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Police
Roundup
University
Sunday, Feb. 13
■ A 1999 Nissan Altima crashed
into a stone wall on Pittsboro Road,
according to police reports.
The driver said she was traveling at
45 mph in a 25 mph zone when a car
cut her off. She panicked and swerved
to the left, reports state.
The vehicle ran off the road and con
tinued 35 feet onto the sidewalk before
hitting a stone wall.
The police found the damaged car
abandoned with the driver and passen
ger side airbags deployed.
The driver told police that she left
the accident scene and went to
Kingswood Apartments on N.C. 54 to
use the phone.
Reports state damage to the vehicle
was estimated at $3,000, and damage to
the wall was an estimated $750.
There were no reported injuries,
reports state.
Saturday, Feb. 12
■ A UNC student reported that her
wallet was stolen at the Smith Center
during the UNC-YVake Forest basketball
game.
The student left her wallet unattended
in Section 111 and noticed the wallet was
missing when she returned to her seat
According to police reports, three
credit cards, a UNC ONE Card, a key
chain and $45 in cash were in the wallet.
Friday, Feb. 11
■ An undetermined amount of cash
was stolen from a Taylor Hall vending
machine, police reports said. The esti
mated damage to the machine was S2OO.
Thursday, Feb. 10
■ A UNC student reported that she
lost her wallet and keys at the Chase
Hall bus stop at 12:45 p.m.
An anonymous woman called her
later that evening and made arrange
ments to return the wallet and keys but
was not heard from again, police reports
state.
The student said she believed that
the call was made at the South Campus
Mini Mart because the store number
was displayed on her caller ID machine
on Thursday afternoon.
She said the call from the Mini Mart
might have been made by her room
mate and not the anonymous woman,
reports state.
Police have advised the victim to
have her locks changed or rekeyed for
her own protection.
City
Saturday, Feb. 12
■ Chapel Hill police officers arrest
ed a man on fugitive charges after
pulling him over for speeding at the cor
ner of Airport Road and Estes Drive.
They then discovered he was wanted
for drug smuggling in another state.
Ruiz Milagros of 2833 N.C. 87 South
in Graham was taken to into custody
after police served fugitive warrants on
him.
The warrants were served for inci
dent that took place in New York.
Reports stated that Milagros was
wanted for bringing marijuana into the
country fromjamaica.
He is being held in Orange County
Jail in Hillsborough, pending extradition.
■ Carrboro police arrested a man
after charging him with assault on a
female.
Ronald James Holland, 36, of 101
Wesley St., was arrested around 2:40
p.m. after police received a phone call
regarding the assault, police reports state.
A juvenile made the call and told
police that Holland was attacking his
mother.
Reports state that Holland hit the
woman, and that she retaliated by biting
and scratching Holland’s hand.
When police went to the scene,
Holland’s shirt was ripped. Holland said
the woman chased him with a knife. The
woman was not charged in the incident.
Friday, Feb. 11
■ Thousands of dollars worth of
stereo and communication equipment
were stolen from two cars at 1009 S.
Columbia St. around 2:30 p.m.
The first car, a Hyundai Scoupe, was
missing a set of Boston speakers, a
Kenwood stereo and a Motorola cellu
lar phone.
The total value of the items missing
from the Scoop was $650.
The second car, a Toyota Celica, was
missing a set of Pioneer speakers, a
Kicker subwoofer, a Sony compact disc
player, a TXM crossover, aJVC ampli
fier and a radar detector.
The total value of the items missing
from the Celica was $1,470.
Windows were broken out of both of
the cars. No arrests have been made in
either break-in.
NCCBI to Examine System's Capital Plan
By Jonathan Moseley
Staff Writer
In an effort to ensure sound fiscal pol
icy, the Board of Governors recently
voted to comply with UNC-system
President Molly Broad’s recommenda
tion to delay action on a proposed $275
capital fee.
In a last-minute move, Broad recom
mended Thursday that the board put off
considering the fee so that members
would have time to collaborate with the
N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry,
a business lobbyist group.
Marchers Send Gifts
In Sanctions Protest
SURGE activists say U.N.
sanctions on Iraq prevent
them from sending supplies
directly to the country.
By Enyonam Kpeglo
Staff Writer
Waving an American flag, a proces
sion of protesters marched Monday
bearing love gifts for Iraqi children,
demanding a lift of U.N. economic sanc
tions on Iraq.
Nine student activists carrying
“Valentine’s Day Love Packages” for
Iraqi children led the way from the Pit
to the Franklin Street post office in a
protest organized by Students United
for a Responsible Global Environment.
This is the second year that the protest
has been held on Valentine’s Day.
Harr)' Halpin, one of SURGE’S coor
dinators, said the packages consisted of
needed clothing, medical and school
supplies. But since the sanctions prohibit
packages weighing more than 12 ounces
from entering Iraq, he said the packages
would be re-addressed and sent to politi
cians. “Since our packages cannot be
directly sent to Iraq, we will send them
to several political leaders on the state
and national level,” he said. “This will
demonstrate that we, the American peo
ple, are not totally apathetic to our gov
ernment’s murderous foreign policy."
