8
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2004
BOARD EDITORIALS
SCHEDULE CONFLICT
A workshop intended to educate University trustees on the ins and
outs of tuition should have been more accessible to the student body.
We would have loved to opine eloquently
about the nature and worth of the UNC
Board of Trustees tuition workshop that
took place Wednesday afternoon.
Unfortunately, we had class.
The workshop, which took place from 12:30 to 5
p.m. the first day of classes, couldn’t have been timed
more poorly. BOT members joked early in the ses
sion that UNC Student Body President Matt Tepper
set a bad example for the student body by skipping
class to attend.
Fortunately, Tepper was able to cut class, but
many students can’t make that kind of commitment
on their first day back.
Granted, the tuition workshop took place for the
education and benefit of trustees. The topic of the
meeting, however, was one of infinite importance
and finite understanding to students: tuition.
Students should have been better informed, and
a reasonable effort should have been made to accom
modate their attendance.
UNC News Services posted an advisory on New
Year’s Eve notifying media contacts about the event,
A CLEAR STATEMENT
Duke University’s choice for its new president is a significant sign that
the institution is paying attention to the needs of its undergraduates.
A prominent hire at Duke University sends an
important message through the world of high
er education.
Last month, Duke tapped Richard Brodhead as
the university’s ninth president. Brodhead will
replace outgoing President Nannerl Keohane when
she steps down July 1.
The hiring of Brodhead makes a crucial statement
about the value of undergraduate education at Duke.
Brodhead brings with him a history of under
graduate excellence. After beginning his career at
Yale University as an English professor, he eventu
ally became the chairman of the English department
and the dean of Yale College.
With the exception of his final two years at Yale,
Brodhead continued to teach undergraduates
despite his promotions, maintaining an exemplary
relationship with them. He was well known among
Yale students for genuinely caring for their welfare.
The importance of a professor or administrator
committed to building relationships with students
cannot be underestimated. Brodhead’s commitment
to undergraduates is reminiscent of former UNC lead
THREE’S COMPANY
Anew three-judge panel will effectively deal with redistricting suits,
ensuring a more inclusive and efficient map-drawing process.
A recent N.C. Superior Court ruling is a strong
step toward taking the redistricting issue out
of fiercely partisan hands.
The court upheld key parts of a law that would
require all lawsuits questioning the constitutionali
ty of redistricting plans to be heard by a three-judge
panel. The panel, appointed by the chief justice of
the N.C. Supreme Court, would include one judge
from eastern North Carolina, one from western
North Carolina and one from Wake County.
The three-judge panel is certainly a step in the
right direction.
It prevents either party from shopping for friendly
judges and reducing courts to partisan battlegrounds.
The panel also prevents one judge or region from
having undue influence over the lawmaking body for
the entire state. A group of prominent N.C.
Republicans challenging the most recent district maps
hoped to file suit in a county of their choosing.
The ability to select a county helped Republicans
defeat the N.C. General Assembly’s 2002 districts,
leading to the use of maps drawn entirely by one
EDITOR'S 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 seven board members, the editorial page associate editor, 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.
QUQTABLES
“PEDESTRIAN DETOUR
<-TO THE PUT.”
SIDEWALK SIGN,
DIRECTING STUDENTS PAST CONSTRUCTION
SEPARATING POLK PLACE FROM THE PIT.
“I’m worried about if I’m
going to jump out of the
damn plane on the way
home.... You saw us play
defense. I’m sure as crap
not going to worry about
what the crap is going to
happen in two years.”
ROY WILLIAMS,
UNC MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH, ON THE
FUTURE OF THE UNC-KENTUCKY SERIES.
“It was nice to have that
selection, but it’s not so
nice that I need to get
sued.... My friends are
either going to buy the CD
or say, ‘Screw it,’and
download it anyway.”
REBECCA WINGO,
UNC JUNIOR, ON WHY SHE HAS DECIDED TO
CURB HER ILLEGAL FILE-SHARING HABITS
which took place only a week later Jan. 7 the
University’s first day of classes.
To put it shortly, die publicity wasn’t sufficient and
the timing could have been better.
Given die importance of the issue and its relevance
to the student body, a much greater effort should have
been made to reach out to students. After all, it is
their wallets that will be absorbing the brunt of any
tuition increase discussed during the workshop.
The majority of time at Wednesday’s workshop
was spent on presentations by deans of professional
schools making cases for targeted tuition increases
and by UNC administrators explaining the subtieties
of undergraduate cost and enrollment models.
While the function of the tuition workshop might
have been to allow BOT members a better under
standing of tuition issues, Student Body Vice
President Rebekah Burford reminded BOT mem
bers that the consultative decision-making process
is one of the elements that makes UNC special.
