QJljp Satlg ®ar Hppl
Fare-Free Busing Is Solution to Campus Parking Woes
Parking sucks. There isn’t much
else to say about it While many
of us may worry about who to
blame for this mess (it’s Tee Pruitt and
the Carolina Athletic Association, by
the way), it seems as though we are
doomed for eternity to have a poor sit
uation when it comes to trying to park
a car on campus.
We resort to every other mode of
'transportation imaginable, from good
old walking to biking to those little
motorized scooter thingies. Now, the
motorized scooter thingies are cool,
but I’d like to make a suggestion to
many of you who may now scramble
every morning to figure out how to get
to campus: Take the bus - for free.
Tomorrow we will vote on a propos
al that would begin the process of mak-
(Fare-Free Transit Ignores Real Busing Issues and
The real question before you on
the ballot tomorrow is: Do you
want expanded bus service or
free bus service? Those who promote
free bus service will lead you to think
that both are possible. This is very mis
leading.
While we at Think Transit are excit
ed that the UNC community is
addressing transit problems and
searching for long-term solutions, we
feel that the answer to our current and
foreseeable transit problems is not fare
free busing. Instead, Think Transit, a
student-run organization that promotes
the use of mass transportation in the
local community, encourages the cam
pus to lobby for increased services
from Chapel Hill Transit including
greater frequency of buses, expanded
and extended hours.
* Fare-free busing will prevent Chapel
DTH Readers Endorse Their Favorite Student Candidates
Annie Peirce Would
Serve UNO’s Asian
Community as SBP
.'TO THE EDITOR:
The Asian American Center for
’Development endorses Annie Peirce for
■ student body president because of her
interest in making the Asian population
a more prominent presence on campus
'and her willingness to generally unify
•minority groups at UNC.
1 She is the only candidate who has
pledged to add a chairman position in
her Cabinet exclusively meant to serve
* as the link between the Asian commu
nity and student government and will
have a representative to specifically deal
with minority affairs. Annie under
stands the wealth of diversity within
UNC’s Asian population, and she gen
uinely wants to exploit the viewpoints
accompanying this diversity by giving
Asians a meaningful voice in student
government.
Shailen Sehgal
Co-President
Asian American Center for
Development
Reid Chaney Will Keep
Olympic Sport Interest
Among Fever Members
. TO THE EDITOR:
If you are an athlete, if you know an
athlete, or if you enjoy UNC athletics,
then this is about you. Carolina Fever is
Visit to Iraq Provides More Complete View of Sanctions
Find yourself in the desert, and
you’ll quickly discover that things
aren’t always what they appear.
You might notice an unlikely sight in
the distance -a pool of water rising
from out of the sand. But closer inspec
tion reveals that your watering hole
was only a mirage.
Many Americans have formed an
impression about the sanctions on Iraq
that is likewise just an illusion. They
"have come to believe the nation is a
■threat to its neighbors and that eco
-nomic pressure from the United States
has been instrumental in deterring this
menace. But a closer look reveals these
perceptions are only so much hot air
emerging from factually arid grounds.
1 I returned from a six-day trip to Iraq
about a week and a half ago. I traveled
there with a delegation of about two
dozen other Americans, delivering
medicines, school supplies, and other
. -aid into the country. We also brought
back firsthand observations of the con
ditions that sanctions created.
Nearly a decade ago, the UN
' 'Security Council imposed this econom
ic embargo following Iraq’s defeat in
the Gulf War. The justification - Iraq
was brewing a secret program to devel-
\W 1
BRAD MATTHEWS
POINT OF VIEW
ing the Chapel Hill Transit System
fare-free. For a small fee increase of
$8.49 each semester, every one of us
would be able to get on the bus with
out paying a fare or buying a bus pass.
You might be thinking, “Brad, this is
great! How can I get one of those
motorized scooter thingies?”
