12
Wednesday, January 19, 2000
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Scott Hicks
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY EDITOR
Board Editorials
Silent Hatchet Job, II
Tazewell Thompson recently got UNC's "Tom Meyer Special"
fired with never a peep why. Officials need to come clean.
Secrecy, feuding, layoffs and lies seem to
be swirling behind the walls of the Center for
Dramatic Art. And it isn’t the latest produc
tion of an Arthur Miller work.
The dismissal of former drama faculty
member Tazewell Thompson just goes to
reinforce a lesson the University hasn’t
seemed to grasp yet -a little bit of openness
goes a long way in resolving personnel con
flicts. More importandy, a dose of disclosure
would acknowledge the fact that the firing of
a University employee anywhere affects
everyone -and faculty, staff and students
deserve to have a voice in the decision.
In a letter to the editor in today’s Daily Tar
Heel, Tazewell Thompson, a former faculty
member in the Department of Dramatic Art,
claims that he was terminated and has no
idea why. Thompson goes on to allege that
acting Artistic Director David Hammond
and Haymakers Repertory Company
Managing Director Mary Lee Porterfield did
n’t have the professionalism to hand him his
pink slip in person and that they spread false
rumors about him. He then claims that act
ing department Chairman Ray Dooley could
not explain to him why he had been fired.
Problem is, none could comment because
the matter is a personnel issue. Hammond
could say, though, that he had never made
false statements about Thompson.
But personnel issue or not, Thompson
deserves a full disclosure of the reasons for
his firing. And not only does he deserve the
411, other faculty and students at UNC
deserve to know the reasons as well.
All have a stake in administrative deci-
Got Ads?
State and federal judges should throw out an anti-abortion group's
challenge to election laws that make for informed voters.
When people pay to put a TV commercial
on the air, they usually want their audiences
to know who they are and what they are sell
ing. But if N.C. Right to Life has its way, a
different kind of commercial might be
appearing on TV screens in the near future.
The anti-abortion group recently filed two
lawsuits contesting a number of federal and
state rules governing political campaigns.
One specific state regulation the group wants
to eliminate requires sponsors of political ads
to identify themselves and their positions.
Right to Life contends that revealing spon
sors’ identities prevents voters from focusing
on the ads’ messages and that the public has
no right to know their identities anyway.
“(Politicians) don’t like free, robust
debate,” said Paul Stam, N.C. Right to Life’s
lawyer. “It upsets the apple cart.”
But political advertisements are not, nor
have they ever been, about an open and hon
est exchange of ideas. Like alFtelevision ads,
they want to sell the audience a product - in
this case, a political candidate.
Every other TV advertisement is required
to reveal who paid for it. Popular campaigns
Readers' Forum
Ex-Playmakers Director:
Department’s Handling
Of Firing Lacked Civility
TO THE EDITOR:
I was shocked and saddened by the
Nov. 30 notification of my termination as
the director of “The Glass Menagerie” at
Playmakers Repertory Company. No legit
imate specific reasons for my dismissal
have been supplied, either to me or my
agent, Barbara Hogenson. We remain to
this day uninformed of the reasons that
apparently warranted my termination.
Indeed, the behavior displayed by some
members of the University’s theater
department and Playmakers are not only
baffling but suspect.
It is one thing that David Hammond,
the acting artistic director, and Mary Lee
Porterfield, the managing director, did not
have the decency or civility, not to men
lion the professionalism, to personally noti
fy me of the decision. But it is a much more
than problematic issue that they proceed
ed to tell certain members of their staff and,
even worse, members of the national the
ater community that I had “withdrawn
from the project,” thereby putting the pro
duction in jeopardy.
Rob Nelson
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Matthew B. Dees
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTS EDITOR
Leigh Davis
FEATURES EDITOR
sions at UNC. Faculty form professional rela
tionships with colleagues, and firing a co
worker without rhyme or reason does little to
promote job security. Students form mentor
relationships with the faculty, giving them an
interest in the hiring and firing of professors.
Administrative politics surrounding a dis
missal is not anew issue. Tom Meyer, for
merly a vice provost of graduate studies, was
a much-admired chemistry professor let go
without any explanation to the public or to
those who benefited from his work.
Faculty issues in the drama department
seem to be particularly rampant. In addition
to Thompson, former Chairwoman Milly
Barranger got her walking papers in 1999.
In 1998, popular Professor Susanna
Rinehart told one of her classes she was fired
due to unspecified departmental politics, not
for lack of teaching skill.
.And it’s interesting that Hammond didn’t
get fired when allegations arose in 1998 that
he had sexually harassed some students.
While cleared by UNC and federal officials,
the stigma remains, and he’s still teaching.
For the sake of professionalism, the
University and the drama department should
take the lead in a longstanding problem of
administrative secrecy at UNC and remedy
Thompson’s concerns by fully and publicly
disclosing the motive for his dismissal.
