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BOARD EDITORIALS
MINDFUL OF HISTORY
Fraternities shouldn’t forget the 1996 fire that claimed five people’s
lives, and they should step up safety efforts in their respective houses.
On the morning of May 12,1996, a fire ripped
through the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity
house. Five students were killed. They died
mere hours before the 1996 Commencement cere
mony was set to take place.
The blaze began in the basement, where a cigarette
hadn’t been disposed of properly. The fraternity
house was not equipped with a sprinkler system or
fire alarm system. A flurry of activity followed as
houses were supplied with adequate safety materials.
The fire remains one of the most horrifying inci
dents in the University’s history.
With strict rules regarding in-house equipment
and a renewed focus on fire safety, one would think
that the message had gotten through.
But in light of recent inspections by the Chapel
Hill Fire Department, one would be wrong.
According to The (Raleigh) News & Observer, fire
officials forced members of Sigma Chi to remove tons
of wood chips from the basement of the fraternity
house Feb. 26. Members were planning a beach party.
Another reported violation at the Phi Gamma
Delta house involved brothers placing cups over
PRINCIPLED CHOICE
JamesOn Curry’s legal dilemma is unfortunate, but Roy Williams
made the right decision in withdrawing the guard’s scholarship offer.
In our commercial and competitive world, it is
easy to value success over character, achievement
over integrity, winning over all else.
In the especially commercial and competitive
realm of collegiate athletics, the push for immediate
and greater accomplishment all too often swells
above other concerns, drowning out the more impor
tant emphases on integrity and the moral fiber of
those who participate.
With illegal gambling, academic cheating and
booster violations, it is heartening to witness a uni
versity and its athletic program put aside personal
gratification for the sake of integrity.
Last week, men’s basketball coach Roy Williams
made the right decision for UNC by withdrawing the
athletic scholarship for Alamance County phenom
and now convicted felon JamesOn Curry.
University athletes serve as prominent public rep
resentatives of their institutions. Their status as the
face of the University is only enhanced when they
play a high-profile sport, and basketball at UNC is as
high-profile as college athletics can be.
It is the great responsibility of all athletes to serve
A DESERVED VOICE
Carrboro residents in the process of attaining U.S. citizenship should
be able to vote in the municiple elections that greatly affect them.
Casting a ballot in the voting booth represents
the physical embodiment of democracy. Voters
who pay taxes and contribute to their com
munities get the opportunity to choose their lead
ers and hold them accountable.
Unfortunately, many permanent residents who
have immigrated to the United States find them
selves in a type of voter limbo waiting for final
approval after applying for citizenship. These people
get no voice in the voting process.
Carrboro Alderman John Herrera presented a
promising solution at last week’s meeting of the
Board of Aldermen.
Herrera proposed allowing permanent residents
who have applied for citizenship to vote in munici
pal elections, thus giving people committed to citi
zenship the right to practice it.
The U.S. Constitution precludes noncitizens from
voting in state and federal elections. It does not how
ever, speak specifically to the municipal electoral
process.
Despite their lower profiles, municipal officials
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.
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smoke detectors to prevent alarms from going off
during a smoky party.
With that hard-line approach, local fire officials are
not just spoiling fun. They are doing exactly what they
should be doing: maintaining vigilance and prevent
ing potential tragedies before they come to be.
However, they shouldn’t have to be the only ones
to deduce that a basement full of wood chips is a fire
hazard. It is a tough task to keep track of all poten
tial dangers, and plenty of fraternity fire marshals
have been paying close attention to their duties.
But sprinkler systems and lessons in fire safety
can go only so far. Ultimately, it’s up to fraternity
members themselves to make the right decisions.
It’s possible that, as time has passed since the Phi
Gamma Delta disaster in 1996, students have
become complacent and apathetic.