BRAD RATHGEBER
AND
AMANDA BOENISH
POINT OF VIEW
Hill Transit from improving service in
any of these areas. Let’s look at the
economics.
According to the proposed referen
dum, the $8.49 per semester student
fee increase raises $500,000 of the $1
million total that the University will
contribute toward the total cost of fare
free busing. Chapel Hill Transit
Authority has agreed to pay the
remaining 60 percent of the cost for
fare-free service. This agreement ini
tially seems like a deal. But as Rachel
Willis, UNC adjunct associate profes-
the Carolina Athletic Association’s fan
club, and on Tuesday, you have the
chance to support Carolina Fever by
voting for CAA President.
Fever is the section of people clad in
blue shirts and body paint you’ve seen
and heard at soccer matches, field hock
ey games, swimming and diving meets,
football walk-throughs, volleyball
games, wresding matches, women’s bas
ketball games, and gymnastic tourna
ments.
With the band, Fever leads the crowd
in spirit, participates in halftime events,
goes crazy with body paint and chants
original cheers. Without their atten
dance at the women’s basketball game
against Duke University, the number of
Duke fans would have easily outnum
bered Carolina’s home fans. Carolina
Fever made it a home game.
If you have never been to an Olympic
sports game, then maybe you know
Fever from men’s basketball games.
Throughout the year, members earn
points for men’s basketball tickets by
attending more than 20 Olympic sports
games. At the beginning of the year,
coaches from various sports called
Carolina Fever the backbone of cheer
ing at Olympic sports games - now that
is at risk.
CAA candidate Michael Songer
wants to eliminate Carolina Fever’s
reward system, thus downsizing the
number of willing fans at sporting
events. CAA candidate Reid Chaney
knows the importance of organized fans
and intends to keep Fever intact. If you
think you are voting for shorter basket
ball lines or online distributions, you are
TOMAS MURAWSKI
POINT OF VIEW
op weapons of mass destruction.
When I visited the country, the only
apparent destruction was the wide
spread poverty left in the wake of the
blockade.
The people most affected by the
economic crisis are those who can least
afford it - the poor, the sick, the
young.
Supposedly the target of sanctions,
the ruling elite suffer little from the
embargo. Even as the nation, as a
whole, crumbles under a poor econo
my, cranes and construction scaffolds
are going up in wealthier neighbor
hoods to put the finishing touches on
sprawling private homes.
But according to Scott Ritter, former
head of the UN weapons inspection
team, the widening gap between rich
and poor hasn’t encouraged resistance
from below.
“Practically speaking,” he reasoned,
“there is virtually no chance that oppo
sition groups could overthrow
Saddam.”
Viewpoints
To help everyone focus on the
importance of the proposal, which is
not to give everyone a motorized
scooter thingy, here are some helpful
things to remember about the fare free
proposal on Tuesday’s ballot:
■ It’s a great deal for students.
Instead of paying more than S2OO a
year for a bus pass this cuts the annual
cost to sl7. Even if you don’t ride the
bus now, because 70 percent of our stu
dents five off campus, chances are very
good that you will at some point. If you
pay the fee for four years and ride the
bus for one year, you still save more
than SIOO.
For those of you who plan on living
on campus all four years, think of it as
11 round trips to the grocery store or
the mall - it’s still a good deal.
sor economics and Triangle Transit
Authority trustee, notes, “the 75 cents
(fare) isn’t stopping anyone. It is not
the price but really the frequency of
service and how late service is provid
ed.”
As Willis explains, fare-free busing
would eliminate a revenue source, thus
leading to budget cuts that would result
in less service. Instead, the University
should encourage ridership by direct
ing this money to expanding and
improving service and to providing
subsidized bus passes to current riders.
Not only would more ridership help
create a more convenient bus system
for everyone, but it would attract
greater federal support. Federal money
is distributed based on efficiency;
transportation systems with the greatest
number of riders will benefit the most.
