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Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Board Editorials
As budget constraints force the closing of some campus computer labs, University
officials must make student interests and needs their top consideration.
It appears that the computer lab in Ehringhaus
Residence Hall is the latest casualty in ongoing
efforts to trim the University’s budget.
Officials from the Residence Hall Association,
student government and Academic Technology &
Networks decided last spring to close the
Ehringhaus lab as one of several cost-cutting mea
sures for campus computer labs.
Other labs, including unstaffed labs on South
Campus and the Cobb Residence Hall lab, will
remain under watch this semester to judge their
demand. These labs might be the next on the chop
ping block.
Although the Carolina Computing Initiative
might have reduced the need for computer labs on
campus, many students still look to the facilities
because of their quiet atmosphere and the avail
ability of free printing.
While closing underutilized computer labs
undoubtedly will help the University free up funds
needed for other campus programs, it is imperative
that officials propose alternatives to labs to meet
students’ continuing computer needs.
First, leaders should encourage students hoping
to find some quiet space to do homework or access
the Internet outside of their room to use study
lounges in residence halls, which are already wired
for Internet use. To meet students’ printing needs,
officials could examine the feasibility of adding a
printing station to halls to enable students to print
papers without having to wait in long lines or trek
all the way to another building.
Officials also should encourage the use of other
computer labs remaining open throughout cam
pus, including labs in Davis and the
Undergraduate libraries and the new 24-hour lab
Close the Hangar
Given the state's budget situation, the University and the state have a vested interest
in closing the Horace Williams Airport to free up badly needed funding.
After several months and votes, the N.C.
General Assembly finally gritted out a state bud
get.
Legislators have talked about cutting agencies to
the bare bones, but the legislative-approved bud
get still has some fat in the form of the Horace
Williams Airport.
In response to the budget situation, Chancellor
James Moeser said in May that he wanted to close
the airport to save the University key funding for
other services such as classes.
But area businessmen and pilot organizations,
unhappy with the University’s decision, took their
case to the General Assembly and asked legislators
to force the University to keep the airport open for
at least five more years.
And special interests won out even in the face of
a $2 billion budget shortfall.
This decision to keep the airport open was not
only unfair for the University but also ill-advised in
this time of economic downturn.
The airport costs about $250,000 per year to
operate.
But officials are going to have to pay an addi
tional $2 million to update safety and security
improvements.
All in all, the minimum cost for keeping the air
port open until 2005 will be close to $3 million -
money that could be used to offer additional class
es at the University.
Some economic officials predict that the state
will have budget deficits for the next four years.
Mandating that UNC maintain the airport
places a heavy financial strain on the campus at the
worst time.
It forces the University to develop an excess pro
EDITOR’S NOTE:The above editorials are the opinions of solely The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board, which were reached
after open debate. The board consists of eight board members, the assistant editorial page editor, the editorial page edi
tor and the DTH editor. The 2002-03 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials.
Readers' Forum
UNC Officials Should
Develop Plan Balancing
Kindness With Safety
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing in regards to the armed
robbery that occurred in Avery Residence
Hall on Thursday night, as well as the
University’s response to students’ habit of
“tailgating” into residence halls.
The University discourages anyone
from letting others into the residence halls
who they do not know directly and has
posted “citations” in halls reminding stu
dents to keep their doors locked and
reporting anything suspicious.
However, the point was made in Karey
Wutkowski’s column Monday that many
students choose to ignore the “no tailgat
ing” policy over being polite.
I wholeheartedly agree that safety is of
the utmost importance on campus, but
ignoring our fellow dorm members and
slamming the door behind us is not con
ducive to a positive University experience.
No one wants to be rude, and before the
robbery the University did not seem to
bring any importance to the issue.
Perhaps some system could be devised
in which students could easily identify
dorm members - such as who their resi
dent assistant is or some other fact that
j?
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logging Off
in the recently opened Student Union addition.
But officials must ensure that students have safe
means of getting back and forth to these labs.
Student government leaders could examine the
feasibility of expanding the Safe Ride program,
including adding a reverse Point-To-Point route to
cut back on the time students must wait for a shut
tle and discourage students from walking alone on
campus at night. Officials also could consider
extending the hours of the SAFE Escort program,
which shuttles students back and forth from the
Undergrad.
To avoid closing labs all together, officials also
could look at other ways to trim costs at the facilities,
including decreasing the hours that the labs are open.
Another move, though one that should be
approached cautiously, would be for Student
Congress to propose an increase in student fees to
go toward maintenance fees for the computer labs.
A 50 cent or $1 increase could raise thousands of
dollars to help defer printing and/or staffing costs.
