Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 30, 1998, edition 1 / Page 1
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iatlu ®ar Mtd J News/F p ■■B 105 years of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Bill to Encourage Schools To Release Court Records Bv Sharif Dirhams Editor The U.S. Congress passed legislation Tuesday intended to make it easier for students at UNC and other schools to learn about crime on their campuses. The Campus Security Act - part of the Higher Education Act which President Bill Clinton is expected to sign - is a compromise between privacy and the public’s right to know about crime. Student newspapers, including The Daily Tar Heel, have fought to require universities to hold hearings involving violent or serious offenses, such as drug DTH/DAVID SANDLER Concerned citizens march on Franklin Street on Tuesday in protest of Chapel Hill's recent move to prohibit panhandling on town streets. Several dozen people carried banners. Aggressive Panhandling Law Does Not Tan Out/ ACLU Says ByJoeMargolis Staff Writer Although the Chapel Hill Town Council memebers said they were pleased with the panhandling ordi nances passed on Monday, some say the new law may be unconstitutional. “It looks like the town tried to do the right thing in handling the panhandling codes,” said Deborah Ross, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s North Carolina affiliate. “It just didn’t quite pan out.” Chancellors Back Tuition Plan Chancellors say the tuition task force's current plan upholds the UNC system's guarantee of low tuition. By Vanessa Hastie Staff Writer Several UNC-system chancellors said they endorsed the proposal by the Board of Governors’ Tuition Policy Task Force to set a systemwide tuition policy that was released this week. The BOG released letters and state ments from the chancellors Monday The heads of the 16 schools gave gener ally positive reactions to the proposal, as well as their suggestions and recom mendations for improvement. Overall, the chancellors had only compliments for the proposed policy, the culmination of months of meetings among the task force members. After examining and reviewing the different aspects of the report, many UNC-system officials said the commit ment to low tuition, as required by the state Constitution, had been upheld. They also said the policy had acknowledged differences between insti tutions. “I think the recommendations give the institutions greater flexibility to serve students in different situations and maintain their overall policies with the constitution of North Carolina that If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness. Alexander Smith use, in public. UNC, other universities and the U.S. Department of Education have fought to keep these records and hearings closed. The new rules should allow the pub lic access to the result of any honor court hearing on a violent or serious crime. But experts said it probably would not allow access to the actual court pro ceedings. “It sounds like a lot of the concerns student judicial people around the nation had have been resolved,” said Judicial Programs Officer Margaret Barrett, who had heard a briefing on Congress’ changes. The council passed four ordinances to regulate use of public property by the homeless. The laws make it illegal to solicit money in a forcible manner and also forbid asking for money within 20 feet of a financial institution or an ATM and on any public buses, vans and shut tles. Obstruction of sidewalks and sleep ing on public benches, in parks and at bus stops is also banned. Ross said most of the laws were all right, but parts of them were vague. In the ordinance regulating aggres sive panhandling, the council used ‘close requires tuition to stay low,” said Mickey Bumim, chancellor of Elizabeth City State University. “There is a lot of flexibility, yet there is still appropriate control,” he said. Francis Borowski, chancellor of Appalachian State University, also expressed approval. “I think the centralization of tuition policy is more fruitful, because the cam puses can respond to the specific con stituencies they are serving,” he said. “I’m sure what emerges (from the poli cy) will be satisfactory.” Because the BOG had requested the responsibility of recommending and establishing the rate of tuition increases from the state General Assembly, the voices of students can be more readily represented, said Julius Chambers, chancellor of N.C. Central University. “The BOG is closer to the students, who will be affected, than legislators,” he said. Jeff Nieman, Association of Student Governments president, said students should be involved in crafting a tuition policy. He said most students endorsed the current proposal. “The most salient comment that came from student lead ership is overwhelming support,” he said. Nieman called for gradual and con sistent tuition increases instead of large, infrequent tuition increases. But in a Sept. 9 memorandum to Wednesday, September 30, 1998 Volume 106, Issue 87 University officials will review the bill when the president signs it. “If the president signs it, we’U have to look at it and review it on that level,” University legal counsel Susan Ehringhaus said. The legislation attempts to clarify confusion about federal law. Universities such as UNC have argued the the 1974 Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which was passed so universities could not give out private information about students, requires them to keep their honor court hearings closed. The See SECURITY, Page 7 Group Pans Treatment Of Homeless by Town Costume-dad marchers paraded on Franklin Street on Tuesday evening, calling on residents to question recent panhandling ordinances. By Jennifer Perkins Staff Writer About 40 people marched noisily down Franklin Street on Tuesday evening, banging pots and pans, to alert people of the problems the homeless face. Caryn O’Connell, a Food Not Bombs volunteer, said organizers wanted to prevent the homoge nization and sterilization of downtown. “We want to open the dialogue; we want people to begin talking,” O’Connell said. Marchers - clad in wigs, body paint and animal proximity’ to refer to how panhandlers may approach people. Ross said the term read too broadly. “Does that mean if somebody says, ‘no’ and you say, ‘please!’ that you force yourself on another person?” The clause prohibiting panhandling within 20 feet of banks or ATMs is too restrictive to be constitutional, she said. “That has a big problem if it’s public property within 20 feet,” Ross said. “You can’t restrict public property with buffer zones for regular speech.” Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary “I think the recommendations give the institutions greater flexibility to serve students in different situations...” Mickey Burnim Chancellor of Elizabeth City State University BOG members, the N.C. State University Student Senate said tuition increases should be the exception, not the rule. The N.C. State Student Senate mem bers said they were concerned that the “implicit assumption that tuition will increase each year” would undermine the proposed tuition policy. The chancellors’ comments form part of the final stages of the task force’s work. “I think it has been a gratifying process,” said Gary Barnes, task force chairman and the system’s vice presi dent for program assessment and public service. “We have worked on it for eight months,” he said. “There was extensive discussion about the role the BOG will play in tuition policy, and I’m pleased with the results.” Holly Neal contributed to this story. The State & National Editors can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu. A Bite Out of Crime Changes to the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act passed by the Ui. Senate on Tuesday would require private schools to disclose crimes reported to their police, and it should allow schools such as UNC to release information about some Honor Court hearings. Student Disciplinary Records ■ FERPA no longer prohibits the disclosure of the 'final results' of disciplinary proceedings involving crimes of violence or nonforcible se* offenses The only name that can be disclosed without written consent is that of the accused student and there is no affirmative obligation that this information be released. ■ Schools will be able to release to parents of students who are under die age of 21 information about alcohol- or drug-related disciplinary violations. ■ The FERPA exception which allows victims of crimes of violence to be informed of the outcome of student disciplinary hearings is expanded to include survivors of nonforcible sex offenses. Campus Crime Statistics ■ Manslaughter and arson are added to die categories schools are requited to disclose. ■ Campus Sstipimaiy referrals for alcohol, drug and weapons violations must be disclosed. ■ The reporting of 'hate crimes' is expanded. Crimes are to be reported by 'category of prejudice.' ■ The Department of Education is required to gather all disclosures made for an annual compilation that will be made available to the public ■ The definition of campus wiH be expanded to require the disdosure of crime statistics for campus food courts operated by contractors, streets and sidewalks running through and near the campus and off-campus facilities such as fraternities, sororities aid remote university facilities. SOURCE: SECURITY ON CAMPUS, INC. Waldorf said she believed the laws were constitutional. “These are carefully worded ordi nances,” Waldorf said. “And if someone wants to challenge them they are free to do so.” Reactions on Franklin Street were mixed Tuesday. “As far as regulating aggressive panhandling, I don’t have a problem,” saidjames Stevons, who was homeless and is now an activist for the homeless. “But as long as they’re just sitting on a bench with a sign not bothering any A LOVE FOR THE AGES jii si Jj DTH/MICHAEL KANAREK Paris (Travis Chamberlain) dances with Juliet (Natasha Pancholi) during Studio One's "Romeo & Juliet" rehearsal. Professor David Hammond will direct undergraduates for the first time. See story, Page 6. costumes - played instruments during the parade. Participants walked from Mallette Street to the Chapel Hill Post Office and back. Chapel Hill police escorted the group. The idea for the parade started when homeless people voiced their concerns about inadequate shelter and places to store personal belongings to Food Not Bombs volunteers. The organization provides free meals to the homeless Sundays near Internationalist Books at 405 W. Franklin St, O’Connell said. The group became concerned about the welfare of homeless people when the Chapel Hill Downtown Commission distributed fliers to Franklin Street businesses listing “do’s” and “don’ts” of how to treat the homeless, O’Connell said. Business owners were told to not give money See PARADE, Page 7 body, leave them alone.” Another man, formerly homeless, had even stronger sentiments. Kevinjohnson, 29, who is a homeless dialysis patient, said the laws didn’t mean much to him. “I’m going to keep (asking for money) as long as I need something to eat.” One shop owner said the town need tougher laws. “I think it’s a good start but does not go far enough,” said Don Johnson, See PANHANDLING, Page 7 News/Features/Arts/Sports 962-0245 Business/ Advertising 962-1163 Chapel Hill, North Carolina C 1998 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. $3,000 Lost From CAA's Cashbox CAA officers first discovered money missing 12 days before reporting the loss to University Police. By DeVona A. Brown University Editor The Carolina Athletic Association filed a report with University Police on Tuesday night after confirming that $3,000 was missing from its office in Suite B of the Student Union. CAA officials said the money, which belongs to Carolina Fever, a CAA divi sion that encourages school spirit for UNC’s sports teams, has been missing since Sept. 17. CAA officers said more money had disppeared since then. “It’s all speculation, but it was prob ably between $2,300 to $2,500 (missing on SepL 17),” said Justin Jones, Carolina Fever co-president. “That’s when (Carolina Fever fund-raising director Casey Privette) thought the previ ous treasurer had deposited it so he didn’t tell me about it” Jones told police he had noticed that money was not there after Sept. 17 as well. “I noticed Sept 23 that there was (a total of $3,000) missing from there,” he told *' tSiiphHl CAA Co-president David Cohn said he was upset the group would have to cover the loss. police, while pointing to a desk drawer. “It was taken from that cash box. (The box) itself had been locked.” CAA officials told police that about 15 people - all on the CAA cabinet - had keys to the office. Jones estimated that 15 more people could check out a key from the Union front desk, noting the key had been missing a few times when it had not been checked out A Union desk employee said no one can check out a key for organization offices without proper ID and the group president’s authorization. Before leaving each night, Union desk employees do a key inventory to make sure all keys for suite offices are accounted for. If keys are not in their designated See CAA, Page 7 Visions of Greatness Raleigh’s bid for the 2007 Pan American Games hit a landmark Tuesday when a donation pushed its fund raising to the half million mark. See Page 5. __— r Raising the Fence Security measures at the PR lot still are not completed, although officials say they will be finished by next week. The lot will be enclosed by a fence, and students will need a UNC ONE Card to access the lot. See Page 2. Redistricting Revisited The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review the 12th District, which critics say was originally drawn along racial lines. Supporters disagreed with a ruling that forced legislators to redraw it in April. See Page 6. Today’s Weather % Cloudy; Lower 80s Thursday Cloudy and rain; mid 80s.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 30, 1998, edition 1
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