12
Thursday,January 13, 2000
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Scott Hicks
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY EDITOR
Board Editorials
State Should Step Up
Gov. Jim Hunt and the N.C. General
Assembly seem intent on making North
Carolina’s public schools the best in the
nation - until you’re 18.
UNC-system President Molly Broad has
suggested that students pick up the slack left
by the state legislature, outlining a plan that
could leave them paying for capital needs
and without adequate financial aid forever.
The plan she released Friday entails three
basic steps. First, it jacks up tuition at N.C.
State University and UNC-Chapel Hill by
S2OO for the much-debated faculty pay raise.
Second, it slaps a $ 100 fee on all UNC-sys
tem students to pay for construction needs,
increasing that fee to S2OO in 2001 and to
$275 in 2002.
Last, it asks the General Assembly to pass a
$36.8 million financial aid package for already
existing aid problems - without putting any of
the money from the tuition increase into
financial aid. Misguided though it was, at least
the UNC-CH Board of Trustees’ plan would
have put 30 percent of its $1,500 tuition
increase toward financial aid.
The basic problem behind Broad’s pro
posal is that North Carolina is strapped for
money this year, while UNC schools are
falling behind in the national arena. Broad
seems to think the only solution is to shift the
financial burden to students. But the real
solution lies with the state legislature.
Hunt realizes this with the state’s public
schools. His agenda prides itself on improv
ing North Carolina’s schools by raising
freedomofspeech.com
The next time you go online to chat, you
might want to be a little more cautious about
what you discuss. Assume that anything you
“say” can and will be used against you in a
court of law.
Or can it?
That’s the problem. Laws just aren’t keep
ing up with the high speed of technological
growth, as the recent suspension of an 11th
grader at Philadelphia Friends’ Central
School shows.
The boy was suspended because of some
comments he made to his pal while chatting
on America Online’s Instant Messenger. He
made some comments that stupid people
should be killed or enslaved by the smarter
members in society.
His fellow friend in cyberspace printed out
the online conversation and took it to school,
where school administrators got a hold of it.
They decided the comments were distasteful
enough to suspend the boy who made them.
Logically, the 1 lth-grader assumed he was
having a private conversation with his pal. If
he’d known his online chat would cause his
suspension, he probably would never have
made such harsh comments in the first place.
It’s time for laws to catch up with a world
that’s becoming more and more dependent
on the Internet. AOL’s Instant Messenger
services, along with any other chat providers
Readers' Forum
Female Readers Applaud Fennell for Bringing Fraternity Problems to Light; Reader Criticizes Letter Writer for Slamming Communists
TO THE EDITOR:
Josh Fennell deserves thanks from all
the women on this and all other campuses
for his column on fraternities and gang
rape. This is a serious issue and I am
impressed that a man had enough guts to
stand up for reality. 1 first and foremost
want to congratulate Josh on a job well
done.
Second, I want to rebut some of the
arguments used to contradict Josh’s col
umn. The letter written by Angus
McDonald is crazy and lunatic. Angus, I
don’t believe that Josh meant that every
frat boy participates in gang rape or even
date rape, but the statistics definitely point
to a trend.
So you never heard the word “rape”
mentioned. How many guys are going to
brag about raping a woman? “Yeah, last
night I raped that cute girl at the party.
Aren’t I cool?” 1 bet not.
Instead, Angus, how many times have
you heard guys bragging about their “con
quests?” Don’t even try to say none. I spent
enough time around fraternities to know
that this is a topic more than frequently
addressed.
How many times have you asked some
one bragging about such an instance and
asked if he was sure that the woman was
fully consensual, not under the influence of
Rob Nelson
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 3 p.ra. - 4 p.m.
Matthew B. Dees
STATE k NATIONAL EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORT'S EDITOR
Leigh Davis
FEATURES EDITOR
teacher salaries and improving Smart Start.
He is asking the General Assembly for
$275 million to increase teacher pay and an
additional S9O million for the preschool pro
gram Smart Start, which would put its yearly
budget at S3OO million. This is a tight fiscal
year for the state legislature, right?
Hunt’s proposals have a real chance at
succeeding in the legislature because it has
decided education is a priority. Higher edu
cation in the state of North Carolina should
be no different.
Broad and other leaders must step up to
the challenge of a needy system coupled with
a tight budget and ask state lawmakers to
make the UNC system a priority now, with
out the false hope that the legislature will step
up to its responsibility sometime later.
A tuition increase is an easy fix to a com
plicated set of circumstances. But this partic
ular proposal makes no assurances that there
will not be more increases year after year
and does not require money from the tution
hike to go toward financial aid.