If the upheaval in the drama department is
merely the unavoidable consequence of
restructuring and improving the department,
administrators should say so. Here’s hoping
they give him -and us -an explanation before
the curtain drops and the fat lady sings.
such as “Got Milk?” and “Pork: The Other
White Meat” are identified as being paid for
by those industries’ national boards. If view
ers deserve to know who pavs for milk and
pork ads, they also deserve to know who
pays for political ads. When any group,
whether it be Planned Parenthood or Right
to Life, chooses to participate in the political
process, it should do so openly and honestly.
Federal campaign finance reform efforts
designed to prevent a few rich individuals
and groups from exerting too much influence
in elections have largely failed. This makes
state regulations, such as the one Right to
Life wants to get rid of, all the more crucial.
By knowing who supports (or opposes)
candidates, voters become more informed. It
also becomes more difficult for rich, power
ful groups to hijack the electoral process.
Political campaigns have never been level
playing fields and to think that will ever
change is naive in the extreme. But by insur
ing that voters are aware of whose money is
benefiting which candidate and for what rea
son, some of the most egregious disparities
can be prevented.
This is an outright lie and a complete
contradiction of their documented printed
statements in their letters to my agent and
my directors’ union stating that I had been
terminated. When I recently arrived at the
Actors Theatre of Louisville to direct a
play, I was frequently asked what project
was so important that I would withdraw
from directing “The Glass Menagerie” and
break my contract with Playmakers. I am
angered at this unconscionable attempt to
besmirch my professional reputation
which, I am proud to say, is impeccable.
I made initial calls to Ray Dooley, the
acting head of the Department of Dramatic
Art, and Darryl Gless, senior associate
dean, for clarification of the reasons for this
decision and the manner in which it was
executed. No explanation was forthcoming
and in the case of Gless, not even a return
phone call. It is inexplicable, to say the
least, that the University of North Carolina
would countenance this kind of reckless
irresponsibility by their theater department
and Playmakers administrators.
The pre-production work on “The Glass
Menagerie” was right on schedule. It is an
understatement to say 1 was looking for
ward to directing Tennessee Williams’
beautiful and delicate play, making it the
fourth time in my career that I would have
Opinions
ah' ilatlif uar ~i\n\
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Robin Clemow
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PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Pplv-H . put a little more zip
# s. IN THAT FASTBALL, KlO,
AKJP you CAM stav here VmVS^IHH
AS LONG AS *iOU WANT.
Textbook Racket Needs to Stop
I guess now that it’s the second week of
school, maybe I should go buy some
books. It all seems worthless, because
every semester ends up falling into the same
ridiculous routine.
If you’re anything like me, you go into the
first day of class with about six registered
hours, causing you to sit in on just about any
class you can. This process is made even more
difficult by the strategy that I personally
employ, which automatically eliminates any
class before 11 a.m.
After actually getting in a class, 1 check out
the rest of the people in there with me to see
if 1 need to stay in it. If there are lots of people
with North Face gear and Croakies on one
side of the room and others who are in a lot
better shape than me on the other, I know the
course isn’t exactly going to be Economics 10
with Turchi, if you know what I mean.
So obvioush I keep the class and tell
myself that I won’t show up on Fridays having
to suck down a tub of water so I don’t Steve
Wojo-ail over the-howski.
After this time-tested method of selecting
only the most rigorous course load is complet
ed, the most heinous act of attending college
is thrust upon me: buying books.
The whole process of buying books is like
dealing with a loan shark named Guido - you
know that you are getting robbed blind, but
there really isn’t much you can do about it.
I honestly can’t think of any other form of
just blatantly taking advantage of somebody
being so socially accepted. Student Stores on
campus literally sells us a book for $24 only to
buy it back at the end of the semester for
about sl.
They then turn around and sell the exact
same book to some other chump for 24 bucks.
Sometimes it gets so maddening that the
book stores don’t even hide the fact they’re
robbing you. If you look on the inside cover,
many times you’ll see the price they bought
the book back for, leaving you on the verge of
insanity when you compare it to the loot you
are about to drop on it.
Phis leads to the question of how they even
got that buyback price anyway.
done so.
Over the last four years I have enjoyed
directing “Master Class,” “Having Our
Say,” “Cymbeline,” “The Tempest,” “As
You Like It,” “From the Mississippi Delta”
and, most recently, my own play,
“Constant Star.” All were enormous critical
and commercial successes. In fact, two of
them were strategically responsible for
helping to keep the theater financially
afloat. Was the level of this success a prob
lem for someone in the Playmakers or the
theater department’s administrations?
