12A
Saturday, August 14, 1999
Ashley Stephenson
EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY/STATE Si NATIONAL EDITOR
Board Editorials
On the Record
State law says people need not provide a reason for requesting
public records, but chances are agencies will ask foj; one.
JULY 8 - The results of a recent test of
North Carolina’s public-records access law
revealed that residents could expect to be
denied one-third of the time when requesting
a city or county public record.
In addition, the study showed that law
enforcement agencies had a higher refusal
rate and often violated state law by asking
the requester to identify themselves.
State law explicitly states: “No person
requesting to inspect and examine public
records, or to obtain copies thereof, shall be
required to disclose the purpose or motive
for the request.”
The investigation was sponsored by the
N.C. Press Association and the N.C.
Associated Press News Council and involved
reporters from across the state who present
ed themselves as average residents seeking
access to records that had been deemed pub
lic by the state.
Most county and city agencies complied
Vwth the requests and reports stated that
some were very pleasant to deal with.
However, reporters ran into the most trou
ble when requesting records from law
enforcement officials.
Some were pressured into revealing their
identity, which is against state law. Others
were told that the records were confidential.
One reporter was threatened with being put
in jail and two others had license-tag checks
run on their cars.
This disregard for state law raises real
questions when considering the fitness of the
men and women that are expected to protect
residents’ rights.
It is alarming that police officers, sheriff’s
deputies and, in some cases, sheriffs were not
aware of the law or did not care about the
law.
Ashley Stephenson Editorial Notebook
Tradition Lost
The University's recent decision to integrate Old East and Old West
residence halls disrespects a healthy tradition at UNC.
MAY 20 - Two hundred and seven years
of tradition, community and brotherhood
have fallen by the wayside all in the name of
equality. The decision to make Old East and
Old West residence halls coed starting in fall
of 2000, while noble in its goal, will do the
University more hurt than help.
If women had gotten the short end of the
stick on housing, the change would make
more sense. But this is not the case. Female
students are not all stuck in cramped rooms
far from campus. Instead, women enjoy sev
eral residence halls with good locations and
spacious rooms with sinks. Women are not
denied the opportunity to live in some of the
best residence halls this University has to
offer.
The issue is not about the oppression of
women; it is about honoring the brotherhood
of men.
The issue is about showing respect for a
longstanding tradition, and there is some
thing to be said for that. Residents of Old
East and Old West have likened themselves
to a fraternity. This sense of brotherhood will
clearly be diluted if half of each residence
hall is filled with women. This sort of bond
ing is what makes these halls so special, per
haps another reason why Old East and Old
West house some of the most coveted rooms
on campus.
Women do not want to live in Old East
and Old West for the honor and prestige.
They want the hardwood floors and unbeat
able proximity to Franklin Street and cam
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It is the equivalent of a speeder arguing to
a state trooper that he or she was not aware
of the speed limit or did not care, therefore
the law does not apply to them.
The result is that government gets stronger
and residents are made weaker.
N.C.’s public-access statute was created to
provide residents with information about a
number of governmental activities.
The statute ensures that individuals mov
ing to new areas can see crime reports from
the neighborhood they are moving to.
In addition, the statute makes information
available about property taxes, county and
city fees and the salaries of officials that were
elected by the people.
It is time for law-enforcement and other
public servants to realize that just because
they tote a badge, carry a gun or hold a high
ranking position they are not above the law.
In our system of government residents are
forced to comply with the law whether they
agree with it or not. The process provides
legal recourse but requires initial compli
ance.
Law enforcement and public officials
should be forced to adhere to the same set of
rules.
After being denied access to a pistol-per
mit application a reporter told Orange
County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass what the
public-records access statute stated.
Pendergrass replied to the reporter, “Don’t
you tell me what the law is. I know what it is.
I’m the sheriff.”
It is this pervasive attitude that should
alarm and outrage residents.
Clearly, the message that a statement like
this imparts is that law-enforcement view
their role as that of law maker and not law
enforcer.
pus. Sure most anybody would jump at the
chance to live there, but in the trade-off a
timeless sense of nostalgia and an element of
UNC’s history is destroyed.
