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Price of Parking?
TPAC members near a decision
about how to raise revenue.
See Page 3
www.dailytarheei.com
State Asks UNC for $5 Million More
Bv Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Staff Writer
UNC-system officials say UNC-
Chapel Hill will have to return an addi
tional $5 million because of the state’s
budget short
fall, bringing
the University’s
total budget
reversion for
the 2001-02 fis-
Counties Brace
For Additional
Budget Cuts
See Page 3
cal year up to sls million.
Gov. Mike Easley announced
Tuesday that many state agencies will be
BOG to Hash Out
Tuition Concerns
Bv Mike Gorman
Staff Writer
The UNC-system Board of
Governors will meet today to discuss
long-range tuition policy and UNC-sys
tem schools’ requests for campus-initiat
ed tuition increases.
Some BOG members and student
leaders have criticized the UNC sys
tem’s tuition policy, which allows cam
pus-initiated requests in “emergency”
situations, for being too vague.
Addison Bell, chairman of the BOG
Budget and Finance Committee, said
today’s tuition policy workshop will serve
as forum to discuss tuition-related issues.
Bell said BOG members will examine
requests from campuses that have passed
one-year tuition increase proposals.
The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of
Trustees approved a S4OO tuition increase
in January. About three-fourths of the
UNC-system campuses are expected to
bring campus-initiated tuition increase
requests before the BOG this year.
BOG member Ray Farris said the
board members must carefully examine
the tuition increase requests, partly
because of Gov. Mike Easley’s
announcement Tuesday that state agen
cies would face wide budget cuts to help
combat a S9OO million deficit.
“We’ll be receiving less money from
the legislature, which puts us in a very
tough situation when examining these
requests,” Farris said.
Farris said campuses that are asking
for a campus-initiated tuition increase
for the first time will have a better
chance of persuading the board.
But Bell said the BOG will not make
a decision on requests tomorrow.
He said board members will contin
ue to examine tuition-increase proposals
at a Budget and Finance Committee
meeting Feb. 19 and vote on the indi
vidual requests in either March or April.
UNC Alumnus Admits Responsibility for Pipe Bomb
DTH FILE PHOTO
A State Bureau of Investigations officer detonates a bomb on campus
Aug. 27. A UNC alumnus has taken responsibility for the device.
affected by the state’s S9OO million bud
get shortfall but said public universities,
community colleges and public schools
would experience lighter cuts.
In October, Easley asked the UNC
system to return 2.7 percent of the funds
it received from the state. Many other
government agencies were asked to
return 4 percent.
On Tuesday, Easley asked most state
agencies to revert an additional 3 per
cent. He asked the UNC system to
revert about 1.3 percent, a total of about
$21.1 million.
Nancy Suttenfield, UNC-CH vice
Today, the BOG will also discuss a
five-year tuition policy program that Bell
proposed at the January BOG meeting.
The five-year program would require
all 16 UNC-system campuses, along
with the BOG, to coordinate their long
term tuition policies.
Bell said he hopes the BOG will have a
solid five-year plan by the end of the sum
mer. He said he will put forth a motion
today to start the plan in the fall of 2002.
Anything other than basic discussion
of the five-year plan will have to wait
until schools submit their individual
five-year tuition plans, he said. “We
have to have policy information from all
the schools in the system before we
make any solid plans,” Bell said.
But BOG members have mixed feel
ings about the proposed five-year tuition
strategy.
Andrew Payne, a non-voting BOG
member and president of the UNC
Association of Student Governments,
said he supports the idea of long-range
tuition planning.
Payne said he will also discuss a set of
ASG tuition policy recommendations,
which include the adoption of guidelines
governing student consultation on tuition
issues and a standard tuition rate for cam
puses in the same institutional category.
Payne will join the workshop via tele
conference from Miami. He said two stu
dent body presidents, Justin Young from
UNC-CH and Darryl Willie from N.C.
State University, are slated to attend the
meeting in person in Payne’s place.
But although BOG member Brad
Adcock said he supports the proposed
five-year plan, he said the BOG needs to
consider that events could happen outside
the plan. “If we have a five-year plan that
shows little or no increase, but then we
have to raise tuition, what does that say?”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Government expands to absorb revenue and then some.
Tom Wicker
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Who to Vote for?
Read the profiles of the candidates for
student body president.
