10 Tuesday, April 4, 2000 Concerns or comments about our cowrage? Contact the ombudsman at budman@unc.edu or caD 605-2790. Scott Hicks EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR Katie Abel UNIVERSITY EDITOR Jacob McConnico CITY EDITOR Board Editorials Crunch Time Thank goodness interim Chancellor Bill Me Coy is in no hurry to be relieved of his duties. At the rate the Chancellor Search Committee’s work is progressing, he will probably be at UNC’s helm for a while. Committee Chairman Richard Stevens announced Friday that the committee had planned four extra meetings through May 25, five months after its original self-imposed deadline and four days after UNC-system President Molly Broad’s Commencement one. If nothing else, the last few months have shown that committee members sure are good at planning meetings. As for doing its actual job, though, the committee has left much to be desired. Th process has been marked by setbacks, and all signs point to the fact that the com mittee is still scrambling to compile its list of finalists. Even if the committee does manage to make its final decision by next month, it will be some time before McCoy can bid farewell to UNC. The committee would then have to for ward its two top picks to the Board of Trustees, which will make a recommendation to Broad. Broad must then submit her deci sion to the Board of Governors for final Price of Protection The Chapel Hill Town Council is current ly debating whether or not it should raise taxes tonfund police officers in four local schools. But the matter, while a noble cause, is one that should not be handled by the council or included in its budget. The town splits the cost of Chapel Hill High School’s student resource officer’s salary with the school district, interim Police Chief Greggjarvies told The Daily Tar Heel on Monday. Federal grant money, which is set to run out this fall, and school district funds pay for the other three officers, which are assigned to East Chapel Hill High School, Phillips Middle School and Culbreth Middle School, he said. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools offi cials have asked the council to continue fund ing the officers, but they should be looking in their own coffers for the additional money. After the grant money runs out, the district should absorb the cost. Students in both Carrboro and Chapel Hill attend schools with officers, and to place the burden on Chapel Hill when neither Carrboro nor Orange County contribute funds would be unfair. Additionally, the school district is respon sible for providing the best learning envi ronment for its students -and that includes safety. As the district prepares its budget for the 2000-2001 school year, it should adjust fig- The Daily Tar Heel welcomes submissions from its readers for its Viewpoints page every Monday. Guest columns should be about 800 words, written by no more than two people and discuss an issue relevant to DTH readers. Submissions should be e-mailed to editdesk@unc.edu and are due by 6 p.m. the Wednesday before the column will appear. Publication is not guaranteed. For more information, contact Editorial Page Editor Scott Hicks at 962-0245. Readers' Forum Column Writers Insult Non-Christians, Owe Them an Apology TO THE EDITOR: I might be a Christian -but that’s about all I have in common with Josh Self and Marty Baldwin. Their Viewpoints column of April 3 (“Relativism Runs Counter to Tenets of Christianity”) was one of the most callus and condescending things I’ve ever read in a newspaper of any sort. Self and Baldwin seem to imply that anyone who isn’t a Christian doesn’t have a real grip on right and wrong. I have to wonder - how many non-Christian friends do they have? I have several non-Christian friends who are as morally upright as they come - even more so than some of the Christians I’ve encountered. Self and Baldwin owe an apology to every non-Christian on this campus. Darrell Lucas Senior Journalism and Mass Communication Rob Nelson EDITOR Office Hours Friday E p.m. - 4 p.m. Matthew B. Dees STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR T. Nolan Hayes SPORTS EDITOR Leigh Davis FEATURES EDITOR approval. If all goes well, the new chancellor could take over sometime this summer, McCoy told The Daily Tar Heel on Sunday. But that would mean that the new leader would not have much time to adjust to the new position before students return for the fall semester. Broad’s May deadline was set to ensure a chancellor would be in place by July 1, before the next academic year begins. But given the new meeting schedule, it seems likely the new chancellor won’t even know he or she got the job untiljune or July. That leaves little time to tie up loose ends at his or her former job before he or she would need to come to Chapel Hill. The odds that a candidate from another school would agree to leave his or her posi tion in late spring or early summer to start almost immediately are slim. The top candi date should have been selected by the com mittee’s original self-imposed December deadline so that he or she could have time to plan accordingly. It is an embarrassment that it is April and UNC seems to be no closer to having anew chancellor than it was when Michael Hooker died in June. The committee needs to stop making deadlines and get down to business. McCoy has been generous enough already. ures so that paying for the officers is includ ed. Jarvies said the annual, cost of salaries, benefits and expenses for the officers totaled approximately $219,000. The school district paid about $66,000 for the officers last year. The district and the town knew that the grant money, which the town obtained in 1998, would eventually end and that they would have to then finance the officers. If they didn’t intend to fund the officers once the grant money ended, why did they invest in a program they did not plan to keep? The officers perform services vital to maintaining a proper learning environment. Having a police officer in school deters stu dents from acting out. And if students did fight, the school resource officer could quick ly respond. In crisis situations, officers can call emer gency services faster because they are con nected to police dispatch. They confer with representatives from the juvenile court sys tem and make referrals to Teen Court. Beyond discipline, the officers get to know students and act as a resource for students’ questions about the law. Resource officers direct school traffic and provide security at athletic events. Students deserve to learn in a safe envi ronment, and parents should feel their young Janes and Johns are secure in school. School resource officers have improved Carrboro-Chapel Hill City Schools, and now it’s the district’s turn to pick up the tab for this service. Letter Writer’s Reference to Meditation Not Necessarily Racist TO THE EDITOR: I’m writing in response to Rishi Kotiya’s March 29 letter. Kotiya’s claim that Julie Mancuso is a racist, in support of Amol Naik’s column, has absolutely no merit. The phrase “meditate a- little longer” could have been an attack on Naik’s race and religion by Mancuso, or a vehicle for overreaction for Kotiya. Asa black male, I don’t automatically assume that someone believes that I am ignorant and can only communicate in ebonies when they say “What’s up?” For me “What’s up?” is equivalent to “Hello.” Saying the word “meditate" to an Indian does not automatically equate a reference to Hinduism. Maybe for Mancuso, “Meditate a little longer in your dank cave and come out when you actually have something to say” was the equivalent of, “think a little before you waste valuable newspaper space with your hedonistic and Opinions altr Sattij (Tar Mni Established 1893 • 107 Years of Editorial Freedom www.unc.edu/dth Robin Clemow AREN is ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Carolyn Haynes COPY DESK EDITOR Miller Pearsall PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR <5, | heard -that lAash, he a ,5' Sr T fc qjUT roommaYe~ A The Daily Tar Heel wel comes reader comments. Letters should be no longer than 300 words and must be typed, double-spaced, dated and signed by no more than two people. Students should include their year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and phone number. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters. Bring letters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail forum to: editdesk@unc.edu.