But regardless of sentiment against the
change, Old East and Old West will open
their doors to women in 2000. In the mean
time the University needs to tie up the loose
ends surrounding the move.
Issues like what floors women will live on
and what will happen to current male resi
dents preferring a single-sex hall need to be
resolved soon. Important decisions by
University administrators at this stage of the
game could mean victory for Old East and
Old West residents and for women itching to
live there.
There is a way to appease the women who
think they are missing out on tradition while
maintaining the community that exists in the
halls. If housing officials required all women
to live in one of the halls, as opposed to mak
ing each hall half-full of women, everyone
would win.
Men would continue to enjoy the sense of
community and tradition that exists in the
halls, even if it meant only having one hall.
Women would be allowed to enjoy the hard
wood floors and ideal location while living in
a place where history runs deep.
But for 207 years UNC men have shared
in the tradition of living in the first residence
halls at the oldest state university in the coun
try. It is their tradition. Letting women live
there will not make it theirs too.
Editorial
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Stacey Hartley
COPY DESK EDTrOR
Lura Forcum
COPY DESK EDITOR
Chapel Hill, We Have a Problem
Get off the streets.
That’s right, NASA, we’re talking to
you.
It’s millennium and everyone is talk
ing about the future. When people talk about
the future they talk about space. And that is the
problem.
People, do you every really think we are
going to live in space? Lies. This is what NASA
has spoon-fed you since day one. Political
what? - propaganda.
Even Hollywood has jumped into the mix.
Countless movies focus on either going to space
or going there to stop something from space
that will kill us all. Don’t you see? Armageddon,
Independence Day, Deep Impact - what do
they all have in common? They are all about
something hurdling down from space to
destroy our planet.
And NASA continues to tempt the Earth’s
fate. They keep sending people to the moon
time and time again. Astronauts are always
building useless contraptions with weird names.
We personally consider it sacrilege to use
Apollo Creed’s name on the side of a space
ship. Honor my ass.
Children are used as a pawn in this societal
ploy to embrace space and NASA. All kids are
taught to grow up to want to be astronauts. The
only kids who escape the ruse are the ones who
wear glasses - everyone knows you need to
have good vision to go into space.
The ploy is carried even further when NASA
created that ridiculous Space Camp. The camp
itself is bad enough, but then there was the
movie. Kids get shot into space unexpectedly,
their leader Kate Capshaw gets knocked out by
Readers' Forum
N.C. Students Cannot
Be ‘Let Down’ By
State Efforts for Bond
TO THE EDITOR:
During the final weeks of the 1999
General Assembly, the staggering
capital needs of the University of
North Carolina dominated much of
the discussion. Legislators in both
houses worked diligently to respond
to the sobering report that emerged
from a comprehensive study deliv
ered to the General Assembly in mid-
April as called for in a 1997 special
provision-of the condition and ade
quacy of the capital facilities on the 16
UNC campuses.
Prepared by consultant Eva Klein,
the report documented an enormous
backlog of deferred maintenance, the
pervasive need to replace or retrofit
outdated science facilities, and the
need for new and renovated buildings
to manage unprecedented enrollment
growth over the next decade.
As called for by the legislature, the
report also included a detailed capital
plan to address identified shortcom
ings. The ten-year tally of document
ed needs was $6.9 billion, to be
financed through a combination of
increased state funding, new
University-based funding, and
increased private giving.
The’ House and Senate were
unable to agree on a financing
approach in this session, but they did
reach consensus on two fundamental
issues.
First, they came to agreement on
the reality of the needs and the imper
ative to protect the state’s capital
investment in the University.
Both houses displayed a genuine
Cara Brickman
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Thomas Ausman
~ DESIGN EDITOR
■
ASHLEY STEPHENSON &
CARA BRICKMAN
GUEST COLUMNISTS
oxygen tanks, and the teen crew brings the ship
down safely all by themselves. Hooray for kids!
Hooray for NASA!
Nonsense, we tell you. If it was up to us, Kate
Capshaw would never get another movie role
after Space Camp ... ever.
Listen up, starkids. There are three good
things about space.
One, those satellites floating around bring
kids like us sweet, sweet cable.
Second is space ice cream, perhaps the great
est invention since Flowbee.
