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Chancellor's Condition Improves to 'Good'
Bv Melissa Williams
Staff Writer
Chancellor Michael Hooker’s health
took a turn for the better Thursday
when UNC Hospitals officials reported
an upgrade in his condition.
As of 7 p.m. Thursday, Hooker was
in “good” condition, an improvement
from the “fair” condition report he had
since at least the weekend.
Lynn Wooten, spokesman for UNC
Hospitals, said due to patient confiden
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DTH/MILLER PEARSALL
Jose Campos is reunited with his family at RDU International Airport.
Campos, who lived in Carrboro, was deported in October.
Workers
Want Boss
To Resign
UNC Housekeepers say their
management did not listen
to any of their suggestions
when hiring zone managers.
By Selina Lim
Staff Writer
UNC housekeepers chose to skip
lunch and rally for respect in front of
South Building on Thursday, calling for
their boss’s resignation and protesting
their heavy workload.
Armed with a papier-mache pig
named for Director of Housekeeping
Michael O’Brien, about 40 housekeep
ers, students and other members of
UEISO, the North Carolina Public
Service Workers Union, waved signs
and called for O’Brien’s resignation.
O’Brien began his position as director
in November 1998.
Backed by chants of “No justice, no
peace,” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Cathy
Knight has got to go,” Barbara Prear,
head of the housekeepers assocation,
said housekeepers were rallying
because Knight, a supervisor, had been
named a zone manager by O’Brien
despite housekeepers’ protests.
O’Brien refused to comment saying
that it was against University policy to
comment on employee matters.
Many housekeepers signed a petition
in March calling for Knight to be
Landfill Neighbors Say Trash Dump
Polluted Wells, Devalued Property
BY GINNY S< lABBARKASI
Staff Writer
* After years of living with the Orange
Count) 1 Regional Landfill as a neighbor,
Gertrude Nunn decided she’d had
enough.
• Her home of 44 years on Eubanks
Road has been tormented by rats and
wild dogs, and some of her neighbors
have endured contaminated well water.
“I’m feeling like I’m just tired,” Nunn
said. “It’s been such a long haul.”
The area was beautiful before the
landfill was built in 1972, but now there
tiality rules and regulations, the hospital
administration could only give out one
word condition reports.
“We’re treating the chancellor like
any other patient,” Wooten said.
Andrea Beloss, a public relations
employee at UNC Hospitals, said the
American Hospital Association defined
a “good” condition as having stable vital
signs, being conscious and having an
excellent prognosis.
Hooker took a two-month leave of
absence Saturday to battle non-
URWB . ' Drier
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DTH/CARA B RICKMAN
Carolyn Rankins (on the bullhorn), a housekeeper in Hinton James Residence Hall, participates in a protest demanding the resignation of the
Director of Housekeeping Michael 0 Brien in front of South Building on Thursday afternoon. The papier-mache pig was named for O'Brien.
demoted and presented it to O’Brien
and Associate Vice Chancellor for
Facilities Management Bruce Runberg.
Prear said O’Brien had taken the peti
tion, rolled it up and said he did not
need a petition because he hired and
fired as he chose. “Whenever we
protest, (Runberg and O’Brien) don’t lis
ten to us and just blame the workers for
Trash
A
the politics of
the landfill.
are problems with
trash along the
roads and speed
ing motorists using
the facility, she
said. “It’s a real
battle,” she said. “1
wanted to stay
here and have
something for my
children.”
Part of that battle will end Oct. 1
when the Orange County Board of
Commissioners takes control of the day
to-day operation of the landfill and a 14-
Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
Arthur Koestler
Friday, April 16, 1999
Volume 107, Issue 33
j■■ HH
u W< r ;j
p- x
Hodgkin’s lym
phoma, a form of
cancer that he was
diagnosed with in
January. He kept
performing his job
- sometimes with
pain - until he was
admitted to UNC
Hospitals last
week.
William
McCoy, the for-
Chancellor
Michael Hooker
Deportee Makes Way Home
By Matt Leclercq
Assistant City Editor
MORRISVILLE - Holding
“Welcome Home” balloons, Jose
Campos’ five children anxiously await
ed flight 580 from Atlanta on Thursday
night.
It was a moment that had taken an
agonizing six months to arrive, but the
support and gifts of hundreds of friends
and strangers alike had finally brought
their father home.
Campos was deported in October by
Immigration and Naturalization Service
agents to Ell Salvador because he missed
a deportation hearing 11 years ago.
speaking out,” Prear said. “I don’t think
O'Brien’s the right man for his position.
He doesn’t have much experience, and
he doesn’t listen to the people."
At the management’s request this
year, a committee consisting of three
housekeepers was formed to recom
mend supervisors as zone managers.
“Nobody we recommended was hired
point package designed to compensate
the landfill’s neighbors is approved.
Bonnie Norwood, who has lived near
the landfill at 8031 Sandberg Lane for 13
years, said there were unbelievable
numbers of crows, vultures and bugs
that circled the landfill.
“When the landfill moved across the
street, my water turned to mud,” said
Norwood. “As the amount of garbage
increases, so does the odor. Some of us
are from the old school where you think
you should be able to sit on your porch
See COMPENSATION, Page 6
mer UNC-system vice president for
finance who is serving as acting chan
cellor during Hooker’s absence, will
make his first appearance before the
Faculty Council today.
