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®jp Saily (Ear lied BOARD EDITORIALS MAKING THEIR CASE Campus leaders must weigh carefully the benefits and consequences of placing security cameras in residence halls before moving ahead. A recent decision by the Student Safety Task Force to explore placing security cameras in campus residence halls is a classic case of understandable overreaction. An armed robbery in Avery Residence Hall almost a year ago shocked the campus, but at this point cameras are simply not the solution. There are a number of financial and privacy issues that the benefits of a surveillance system do not out weigh. Given the economic crunch the University con tinues to endure, the cost of installing cameras in more than 30 residence halls should be considered. The equipment that is necessary for setting up an effective security system undoubtedly would carry a hefty price tag. In addition, it would create demand for increased personnel, namely an employee to monitor and maintain the cameras. With budget cuts heavily impacting other campus departments, officials would have to take the funds from somewhere else to subsidize the project. One can argue that money should be no concern when dealing with student safety on campus. Indeed, campus security is and must remain a top priority for the University community. However, there is little proof that security cameras would increase student safety on campus. Safety officials on many other campuses have turned to the camera approach, but data on the sys tems’ effect remain inconclusive. A University of Michigan official cited drops in residence hall crime since the Ann Arbor campus installed cameras, but she admitted that other ini tiatives also played a role in safety improvements. Even in the University community, there are examples that call into question the level of protec tion security cameras offer. Last year, a robbery at Granville Towers was caught on surveillance cameras. Although pictures were taken and widely distributed around campus, the photographs were fuzzy and didn’t aid in track ing down the perpetrators. Another major concern with installing video cam eras is student privacy. Kristin Conte, president of UNC’s Residence Hall Association, admirably has asserted that cameras only would be used to look at footage of crime inci dents. But this does not assuage all privacy worries. While the temptation to analyze every moment of FOLLOW THROUGH Reforms in the IFC rush process should improve the experience for students, but like any change, it is crucial that the rules be enforced. f ■ buzz coming from Fraternity Court was I noticeably quieter last week as many organi- X. zations spent the opening days of classes with out the huge throngs of rushees. The delayed bid period is among the many rush reforms facing the 21 groups of the Interfratemity Council. The changes were sparked partly by parents' concerns that the old rush process took time away from rushees’ studies during the first week of classes. On the whole, the new guidelines are a good way to make sure the rushing process is more effective for prospective pledges. Delaying rush until the second week of classes has allowed potential rushees more time to acclimate to campus life. Other reforms include blackout periods on rush activities, lasting from 8 p.m. each Sunday to Thursday, and anew policy that requires rushees to visit at least half of the IFC fraternities during a three day period to expose them to a wide array of groups. Auy fraternity found violating the rules could lose pledges for a semester or face fines or social probation. Still, the effectiveness of the new policies will depend on tough enforcement. IFC President Wyatt Dickson said in an interview last week that he did not know of any violations being EDITORS’ NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions of solely The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board and were reached after open debate. The board consists of eight board members, the assistant editorial page editor, the editorial page editor and the DTH editor. The 2003-04 OTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials. (Fhr Daily Oar Hppl PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS STAFF Kimberly Craven, Judy Pham and Kia Thacker, representa tives. Display Advertising: Kate Bingham, Melanie Brooks, Elizabeth Crutcher, Megan Gilchrist, Annie Godwin, Matt Eagle, Andy Lunnen. Shannon Plummer, Kelsey Scott and Anne EDITORIAL STAFF Copy: Meqhan Greene. Megan Putnam, Christina Rexrode and Jordan Williams. Design: Daniel BeDen, Jessica Giroux and Tiffany Ward Editorial: Latrice Brockman, Ryan Fischer, Jeff Kim, Nico Pandi, Dave Seigel, Jeff Silver, editorial board, Billy Ball, Michael Davis, Nathan Denny, Mike Gorman and Brian Millikin, columnists Features: India Autry, Caroline Lindsey. Kelly Ochs, Lauren Rippey, Alison Ross, Ami Shah, Amy Thomson, Kirsten Valle. Graphics: Lora Davis. Sara Lonqecker Online: Samira Akpan. Southey Blanton, Katherine Christian and Heather O'Kelley Photography: Sara Abrons, Kimberly Craven, Joshua Greer and Joame Tobm, senior pho tographers, Kristin Ashton, Gillian Bolsover, Elspeth