VOLUME 111, ISSUE 129
Council debates traffic cameras
Effectiveness called into question by opponents
BY SARAH RABIL
STAFF WRITER
Chapel Hill Town Council member Mark
Kleinschmidt will petition the council to
terminate the town’s red light camera con
tract with Affiliated Computer Services on
Monday at the council’s first meeting of the
year.
In his petition, Kleinschmidt cites such
concerns with the cameras as lack of due
process, abandonment of traditional law
enforcement, unequal distribution of funds
from the citations and a low number of cita
tions compared to the number of violations.
“These things don’t work anything like
they said they were going to work,” he said.
“We need to get out of it.”
Though the system experienced some
BOT talks
to include
grad tuition
BY EMILY STEEL
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
As members of the Board of Trustees roll
up their sleeves and pound out tuition poli
cies at their next meeting, many of the issues
they will consider for undergraduate costs
also could affect proposals from eight pro
fessional schools.
“We will be thinking very carefully and
fairly about how all of
these proposals further
the gods of the
University and provide
the best education at the
best price for students,”
Trustee Bob Winston
said.
But some trustees have
said tuition proposals tar
geted at professional stu
dents most likely will
remain intact, and dis
cussions will focus on
groundbreaking under
graduate tuition reforms.
AM
UNC law
school dean,
Gene Nichol,
said tuition isn't
only answer.
“Asa board, we are not as close to each of
the (professional school) situations,” Thistee
Paul Fulton said. “We are more comfortable
with undergraduate tuition, and the focus
will be drawn around that.”
Some of UNC’s professional school deans
said reductions in state fiinding for the past
three years could put the reputation and qual
ity of the schools at stake if tuition isn’t raised.
These increases and their strategies vary
at each school.
Plans for hikes at the professional school
level range from a S3OO one-year increase
for in-state students at the School of Law to
a $9,000 three-year increase for in-state stu-
SEE TUITION, PAGE 2
Protester appeals court decision
Attorneys say speech rights at risk
BY BROOK R. CORWIN
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Now facing possible jail time, a
UNC alumnus convicted of disor
derly conduct for protesting on the
court during a, UNC basketball
game is appealing last fall’s court
ruling against him.
DTH FILE PHOTO
UNC graduate Andrew Pearson is set to appear in court Monday after
appealing his conviction for protesting during a UNC basketball game.
WORK FOR THE DTH
Get applications at the DTH office or at our interest
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Serving the students and the University community since 1893
olir lailu ®ar Heel
initial problems, ACS promised to improve
the cameras’ image quality, said Kumar
Neppalli, Chapel Hill traffic engineer.
The cameras were approved in a 6-3 vote
on May 29,2002, with council member Bill
Strom, Mayor Kevin Foy and Kleinschmidt
dissenting.
New council members Sally Greene and
Cam Hill likely will join Foy, Kleinschmidt
and Strom in opposition to the cameras.
Greene and Hill, who both voiced oppo
sition to the Safe Light program during their
campaigns, will fill the seats of former coun
cil members Pat Evans and Flicka Bateman,
who voted in favor of the cameras.
“I have an open mind, but I support
Mark’s petition,” Hill said.
According to Article 7, Section 1 of the
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NC Grapplers Dustin Graven (left) and
Keaton Homer (right) practice a “Tlirkey”
Thursday evening in Fetzer Gym. UNC
wrestling team members helped teach the
5- to 14-year-olds howto preform wrestling moves at
Andrew Pearson, who graduat
ed from UNC in 1998, will appear
in Orange County Superior Court
on Monday for the start of his trial
before a jury.
The original charges stem from
an incident last spring when
Pearson and three UNC students
INSIDE
UNDER THE SEA
Controversial new fish available
at Durham pet store PAGE 3
www.dailytarheei.com
contract between the town and ACS, the
three-year contract may be terminated
without cause upon 30 days written notice.
The two cameras operational are located
at the intersections of U.S. 15-501 at Sage
Road and Airport Road at Estes Drive.
Town data show that out of 1,468 viola
tions between Sept 9 and Dec. 31,2003, only
526 of these violations resulted in citations.
Hill said the cameras are not more effec
tive than the police considering that only a
third of the violators receive citations. “It
was supposed to take the human element
out of it; instead it made it worse,” he said.
But council member Dorothy Verkerk
said she wants to give the cameras more
time before making canceling the contract.
“My understanding is that they haven’t
been in place that long and that you have to
expect some technical difficulties,” she said.
Chapel Hill resident Will Raymond, an
SMACKDOWN!
ran onto the Smith Center court
carrying banners protesting the
then pending U.S. invasion of Iraq.
All four were subsequently
banned from the Smith Center for
two years.
In October, District Court Judge
Pat DeVine convicted Pearson and
UNC sophomore Liz Mason-Deese,
ruling that the issue of personal
safety overruled the defendants’
First Amendment rights. DeVine
ruled that they could avoid formal
charges by completing 24 hours of
community service by Dec. 15.
The other two students had been
charged by a different officer with a
more general statute and were
acquitted in the same courtroom.
Pearson said he decided to
appeal during the last few days
before the December deadline. He
then received a suspended sentence
of 20 days jail time by District
Court Judge Charles Anderson.
“There’s definitely a risk in
appealing, and I recognize that,”
Pearson said Wednesday night.
“But there are definitely argu
ments I think a jury needs to hear.”
Pearson said Mason-Deese com
pleted her community service and
chose not to appeal so she could
focus on school and other concerns.
