(Tlie !ailu ®ar Itol
Back to Normal
Workers have finished
construction on Ridge Road.
See Page 3
www.daiiytarheei.com
BOG Set to Vote on Proposal for 5-Year Tuition Plans
By Alex Kaplun
State & National Editor
The UNC-system Board of Governors
likely will vote today on a proposal
requiring all 16 UNC-system schools to
create five-year
plans for tuition
and fees.
The Budget
and Finance
Committee pro-
A BOG Vote Could
Shorten UNC-CH's
Academic Year
See Page 3
posal would allow each campus to come
up with its own long-range tuition plan
but seeks to prevent wide disparities in
tuition between similar institutions by
promoting correlation between campus-
Grad Students Call
For Higher Stipends
The Task Force on Tuition
is considering using funds
from increased tuition for
more graduate student pay.
By Ruthie Warshenbrot
Staff Writer
Members of the UNC community
expressed support Thursday for the
Task Force on Tuition’s suggestion that
part of a tuition hike should go to
increase graduate student stipends.
At Wednesday’s task force meeting,
James Alstrum-Acevedo, a graduate stu
dent who is a member of the tuition
committee, presented information that
he said indicates the need to increase
graduate student stipends - payments
graduate students receive based on their
teaching commitments.
After Alstrum-Acevedo spoke, the task
force agreed to use part of a tuition
increase to improve graduate stipends.
Qatar Campus Could
Offer Pre-engineering
Adding an engineering prep
program to the proposed
UNC campus could increase
the labs and faculty needed.
By Jordan Bartel
and Nikki Werking
Staff Writers
UNC might soon be preparing stu
dents in Doha, Qatar for degrees in
engineering as well as business at its pro
posed campus in the small Middle
Eastern nation.
As part of its negotiations with the
University, the Qatar Foundation for
■ > i * . dtk . J
DTH/SARA ABRONS
Future snowstorms in the Chapel Hill area could stretch funds
not specifically designated for snow cleanup.
es as officials craft different plans.
The proposal, which has yet to be
drafted and was not on the agenda
Thursday, aims to make tuition increas
es more predictable. But the five-year
plans would serve only as a nonbinding
guide for campus administrators.
The proposal was the result of a
motion by Addison Bell, BOG Budget
and Finance Committee chairman, who
called for the plan at the committee’s
Thursday meeting.
Bell said he proposed the plan
because it would create predictability in
tuition and fees for students entering col
lege and help generate a systemwide
approach toward tuition. “The truth is if
The committee was formed in
November after Chancellorjames Moeser
suggested that officials examine the need
for a campus-based tuition increase.
The data presented at the meeting
compares graduate student stipends with
stipends given at UNC’s peer institu
tions. It also shows how much time grad
uate students spend teaching undergrad
uate students compared with faculty.
The information came from a fall
2000 survey conducted by the N.C.
Public Service Workers Union, the
employee and graduate student union.
In most departments, UNC offers
lower regular stipend amounts than a
majority of its peer institutions.
The data also shows that graduate stu
dents teach 51 percent of UNC classes.
“Looking at the data, it’s obvious that
graduate students do have a great
impact,” Alstrum-Acevedo said
Thursday, adding that most graduate stu
dents pay tuition out of their own pock-
See STIPENDS, Page 4
Education, Science and Community
Development requested that UNC add a
pre-engineering program to the curricu
lum of their proposed business school.
Before the pre-engineering curriculum
was suggested, UNC would have been
responsible only for providing a two-year
General College curriculum and a two
year undergraduate business program.
Because UNC does not offer an engi
neering major for its Chapel Hill students,
students in the Qatari program would take
General College classes through UNC
and then enter an engineering program
offered by another U.S. university partic
ipating in the program.
See ENGINEERING, Page 4
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
From the Ashes
Carrboro police help a couple rebuild
their lives after fire destroys their home.
See Page 5
one institution has a campus-initiated
(tuition) increase, that triggers other
tuition increases,” Bell said. “We’re
putting out a fire every year.”
Bell did not cite a timeline for when
campuses’ long-range plans might be
crafted. He said it was impossible to pre
dict how long such a process would take.
Bell also said a key component of the
plan would be for all the campuses to
work with each other and with the
Office of the President to create the five
year plans. “I want to look at the total
picture, not just pieces,” he said. “This
way we can avoid a snowball effect.
Basically, one school- (UNC-)Chapel
Hill to be honest - comes in and triggers
v mm • * j/ftP
BEL;? *
Hr a v Jj|§’
DTH/JOSHUA GREER
A puppy waits for adoption in the Orange County Animal Shelter. This dog wandered up
to the shelter Jan. 6. and is scheduled to be adopted sometime soon. Ryan Rhodes, a
kennel technician, said he hopes people carefully consider the stakes before adopting a pet.
More Snow Cleanup Could Stress Town Budget
By Colin Sutkfr
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill town officials say area
roads were cleared with no immediate
threat to the town budget after almost one
foot of snow fell on the area last week.
But town officials say additional
snowfall this season could threaten the
town’s fiscal reserves.
Although the snow, which started
fallingjan. 2, caused several problems
for the town’s roadways, Town Manager
Cal Horton said Chapel Hill reserves
funds for events such as these.
“We always expect unusual storm
events and have to allocate funds for
that in the budget,” Horton said. “It’s a
Reform, that you may preserve.
Lord Macaulay
'Pack Fights Back
N.C. State snaps UNC's
four-game winning streak.