Broad and state lawmakers must realize
many of UNC’s problems are easily reme
died with the right funds. But setting a prece
dent of students shouldering the burden of
the system’s budget inadequacies will make
UNC schools less accessible to its residents.
They also must realize that long-term
damage of refusing poor students the oppor
tunity to attend UNC is one with far more
lasting consequences than an out-of-date
building.
on the Web, need some kind of regulation.
But that legal regulation should not step
on individual rights. Lawmakers need to
tackle the difficult legal questions of privacy
and wiretapping that the suspended boy’s
ordeal raises.
Is an online conversation the same as a
telephone conversation? Both are considered
real-time conversations, and recording what
someone says over the phone is illegal. Just
think back to how Linda Tripp really tripped
and stumbled through the legal system when
she recorded dozens of phone conversations
with Monica Lewinsky.
Shouldn’t online chats be held in the same
regard? Printing a copy of online conversa
tions, just as the suspended boy’s friend did,
is just the same as recording one’s words
over the phone.
It’s understandable for schools to be on
their toes and a little paranoid after what
happened at Columbine High School. But
the suspension of this 1 lth-grader is absurd,
for it’s based on evidence that couldn’t logi
cally be admitted into any court.
Lawmakers need to define some legal
boundaries when it comes to chatting online.
Then, when someone turns to the Internet to
blow off steam, they will know if they should
be careful of exactly what they type into
cyberspace.
alcohol or other drugs or if she struggled?
So you believe that Josh relied too hard
on “little-known completely incorrect stud
ies” instead of firsthand experience? Let
me mention that 1 have more than a few
articles written on this subject by accredit
ed doctorates on this subject. The truth is
out there - open your eyes.
If fraternities are such safe havens for
women, why then was I told by fraternity
members themselves never to go to a fra
ternity party where I did not know the
members, never to take a drink from some
one I did not know extremely well at the
party, and above all else never to go upstairs
without friends?
There are many issues concerning this
topic. Two that you should ponder are the
code of silence among fraternity members
and Rohypnol.
And a last point, you claim that you
have never heard of women being used as
sexual prey, do you not remember the let
ter that leaked out during the Take Back
the Night Week in fall 1995 stating that the
men attending the party had “a 99 percent
chance of getting beaver?” Or did that slip
your mind?
I would really love to know that every
fraternity member is an angel, but 1 know
differently, as do many of the women on
the campus and others. Before any of you
Opinions
dlir Both} (Far tini
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GHRISTITIAS FUTURE?
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ANOTHER PAT Mxsei /\ BUT XT's Noj A \
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Students, Not State, Should Pay
Last semester, the proposal to increase
UNC tuition met with some predictable
hostility from the student body.
Some of the most commonly raised objec
tions to the plan were that it might restrict
access to University education for poorer stu
dents and that the state constitution did not
support the raise.
But the plan was still approved. Is this
because the Board of Trustees doesn’t care
about poor students or doesn’t understand the
burden of the additional cost? Is it because the
board doesn’t care about North Carolina’s his
toric and constitutional commitment to pro
viding a university education at a low cost to
its residents?
Although some students have suggested
that these accusations might be true, I doubt
that the BOT, a group of men and women
committed to spending their valuable time
serving the University, is unaware of these
issues or uncommitted to these ideals.
They do, however, have a perspective that
most college students do not. It is easy for us,
as students, to believe that the state should
support our pursuit of education by paying for
it.
What the BOT considers, which many of
us might neglect to incorporate into our own
formulations, is that somebody, somewhere,
has to pay the state to pay for our education.
It is also easy for us, as students, to believe
that taxing people and companies with plenty
of money will generate enough revenue to
support our education -and those folks won’t
fee! the pinch a bit.
Now, I’m not arguing about whether or not
RJ. Reynolds should have to pay immense
taxes - it already does. But the fact is that
most of the state’s revenue comes not from
RJ. Reynolds or from wealthy people, but
from people like our parents, people working
frat boys claim that accredited studies are
ludicrous, open your eyes to the reality
surrounding them. You’ll be surprised.
Even though you might not hear of the
rapes themselves by the women tortured
mentally, emotionally and physically, do
not dare say that it does not occur. Perhaps
iheir voices are not loud enough yet, but
they are through others like me.
As for all those women who know the
truth out there, know that there are people
here that do not stand for this and you’re
not alone.
Caroline Taylor Crawford
Chapel Hill
The length rule was waived.
TO THE EDITOR:
Josh Fennell’s Dec. 3 column was just
that: a column. He stated his own opinion
about how conformist organizations affect
the minds of those who join them. He cited
several sources on group mentality and
how this affects the behavior of people.
Those who belong to fraternities act in
accordance with those around them.