Pearson is being represented by
A1 McSurely and Ashley Osment,
his attorneys from the original case.
active opponent of the cameras for two years,
said he hopes the addition of two new coun
cil members wifi result in the termination of
the ACS contract.
Raymond staunchly rallied against them
during an Aug. 25 meeting and the
November municipal elections. “What little
data we have has shown that this is a very
disappointing system.”
Two more cameras, one in each direction
on U.S. 15-501 at Europa Drive, should be
operational later this month, Neppalli said.
For each citation issued through the
Safe Light system, $2 goes to the town and
ACS collects the remaining S4B. If more
than 1,750 citations are issued in a month,
according to the town’s contract, the town’s
take per citation would jump to $21.50.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Thursday’s practice. The Grapplers’ youngest partic
ipant, 5-year-old T.J. Tate (back) watches Craven and
Homer practice. The Grapplers meet twice a week to
practice in the Raleigh-Durham area and travel to
competitions on the weekend.
Osment said the appeal will
focus on the elements of the statute
that can’t be proven by the state.
But Pearson said the issue of
free speech will play prominently
in his defense, comparing the
Smith Center incident with other
acts of unruly behavior not prose
cuted by the University.
“There are lots of issues at stake
here,” Pearson said. “There’s more
than free speech, but that’s a cen
tral concern.”
Among those who testified dur
ing Pearson’s original trial was
Daniel Pollitt, professor emeritus
at UNC’s School of Law. In an
interview Thursday, Pollitt said he
presented numerous precedents
both nationally and at UNC in
which the constitutional right to
free speech trumped existing dis
turbance laws.
Pollitt also claimed that the
statute with which Pearson was
charged requires that the defen
dant is warned of the conse
quences of the action.
Pearson, who along with the
other demonstrators sent a letter
to the Chancellor announcing their
intentions to protest, said he
received no such warning.
Also supporting Pearson’s cause
are dozens of students, faculty and
SEE PEARSON, PAGE 2
SPORTS
BUZZER-BEATER
La'Tangela Atkinson hits the game-winning
shot as the Tar Heels beat N.C. State PAGE 5
DTH/GILLIAN BOLSOVER
BOG to weigh in on
system tuition plans
BYCLEVE R. WOOTSON JR.
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
The UNC-system Board of
Governors will begin considering
potential tuition increases for its
constituent schools today.
But the board will not consid
er a request for UNC-Chapel Hill,
which has not yet submitted a
proposal for a tuition or fee
increase.
The UNC-CH Board of
Trustees will continue its own
tuition talks at its next meeting
and is slated to finalize tuition
and fees Jan. 22.
Ihition talks broke down at the
BOT’s November meeting and
members reconvened this week
in a special public work session.
Trustees are considering rais
ing out-of-state tuition as much
as $1,500 this year and $6,000
during the next several years.
The BOG members had said
they wanted universities to cap
their increase requests at S3OO,
but Jim Phillips, chair of the
board’s Budget and Finance com
mittee, said he would be open to
raising nonresident tuition at
UNC-CH by $6,000.
“My reaction is positive,” said
Phillips, whose committee must
approve tuition and fee increases
WEATHER
TODAY Light snow, H 35, L 21
SATURDAY Partly cloudy, H 33, Ll 7
SUNDAY Sunny, H 39, L 23
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2004
Tepper,
leaders
advise
caution
Say tuition hike
needs 2nd look
BY JOSEPH SCHWARTZ
AND ARMAN TOLENTINO
SENIOR WRITERS
Student leaders think it would
not be prudent to raise out-of
state tuition significantly without
a thorough review of how a hike
could affect admissions and
potential increases by the N.C.
General Assembly.
The UNC Board of Thistees dis
cussed Wednesday the possibility
of increasing nonresident tuition
as much as $6,000 during the
next few years.
Student Body President Matt
Tepper said it would be premature
to raise tuition and called for a
study to examine the role tuition
plays in admissions.
University officials have said
such a study could cost anywhere
from $250,000 to $500,000 to
conduct, but Tepper said that’s a
small amount compared to the
millions of dollars that could be
generated from the potential
tuition increase.
“It’s ridiculous to increase
tuition by a large amount without
knowing how this could affect our
admissions,” he said.
Tepper also stressed the fact
that the tuition increase currently
on the table is campus-based, and
that state legislators possibly could
double the increase. “We have no
idea what could happen at the leg
islative level,” he said.
Joy Diggs, co-chairwoman of
the Out-of-State Student
Association said she wants to
make sure that the student voice is
heard.
“I wish they would try to get
more student input on this issue
before they just raise the tuition,”
she said.
Although she could not pin
point a date, Diggs said the asso
ciation will meet next week to dis
cuss the issue.
She noted that since out-of
state students have not yet had
ample time to respond to the dis
cussions, the BOT should post
pone making a final decision.
SEE STUDENTS, PAGE 2
before the full board votes on
them.
“That seems to make a lot of
sense to me.... Raising tuition for
out-of-state students based on
kind of a market analysis seems
to make sense to me.”
The histori
cally steep
tuition
increase, if
approved,
would put the
price of UNC
CH’s nonresi
dent tuition at
about the
same level as
its most
expensive
peers.
Phillips said
he thinks uni-
B
UNC-system
President
Molly Broad
sees many
tuition options.
versities’ admissions officers
know best how expensive they
can make nonresident tuition
before they turn away potential
out-of-state students or harm the
academic environment.
“You want to continue to
receive good applicants,” he said.
“But (admission officials) know,
and I don’t know where the price
SEE BOG, PAGE 2
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