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Student Government's Achievements Go Unheeded
It now has been almost two years
since a student government
leader has stood up publicly to
the folks in South Building over a
major campus issue.”
- Katie Hunter, Editor, The Daily
Tar Heel
Student government has spent the
majority of the past year working on
being the voice of the student body -
your voice. The executive branch
and Student Congress work very
hard, and on any given day of the week you
can read about how we’ve helped improve
campus safety, fought the General Assembly or
responded to other campus concerns. You can
read about all of this not only in the DTH, but
also in the many e-mails we send updating you
about how to get involved - e-mails everyone
should be reading.
We work very hard to do the best job that we
can. We responded to the needs of the campus
community in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
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Masters of War, and Peace As Well
Those who forget histo
ry are doomed to
repeat it. That is a les
son America’s leadership
must heed if it ever wants to
break the cycle of violence
and oppression in
Afghanistan.
After weeks of careful
deliberation and (mostly)
judicious use of force,
America’s efforts are coming to
fruition. The Taliban’s hold on the
country is evaporating. The Northern
Alliance has already marched into
Kabul, and it seems certain that the
rest of the nation will soon be in their
hands.
Americans are understandably
pleased about this turn of events. Even
though Osama bin Laden and other al-
Qaida leaders remain at large, the
thoughts of the Bush administration
and its allies are already turning to a
post-Taliban government. And it is
here that the real work begins.
The last time America’s attention
was turned toward this particular cor
ner of the world was during the 1980s,
when the CIA-backed mujahideen
fought a lengthy guerrilla war against
the invading Soviet Army. That strug
gle ended with the ignominious retreat
of the Soviets in 1989. Unfortunately,
our interest in Afghanistan disap
peared with the withdrawal of the
Soviets.
By this time, the first President Bush
was focused on events in Iran and
Iraq. Afghanistan was no longer a
major factor in our foreign policy. The
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attacks. We have improved the acade
mic discourse on campus on
Tuesday, our Student Academic
Advising Board hosted a forum on
advising that provided extensive feed
back, despite low student attendance.
We even helped protect the DTH
from the invasion of USA Today and
other papers on campus through a
readership program that would sub
ject them to unfair competition.
And our resolve to make the student
voice heard on the issues of student
JUSTIN YOUNG
STUDENT BODY
PRESIDENT
parking, Qatar and campus -based tuition increas
es has never been stronger.
The decision to eliminate ori-campus resi
dent student parking was handed down by the
administration with no respect for student input
or feedback from the Transportation and
Parking Advisory Committee. Student govern
ment officials met with the administration pri
vately to demand that students have an oppor
tunity to voice their concerns - more impor
tantly, we needed the administration to agree
Americans left, leaving
behind a number of warring
factions, trained and armed
by the CIA and with no one
left to fight but themselves.
What happened next
seems all too predictable in
retrospect. Feuding warlords
spent the next seven years
reducing the country to a
Stone Age level of existence.
MARK SLAGLE
POINT OF VIEW
When the Taliban rose to power in
1996, it was actually welcomed by
many Afghanis as a stabilizing force.
What, if anything, could America
have done to prevent this? To begin
with, it should have left at least some
of its intelligence infrastructure in
place.
Instead, all of our assets were
removed from the region. Thus, when
our attention was forcibly diverted
back to Afghanistan, we were obliged
to rely on the Pakistani intelligence ser
vice, which is notoriously riddled with
pro-Taliban sentiment.
We also could have flooded the
country with aid to ensure the survival
of the social infrastructure. Instead,
almost every aspect of civil society has
vanished. Public schools have been
replaced with religious institutes that
teach jihad instead of history.
Now we are once again faced with a
changing of the guard in Afghanistan.
This time, however, we recognize that
the composition of anew government
cannot be left solely to whoever has
the most guns.
The American government’s single
greatest achievement of the last centu-
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Viewpoints
that this item would still be open for discussion.