But if all else fails and more computer labs must
shut down, officials should first consider closing
labs located in residence halls on North Campus,
which are in short walking distance from campus
libraries.
Leaders, however, must again take additional
steps to protect the safety of students walking in the
area, including improving lighting near these resi
dence halls and increasing the number of safety
officers patrolling campus walkways at night.
While no one disagrees that the University will
have to cut back on some services to combat the
tough budget situation, officials should be sure that
students’ safety and their ability to do course work
aren’t compromised.
ject during a time when departments are being cut
and faculty will see no raises.
Expendable services such as an airport must be
cut during hard economic times, not maintained.
The airport is used for private business, UNC
officials and the Area Health Education Centers
program, which sends UNC faculty around the
state to help coordinate health-care programs.
After Moeser announced plans for the closure of
the airport, opponents seized on the AHEC pro
gram as an excuse to keep the airport open.
But AHEC officials said basing their program
out of Raleigh/Durham International Airport
would be sufficient to carry out their services.
Phasing out the airport also eliminates safety
concerns voiced by surrounding residents because
of past airplane accidents.
Both necessary programs such as AHEC and
convenient services such as easy access to air trav
el can be adequately performed by RDU.
With a finalized budget cutting deeply into an
expanding education system, luxuries such as
Horace Williams Airport must be cut if it is at the
University’s discretion.
Funding that will go toward the airport would
make more of a significant impact on the
University community if spent on services that
have been cut, such as positions in departments
such as the Department of Computer Science and
residence hall computer labs.
Lawmakers in Raleigh made the wrong call by
micromanaging UNC’s decision to phase out the
airport.
In a tight fiscal year, legislators made themselves
look irresponsible by mandating that the airport
remain open.
Editorial Page
could help students entering dorms be
polite as well as safe.
At the present very few people actually
obey the “no tailgating” policy because it is
just plain rude to the people that actually
live in the residence halls.
No one wants to become suspicious of
every person walking in, and this policy
could potentially lead to profiling as well.
If the University wants to help enforce
this policy, they should come up with a
plan that keeps eveiyone from feeling like
everyone else is out to get them.
We can be friendly and be safe at the
same time.
Katie Schwing
Freshman
College of Arts and Sciences
Government Has Clear
Objective in Campaign
To Get Rid of Saddam
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing in response to Jonathan
Brome’s completely inappropriate criti
cism of McKnight’s Sept. 17 (column).
First off, it strikes me as amazing Brome
would make fun of McKnight using histo
ry to support his views. Since when did
that become a red light for UNC admis-
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Streets at Southpoint, Franklin
Street Contrast Planning Styles
And there it was, tucked under a
newly planted tree. I had been
hearing the chorus of A1 Green’s
“Take Me to the River,” but I hadn’t been
able to figure out from where it
was coming. But there it was -
a fake plastic rock with a little
speaker in it.
I looked up. On the brick
wall in front of me, I saw a fake
19205-style advertisement for a
fake company. The ad had
been painted about eight
months ago to look like it had
been painted eight decades ago.
As I walked past the fake
rock - which had now shifted
to playing soft rock -a giant fake smoke
stack came into view. Spelled out along its
spine was one word: SOUTHPOINT.
This is what greeted me a week ago
when I made my second visit to Main
Street, the focal point of Durham’s newest
mall, the Streets at Southpoint If you
haven’t visited it, Main Street is on the exte
rior of the mall and is intended to resemble
a bustling city street lined with stores. Its
fake smokestack and advertisements are
intended to evoke Durham’s past
The problem is that the only thing it
evokes is the artificiality of Southpoint’s
present.
Southpoint, like every mall, epitomizes
the urban sprawl of America. Its more
than 150 stores have been placed close to
1-40 but little else.
sions officials?
What is really amusing is his claim that
a U.S. war would have no clear objective in
Iraq. He actually states the objective in the
last sentence of the seventh paragraph that
the purpose is to oust Saddam.
Objectives don’t get much clearer than
that. Perhaps Brome needs a definition of
“oust,” which would make me wonder how
he was admitted into Carolina rather than
McKnight.
He then goes on to say that this lack of
(but really his inability to figure out) an
objective was why we lost the Vietnam
War.
There are several reasons we lost the
Vietnam War. Lack of objective is not one
of them. We were unfamiliar with the ter
rain, their combat techniques, and the
morale of our troops was low. None of
those causes of our defeat would apply to a
possible war in Iraq.
We learned the terrain and their combat
techniques 10 years ago, and the morale of
our troops is still riding high after Sept. 11,
2001.
So, nice try, but history is obviously on
McKnight’s side.