Administrators would do well to honor that tra
dition and make a greater effort to reach out to stu
dents in their scheduling and publicity efforts.
ers such as Frank Porter Graham, who emphasized
teaching and mentoring the undergraduates here.
It’s easy for students on a vast research campus to
slip through the cracks for four years.
Many modem research institutions have made
undergraduate teaching less of a priority. Teaching
frequently is put on the back burner, while research
and publishing become professors’ primary focus.
The undergraduate experience is lost in the mix.
Coming from one of the largest and most promi
nent research institutions in the country, Brodhead’s
hiring sends a clear message: Educating undergrad
uates matters.
The announcement of Brodhead’s appointment
probably won’t register for many students wearing
Carolina blue. But he has the potential to transform
the nature of learning for undergraduate students at
that institution, while reminding other research uni
versities that teaching must remain a high priority.
There is no guarantee that Duke will succeed in
improving the quality of undergraduate education,
but the move it made stands out among most major
universities.
Johnston County judge.
Still, the panel only can bandage and not cure a
bitterly flawed process.
Redistricting would be more efficient and less par
tisan if an independent commission carried it out.
While the inherently political process might never be
free of party politics, such a panel would help simply
by removing legislators from the high-stakes struggle.
The annual redistricting fight consumes a tremen
dous amount of the legislature’s time and resources.
Taking redistricting out of legislative hands would
allow the body to focus on the business of the state,
and a commission could prevent the constant and
inane lawsuits.
It’s in both parties’ interest to change the process.
Legal wrangling delayed the 2002 primaries, hurting
Democratic chances at winning the U.S. Senate race.
A similar delay this year likely will hurt the chances
of whomever emerges from the Republican guber
natorial primary to challenge Governor Mike Easley.
Last week’s ruling is a step toward fairness and effi
ciency. Hope for greater reform must be maintained.
READERS' FORUM
Prosecuting war protesters
violates First Amendment
TO THE EDITOR:
The University should drop any
charges against those who inter
rupted a UNC-Virginia basketball
game last year.
The person to prosecute is the
one who lied and sent our young
men and women to invade and
occupy Iraq, not those who went to
extremes to warn Americans about
the lies.
Besides, unless similar prosecu
tion takes place whenever a game
is interrupted by players, by coach
es or by fans, the case against the
protesters is a violation of free
speech.
Claiborne M. Clark
Class of 1973
Durham
Professors, students should
allow for political debate
TO THE EDITOR:
After reading Brentley Tanner’s
recent column (“Liberal students,
professors bully conservative
minority,” Jan. 8), I am concerned.
This is not because I disagree
with him, but because he describes
a campus rife with intolerance
specifically, of conservative view
points.
It has been my privilege to teach
writing, editing, ethics and histo
ry courses here.
Editorial Page
As an avowed left-wing liberal,
let me add four ideas to Mr.
Tanner's presentation:
1) No teacher should conscious
ly ridicule any student’s point of
view.
2) All teachers should be suffi
ciently attuned to their classroom
environments to prevent students
from even feeling that they are
being ridiculed.
3) Politics often can add much
to courses (even English), but
teachers should be honest about
their own political views, ask all
those with dissenting views to
speak out, and then ensure that
they can.
4) Students do have a responsi
bility to speak out whether it be
in classrooms, on campus or in the
DTH because the reason we’re
here at Carolina is so we all can
learn.
GlenFeighery
Doctoral candidate
Journalism and Mass
Communication
Possible $6,000 tuition hike
would deter nonresidents
TO THE EDITOR:
I have been following the stories
about the possible increase in non
resident tuition since last fall.
Much of the concern was that the
North Carolina taxpayers would be
paying for a portion of the educa
tion of nonresidents.
ON THE DAY S NEWS
“We are called a democracy, for the administration is in the
hands of the many and not of the few.”
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COMMENTARY
Research development in
Chapel Hill no guarantee
To my dismay, any mention
of Carolina North I read in
the papers seems to accept
its inevitability.
Yet Carolina North is still tech
nically a proposal. And personally,
I hope the odds for this proposal’s
eventual fruition are roughly equal
to those of John Edwards landing
in the White House or Keanu
Reeves acting believably in a role
other than Ted Theodore Logan.
This is not to say that I’m
against our chancellor’s goal to
make the Tar Heel campus the
nation’s finest public university
(Grab those ranking experts by
the ’nads Meez!) far from it
I can’t buy into the “make it
better by being bigger” shtick. I
can’t comprehend how anew ,
research park (Isn’t there one a
few miles down N.C. 54 already?)
replete with retail and private
enterprise partnerships will serve
N.C. folks if it is built here.
Unfortunately, it’s very easy for
me to visualize tile Horace
Williams tract’s development as
hastening the local area’s continual
transformation from a diverse,
charming little haven to an elitist
doo-dooville devoid of all soul.
