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The University and Towns
In Brief
Continuance Granted
In Local Murder Trial
The courts have granted a continu
ance in the trial of a former UNC stu
dent accused of murdering a Raleigh
man on New Year’s Day.
Michael Jordan Cruz, 23, of 2738
New Bold Drive in Raleigh was arrest
ed and charged with first-degree murder
in connection with the fatal shooting of
Michael Gregory Crosby, 21, of
Raleigh. Cruz was scheduled to appear
in Orange County Superior Court in
Hillsborough last Friday, but the district
attorney’s office requested a delay in
order to do further investigation.
Orange-Chatham District Attorney
Carl Fox said the probable cause hear
ing would be rescheduled for March 17.
“There is still some information that
officers need to follow up on,” Fox said.
Crosby’s body was found by a con
struction worker at the Orange Water
and Sewer Authority plant on Mason
Farm Road on the morning of Jan. 1.
Court records state that Crosby had
been shot in the head four times with a
.32 caliber weapon.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Ralph
Pendergraph said Cruz was arrested
Jan. 12 after coming to the police
department for questioning.
Police Still Searching
For Suspect in Robbery
An unidentified man entered a local
bank Friday and presented a threaten
ing note to the teller demanding money,
reports state.
The incident occurred at about 12:50
p.m. at the State Employee Credit
Union located at 310 Pittsboro St.
There were no injuries, reports state.
Police have no suspects at this time.
Play Company to Open
New Season in March
Wordshed Productions is scheduled
to begin its third season in March with
American Fiction, a stage-adaptation of
three short stories by 20th century
American writers John Cheever, Lee
Smith and Jack London.
The plays will explore issues of gen
der, partnership and the search for
meaning in a world that has no mean
ing. Sarah Whalen, a graduate student
in performance studies at UNC-Chapel
Hill will perform.
For a reservation or further informa
tion, call 969-7121.
CAPS to Offer Group
For Assault Victims
University Counseling and
Psychological Service (CAPS) is form
ing a group to help women learn to
cope with sexual assault. The group,
which is free and confidential, will
address issues like safety, trust, anger,
esteem and intimacy.
The group meets from 3 p.m. to 4
p.m. Thursdays and will begin Feb. 24.
A pregroup consultation is required. For
more information, call 966-3658.
UNC Grabs I Oth Place
In Peace Corps Listing
The University ranks 10th on the
annual list of colleges with the highest
number of graduates who had volun
teered for overseas service through the
Peace Corps.
UNC, which is up from 15th place in
1999, had 61 graduates and was the
only N.C. school on the corps list.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
topped the list for the second consecu
tive year with 117 graduates serving.
Two Faculty Members
To Lecture This Week
Two University professors will dis
cuss various topics this week in Chapel
Hill and the Research Triangle Park.
On Feb. 22, John Covach, associate
professor of music, will discuss peer
learning in a speech titled “I Feel the Air
of Other Planets: Mysticism in Early
20th Century Music” at Brinkley
Memorial Baptist Church at 1:30 p.m.
For more information, call Ted Blostein
at 933-5682.
At 10:30 a.m. Feb. 23, Keith Wailoo,
assistant professor of social medicine,
will address “The Biography of Disease:
Historical Perspectives on Medicine,
Technology and American Society” at
the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences, 111 Alexander Drive,
Research Triangle Park. For informa
tion, call Jennifer Anderson at 541-2475.
Carolina Speakers, a University pro
gram, arranged the lectures. The program
began as a statewide outreach effort in
1993 and offers 83 leading faculty mem
ber and four student scholars to share
their expertise on more than 1(X) topics.
From Staff Reports
Officials Debate Academic Schedule
Bv Derick Mattern
Staff Writer
Officials wrestled Friday to reconcile
systemwide scheduling rules with the
realities of the University’s operations.
The UNC-system General
Administration mandates that its schools
have 75 class days each semester. But as
officials prepared a 2001-02 academic
calendar for the chancellor’s OK, they
said the rule interfered with freshman
programs and academic evaluations.
An Underground Tradition
PHOTOS AND STORY BY
LAURA GIOVANELLI
Turn down Amber Alley, walk a few paces
down the damp stones and into a Chapel Hill
dining institution.
The Rathskeller began serving up bowls of
its famous gooey lasagna and the perfuncto
ry iceberg lettuce salad in 1947, and save for
a brief two week period this past December, it
has not closed its doors since.