Callahan, John Dudley, Beth Floyd, Kristin Goode, Leah Latelle, Greg Logan, Allison Money, Laura Morton. Rachel Schockley, Gabi Trapenberg, Ashlie White and Liz Winter Business and Advertising: Janet Gallagher-Cassel, direc tor/oeneral manager; Chrissy Beck, director of marketing; Lisa Reichle, business manager; Tiffany Flomo, retail sales man ager, Customer Service: Amanda Taylor, senior representative, Assistant Editors: Phillip McFee and Michael Pucci, arts & entertainment, Nick Eberlein, Jenny Huang and Ryan Tuck, city, Chris Coletta, copy; Ofla Buckley, Randi Demagistris and Nicole Neuman, design; Colin Sutker, editorial; Kristin Becker. features, Adam Shupe, online. Audrey Butler and Lindsey Beth Ellison, graphics; Kate Blackman and Garrett Hall, photography, Michael Clarke, Jacob Karabell and Brandon Parker, sports, Emma Burgin, Elliott Dube and Laura Youngs, state & national; Jenny Immel, Emily Steel and Nikki Werking, university. Arts & Entertainment: Kemp Baldwin, Diane Eikenberry, Tacque Kirksey, Kristen Williams, Brandon Whiteside. Thomas Previte and Gerald Johnson. Cartoon: Selena Beckman- Harned, Fitz Holladay. Andrew Johnson, Danny Rosenblutt and Andrew Stevens. City: Shannan Bowen. Sarah Corica, Susie Dickson, Jenni Norman, Elizabeth Sherman, Emily Vasquez and Jordan WoaJard. The editorials are approved by the majority of the editorial board, which is composed of the editor, editorial page editor, assistant editorial page edi tor and eight editorial writers. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the DTH Publishing Corp., a non-profit North'Carolina corporation, Monday-Friday, according to the University calendar. Callers with questions about billing or display advertising should call 962-1163 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Classified ads can be reached at 962-0252. Editorial questions should be directed to 962-0245. ISN #10709436 OFFICE: Suite 104 Carolina Union CAMPUS MAIL ADDRESS: CB# 5210, Carolina Union Jgr®' U.S. MAIL ADDRESS: P.O. Box 3257, WwM# Chapel Hill, NC 27515-3257 residence hall life is great, the University’s residence halls are the last place students should feel unfairly monitored. Effective surveillance would be difficult to install without interfering in students’ private lives. Before they begin to plan camera installation, campus leaders must lay down concrete ground rules for what types of activities will be scrutinized. In the meantime, officials can re-emphasize com mon sense safety techniques, such as not allowing “tailgating" allowing an outside individual to enter a hall behind a resident. For example, residence hall staff could monitor hall entrances more closely and stress the impor tance of allowing only residents and invited guests into the buildings. As officials develop their plans, they also must realize that crime is a difficult issue to combat, even on a campus as safe as the University’s. Crime does occur, but officials must be wary not to overreact when it happens. Isolated incidents such as the Avery robbery or the recent holdup near Davis Library are legitimate security concerns. But initiating a large-scale project, such as installing security cameras, would be an excessive measure that would impact only a fraction of cam pus crime. Security cameras only would impact the crime that occurs in residence halls while having no impact on other security problems. While they consider security cameras, members of the Student Safety Task Force also should explore options that are known to be more effective than cameras. However, campus officials in the past have gotten ideas in their heads and run with them even if popular sentiment and reasonable thinking contra dict their plans. If safety leaders should elect to install cameras, they should first initiate a pilot program that targets a few select campus residence halls. This experiment would provide some much-needed concrete data that would show just how necessary and effective cameras would be on campus. What would be best, though, is to scrap the idea entirely and focus on more cost-effective and less invasive safety plans. Let’s hope this reactionary proposal falls by the wayside. UNC students and the University’s coffers would be better off for it. committed. However, Dickson said that he is sure some violations might be occurring, but only on a small scale. It is imperative that campus leaders keep close tabs on the activities of IFC fraternities to see whether the new rules are being followed. One possible solution would be to have an IFC officer or a staff member from the Office of Greek Affairs routinely patrol IFC fraternities. Leaders also should respond quickly to any reported problems with the rush process to ensure that any violators are stopped in their tracks. The hard work that went into crafting the rules will be pointless if no concrete efforts are made to enforce the new policies. In addition, it is very important that members of IFC organizations honor the rules and are not afraid to report groups who are committing violations. The old schoolyard policy of not tattling on your classmates will not cut it. Keeping quiet while anoth er group is breaking the