VOLUME ill, ISSUE 130
System tuition proposals floated
15 UNC CAMPUSES SUBMITTED
PLANS FOR BOG TO CONSIDER
BY CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR.
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
UNC-system Board of
Governors members got their first
look at tuition increase requests
Friday in what marks the begin
ning of the board’s most important
yearly decision-making process.
“What we’re about to start... is
50 UNC
workers
may see
pay hike
set aside
for state workers
BY BRIAN HUDSON
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
- About 50 UNC employees could
be getting pay increases thanks to
$4.5 million provided by Gov.
Mike Easley’s office.
The purpose of the money is to
ensure a living wage for the poor
est employees across the state by
establishing a minimum salary of
$18,312 per year.
. About 75 UNC employees
receive less than that amount, but
almost a third would not qualify
for the raise because part of their
salary is subsidized by University
earnings, according to Laurie
Charest, associate vice chancellor
for human resources.
Charest said that these numbers
were only estimates and that other
qualifications taken into consider
ation, such as an employee’s disci
plinary past, could exclude many
from the increase.
Tommy Griffin, chairman of the
UNC Employee Forum, said that
he welcomes the increases but that
he hopes state lawmakers contin
ue to work toward fair wages for
state employees.
“I wish they had come up with
more money to give raises,” he
said. “Every dollar helps. We have
got to get salaries up to a living
wage, and $18,312 is not a living
wage, I don’t care what anyone
says.”
Griffin said he thinks the mini
mum salary should be $25,000.
“A person will survive, not live,
survive on $25,000.”
Because UNC does not have the
power to provide salary increases
to state employees, officials have
looked toward other ways to
improve the University work
place.
At the Employee Forum’s annu
al retreat Friday, delegates dis
cussed a proposal to create a Staff
Administrative Standards Task
Force in order to correct problems
in the management of employees.
“They want to look into depart
ments where standards are not
being met, if there was a problem
in personnel or morale for
SEE RAISES, PAGE 4
*<. SHgf 1
DTH/LINHDA TRAN
Sophomores Rose O'Rourke (left) and Jonny Tompkin ride the bus late
Friday night. The Safe Ride Program will no longer run buses Thursdays.
INSIDE
WORK FORTHEDTH
Applications to work at the DTH now are
available. For more details, see PAGE 6
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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annually one of the toughest deci
sions we are required to make,”
said Jim Phillips, chairman of the
BOG’s Budget and Finance
Committee, to board members at a
workshop Friday morning.
BOG members will consider the
schools’ requests during the next
month before voting at a Feb. 13
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Tar Heel fans, decked out in Carolina
blue gear, cheer the men’s basket
ball team to a 103-88 victory over
Georgia Tech University on Sunday night.
UNC Athletics is asking all Tar Heel fans
to show their support through the “Him it
Blue” campaign by wearing Carolina blue
to all games.
INSIDE
THE FINAL FRONTIER
UNC junior Kate Harris will hold a lecture
about her time in a Mars simulator PAGE 7
www.dailytarheel.com
meeting.
Every UNC-system school
except for UNC-Chapel Hill sub
mitted a request for campus-based
tuition increases, with many
schools asking for S6OO hikes over
the next two years.
BOG members did not consider
a campus-initiated increase for
UNC-CH, which has not yet sub
mitted a request. The UNC-CH
Board of Trustees is set to meet
starting Jan. 21 to finalize tuition
plans.
BLUE BLOOD
UNC men’s basketball coach Roy
Williams, who helped develop the idea,
and the Carolina Athletics Association are
helping to get the year-long campaign’s
message out to the student body.
“Turn it Blue” has been in the works
since October, but officially kicked off
Sunday. For the full story, see page 4.
Late-night bus service takes a financial hit
BY UZZIE STEWART
STAFF WRITER
Off-campus students will be
without a public transit option
Thursday nights due to a funding
cut for a student government com
mittee that has forced it to cut back
its transportation services.
The student-run program Safe
Ride, which used to operate from
10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Thursday
through Saturday nights, has halt
ed services Thursday nights and
will start an hour later Friday and
Saturday.
Safe Ride, which began running
in February 2003, is the only serv
BOG members also were told
they might be seeing an across-the
board tuition increase of roughly 2
percent 559.10 for UNC-Chapel
Hill.
Members of a special board-ini
tiated tuition increase committee
including students, faculty and
administrators were as yet
undecided on whether there
should be an across-the-board
increase and, if so, how large the
increase should be.
