12
Monday, February 7, 2000
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Scott Hicks
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Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CTTY EDITOR
Board Editorials
Stop Waiting
On Jan. 24, the DTH called on UNC to work to improve fire safety
in residence halls. Instead, UNC is passing the buck on to students.
It took a fraternity fire that killed five peo
ple to get town officials to pass an ordinance
requiring sprinklers in all Greek houses. It
seems University officials are content to wait
for a few on-campus residents to die before
they do anything themselves despite a rash
of fires recently in Morrison Residence Hall.
Asa Wednesday e-mail to all campus res
idents shows, UNC would rather punish peo
ple who don’t go outside after an alarm than
prevent that fire or alarm in the first place.
Residence halls need up-to-date fire alarm
systems. UNC officials need to get off their
butts and press the N.C. General Assembly
for those safeguards before another tragedy.
And Residence Hall Association President
Murray Coleman needs to start acting like
the student advocate he was elected to be.
Prevention, Not Just Punishment
In the e-mail sent to all on-campus resi
dents, Sue Kitchen, vice chancellor for stu
dent affairs, placed the bulk of the responsi
bility for fire safety on students. She said peo
ple who didn’t leave their room when a fire
alarm went off would be charged with a mis
demeanor, fined and taken to Honor Court.
Yes, it is important that students leave their
residence halls when a fire alarm goes off.
That protects both students and firefighters.
But there’s no way to enforce it. Police and
fire departments don’t have the staff to
devote to a full search of a 1,000-student res
idence hall -and the residents who went out
side shouldn’t have to wait for them to.
And too much of the burden for reporting
stragglers stands to fall on resident assistants.
Besides, it’s narve to think that RAs are going
to turn their friends in to the police.
Increased punishment for not leaving res
idence halls might deter some students from
staying in their rooms during fire alarms.
But it won’t get to everyone. If UNC
expects students to take a more active role in
safety, it must meet them halfway.
Residence Halls Need Sprinklers
While UNC officials seem happy to drag
their feet on upgrading residence hall safety,
Chapel Hill’s fire chief says residence halls
need better fire safety equipment now.
“After a number of years of trying to edu
cate young people about fire evacuation, I’m
thoroughly convinced that all student hous
ing, including fraternity and sorority houses,
should have sprinklers,” Chapel Hill Fire
Chief Dan Jones told The News & Observer.
“The students need to be protected where
they are because they don’t leave.”
Even if students left all the time, there
would be times they couldn’t. A fire in the
hall, for example, could keep an entire suite
or floor of people trapped in their rooms.
Sprinklers will go off before an alarm and
will start putting out the flames before fire
fighters arrive, Deputy Fire Chief Robert
Bosworth told The Chapel Hill Herald.
That could have helped minimize the dan
gers of the Morrison fire Wednesday, he said.
The fire occurred behind closed doors in a
lounge, but smoke detectors and alarms are
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in the hall. Luckily, the fire didn’t spread to
students’ rooms. Sprinklers would have
erased that threat to begin with.
UNC Officials Need to Get Off Their Butts
In ajan. 24 editorial following the death of
three students at Seton Hall University, The
Daily Tar Heel called on UNC to update res
idence halls’ fire protection systems.
The DTH asked officials to push lawmak
ers for money for sprinklers and better
alarms, to cut down on false alarms and to e
mail people the official cause for any alarm.
Since then, UNC officials can’t point to a
single thing they’ve done differently.
As any public policy expert will tell you, a
tragedy like Seton Hall can spark reforms.
Hog waste lagoon spills caused lawmakers to
regulate pork farmers, for example. The
bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 sparked air
ports worldwide to tighten security.
But neither Kitchen nor interim Director
of University Housing Dean Bresciani
phoned or wrote state lawmakers about the
issue. In their defense. Kitchen pointed to
UNC’s gradual implementation of new fire
safety equipment since 1993, while Bresciani
said making some hasty lobbying efforts
would have made UNC look unprepared.