At the end of last week, we were successful
in securing the kind of open debate on these
proposals we’ve been seeking for a month. Now
we call on all students to attend the next TPAC
meeting on Nov. 28 at 3:3opm. We have park
ing problems, but we need to collaborate on a
better solution than eliminating the few spaces
students have on this campus.
On the issue of Qatar, we expressed our frus
tration with the decision to send faculty, adminis
trators, and other members of the Board of
Trustees on a trip to the Middle East without any
students! Given the immediacy of the trip, there
wasn’t time for lawsuits or protests. More impor
tandy, these tactics may win batdes, but they
often lose wars.
There was an opportunity for calculated
negotiations to assure student involvement in
decisions from that point forward. Ultimately,
the chancellor admitted it was a mistake to
exclude student representation from the trip.
But private negotiation at the end of last week
led to the formation of the Chancellor’s Qatar
ry was the Marshall Plan. By devoting
our money and our time to the
rebuilding of a demolished continent,
we helped democracy flourish in coun
tries desperate to erase the stain of
totalitarianism. Now we must do the
same in Afghanistan.
To be sure, circumstances are differ
ent. There is no foreign occupation
force - our military involvement has
been limited to bombing sorties and
small commando operations. Yet to
abdicate our responsibilities on the
world stage would only invite further
disaster.
President Bush has already stated
that U.S. forces will not participate in
“nation-building.” But even if U.S.
troops aren’t deployed, America must
in some way support the concept of
“nation-building.”
The most feasible solution is for
America to throw its diplomatic weight
behind a proposal that would allow
U.N. forces from a moderate Muslim
nation - Turkey being the most logical
candidate - to take care of the actual
rebuilding process. America would
supply funds, advice and the moral
pressure needed to keep the interna
tional community’s attention focused
after the guns are silenced.
America once forgot about
Afghanistan, and it in turn spawned a
military and political quagmire not
seen since Vietnam. Willful indiffer
ence breeds nothing but sorrow. We
will ignore that lesson at our peril.
Reach Mark Slagle at
slagle@email.unc.edu.
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Focus Group, which will allow a group of 30
students to gather in-depth knowledge about
the proposal, present ideas for more ways to
enhance the program, and help the chancellor
in the decision about whether to establish a
campus in Qatar.
More importantly, we have asked that at
least a part of this group be asked to explore
Qatar when the opportunity for travel to the
Middle East presents itself again. We will be
accepting applications online for this student
seminar until Nov. 28 at http://www.unc.edu/
studentgovt.
Instead of organizing a large-scale protest on
the administration, we were more successful
with respectful negotiations. This could not
have happened if student government had
exhausted its resources on confrontation
instead of representation.
On the issue of campus-based tuition
increases, we again preferred negotiation. We
were successful with the help of other groups
like the Student Advisory Committee to the
Chancellor in pushing back the chancellor’s
Family Values: How Student
Parents Are Left High and Dry
With the passage of the bond initiative during last fall’s
elections, UNC is poised to improve its physical
plant in order to maintain its position as one of the
country’s top research universities. Indisputably, expanded and
updated facilities will contribute to the university’s productiv
ity, and we are fortunate that North Carolina
voters have reaffirmed a commitment to post
secondary education.
But the focus on bricks and mortar during
the next decade shouldn’t obscure the entire
range of conditions that allow faculty and students to perform
to their highest potential. Indeed, the argument could be made
that while the University maintains classrooms, laboratories,
and libraries that rank among the nation’s best, it settles for
mediocrity in terms of the social conditions that are just as crit
ical for sustaining academic excellence.
One such area of underperformance, I submit, is the sup
port offered to student parents.
Though an accurate count doesn’t exist, human resources
personnel estimate that 2,500 undergraduate, graduate and
professional students raise children while attending UNC.
Given that most students are under the age of 30, one can
assume that a majority of these are raising young children.
