10
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2003
BOARD EDITORIALS
FAULTY PROPOSAL
Efforts to amend the Larson-Daum Campaign Reform Act to allow
candidates more liberty in spending are a step in the wrong direction.
UNC has a proud tradition of strong and effec
tive student government on campus. The
physical realization of this great strength lies
in our yearly competitive, grueling and well publi
cized student body elections.
These elections, specifically for the office of stu
dent body president, should lie within the grasp of
any UNC student who has the desire, competence
and earned trust of the voters.
The Larson-Daum Campaign Reform Act of
2002, which provides S4OO of campaign money to
candidates who can gamer 800 signatures, prevents
personal wealth from playing a role in elections and,
in the words of current Student Body President Matt
Tepper, the first elected under the new system, “lev
els the playing field.”
Unfortunately, bills recently proposed by mem
bers of Student Congress could deal a damaging
blow to these efforts and could allow personal wealth
and financial circumstance to play a larger role than
experience, dedication or voter confidence.
One proposal, offered by Congress members Alak
Shah and P.J. Lusk, would allow candidates to fund
their campaigns partially using student fee money
and allow them to raise the remainder of the money
through personal fund raising. The proposal also
would double the spending limit for campaigns and
reduce the number of signatures required to get on
the ballot.
Allowing candidates to spend their own money is
a wrong move and would put those students who
cannot afford to compete monetarily at an unfair
disadvantage.
If a privately funded, affluent candidate ran
against a publicly funded opponent, he literally
could run twice the campaign.
McKnight, who could offer another proposal to
reform the election rules, told The Daily Tar Heel
that he doesn’t believe the student body benefits
ROOM FOR GROWTH
University officials made a good move in releasing preliminary plans of
Carolina North but leaders must be open to receiving public feedback.
Carolina North was, for all intents and purpos
es, the talk of the town during this months
Chapel Hill Town Council elections.
Almost every candidate demanded more openness
and information from the University in planning the
development for the 963-acre Horace Williams tract,
a space that abuts several residential areas.
So it was probably a good move for UNC officials
to release preliminary plans for the site Thursday.
The plan calls for a seven-phase construction
schedule, lasting roughly 50 years. Carolina North is
set to contain six million square feet of office space,
two million square feet of residential space and
300,000 square feet of retail space, said Tony
Waldrop, UNC’s vice chancellor for research and
economic development.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the prelimi
nary proposal only calls for developing 25 percent of
the land —a request several candidates made dur
ing the election and one that some town residents
expected University officials to ignore.
Waldrop, when asked, said he couldn’t guarantee
that the remainder of the land would be protected as
undisturbed green space.
Although it is understandable why campus offi
cials might not be able to predict how much of the
land ultimately will be used 50 years into the future,
their inability to offer some sort of guarantee to the
town about how much of the land could be protect
ed shows why many town activists have reacted to
past UNC proposals with skepticism.
Another issue in contention is the proposal to add
20,000 parking spaces to the development.
What is perfectly clear is that the plans released
last week are not the final proposals we will see and
probably are far from them.
Waldrop consistently emphasized the temporary
nature of the drawings, noting that conditions will
EDITORS' 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 editorial page editor and the DTH editor. The 2003-04 DTH editor decided not to vote on the
board and not to write board editorials.
READERS’ FORUM
Freezing of funds for Stein
speech an egregious act
TO THE EDITOR:
The actions of student govern
ment, in regards to Ben Steins
speech, are an absolute outrage.
They show a lack of professional
ism and a power-craven mentality.
It also hints at a prejudice against
conservatives.
First off, Tripp Costas and the
College Republicans did nothing
wrong. The seats that were
reserved were for donors and com
munity leaders. Almost SII,OOO of
Steins $15,000 speaking fee was
raised by outside groups. Their
members should have the ability to
hear Ben Stein. Other reserved
seats were taken by professors and
people such as N.C. Sen. Hugh
Webster, R-Alamance. And in the
end, most of the seating was open
to students anyway.
Secondly, and more important
ly, it is extremely unprofessional to
freeze a person’s payment due to
the actions of a group. The Finance
Committee authorized $4,000 for
the speech. Stein came and did a
superb job and the committee
wants to wait to pay him. That is
preposterous and it is not how
business is done. In the real world
this would be called a breach of
contract and the treasurer would
be prosecuted.
But of course, this is not the real
world. This is Chapel Hill, where
people try use petty positions to
fforn paying for numerous campaigns.
This argument is wrong.
The campus is served better by having a wide vari
ety of platforms and candidates to choose from than
by having the field narrowed to only those students
who can afford to spend hundreds of their own dol
lars on an election.
If student body president hopefuls are able to
gather signatures and organize a rigorous campaign,
then the use of student fee money is money well
spent.
The current requirement that any student want
ing to earn a spot on the election ballot gather 800
signatures generally narrows the field of candidates
down, so fears of almost a dozen students possibly
receiving public funding might not be realistic.
