2
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2004
Groups join up to fight theft
BY DAN SCHWIND
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Town and University officials
want Chapel Hill and Carrboro
residents to get in the HABIT of
securing their cars.
Halt Auto Break-Ins Today
—a joint program between the
Chapel Hill and Carrboro police
departments, UNC’s Department
of Public Safety, Crime Stoppers
and Chapel Hill Thmsit aims to
educate the public on steps they
can take to keep their cars safe.
The program began Tuesday
when representatives from the
agencies involved went to each of
the town’s and University’s park
and-ride lots to distribute fliers and
give tips on how commuters and
residents can protect their cars.
“The main message is just to
ASG aims for budget transparency
BY AMY THOMSON
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
The UNC-system Association of
Student Governments has released
its budget for 2005 with prom
ises to increase transparency and
responsibility for revenue.
“Accountability is never a bad
thing,” said Victor Landry, return
ing ASG senior vice president It's a
sentiment that is echoed through
out the ASG.
The ASG’s main strategy to
increase its accountability is to
release budget reports twice as
often quarterly rather than bian
nually.
The moves are part of an effort
on the part of President Amanda
Devore to “create increased
accountability for the UNC ASG
student fee,” an action she called
160 leave Gamp Lejeune for combat in Iraq
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAMP LEJEUNE About 160
Marines and sailors from the 2nd
Force Service Support Group have
left Camp Lejeune for Iraq, bring
ing to roughly 250 the number in
this latest deployment from the
group.
Rob and Barb Ogden ofVirginia
watched Monday as 20-year-old
Lance Cpl. Tim Dobbins, a Humvee
mm
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make people aware of what they
can do,” said Chapel Hill police
officer Danny Lloyd.
Lloyd, who is leading HABIT
with members from the other
groups, said the program focuses
on park-and-ride lots because of
the high volume of people passing
through those areas.
The program’s launch comes on
the heels of a rash of break-ins that
were reported last week near the
Shadowood and Timber Hollow
apartment complexes, most of
which followed a similar pattern,
Lloyd said.
“It stands to reason that it was
one group of people (responsible),”
he said.
Jane Cousins, spokeswoman for
the CHPD, said there were more
than 500 break-ins in the fiscal
for in her platform.
The $1 student fee collected
from all UNC-system students will
bring in a revenue of $150,000 this
year, according to the association’s
2005 draft budget.
Devore said her platform pledge
was not due to any criticism of last
year’s budget but rather because
she thought more detailed accounts
would dear up obscurities.
“It is just in an effort to always
be accountable for every dollar that
we spend,” Devore said. “(The ASG
has) nothing at all to hide, so we
want our process to be as transpar
ent as it can be.”
Landry added that the reports
will give the association’s constitu
ents and students up-to-date infor
mation more often.
“This is more of an avenue to
and truck driver, said goodbye to
his 1-year-old son, Dylon.
“I’m pretty overwhelmed,” said
Dobbins’ mom, Barb, as she quiet
ly wiped away tears. “Just get him
home safely.”
Dobbins, in the Marine Corps
just more than a year, recently
started practicing to be a machine
gunner in an armored turret atop
the Humvee he normally drives.
year 2003-04, which ran from July
1,2003, to June 30,2004 down
from 819 in 2002-03.
Lt. Angela Carmon of DPS also
took part in the program Hiesday
morning. She said residents and
students seemed to be receptive
and appreciative of the program,
and many of them seemed to heed
the warnings, checking their vehi
cles before leaving.
But, she said, she’s not sure her
advice will stick with drivers. “I’m
hoping that they will tend to hear
what we have to say,” Carmon said.
To prevent that from happening,
she said, University officials plan to
remind drivers of the program next
month.
Officials began the program with
the hope that by advising residents
to take precautions, the number of
let people know about the positive
things that the ASG will be doing
in the upcoming year,” he said.
Jamen Miller, who will serve as
vice president of the ASG’s Finance
Committee, will be heading up
these efforts.
As vice president, he will be
the primary person in charge of
producing the quarterly budget
reports and making the associa
tion’s spending more available to
scrutiny by the public.
“It’s all about accountability,”
Miller said.
“Anyone who wants to see
exactly what the association is
spending money on can see it,
and there’s nothing being held
back or hidden.”