In the case of Sigma Chi’s wood chips, an unthink
able accident was waiting to happen. Now is not the
time to let history repeat itself. With exams on the
horizon, fraternities are gearing up for massive end
of-year parties. They must put in the extra effort to
ensure the safety of hosts and guests alike.
as a public embodiment of something much greater
than themselves, a responsibility stacked on top of all
the other demands that make their lives more com
plicated than the typical student’s. That responsibili
ty is one that many potential students, despite amaz
ing athletic skill, are not well-equipped to handle.
For the most part, UNC has recruited athletes who
have demonstrated the ability to represent the
University in an appropriate manner, and our
Department of Athletics must maintain such stan
dards in the future.
Curry’s case is certainly a sad one: a tragedy not
only because of the potential life he has denied him
self, but also because of the pointlessness of his crime.
But the University cannot abandon its moral stand
ing by making him a public representative of UNC.
The UNC basketball program will find success.
Make no mistake. The program and the University
it represents desire to reach greater heights and will
do so through winning, but die program will win the
right way, with the right student-athletes and with
the right emphasis on representing a state and
University much larger than any individual.
have a far greater impact on the lives of people in
their immediate community than do their state or
federal counterparts.
Additionally, before they obtain citizenship, per
manent residents pay the vast majority of their taxes
to municipalities. Giving them the ability to vote in
this narrow arena makes sense.
Critics of this proposal might ask where you draw
the line in terms of giving people the right to vote
before earning citizenship. Herrera’s plan sits direct
ly on that line.
Citizenship and the voting right it entails must be
earned by those who choose to immigrate to this
country. But that doesn’t mean that during the gap
between immigration and citizenship they should
have no say in who governs them.
People who have invested time and money in
establishing residence here can face waits of as long
as a decade for citizenship.
A decade is far too long to contribute to a com
munity while not even being able to call yourself a
second class citizen, let alone a citizen.
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academic year is coming
I to a close, and while stu-
JL dents are focusing on
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The newspaper is in the hunt
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Opinion
ON THE DAY'S NEWS
“The past is always a rebuke to the present.”
ROBERT PENN WARREN, roEt
EDITORIAL CARTOON By Britt Peck, bmpeck@email.unc.edu
COMMENTARY
Meeting demand for housing
outweighs aesthetic worth
Four years later, my mom still
refers to my first dorm room
as “That Cave” when she
recounts the story of moving me
into UNC. “I cried the whole way
home thinking about how I’d left
you in such a horrible, awful
place,” she says, shaking her head.
My room second floor
Morrison, on the Dark Side
really was a cave.
With no air-conditioning, one
window that never saw sunlight
and depressingly low ceilings, my
first home away from home was a
sight that would make most
mothers ciy.
I know my experience isn’t
unique. The old school, high-rise
South Campus residence halls
hold more than 3,000 students,
and while one in four residents is
blessed with air-conditioning, all
of them share in the cave-like
rooms, the meals at Chase Hall,
the lack of green space and the 20
minute walk to main campus.
There are people who love the
large and crazy community that
the South Campus high-rises
breed. These people relish in the
huge numbers of students and the
buzzing atmosphere where any- •
thing could happen at any time.
I was never one of them. I
hated the gargantuan, impersonal
buildings with architecture that
made me feel I’d wandered into a
former Soviet bloc nation.
So I should have been thrilled
when I heard last week that some
members of the UNC Board of
Trustees were considering leveling
the heinous structures. Though
campus planners have been plan
ning the Morrison Residence Hall
renovation, set to begin in 2005,
for more than a year, trustees
began asking last week whether it
wouldn’t be better for the
University community to knock
ELLIOTT DUBE
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR-SELECT
majority decision regarding an
issue, one of the board members
is picked to write an unsigned
editorial about that topic.
Board members should be
committed, thoughtful, articulate
and receptive to a wide range of
ideas and perspectives.
The time commitment is some
thing to consider. Why add anoth
er set of duties to a slate of class
work, social obligations and other
extracurricular activities?