Recently, the DTH Editorial Board applauded a
decision by Democratic presidential candidate
Howard Dean to forego public financing because
doing so will help him to compete with President
Bush in the 2004 race.
However, national politics and campus elections
are two very separate fields.
For starters, although a few' hundred dollars is lit
erally pocket change at the national level, it could
make or break a campus campaign.
In addition, no candidate has ever expressed a
strong interest to break the campus spending rules
and move away from public financing.
Although there is always talk that some candi
dates might bend the rules a little bit every now and
then, on the whole having student fee money pay for
campaigns could provide a little more oversight
because students will want to know that their money
is well spent.
Student Congress members must vote down any
efforts to reject the Larson-Daum Act and keep
access to the SBP’s office where it belongs in the
hands of any hardworking student who earns it.
change before building begins, which will not be
until at least 2005, when the Horace Williams
Airport is slated to close. He even cautioned that the
plans could change before they are presented to the
public officially Dec. 2.
One must hope that the apparent flexibility of the
plans comes from the fact that UNC administrators
are determined to maintaining open dialogue with
town residents and are willing to make changes to
the plans depending on the concerns Chapel Hill
residents are sure to voice.
As beneficial as that sounds, it would be just as
destructive if the flexibility were the result of campus
officials’ desire to have free reign in the development
of the site in the future instead of setting a firm frame
work now'. Even if this is not the case, UNC leaders
must make sure residents always are informed of the
next move and are able to contribute their opinions
before the plans are finalized.
After all, the University administration has
seemed unafraid to disregard long-term plans for
campus construction in the past.
One must look back only to August, when UNC
was able to convince the Town Council to modify the
campus’ Development Plan to allow for the con
struction of an 800-space parking deck in Jackson
Circle and a chiller plant and 500-space parking
deck outside of Cobb Residence Hall.
Understandably, residents are concerned that
UNC releases these forward-planning drafts simply
to assuage town fears, only to go back on the plans
shortly thereafter.
When dealing with a part of the town that is so
closely tied to residents not affiliated with UNC,
things must be different for Carolina North.
This month’s elections show a town that is fed up
with UNC’s tactics. The last thing campus officials
should do is give residents another reason to be mad.
wreak havoc upon their enemies. I
think this is a stunt instigated by
people who have something
against Tripp Costas and/or
College Republicans. Even if they
don’t have the ability to recognize
the service Tripp has done for the
school in bringing Stein to campus,
I hope they have the decency to
rectify such an egregious act.
Brian Sopp
Freshman
Political Science
Donations of any size can
have big impact on campus
TO THE EDITOR:
Recently, Carolina’s Annual
Fund Phonathon called sopho
mores and juniors to ask for gifts to
UNC. I want to share the results
with you and the campus commu
nity. In four days of calling, 417 stu
dents donated more than $3,000.
Students showed their dedica
tion to various areas such as the
Chancellor’s University Fund, the
Division of Student Affairs, the
Department of Biology, the
Campus Y and the Black Student
Movement, which were the five
most popular designations.
Given the large sum donated, it
might surprise you that the average
gift was less than $lO. If you don’t
think donations in that range can
make a difference, it’s worth noting
that for one student for one year:
• Books can be covered if 80 stu
Editorial Page
dents give $lO.
• A Think Pad R4O computer can
be covered if 100 students give S2O.
• In-state tuition and fees can be
covered if 200 students give $25.
It’s easy to see that a donation
you can afford will make a differ
ence. I encourage every student to
support an area of campus life that
matters to you. To make a gift or for
more information, visit the Good to
Know Campaign Web site at
http://carolinafirst.unc.edu/good
toknow.
And thank you, student donors!
Your gifts are helping other stu
dents. You are making a difference
on campus.
Aimee Wilson
Senior
Journalism and Mass
Communication
Downloading, sharing files
is wrong, robs musicians
TO THE EDITOR:
Downloading and sharing music
files over the Internet started as an
innocent spark. After all, posting
short selections and samples from
music albums is a great way to pro
mote various artists, right?
Unfortunately, the spark even
tually turned into a dim glow when
the samples of songs evolved to
entire songs from albums, and the
glow soon became a raging blaze
when entire albums were available
to download from the Internet
ON THE DAY’S NEWS
“Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable
things”
SAMUEL JOHNSON, English critic
EDITORIAL CARTOON By Doug Marlette, Tribune Media Services
Wlb
"we piuM-ty pound somebody/who can stop dean !"
COMMENTARY
Creativity in teaching could
bring more practical lessons
Ahh, the nobility of a teacher.
The nobility of the profes
sion. The pomp and cir
cumstance of passing on knowl
edge to anew generation. Give a
man a fish and he’ll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat
for a lifetime.
That depends on whether you
really want to just eat fish for the
rest of your life.