Hooker’s upgraded condition was not
known by several top administrators on
Thursday until a reporter from The
Daily Tar Heel contacted them.
“I’m learning about it from you,”
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Susan Kitchen said.
There is no formal system within the
He had lived in the United States for
15 years with his fiancee Daisy Diaz.
Campos fought back tears Thursday
night as he hugged his fiancee, children
and mother after departing from the
plane. “I’m happy, more than happy,”
Campos said. “What can I say but I’m
happy.”
Diaz said Campos’ return was a mir
acle. “Every single night I prayed, every
single moment of my life.”
Campos received a letter last fall
from the INS stating that he could go to
Charlotte to receive a visa granting per
manent U.S. residency.
Documents in hand, Campos made
the trip Oct. 8, but when he arrived at
by O’Brien,” Prear said. “I wonder why
we had a committee at all.”
Besides the hiring of Knight, house
keepers also protested their heavy work
load. Carolyn Rankins, a housekeeper at
Hinton James Residence Hall, said there
were only seven housekeepers working
in the 10-story building. “(Management)
thinks we are slaves,” she said.
DTH/DAVID SANDLER
Mildred Rogers owns property adjacent to the Orange County Regional
Landfill. Some residents in the area complain of tainted well water.
administration to spread word of
Hooker’s daily condition, Kitchen said.
She said since administrators were
not getting day-to-day updates regarding
Hooker’s health, she had not been
aware of the change in his condition.
“Hooker took a leave of absence so
he could concentrate on his health and
that is, in a sense, letting him be gone
from UNC so this would be possible,”
she said.
See HOOKER, Page 6
the INS office, he was arrested on the
spot and sent to El Salvador. He was
forced to leave his family behind,
including his son who has a life-threat
ening disease that requires expensive
treatment.
Campos had applied for political asy
lum in 1987 but was denied, Diaz said.
One year later, he received a deporta
tion notice but disregarded it after an
INS agent told him he could become a
legal resident through his mother, who
had just become a legal resident herself.
The crusade to bring Campos back to
Chapel Hill almost immediately united
Sec CAMPOS, Page 6
Prear said the lack of housekeepers
forced many to take an the overbearing
load. “I do my eight hours, but don’t ask
me to pick up my brother’s eight hours,”
Prear said. “I’m not my brother’s keep
er when I go to work.”
Senior Delvin Davis, a participant in
See PROTEST, Page 6
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Chapel Hill, North Carolina
© 1999 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
NATO Aims
To Destroy
Serb Units
NATO continues attacks on
Yugoslavia after mistakenly
bombing a convoy of
fleeing ethnic Albanians.
Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - A day
after its bombs hit a convoy of refugees
in Kosovo, NATO pressed ahead with
its air campaign Thursday, hitting mili
tary installations, TV transmitters and
bridges throughout Yugoslavia.
NATO expressed regret over the
“tragic accident,” saying its planes were
targeting Serb forces when they struck a
column of ethnic Albanians fleeing the
province. The bombing Wednesday left
refugees’ bodies dismembered and
burned on a Kosovo road.
Alliance jets late Thursday pounded
military targets around Montenegro in
the strongest attack on the smaller
Yugoslav republic in two weeks.
Yugoslav media also reported attacks in
Belgrade and Novi Sad.
Serb forces, meanwhile, lobbed
artillery shells over the border into
northern Albania in a running battle
with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.
International observers said Thursday
that five rebels had been killed in the
past 24 hours.
Some mortars landed close to
Albania’s border checkpoint at Morini,
where international aid workers were
operating and refugees were passing
through, said monitors from the
Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Thousands of ethnic Albanians
crossed over into Macedonia and
Albania on Thursday, fleeing what they
described as a methodical Serb push to
empty towns and villages in Kosovo.
Yugoslavia renewed its denuncia
tions of the attack on the convoy. “This
is the worst picture of a humanitarian
catastrophe brought on by the NATO
bombings,” Foreign Ministry
spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said.
Vojislav Seselj, a Serbian deputy
prime minister, accused NATO of
killing civilians on purpose. He said
NATO knew it could “accomplish noth
ing by striking military targets” and was
therefore “taking revenge by bombing
civilians. The aggressor who behaves in
this way has lost all military compass.”
In Djakovica, the main town nearest
the attack, an investigative judge said 69
bodies, mostly women, children and
elderly, had been identified so far.
But there were additional charred
bodies and body parts, making a precise
See KOSOVO, Page 6
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Bon Voyage, Eb
UNC senior Ebenezer Ekuban heads
into this weekend's
NFL Draft as the Tar
Heels' lone potential
first-round pick. The
All-ACC defensive
end had 96 tackles
and seven sacks last
year. See Page 7.
Steppin' to the Beat
The Mu Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi
Alpha Inc. will sponsor its I Ith annual
Greek Freak Stepshow and Afterparty
Saturday. See Page 2.
Today’s Weather
Mostly sunny;
Upper 70s.
Weekend: Partly cloudy
Lower 60s.
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