The notion that Chapel Hill-
Carrboro and UNC-Chapel Hill
are each other’s biggest draws has
been tossed around so much that it
is a cliche —but it is a valid one.
Men and women flock here
from all over primarily to learn a
li’l somethin’, but their downtime
is spent absorbing what the towns
have to offer.
Of course we all love music. So
where exactly did Archers of Loaf,
Polvo, Superchunk, Ben Folds,
Two Dollar Pistols and Crooked
Fingers begin on their respective
roads to being bad mo-fos?
Chapel Hill, baby. The same
town that spawned Daniel
However, it recently has been
reported that nonresident students
currently pay $294 more than
their education actually costs each
year.
Considering this, a $6,000
tuition hike seems ridiculous.
The fact is that, like many other
universities around the state and
the country, UNC needs more
money.
Chancellor Moeser recently sug
gested that increasing the enroll
ment of nonresident students
would bring increased revenue,
and the BOT’s current proposal of
a $6,000 tuition hike would result
in even more money.
That is assuming that prospec
tive and current out-of-state stu
dents are net forced to find a more
reasonably priced education else
where.
One of the major attractions to
UNC is that despite the great envi
ronment and great reputation aca
demically, an education here is
fairly inexpensive for nonresidents,
compared to that of similar uni
versities.
I also have to believe that the
success of UNC is due in part to the
success and loyalty of students who
may have come from outside the
state.
Several BOT members want
UNC’s nonresident tuition to be
equal to “that of its most expensive
peer institutions.”
What is to keep prospective stu -
dents from spending that money on
NICK EBERLEIN
THE VILLAGE MEGALOMANIAC
Wallace, the brainchild of this
year’s best cinematic fable.
Sadly, the atmosphere that fos
tered this town’s unique culture
has been polluted in the last few
years by increasingly bland subur
banization, and any colossal
development smack in the middle
of southern Orange County is like
ly to destroy the area’s distinctive
ness and personality. ,i, in:
The new campus will create an
unbearable housing crunch in an
already too-expensive town where
land is developed to near-capacity.
Since UNC-CH has proven
adept at building everything
except housing for its growing
student population, almost every
other affordable neighborhood
near Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s
downtown areas will be overrun
by developers building student
centered homes or mansions for
the honchos at Carolina North’s
private enterprise partners.
This isn’t exactly a scenario that
welcomes starving artists or less
than-wealthy families. Neither
does it welcome, for that matter,
most workers on the local payroll
(a.k.a., those who make our parks
lovely and community safe), who
earn puny wages because the town
can’t raise taxes on large chunks of
land inside its limits.
Y’know, I remember another
prosperous city where very few of
its hard-working municipal
employees ever stepped foot while
off the clock: Johannesburg.
an education at a university with an
even higher reputation?
A tuition hike of this magnitude
would make a nonresident’s educa
tion at UNC cost roughly $22,000,
which, frankly, not many people
can afford over the course of four
years.
Meanwhile, those who can
afford it may choose to spend that
kind of money at an Ivy League-cal
iber school.
I have heard no discussions on
increasing the amount or availabil
ity of academic scholarships for
undergraduates.
I feel that this tuition hike will
only turn some prospective stu
dents away from the University
and possibly force current nonres
ident students to finish their
degrees elsewhere.
Jeremy Fiel
Sophomore
Chemistry
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(Sift Mg ©or lied
By Chris Mattsson, mattsson@email.unc.edu
I’m not insinuating that this
development will be a form of
neo-apartheid, but it will serve to
polarize the town. The increased
influx of monied interests (buoyed
by taxpayer money) will throw a
two-ton monkey of local inafford
ability onto the backs of the work
ers we can’t get by without.
Plus, it’s not as if this area
needs the jobs. Chapel Hill,
Carrboro and even Orange County
have some of the highest stan
dards of living and lowest rates of
unemployment in the state.
Ttue, some of us struggle. So
leave the land and opportunity left
as an empowerment tool for those
outside the six-figure dub.
If you look at the people living
in, Cumberland and Robeson
counties, they’re much worse off
due to manufacturing layoffs and
the increasing absence of men
and women shipped thousands of
miles away to die for Halliburton.
Why can’t Fayetteville State
University or UNC-Pembroke
benefit from the state’s willingness
to splurge on education? Hell,
Robeson’s got the same popula
tion as Orange County and more
than twice the space, not to men
tion five times the unemployment.
Put money and jobs where
they’re needed the most, which
isn’t here. Pouring all the resources
into the Piedmont is hardly benefi
cial to North Carolina as a whole.
After all, UNC-CH is just one
campus in a system of 16 schools.
In addition to trampling a town
I’m still proud to call my home,
wouldn’t Carolina North just make
UNC-CH a singular diamond in
one rough system? Is that proper?
Contact Nick Eberlein,
a senior journalism
and history major,
at slimkid@emaiLunc.edu.
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