I agree with Brome that it is very easy
for those who would not be fighting to say
that we should go ahead with it. However,
I think it’s easier to ignore the oppression
and genocide that Saddam has inflicted on
Alex Kaplun
MANAGING EDITOR
Daniel Thigpen
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Aaron Fitt
SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
Kimberly Craven
PHOTO EDITOR
Sarah Sanders
WRITING COACH
What’s unique about Southpoint, how
ever, is that it borrows its style from that
which it helped to destroy - the down
town retail districts that used to be at the
heart of every American town
and city.
It’s a mall with an identity
crisis.
The disconnect between
what Southpoint is and what it
tries to be can be particularly
jarring for someone who regu
larly visits Franklin Street.
Unlike most places in
America, our town has been
able to maintain and enrich its
historic downtown because
[S
JIM DOGGETT
REACH EXCEEDS
GRASP
UNC students need to shop within walk
ing distance of their residence halls.
Main Street fails to capture the
ambiance of places like Franklin Street
for a couple reasons.
First, Franklin Street has historical
depth. While some of its stores and build
ings have proved ephemeral, the street
itself hasn’t. Its relative constancy has a
grounding effect - students move on;
Franklin Street remains.
While Southpoint goes to pains to
make itself look like an old street next to
a converted tobacco warehouse, its self
conscious oldness only highlights how
new it is. And its newness only highlights
its transience; the place could easily
someday go the way of its recendy closed
competitor, South Square Mall.
his people for years.
Brome is a better example of people
who act like Iraq is in another world. They
close their eyes and ears to the terrible acts
Saddam commits regularly.
Phillip Sprehe
Junior
Political Science
Columnist Should Stop
Blaming Others, Offer
Constructive Criticism
TO THE EDITOR:
Every Friday I read the Daily Tar Heel
for a recap of the week’s events and a little
laugh.
Last year, there was a lighter side to the
DTH with columns that discussed serious
issues, such as minority rights, without
much negativity.
This year it’s a different story - Tiffanie
Drayton’s column becomes increasingly
pessimistic each week, leaving nothing pos
itive to be said.
While I understand the need to air cer
tain issues and support freedom of speech
and freedom of die press, I do not think
these things need to be done in such a dark
way.
Even her staff picture darkens the mood
jon Dougherty
CITY EDITOR
Addie Sluder
FEATURES EDITOR
Beth Buchholz & Tiffany Pease
DESIGN EDITORS
Michael Flynn
OMBUDSMAN
Second, Franklin Street’s charm is
linked to our common public ownership
of it, something entirely missing at
Southpoint. We don’t just shop on
Franklin Street; we live there. The steeple
of University United Methodist Church -
so starkly and beautifully lit at night - is
juxtaposed with the window displays of
its next-door neighbor, Schoolkids
Records. While eating a pita at Hector’s,
you can look out the window and watch
protests at the post office.
Part of writer James Howard Kunstler’s
critique of malls is that they are
sequestered from the rest of our commu
nities. Southpoint is no exception. There
are no streets at Southpoint, just a giant
sea of asphalt for parking that functions
like a moat. Instead of running into beg
gars, you see statues of ducks dressed in
marching band uniforms. They test your
tolerance for bad taste, but not necessarily
your social conscience.
The decision to import the esthetic of
places like Franklin Street into malls
demonstrates a pent-up nostalgia for the
way we used to live. Unfortunately, devel
opers seem to only have a superficial
understanding of what makes places like
Franklin Street really special.
Even if they can’t build new Franklin
Streets, surely we can at least ask them to
avoid the fake plastic singing rocks.
Jim Doggett can be reached at
jdoggett@email.unc.edu.
of her articles with furrowed brows and a
harsh expression.
Drayton’s recent article concerning hip
hop music displayed this negativity with
generalized claims aimed at majority
groups. I realize this is a column, but to
stereotype white people as rich men who
wear Abercrombie and Fitch and perpetu
ate the rise of bad music is a bit much to
tolerate.
Have you ever noticed that if you
accuse and complain constantly, people
stop listening to what you have to say?
Take the Pit Preacher, for example - we ail
hear him, but nobody pays attention.
You will get people to take note of your
messages when they offer a more con
structive form of criticism that does not
place all the blame on one particular
group.
The messages are there, and they are
good, but sifting through the garbage to get
to them becomes too much work.
It seems as though majority groups
aren’t the only ones who need to make an
effort to stop bigotry.
If minorities can’t learn to let go of their
prejudices, how can they expect things to
change?
Amanda Fox
Sophomore
Elementary Education
®be latly (Ear Uwl
Lizzie Breyer
PROJECTS EDITOR
Elyse Ashbum
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
Nick Parker
ARTS St ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Cobi Edelson
GRAPHICS EDITOR