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Police
Roundup
Assault Trial Continued
For ECHHS Student
An East Chapel Hill High School stu
dent charged in connection with the
February assault of a fellow student is
scheduled to stand trial in May.
Michael Cooper,l6, of 502-C Sykes
St., was charged along with two other
teenagers with one felony account of
• assault with a deadly weapon with
intent to kill, inflicting serious injury.
Cooper was scheduled to stand trial
Thursday, but the judge granted a con
tinuance.
1 Cooper’s trial is set for May 22 in
District Court in Hillsborough.
University
Wednesday, March 22
■ A UNC student was napping in
the fourth-floor lounge in Davis Library
when she heard someone enter the
lounge and then leave after about five
minutes, according to police reports.
After the person left, she woke up
and saw that her purse was gone. She
went looking for the person who took
her purse, according to police reports.
Police reports stated the subject
dropped the purse when he saw her.
The subject was described as a dark
skinned black male, about 20 to 30
years old, more than 6 feet tall and with
severe acne on his face. He was wearing
,a tan leather jacket.
■ A UNC student accidentally left
her purse in the Hanes Art Center
Auditorium for two minutes around 10
a.m., police reports stated. When she
returned, the purse was gone, according
to police reports.
The purse contained $460, a check
book and check card, two credit cards,
drivers license, keys and a UNC ONE
Card. The student canceled the credit
cards before reporting the crime, police
reports stated.
■ A UNC student fell, possibly
breaking her ankle, at 7:30 a.m. in the
Sitterson parking lot, according to
police reports.
The student was treated on site by an
. Orange County paramedic and then
taken to Student Health Services for fur
ther treatment.
■ Someone discharged a fire extin
guisher in Old West Residence Hall
around 3:04 a.m., causing the fire alarm
to sound. According to police reports,
the residents evacuated and the Chapel
Hill Fire Department and University
Police responded. No fire was found
and students returned to their rooms.
One student was cited for not evac
uating after the alarm, police reports
said. It is a misdemeanor charge that
could result in a fine from $lO to SBO
plus court costs.
■ A UNC student was sitting in her
room in Morrison Residence Hall
around 12:05 a.m. when an unknown
person walked by and broke out the
window in the room, according to
police reports. There were no suspects at
the time of report.
City
Thursday, March 23
■ Aaron Thomas McCaffity, 20, of
1203 Lark Hall Court, Cary was
stopped on Airport Road near Taylor
• Street for speeding in a 2-door 1996
Chevrolet Camaro. Alcohol use was
suspected, and police arrested and
charged McCaffity with driving while
impaired and violation of provisional
. license. His blood alcohol content reg
istered at .17.
He was charged on three counts -
one misdemeanor count provisional
’ licensee violation, one misdemeanor
count DWI and one misdemeanor
count for speeding 60 mph in a 35 mph
zone. He was summoned before a mag
istrate and released. McCaffity’s trial is
set for May 2 in District Court.
■ A suspicious condition was report
ed at East Chapel Hill High, located at
500 Weaver Dairy Road. Principal
David Thaden reported to police that
threatening messages were left on a
school computer screen. Police are still
investigating.
Wednesday, March 22
■ A 20-year-old male was arrested
for impeding traffic at the intersection of
McCauley Street and S. Columbia
Street. Police cited Eric Walter Vilajr.,
of 6172 South wind Dr. in Mebane and
released him on one misdemeanor
count of impeding traffic, reports stated.
Police viewed the subject dancing in
the middle of the intersection. Vila ini
tially ran from police, but stopped after
police yelled at him, reports state. There
was no bond.
Vila’s trial is set for May 1 in the
Orange County District Court.
From Staff Reports
Coalition Continues Tuition Fight
Bv Karev Wutkowski
Staff Writer
Coalition members embroiled in the
fight against the UNC tuition increase
since October concede that the increase
is probable but say the fight is not over.
