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14 Wednesday, April 26, 2000 Concerns or comments about our coverage? Contact the ombudsman at budman@unc.edu or call 605-2790. Scott Hicks EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR Katie Abel UNIVERSITY EDITOR Jacob McConnico CITY EDITOR Board Editorials Sorry, We’re Closed Put yourself in the shoes of someone stuck on campus over Easter: few food options, no SRC and no Student Stores. While many students fled Chapel Hill for the extended Easter weekend, those who stayed found little to do, thanks to UNC’s fetish for shutting down necessary facilities. The lack of services offered during the break screwed out-of-state students, which make up 17 percent of the undergraduate population, as well as the in state students who hung around for the three-day weekend. After all, not everyone could drive two hours or hop a jet to get home sweet home. For those unfortunate souls stuck in Chapel Hell last weekend, let’s take a walk in their shoes. After a long, deep sleep, you wake up in your spacious “apartment-style” South Campus room. You have a rumbling belly, so you decide to head over to Lenoir Dining Hall to grab some breakfast. Sorry. Lenoir is open only for three-hour intervals during brunch and dinner. And only Top of Lenoir is open for business. You don’t have a meal plan, and you don’t feel like you can eat $7.25 worth of sausage, so you go to a vending machine instead. After downing crackers and Coke, you decide to work off the blubber you packed on during the long, cold winter at the Student Recreation Center. You can almost taste the salty sweat soon to be pouring out of you. But to your dismay, the doors to the SRC don’t budge: closed. It must take too much effort to turn on the lights and sit at the desk. Clone the Funds First UNC officials must get their genetically engineered ducks in a row before they beg for cash from a financially strapped legislature. Now that the Human Genome Project is almost finished, researchers and scientists at UNC want to reap the benefits of having a completely mapped-out sequence of human DNA. But given the dire need for money already facing UNC, they need to put their own expensive goals on the back burner. In February, the UNC-system Board of Governors approved a $5.6 million supple mentary budget request to pay for laborato ry equipment and startup costs for new research into genomics - the practical appli cations derived from genetics research. Scientists expecting a wealth of informa tion from the Human Genome Project insist that UNC must get an early start in human genome studies to prevent being left behind. That $5.6 million, however, is just a frac tion of what the University is ultimately seek ing to spend on genomics research. Officials are anticipating a capital bond issue some time this year that will include about $ 100 million for faculty, staff and buildings devot ed to genomics. The Human Genome Project is perhaps one of the most important innovations in the history of natural science. Its findings will doubtlessly translate into very useful -and Readers' Forum Upcoming Unity Games Aim to Stop Separatism, Explode ‘Comfort Zones’ TO THE EDITOR: After four years at Carolina, I have come to understand something. Racism and prejudice aren’t so much the issues (although I do believe these still exist), but rather separatism is. We as a community tend to congregate toward similarities, similarities based on race, religion, gender, etc. Just about all of us are guilty of this, as are most students on every campus in America. What’s sad about this situation is that we are missing out on much learning, growth and fun because we refuse to get out of the comfort zones in which we live. How do you know if you’re living in a comfort zone? Just look at the people you hang around. Are they all pretty similar, or do they reflect a diverse representation of our community? OK, so you might be living in a comfort zone. What do you do now? This Friday on Ehringhaus fields, stu dent government is hosting the second annual Unity Games, a multicultural field day event that uses sports activities to build bridges between the various “comfort zones” on campus. I encourage everyone who wants to step out of his/her comfort Rob Neison EDITOR Office Hours Friday 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Matthew B. Dees STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR T. Nolan Hayes SPORTS EDITOR Leigh Davis FEATURES EDITOR You’re getting a little pissed as you head over to Student Stores to buy some choco late. After all, it is Easter. And you figure you’ll pick up some magazines and books to keep you busy since every entertainment complex on campus is closed. Another locked door greets you. Apparently charging $lO for a Snickers bar doesn’t generate enough income to keep the store staffed during the break. However, there is one thing open for your pleasure. No matter how hard you tried to find other activities, you’re forced to go to the library to study. There’s nothing better on vacation than studying chemistry and his tory in the dim, flickering light of the Undergraduate Library. You’re eventually kicked out of there too, as they are operating on shortened hours. But give them credit. They at least made the effort to serve students. It’s more than can be said for other facilities on campus. At the day’s end, you decide to reward yourself with a trip up to Top of Lenoir for dinner. Just like Mom used to make. UNC must be mindful of students who cannot leave during break and keep dining options, the SRC and Student Stores open. Cutting back on operating hours is under standable because of the lower number of