See www.dailytarheel.com
chancellor for finance and administra
tion, could not comment specifically
about where the additional $5 million in
cuts will be made but said dealing with
the cut will be difficult. “Every budget
cut is painful,” she said. “People have
already made plans on how their depart
ments were going to use the money.”
Suttenfield said that in a situation like
this, reductions are usually proportion
al among academic departments,
although it is easier for larger depart
ments that have more flexibility and
higher turnover rates to reduce funding.
She said one way individual depart
v kmm >- |b .Z*®
DTH FILE PHOTO
Construction on UNC's campus has become a frequent sight during the course of the past year. Student body
president candidates say they will work to decrease the impact of UNC's development on students.
Candidates Consider Development
By Jeff Silver
Staff Writer
Next year’s student body president will
face a changed campus as he or she strug
gles to contend
with the effects of
recent expansion
and construction.
Bruce Runberg,
associate vice
chancellor for
facilities services,
said student body
presidents in the
past have been
involved in a wide
range of construc
tion issues.
He said the new
student body presi
dent and other stu-
Student Elections
A five-part series
examining
campus issues
and how the
candidates plan
to address them.
■ Monday; Tuition
■ Tuesday: Parking
■ Wednesday:
Curriculum
■ Today:
Development &
Construction
■ Friday: Leadership
By Lizzie Breyer
University Editor
A UNC alumnus has acknowledged
his responsibility for a pipe bomb that
was detonated on UNC’s campus in
August, officials said Wednesday.
Christopher Scott McMillan, 37, of
603 Fairfield Road in Durham pleaded
guilty in federal court Tuesday to one
count of attempting to damage a building
by either fire or explosive. The charges
were related to an incident involving a
device that exploded at the Sprint region
al office in Franklin County on Aug. 28.
McMillan, a 1986 UNC graduate,
was injured slightly in the explosion.
As part of the plea agreement
McMillan signed, he claimed responsibil
ity for the device found on Cameron
Avenue on Aug. 27. Court records
obtained by The Daily Tar Heel in late
August described the Cameron Avenue
device as “essentially identical” to the
bomb that exploded at the Sprint building.
Out of Reach
Tar Heels fall at the hands
of the Demon Deacons.
See Page 11
Volume 109, Issue 153
ments have dealt with reduced funding
in the past is by not filling vacant posi
tions. “Many (departments) postponed
filling vacant positions or postponed
traveling or buying new equipment and
computers,” she said.
Suttenfield said administrators antici
pated that the state would call for more
cuts and, as a result, asked individual
departments to be frugal when prepar
ing budgets for this year.
But Suttenfield would not provide
details about how the cut will be distrib-
See UNIVERSITY CUTS, Page 2
dent leaders will have the chance to work
with the administration on projects such
as parking and transportation issues and
designs for future buildings.
“There are significant opportunities if
that’s the inclination of the student body
president and his administration,”
Runberg said.
The majority of campus projects stem
from the Development Plan, which lays
out plans for eight years of future con
struction at UNC. The Development
Plan is the first phase of the Master Plan,
a 50-year blueprint for campus growth.
Candidate Fred Hashagen said he is
opposed to the concept of the Master
Plan. He said he believes that plans for
campus expansion should be updated fre
quendy instead of in a one-time decision.
But Hashagen said he acknowledges
that he would not have power to change
the policy. “I don’t know how much
The device at UNC, described by
University Police Chief Derek Poarch as
a 5-inch piece of pipe capped at both
ends, was detonated by State Bureau of
Investigations officials. The incident
caused no injuries, but Cameron Avenue
was shut down for almost four hours.
Jim Mercer, resident agent in charge
of the Raleigh office of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said
McMillan took responsibility for the
device as part of his plea agreement.
“Part of his plea was the recital of facts
of what happened at UNC,” Mercer said.
“He essentially pled guilty, but there will
be no specific additional charges.”
Mercer said the plea agreement
would be used to help the judge in
McMillan’s case determine an appro
priate sentence. “In that plea, he
acknowledged responsibility for the
UNC bombing,” Mercer said. “At the
time of sentencing, he will be sentenced
based on that behavior.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bowler
jK
Weather
Today: Light Rain; H 46, L 34
Friday: Sunny; H 58, L 34 * •ttti
Saturday: Partly Cloudy; H 61, L 40
A Year of Budget Cuts
With this year's poor economy, tne UNC system has received one piece of bad news about funding
after another. During the 2001-02 fiscal year, UNC-Chapel Hill sustained sls million in cuts.
