10
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2004
BOARD EDITORIALS
DANGEROUS MOVES
Long Island University officials damaged the spirit of the press in
punishing its college newspaper for reporting a student’s grades.
College newspapers should face scrutiny for
their reporting, but officials at Long Island
University in New York have taken their criti
cism a few steps too far.
Administrators at the university, which founded
the prestigious George Polk Awards for journalistic
achievement, responded forcefully to an article
reporting on the resignation of LlU’s student body
president, Abdel Alileala.
The article in The Seawanhaka, the weekly news
paper of the university’s Brooklyn campus, blamed
Alileala’s “academic struggles” and listed his failing
grades without his permission or input, according to
The Associated Press.
This raised concerns among LIU officials. Provost
Gale Stevens Haynes argued that the article might
have violated federal regulations barring the school
from releasing students’ personal information.
“The institution has to take a stand in ensuring
respect for students’ privacy,” Haynes told the AP.
“This is truly not about the student newspaper
and trying to control it and shape it in a way that’s
comfortable for us.”
Although some action was clearly necessary, the
university took serious and controversial missteps to
correct what it saw as an invasion of privacy.
Those choices included suspending Seawanhaka
Editor Justin Grant, who wrote the article, for three
weeks as well as changing the lock of the newspaper’s
office and removing its faculty adviser.
Several of these measures do more to restrain the
freedom of the press than to defend students’ right
to privacy.
The Society of Professional Journalists particu
larly was irked by the university’s efforts to prevent
reporters from physically being able to publish their
work.
“We do change locks like that in Third World
countries, but this is the United States of America,”
NEED FOR REFOCUS
While abstinence among young teenagers is ideal, sex education
should use more information about various contraceptive methods.
Click. In the music video “Toxic,” Britney Spears
gyrates seductively in a flesh-colored,
sparkling bodysuit while flashing to the cam
era a smoldering set of bedroom eyes that could
make a priest drop his collar.
Click. The women of the NBC reality show “The
Apprentice” don tight tops and flirty demeanors to
sell booze to male customers at a Planet Hollywood
in New York.
Click. Competitors on “Temptation Island,” a Fox
network reality game show, consider ditching their
significant others thanks to the efforts of scads of
tanned, toned bikini-clad sexpots.
Just about everywhere one turns —be it in mag
azines, television or movies the U.S. pop culture
landscape during the past two decades has been
dominated increasingly by sleek, hard bodies and
suggestive innuendo.
One thing has been made abundantly clear by this
major-market exposure: Sex is cool.
The result? U.S. teenagers reared on prime-time
sensuality are becoming sexually active earlier and
earlier.
While teen pregnancy rates have decreased over
all during the last decade, the simple threats of
unwanted pregnancy and the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases remain constant.
The United States is in the grip of a renewed focus
on sex education in the classrooms, and many gov
erning bodies, including the Bush administration,
have adopted an abstinence-only focus as the only
sure way to combat the dangers of teen sexual activ
ity.
The Bush administration in particular also has
been criticized for allocating federal money to reli
gious and anti-abortion groups that sponsor sex edu
cation programs promoting abstinence, often with a
moral slant.
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.
READERS' FORUM
Yarbrough's passing is great
loss to University, Campus Y
TO THE EDITOR:
The University community and
Campus Y in particular lost a
valiant champion last week in the
death of Marilyn V. Yarbrough,
professor of law.
In addition to her distinguished
career in legal education, Professor
Yarbrough served as the chair
woman and member of the Campus
Y Advisory Board since 1998.
Professor Yarbrough grew up in
Raleigh in the days of segregation.
She was a National Merit Scholar
from Ligon High School, then the
black high school in the city school
system, which led to a place at
Bryn Mawr College in
Pennsylvania. After one miserable
semester, she transferred to
Virginia State University where she
graduated with distinction.