students on campus, but by closing off ser vices students need, they screw those who are stuck here. Throw them a freaking bone. very profitable - technologies. UNC is right to get an early start by seeking funds for genomics. Unfortunately, excess funds are something the state does not have. A series of lawsuits and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Floyd have left North Carolina’s treasury rather depleted. Legislators are scrambling to fund the most basic of governmental opera tions. The prospects for expensive budget requests for nonessential purposes are dim at best, even with the University’s strong sup port in the N.C. General Assembly. Consequently, researchers are asking for funds for equipment to be put in a building that hasn’t been built and be used by staff that do not yet exist, all of which will be paid for by money that hasn’t yet been collected. The University and its researchers alike must realize the economic reality of their sit uation. The state at present cannot afford to fund the genomics program that scientists would like. A bond issue is the best means available to raise money, but UNC should not necessar ily depend on that issue passing. A lot can happen in a few months. zone to stop by the Pit today between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to find out more infor mation and sign up. Participants will enjoy free T-shirts, food and prizes, but spots are limited. The Unity Games is an effort to stop talking about building bridges and actual ly begin doing it through interaction, shared experiences and also a ton of fun. After four of the best years of my life, I realize that Carolina is special because of the people. I also realize after four years that I don’t know everything, that I still have a lot of growing and maturing left to do. Therefore, I must continue to allow all kinds of people to open my eyes to the community around me: its differences, its similarities and its needs. Zach Fay Former Chairman Student Government Human Relations Committee The length rule on letters was waived. Celebrate Achievements By UNC Undergraduates At Symposium on Friday TO THE EDITOR: I am writing to invite students, staff, fac Opinions alu> latlg (Tar lini Established 1893 * 107 Years of Editorial Freedom wrvw.unc.edu/dth Robin Clemow ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Carolyn Haynes COPY DESK EDITOR Miller Pearsall PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR DuJc t J m so e* ha&J s-.aa.-Bs?*- Tiny Effort Big Help for Rwandans I was going to use this space to ponder Alcohol Law Enforcement authorities and how utterly worthless their “Operation Saturation” program is. It no doubt would have been a funny col umn, as it doesn’t exactly take Chris Rock to poke fun at a group that takes themselves seri ously enough to deem giving out drinking tickets on the mean streets of Chapel Hill “Operation” anything. Maybe it’s just me, but entrapping col- lege kids and hard-working bartenders doesn’t exacdy seem like the noblest of all causes. I probably then would have went on to ask some questions of the ALE that have already been raised. Aren’t there areas with more seri ous crime problems that could badly use the money from this program? Or why is it that our society has such backwards views toward alcohol - don’t these restrictive rules just encourage the very binge drinking that they are intended to stop? Yup, I was all set to give them a piece of my mind (which I really can’t spare after these last three years), but then I read something in Time magazine that made the whole subject seem a lot less important. 1 like reading Time specifically for that rea son: it opens my eyes to issues, often disturb ing, that take place outside of the domain of sports utility vehicles and cell phones that we comfortably live in. It’s just way too easy to be a student at Carolina and forget that a world exists where the phrase “I have no money” means dying of starvation, as opposed to only going out two times a week instead of three. The story was about the dying mothers and children of Rwanda, a country that has been ravaged by ethnic warfare between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. If you don’t remember from History 18, these tensions came to a horrific climax in 1994 when an estimated 800,000 members of ulty and administrators to participate in the first campuswide Celebration of Undergraduate Research during the after noon of Friday, April 28 at the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence in Graham Memorial and nearby sites on campus. More than 90 students (freshmen through seniors) representing 30 depart ments will be presenting their results in either a performance, platform talk or poster. The goal of the symposium is to high light the many interfaces between faculty, graduate students and undergraduate stu dents in our large research University that have resulted in significant discoveries by our undergraduates. Thesis projects, research undertaken in particular courses and independent study will all be featured. I hope you will join us then. Patricia /. Pukkila Director Office of Undergraduate Research Pukkila Is also an associate professor of biology. To view a complete schedule of the event, with links to discussion descriptions and abstracts, visit the Office of Undergraduate Research’s Web site at www.unc.edu/depts/our/curuncch. To help Rwandans, visit www.netaid. com/survivalproject the minority Tutsi tribe were slaughtered. A Civil War in which the Tutsis overthrew the government followed, further hastening Rwanda’s demise. The end result of all this hatred amongst the peoples of Central Africa is a region of appalling poverty. As always happens in a sit uation such as this one, it is not the politicians or military leaders who suffer from the conse quences of their decisions, but instead the general population. Any modern necessity is scarce in Rwanda, especially hospitals and doctors, thus making the spread of disease rampant. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable, as a lack of trained physicians and clean sup plies results in one out of every nine women passing away during childbirth. Of the babies who survive, more than one in 10 don’t even make it through their first week. All right, now that I’ve ruined everyone’s day, let me explain. I don’t usually write on issues such as the one in Rwanda, because I personally find nothing more frustrating than hearing of grim situations and not being able to do anything to help, not to mention that nobody wants to read what amounts to a poli sci paper in the back of their Drama 16 class (I’m only kidding, when I had the class way back when, nobody was ever in class in the first place). The thing is, everybody knows that there are problems all over the world, but nobody really knows what they can do to help. With Private Donations, UNC Should Build Pool Without Forced Test TO THE EDITOR: Legend has it that the Navy Corps of Engineers, who helped build our pools, would only do it if UNC instituted a swim test. Officials OK’d this, the tale goes, to keep construction costs down. If this story is true, I suggest we blow up Bowman Gray and start over, without the Navy’s help. This, of course, would take money. I wish I could promise to supply the funds to demolish and rebuild the pool, not to men tion install a nice brass plaque and a tacky fountain in the new structure. Maybe I could add some really classy locker rooms and a lounge with vending machines. I’m not independently wealthy. But if we all chip in, we can raise enough cash to do everything I mentioned and more. If money is the reason why we have a swim test, then money can help us get it abol ished. Save future undergraduates from the humiliation of doggie paddling in public, the shame of sexist bathing suit design and the increased risk of athlete’s foot! Catherine McGivney Senior English Cate Doty & Vicky Eckenrode MANAGING EDITORS Thomas Ausman DESIGN EDITOR Megan Sharkey GRAPHICS EDITOR William Hill ONLINE EDITOR AMOL NAIK FROM THE DANK CAVE America Cannot Let Half Its Population Off Hook In Battle Against AIDS TO THF EDITOR: Quotes like Charles van der Horst’s in the April 13 article on AIDS and safe sex are exactly what maintain the double stan dard in America. In the discussion of low ering rates of sexually transmitted diseases, van der Horst suggested that the solution lies in answering the question of “How do you empower girls not to have sex?” This kind of sexist comment furthers the debilitating double standard that plagues our culture. This comment directed toward teaching “girls” to say “no” furthers the ignorant and long-held cultural idea that sex is something acceptable for boys but inappropriate for girls. Instead of “empowering girls not to have sex,” let’s empower everyone to be respon sible for their own actions. The responsi bility for abstinence and safe sex should not fall solely on women. Last time I checked, it takes two to pass on STDs or to get preg nant. We can’t afford to let half the popu lation off the hook. Amanda Harlow Freshman Sociology Slip Daily (Ear Hrri Terry Wimmer OMBUDSMAN I for one thought that aside from the self less act of joining an organization such as the Peace Corps, there was nothing I could do. Sure, there are programs that take donations to help those in need, but those 80 cents a day are too expensive for a college budget. Besides, with all those adds on TV starring that weird bearded dude, just how much money is going to those who need it anyway? Well, the article in Time not only shed light on the problems in Rwanda, but surprisingly it also gave an effective and inexpensive way to go toward solving it. The main reason so many mothers and children are dying is that the midwives who perform the deliveries simply don’t have clean supplies to use. This is where you can actually make a dif ference. All you have to do to help is go to www.netaid.com/survivalproject, and for $8 you can buy a birthing kit that provides the tools for a clean childbirth. The best thing is, none of your money goes toward administrative costs. The entire sum will go directly toward aid, with no gimmicks or catches. It’s really a no-brainer when you think about it, give up eight bucks one time and you can possibly save a life. That’s like two liquor drinks uptown (if the ALE doesn’t weasel you into a ticket first) or half a CD. The whole process honestly only takes a couple minutes, so the next time you’re checking your e-mail, are on Instant Messenger or are hitting Anna Komikova’s homepage, take a minute and go check it out. Although it doesn’t come close to solving all the problems of the world, at least it’s something. Seriously, before you tell yourself you can’t afford to give this small amount of money, put yourself in their shoes for a minute and then ask yourself if you can afford not to. Amol Naik is a junior history major from Lumberton.You can reach him with questions or comments at unc2ool@hotmail.com. f3> A The Daily Tar Heel wel comes reader comments and criticism. Letters to the editor 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 for space, clarity and vulgarity. Publication is not guaran teed. 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.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 26, 2000, edition 1
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