Teachers Deny Grade Inflation
Professor Darryl Gless says
his class grade distribution
has remained consistent
for the last several years.
By Will Folshee
Staff Writer
Faculty members have shown little
concern over a report demonstrating
grade inflation, claiming higher grade
point averages are indicative of increas
ing student quality at UNC.
The Educational Policy Committee
released a report Feb. 2 that stated As
and Bs accounted for 77.2 percent of all
letter grades awarded to UNC students
in spring 1999, compared to 66.4 per
cent in spring 1987.
The committee deals with education
al policies and their implementation.
Economics Professor John Akin said
his grade distribution had not drastical
ly changed over the years.
“I’m not teaching many undergrad
classes, mostly majors in this field,” he
said.
“It’s a complex question worth study
ing, but there is no simple answer.”
Chemistry Professor Don Jicha said
his students’ grades had not changed in
more than 10 years. “I check the grade
distribution and GPA of all my classes
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Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., shakes hands with Dean Smith after they
announce the proposal of anew bill against gambling on college sports.
Broad originally proposed the capital
fee in January as part of her budget rec
ommendation to the BOG.
The fee, which was slated to go
before the BOG’s budget and finance
committee last week, would have
applied all UNC-system students and
would be used to pay for capital
improvements on each of the 16 cam
puses.
“(The BOG and the NCCBI) decid
ed that they would just put off the deci
sion rather than try to throw everything
suddenly into concrete,” said Phil
Phillips, chairman of the NCCBI.
Stanley Richards, a member of
SURGE, said regardless of the size of
the march, he hoped the effort to send
care packages to Iraq would make an
impact on legislators’ stand regarding
the sanctions.
“Hopefully the president and repre
sentatives will see the packages as a
wake-up call,” he said. “It should not be
a war against the children.”
Jamie McCarty, a freshman from
Charlotte, said he was passionate about
the effort to send supplies to Iraqi chil
dren. “(The sanctions) are only hurting
Iraqi citizens," he said. “Children are
dying because they lack medicine,
clothes and basic supplies.”
Rania Masri, Iraq Action Coalition
coordinator, made a plea to the small
crowd from steps of the post office to lift
the economic sanctions. She said she
was disappointed that Rep. David Price,
D-N.C., and Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-
N.C., continued to support the econom
ic sanctions against Iraq.
“Any U.S. administrator who w ould
knowingly destroy a nation in the name
of human rights is engaging in a
hypocrisy,” she said. “The media only
mentions Saddam Hussein in an effort
to convince many Americans that Iraq
is a threat. How'ever, U.S. weapons
inspectors do not agree.”
However, senior Ramzi Dabbagh,
whose mother is from Iraq, said he did
See SURGE, Page 9
every year,” he said. “There are slight
changes depending in the quality of stu
dents in the class.”
Jicha said grade inflation did exist at
UNC, but that it did not happen in his
class.
“The quality of education in the
chemistry department is the same as 10
years ago,” he said. “The number of
bright students have increased and they
are better prepared.”
Darryl Gless, professor of English
and associate dean of humanities, said
he had not made any changes in the
grading patterns of his classes and the
distributions had been the same since
1980.
“I have always gotten really good stu
dents at Carolina,” he said.
Gless, who teaches an upper-level
Shakespeare course, said he was positive
that the quality of students at UNC had
continuously improved.
The report also stated that UNC’s
grade inflation was part of a national
trend affecting such prominent universi
ties as Harvard and Princeton.
Professors are not sure how to
approach the problem of grade inflation.
Despite several proposed solutions, pro
fessors remain split about the best
method of addressing the problem.
Several professors had mixed
responses to grading on an adjusted
scale to reflect students’ true aptitude.
News
The two groups routinely cooperate
on educational issues.
Phillips said they planned to use the
time generated by the delay to work
toward solutions to the BOG’s capital
funding shortage.
“The NCCBI shares (the BOG’s)
commitment to assisting university and
community colleges,” said Brad Wilson,
chairman of the BOG Budget and
Finance Committee.
“They have important information
for the board to consider before address
ing the capital facilities fee.”
The capital fee was one aspect of
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Rania Masri, coordinator of the Iraq Action Coalition, speaks at the Franklin Street post office. Students from
SURGE marched from the Pit with boxes to mail to lawmakers in protest of U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
Jicha said he was not opposed to an
adjustment in the grading scale, but he
did not want an artificial standard.
“If it’s apparent that you can’t make a
distribution between outstanding, aver
age, and below-average students, then
the scale should be adjusted.”
Akin said it was unfair to augment the
system and upset the standard grading
scale among major universities.
He said this could impair UNC stu
dents when they were competing with
other students for graduate schools and
jobs.
Gless said he was against an adjusted
grading scale at the University because
it was far too mechanical.
