VOLUME 113, ISSUE 2
Governor unveils budget plan
Would fund growth, nix in-state hikes
BY INDIA AUTRY
STAFF WRITER
Gov. Mike Easley wants to expand
funding for all levels of education and
raise the cigarette tax, according to his
budget proposal released Wednesday.
Easley’s $16.9 billion budget would
offset any financial aid cuts by President
Bush, including those to Pell Grants,
and take on the costs of increased
enrollment at colleges and universi
N.C. Gov.
Mike Easley
wants to see
more funding
for education.
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TANARUS% ay Vega plays trumpet at the kickoff of the 2005 Carolina
Jazz Festival in the Student Union Cabaret on Wednesday
night. The festival, which is in its 28th year, began with a
panel discussion called “Thinking in Jazz,” which allowed all the
featured musicians to tell stories about their backgrounds and
Cases alter
academic
climates
BY KATHERINE EVANS
STAFF WRITER
University officials throughout the nation are
watching with interest as lawyers involved in the
Alpha lota Omega lawsuit at UNC try to hash
out a compromise before Monday’s deadline.
The Christian fraternity’s lawsuit against UNC
is the latest episode in a legal
movement that has swept
across some of the country’s
top public universities during
the past five years.
The cases haven’t been
cataclysmic, officials said, but
they have sparked important
dialogue while at the same
time forcing leaders to make
sure that the polarization the
cases have caused won’t lead
to further conflict.
“I think that we always
have to be concerned about
the climate,” said Gerald
UNC Chancellor
James Moeser
is not the first
official put on
the spot in suits.
Rinehart, associate vice provost for student
affairs at the University of Minnesota.
In 2003, the Maranatha Christian Fellowship
—a campus religious group sued UMinn. It
claimed that forcing campus groups to sign an
“equal opportunity statement” violated their
constitutional right to free expression.
The case led to increased debate on campus,
Rinehart said, and he fears that extremism could
have a chilling effect on tolerance at the univer
sity especially of gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender students, or of the students who
SEE SETTLEMENTS, PAGE 4
dive
ONLINE
Serving the students and the University comm unity since 1893
tflie Satin (Ear Herl
ties, said Ran Coble, director of the N.C.
Center for Public Policy Research.
“He’s asking North Carolina to do
what the federal government isn’t
doing,” he said.
Easley would give community
colleges, the UNC system and pri
vate colleges $84.5 million more
in resources. The budget calls for a
freeze on in-state tuition increases at
UNC-system schools, as well as $73.6
These are the first
in a series of stories
documenting the
culminations of the
yearlong efforts of
Dance Marathon
and UNC Habitat
for Humanity.
Both groups will be
holding their banner
events this weekend
activities that
will be covered in a
2-page spread inside
The Daily Tar Heel
on Monday.
Habitat to build a home
BY NATALIE HAMMEL
STAFF WRITER
On Friday morning, when many stu
dents are still sleeping off their Thursday
nights, volunteers for UNC Habitat for
Humanity will begin the intensive endeav
or of building most of a house in just three
days.
Known as a “Blitz Build,” it’s a project
Chapel Hill hasn’t seen since 1998. When
completed, it will provide a UNC employee
and her family with a home.
The house’s structure might go up in
three days, but raising the money to build
it has taken a lot longer.
For about a year, Habitat has been rais
ing funds to meet a target of $30,000
one-half the cost of the house.
ONLINE
Local band reels audiences in with, new album
Heard Together a good portrait of Tar Heel scene
Check out the arts calendar at wmv.dthonline.com.
www.dthonline.coin
A LOVE SUPREME
influences. The discussion was followed by a jam session with all
featured musicians. The festival will continue through Saturday
and will include not only professional musicians but also members
of the faculty and both high school and college students. Students
can obtain tickets at a discount. For the full story, see page 12.
Ml t.
million for system enrollment growth
and sl9 million for financial aid.
But the majority of Easley’s addition
al $532 million in assistance to educa
tion wouldn’t go to higher education,
Coble said. K-12 is still the priority, but
the governor is shifting his focus from
the lower to upper grades.
“He’s putting more emphasis on
high schools this time,” Coble said.
Easley would expand the Learn and
Earn program, which allows students
to receive a high school diploma and
an associate’s degree in five years.