The conformity of such organizations is
seen when viewing how members act
toward non-Greeks. 1 am sure that I am
not the only person to be ignored or
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
William Hill
ONLINE EDITOR
TARA ROBBINS
SMALL PRINT
in N.C. factories and restaurants to take care
of their own families on a yearly average of
$28,000 per household, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau in 1999.
Those are the people that should be
allowed to keep their money and, if they
want, to use it to help pay part of the tuition at
a school of their choice for their own kids.
If tuition at a particular school goes up,
those who want to invest in their or their chil
dren’s education at that school can make deci
sions about whether and how to pay for it.
If the state takes the money and gives it to
UNC, though, everyone pays the state to sup
port UNC - even those struggling at the same
time to pay tuition at other schools better suit
ed to their needs.
(Even so, I probably wouldn’t object as
much to supporting tuition through taxes if all
of the money raised actually went to tuition,
but there are administrative costs to gathering
and redistributing that money each year.)
The argument for supporting education
through taxes is that an educated society ben
efits everyone, and I agree that that is true.
So, pay me well when I start to contribute
to society using my education. For now, 1
have the privilege of studying under gifted
professors and accessing the vast resources of
the library, and I don’t have any obligation to
looked down upon for not being part of the
Greek scene. If you do not conform to
their ideals of beauty and popularity, then
you are not worthy of their time.
If a fraternity pledge has his own opin
ions, they are quickly beaten out of him in
cult riluals also known as “hazing.” During
these rituals of degradation, these people
learn that they must agree with the group
or face the terrible fate of being an outcast.
Once they learn how to conform to frater
nity ideals, they are unable to think for
themselves. When this occurs, it paves the
way for situations that Fennell discusses.
David Fleming stated in his Dec. fi
Viewpoints column that “a fraternity is a
collection of young men who have 'com
mon goals and aspirations’ (Newton I).
Baker) and choose to belong to an institu
tion that has proven to develop healthy,
productive and often successful individuals
in society.” Though this is the ideology
behind the original conception of fraterni
ties, today this is largely untrue. These
organizations, for the most part, promul
gate attitudes of superiority just because of
social class. Those who belong to fraterni
ties think that they are better than non-
Greeks because of their sport-utility vehi
cles, huge parties and Greek friends.
Of course, anyone with any semblance
of a mind knows that this is false.
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
Whitney Moore
WRITING COACH
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
share my knowledge in any specific forum.
If the state were to pay for my education, it
would have more of a right to tell me what to
do with it. I am willing to pay for the privilege
of pursuing my own interests, and 1 don’t
think anyone else should have to pay for that
privilege for me.
Instead, I expect to be paid fairly w hen 1
contribute to society by teaching and writing
and putting my education to use.
Although this discussion has been framed
as if the tuition increase were directed against
poor students - because that $1,500 is more
to a poor student than to a wealthy one- I
don’t think those categories do justice to the
nuances of the situation.
1 am working in the neighborhood of 32
hours a week to support myself, and taking
loans in addition to pay my own (out-of-state)
tuition.
1 suppose the fact that my only income
comes from my part-time job makes me pret
ty poor. I am not saying this to appeal to your
sympathies (though donations, of course, can
be left in my mailbox in Donovan Lounge,
Greenlaw Hall).
I mean to point out (seriously) that if it
costs more to educate me than my current
tuition and the University endowment can
support, 1 understand what a tuition increase
means in dollars, cents and hours spent work
ing instead of studying.
But I also believe very strongly that my
education should be more valuable to me
than to some family in eastern North
Carolina, and that for that reason, I should be
willing to pay for it before asking them to do
so for me.
Tara Robbins is a graduate student in the
Department of English from Millville, N.J.
Reach her at trobbins@unc.edu.
Apparently fraternities choose to “over
look” the real merits of a person and
instead focus on material wealth and super
ficial characteristics.
Kristin Metulat
Freshman
Undecided
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to respond to Angus
McDonald's Dec. (i letter in ’The Daily Tar
Heel. How dare he suggest that Josh
Fennell has a communist upbringing! No
communist I know of would dare write
such a caustic article for the sole purpose of
pissing people off. Every communist I
know of is way too busy fighting capitalism
to write such a lengthy article, anyway.
Angus, if you are so angry at blatant
stereotypes and name-calling aimed
towards fraternities, why the hell in the
same letter trash the communist party?
Aren’t you doing the same thing you are
accusing Fennell of? What did the commu
nists ever do to you? Did they put up a wall
in your town? By the way, Fennell left “Big
Business” out of his list of criminals.
Richard Conrad Zink
Third-Year Graduate Student
Biostatistics
uhp ilmly (Ear Hppl
I
A
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