Services like childcare are essential to their success as students
and parents, just as they are for the successful careers of fac
ulty and staff.
Even under the best of circumstances, student parents face
serious challenges in trying to balance academics and child
rearing. Like other parents, they must integrate professional
and personal responsibilities, devising childcare arrangements
that allow them to devote adequate time to study, research and
teaching. But students must do so without the paid parental
leave or subsidized childcare available to others like them.
Many have only their part-time or meager assistant salaries to
cover their expenses.
In this regard, Chapel Hill is a difficult setting for students
raising children. In Orange County, more than 70 percent of
all parents with preschool-aged children work, so demand for
childcare is high. Tuition rates are the most expensive in the
state, and childcare spaces in facilities are extremely scarce.
Given these conditions, support for student parents seems
decidedly inadequate. Consider the following:
UNC childcare serves few students: Last year, only 20 of
the 186 childcare spaces at Victory Village and the Graham
Research Program were occupied by the children of student
parents.
UNC childcare is among the most expensive in Chapel
Hill: Victory Village, where children of student parents are
Student Congress: A Law Unto Itself?
Last Tuesday night, a coalition of
20 students representing various
campus organizations went
before Student Congress to ask that a
referendum regarding the issue of cam
paign finance reform be placed on the
ballot. We wanted to
give the student body a
chance to voice their
opinion on an issue that
directly affects students;
Frances Ferris
Guest Columnist
without meaningful campaign finance
laws, our access to lawmakers is
severely limited since we are not in the
financial position to donate to their
campaigns.
Our current political system dictates
that money is the way to have one’s
voice heard. Clearly, student voices fall
on deaf ears, as was evident during the
recent budget crisis in which our
tuition increased yet again while big
businesses, which can make large cam
paign contributions, continue to
receive tax breaks.
Our referendum failed to pass
Congress by a vote of 9-15. While dis
appointed with the outcome, I was also
deeply disturbed by the manner in
which Congress addressed our group.
Our proposal was received with mixed
response.
Some representatives genuinely
wanted to participate in an informed
debate about the issue at hand; others
seemed to be using any form of
rhetoric possible to make sure our
group was unsuccessful.
Congress’s main opposition to the
referendum hinged on the idea that by
allowing students to vote on an issue,
rather than just Congress, we are tak
ing away their power and authority by
circumventing them in the decision
process. Some members also feared
cared for, has some of Chapel Hill’s highest tuition rates, with
infant care approximately SI,OOO per month.
UNC offers limited childcare subsidy to students:
University childcare subsidy served seven student families this
past year, and the main financial assistance program budget-
Marc David
Guest Columnist
off-limits to students.
On average, only three dozen student families access
vouchers from sources outside the university. Taken togeth
er, these circumstances constitute a kind of structural penalty
against students with children. First, they must compete with
full-time wage earners in an expensive childcare market, but
without the benefit of full-time salaries. Second, they cannot
access public subsidy like other families in their income class.
Finally, rather than filling these gaps, the university has large
ly abandoned student families, offering them Chapel Hill’s
most expensive childcare and litde in the way of assistance.
Though the University cannot be expected to provide
childcare for all, what care it does offer should be more acces
sible and affordable to a greater number of student families. A
survey of UNC’s peer institutions suggests that the University
hasn’t exhausted all of the possibilities when it comes to fund
ing campus childcare centers and subsidy programs. In the
short term, measures that are commonplace elsewhere, like
sliding fee scales and the reservation of spaces for students,
would help make University-sponsored childcare a more fea
sible option for student parents.
The allocation of a portion of student fees for childcare sub
sidy and an increase in the University’s subsidy program are
more substantial steps which would mitigate against students’
exclusion from public subsidies.
Ultimately, the regulations restricting student access to pub
lic vouchers should be targeted for reform as well.