The Coalition for Educational Access
met Thursday night to reorganize their
efforts and prepare for the N.C. General
Assembly vote on the increase.
In February, the Board of Governors
approved a S6OO tuition increase over
the next two years for UNC.
“The likelihood of getting them to get
rid of the tuition increase is minimal,”
said Sandi Chapman, a coalition mem
ber. She said the group needed to focus
on assuring that adequate aid accompa
nied the increase.
The coalition said its other goals
included fighting the tuition increase
and pushing the state to support capital
A New Wave of Culture
Hispanics
Seek New
Horizons
Bv Walter Herz
Staff Writer
North Carolina has the third
fastest growing Hispanic population
in the country, and in Orange
County, it shows.
Whether legally or illegally, peo
ple from all comers of Latin America
have made the
journey to
Chapel Hill and
its surrounding
areas, most of
them seeking
better lives than
the ones they
left south of the
border.
Joel Harper,
president of the
A threfrpart series
examining issues
facing local minorities
Chapel Hill Area Chamber of
Commerce, said Hispanics had estab
lished a prominent presence in the
area in just the last few years.
“Heretofore, the Hispanics have
mostly been a migrant population,”
Harper said. “They came to work for
a couple of months, then moved on.
“In the last two or three years,
however, there has been an increase
in the permanent population of
Latinos,” he said. “They’re staying to
live here and sending money back to
Mexico and other parts of Latin
America.”
The permanent Hispanic presence
has raised several issues and difficul
ties for new residents, not the least of
which is a lack of proficiency in the
English language.
Maria Palmer, minister of the
Hispanic congregation of the United
Church of Christ and a native of
See HISPANIC, Page 4
Surfing for the Perfect Place
Designed by a UNC junior,
chapelhillrent.com helps
students find the rental
property of their dreams.
By Moira Vanderhoof
Staff Writer
When Andrew Gray began design
ing a Web site for the Carolina
Environmental Program two years ago,
he had no idea what he was getting
into.
It was because of this project that
some small businesses and campus
groups asked Gray, a junior from
Windsor, Conn., to design their Web
sites as a freelancer.
Gray called this “picking up a few
clients on the side,” but it was really
the start of something bigger.
“Freelance was sort of jerky," Gray
said, “It was not consistent; there were
new people every week ... and it was
harder to command a salary.”
Gray’s friend, Chris Francis, a UNC
graduate and Chapel Hill native,
approached Gray about designing a
Web site for his uncle, Steve Mills, a
local property manager.
This project started out as a way to
put Mills’ rental property on the Web,
but it grew in a couple of months into a
small business, chapelhillrent.com,
University k City
improvement.
Members are also attempting to
broaden their efforts by establishing
contacts with all 16 universities in the
UNC system. The coalition recently
evolved from Campaign for Educational
Access, which formed in October after
debate erupted about a tuition increase.
The campaign had a large hand in
organizing a 400-student strong protest
against the increase at an October Board
of Trustees meeting.
“We’re just in the initial stages of start
ing (the coalition),” said member
Shannon Goodrum.
The campaign was a product of stu
dent government and the Progressive
Student Coalition, an umbrella organi
zation formed in early 1999 that repre
sents such groups as the Black Student
Movement, the Student Environmental
Action Coalition and the Students for
Flconomic Justice.
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DTH/MEREDITH LEE
Pilar Fort (back) meets mothers for the Early Head Start Program in Carr Court. The group was started to
help mothers with children up to 3 years old begin the assimilation process into American culture.
Immigrant Tries to Give Back
By Sarah Brif.r
Staff Writer
The challenge when moving to a
new country is to balance heritage yet
assimilate to the new surroundings
and cultural practices.
For Pilar Fort, a Peruvian immi
grant, the process was fraught with this
challenge when she moved to Chapel
Hill with her husband and three chil
dren in 1998.