When greater frequency, longer hours
wrong; the Carolina Ticket Office dic
tates how tickets are given out.
Please vote for Carolina Fever on
Tuesday because without Fever, we will
become a “basketball school.” Our ath
letes and friends deserve better than
that.
• Emma Griffis
Sophomore
History and Sociology
Sarah Parker
Junior
Nursing and French
Sport Clubs Endorse
Peirce For Platform
That Is ‘Far-Reaching’
TO THE EDITOR:
The Sports Clubs Program formally
endorsed candidate Annie Peirce for
Student Body President at a meeting
Feb. 5.
The Sports Club Program is one of
the largest group on campus, consisting
of 55 individual clubs with over 2,000
members campuswide.
The decision to endorse Peirce came
after a Jan. 25 forum open to all SBP
candidates and sports club members. Of
the eight candidates, Dustyn Baker,
Justin Young, Eric Johnson, Charlie
Trakas and Peirce attended.
After listening to each candidate’s
platform, students asked questions and
voiced support for certain candidates.
Based on feedback from the individ
ual sport clubs, the Sport Club
Executive Council has chosen to
Ritter has also dropped a few bombs
about the reality of the weapons pro
gram allegedly alive and well in Iraq.
“Today,” he said flady, “Iraq no
longer possesses arms of mass destruc
tion.”
Of course, people familiar with
Middle Eastern politics will remember
seemingly damning reports of weapons
inspectors being denied access to some
of the sites they wanted to investigate.
In 1998, Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf,
Iraq’s minister of foreign affairs,
explained the real reasons his govern
ment limited access to these locations.
The Western media has not publi
cized these explanations. Nor have
they given much air to the effects of
sanctions on the general population of
Iraq.
I didn’t fully understand the embar
go’s impact until I actually visited the
nation.
During my stay in Iraq, I traveled to
Basra, a city in southern Iraq, and one
of the areas hit hardest by sanctions.
Fashionable homes in Basra are in
disrepair, with chipping paint and
eroding masonry. People who once
lived comfortable lives are now
reduced to selling their personal
■ It will ease crowding on the Ü
bus. For all you South Campus resi
dents, voting for this proposal will pave
the way for you to just hop on the S, P
or the Reverse U buses to get direcdy
to the Student Union or jump on the U
or the N buses to go up to Franklin
Street. The frequency of buses and the
number of options available to you will
increase with a fare-free system.
■ It will not damage the level of
service. The transit system has the
excess capacity to handle an increase
in riders. The maintenance of the sys
tem must continue to be a priority for
the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro
as well as the University. This proposal
is a great signal of that commitment.
■ It’s convenient. Having access to
all bus routes will improve students’
and weekend service are the factors
that would increase ridership, fare-free
busing is a move in the wrong direc
tion.
Does the 75 cents fare discourage
your ridership on the bus? Or is it the
inconvenience of a bus system that
does not suit your schedule?
Think Transit feels that the true
problem facing the UNC community is
scheduling that does not meet student
needs.
Rachel Green, a senior from
Greensboro, explained, “Asa student
who takes the bus daily, I would rather
have buses that come more often and
later in the day than ones that were
free and didn’t come as often or as late
in the day.”
Others like her complain about the
inconvenience of the bus. For example,
many lament that the N-bus that serves
endorse Peirce. Peirce’s platform was
the most far-reaching and has the poten
tial to impact all student organizations,
including Sport Clubs.
Peirce’s platform includes “increas
ing funding for all University sport
clubs.” She was the only candidate to
specifically address sport club issues,
and the council feels that she is the most
qualified and best-prepared candidate
in the field.
The Sport Clubs Program whole
heartedly supports Peirce and pledges at
least 100 votes to her.
Meredith Hermance
Vice President
Sport Club Council
Justin Young Would
Bring Different Ideas to
Executive Branch, SBP
TO THE EDITOR:
I am proud to endorse and support
Justin Young for student body president
because he is the only student body
president candidate who has pledged to
reject the thousands of dollars and the
perks of the office and return the money
to us through his creative new program
the Student Empowerment
Endowment. In rejecting the salary of
the office, Young also shows that he is a
different kind of candidate.
