My ®ar Hrrl
Trustees OK landmark hike
BY BROOK R. CORWIN
AND EMILY STEEL
UNIVERSITY EDITORS
Jan. 22 ln an almost unani
mous vote, UNC-Chapel Hill’s gov
erning body approved a $1,500 one
vear nonresident tuition increase
Wednesday evening, claiming that
a pending “crisis” in faculty reten
tion outweighed strong opposi
tion expressed by both the Faculty
Council and the student body.
The approved proposal, which
will generate $15.3 million, also
includes a S3OO tuition hike for
in-state students.
(Editor’s note: In March, the
UNC system’s governing body gave
final approval to the increases. The
Board of Governors reduced the
in-state hike to $250 but kept the
out-of-state increase at $1,500.)
Wednesday’s decision marks
a significant shift in tuition poli
cies: the first time a campus-based
tuition increase, using a market
based philosophy, has targeted
nonresident tuition rates.
“It’s necessary that this board
address tuition as part of the big pic
ture,” said Richard “Stick” Williams,
chairman of the Board of Trustees.
“If we are going to build the leading
public university, we have to make
sure all the parts fit."
Trustees said the generated
funds will be earmarked for fac
ulty salaries, need-based financial
aid, teacher assistant salaries and
tuition remissions.
Eliminated from this list are
merit- and talent-based scholar
ships, a controversial component
WAVE OF DESTRUCTION
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec.
2 6 The world’s most pow
erful earthquake in 40 years
triggered massive tidal waves
that slammed into villages
and seaside resorts across
southern and southeast Asia
on Sunday, killing more than
7,000 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes
and cars were swept away by
walls of water 20 feet high
that swept across the Bay
of Bengal, unleashed by the
8.9-magnitude earthquake
centered off the west coast
of the Indonesian island of
Sumatra.
In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles
west of the epicenter, more
than 3,000 people were
killed, the country’s top
police official said. At least
1,870 died in Indonesia,
and 1,900 along the south
ern coasts of India. At least
198 were confirmed dead
in Thailand. (Editor’s note:
150,000 are now confirmed
dead.)
Academic freedom enters spotlight
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Academic freedom at the
University came under fire during
2004, with two separate incidents
highlighting UNC’s struggle to
preserve classroom rights without
stepping on others’ toes.
On Oct. 22, the U.S. Department
of Education’s Office of Civil Rights
released a report stating that the
University responded properly to a
situation in which an English lec
turer sent a discriminatory e-mail
that chastised a student for making
anti-homosexual comments during
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DTH FILE PHOTO/LAURA MORTON
Students line an assembly room in Wilson Library in November to protest
the University's proposed acceptance of funding from the Pope Foundation.
of a draft proposal that trustees
had supported until this week.
Trustees decided on a phi
losophy that nonresident tuition
should reach, but not exceed, the
75th percentile among public peer
institutions.
Reaching that goal would cost
nonresidents at least $2,100
more, based on current peer
tuition rates. As part of the phi
losophy, trustees decided to keep
in-state tuition in the lowest
quartile of those institutions.
Trustees refused to include
concerns expressed by Student
Body President Matt Tepper that
students should be able to plan
for tuition hikes before entering
UNC-CH.
“Maybe there are students who
came with the understanding of this
being a low-cost institution for all
students,” Trustee Tim Burnett said.
“But they also came with another
understanding of the kind of quality
this institution represents.”
Tepper drafted a separate pro
posal prior to the meeting in an
attempt to address this concern.
The proposal recommended a 5
percent hike for all current under
graduate students about S2OO
for residents and SBOO for non
residents —with a $1,500 increase
for nonresident students entering
UNC-CH next year.
But the proposal did not receive
a motion for adoption, and many
trustees criticized it for being unfair
to incoming students and bringing
in $2.4 million less in discretionary
funds. Trustees argued that current
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman walks near a mosque with the rubbish from the quake and tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Dec. 28. More than 150,000 have
been confirmed dead in the disaster, 115,000 in Indonesia alone. The United Nations estimates that the death toll could top 200,000.
class.
“We want to recognize the
University for realizing that the lec
turer’s e-mail message was an inap
propriate response to the student’s
comments,” the report states.
The decision marked an end to
several months of deliberation and
discussions of academic freedom
that began when UNC English lec
turer Elyse Crystall sent the e-mail
to her class Feb. 6.