Marathon unites service groups
BY VIRGINIA WOOTEN
STAFF WRITER
The largest charity effort on cam
pus, Dance Marathon raised more than
$170,000 and featured more than 600
dancers last year.
The organization’s size has the poten
tial to overshadow other campus chari
ties, but many student leaders claim
it actually unites the different service
groups.
Founded in 1998 by then-UNC stu
dent Michael Bucy, Dance Marathon
raises money for families with children
at the N.C. Children’s Hospital.
Now in its seventh year, it is one of
the most well-known charity events on
campus.
“Everyone in Dance Marathon is
pretty much involved with other orga
nizations as well,” said junior Shannon
Will Harrison, fund-raising chairman
for Habitat, said the group has brought in
between $17,000 and SIB,OOO.
Several other organizations, including
the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the
Department of City and Regional Planning
and Orange County
Habitat for Humanity,
are contributing to the
building costs.
Together, Harrison
said, the groups have
generated about
■uNcll
Habitat for
HUMANITY
Blitz Build
$56,000, only a bit shy of the full $60,000
price tag for building a Habitat house in
Orange County.
SEE FUND RAISING, PAGE 4
ONLINE
ANSWER MAN
UNC sophomore Bernard Holloway appears on
"Jeopardy." More stories at www.dthonline.com.
A N.C. Supreme Court ruling earlier
this year demanding better education
for poor areas is likely to be behind
an expansion of the programs for dis
advantaged and low-w’ealth students,
totaling an additional $41.6 million,
said Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC’s
Program on Southern Politics, Media
and Public Life.
“It’s responding to the Leandro
case that everybody gets a good
education, no matter where they are,”
SEE BUDGET, PAGE 6
DTH/WHITNEY SHEFTE
O’Shaughnessy, co-president of the ser
vice fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and
Dance Marathon’s dancer coordinator.
“No one does just one thing. It’s a
great way to bring cohesion and unify
people from all
organizations for
one cause.”
O’Shaughnessy
spends about
15 hours a week
working with
Dance Marathon
on top of the 15
hours she spends
a week on efforts
forAPO.
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The Greek system historically has
played a large role in the marathon.
More than 250 Panhellenic members
are volunteering this year.
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Susan Moeser (right), University organist and the chancellor's wife, talks
with guests at Chapel of the Cross after playing an hourlong benefit show.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005
BY THE NUMBERS
16.9
In billions,
dollars in
Easley's budget
74
In millions,
dollars for
college growth
Insurance
might be
required
Officials could implement
new policy by fall of 2006
BY KATIE HOFFMANN
STAFF WRITER
Semester to semester, Bob Wirag sees uninsured
students leave the University for circumstances
beyond their control.
“Every year it happens,” said the director of the
University’s Student Health Service. “Students don’t
think they’ll get sick or hospitalized, but then they end
up dropping out of school because
they need to get a job to pay for
their hospital bills.”
To alleviate such situations,
UNC-system officials are con
sidering making health insur
ance mandatory for all students
—a step that follows in the path of
other public institutions of higher
education.
Health directors at the 16 uni
versities in the UNC system have
met with the state insurance office
to discuss plans, and officials said
such a mandate is likely to go
into effect in fall 2006 but could
become policy as early as next
fall.
“We think it’s a good idea to pursue so that all stu
dents would have health insurance for both the physi
cal and mental illnesses that come up during college,”
said Margaret Jablonski, UNC-CH vice chancellor for
student affairs.
Other public institutions such as the University
SEE INSURANCE, PAGE 4
But many leaders of other campus
charity organizations said it doesn’t hurt
them that Dance Marathon takes center
stage each spring semester.
“We serve children in a different
capacity,” said Dave Scott, a senior and
co-president of APO.
The service fraternity concentrates on
other local charities, including Carolina
Pediatric Attention, Love and Support,
a buddy system for cancer patients.
“If anything, I think it complements
what we do,” Scott said.
While maintaining a spirit of coop
eration, campus charities are forced to
recognize Dance Marathon as the defin
itive high-profile organization at UNC.
“They are so well-established that
they have good name recognition,” said
SEE CHARITIES, PAGE 4
WEATHER
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FRIDAY Mostly cloudy, H 47, L 26
SATURDAY Sunny, H 53, L 27
35
In cents,
proposed hike
in cigarette tax
0
Dollars from
tuition hikes
for residents
Vice chancellor
Margaret
Jablonski
is backing the
insurance push.
4£k