On the evening of the UNC-Duke basket
ball game three weeks ago, the Rathskeller
was packed with visiting alumni and families
hungry for the baby-back rib special and a
victory against Duke (below, right).
Waitstaff rushed to fill tables, seating guests
in the cosy “Tavern Cavern” (below), a
romantically lit dining room reserved for
lovebirds.
David Blackwell has waited tables for 36
years (right). Loyalty to the Rathskeller is a
given as the mean term of employment hov
ers around 25 years.
Waiters as experienced as Blackwell serve
like clockwork, dashing around their tables to
take orders almost as fast as the chefs in the
kitchen flash-grill a sizzling steak.
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3 ECHHS Students Face Felony Charges
By Kathleen Wirth
Assistant City Editor
A lunchtime brawl at an off-campus
parking lot landed one East Chapel Hill
High School student in serious condition
Friday afternoon at UNC Hospitals and
three others behind bars.
Police arrested and charged Arthur
Partlow, 16, of 1060 Apt. B-2, N.C. 54,
Chase Park; Torrey Jamall Lassiter, 16,
of 105-B Bright Sun Place; and Michael
Cooper, 16, of 502-C Sykes St., each
with one felony count of assault with a
deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflict
ing serious injury.
According to police reports, Rodney
Carrier, 17, of 116 Shadowood Drive,
was beaten unconscious and suffered
severe lacerations. He was upgraded
48 Arrests End Labor Protest
The University of Wisconsin's labor
licensing policy sparked a protest
aimed at curbing sweatshop labor
that ended in student arrests.
By Lucas Fenske
Assistant State & National Editor
Before the sun rose Sunday morning, baton
waving police wearing gas masks and carrying riot
gear arrested 48 protesting University of
Wisconsin-Madison students for unlawful assembly
and disorderly conduct.
The students have
been protesting UW-M’s
alleged ties to sweatshop
labor since Tuesday.
UW-M Student Body
President Agrees
To Protesters'
Wants at UPenn.
See Page 5
President Adam Klaus, a
protester, claimed UW-M Chancellor David Ward
did not work with students. “We wanted to nego
tiate,” Klaus said. “This came to a head because the
chancellor did not respect the students’ voices.”
But Casey Nagy, assistant to the provost, said
the chancellor had given the students numerous
Members of the Faculty/Student
Calendar Committee flipped through
department calendars and crunched
dates in computer programs to find a
way to balance necessary programs with
General Administration requirements.
An hour and a half later, the commit
tee finally agreed - although with some
grumbling - on a proposal to send to the
Chancellor’s Cabinet today or Tuesday.
In October, the General
Administration will accept or reject the
Cabinet’s recommendation.
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from serious to fair
condition by late
Sunday afternoon.
Police said a
small group gath
ered Friday during
lunch at the Cedar
Falls Park parking
lot, across from
the school’s cam
pus on Weaver
Dairy Road.
A brawl soon
ensued, and
school officials
were alerted to
the fight after
Police charged East
Chapel Hill High
School student
Michael Cooper
with one felony
count of assault.
teacher Mary Jones intervened.
ECHHS Principal David Thaden
said rumors circulated Friday morning
opportunities to discuss the issues.
“They were invited repeatedly (to discuss their
concerns), but they rebuffed the offers,” he said. “It
was time for them to get out of the offices.”
The students seized Bascom Hall, which hous
es UW-M’s chancellor’s office, to force UW-M
administrators to switch from the Fair Labor
Association to the Worker Rights Consortium.
Both the FLA and the WRC monitor overseas
factories producing athletic gear to protect work
er’s rights. Critics allege that the FLA is less effec
tive than the WRC.
Nagy said an earlier altercation with the police
also caused the protesting students to ask for legal
and academic amnesty for themselves and a pub
lic apology from the chancellor and the police.
“It is my understanding that the police were in
retreat mode (at the time) and were set upon by the
students,” he said.
Nagy said the chancellor could not grant the
protesters amnesty or meet their other demands,
but he decided to leave the FLA to join the WRC.
He said, “(Ward) went as far as he could and was
willing to go outside the governance board.”
The UW-M Governance Board, composed of
See ARRESTS, Page 6
News
As it stands now, the proposal sug
gests that freshmen attend classes on
summer reading assignments and the
Carolina Computing Initiative on Aug.
20 to qualify that Monday as an instruc
tion day. This will allow the Monday to
be counted toward the 75-day mandate,
but without requiring students to actual
ly go to class.
