VOLUME 112, ISSUE 46
Hazards spawn contractor’s lawsuit
SOUTHERN SITE POINTS TO CHEMICAL ANALYSIS TEST RESULTS
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BY BRIAN HUDSON
lINIVERSITY EDITOR
' Southern Site & Environmental
£orp., a former University subcon
tractor involved in the demolition
of the Medical Science Research
Building, has announced its intent
to file a lawsuit against the
University for providing a danger
ous and unsafe workplace.
Tim Gabriel, the company’s
Efforts to mandate
out-of-state limits
die in N.C. House
BY CHRIS COLETTA
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
A proposal to make the UNC
system’s out-of-state student cap a
law seemed all but dead Tuesday
after a bill that would have allowed
the N.C. House to take up the issue
was re-referred to the chamber’s
Education Committee.
Instead, the committee is aiming
to pass a resolution that would
encourage the system’s Board of
Governors to file annual reports on
how many out-of-state students
enroll at North Carolina’s 16 public
universities.
The action likely will quell
debate on the highly contentious
issue, at least for now.
“In a short session, we felt that a
resolution ... would suffice,” said
Rep. Alex Warner, D-Cumberland,
who sponsored one of two bills
that would have legislated the cap.
As the policy now stands, out- •
of-staters can constitute no more
than 18 percent of a system
school’s incoming freshman class
with only a few exceptions, includ
ing the N.C. School of the Arts.
The issue became contentious
last year when the BOG considered
increasing that number by 4 per
centage points in order to allow
more of the best-qualified out-of
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DTH/SARAH WHITMEYER
Former Carolina Dining Services employee Lezlie Sumpter plans to file a
wrongful termination suit against Aramark following her dismissal Friday.
Worker alleges wrongs
in suit against Aramark
Harassment cited among complaints
BY BRIAN HUDSON
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
A Lenoir Dining Hall employee
announced plans to file a lawsuit
against Aramark, the company
that operates UNC’s auxiliary serv
ices, for what she claims is improp
er termination augmented by years
of harassment.
Several weeks before her termi
nation, one of her supervisors had
enlisted Lezlie Sumpter’s help in
making advances toward Lenoir
customers.
After several incidents, Sumpter
filed a complaint with Keith Smith,
the floor manager. In line with the
corporate policies of Aramark,
Smith advised Sumpter to keep the
proceeding confidential.
Sumpter said that although she
did not disclose the inform ation to
SPORTS
RIGHT ON TRACK
Phenom Laura Gerraughty continues her
shotput dominance at NCAAs. PAGE 2
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
abr Sailu (far Hrrl
project manager for the the build
ing’s demolition, said the finer
points of the lawsuit have not been
worked out, but he expects to see
damage claims of more than $1
million.
“We’re the little guy, and they’re
trying to trash us,” he said. “But
they’re not going to succeed.”
The lawsuit would be the culmi
nation of several months of dis
state students to enroll. The move
was supported by UNC-Chapel
Hill Chancellor James Moeser,
who contended that the resulting
increase in diversity and mental
capital would have made the state’s
flagship institution a better school.
' But ultimately the board
delayed indefinitely a vote on the
proposal amid protests that it
would have made campuses less
accessible to state students and
that it was unfair to taxpayers, who
foot roughly 25 percent of the
schools’ bills.
Still, Warner and fellow Rep.
Bernard Allen, a Wake County
Democrat, weren’t taking any
chances. They introduced identical
bills that would have allowed the
legislature to take up the issue, and
Warner said he had the two-thirds
majority necessary for a resolution
to pass.
But th-House floor Tuesday,
Allen chimed in with a different
tune. Citing advice from former
UNC-system President Bill Friday,
he said it would be best to send the
bill back to committee and allow
the BOG to govern the university it
is charged with governing.
“What we do not want to do is
SEE CAP, PAGE 5
anyone, she was fired June 11 for
“improper personal conduct”
stemming from disobeying the
confidentiality order.
Sumpter contends that her firing
was merely retaliation for speaking
out against a well-liked supervisor.
In response, she decided to file a
lawsuit not only for the improper
termination, but for “all the years
of being harassed.”
She said that throughout her
time working under Aramark, she
and other employees had been sub
ject to harassment, double stan
dards and unequal opportunities.
Although Sumpter has not
decided what retribution she will
seek in her suit, she hopes it will
have a positive effect on the work-
SEE LAWSUIT, PAGE 5
INSIDE
HELLO NURSEI
Sonic Youth's latest proves that rockers can
age with grace or not at all. PAGE 6
WEEKLY SUMMER ISSUE
www.dailytMheel.com
putes between the subcontractor
and the University.
Since early this year, Southern
Site & Environmental officials have
charged the University with work
place negligence for possibily
exposing construction workers on
the site to hazardous chemicals
including mercury, lead and
arsenic.
Gabriel said in April that the
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1
DTH/GILUAN BOLSOVER
Chapel Hill resident Michelle Cotton Laws interrupts Monday's Town Council meeting to express her exasperation about the council's decision
to create a special committee to study the proposal to rename Airport Road. After her remarks, Mayor Kevin Foy asked her to leave to Town Hall.