As we prepare to renew the University’s physical plant, we
shouldn’t forget that there are also social conditions support
ing the high level of performance at major research universi
ties. If UNC is to keep its place among them, those aspects of
the campus’ environment must be maintained and improved
as well.
Marc David is a graduate student in anthropology and a
member of UE 150a. the Graduate Employee and Adjunct
Faculty Union at UNC. He can be reached at
mdavid@email.unc.edu.
they would be setting a “dangerous
precedent" if students were actually
allowed to voice their opinion.
Had the issue been of a more con
servative nature, would the outcome
have been different? Would Congress
have posed less opposi
tion to our appeal?
I do not wish to make
accusations against
Congress in general, but
it seems that some members represent
only themselves rather than the stu
dents who elected them. They seek to
advance their own personal agendas
by patronizing those who come for
ward requesting their help. Is this' how
Congress should act? It is a shame that
I feel unwelcome by my own legisla
ture. From now on, I will think twice
before coming to them with any of my
concerns.
Under the pretense of upholding the
Student Code, Congress is able to pro
mote a conservative agenda. For while
the request for an additional lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender adminis
trative position was denied on a techni
cality of the code, the College
Republicans easily received their fund
ing request to bring David Horowitz to
this campus. There is an obvious corre
lation between the conservative nature
of a proposal and how much support
Congress will show for it. Maybe my
liberal background has warped my
sense of perception, but to me, some
thing about this situation does not seem
right. Can it be that even on the cam
pus of UNC, politics are partisan?
There is no reason that it should
matter if you are a Democrat or a
Republican, a liberal or a conservative,
but somehow, it seems to make a dif
ference. Congress still makes decisions
Monday, November 19, 2001
timeline from November to January. During
this period, we’ll explore if there is a need for
an increase and, if so, what option best fits our
need. We have publicly taken a stand on the
issue by advocating for a tuition guarantee that
will make tuition manageable, and students will
have direct input through anew tuition com
mittee.
Student government stands up publicly to the
folks in South Building on a regular basis; if you
doubt this for a second, just ask anyone who
works there. We are and continue to be strong
advocates for the student body. Don’t misinter
pret a calculated response for a sedated one.
Heavy-handed protests have their season, but
level-headed negotiation sometimes have a bet
ter eventual outcome.
Not only does that take gumption, Ms.
Hunter, but it also takes careful, intelligent lead
ership, and I commend student government for
that
Justin Young is the student body president.
Reach him at jcyoung@email.unc.edu.
ed only $14,700, enough for two students.
Students are ineligible for important sources
of public subsidy: Due to strict regulations,
almost 60 percent of public childcare subsidy in
Orange County, more than 2 million dollars, is
along party lines, even though there
are no official “parties” to side with.
I will be the first to admit that I am
an idealist. So maybe what I am about
to put forward is just another one of
my crazy ideas. But think, wouldn’t it
be amazing if instead of pitting liberals
against conservatives, we could simply
put aside our political leanings and
start working together to affect some
change?
The next time 1 go to Student
Congress, I would love to know that
maybe what I propose to them would
be received objectively, whether it con
cerns campaign finance reform or
David Horowitz. Maybe, just maybe,
student groups would feel welcome to
approach Congress with their requests,
even if they have more than a benign
funds appropriations request.
Representatives, are you not stu
dents like the rest of us? Just because
you hold the title of “District X repre
sentative,” does this mean you have
the right to assert your power and
authority over those who come to you
for assistance? Were you elected to rep
resent yourself or your constituents?
Listen to those who seek out your
attention. Examine their proposals
objectively and respond in manner
that shows consideration for the efforts
they have put forth.
The Campaign Finance Reform
Coalition has not been silenced by its
experience with Congress. We will
strive to educate the campus on this
issue and show Congress that students
do care about meaningful campaign
finance reform and are willing to say so.
Frances Ferris is a sophomore
international studies major. Reach her
at fferris@email.unc.edu.
9