Because being a member of The
Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board is
one of the more educational expe
riences available at this University.
Board members learn about the
nuances and subtleties of mEUiy
campus issues. They interact with
student leaders. They do research
in commending or criticizing deci
sion-makers on the University,
town, state and national levels.
Perhaps most appealing is the
debate. Argument albeit civil
argument is encouraged.
Sometimes, it gets people’s blood
boiling. And sometimes, it allows
STEPHANIE HORVATH
NOT THE BELL OR THE WELL
Morrison down and start over,
admit that the brick monstrosity
was a mistake and move on.
Initially, I loved the idea. I look
forward to the day when South
Campus has beautiful grass quads
with shade trees. I hope for a time
when students no longer live in
cave-like quarters and South
Campus is no longer so removed
from University life. Handsome
new residence halls that don’t
look like a product of urban
renewal would go a long way
toward creating that atmosphere.
Despite their many shortcom
ings, however, the high rises have
one significant attribute: They
help provide a bed for every head.
UNC strives to provide on-cam
pus housing for incoming students
and current students who wish to
remain in residence halls and
rightly so. This policy immediately
immerses freshmen in campus life,
making it easier for them to get
involved and meet people.
Additionally, it provides all stu
dents with reasonably affordable
housing in the often-unreasonable
Chapel Hill housing market.
While beautiful new residence
halls would improve the atmos
phere on South Campus, they
probably won’t be able to hold the
same number of bodies as the high
rises. According to the Web site of
the Department of Housing and
Residential Education, Morrison
houses 1,012 residents and Hinton
James Residence Hall houses 974.
board members to reach epipha
nies of their own.
Finding a group of top-notch
board members is one of our high
est priorities, but we aren't forget
ting the page’s other positions.
Five applicants will be selected
for columnist posts. One colum
nist will handle topics related to
the University. One will focus on
town affairs, and one will take on
state and national issues.
The two remaining columnist
spots are “at-large” positions.
These writers will be given carte
blanche to cover whatever subject
matter they choose, as long as it
has some relevance for the news
paper’s readership.
The selection process for
columnists typically is highly com
petitive. Applicants should be
ready to demonstrate considerable
writing skills and develop a num
ber of relevant ideas.
As for cartoonists, the strength
of Em applicant’s ideas will be given
as much weight as artistic quality.
Prospective cartoonists should
watch current events and read the
news on a regular basis.
Applications for these positions
will be available beginning today
at The Daily Tar Heel’s front desk
in Suite 2409 of the Union.
Contact Elliott Dube,
editorial page editor-select,
at dubee@email.unc.edu.
MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2004
This contrasts sharply with the
new Morrison South and Hinton
James North, which hold 190 and
276 residents, respectively.
UNC would have to build a lot
of these smaller, more aesthetically
pleasing residence halls in order to
make up for the space lost if the
high rises were demolished. This
would be a difficult task on a cam
pus where space is at a premium.
Housing shortages remain an
issue as our enrollment increases
and as off-campus housing grows
more expensive. As recently as the
2001-02 school year, UNC experi
enced a serious housing crunch.
With a large freshman class and
an unexpectedly high number of
returning students staying on
campus, the University found
itself hunting for space.
The housing department re
opened Joyner Hall, which was
slated for renovations that fall, in
order to accommodate an addi
tional 170 students. Transfer stu
dents, graduate students and stu
dents moving back on campus all
were tinned away. Granville
Towers was booked solid.
The housing department made
a great effort to give every student
a room on campus. It understood
that living on campus is essential
to the freshman experience and
often the only affordable option for
students of any age.
While I would love UNC to rip
down the high rises and create a
beautiful South Campus devoid of
cave-like rooms, I encourage the
trustees to make it a priority to
provide housing for every student
who seeks it When they meet
again this month, I hope they
seek a plan that combines a beau
tiful form with practical function.
Contact Stephanie Horvath
at shorvath@email.unc.edu.
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