Scheduling the first day of classes
then- a day after the end of C-TOPS -
would have left no available weekdays
for freshmen to take necessary place-
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6
that the boys were
not getting along
with Carrier. “One
teacher said she
heard (rumors)
about the fight,”
he said. “But in a
school of 1,000
students, it’s hard
to keep track of 66
different things.”
Thaden said
that the school’s
crisis team would
talk to students,
and that he
planned to send a
East Chapel Hill High
School student
Torrey Lassiter
will appear in
Orange County
District Court today.
letter to parents. “We have a full day
planned,” he said. “We’re trying to re
establish a sense of safety at the school
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Fans line Franklin Street outside Schoolkids Records early Friday morning in hopes for
a ticket to the Smashing Pumpkins' show. The concert held Saturday night at Cat's Cradle,
sold out in less than 10 minutes. Many who had waited for hours left empty-handed.
ment exams, said Carolyn Cannon,
associate dean of the General College.
But if the class day were tacked onto
the end of the semester, staff who eval
uate students’ academic eligibility would
have difficulty finishing on time, said
University Registrar David Lanier, the
committee’s chairman.
Although alternatives such as week
ends, breaks and holidays were consid
ered to make up the Monday classes the
See CALENDAR, Page 6
II
WFm
and address any
concerns students
have.”
The boys are
being held in lieu
of a $20,000
secured bond at
the Orange
County Jail in
Hillsborough,
reports state. They
are scheduled to
appear at 9 a.m.
today in Orange
County District
Court in
Hillsborough.
East Chapel Hill High
School student
Arthur Partlow
is being held at the
Orange County Jail in
Hillsborough.
The City Desk can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
SMASHING FANS
Monday, February 21, 2000
Allegations
Spur EMS
Shortages
Harassment charges against
EMS Chief Ray deFriess led
many workers to resign by
claiming moral grounds.
By Kellie Dixon
Staff Writer
In the wake of serious shortages at
the Orange County EMS and Rescue
Squad, former volunteers have come
forth with allegedly mishandled charges
of sexual harassment which prompted
their resignations.
In response to a Feb. 1.5 DTH article
regarding EMS shortages, Mark
McCullough, former assistant chief for
the rescue squad, sent an e-mail which
alleged that three-fourths of personnel
had left in February 1999 on moral
grounds because of an inappropriately
handled sexual harassment claim.
McCullough and the four other team
members who resigned alleged that the
Orange EMS and Rescue Squad Board
of Directors mishandled a sexual
harassment claim involving a former
female staffer and EMS Chief Ray
deFriess. “I was one of the ‘qualified’
personnel forced to leave last year on
moral grounds for failure to address this
heinous problem,” McCullough said.
On Feb. 28, 1999, a letter was
brought before the board by a female
volunteer accusing deFriess of sexual
harassment.
The victim refused to allow her name
to appear, but under the condition of
anonymity, she allowed the use of her
letter. The woman stated that she
worked a volunteer night shift with
deFriess, and throughout the evening,
he allegedly made lewd sexual com
ments such as, “You know that if you
have sex with me, no one would ever
have to know.”
But around the time the board exam
ined the claim, Orange County Rescue
and South Orange Rescue Squad
merged, which allowed the sexual
harassment charge to be dismissed,
McCullough said. Since then, at least
five members of the EMS team have
publicly resigned, leaving a gap in
employment and resignees questioning
the board’s action.
Alan Howe, a former rescue training
lieutenant, said the incidents made it
difficult for him to perform his duties
and eventually led to his resignation.
“The net result of the board was to
keep Ray as chief,” Howe said. “I con
sidered that to be a potential threat to
other squad members.”
Sandor Balogh, a member of the
EMS Board of Directors, refused to
comment on the board’s action on the
issue. He would only state that the mat
ter had been resolved.
DeFriess and others refute
McCollough’s claims.
DeFriess denied that any harassment
on his part had taken place. He said no
legal acfion was pending regarding the
sexual harassment issue, and as far as the
alleged drop in EMS numbers, he offered
this explanation. “I can’t say if the decline
was any worse this year than last year,”
he said. “We always have a crunch time
when students are graduating.”
Matthew Mauzy, a volunteer captain
with the Orange County EMS and
Rescue Squad, said McCullough was
wrong about the sexual harassment
claims and would not comment on
them. “(McCullough) has been a con
tinual problem,” Mauzy said. “He’s a
former member of the squad who quit
and there is not a suit pending."
The City Editor can be reached
atcitydesk@unc.edu
3