“Right now there is divisiveness,”
DTH/BRIAN CASSEILA
ice that offers off-campus trans
portation for students on weekend
nights.
Although the number of people
using Safe Ride has increased 49
percent to an average of 27 riders
per hour, program coordinators
saw a dramatic difference between
the number of students who used
the service Thursday nights and
the number who used the service
Friday and Saturday nights.
“The number of riders on
Thursday nights dilutes the overall
average,” said Anup Dashputre,
Safe Ride’s program director.
The change in service is a result
SPORTS
EXTERMINATED
The Tar Heels take home another win, this
time against No. 8 Georgia Tech PAGE 14
said Jeff Davies, UNC-system vice
president of finance. “The stu
dents, voting as a block, are think
ing there should be no increase.”
BOG members were encouraged
to get all the information they need
to complete the arduous tuition
consideration process during the
weeks before the Feb. 6 Budget and
Finance Committee meeting.
The extra meeting will precede
the committee’s regularly sched
uled meeting Feb. 12 at N.C.
Central University.
Mason Farm
project plans
gaining steam
Contested student housing underway
BY BROOK R. CORWIN
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
A couple hundred feet after
turning onto Mason Farm Road
from U.S. 15-501, motorists are
met with an “End Work Zone” con
struction sign.
It won’t be accurate for much
longer.
Site preparation has begun for
the construction of nine buildings
for student family housing —one
of the most controversial projects
in UNC’s Master Plan for campus
growth after the town of Chapel
Hill issued a site development per
mit early last week.
will begin in March, with the entire
COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
The construction of Baity Hill Apartments, one of nine student family
housing buildings in progress, is scheduled to be complete by fall 2005.
Edwards, Kerry
win key support
lowa newspapers
endorse hopefuls
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DES MOINES, lowa Three
lowa newspapers endorsed
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for
the Democratic presidential nomi
nation in editorials published this
weekend, while a fourth endorsed
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
The Des Moines Register
backed Edwards and called him a
cut above several well-qualified
Democrats despite the fact that he
doesn’t have as much experience as
other candidates. “John Edwards is
one of those rare, naturally gifted
“Currently, there aren’t any alternatives
for ojf-campus transportation, which
is disappointing .* anup dashputre, SAFE RIDE
of a reduction of funding in stu
dent government’s Student Safety
and Security Committee.
Safe Ride received SB,OOO from
student government for the fall of
2003 and $2,500 for the spring of
2004. The program’s operational
costs also increased from SSO per
hour to $55 per hour, Dashputre
said.
WEATHER
TODAY Sunny, H 53. L 31
TUESDAY Sunny, H 58, L 28
WEDNESDAY Mostly sunny, H 52, L 31
MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2004
Phillips said board members
should consider a number of fac
tors evident in this round of tuition
increases.
The board should be wary of
allotting campus-initiated tuition
boosts for staff salary increases, he
said.
If the board tackles that issue
with tuition increases, the N.C.
General Assembly, which typically
takes care of most staff salary
SEE TUITION, PAGE 4
project scheduled for completion
by ffie start of the fall 2005.
The buildings, which will
house 397 apartment units, will
be constructed on University
owned property on Baity Hill and
the north side of Mason Farm
Road. Both sites overlook the
Smith Center on the southern
edge of campus and are a few
hundred feet from residential
homes.
Because of its close proximity to
the Mason Farm neighborhood,
the project was criticized heavily
by residents during the approval of
the Master Plan in spring 2001.
SEE MASON FARM, PAGE 4
politicians who doesn’t need a long
record of public service to inspire
confidence in his abilities,” the
endorsement stated.
The Register wrote that the
major contenders aren’t far apart
on repealing the Bush tax cuts and
redirecting the money into health
care and education and conducting
a foreign policy that engages rather
than isolates other nations.
Howard Dean’s slogan is to
“take the country back,” the
Register stated, “but it is Edwards
who m ost eloquently and believ
ably expresses this point of view.”
“I am grateful for The Des
Moines Register’s endorsement,”
SEE EDWARDS, PAGE 4
The committee decided to cut
funding to Safe Ride because it
receives money from sources other
than student government.
The program also receives fund
ing from the Carolina Parents
Council, UNC’s Department of
Student Affairs and the UNC
SEE SAFE RIDE, PAGE 4
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