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Officials Defend Apartment Buildings' Safety
By Kathryn McLamb
Staff Writer
BY KATHRYN MCLAMB
Staff Writer
In the wake of two Chapel Hill apart
ment fires in less than a week, officials at
the complexes are defending the safety
of buildings and touting their response
to the victims of the blazes.
Chapel Hill Fire Marshal Caprice
Mellon said no cause had been deter
mined for the Timberlyne fire, although
fire department officials have ruled out
faulty electrical outlets as a cause.
Mellon refused to comment on the
Foxcroft fire because the investigation
was ongoing.
But residents at Foxcroft, including
residents of the apartment where the
flames originated, blame faulty wiring
for the fire.
Management officials at Foxcroft
Apartments said they would take pre
Plans for
Campus
To Hit Pit
Project Manager Linda
Convissor says today's
sessions will aim at
gathering student input.
By Brooke Roseman
Staff Writer
With ambitious plans in the works to
change the physical face of UNC during
the next 10 years, the University com
munity will have the chance to present
their views of the Master Plan this week.
Representatives from the
University’s Master Plan Committee
will be in the Pit from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30
p.m. today, rain or shine, to answer
questions students have about UNO’s
blueprint for future growth.
Linda Convissor, project manager
from the Office of Facilities Planning,
said the goal of the information session
today in the Pit was to give everyone a
chance to view an updated version of
the plan before summer.
“This has been a highly participatory
process on the part of the students, fac
ulty and staff,” she said.
The Master Plan, initiated in 1998 by
UNC officials, is a four-phase, long
term plan for campus growth.
“The entire committee wanted stu
dents especially to know where plans
stood before we broke for the summer.
We wanted to try to make it accessible
to the entire student body.”
Convissor said easels with the most
recent drafts of the plan would be on
hand, as well as members of the com
mittee, so students could view the plans
and pose questions.
One of the issues Master Plan
Committee student members had a
problem with were recreational facilities
such as fields and tennis courts that
would be removed once the Master
Plan is in place, Convissor said.
Student Body Vice President Lenssa
Rentas said she fought to keep recre
ational space during committee meet
ings.
She said the plan would take away
some recreation space that already
existed on campus such as the tennis
and basketball courts behind Cobb
Residence Hall, which would eventual-
See MASTER PLAN, Page 9
Committee Rejects Matthews' Elections Board Choice
By Mark Thomas
Staff Writer
Student Body President Brad
Matthews’ fledgling administration took
its first dip into political hot water
Tpesday night as one of his appoint
ments spurred a series of ethical ques
tions.
In a tension-laden meeting, the Rules
and Judiciary Committee of Student
Congress voted unfavorably on the
There is more stupidity around than hydrogen, and it has longer shelf life.
Frank Zappa
cautions to prevent a repeat of Monday
night’s blaze.
“In 1996, we had a fire that was also
thought to be caused by a bad light fix
ture,” said Charles Douthit, managing
general partner of Foxcroft’s ownership.
“Afterwards, we hired an electrician
to go around to every apartment and go
through everything where there might
be a problem. We’ll be doing that again
now.”
Douthit also said the management
was looking into structural changes that
would aid in fire prevention.
“There are some fire walls to stop
fires in the attic,” he said. “We are con
sidering adding more.”
Fire walls are sheetrock walls that
serve to slow or stop the spread of flame
from one apartment to another.
Douthit said Foxcroft had been
inspected by the Chapel Hill fire mar
Striking a Chord
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DTH/CHRISTINE NGUYEN
Members of Phantom FM jam at an apartment party in Ashley Forest. The band, comprised of UNC-CH students and
one UNC-Greensboro student, has played at the Top of Lenoir and at Pantana Bob's since its formation a year ago.
Local Band Searches for Keys to Success
By Christine Nguyen
Staff Photographer
Rock ’n’ roll history is paved with kids getting
together, buying a guitar and forming a band.
Sometimes that dream is realized, but for every
success story, there have been hundreds of bands
that have struggled to find their musical niche
among the famous.
One such band, formed a year and a half ago
at UNC, has already set on this path.
One day, they might be signing autographs,
playing stadiums and making millions, but for
now the budding musicians are paying their dues.
Phantom FM, consisting of four UNC students
and one UNC-Greensboro student, describes its
music as lyrically focused, hip-hop, pop rock.
It took a year and a half to get everyone on
appointment of Marissa Downs to the post
of chairwoman of the Elections Board.
After Downs confirmed for the com
mittee she was currently involved in a
relationship with Matthews, questions
swirled as to whether her appointment
constituted a conflict of interest.
Moments after Downs finished intro
ducing herself and touting her qualifica
tions for the post, questions began to fly
about the perceived conflict.
The contention stemmed from con
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Volume 108, Issue 40
shal only three weeks ago, with no prob
lems reported.
“They go through areas like the
office, the maintenance room and the
hallways,” he said.
“But they don’t go into each individ
ual apartment.”
Douthit said the management had
heard no major concerns about wiring
since the 1996 fire.
“But anything we’ve heard we have
tried to address immediately,” he said.
Timberlyne managers said they did
not believe wiring to be an agent in the
fire there, which occurred Friday morn
ing.
Both apartment complexes have
offered alternative accommodations for
victims of the fires and have observed
flexibility with lease contracts.