Sept. 22,2001 N.C. General Assembly
approves a $14.5 billion state budget during o ct 8, 2001 - Easley announces that
the longest session in its history. _ budget projections were below projections for
the first quarter and orders many state
agencies to revert 4 percent of their funds.
November 2001 Easley agrees to a 2.7
Feb. 5,2002 - Gov. Mike Easley announces P ercent bud 9 et reversk)n for ** UNC
that the budget shortfall has reached S9OO a cut of $lO million for UNC-Chapel Hill.
million. He cuts most state agencies' budgets
by 3 percent. The UNC system will lose $21.1
million 1.3 percent of its budget.
SOURCE: DTH ARCHIVES
there is left to do,” he said.
Hashagen said one of his top priori
ties is ensuring that future projects are
completed with attention paid to safety
and environmental concerns.
“First of all, what we have to be con
cerned with is doing no worse than we
are now,” Hashagen said.
His other goals include making sure
that future plans do not diminish student
parking on campus and improving the
University-town relationship.
Candidate Brad Overcash said he
understands that campus expansion is a
necessity for the University, but he said
he would oppose any project that cre
ates distinct areas of campus with no
connection to one another.
“We have to be able to maintain the
community of students,” Overcash said.
See DEVELOPMENT, Page 2
said McMillan faces a minimum sen
tence of five years in prison.
Bowler said part of the plea agreement
McMillan signed also binds him to exten
sive interviews with law enforcement offi
cers and a psychological analysis.
Bowler said no sentencing date has
been set yet but that it will probably be
in 60 to 90 days.
He said the investigation is limited to
McMillan, who officials believe acted
alone. “We don’t have any information
that would lead the government to believe
there were co-conspirators,” Bowler said.
Poarch could not be reached for com
ment Wednesday, but Mercer said he
expects no further charges.
“It is my understanding there will not
be any state or local charges because they
feel everything has been settled at the
federal level,” he said. “Upon sentencing,
we will go ahead and close the case.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
Broadcast
To Discuss
Tuition
State legislators will talk
with school officials and
student representatives in a
UNC-TV-sponsored forum.
By Elyse Ashblrn
Assistant State & National Editor
State officials and students will have
an opportunity to inform the citizens of
North Carolina about tuition issues dur
ing a broadcast forum that will be held
Wednesday at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The forum will be taped at 6 p.m. in
the UNC-CH Alumni Center by UNC
TV, the state’s public television net
work, which is organizing the event.
The forum panelists will be UNC-sys
tem President Molly Broad; Sen. Howard
Lee, D-Orange; Rep. Art Pope, R-Wake;
and UNC-system Association of Student
Governments President Andrew Payne.
Tim Crowley of “Legislative Week in
Review,” a weekly UNC-TV program on
state politics, will be the moderator.
Pope said he thinks a forum is a
viable format for addressing any signif
icant issues, including those centering
on tuition.
He said broadcasting the forum will
make it especially effective and will
expand the audience beyond those in
the Chapel Hill area.
“I hope the target will be the interest
ed citizens across the state,” Pope said.
He said he was not aware of any spe
cific forum agenda and that he thinks
the discussion will cover a wide range of
issues.
But Payne said the forum should
focus primarily on the role of the N.C.
General Assembly in tuition affairs
because he thinks it is responsible for
the tuition situation.
“My hope is that this forum will focus
on the General Assembly,” he said.
Payne also said the ASG will use the
forum as an opportunity to launch its
“Keep N.C. Educated” campaign.
The campaign will focus on raising
N.C. voters’ awareness of the responsi
bility the General Assembly has to fund
higher education in the state.
The campaign launch will take place
at 5 p.m Wednesday and is not an offi
cial part of the forum.
But Payne said the ASG plans to cap
italize on the attention generated by the
forum and had scheduled the launch
accordingly. “It’s an easy message, and
we want to start off with a bang," he
said.
UNC-CH Student Body President
Justin Young said he wants the forum to
cover a wide range of issues and to open
ly address the budget crunch that system
universities are facing. “We are definite
ly taking a lot of hits recently,” he said.
Young said he is working to organize
a UNC-CH student presence at both
the forum and the campaign launch.
“This is an opportunity for us to try
to get statewide coverage."
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.