Three is David Bowie.. .mmm, space oddity.
But that is it.
UNC students, we put it to you. The inven
tion of NASA and all its endeavors are part of a
political ploy to make all humans live in space
because the Earth will blow up at the turn of the
century.
You think all these wacky words like millen
nium and Y2K don’t mean something? It’s no
accident John Glenn went up in space again.
NASA wanted to see if old people would sur
vive space, since Florida will also be destroyed
desire to help the University, even
though they differed sharply on the
appropriate size and timing of that
support. And second, everyone
acknowledged that business as usual
relying on money left over at the end
of the session to fund capital projects
could not begin to address problems
of this magnitude.
These two important outgrowths of
the Klein report give the General
Assembly and the University a solid
basis for moving forward to find a
workable solution.
In light of these widely held con
clusions, it is all the more disappoint
ing that the urgent needs of the
University were overshadowed by
political pressures related to the 2000
elections.
Faced with Klein’s findings, State
Treasurer Harlan Boyles proposed a
financing strategy that would have
used non-voted bonds to provide a
substantial, immediate infusion of
funds to begin implementing the
University’s capital plan.
The approach was sound, fiscally
prudent, and unquestionably within
the authority of the General
Assembly. But while two-thirds of all
public debt in North Carolina is
issued without a vote, the political
issue of requiring a vote of the people
on the proposed UNC bonds - par
ticularly following the failed Wake
County school bond referendum and
the ensuing threats of negative cam
paign ads in the May 2000 primaries
- polarized this legislature.
All efforts at compromise failed.
We are grateful to Treasurer Boyles
for lending his expertise and counsel
and for the extraordinary commit
ment demonstrated by the leadership
of both the Senate and the House.
Allison Burns
ONLINE EDITOR
Ted Basladynski
GRAPHICS EDITOR
when the Earth detonates.
It all fits together.
The earth is going to explode and, conve
niently, NASA will come to our rescue. Oh, we
can live on Mars or on a spaceship or on all the
other planets that are completely inhabitable
for humans. Thanks, NASA. Our heroes,
indeed.
Does it disturb no one that we are actually
paying NASA to kill us?
Everyone gets all jacked up whenever a shut
tle rockets into space. But, that’s just because
people naturally get excited about any event
preceded by a countdown. You could tell some
one that he or she has ten seconds to live and
they would die happy chanting, “10, 9, 8...”
Let’s all go down with our Mother planet.
Make a list of things you would like to accom
plish before we all go up in smoke.
For instance:
1. Shower
2. Get laid ... twice.
3. Rinse, repeat
Well, that’s about it for us, but feel free to
establish your own goals.
You can reach for the stars, young bucka
roos, but don’t go up there and live with them
just to escape annihilation.
Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to
be astronauts. Thank you, good night.
Ashley Stephenson and Cara Brickman are
senior journalism and mass communication
majors from Charlotte, except Cara, who
majors in English and is from Indian Trail.
Reach them at ashley2l@email.unc.edu. Their
reign of terror is over.
We also are heartened by the
countless University supporters
throughout North Carolina-trustees,
students and parents, alumni, busi
ness and community leaders, editori
al writers, and others-who in recent
days urged legislators not to adjourn
without addressing UNC’s most crit
ical needs for this two-year budget
period.
But in the end, too many legisla
tors could not set aside political dif
ferences about long-term financing
approaches in order to agree on a
short-term solution for the current
budget cycle.
Asa University and as a state, what
do we now say to the middle school
and high school students of North
Carolina?
They represent the future of this
state. They deserve an opportunity to
gain an affordable university educa
tion that will prepare them for 215-
century jobs.
And without a well-educated work
force, how can North Carolina hope
to sustain the vigorous economic
growth it has enjoyed over the past
two decades?
For family after family, a UNC
education has provided the ticket to a
better life.
Each and every week, I hear these
heartfelt accounts in communities all
across North Carolina. I hear from
students on our campuses-students
who are the first in their families to
attend a university.
They are full of promise and
inspired by the opportunity to attend
a UNC institution. This state cannot
let them down.
Molly Broad
•UNC-System President
Sally (Tar Mrrl
©
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