Gradual implementation is OK with air
conditioners or intellectual climate, but it’s
absurd when lives are at stake. Had Kitchen
and Bresciani pushed the issue after the
Seton Hall and Morrison fires, lawmakers
might have been more willing to speed up
that gradual plan. Though they’ve already
missed the perfect window of opportunity,
they should start lobbying lawmakers now.
Meanwhile, Bresciani has vowed to act on
the DTH’s suggestion of sending e-mail mes
sages to residents to inform them of the cause
of every fire alarm in their building. He said
Friday that he would bring the idea to RHA.
Lame Duck Coleman
Problem is, RHA has been anything but
vocal about fire safety. RHA has been quiet
in the wake of Morrison’s most recent fire.
RHA President Murray Coleman said
Thursday that Kitchen’s policy was a good
one. “This should’ve happened a long time
ago,” he said. If it should have happened a
long time ago, Murray, you should have sug
gested something a long time ago.
It’s Coleman’s job to be an advocate for
on-campus residents. He should not endorse
a policy that places the bulk of the responsi
bility for increased safety on the students.
Perhaps Coleman has been too busy plan
ning pre-Duke game pep rallies, because he
has taken no solid initiative to push for bet
ter safeguards. He told the DTH that since
the fires, he had gone to some meetings, e
mailed area governors to encourage them to
talk to RAs and area directors and tried to
get police to sponsor fire-safety programs.
Problem is, he said he had no specific
timeline. Given his meager accomplishments
thus far, it seems like all talk and no action.
We deserve better from both University
officials and RHA.
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Extra Days Won’t Benefit Education
Over the years, many folks around here
have accused officials in UNC-system
General Administration of lacking a
heart, while others have questioned \S thev
have any brains.
But with the administration’s recent insis
tence that the state’s public universities make
up the three class days lost to January’s snow,
one must naturally wonder if the folks run
ning this show have lost both simultaneously.
Following Friday’s meeting of interim
Chancellor Bill McCoy, the Student Advisory
Committee to the Chancellor and a host of
other administrators, it appears that those of
us in Chapel Hill will give up Good Friday,
and a Saturday and a Sunday of different
weekends to replace the snow days.
That was the proposal recommended to
McCoy, who will make the final decision, sub
ject to the administration’s approval, about
how best to meet their mandate that we
reschedule lost instructional time.
According to a member of the advisory
committee, McCoy first tried to tell the higher
powers that their idea was ludicrous. Atta boy,
McCoy.
That failing, he then argued that our exam
reading days, few as they may be, ought to
count as instructional days. At least someone
at the top is clued-in to reality.
After all, students use those days to study
and learn. But to no avail: The administrators’
heads were apparently still buried in snow.
Indeed, McCoy is not the bad guy in this
debacle. In fact, he took unnecessary flack for
not canceling class for the initial snowfall that
barely covered the ground. We’d be here until
June if not for his wise judgement.
Having to attend class is not, in and of
itself, so troubling. That’s why we’re here in
the first place - that’s what we all pay or get
paid for. Although many will find the days
painful, three days most certainly will not kill
even the laziest student or busiest professor.
What is so infuriating, however, is that any
one could be so damned simple-minded as to
blindly follow policy, foolishly believing that
Readers' Forum
Chapel Hill Transit
Should Reconsider
Silencing Bus Driver
TO THE EDITOR:
In response to thejan. 24 editorial
“T Am Somebody,’” I would like to
say that bus driver Robert Moore’s
cheerful morning messages made
many a passenger’s day on the G bus.
For those of you who don’t expe
rience the finer pleasures of public
transportation, here are a few anec
dotes about Robert.
When the bus pulls up to a stop
and riders see Robert, smiles wash
over the faces of those who are oth
erwise and on all other days expres
sionless. As the G bus approaches the
law school, smiles return to passen
gers’ faces when Robert recites his
morning greeting, “Good morning.
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
William Hill
ONLINE EDITOR
■
BRANDON BRISCOE
VOICE OF REASON
making up class is worth the scheduling has
sles and headaches.