Professor Yarbrough never for
got the struggles of undergraduates
taking that leap from high school
to university, particularly minori
ty students making their way in a
predominantly white college.
She worked with Campus Y
because of its long history of wel
coming all students to Carolina
and because of its enduring com
mitment to social justice.
Through her leadership of the
Advisory Board, Campus Y also
renewed its efforts to enhance the
intellectual climate of the
University through structured
Jim Highland, the society’s national vice president
for campus chapter affairs and a Western Kentucky
University journalism professor, told the AP.
Although the university was right to be concerned
about the confidentiality of Aileala’s grades, officials
should not have interfered with the direct operation
of The Seawanhaka.
The newspaper’s reporting appeared to be slop
py at best, but Grant didn’t act in any manner that
warranted his suspension.
Although LIU officials certainly have the right to
protect the privacy of the students, the university
certainly has gone too far, especially considering the
fact that the school prides itself on its commitment
to excellence in journalism.
By taking such extreme measures, officials under
mined the tradition of freedom of the press that they
so actively advocate. Although they technically are
operating within the letter of the law, it is definitely
outside the spirit of journalistic freedom.
University officials have said that they recognize
Grant’s right to publish the grades but object to how
they were presented.
They addressed their concerns correctly by
removing the newspaper’s faculty adviser, whose
reckless participation in distributing the grades like
ly warranted his dismissal.
But punishing Grant as a student for his work as
a journalist is a form of outside coercion deemed
unacceptable by today’s media standards.
Officials at a school that carries as much prestige
as LIU should have known better. They should have
dealt with the problem simply as a privacy issue with
its faculty.
By shutting down The Seawanhaka, however, offi
cials transformed the incident into something con
siderably bigger than it needed to be.
They should be wary of infringing upon constitu
tionally protected freedom of speech in the future.
The benefits of classroom abstinence education
are undeniable: The only way for teens to avoid preg
nancy and STDs is simply not to engage in sexual
activity at all.
But abstinence-only policies ignore the reality
that youth face tremendous societal and peer pres
sures regarding sex. Failing to educate teens in the
use of proper contraceptive methods is playing a
dangerous game with the future of our nation.
Many abstinence advocates argue that teaching
adolescents about contraception only will encourage
teens to have sex.
But a joint study by the Centers for Disease
Control and the National Institute of Child Health
show that 88 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds who
pledge abstinence have sex before marriage, as
opposed to 99 percent of those who do not pledge
abstinence.
The study also shows that of those teens who
pledge abstinence but still have sex, only 40 percent
use a condom during sex, as opposed to 59 percent
of teens who have not made any kind of abstinence
pledge.
The sad truth is that teenagers receive encour
agement to have sex from almost every facet of their
world, particularly peer groups and the media.
The job of educators should be to explain the
intricacies and consequences of sexual activity as
thoroughly as possible. They should make sure
teenagers are equipped with the knowledge of how
to protect themselves if they do choose to have sex.
And it’s definitely out of line for the government
to provide public money to religious and activist
groups to pursue a moral agenda.
Parents are ultimately responsible for the moral
education of their children. Education about moral
propriety should come from mothers and fathers,
not teachers or traveling road shows.
debates of pressing issues, a wider
range of speakers on Y discussion
panels and participation in the
reform of the honor system.
Professor Yarbrough will be
sorely missed by all who knew her
here at Carolina.
Virginia S. Carson
Campus Y Director
Increasing dropout numbers
don't bode well for state
TO THE EDITOR:
The state of North Carolina is
facing a crisis with the number of
students who are dropping out of
school each year. The number is
alarming but certainly not surpris
ing. Now thanks to anew focus on
how the state reports graduation
rates, many citizens who support
our schools have come to realize
that we have a serious crisis.