rules is just as bad as vio lating the guidelines yourself. The new rushing guidelines will be a major test for IFC groups hoping to regain the trust and respect of various members of the University community. Let’s hope that they pass with flying colors. READERS' FORUM Ethics chairwoman: Russell has met the housing requirement TO THE EDITOR: I would like to clarify one of the statements made in “Thomas seeks proofs of district." As of Aug. 28, Representative Natalie Russell had completed all of her ethics requirements for Student Congress. Margaret Thomas Ethics Committee Chairwoman Student Congress Candidates' races play no role in their political beliefs, ideas TO THE EDITOR: Regarding your article “Local candi date slate lacks diversity,” I must dis agree with the assessment that lack of racial diversity in the local elections is necessarily problematic. If anything, the real shame of the issue is that we as a society have become so obsessed with racial and ethnic politics. We divide ourselves on the issue of who is best for “black America" or “Latino America” when the true con cern is what is best for the United States as a whole and not just a specif ic group or class. The race of a candidate should not and does not matter. What matters is the ideology or campaign platform of the individual candidate. And not all blacks or other minorities think the same or follow a particular political Tackabery, account executives Advertising Production: Penny Persons, manager, Kathryn Klein and Karen Stone, assistants. Classified Production: Cindy Henley Projects Team: Jamie Dougher, Matt Hanson, Suzanne Presto, Joe Rauch and Lynne Shallcross. Sports: Jamie Agm and Aaron Fitt, senior writers, Sarah McConnaghy and Carrie Sasser, sports copy; Jeremy Borden. Tyler Dancy, Gabnelle Deßosa, Mike Martinez. Hunter Powell, Will Robinson and Randy Wellington State & National: Adjoa Adolfo. Alexandra Dodson. Margaux Escutin, Alex Granados. Jack Kimbal and Kathryn Roebuck University: Will Arev, Laura Bost, Brian Hudson, Rachel Hodges, Caroline Kornegay, Mary McGuirt. Joe Saunders and Arman Tolentino. Editorial Production: Stacy Wynn, manager. Printing: Triangle Web. Distribution: Triangle Circulation Services. Editorial Page ON THE DAY S NEWS “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities” SIR JOSIAH STAMP, BRITISH ECONOMIST ( J^r^ ( D p | COMMENTARY Focus on the simple things helps to face life’s struggles There’s this scene in the war movie “Saving Private Ryan.” It’s the part in the beginning where the soldiers leap from their boats and charge the heavily guarded Omaha Beach in Normandy. Many of them are shot down almost immediately by a barrage of bullets that decapitates some and leaves others crawling. Only a few actually make it to the beach. It’s a horrifying and bloody scene, one fraught with all that is base and ugly about human civi lization. One that makes every untested macho boy consider the tourism aspects of Canada during wartime. One that spurts more blood in five minutes than an entire Quentin Tarantino film. That said, one of my instruc tors at UNC recently compared his class to this scene. “Some of you will make it to the beach," he said. “Some of you won’t.” He cut through my class with a pair of tough-love eyes and a crooked grin that made me feel like I was the fat kid in gym class and he was handing out titty twisters. Every few minutes, he would look up from the syllabus and threaten us with the work that we so righteously deserved. “I’m going to work your tails off,” he said. His fingers clinched the syl labus in front of him with vigi lante teacher justice. I saw a dozen faces forcing smiles because they wanted him to think that they really wanted a teacher who would push them to their best. Someone who would cut through their academic cellulite and make them hard-nosed, pro fessional stars. Someone who would force them to confront the philosophy by virtue of their skin color. Asa conservative, if given the choice between Howard Dean, who is white, and Alan Keyes, who is black, I would choose Keyes as president for the ideas and beliefs he advocates. Racial politics in America has led us to bloc voting, “playing the race card” and the rise of racial demagogues like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. We must move beyond this. The true American politician does what’s best for all of those in the United States race notwithstanding. Kris Wampler Sophomore Political Science Cheering fans must be careful not to disrupt actions on field TO THE EDITOR: Before I continue, I first want to say that I have never played organized football, not even in high school. The extent of my gridiron career has been intramural flag football next to Woollen Gym (which is a lot of fun, by the way). However, there is something about football that I think our student body and fans really need to know to better support our team. It’s fourth down, Carolina has the ball, we’re going for it and the play clock is winding down. What are we doing in the stands? We’re yelling and cheering as loud as we can! That is exactly what our team does not need. Don’t get me wrong, it is def initely good to make as much noise as TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2003 BILLY BALL FOR KIDS WHO CAN’T READ GOOD reality of college and the lies of high school. Sure. Yeah. That’s what we want. On opposite day. I have another teacher who makes it all better though. She is a woman who may be the timeout that I so desperately need after my other professor compared his class to war. It’s a woman who wears big, dark sunglasses, which she trades periodically for reading glasses. She speaks in a lazy voice about the art of writing, and she sounds like she’s going somewhere with what she’s saying but is complete ly willing to take her time to get there. If my other professor is raw liver, she’s fried chicken after church on Sunday. She’s a Temptations song playing on a back porch. She’s a peanut butter and banana sandwich with sour cream and onion potato chips. She’s a book in the bathroom. In fact, she’s my grandmother, and that’s all I really wanted any way. What we really want are our grandmothers to teach us. We want a woman with a Sunday dress and ripped panty hose to teach us. We want a woman who’ll give us overcooked macaroni and cheese. Someone who will tell us that we can’t go to the bathroom, but we may go to the bathroom. Someone who will give us a good whack with a cut- possible to try and add another factor to the game, but we need to know when and, even more importantly, when not to make noise. In football, the whole idea of making noise is to throw off the timing of the other team’s offense. If the players cannot hear their quarterback, to put it simply, the play is going to be messed up. They could miss any last-minute instructions and even the whole snap count itself. None of us knows how difficult it is for line men to get the right jump in a noisy environment. Let’s help them out. I’m not going to go into any detail, but please when we have the ball, it’s third and long and the play clock is running down let’s shut up! Ido not want to see Darian Durant having to yell over us the next time he tries to get a play off. However, next week when Syracuse has the ball, I think we all know what to do. Alan Presley Junior Political Science TO SUBMIT A LETTER: The Dally Tar Heel wel comes reader comments. Letters to the editor should be no longer than 300 words and must be typed, double-spaced, dated and signed by no more than two people. Students should include their year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and phone number. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, darity and vulgarity. Publication is not guaranteed. Bring letters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel HiU, NC 27515 or e-mail them to editdeskOunc.edu. “l think I'm just trying to justify macaroni and cheese and cutting boards." ting board when we innocently steal caramel chews from the gro cery store. Someone who will scold us for skipping our nap. Someone who frames the chalk board with the cursive alphabet. Someone who smears aloe on our fingers when we touch the burner. Yeah, that’s what I want. I’m not sure that I came to this University to challenge what 1 already know anyway. I think I'm just trying to justify macaroni and cheese and cutting boards and the alphabet. So be it. I’m not endorsing a lack of challenges. In fact, I understand that you don’t get to be the best football team by opening your sea son against Middle Tennessee State. One has to knock out a powerhouse before one can be a powerhouse. One has to get shot at before one can reach the beach. I’m almost certain that the first teacher I talked about might be the best teacher I’ve talked about. He’s probably the most practi cal teacher I’ve ever had. He’s probably going to prepare me best for my future and my occu pation. He’s probably going to make me stronger. What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger. My ninth grade English teacher said that once. That doesn’t mean I have to like it though. Contact Billy Ball at wkball@email.unc.edu. Established 1893 110 years of editorialfreedom ahr SaiUi (Ear Hrri www.dailytarheelcom ELYSE ASHBURN EDITOR, 962-4086 OFFICE HOURS 2:15-3:15 PM MON., WED DANIEL THIGPEN MANAGING EDITOR. 962-0750 JENNIFER SAMUELS PROJECTS MANAGING EDITOR. 962-0750 APRIL BETHEA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR. 962-0750 BROOK R. CORWIN UNIVERSITY EDITOR. 962-0732 KATHRYN GRIM CITY EDITOR. 962-4209 CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR. STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR. 962-4103 BRIAN MACPHERSON SPORTS EDITOR. 962-4710 MICHELLE JARBOE FEATURES EDITOR. 962-4214 NICK PARKER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR. 962-4214 ALEX OBREGON COPY EDITOR. 962-4103 BRIAN CASSELLA PHOTO EDITOR, 962-0750 MICHELLE KUTTNER DESIGN EDITOR. 962-0750 MICHAELA IDHAMMAR GRAPHICS EDITOR. 962-0750 KRISTEN OLIVER ONLINE EDITOR. 962-0750 BEN COUCH SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR, 962-4710 JOHN FRANK PROJECTS TEAM LEADER. 962-0246 ERIC GAUTSCHI OMBUDSMAN If you have any concerns or comments about our coverage, please contact Ombudsman Eric Gautschi at gautschiOemail.unc.edu or 918-1311. 11
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