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Pour the Bubbly
A ceremony marks the
dedication of anew school,
See Page 7
www.dailytarheel.com
Taliban Abandons Kabul, Flees South
In an intense four days of battle,
the Northern Alliance has seized
much of northern Afghanistan,
driving out Taliban forces.
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban military
forces deserted the capital of Kabul on
Tuesday after a series of stunning military vic
tories by opposition forces. At dawn, residents
shouted congratulations
to one another and
Northern Alliance sol
diers, honking car horns
America
wAttacks
and ringing bicycle bells.
Northern Alliance forces began moving
into the capital in pickup trucks loaded with
soldiers armed with rifles and rocket launch-
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DTH/KARA ARNDT
Ronald Brewer, a cornerback for UNC's football team, reads Dr. Seuss to children from Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill.
Literacy Day, the first event of Children's Rights Week, gave the football team the opportunity to give back to the community
and the chance for children to meet some local celebrities. See page 4 for the story.
Discrimination Ruling Reversed
By Lizzie Breyer
University Editor
A judge’s recommended decision in a sex discrim
ination and age discrimination lawsuit against the
University was overturned by a state panel Thursday.
The State Personnel Commission reversed
Administrative Law Judge Sammie Chess’June 21
decision in which Chess found that UNC employee
Bobbie Sanders had been wrongfully passed over
for promotion on the basis of her age and gender.
In a 53-page statement, the commission found
that no discrimination occurred against Sanders
and ordered that the Office of State Personnel con
duct an investigation into UNC’s hiring practices.
“Despite the Commission’s ultimate finding that no
illegal discrimination occurred, the Commission wish
es to express its concern about the possible impropri
eties in the unstructured hiring process that apparent
ly occurred,” the commission stated in its decision.
But Sanders’ lawyer, A1 McSurely, said he was
distressed that the decision was overturned and that
he did not feel the study was enough to rectify his
client’s situation. “(Chess) is a very distinguished
judge -a trained law judge who has been an admin
istrative law judge for about 15 years, who they
dissed in about 10 minutes,” McSurely said. “We will
appeal this immediately ... and ask him to overturn
I'm extraordinarily patient provided I set my own way in the end.
Margaret Thatcher
KB
ers. They met no resistance as they gained
control of military barracks that only three
hours before had been in Taliban hands.
Northern Alliance soldiers worked their
way through neighborhoods, doing house-to
house searches looking for any remaining
Taliban soldiers and their Arab supporters.
Associated Press reporters heard sporadic
small arms fire coming from the hills over
looking the city - apparently the work of
Northern Alliance soldiers celebrating their
return to the capital.
Residents moved cautiously. They rode
bicycles, stopping to ask each other, “Where
are the Taliban?”
As they retreated, the Taliban took eight
foreign aid workers, including two
Americans, accused of spreading Christianity
in Muslim Afghanistan, witnesses told the AP.
“I saw them with my own eyes. They put
them in the truck and then left at midnight.
SHOWING OFF SEUSS
this. One of the parts of the appeal will be that the
State Personnel Commission did not review the
whole record, which they are required to do by law.”
Several members of the commission did not
return phone calls Monday night.
Sanders was employed in the Office of Research
Services at UNC as a computer systems adminis
trator when she applied for a promotion in 1999.
Members of the department interviewed three
candidates for the position, including Sanders.
Andy Johns, a man in his mid-20s, ultimately was
awarded the job. Sanders was 47 at the time.
Sanders then sued for sex and age discrimina
tion, claiming that she was not ever seriously con
sidered for the position. But the commission’s deci
sion based its findings on the testimony of Mark
Crowell, one of Sanders’ supervisors.
“UNC-CH has, through the testimony of Mark
Crowell, articulated legitimate, nondiscriminatory
reasons for promoting Mr. Johns rather than
(Sanders),” the decision states.
McSurely said he was disappointed with the
decision and that he hoped to see it reversed again
on appeal. “(The commission) just had a totally dif
ferent way of viewing the case.”
The University Editor can be reached at
udesk@unc.edu.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Stuck in the Mud
Construction mishaps prompt
another delay in Union renovation
See Page 3
They said they are going to Kandahar,” said
Ajmal Mir, a guard at the abandoned deten
tion center in the heart of the city where the
eight had been held.
From the rooftop of the Intercontinental
Hotel on a hill overlooking Kabul, columns of
Taliban vehicles could be seen heading south
beginning Monday night. The exodus con
tinued after sunrise.
“I think it is great news. It means the initial
phase of the campaign is going well,” Army
Secretary Thomas White said.
White said he thought “a combination of
well-targeted air power along with movement
on the ground by Northern Alliance forces”
prompted the Taliban to flee Kabul.
Weeks of bombing by the United States
weakened the Taliban sufficiently for the
Northern Alliance to move across enemy
lines. President Bush launched the air cam
paign Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand
Eye on the Ball
Durant stays strong
despite a difficult week.
See Page 7
Volume 109, Issue 113
Chancellors Protest
Proposed BOG Study
The 16 UNC-system chancellors met Friday
to determine the content of a letter to the
N.C. General Assembly criticizing the study.
By Julia Lamm
Staff Writer
UNC-system chancellors banded together Friday to protest
the time and necessity of a proposed legislative study examin
ing the UNC-system’s Board of Governors - the policy-mak
ing body charged with governing the system’s 16 campuses.