See Page 7
Volume 109, Issue 135
(tuition) increases at other campuses.”
The proposal comes as about a half
dozen UNC campuses are in the process
of crafting tuition increases.
If the proposal passes the BOG today,
Bell said he expects campus-level admin
istrators to take it into consideration
when forming tuition requests this year.
Ideally, Bell said he would prefer a
moratorium on tuition increases this year
while all the campuses generate their five
year plans but added that it was unlikely
the BOG would approve such a move.
Andrew Payne, UNC-system
Association of Student Governments
president, said he supports the propos
al because it would provide predictabil
PUPPY DOG EYES
normal part of our expenditure.”
But other town officials say another
similar event could pose problems to
maintaining a balanced budget because
last week’s storm has already depleted
town resources.
Public Works Director Bruce Heflin
said that although the town prepares for
natural emergencies, there is a limit to
the town’s ability to pay for unexpected
events in one year. “This was an expen
sive storm," said Heflin. “It could easily
run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Depending on how many more storms
we will have the rest of the year, we’ll
have to see how it will affect our budget.
If we have a lot more snow, then we’ll
have a problem.”
i V
#
ity for students and reduce tuition dis
parities between UNC-system schools.
“We don’t want students to chose one
of the campuses because of costs, we
want them to choose because of acade
mic programs,” Payne said.
The proposal comes as the BOG
begins examination of its own tuition pol
icy. Today the BOG Budget and Finance
Committee will host a workshop to discuss
its existing tuition policy, which was first
adopted in 1998 and then modified by the
N.C. General Assembly this summer.
UNC-CH Provost Robert Shelton,
who is chairman of the University’s Task
Force on Tuition, said the proposal is in
line with his committee’s efforts on the
Study to Probe
Gap in Women,
Minority Salaries
A previous UNC study found that female
faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences
about SIO,OOO less than their male peers.
By Jeff Silver
Staff Writer
Officials will meet today to set guidelines for a survey that
aims to assess a discrepancy between what women and minor
ity faculty members are paid compared to other UNC-Chapel
Hill faculty.
Lynn Williford, director of institutional research, said her
office and Provost Robert Shelton’s office will lead the survey.
She said today’s meeting will determine what variables the study
should examine to find the reasons behind the pay difference.
The Office of Institutional Research has never before con
ducted a formal study of UNC-CH’s minority faculty salary gap.
But according to a 2000-01 Office of Institutional Research study,
female faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are paid about
SIO,OOO less on average than their male counterparts.
Williford also said the meeting will address how various
UNC-CH departments will contribute to the study and will
explore measures to ensure that all departments are judged
fairly. “We need to make sure we are doing an even assess
ment across all departments,” she said.
Williford said today’s gathering also will deal with how to
assess the situation given the fact that some faculty members
have additional administrative duties, which increase then
salary. “We can’t compare apples and oranges,” she said.
The survey comes in the wake of a study at N.C. State
University last fall that discovered white male faculty earn, on
average, SI,OOO more than their female and $2,000 more than
their minority colleagues annually.
The University already tracks its salary figures demo
graphically, but officials hope the upcoming study will inves
tigate aberrations in the data.
The study also might include less-publicized numbers, such
as possible discrepancies in startup costs given to newly hired
male, female and minority professors.
Sue Estroff, Faculty Council chairwoman, said she is pleased
UNC-CH will be conducting the survey, even though she
believes it was prompted by N.C. State’s study. “I’m a prag
matist,” she said. “Whatever it takes to get the information is
fine with me. I’m probably one of those affected by this.”
Diane Kjervik, director of the Carolina Women’s Center, also
said she is looking forward to seeing the survey results. “My ulti
mate goal is to have information about the gender gap,” she said.
She attributed the salary difference to long-held gender values.
See SALARY, Page 4
Each year, individual departments in
Chapel Hill include emergency spend
ing in their planned budget.
As unpredictable events such as a
snowstorms occur, the departments use
the designated funds to pay additional
costs like supplies and employee over
time.
Chapel Hill firefighters, police officers,
and Public Works employees all received
overtime while working on the cleanup.
“If we have an expensive recovery,
that reduces the amount of funding for
normal operations,” Horton said.
Greg Ling, who works for public
works, said road damage, such as pot
holes, might not become apparent until
later.
Weather
Today: Showers; H 59, L 31
Saturday: Sunny; H 54, L 32
Sunday: Sunny; H 54, L 34
UNC-CH campus.
The Task Force on Tuition will gener
ate a campus-initiated tuition increase
proposal - which it will recommend to
the UNC-CH Board of Trustees on Jan.
24 - at its Tuesday meeting.
One of the topics discussed by task
force members in the last two meetings
is finding a way to make tuition increas
es more predictable in future years.
“What they are asking for is the same
thing as the tuition task force we have
here wants,” Shelton said. “(The BOG)
wants the same kind of predictability.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
“It’s not something that happens
immediately,” Ling said. “Effects will
not be seen right now.”
Horton added that potholes are an
inevitable result of snowstorms.
“One of the normal results we always
expect to see is the formation of potholes,”
Horton said. “Any place the snow and ice
is able to penetrate the asphalt will cause
separation of the pavement"
Horton said he was happy with the
overall results of the cleanup.
“We’re very pleased that there were
no deaths or serious injuries to any
employees during this storm.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
and and * 4 4 4 '
‘ 4 t 4 t i