But Fort’s initial intimidation was
overshadowed by her will to learn
about the culture and feel like a mem
ber of the local community.
m
m
based out of Gray’s bedroom.
Francis said the idea for
this business popped into his
head one day while listening
to a radio advertisement for a
rental property Web site.
“It wasn’t doing things
businesses want,” Francis
said. “Something was needed
for mom and pop."
Francis’ idea stemmed from the
belief that people did not want to rent
just apartments - they would rather
live in houses. “The (Mills) project
turned into one for the town of Chapel
Hill,” Gray said.
The Web site expanded into a direc
tory that featured most of the apart
ment complexes and rental properties
available to students in Chapel Hill.
“We have 150 to 200 unique visitors
a day,” Gray said.
Things really started to lift off when
a local investor bought a part of Gray
and Francis’ company. The investor
provided capital, office space in
Carrboro, a business manager and
advice on business legalities.
Gray and Francis employed seven
other workers, started making a busi
ness plan, sent out brochures, started a
mailing campaign and contacted real
estate agents all over the state.
Their Chapel Hill-based business
expanded into Hometownßent.com, a
site that listed real estate properties in
Despite student government having a
hand in the coalition’s existence, coali
tion members say the two groups have
differences.
“At the beginning, student govern
ment said they would possibly support a
SSOO increase,” Chapman said. “There’s
not the assumption that student govern
ment is always fighting the same issues.”
But coalition member Emily Waszak
said there was not a voluntary separa
tion between the two entities.
“It’s not an exclusion," she said.
“We’re just the core people working on
(the tuition increase).
“Student government is good at what
they do and that’s working inside the
system. We’re good at what we do and
that’s research and mobilizing people.”
Members also took up issue with
Student Body President-elect Brad
Matthews. “It’s concerning,” Waszak
said. “He has put (the tuition increase)
Fort said her first impression of
Chapel Hill was positive, and even
though she was faced with challenges,
she was able to conform to the new
landscape, people and culture and still
maintain her heritage.
“The area is geographically mar
velous,” she said. “It is well-situated,
and the people are very helpful here.”
Three months after Fort’s husband,
Alfredo, was transferred to UNC to do
research, the couple had already
found a home.
After a short period of interim
housing in a two-bedroom Chapel Hill
apartment, the family of five was
Raleigh, Wilmington,
Greenville and Durham.
“We list everything for
free,” Gray said. “We spend
investment capital, utilize
Web sites with real estate
companies and (receive
money) from some advertis
ing with companies like
Gumby’s Pizza.”
Hometownßent.com became a way
for property managers and renters to
benefit in new ways.
“It’s two-sided,” Francis said. “The
property manager has direct control of
advertising and has the tools necessary
to compete in today's rental market.
“And the user is allowed to see the
entire rental picture from the conve
nience of their living room computer.”
Gray said the ultimate goal for the
Web site was to appeal to the user.
“We want to make a good Web site
that really serves the people who use it
as opposed to pressing advertising (at
the user),” he said. “We view our site
from the user’s side ... the user just
types in what (he or she) wants to
know and it tells them.”
But it is also a tool that serves real
tors equally. They can go in at any
time and change information like prop
erty prices and pictures, Gray said.
Besides the pressures of writing a
business plan and the increased
expenses of running the business, Gray
on his list of priorities on his platform,
but he hasn’t done anything."
But Matthews said he had backed stu
dent efforts to battle a tuition increase.
“We’re all students legitimately con
cerned about the tuition increase,” he
said. “We’re all interested in seeing it
reduced if not completely eliminated.”
Matthews said the distinction
between the efforts of student govern
ment and activists was not fair. “It’s a
collaborative effort to make sure stu
dents are represented.”
The coalition said it was now direct
ing its efforts toward getting students
involved in a lobbying campaign aimed
at the state legislature. “It’s not over,”
Waszak said. “Everybody’s been saying
if we have to take it to the state legisla
ture, we would. And we will.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udeskQunc.edu.
relieved to move into a home. Her
oldest son, Alfredo, 23, was not with
them long because he went to New
York to work on his Ph.D.