All 16 chancellors signed a letter that was addressed to
members of the N.C. General Assembly. It received its final
signatures Monday and will be sent to lawmakers in the next
few days.
The N.C. Senate passed a bill last month calling for the cre
ation of a commission that would study the BOG’s size, struc
ture, mission and powers. The N.C. House has yet to act on
the legislation.
Former N.C. Govs. Jim Hunt, James Holshouser, Jim
Martin and Bob Scott and former UNC-system Presidents Bill
Friday and C.D. Spangler also sent a letter several weeks ago
See LETTER, Page 2
over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United
States.
The Taliban forces, which took control of
Kabul in 1996, were heading south toward
the town of Maidan Shahr, about 25 miles
south of Kabul.
As it had in the north of the country, the
Islamic militia appeared to have decided to
surrender territory rather than fight. By mov
ing south, the fighters seemed ready to fall
back toward the last major Taliban stronghold
of Kandahar.
The area around the Taliban spiritual cap
ital is rugged, mountainous terrain littered
with caves that are believed to provide hide
outs for bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist
organization.
At the United Nations, the United States,
See ATTACK, Page 2
260 Die, 6 Missing
In N.Y. Jet Crash
Witnesses in Queens, N.Y.,
report hearing an explosion
and seeing an engine and
debris falling from the jet.
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - A jediner en route to
the Dominican Republic broke apart
minutes after takeoff and crashed in a
waterfront New York neighborhood
Monday, engulfing homes in flames and
sowing initial fears of anew terrorist
atrocity. All 260 people aboard were
killed, and at least six others were
reported missing on the ground.
“All information we have currendy is
that this is an accident,” said Marion
Blakey, chairwoman of the National
Transportation Safety Board. If there
was an explosion on the plane -and
many witnesses heard one- it was prob
ably caused by a mechanical failure,
investigators said.
American Airlines Flight 587, a
European-made Airbus A3OO, left
Kennedy Airport at 9:14 a.m., 74 min
utes late because of security checks put
in place after the World Trade Center
attack, according to American Airlines
chairman Don Carty. It took off into a
clear blue sky.
Three minutes later, it spiraled nose
first into the Rockaway Beach section of
Queens -a middle-class neighborhood
15 miles from Manhattan that lost scores
Trustees Set to Form
Tuition Committee
By Daniel Thigpen
Assistant University Editor
Chancellor James Moeser said
Monday that a committee will form at
Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting to
investigate and help craft a campus-ini
tiated tuition proposal.
Moeser expects the BOT to vote on a
tuition proposal - no details of which
have yet been determined - injanuary.
During his Sept. 5 State of the
University address, Moeser announced
his intention to propose a five-year plan
for campus-initiated tuition increases to
the BOT at its November meeting.
At the BOT’s September meeting,
Moeser informally proposed the five
year plan. But Moeser said Monday that
he decided to delay a specific proposal
because he wanted to solicit input from
different segments of campus.
Instead BOT members will hear a
Weather
Today: Sunny; H 65, L 36
Wednesday: Sunny; H 71, L 42
Thursday: Clouds; H 72, L 45
Northern Alliance Takes Kabul
Taliban forces abandoned Kabul last night allowing Northern Alliance troops
to move into the capital city of Afghanistan. The arrows signify Northern
Alliance military movement in recent weeks - starting with the takeover of
Mazar-e Sharif on Friday, followed by a rapid movement south to the capital.
_ . . iffe Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Iran
Mf Pakistan =
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of its people, including firefighters and
financial workers, in the Trade Center
catastrophe just two months ago.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, no, not again,’”
said Milena Owens, who was putting up
Thanksgiving decorations when she
heard an explosion.
Furious orange flames towered above
the treetops, and a plume of thick, black
smoke could be seen miles away.
Authorities found the cockpit voice
recorder, one of the two “black boxes”
from the twin-engine jet, and said it
would be examined for clues.
Witnesses reported hearing an explo
sion and seeing an engine, a large chunk
of a wing and other debris falling off the
plane.
“I saw pieces falling out of the sky,”
said Jennifer Rivara, who watched
through a window at her home about
five blocks away. “And then I looked
over to my left and I saw this huge fire
ball, and the next thing I know, I hear
this big rumbling sound. I ran to the
door and all I saw was big black smoke.”
An engine was found intact in a park
ing lot at a Texaco station, where it had
missed the gas pumps by no more than
6 feet; neighbors ran to the scene with
garden hoses to put out the fire. The ver
tical stabilizer - the tail fin - was pulled
from Jamaica Bay, just offshore, Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani said.
American Airlines said there were 251
passengers - including five infants sitting
See CRASH, Page 2
presentation from the provost’s office
Thursday detailing how UNC’s tuition
compares with its peer institutions’.
Moeser did not cite which colleges the
study would consider UNC’s peers, but in
the past he has referred to the universities
of Virginia, Michigan, Califomia-Los
Angeles and Califomia-Berkeley as
UNC’s peers. All four institutions have
higher undergraduate tuition than UNC.
Moeser said he expects that a com
mittee will be created at Thursday’s
meeting to help craft the proposal that
will go to the board in January. The
committee will work to identify pressing
financial needs and determine where
additional tuition money is needed.
Moeser said students will be included
on the committee but could not provide
any details about how many students
would be included or whether the com-
See TUITION, Page 2
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