabic 3.957 2. Health Education 3.9 3. Child Development 3.851 4. Physical Activities 3.799 5. Religious Stuffies 3.796 Department Average SPA 1. Pharmacology 2.212 2. Math 2.461 3. Latin 2.484 4. Astronomy 2.562 5. Statistics 2.591 S A ■ 4.0-3.5, B * 2.5-3.6, C*l.s-2.5, D ■ 0.6-1.6 •Higher than average grades don't necess3riN mean easier classes. Other factors, such as the number of tower-division classes offered by the department, the number of students in each class and grading policies also affect average GPA's. DTH/lAKEZARNEGAR Those figures held steady until 1987, when A’s began to surpass C’s increasing at an aver age of more than 1 percentage point per year. UNC is not the only school to see the aver age grades in many of its classes go up, caus ing some to ask whether students were work ing harder and achieving more. Some professors say grades given these days are inflated that grades are higher than student performance warrants. Others say today’s students are brighter. See GRADES, Page 2 beyond tribal papers. “This village we’re reconstructing is about my people,” he said. “We’re still living. It documents our history within.” Grants from the National Geographic Society funded the village project, and the Department of Archaeology wrote three letters in support. Jeffries said, “My God, if officials need more for recognition than that National Geographic and the National Science Foundation endorse us, I guess they want to dig up a bone with my name on it to prove I’m an Indian." At its completion in June or July the Occaneechi Village in Hillsborough will be the sec ond reconstruction of an Indian village in the state. However, Jeffries said the village had nothing to do with getting tribal recognition originally. Although Jeffries spoke vehemently about his tribe’s fight for recognition and its obstacles, he spoke little about his own background, linking his history with that of his Native-American identity. “I’ve been searching the roots of my people all my life, he said. “My grandmother always told me I was Indian, but she didn’t know what tribe because they had been scattered.” Jeffries linked most of his identity as a Native American to his hardships, as he recounted a con versation he had with a white friend. See VILLAGE, Page 2 “He certainly is a key witness as to what happened in terms of the handling of Armfield $ daughter’s ticket ALAN MCSURELY Attorney for Lt. C.E. Swain were unfair and involved racist practices. Gold, who first got a promotion under a 1987 department restructuring and then lost his promotion when the University first tried to correct its changes, testified on Edwards’ behalf, McSurely said. “All of us who knew Don in that peri od know Don is a man of principle,” McSurely said. “He fought back but in a Graduation rates of UNC-system athletes generally improving ■ Despite the overall improvement, the percentage of graduating athletes at NCCU and UNC-CH has declined. BY KARA KIRK STAFF WRITER Officials at UNC-system schools, including UNC-CH, that have suffered declines in graduation rates for student athletes are looking at ways to increase those rates. More athletes at nine of the 15 UNC-system schools are graduating, according to the 12th Annual Intercollegiate Athletic Report, which was released Friday, but six schools experienced a slight decline. “In particular, there has been a decline in the percentage of football players who graduate,” said UNC-sys tem President Molly Broad. North Carolina Central University suffered the greatest decline, with foot ball graduation rates dropping from 56 percent to 20 percent. “I’m very disap pointed,” said NCCU Chancellor Julius Chambers, who added that changes had already been suggested to try and correct the problem. “All athletes must have at least a 2.0, and they must accumulate 30 semester hours,” he said. At UNC-CH, the overall graduation rates of athletes decreased from 71.8 percent to 68.7 percent, with the rates of football players dropping from 63 percent to 57 percent. John Blanchard, director of UNC-CH’s Athletic Academic Affairs, said these numbers weren’t cause for alarm because the overall drop was minimal. Blanchard said after the report was conducted, one football player graduated, causing the per centile to rise to 62 percent. Blanchard said he hoped the num bers would continue to increase, “I expect one to three more players to graduate this semester,” he said. “That will put the See BOG, Page 2 Ntwi/Fraana/Aru/Spora: 9624243 Business/Advertising 962-1163 Chspel Hill, North Carotins C 1998 DTH Publishing Corp. Ail ngha reserved. correct way.” And because Gold plans to take a job in the private sector, he would not have to worry about any testimony that could make his superiors look bad, McSurely said. “Don, now that he’s gone, won’t have that hanging over him,” McSurely said. “Don will always tell the truth about what happened.” After Swain filed a complaint against his superiors for allegedly fixing the tick et, Gold made the initial decision that his department handled the ticket cor-. reedy. Since then, Swain fled a lawsuit in court, and two other internal University panels have found Swain has not proven his claim. “I’m looking forward to talk ing to him about what happened in front of the (Smith Center) that afternoon.” Gold was out of town Sunday and could not be reached. UNC Chancellor MICHAEL HOOKER said the BOG report on graduating athletes was skewed because it did not account for transferring students. INSIDE Anew twist on an old play With innovative touches by the director, Studio 3's 'Orestes’ turns an old story into an original tale. Page 4 Area transportation ideas A proposed plan to build a regional rail network has met with controversy over funding and necessity. Page 9 # Equalizing the Net County officials are working*with IBM to wire public housing to the Internet in Oakland, Calif. Page 2 Today's weather Cloudy, rainy, windy, low 40s Tuesday. Rainy low 50s ■
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