“Housing was easy in a way
because of the newspapers and real
estate agencies, but it was also not
easy,” Fort said. “We had a lot of sup
port from my husband's office, and
when we arrived they offered us an
apartment to live in while we were
looking for a house.”
But Fort also said the process of
finding a home was probably one of
See PROFILE, Page 4
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Andrew Gray, a UNC junior, designed the Web page HomeTownrent.com
to 'make the arduous task of finding a place to live more pleasant."
said he and Francis found satisfaction
in the fact that people had taken them
“pretty seriously.”
“We’re both a couple of young guys
with not a lot of business experience,”
Gray said. “It’s one thing to run a busi
ness out of your bedroom, but it’s
another thing to deal with increased
expenses, management of taxes, a pay
roll and paying your own Social
Security.”
But according to their clients, the
two are living up to the demands.
“They’ve done a fantastic job of
Friday, March 24, 2000
Reactions
Divided on
Fee Ruling
The Supreme Court decision
will allow Student Congress
to keep its current system
of doling out student fees.
By John Maberry
Staff Writer
The reverberations of Wednesday’s
Supreme Court ruling to allow universities
to fund controversial campus groups with
student fees have registered on campus.
While several UNC student leaders
supported the decision, conservative
groups on campus maintained that stu
dents should have the option of choos
ing which groups they fund.
The Court upheld the allocation of
student fees at the University of
Wisconsin in a unanimous decision.
The ruling overturned an earlier deci
sion in favor of plaintiff Scott Southworth,
who claimed that requiring students to
pay for groups they might object to vio
lated their First Amendment rights.
Those pleased with the decision saw
it as an affirmation of equal rights. “My
immediate response when I heard the
ruling was, ‘Oh my god, we won,” said
Student Congress Speaker Mark
Kleinschmidt.
His support of the Supreme Court
decision was echoed by Jon Curtis, the
assistant director of Student Activities.
“I’m very excited that they made what I
believe is the right decision,” Curtis
said. “The University has provided for
an incredible amount of dialogue by
giving students the freedom to assem
ble, speak their viewpoint and wave
their banner.”
But for some UNC students, the
Supreme Court’s decision was a setback.
“We were pretty disappointed,” said
freshman Steve Russell, a writer for the
Carolina Review, a conservative cam
pus publication. “We still feel it’s not a
valid use of someone’s money to sup
port a viewpoint they don’t agree with.”
Carolina Review publisher Nathan
Byerly said his stance had little to do
with politics. “We don’t believe student
fees should be used to support... politi
cal agendas. Our opinion is more based
on principle than politics."
For Kleinschmidt, the decision rein
forced UNC’s system of allocating stu
dent fees. “I think this decision affirms
the legality of the method we have at
Carolina,” he said. “For decades, we
have functioned under a system of
broad student autonomy in the way of
student groups. An alternative decision
would have been fatal.”
The decision was especially timely for
the Campaign to End the Death Penalty,
which would fall under the umbrella of
Southworth’s condemned liberal organi
zations. This week’s activities to educate
students about the death penalty were
partly funded with student fees. “Any
group that has a social conscience should
have equal rights to money,” said cam
paign member Theander Brannon.
Kleinschmidt said the ruling was key
to continuing discussion at UNC. “The
reason I came to this University was the
culture, and that would have been elim
inated by an alternative ruling.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
meeting needs of renters and at my
end,” Mills said. “1 get my stuff out to a
larger group of people for less money.
Because of them more information is
available for more tenants."
Gray said he and Francis were
working on directly approaching
investors for a bigger expansion. Both
have made at least a two-year commit
ment. “We would love to make it a
business we can run for many years.”
The Features Editor can be reached
at features@unc.edu.
3