ROAD RENAMING
VOTE POSTPONED
BY SHANNAN BOWEN
AND JOSEPH R. SCHWARTZ
SENIOR WRITERS
More than 100 citizens showed up to
Monday night’s Town Council meeting seeking
closure to an issue that many claim has esca
lated from renaming a road to uncovering
thick racial divisions in the town.
But they’ll have to wait a little longer.
Instead of settling the ongoing debate, the
council voted 5 to 4 to create a committee com
prised of about 20 townspeople and experts for
continued dialogue on renaming Airport Road
in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
The vote caused a literal uprise among some
residents, including Michelle Cotton Laws,
who deliberately interrupted discussion of the
resolution, saying that Rosa Parks rose up and
she will rise, too.
“We have silently sat, protested here and
House panels back school projects
Different plans
could be divisive
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH Two committees
of the N.C. House approved a
$337 million debt package
Tuesday to build five university
medical projects but disagreed on
how to repay the money being
borrowed.
The House Appropriations
Committee threw out language
from the bill approved by the
Finance Committee earlier
Tuesday that would have used
proceeds from North Carolina’s
share of the national tobacco set
tlement to pay down the debt.
Supporters of the Health and
University had failed to dispose of
the dangerous chemicals, possibly
exposing as many as two dozen
workers to the hazardous materials.
In addition, Southern Site &
Environmental officials made alle
gations that there had been dump
ing on the site.
Gabriel said they did not file a
lawsuit until they received results
from a soil study done by the N.C.
there,” she said in an interview TUesday. “I could
no longer sit and be subjected to that... I rose
to make the statement that gone are the days
that are sitting passively by.”
INSIDE
UNC facilites
are met with
approval from
the Council
PAGE 5
about race.”
Foy admitted that the council had not
approached the matter appropriately and that
fhrther discussion was needed to proceed in a
direction that addressed not only the issue of
renaming Airport Road, but also issues of race
and community relations that have become
more tense since the debate was first brought
Wellness TYust Fund Commission
lobbied lawmakers and urged them
instead to make the payments from
the state’s operating accounts.
“I think the tide changed as the
day went on,” said House
Democratic Leader Joe Hackney,
D-Orange, who backed the
change.
The bill would authorize $240
million in debt to renovate the
cancer center at UNC-Chapel Hill
and to build a stroke center at
East Carolina University. The
Senate agreed to those projects
last month.
The House proposal also would
allow debt to be issued for a bioin
formatics center at UNC-
Charlotte, an aging and wellness
SEE UNC CENTERS, PAGE 5
ARTS
BEHIND SILVER EYES
'Riddick' a muddled mess, proving no one
knows what it's like to be a Diesel. PAGE 7
Department of Environment and
Natural Resources. The study
found the presence of numerous
hazardous materials beyond feder
al limits, Gabriel said.
Peter Reinhardt, UNC’s director
of environment, health, and safety,
did not return phone calls before
press time.
But in April Reinhardt had
defended the University’s position
and denied criminal negligence.
The ordeal began in the fall
when University officials enlisted
Mayor Kevin Foy, who
proposed the resolution,
began the public forum by
stating that he personally
thought renaming the road
was an appropriate way to
honor King.
But, he said, “This is
Research Center Funding
Under a bill passed by a House committee Tuesday, five UNC
system schools would get funding for research centers. The
bill now must go to the full House for its approval.
$l6O million Cancer Center
■K. UNC-Chapel Hill HHH
SBO million Heart and Stroke Center
East Carolina University
$35 million Bioinformatics Center
UNC-Charlotte _ {§
$35 million Aging and Wellness Center
UNC-Asheville
$27 million Pharmacy School
Elizabeth City State University
Total: $337 million
DTH/Mary Jane Katz
WEATHER
TODAY Partly Cloudy, High 91, Low 72
FRIDAY Isolated T-Storms, High 94, Low 72 ~ 11111,1111
SATURDAY Isolated T-Storms, High 91, Low 69
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2004
another subcontractor, Quantum
Environmental, to remove the
building’s “P traps,” the pipes from
under the sinks in laboratories.
The waste was not removed
from the site until Southern Site &
Environmental was wrapping up
its work in January. Gabriel said in
April that officials had made
numerous requests to the
University for the removal of the
materials.
SEE WASTE SUIT, PAGE 5
to the table almost a year ago.
“I don’t feel comfortable taking action this
evening that I think will result in people shout
ing at each other not talking to each other,” he
said. “We do what we do when we have a
thorny issue. We don’t impose the will of nine
people in the community; we do what mem
bers of this community think is best.”
But Council members Mark Kleinschmidt,
Bill Strom, Cam Hill and Sally Greene, who
were in opposition to Fey’s proposal, said they
did not want to delay action. Kleinschmidt said
Foy’s proposal was merely a defacto vote in
opposition to renaming the road.
But Wiggins disputed that notion. “No one
is this room would like to see a road named
after Dr. King more than I would,” she said. “I
have been in favor of the renaming but not in
SEE RENAMING, PAGE 5