“We are pleased that the Office
for Civil Rights’ review found that
the University acted appropriately
Year in Review
students can take out low-interest
loans to cover increased tuition
costs.
“I’m trying to decide if that loan
is more onerous than the $2.4 mil
lion you are giving up under your
proposal,” said TVustee John Ellison.
“I’m coming down on the side of $2.4
million for faculty and teacher assis
tant salaries. It’s not an easy call.”
Several trustees said they were
sensitive to the financial burden the
increase will place on middle class
students but were swayed by the
need to maintain the quality of edu
cation through retaining faculty.
But Judith Wegner, chairwoman
of the faculty, said the increase will
damage recruitment of nonresident
students, particularly graduate stu
dents, and only will worsen the prob
lem of keeping faculty from accept
ing offers from other schools.
“This is important,” she said to
applause from dozens of students
in attendance. “We need medicine,
but first do no harm.”
Wegner maintained her
staunch opposition to the increase,
expressed in a resolution unani
mously approved by the Faculty
Council last week, even after
trustees removed merit- and tal
ent-based scholarships from the
list of funding priorities.
Faculty members strongly advo
cated against the use of tuition dol
lars to hold harmless the costs of
athletic and merit scholarships
that are funded through private
foundations.
Trustees said after the meeting
that the removal of these schol-
in this case,” Chancellor James
Moeser stated in a release.
During the analysis process,
OCR officials first investigated
whether Crystall’s actions consti
tuted an actual incident of racial
or sexual discrimination.
According to a letter sent to
Moeser on Wednesday, the civil
rights office determined that the
language in the e-mail “went
beyond a permissible reference
... (of) describing the student and
targeted him for criticism based in
part on the student’s race and sex.”
Though OCR officials found evi
dence of intentional discrimina
tion and harassment in Crystall’s
actions, the group determined
that no further action is required
by the University to uphold con
stitutional protections.
Although OCR officials deter
mined that the University was in
compliance with the law, their
review stressed the negative impli
cations of intentional discrimina
tion and harassment.
The report stated that contro
versies such as this “discouraged
the robust exchange of ideas that
is intrinsic to higher education.”
Judith Wegner, chairwoman
of the faculty, said she is pleased
with the outcome of the review.
“I think it was a clear finding by
the Office for Civil Rights that the
University had dealt with what I
m
DTH FILE PHOTO/JUSTIN SMITH
Doug Ornoff, an out-of-state student from Virginia, peers from behind
a partition as Provost Robert Shelton outlines the tuition increase.
arships was a response to those
concerns and to sentiments
expressed by students in dozens
of e-mails sent to the trustees.
Trustees voted on tuition
increases for residents and
nonresidents separately at the
request of trustees Rusty Carter
and Philip Carson. They were
the only trustees to vote against
the increase for residents, while
Tepper cast the lone vote against
the nonresident increase.
Several students said they were
shocked by the board’s action
and expressed concern about the
implications of the hike.
“I’ll end up finding a way to
make ends meet,” said Doug
Ornoff, a freshman from Virginia
who serves on the Freshman
regarded as a mistake in the heat
of a moment,” she said. “People
make mistakes.”
A second round
On Nov. 15, students lined
the walls of the Pleasants Family
Assembly Room in Wilson Library,
holding signs that urged officials
to reconsider accepting money
from a controversial conservative
think tank.
Faculty members also aired
their concerns at a meeting that
mostly dealt with the possible sl4
million donation from the John
William Pope Foundation, which
would fund a proposed program
in Western studies.
The protesters said they were
worried that the University’s aca
demic freedom would take a hit
from the foundation, which they
said could exert influence over the
campus’s intellectual life.
“It would devalue education
and harm the reputation of the
University,” said senior Chase
Foster. “Most people in academia
know the Pope Foundation is
against the University’s ideals.”
The Popes are the founders of
the John William Pope Foundation,
the John Locke Foundation and
the John William Pope Center for
Higher Education Policy.
The Pope Center, which is inde
TUESDAY, JANUARY il, 2005
Focus Council. “But now, I really
don’t know how.”
Before the trustees’ final votes
were even cast, Wegner said she
already was preparing for a cam
paign to sway BOG members to
reject the proposal.
Tepper said the most effective
appeal to BOG members would
be asking to change the tuition
philosophy enacted by the BOT
and not the numbers of the
approved proposal.
