10
Tuesday, April 4, 2000
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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
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Counting Heads (and Bathrooms)
How much money do you make? What
is your religion and ethnic origin?
How many bathrooms are in your
house?
If someone other than a close acquaintance
asked you any of the above questions, you’d
probably think he was rather rude (or in the
case of the bathroom question, very weird).
And yet these are just a select few of the ques
tions the federal government expects you to
answer if you are the one out of six house
holds lucky enough to receive the 52-question
“long” census form in the mail.
For anyone who is not aware, the
Constitution states the federal government
must count persons for the purpose of deter
mining the number of congressional represen
tatives in each state.
Surprisingly, Big Brother has other plans.
According to a Census Bureau letter,
“Census counts are used to distribute govern
ment funds to communities and states for
highways, schools, health facilities and many
other programs you and your neighbors
need.”
In other words, the census is now a vehicle
for government handouts, asjacksonville
State University economist Christopher
Westley explains.
“The federal government needs this data
for the same purpose that Procter & Gamble
needs market research,” Westley says. “The
difference being that P&G w ill use it to try to
meet consumer demands through voluntary
exchange, whereas the state will use it to force
involuntary exchange - to identify municipali
ties that should be placed on the government
dole and those that should fund them.”
Indeed, SIBO billion is a lot of taxpayer
money that the government is expected to
dole out based on census information. In
order to find out who the net beneficiaries will
be, social engineers must find out where the
most destitute of citizens reside.
T his explains Question 17, my personal
favorite, which asks whether or not anyone in
your home has difficulty “learning, remem
bering or concentrating,” or “dressing,
bathing or getting around inside the home.”
Can someone please tell me what on Earth
that has to do with counting heads to deter
mine congressional representatives?
condescending thoughts,” not “Get on on
your knees and meditate, you Hindu.”
“Racist” is an extremely powerful word,
and it is also a word that was brazenly
thrown about by Kotiya. It’s almost as bad
as Naik throwing out references to beer,
women, burritos and “dank” every week.
It’s true that the “serious” column often
gels old. Naik obviously attempts to add a
little humor to The Daily Tar Heel, but
does he deserve one-fourth of the back
page when most times he and Kotiya are
the only ones laughing?
Adaam Hnkins
Sophomore
History
WXYC’s Eclectic Style
Relief From Monotony
Of Other Local Stations
TO THE EDITOR:
Before Spring Break, several letters
lambasted WXYC, demanding a more
“mainstream” approach.
Thomas Amman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
William Hill
ONLINE EDITOR
JONATHAN TRAGER
THE LIBERTARIAN LETTERS
I do not see the relation, and fortunately,
many other Americans do not either.
Sources from MSNBC to the Drudge
Report assert that calls have been flooding the
Census Bureau from irate citizens who are
protesting the intnisive questions. Many of
these individuals say they would rather pay
the SIOO fine for not completely answering
the form than comply.
Now it seems dissidents might not have to
pay at all.
Just last week, U.S. District Judge Melinda
Harmon ruled the Census Bureau could not
threaten or prosecute citizens who refuse to
answer what they deem to be personal ques
tions.
Brought by a Houston attorney on behalf
of five individuals, the suit most likely is head
ed for a battle on the floor of the Supreme
Court.
In 1990, compliance was a pitiful 65 per
cent. T his year, most officials expect it to be
about 60 percent, and if the Supreme Court
upholds the lower court’s decision not to
penalize individuals who refuse to answer all
their census questions, compliance will likely
drop even further.
Consequently, Census Director Kenneth
Prewitt has sent a fomi letter in which he
emphatically writes that census information
will only be used for “statistical purposes” and
that no unauthorized person can find out your
personal information (he even writes “NO
ONE” in all caps to show he is serious).
Sorry, Kenny, history has shown us that no
good comes from centralized power collecting
personal information about its citizens.
The most notorious American abuse came
as a result of the 1940 census, during which
mostJapanese-Americans dutifully noted their
This is simple gluttony for punishment
when there are several stations already
beating the same few songs like a dead
horse.
WXYC managers screen music so the
station can offer something unique. “Why
bother?” one might ask. Because music,
like anything, is a process, and “greats”
evolve from experimentation.
Van Gogh, Galileo, Dickinson and
Jesus, though controversial in their time,
have each made significant advances to
humankind.
Furthermore, WXYC has successfully
promoted many of the same beloved
“mainstream" acts that first came through
Chapel Hill years ago while their music
was still largely unrecognized. The
Smashing Pumpkins’ fond memories of
their first concert here prompted a return
that sold out overnight. Likewise, the
Squirrel Nut Zippers premiered on
WXYC’s “Back Yard BBQ” and went on
to achieve international fame.
The flip side is that Chapel Hill gets to
enjoy many benefits of a well-recognized
music scene.
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
ethnicity on the census form, believing the
bureau when it assured them such informa
tion would be classified.
But in 1942, the federal government began
to imprison citizens of Japanese descent in
concentration camps with the help of the cen
sus information submitted just two years
earlier.
Of course, the bureau never disclosed any
individual’s name or address.
Instead, the bureau told thejustice
Department which census tracts (neighbor
hoods) had high proportions of citizens with
Japanese ancestry, thus technically keeping its
promise of confidentiality.
Likewise, the Census Bureau has already
advertised anew commercial product, known
as the TIGER (Topical Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Referencing) system, which will
help marketers and credit bureaus gather data
on individual households. Names and
addresses will be omitted, but the other “con
fidential” census data will be divulged.
At best, the 2000 Census is just a nosy gov
ernment attempt to pry into the private lives
of its citizens.
At worst, it is a w'ay for social planners to
use personal information stored in a collective
database to justify new transfer programs in
accordance with their preconceived notions of
“equality.”
Government questions become more
detailed and invasive with each new census.
By undermining personal privacy, the Census
Bureau is playing an active role in the erosion
of individual liberty.
Therefore, 1 hereby offer a Census 2000
version that would not only uphold the
Constitutional mandate for enumeration but
also substantially boost compliance:
Question 1: How many people live at your
residence?
T he End.
And if, for whatever reason, you voluntari
ly choose to include bathroom information,
you would certainly be free to do so.
Jonathan Trager is a senior journalism and
mass communication major from Long Island,
N.Y. who believes the government has wire
tapped his brain. Send messages via electric
impulse to trager@email.unc.edu.
Another criticism was that the station
fails to reflect the musical taste of the stu
dent body. There’s an obvious lack of
input, for jocks are always encouraging lis
teners to make suggestions. Furthermore,
disc jockeys go to great lengths to satisfy
difficult requests by playing songs of the
same artists or w ithin the same genre.
Other people attack WXYC’s eclectic
mix, preferring a prefab blend instead, but
when an entire repertoire is homogenized,
you stand little chance of reprieve.
It seems more comforting to know that a
piece you happen to dislike will be fol
lowed by something completely different
that you might actually enjoy, possibly for
the first time.
WXYC should be commended for its
vanguard approach. The only disappoint
ment I have is that its tower doesn’t trans
mit far enough, for such great program
ming could broaden the horizons of an
even larger audience.
Dan Stern
Groundsworker
North Carolina Botanical Garden
Uhr iaily aar Hrd
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
(2>
A
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