Despite the fact that the ASG has
one of the largest spending budgets
His best friend, 20-year-old
Lance Cpl. Ryan Sullivan, a
Humvee and truck driver from
Mount Airy, is also deploying to
Iraq with Bravo Company —a
group composed mostly of drivers
and mechanics.
Dobbins and Sullivan entered
the Marine Corps at the same time
and went through basic training
together.
News
vehicle break-ins will go down.
Lloyd said removing valuables
such as laptop computers or cel
lular phones is the most effective
prevention because it gives would
be thieves no reason to break in.
“It’s really that simple,” he said.
Lloyd said items most com
monly stolen are stereos, laptops,
cell phones and CD cases.
He said most of the incidents
occur at apartment complexes,
because it allows for a quicker get
away and makes it harder for offi
cials to catch the culprits.
That, Lloyd said, is the very rea
son for the creation of HABIT.
“We want people to take any
preventative measures they can."
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
of any student government associa
tion in the country, Devore said she
would like to double its income.
“We’re just trying to write some
grants for specific activities,” she
said.
“It’s just one of those things
where our student fee is limited
and we want to make it stretch.”
Landry said the funds primarily
are slated to come from grants from
voter registration organizations.
The ASG Development
Committee will collect this money,
which will be used for voter reg
istration activities and a program
being developed to send students
to meet their congressional repre
sentatives in Washington, D.C.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
The two suspect Dobbins will be
the gunner while Sullivan drives
the Humvee.
“Nobody knows until we get
there,” Sullivan said.
“All I know is he’s all I’ve got over
there. I’ve got his back, and he’s got
mine.”
The group has prepared for
this mission since March, Sullivan
said. ■
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UNC gets grant
to assist families
of citizen troops
BY ANDREW SATTEN
STAFF WRITER
North Carolina has been hit
especially hard by military deploy
ments in the past several months.
More than one third of its 23,000
National Guard and Reserve mem
bers have been called to service.
With deployments on the rise,
the University is teaming up with
the Department of Defense to
coordinate a support system for
troops and their families.
Earlier this month, UNC
received $l.B million from U.S.
Congress to coordinate the
National Demonstration Program
for Citizen-Soldier Support.
The program will address the
issues that arise when National
Guard and Reserve members are
deployed for extended periods of
time.
“Many of these families are
experiencing the military really
for the first time,” said Doug
Robertson, director of UNC’s
Highway Safety Research Center,
who coordinated the program with
a number of other University offi
cials. Robertson, who is a retired
general, also has had an extensive
military career.
Families with members who
serve in the military foil time typi
cally live near military posts or
bases that provide support ser
vices. But for guard and reserve
members that live in diverse geo
graphic regions, their families do
not have such support networks at
their disposal.
“The circumstances of their ser
vice has changed,” said U.S. Rep.
David Price, D-N.C.
He noted the strains that can be
placed on military families when
parents are deployed for months
on end instead of serving only on
weekends.
Price was a key player in the leg
islation that is providing funding
for the program. “This is a major
interruption to their daily lives
that most of us cannot even imag
ine,” he said.
The Citizen-Soldier program
Mg (Ear Hbrf
“Making
connections is
what the thrust
of this (program)
is all about ”
DOUG ROBERTSON, coordinator
will improve the communication
of vital information to military
families. Schools, service groups,
faith organizations and employers
also will be mobilized to provide
services ranging from child care
to lawn mowing.
“Making connections is what
the thrust of this is all about,”
Robertson said.
While UNC is leading the effort,
the University also is collaborating
with other schools, including Duke
University and several out-of-state
universities.
Robertson said officials are
researching how UNC students
can get involved in the program,
and he already has received calls
from campus service organiza
tions, including the Campus Y,
about what role they can play.
UNC-TV also will be involved in
coordinating the communication
elements of the program.
Although the Citizen-Soldier
effort only will target North
Carolina, it is being treated as a
pilot program and could later be
expanded to other regions.
Chancellor James Moeser has
been trumpeting the program
during his Carolina Connects tour,
which has made stops at Fort Bragg
and the National Guard Armory in
Asheville.
Robertson said the program
will alleviate some of the anxiety
that deployed guard and reserve
members have about family issues
at home.
“They need to be focused on
doing their job and staying alive.”
Contact the Features Editor
atfeatures@unc.edu.