While it may be easy to forget
about a few kids after all a 4.78
percent dropout rate for grades 9-12
as recently reported by the NC
Department of Public Instruction
doesn’t seem all that bad it
becomes a pill more bitter to swal
low when one realizes that approx
imately 40 percent of North
Carolina’s youth are leaving school
without a high school diploma. The
wake-up call for action is now, or we
will continue to see a rise in the
number of children who leave
school without the skills and educa
tion to either enter the workforce or
Opinion
continue their education.
As taxpayers, we will pay now or
later for children who do not have
the necessary education for a job
that pays a living wage. Education,
even alternative education, is much
less costly than prisons and welfare.
Here is the economic reality.
Dropouts cost the state of North
Carolina enormous amounts of lost
revenue and tremendous costs in
social programs. For instance, a
dropout is twice as likely to be
unemployed, three times more
likely to commit a crime and end
up in our courts and six times more
likely to become an unwed teen
parent. Moreover, it is estimated
that 75 percent of America’s state
prison inmates are dropouts at a
cost of approximately $25,000 per
year, per inmate. The cost of juve
nile incarceration is more than
$60,000 per child per year and
many of these youth re-enter the
criminal courts again and again.
The latest figures from the
Council on Economic Advisers
show that for each class of dropouts,
the average cost of prison, parole
and welfare over the adult lifetime
averages about $69,000 per young
person in that class. Accordingly,
last year’s crop of dropouts will
eventually cost the state $1.3 billion
in these three categories alone.
Moreover, with a diminished earn
ing capacity that is $9,200 less per
year than a high school graduate,
those 19,000 dropouts will eventu
ally cost the state $400,000,000 in
ON THE DAY’S NEWS
“We have all of us at times sufferedfrom the liberty of the
press, but we have to take the good with the bad.”
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. U.S. PRESIDENT
EDITORIAL CARTOON
COMMENTARY
As music, blues best weaves
together fabric of America
Freight lYain Ann doesn’t
seem the type to keep quiet
about things that she would
rather scream. By the time her
voice reaches its fullest stature,
it’s not likely that you’ll be able to
ignore her either. Not that you
would want to anyway.
Ann is the lead singer for a
Florida-based blues/soul/funk/
country/honkey tonk band
named Green Flash. She’s wear
ing the tightest red pants I’ve ever
seen, and it’s impossible to take
your eyes off of her. Her hair
flows down her back like a gown.
She doesn’t dress quietly, and
she certainly doesn’t sing quietly
either, belting out her range of
blues originals and covers that
sets the assembled listeners on
fire in the Ringside Cafe in St.
Petersburg, Fla.
One man wearing a cowboy hat
and a pin that proclaims “MIA
Vet” pounds an invisible keyboard
at his table as he listens, even
though there isn’t a piano player
in the band. A tall black man
shuffles with a middle-aged white
woman. The woman shouts out
that she loves Patsy Cline as Ann
belts out “Walkin’ After
Midnight.”
“Women be wise,” Ann cau
tions. “Shut your mouth. Don’t
advertise your man.” I nod like I
understand as I devour the plate
of ribs in front of me.
My party requests “Sweet
Home Chicago,” an old song by
Robert Johnson. The saxophone
player —a man with a long pony
tail and a wise grin, as if he knows
something about this music that
the rest of us don’t know grabs
the microphone and tears into a
scathing rendition. “Come on!
Baby don’t you want to go! Sweet
Home Chicago!”
I’ve never been to Chicago, but
unrealized taxes.
So what is the solution?
For the past fifteen years
Communities In Schools has been
helping North Carolina children
stay in school and prepare for life.
CIS works, and we have the statis
tics to prove it. Last year, 99 percent
of North Carolina’s CIS students
who could have dropped out chose
to stay in school. Moreover, 93 per
cent of our students were promoted
to the next grade, 91 percent of our
seniors graduated, 85 percent
improved their grades and 84 per
cent improved attendance.
Furthermore, statistics show that
growing numbers of CIS students,
who without CIS would have
dropped out, are graduating from
our 4-year colleges, our communi
ty colleges or entering our work
force as contributing employees.
