oaily tTar MM Serving the students and the University community since 1893 www.dailytarheel.com gmMUSfJKL^' Freshman seminar class to tour state • Financial aid applications read by many Look for more stories online. Volume 110, Issue 115 , IWB UNC freshman Andrew Marcum (right) was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of felony larceny and one attempted larceny for three laptop thefts on campus. Arrest Made in Laptop Thefts The suspect turned himself in to police By Jenny Immel Staff Writer The suspect in three recent campus laptop robberies was arrested Wednesday night after turning himself in to the University police. UNC freshman Andrew Marcum, 18, was charged with two counts of felony larceny and one count of attempted felony larceny. The larcenies occurred at Morehead Laboratories on Oct. 1 and the Undergraduate Library on Oct. 3. The attempted larceny took place in Davis Library on Nov. 8, but in this case, the victim confronted Marcum, causing him to leave the laptop and flee the scene. The Davis victim provided details for a composite sketch that matched surveillance pictures taken in the Undergrad on Oct. 3. Students who knew Marcum identi fied him as the suspect to University police after seeing the sketch accompa nying an article in The Daily Tar Heel on Wednesday, said Capt. Mark Mclntyre. “The biggest thing that helped us was (the DTH) running the picture,” he said. The students gave specific details that See ARREST, Page 4 Pedestrian Accidents Declining Road safety is a key issue on campus By Dave Szwedo Staff Writer Despite several recent accidents, the Department of Public Safety’s ongoing pedestrian safety campaign seems to be paying off. DPS Deputy Director Jeff McCracken said the number of reported on-campus accidents involving pedestrians and vehi cles has declined compared to last year. During the 2001 calendar year, 11 on-campus pedestrian accidents were reported to University police. So far this year, three have been reported. But pedestrian safety has risen to the forefront of University attention because of the frequency of recent accidents. A 19-year-old female UNC student was hit Sept. 23 by a vehicle as she attempted to cross Cameron Avenue at a crosswalk in front of Phillips Hall. An accident also occurred Nov. 5 when a female victim was struck by a car within a crosswalk while crossing South Road. See PEDESTRIANS, Page 4 Everyone has, in some quiet comer of his mind, an ideal home waiting to become a reality. Paige Rense Mallrats Deep Dish Theater Company explores love and deceit gone awry in 'The Game of Love and Chance." See Page 4 Task Force Delays Vote on Tuition By Daniel Thigpen University Editor The Tuition Task Force stopped short of voting on a long-term tuition plan for UNC-Chapel Hill on Thursday, but the group clearly laid out its priorities for future tuition hikes -and for the first time ever, staff could be included in the picture. Task force members will choose from three specific tuition pro posals -most ljkely involving three-year increases of S3OO to S4OO per year to generate S2O million and $27 million respectively - at their next and final meeting of the year, Dec. 19, during Winter Break. Task force Co-Chairman Provost Robert Shelton is expect ed to craft the proposals to be considered at the meeting. Much of the group’s debate centered on both the length of the plan and whether tuition should be increased by a fixed dollar amount or by a certain percentage. Members discussed numer ous options for earmarking tuition funds, eventually deciding that in this tuition cycle, increasing the student-faculty ratio with $12.5 million in new faculty positions would not be a priority. W | a m jnJjy jtk wf * * ' DTH PHOTOS/MALLORY DAVIS Jack Cooper (left) adds up the money left in Yvette Harris' drawer at the end of her shift. Harris works as a cashier at Lenoir Dining Hall, and she commutes to work from Hillsborough on the Triangle Transit Authority shuttle van. UNC to Help Staff Stretch Salaries With New Homes By Alison Ross Staff Writer A one-bedroom apartment in Chapel Hill. A three-bedroom place in nearby Hillsborough. Which costs more? If you guessed the flat in Hillsborough, you’re wrong, a fact UNC employee Yvette Harris learned first hand when she began searching for housing in the area last summer. A cashier at Lenoir Dining Hall since July, Harris and her husband first looked into renting a place in Chapel Hill but quickly found the high prices to be a rude awakening. “My husband makes good money, but I make $7 an hour and we have four kids,” Harris said. “To pay the rent and take care of them is hard. You can five in Chapel Hill and Carrboro if you’re rich - or if you don’t want to five in a good, nice, clean area because that’s all that you can afford there.” The couple ended up renting a trailer home in Hillsborough, and Harris takes a 30-minute bus ride to work. Stories like the Harrises’ aren’t uncommon in Chapel Hill, where increasingly high housing prices have forced most UNC employees and faculty to live outside the town’s borders. It was with this reality in mind, coupled with a desire to cre ate more affordable housing options for both employees and faculty, that last March the UNC Board of Trustees agreed to sell the Horace Williams satellite tract to Winmore Land Management LLC. Asa condition of the sale, 25 percent of the single-family homes and townhouses that Winmore builds on the land will be priced