After many years of a Suite C com
posed of resume-padding, ambitious
pencil-pushers, Justin Young is a real
leader who defies old stereotypes,
breaks down old barriers, and has the
belongings to make ends meet.
Schools are littered with garbage -
trash collection being only one of the
services scrapped when hard times
began.
Sewage and drainage systems are
also going to rot. Rainwater has begun
to pool in the slums, stagnating without
proper runoff. Children absently play
in these disease-ridden ponds, contract
ing illnesses that clinics and hospitals
can’t always treat.
I toured hospitals in both Baghdad
and Basra and saw the impact sanc
tions have had on a health care system
that was once the envy of the whole
Middle East. Doctors at Basra’s
Birthing and Maternity Hospital have
made do without IV bags or blood for
transfusions, and sterilization exists
only in surgery because of a dearth of
proper equipment. Power outages
intermittently black out the hospital.
The poor health of Iraq’s infrastruc
ture does not, however, imply that the
government has been remiss in its
duties. The state has provided a great
deal of support to its institutions. It has
rebuilt nearly all of the structures
destroyed in Gulf War bombings. It
supersaturated the economy with cur
ability to get around town without hav
ing to worry about passes or loose
change. It will also increase the num
ber of options students have for getting
around campus.
■ It’s good for the environment. We
know this one, right?
■ It’s good for future growth of the
campus.
With plans to get even larger, we
have to pay attention to the alterna
tives to simply parking on campus.
This is a smart way to enhance a very
good transit system and to encourage
more use of the buses.
■ It is a proposal.
Bear in mind that this is the first step
in the process. By voting for fare-free
transit, you are authorizing an official
offer to be made to the University,
the Bolinwood apartment complex
runs at 45-minute intervals between
7:15 a.m. and 6:55 p.m. What do other
students want? No one really knows,
because there has not been a compre
hensive poll.
Research seems to be lacking for
this proposal. There has yet to be a
study completed on fare-free busing for
the University done by the UNC
administration, student government or
an outside source. Think Transit
believes before spending $1 million,
we should have analyzed the effects of
possible solutions before choosing one.
Moreover, University committees
that address transit issues (the
Transportation and Parking Advisory
Committee and the Board of Trustees)
have yet to endorse fare-free transit.
Finally, a last question: Why should
students support this proposal to the
truly diverse experiences necessary to
succeed.
Young has shown the traditional and
nontraditional experience that we need
in student government. He has success
fully managed and expanded successful
programs like Freshman Camp and
Project UNC while dancing in a baby
pool in the Pit to raise money for hurri
cane relief and starring on STV's come
dy show “Off the Cuff.”
He has already proven his ability to
be an accessible but humble candidate,
remaining visible around campus and
having a fantastic Web site. Thousands
of students have visited it at
http://www.unc.edu/~jcyoungto check
out his video spoofs and read about his
plans to work for a better future at
UNC.
I will be one of the first to vote for
Justin Young on Tuesday, and I encour
age every other student to do the same
- to support the candidate who under
stands the UNC experience and wants
to put his diversity to work for us.
Will McKinney
Sophomore
Political Science
Julius Peppers Would
Make Popular and
Intimidating President
TO THE EDITOR:
Let’s face it: Only on man on this
campus has what it takes to be student
body president.
It’s not the ability to schmooze with
rency that, once inflated, brought
down the price of labor and allowed it
to rebuild.
Iraq also has one of the best food
distribution systems in the world.
Khalil Amir, the representative of the
UN’s Food and Agriculture
Organization in Baghdad, commended
this rationing program, known as “the
food basket,” when I met him in per
son.