“This seems like a pretty final
decision,” he said. “But of course
we’ll continue to pressure the
BOG for a tuition philosophy that
is kinder to students.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
pendent from the other groups,
has openly contested and criti
cized UNC for offering courses
in women’s studies, mandating a
cultural diversity requirement and
selecting “controversial” books for
the summer reading program.
But Bernadette Gray-Little,
dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, told her colleagues that
the Popes have not intervened
in the proposal and will not be
allowed to control any curricula.
‘We must say ‘no’ to funds that
want to exercise that kind of influ
ence on courses,” she said.
After the Popes proposed
the donation, the Office of
Development began searching
for a specific program to receive
the funds, and faculty members
decided that a Western civiliza
tion studies program would ben
efit the most.
A group of faculty was charged
with creating a proposal for the
program to send to the Pope
family. If the Popes accept the
proposal, they will provide about
$500,000 of funding each year for
the next five years.
An assessment of the program
then will determine whether the
Popes will donate an additional
endowment of about sl2 million.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
Twists
define
race for
top slot
BY BROOK R. CORWIN
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
March 3 Throughout a pro
longed seven-week campaign,
student body president candidate
Matt Calabria was always ready
with well-measured words.
Late Tuesday night, he finally
was at a loss for them.
In the conclusion to what
will likely go down as one of the
most heated and competitive stu
dent elections in school history,
Calabria emerged the victor and
will be UNC’s next student body
president.
Calabria received 57.8 percent of
the 6,120 votes cast, an 8 percent
age point jump from his standing
in the first runoff election Feb.
17, which West unofficially won
by seven votes. That election was
never certified because of West
campaign violations.
Calabria’s supporters reacted to
the results with the kind of exuber
ant shouts standard in the finish
of a student body president race.
But the cries also carried a muf
fled tone of relief as supporters
swarmed to the front of the room
to embrace their candidate.
Only seconds after the shouts
began, the room was almost silent.
“You’re so worried beforehand just
thinking, ‘Will it ever be a reality?’
and you second-guess yourself all
the time,” Calabria said of the race’s
final moments. “The moment you
finally know, all you can think of is
that it really is the reality.”
The supporters who shared in
Calabria’s victorious moment rep
resented only a fraction of what he
said were hundreds of contributors
to his successful campaign. While
walking to greet the bulk of that
team at his campaign manager’s
house, Calabria repeatedly cited
his staff as the principle reason
behind his win.
“These people put us over the
top,” he said. “When it comes down
to it, it’s the individual talents of
the people you have with you. I’ll
never thank them enough.”
After the results were
announced, West spent several
moments with some of her core
supporters in the basement of
Carroll Hall before emerging to
thunderous cheers from the mem
bers of her staff in attendance.
She also was quick to thank her
team of campaign workers and
wished Calabria the best of luck
in putting together his adminis
tration. “I hope the student body
supports their new president,” she
said. “I hope he can start the pro
cess of restoring faith in student
government.”
West vowed to stay involved on
campus, although she was not sure
in what capacity.
The announcement of the elec
tion results was delayed for more
than an hour by the men’s basketball
game against Clemson University. It
was a fitting end to a race that has
dragged on two weeks beyond the
typical lifespan of a student body
president contest.
West and Calabria finished
first and second, respectively, in
the Feb. 10 election that featured
eight candidates. That sent the
two to the Feb. 17 runoff election,
after which West’s narrow victory
eventually was ruled tainted by
the Board of Elections because
West’s boyfriend Alistair Cooper,
a UNC alumnus, was found guilty
of maliciously soliciting votes in
the Undergraduate Library com
puter lab during the final hour of
the runoff election.
It took the board one week to
reach that conclusion, during
which it sorted through numer
ous allegations accusing both cam
paigns of multiple violations.
All charges against the Calabria
campaign were dropped, and
because West was ruled to have
no knowledge of Cooper’s viola
tions, a re-election was ordered
with the West campaign losing all
its remaining campaign funds.
The voter turnout was almost
identical to the turnout in the
original runoff election, a fact that
surprised and delighted many
involved in the campaigns.
Outcome aside, this election
undoubtedly is one for the books
in the history of UNC student
self-governance. “This has truly
been an historical election,” BOE
Chairwoman Melissa Anderson
said seconds before announcing
the results. “In the end, students
voices were heard.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
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