Furthermore, the mandate is unbelievably
inconsiderate - students and professors alike
have other plans and things to do on week
ends.
Rest assured those decision-makers in the
administration will see no need to come into
work on Sunday when the rest of us are in
class. After all, how could they miss their reg
ular Sunday morning church service or golf
game?
And what about the support personnel that
run the University on a school day - will they
report on a weekend? Busses, food service,
and housekeeping are all needed with classes
in session.
Instead of putting the slow start and confus
ing schedules behind us, these administrators
will have us prolong the troubles.
Professors, not expecting the extra days,
have already reworked their syllabi, cutting
fat from courses and rescheduling due dates.
Most classes will be back on track long before
Good Friday even appears on the calendar.
What’s more, many professors took the
snow in stride, laughing it off and moving on
with life. Thank goodness doctorates don’t
ruin everyone.
Admittedly, many students and professors
will ignore the added days, especially if the
class can catch up during regular hours. And
only the professors with the coldest hearts will
demand the attendance of students who have
to work on weekends or who have planned to
my name is Robert, and I would like
to say good morning to all the ladies
and gentlemen on the G bus.”
To this greeting, the passengers all
recite in unison, “Good morning,
Robert.” At this point, Robert takes
time to tell passengers one of a num
ber of messages. Sometimes passen
gers are instructed to wish their
neighbors a good day. Other times,
passengers are asked to announce, “I
am somebody.”
To demonstrate just how much
Robert cares, after the dental fellow
was killed in the crosswalk on
Manning Drive, Robert reminded us
to look both ways before crossing the
street. He assured us that motorists
did not always stop at crosswalks and
that he did not want any of us to get
hurt. Can any other bus driver claim
such compassion?
I don’t think so.
Whitney Moore
WRITING COACH
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
spend the Easter weekend with their families.
It should also be mentioned that we have
an exceptionally long school year as it is. For
example, Princeton University, with two
weeks less time, manages to educate its stu
dents better than UNC, if you trust the maga
zine rankings and even if you don’t.
Time doesn’t necessarily improve the quali
ty of an education - time can be wasted. And
while the length of our calendar is an entirely
separate question, administrators should have
taken comfort in the knowledge that we aren’t
falling behind our “peer institutions” with a
measly three lost days.
Some things are simply more important
and worth worrying about than how many
days of class we attend.
Why aren’t administrators finding money
for teacher salaries, or looking for anew chan
cellor without botching the process, or reno
vating the Undergraduate Library or Student
Union on time, or preventing people from
being hit by cars?
We should have enjoyed the snow, cleaned
it up and moved on with life.
Quite frankly, following petty policy at the
cost of so much confusion and scheduling
conflict is worthless.
Of course, prone to cliches, someone in the
administration will inevitably ask in reply
whether we would prefer a doctor who pays
attention to details or one who seeks to expe
dite everything.
A good doctor is one who doesn’t order
unnecessary surgery.
And a good administrator is one who has
an inkling of common sense and who doesn’t
create additional problems. This rescheduling
nonsense will be as inconvenient as the snow
that caused it, and there will be no sledding or
snowmen or picturesque photo-ops to make jt
worthwhile.
Brandon Briscoe is a junior journalism
and mass communication major from
New Orleans, La. Reach Him with tips and
comments at brandon_briscoe@unc.edu.
I would like to urge Chapel Hill
Transit Director Robert Godding to
reverse his decision about Moore.
We should not have to request
Robert to perform his morning rou
tine, and Robert should be able to use
the microphone so that everyone on
the bus can enjoy his morning cheer.
The complaint of one passenger is not
worth such harsh decisions. Please
reconsider.
Jennifer Hoke
Second-Year Graduate Student
Physical Therapy
Ready, Set, G 0...
The Daily Tar Heel opinions page
kicks off its coverage of student elec
tions today, with the publication of
the platforms of the six candidates
for student body president. Stay
tuned for all the other contenders.
ulllf oaily (Tar Hppl
f2>
A
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