at $175,000 or less. It’s a price that Bob Knight, assistant Friday, November 15, 2002 And in the process, UNC-CH’s staff members were granted an unprecedented wish - to possibly see a portion of funds from tuition hikes supplement their salaries. Many task force members were adamant about including staff pay in an eventual proposal even though they admitted that the UNC-system Board of Governors likely won’t accept a plan with such terms included. According to a summary prepared by the task force, $18.3 mil lion is needed for UNC-CH’s staff in the next three years. Task force member and Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin presented the group with a resolution passed by the forum last week asking that the University’s staff receive some of the tuition money. Under the state’s fiscal 2002-03 budget, no staff in the UNC system received any salary increases. “This was a very hard-debated resolution,” Griffin said. “The staff need any help and all the help it can get.” The same issue was brought up at the group’s last meeting, with some not sure if the BOG would approve a plan with staff salaries See TUITION, Page 4 AFFORDABLE HOUSING .. * 1 r JSKm IT **' <UtTA 1 renters would not pay more than 30 percent of their incomes. The construction plans have yet to be approved by Carrboro officials, and Knight said that the sale of the Horace Williams tract will not be finalized until that happens. “We’re waiting for the next step,” he said. “But if everything goes well, building could start next spring.” Ninety-six apartments and more houses might not seem like a lot considering the thousands of people UNC employs, but UNC Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin said Winmore is an important first step toward offering affordable housing in an area known for anything but. “The average salary of a UNC employee is $32,000,” Griffin said. “And at $32,000, there’s not much you can purchase in Chapel Hill, where the average cost of a house is $375,000.” Finding affordable housing in the area is a little easier for faculty members but still poses a problem, said Sue Estroff, chairwoman of the Faculty Council. Estroff said she doesn’t think a lack of affordable housing is See HOUSING, Page 4 For the Kids Dance Marathon 2002 looks for volunteers. See Page 3 [SO vice chancellor for finance and adminis tration, said is well below the median home price in the Chapel Hill area. Of those homes, 75 percent are reserved for UNC and Carrboro employees. As another term of the sale, Winmore also will build 96 apartments and then give back to the University the land the apartments rest on so UNC can ensure that they remain affordable for employees in the future. The rent for the apartments has yet to be determined, but Knight said that Weather Today: Cloudy; H 60, L 47 Saturday: Rain; H 59, L 43 Sunday: Partly Cloudy; H 51, L 31 DTH/JESSICA FOSTER Student Body President Jen Daum (left) and Provost Robert Shelton preside over the Tuition Task Force meeting Thursday. UNC Safe Ride Expands Routes To Off Campus By Brian Hudson Staff Writer As UNC’s SAFE Escort program comes to an end, the Safe Ride service will be expanding to serve an entire new group of UNC students. Beginning next semester, the Point-2-Point shuttle service will gain another bus to run an additional route to many Chapel Hill apartment complexes, thus making transportation available to many off-campus students. “This expansion will serve approxi mately 60 to 70 percent of the off-cam pus population, which makes up 52 percent of the entire undergraduate population,” said sophomore Anup Dashputre, director of the Safe Ride Program. “This entire expansion is geared toward the off-campus popula tion.” The Safe Ride expansion will cost about $60,000. The new P2P will operate Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m and will run down Airport Road from Columbia Street to Weaver Dairy Road, and cover Merritt Mill Road to Smith Level Bypass to the University Commons apartment complex. The routes, designed by students Sal Cangeloso and Ali Khoshnevis, will run 30-minute round trips and will service all the neighborhoods along those roads. Between one-quarter and one-half of the money for Safe Ride will come from the SAFE Escort budget, Dashputre said. A stu dent government committee announced Wednesday that fund ing to the SAFE Escort program will be cut after this semester. Although organizers have yet to raise the rest of the $60,000, they say they are confident they will meet their goal. Dashputre said the Division of Student Affairs will donate See SAFE RIDE, Page 4 Bus a Move The two routes shown are potential additions to the Safe Ride Program. The changes are dependent on funding. One Chapel Hill Transit bus would service each route, making a round trip every 30 minutes, and would stop at each Chapel Hill Transit stop along the route. The buses would run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. The bus service would be open to all members of the community, not just to students. Tentative Routes ° m fe °f 5 IIUBwIV g i’cr * JSkI I Road I SOURCE: ANUP DASHPUTRE, DIRECTOR OF THE SAFE RIDE PROGRAM AND ADC DTH/AMY BLANTON AND COBIEDELSON www.dailytarheel .com “This expansion will serve approximately 60 to 70 percent of the off-campus population. ” Anup Dashputre Safe Ride Director Weaver Dairy Road ' N 4> i i i i \ \ \ \ \ \ Estes Drive t \ Q

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