“The rationing system in Iraq is a
perfect system,” he insisted. “Everyone
is getting his ration on time and in a
systematic, computerized way.” Even
so, problems persist, owing partly to
the constipated machinations of the
UN bureaucracy charged with operat
ing the “Oil for Food" program.
Millions of dollars in contracts are
currendy on hold at UN headquarters
in New York. Orders for ambulances
are being withheld in the unlikely
event the Iraqi government uses the
vacuum tubes standard on the vehicles
to drop viruses from warplanes.
The unavailability of these items
have also brought related services to a
standstill because, as Kahil noted, the
production and delivery of even one
item depends on the integrity of the
Monday, February 12, 2001
Chapel Hill and Carrboro to make the
system fare-free. As students, we would
only be paying a part of the cost, and
the three other parties involved would
have to agree as well. If we can’t reach
an agreement, there will be no fee
increase.
A fare-free transit system is a big
step. It is a step that makes sense.
Public transit exists for many reasons,
but the goal has always been to have a
high level of ridership. This will help
students and achieve that goal. And
hey, with all the money you’ll save, you
could go buy a motor scooter thingy.
Student Body President Brad
Matthews is a senior political science
major. Reach him with questions and
comments at bwad@email.unc.edu.
Problems
tune of $500,000 a year? Good ques
tion. Fare-free busing does not have
the support of University transporta
tion committees, sufficient research has
not been completed, and the plan does
not best meet the current transit needs
of our community.
Tomorrow, we strongly urge you to
vote “no” on the referendum for fare
free busing. But we remind you this
vote is not a no for mass transit
Instead, it can be a sign of support for
increased frequency of buses, more
routes and longer hours as long as we
voice this preference.
Brad Rathgeber is a senior from
Kensignton, Conn., and president of
Think Transit. Amanda Boenish is a
junior from Jacksonville, Fla., and
treasurer of Think Transit Comments
are welcome at thinktransit@unc.edu.
administrators or form anew commit
tee that matters; it’s having forearms of
steel and killer tattoos.
That’s right: On Tuesday, I’m voting
for Julius Peppers.
Now, I’m not just saying this because
he threatened me.
But if he did, I would say anything he
wanted, because Julius Peppers is a big,
big man. And he could hurt me. Badly.
All of the “official” candidates tell us
the student body president race isn’t a
popularity contest
But don’t you think it should be? It
would be a lot more fun if we had a
president who is well-known and
respected by all.
And who better than the dunkmaster
general himself, Julius Peppers?
Nobody cares about the so-called
“issues.”
We just want a student body presi
dent we can be proud of- and fear. For
all of you politicos, you can still handle
the insignificant day-to-day stuff like
forming committees and holding stu
dent forums.
In the meantime, our student body
president will be out sacking quarter
backs and shattering backboards. Now
isn’t that the kind of leadership we
need?
Julius Peppers rewarded our loyalty
when he decided to come back for
another year shouldn’t we thank him
on Tuesday? Vote Julius Peppers for stu
dent body president!
Brad Morrison
Senior
Political Science
entire infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the cultural and political
isolation resulting from the embargo
has made a bad situation worse. This
problem is especially severe, according
to a Franciscan nun working with Iraqi
refugees in Jordan, because it starves
the nation of hope. “I wouldn’t say it’s
worse than the people with no medi
cine,” she said, “but its on par, because
it is the future of the country.”
Iraq’s isolation from the rest of the
world has also stemmed the flow of
information into the nation. Its people
are exposed to only the “truth” the
regime wants them to know; television
stations mn a mind-numbing program
ming schedule that features all
Saddam, all the time.
As long as sanctions deprive Iraq of
outside contact, Hussein will continue
to exert a stranglehold on the country.
And its people will continue to suffer,
while the world sees a mirage of defi
ance and danger where only misery
exists.
Tomas Murawski Is a journalism and
mass communication and linguistics
major from Hickory. Reach him at ash
can_rantings@yahoo.com.
9