Playmakers, the University and the
Chapel Hill community have always
seemed like a pleasant home away-from
home for me. I looked forward to a long
and fruitful relationship with the commu
nity. lhe collaboration had always been, I
thought, an equally enriching experience
for everyone involved. ... It is unfortunate
that certain parties conspired to abruptly
put an end to my productive partnership
with Playmakers and the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Tazewell Thompson
New York City
The length rule was waived. Though he is
not directly involved in the drama depart
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
William Hill
ONLINE EDITOR
■
AMOL NAIK
FROM THE DANK CAVE
What kind of math is that machine which
scabs the books using? Is it connected to the
Pentagon where a team of scientists is
fiendishly plotting how to raise money for all
these scholarships that Student Stores is sup
posedly doling out?
Maybe if all the books didn’t cost so damn
much, so many people wouldn’t need scholar
ships.
But the helplessness doesn’t stop there.
Sometimes the powers that be don’t even give
you the option of meagerly taking $1.25 for a
paperback.
These times they decide their gargantuan
profits aren’t good enough any more, so they
publish a sixth edition to replace the $45
hardback fifth addition you bought just three
months earlier.
Don’t get me wrong - obviously, updates
are needed in classes like chemistry or biolo
gy, but in some subjects the reason for the
new publication is purely for the bank.
Seriously, do we really know that much
more about Genghis Khan than we did five
years ago?
The result of this ploy by the publishers is a
ragtag collection of works that you couldn’t
dump, ranging from a health book to an in
depth study on a clan in Macedonia that you
never read in the first place.
I don’t even know why I hold on to these
reject books, I guess I don’t want to be strand
ed the next time I need to know something as
relevant as what some sociologist thought the
role of the housewife was in 18th-century
France.
Maybe the worst thing about the whole sit-
ment’s administration, Gless said he still
tried to return Thompson’s phone calls for
days but got only busy signals.
No One in Right Mind
Would Have Had Classes
But University Did
TO THE EDITOR:
I woke up early Tuesday morning to
find the ground covered in the white pre
cipitate we call snow. I quickly turned on
my television in hopes of seeing that
school was closed. I thought for sure that
no one in they- right mind would make
30,()()() people trek through three inches of
snow and at least an inch of ice.
Well, 8 a.m. rolled around, and I called
to check the weather schedule and heard
that class was still on schedule and every
one was to report on time.
So, I went out to clean off my truck,
only to find out that I could not even pull
out of my apartment complex due to the
amount of ice on the road.
Because the bus runs in front of our
apartment I was going to wait for the bus
but then called Chapel Hill Transit, and
they said that the buses were not going to
run today. So I take it I am supposed to
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
Whitney Moore
WRITING COACH
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
uation is that there really is no way out of the
trap. Sure, there are lots of people claiming to
save you money, but it seems like they’re real
ly just a bunch of hype.
It might just be me, but I have a problem
giving out my credit card number over the
Internet to a group of people who are running
around campus in jumpsuits passing out little
rubber balls. Plus, the money you save isn’t
worth the hassle and inconvenience of waiting
for your books in the mail. (Although those
rubber balls do bounce pretty high - I think I
saw somebody skip one over the Bell Tower
the other day.)
So what do we do about this book situa
tion? The options aren’t very appetizing, so I
say that we don’t do any of them. I think that
at the end of this semester nobody should sell
back any of their books. Think about it: if
nobody sold any books back, they wouldn’t
have the profits from redistributing texts to
other students.
I say just sit on your books until next
semester, when you can either sell them back
to the man- who will be so desperate for
books that maybe he’ll pay reasonable loot -
or switch them off with somebody who needs
them and has books for your new classes.
While this plan doesn’t seem very feasible at
first because of its general lack of practicality,
reason or planning, I for one am willing to
give it a chance.
I guess that’s because last semester I only
got $4.50 back for my books -sadly, I’m not
joking - which to me is a small price to pay to
stick it to the man.
Or I guess if all else fails, we could always
rent books. Hmmm ... rent books that you
only need for a while anyway, thus saving
everybody time and money.
Nah, it just makes too much sense. I think
it’s better to lose 200 bucks every semester
either being robbed on campus or over the
Internet.
Don’t you?
Amol Naik is a junior history major from
Lumberton. Send all inquries of romance to
unc2ool @hotmail.com.
walk 10 miles to school, is that right?
Forty years from now I would be telling
my grandkids that I had to walk 10 miles in
the snow in below freezing weather to get
to school and it would not even be a lie.
1 find it hard to believe that schools such
as Duke University, Meredith College and
even N.C. Central University were closed
at least until noon if not all day, yet our
“prestigious” University decided it would
be better to risk the lives of many students
as well as faculty due to the silly notion that
the UNC prides itself on being the school
that never closes.
Now I understand that Durham and
Raleigh might have gotten more snow than
us, yet even the one to two inches that we
got gave me the chance to witness cars slip
ping and sliding in front of my apartment
building, a situation that I did not want to
put myself in.
Travis Dodson
Senior
Communications Studies
Mason Hotaling
Senior
Communications Studies
The length rule was waived.
Slip Sailii (Ear MM
1®
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