“If students are worried about their
GPAs and how the quality of a Carolina
education stacks up against other uni
versities, then the University should
mention what the average GPA is on the
transcript."
Gless said UNC students already
compared to the best students at other
prestigious institutions nationwide.
“I had a girl who wrote her graduate
dissertation under me and is now work
ing at Yale,” he said.
“She said, ‘The best students at
Carolina are as good as the best students
at Yale.'”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
Smith, Edwards: Ban College Betting
Dean Smith says he is in full
support of N.C. Sen. John
Edward's proposal to end all
gambling on college sports.
By Alex Kaplun
Staff Writer
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and for
mer UNC men’s basketball coach Dean
Smith joined forces Monday to battle for
the prohibition of organized gambling
on college athletics.
At a press conference in a corner of
the Smith Center floor, Edwards
announced he would introduce legisla
lion to the U.S. Senate that would pro
hibit gambling on all high school, col
lege and Olympic athletic events.
Edwards said the bill was necessary
Broad’s plan that received considerable
opposition from some board members.
The BOG chose to work with the
NCCBI as a way to buy time, expert
advice and legislative support, Phillips
said. “The business community is very
strong in North Carolina, so the NCCBI
will be a strong voice in the legislature.”
Phillips said officials might eventual
ly return to the idea of a capital fee, or
they might ask the N.C. General
Assembly to cover the funds indepen
dently, either with or without a public
referendum.
“We need a plan that realistically
Homeless Candidate
Faces Investigation
Attorney and former UNC
student Jack Daly has filed
papers and the filing fee for
a state auditor candidate.
By Tricia Barrios
Staff Writer
A preliminary court hearing held
today will determine whether the polit
ical candidacy of a homeless man will
be further investigated.
Kenneth Ray Campbell, a 50-year
old homeless ex-convict in the race for
state auditor, is facing opposition from
Democratic Party officials who question
whether the address listed on
Campbell’s filing papers is legitimate.
Nate Pendley, a Guilford County
lawyer and the Republican Party district
chairman, said the charges were con
cocted by the Democratic Party.
“Politics is a blood sport. If I were a
Democrat, and I thought my eight-time
incumbent would have trouble beating
this homeless man, I would go down
there and trump up charges, too.”
Pendley said Campbell’s opponent,
incumbent Ralph Campbell, had mis
used campaign funds.
because the image of college athletics
had been stained by betting scandals.
Although Smith said he had no fur
ther plans to actively speak on the gam
bling issue, he attended the press con
ference in support of Edwards’ efforts.
But the coach ended up with more
attention than the crusading senator.
As the press conference ended, sig
nificantly more reporters approached
Smith than Edwards. Smith stayed on
the floor long after the conference
ended to answer questions and chat.
Despite the attention given to Smith,
Edwards continued to push his agenda.
He said that in the 19905, several ath
letic point-shaving scandals were dis
covered at universities, including
Northwestern University, Boston
College and Arizona State University.
He said these incidents hurt the pub
lic’s perception of college athletics and
Tuesday, February 15, 2000
meets our needs and that the legislature
can embrace,” Phillips said.
He also said the NCCBI’s support of
education was an attempt to invest in the
future of North Carolina.
BOG members said they were hope
ful the NCCBI would be a defining fac
tor in raising necessary capital funds,
said BOG Chairman Ben Ruffin.
“The NCCBI has always been inter
ested in making sure we get the money
that we need.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
He said he and GOP candidatejack
Daly plan to file a suit against Ralph
Campbell later this week for alleged
misuse of state funds. Daly said earlier
that he had planned to file Monday.
“(Kenneth Campbell) has never stolen a
dime in his life,” he said. “Ralph took
nearly $ 100,000 in campaign contribu
tions without reporting the addresses of
the givers or what they do.”
But Zee Lamb, general counsel for
the State Board of Elections, said the
challenge was based on the fact that,
since Campbell has never resided at the
listed address, he should not be regis
tered there. “He could use the homeless
shelter,” Lamb said. “That would have
been a more appropriate address.”
lamb said candidates did not have to
have an address, but they could not give
a false one. “He claims that’s where he
gets his papers,” he said. “But North
Carolina law says you have to reside at
a location and intend to make it your
permanent address.”
Guilford County elections Director
George Gilbert said questions arose
because of the circumstances surround
ing Campbell’s entrance into the race.
Daly, a Charlotte lawyer and
See CANDIDATE, Page 9
called for change. “Some of the purity
has unfortunately been lost in college
athletics because of gambling and the
influence of gambling,” Edwards said.
He said the main goal of this bill was
to stop big money gambling on college
sports, specifically in Nevada casinos.
I,ast year, Nevada's gambling indus
try raked in about $2.3 billion in sports
bets, 30 percent to 40 percent of which
w’ere on college athletics, according to
Edwards’ press release.
But Edwards said that while the
Nevada gambling establishments would
accept bets on almost any college team
in the country, they would not accept
bets on local schools such as the
University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
He said the establishments’ decision
not to bet on local college sports showed
See BETTING, Page 9
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