See FIRE, Page 9
board, but lead vocalist
Nate Katzin, drummer
Logan Matheny, key
boardist Lawson Bennett,
bassist Brennan Watson
and lead guitarist Zach
Gresham have meshed into
a solid band looking to
grow.
Phantom FM has bro
ken into the Chapel Hill
scene by playing at apart
ment parties and at Pantana
Bob’s.
Phantom FM has also
come into the spotlight at the Top of Lenoir twice
this year.
“Playing in Lenoir was fun because it’s where
cerns about Downs’ relationship with
Matthews during his bid for student
body president and her official duties as
vice chairman of the Elections Board at
the time.
Many committee members were
bothered about the perception that
Downs’ involvement with Matthews
compromised the legitimacy of student
government and the elections process.
“We need to move away from the
Elections Board of last year,” said
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DTH/SEFTONIPOCK
A firefighter makes his way onto the scene of a fire at Foxcroft
Apartments on Monday night. The blaze's cause is still unknown.
Focus on
we eat every day,” Bennett said.
“We played too loud and pissed off a lot of
people, but we made some fans, too. With every
show we play, we get closer to where we want to
be.”
The band is now writing more songs for a CD
they plan to produce by December. They have
also created a Web site {http://phantomFM.Bm.com)
to promote themselves.
Although it is the goal of many bands to find
the elusive breakthrough, Phantom FM say it’s
not one they think is out of reach.
“People are looking for music with meaning,”
Katzin said.
“Right now, music is either sugar-coated or
super-negative, and without complexity. We’ll
make it because we have the best lyrics and the
most creativity.”
Aspiring
Musicians
The DTH looks
at an issue in-depth.
See Page 5
Speaker Pro Tern Sandy Chapman,
referring to a series of mishaps that
plagued the board this elections season.
As Matthews looked on from the
doorway, Congress Speaker Alex Bell
spearheaded the discussion, calling into
question Downs’ decision to not with
draw from her high post on the Elections
Board despite her continued relationship
with Matthews during the campaign.
“I feel the integrity of student gov
ernment and the elections process has
been tarnished as a result of this,” Bell
said.
Bell said she was not accusing Downs
of any intentional wrongdoing, but said
Downs' relationship with Matthews
while acting in an official capacity creat
ed a negative perception of student gov
ernment. “Anybody in a similar situation
should have stepped down to preserve
the integrity of die voting process,” she
See COMMITTEE, Page 9
News/Features/Arts/Sports
Business/Advertising
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
C 2000 DTH Publishing Cotp.
All rights reserved.
Students
Push Nike
To Change
College students who visited
Nike's overseas factories
say officials should have
more dialogue with workers.
By Worth Ciyils
Staff Writer
Nike representatives heard firsthand
accounts about the conditions of their
factories and received recommenda
tions from students during a teleconfer
ence Tuesday.
Sixteen students, representing 14 uni
versities, were chosen by St John’s
University’s Code of Conduct Task
Force to personally tour Nike’s factories
during their spring breaks and take part
in the teleconference.
The students joined members of
PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consulting
firm Nike chose to independendy mon
itor its factory conditions. The team of
students and PwC monitors visited 32
Nike factories that produced UNC and
other collegiate-licensed apparel in
North America, Asia and Latin America.
While students said the conditions in
many of the factories were acceptable,
they pointed out problems with
employment records, explanation and
enforcement of conduct codes and com
munication with workers.
But students said they found only iso
lated incidences of physical abuse and
child labor, which they claimed partly
resulting from Nike announcing the vis
its beforehand.
Simon Pestridge, Nike labor prac
tices manager, said the company
formed the student monitoring team in
response to nationwide college protests.
Over die past year, students at UNC,
Duke University and several other insti
tutions have protested for improved
conditions and full disclosure of facto
ry sites. Nike has released the 46 facto
ry sites that produce UNC items, but
Pestridge said the company wanted to
give students more.
“We wanted to let an independent
group of students see and report back to
campuses,” Pestridge said. “The stu
dents said factories could improve, and
(they) found problems. Our work at
Nike is just starting.”
During the teleconference, the stu
dents made recommendations to
Pestridge and Nike Director of Labor
Practices Dusty Kidd. “In May, (Nike)
will start doing what the students rec
ommended,” Kidd said.
The student group made seven rec
ommendations to improve monitoring
processes and factory conditions.
The first three recommendations
were to increase the amount of
resources, training and time available to
the monitors on their factory visits.
Jonathan Dolle, a student from the
See NIKE, Page 9
1 s\K 11 Ipm
Wednesday
Funding Adventures
The University is increasingly investing
in start-up companies to line its purse.
Though a little risky, the investments
can be very lucrative. See Page A.
Colorblind Justice?
An N.C. legislative committee is
looking into allegations that minorities,
particularly blacks, disproportionately
receive the death penalty. See Page 7.
Summer Lovin’
Anyone interested in working for The
(Weekly) DTH this summer should meet
with Summer Editor Brian Frederick in
108 Bingham Hall at 7 p.m. today. We
need reporters, photographers, designers
and graphic artists. Previous experience
is helpful, but not required.
Today’s Weather
More rain;
High 61, Low 41.
Thursday: Cloudy:
High 61, Low 47.
*jt.
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