It’s really hard to find things
that are more important than
teaching kids how to read, write
and add. Education makes us
what we are. Education prepares
us for good things like counting
and talking. But what about the
other things in this world?
The film “School of Rock” is one
of the biggest surprises I’ve had
this year. I certainly didn’t expect
to get something that I could take
home from a comedy that depends
on the lunatic Jack Black to make
it a worthwhile product. I got both
of those things out of this movie.
In the film, Black plays a fail
ing rock star who takes a tempo
rary job as a substitute teacher to
fill the void in his income that
rock music isn’t filling.
Instead of teaching the kids
standard things such as reading,
writing and arithmetic, Black
teaches them how to be a func
tioning rock band.
In the heartwarming process,
Black learns responsibility at the
same time as the kids learn about
loyalty and determination and
standing up for yourself.
Awwww.
Now, I’m certainly not arguing
that making all classes into rock
music seminars is going to fix
every problem with education we
have in this country, but the heart
is a start. Alternative methods of
education might be the future of
education.
without pay.
Although some believe that
music piracy causes no harm to
anyone and is only an act of pro
moting one’s albums, I believe that
music piracy is an act of stealing.
The big deal with downloading
and sharing music files is that peo
ple are downloading song files from
other sharers and copying these
songs onto a blank CD instead of
purchasing the album.
When albums are being illegally
copied instead of purchased, artists
are being cheated and short-hand
ed from the loss of both money and
the countless hours put into making
the album.
We are taking away from the
wages of artists when we simply
copy their music onto a CD without
financially supporting them.
“People pirating other people’s
work is theft. There’s an awful lot
of bands that can’t take the loss,
you know. That’s actually how they
make their living, you know.” These
words by Elvis Costello in the Sept.
29 issue of “Time” sum up the
problems of copying and sharing
music that is not our own.
Next time you turn one of those
blank CDs into a music album
filled with songs that you have
downloaded, read to yourself the
Honor Pledge and ask yourself if
you are doing the right thing.
Stockton Perry
Freshman
Biology
BILLY BALL
FOR KIDS WHO CAN'T READ GOOD
In my time in elementary, mid
dle and high school, I learned
that we really weren’t meant to be
taught more than a strict curricu
lum.
I had a middle school teacher
who directly defied the school
board and showed us the film
“Schindler’s List.” That film is one
of the most brutally honest depic
tions of the Holocaust ever put to
film, and its Jewish director,
Steven Spielberg, set out to do
just that. It’s a horrifying film to
watch, but it’s history, and it must
be taught.
She sent home permission slips
to parents. She prepared everyone
for just how graphic the film
would be. But the movie was still
too realistic for the aging and
decrepit school board to acknowl
edge.
In the end, my teacher was
forced to quit, or she would have
been fired.
In the time that I watched that
film, I learned something about
one of the darkest periods in
human history. And I also learned
something about standing up for
what you believe, but not from
the film.
I had another teacher named
Myrtle (“the Turtle”) who wasted
her time and mine by teaching us
that no, we can’t go to the bath
room, but yes, we may go to the
bathroom. Thank you. I’ll
remember that in the future.
The Moody Blues, a ’6os
Town Council member-elect
thanks voters for support
TO THE EDITOR:
To everyone who supported my
successful campaign for a seat on
the Chapel Hill Town Council, a
heartfelt thanks. The campaigning
itself was energizing and rewarding.
It was gratifying to find that so
many of you share my vision of a
thriving, environmentally sustain
able, economically inclusive Chapel
Hill. I will work hard to reward your
trust in me. And I’ll count on your
help and advice in the days ahead.
I also want to thank all those who
voted and worked on this year’s
campaign whether I was your can
didate of choice or not. Rest assured
that my office door and my mind
will remain open to your concerns.
Sally Greene
Member-elect
Chapel Hill Town Council
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% Saily (Ear Hrrt
“Alternative
methods of
education might
be the future of
education”
British rock act, taught us what is
really for “our children’s children’s
children” to know in their song
“Candle of Life.” “So love every
body,” the Blues say. “And make
them your friends.”
I’m sure there’s more to it than
that. I don’t really know, but I
guess so. So for now, I’ll just take
the Blues’ word for it.
How about teaching me to, um,
pay bills and get a job and man
age my income and go after what
I always wanted and to think for
myself? All of those important
things.
Some of the most valuable
things I have learned haven’t
come from any curriculum. And
some of the most valuable things
I don’t know clearly haven’t come
from any curriculum.
Let’s go out on a limb and take
some chances. An alternative
method of education might simply
be teaching us what is practical.
It’s teaching kids to do something
with the ABCs and the arithmetic.
And for all the things that we
really don’t need to function and
function well, they can take a
back seat and be for only the
extremely nerdy and the extreme
ly ambitious. Calculus, my ever
vigilant eye is fixed upon you and
your limiting ways.
If you didn’t catch the pun
there, good for you.
Contact Billy Ball
at wkball@email.unc.edu.
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