Our challenge is that CIS is only
serving about 10 percent of students
who need those services. Without
additional funding to sustain and
grow programs within our existing
CIS communities and to continue to
expand into new communities, CIS
will never be able to serve all of
these children. It is time that we
start funding programs that work.
There are many reasons students
drop out of school, some of these
reasons are not school related at all.
This is where Communities In
Schools plays such a vital role. By
working with school administrators
who are able to identify these chil
dren, we then bring in community
BILLY BALL
FOR KIDS WHO CAN'T READ GOOD
I certainly want to go there now.
And there is the rub of the
blues. The spark of desire to take
it on the road, a pilgrimage.
Perhaps the most important pil
grimage in American music as
blues music might be the most
important American music ever
recorded.
“Lord knows I’ve got rambling
all on my mind,” Robert Johnson
sings. It is the crux of the blues
that there be a pilgrimage. The
lyrics invoke a weary traveler’s log
at almost all turns.
Johnson might have defined
that persona, in addition to defin
ing that music for ears all over the
world. Although the blues were
sung before Johnson, the man
invented the music as far as
record sales go with his two mys
terious recording sessions in the
mid-19305.
He’s the legendary American
figure who sells his soul to the
devil at the crossroads for wealth
and fame, a myth of the Delta
Blues whose myth is just as
important as his reality. He’s the
figure who appears in the film “O
Brother, Where Art Thou” in the
form of Tom Johnson.
“I went to the crossroad, fell
down on my knees,” Johnson sings
in “Cross Road Blues.” “Asked the
Lord above, ‘Have mercy, now
save poor Bob, if you please.’”
It’s the original populist song.
The blues is the song of the caged
bird. It’s the theme of American
resources that meets the need of
each student to help them succeed
in school. Schools and teachers can
not and should not have this extra
burden of addressing home and
community issues.
Communities In Schools is ready
to work with all of our schools, with
DPI and with our community part
ners to address this serious and
growing crisis. It will take all of us
working together business part
ners, educators, parents, communi
ty members, agencies and the stu
dents themselves to solve the
dropout problem.
For more information visit
Communities In Schools Web site
at http://www.cisnc.org or call
832-2700.
Linda R. Harrill
President
Communities In Schools ofN.C.
The length rule was waived.
TO SUBMIT A LETTER: The Daily Tar
Heel welcomes 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
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Publication is not guaranteed. Bring let
ters to the DTH office at Suite 104,
Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box
3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail
them to editdesk@unc.edu.
QJlj? Hatty ®ar 3HM
capitalism. Make your living.
Work hard, and you’ll make it,
right?
Or maybe it isn’t really about
the reality of American society,
but rather it’s as close to the origi
nal intent of the American dream
as one can get. And like the great
est art, it’s as universal as it is
timeless.
It’s a response to the perception
that we can take to the road and
make our fortune, if we have the
right amount of determination
and skill. It’s the heroes of Jack
Kerouac’s “On The Road” taking
to the road for something that
they’re not quite sure of the entire
time, but knowing that they have
to go look for it anyway.
As Johnson’s song invokes, it’s
going to the cross roads where
anything from love, wealth,
heartache, fame and disaster can
happen, and it’s going there any
way.
Here’s a vote for blues music as
the greatest American music ever
made and the most important. It’s
the music that turned inward for
solace and substituted populist
simplicity and passion for educat
ed musical chops and made better
players in the end anyway.
I would like to take to the road
and find out exactly how much of
this music still lives. A writer at
Rolling Stone magazine might tell
you that the blues for all intents
and purposes is dead.
But in the moment when
Freight 'Drain Ann grabs her
microphone and stamps her foot
and screams, “It hurt, it hurt, it
hurt so bad,” you know that it
couldn’t be dead.
If it was dead, it wouldn’t hurt
so much.
Contact Billy Ball
at wkball@email.unc.edu.
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