Newspapers / The Daily Tar Heel. / April 27, 2005, edition 1 / Page 3
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®!tp iattij Sar Herf STATE S NATION N.C. House passes bill to ban Social Security as school ID A bill barring UNC-system schools from using Social Security numbers as identification passed unanimously Tuesday in the N.C. House. The bill introduced by Rep. Jeff Barnhart, R-Cabarrus - will be sent to the Senate today for its first reading. If passed by the Senate, all system schools will have to enact the bill by fall 2007. UNC-Chapel Hill now uses an alternate number to identify stu dents. Other schools in the system are starting the Banner Project program, which generates rantjom numbers to use for student iden tification. The bill was introduced to help prevent the crimes of fraud and identity theft on college campuses. eiT¥ BRIEFS Dukes still awaits trial for multiple Chapel Hill thefts The man who was arrested in November in relation to eight breaking and enterings around Cameron Avenue is still awaiting trial. Anthony Jerome Dukes, fac ing 15 felony charges related to breaking and entering and lar ceny, was scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday. Dukes previously was repre sented by Public Defender Susan Seahorn, but with her withdrawal from the case, Dukes’ new attorney is Amos Tyndall. The case has been postponed until May 24 because Tyndall was trying another case in Alamance County. Dukes was arrested Nov. 10 after he was spotted at 217 Vance St., which was a house he had reportedly broken into a few days earlier. The break-ins also occurred around Kenan, McCauley, Ransom and Vance streets, in addition to Cameron Avenue. Police reports state that the amount of goods stolen totaled $23,000. Dukes has been in cus tody in Orange County Jail since his November arrest. County rape crisis center seeks summer volunteers The Orange County Rape Crisis center is looking for volunteers. The center is accepting appli cations for summer volunteer training classes, and the deadline is May 9. Training will begin in mid-May. Volunteers answer the center’s 24-hour crisis/response line and present educational programs. The organization encourages men and women with diverse backgrounds and experience to apply. For more information, visit http: / /www.ocrcc.org. CAMPUS BRIEFS UNC fund-raising dinner to feature Reno, Smith, Friday Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, former UNC bas ketball coach Dean Smith and UNC-system President Emeritus William Friday will appear at a fund-raising dinner Saturday in Chapel Hill. The proceeds from the event will aid UNC-CH’s research efforts to treat Parkinson’s disease, tremors, dystonia, Huntington’s disease and other movement disorders. The dinner will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Friday Center. CALENDAR Thursday Juniors Clayton Perry and Christina Lee, the first recipients of the Undergraduate International Studies Fellowship, will host an informal discus sion to reflect on their semesters abroad. The talk will be held at noon in the multipurpose room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. Lee and Perry each received $2,500 last semester for interna tional academic pursuits from the Stone Center. Lee traveled to Mali to study issues of gender and develop ment, while Perry examined the sociopolitical legacy of Kwame Nkrumah, a politician in Ghana and an influential founder of Pan- Africanism. Friday The sixth annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research will be held at the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, in Graham Memorial from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The event will showcase origi nal research by undergraduates in all disciplines. Students will pres ent their work and findings at the event. From staff reports. Downtown body to eye members BY MEREDITH LEE MILLER ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR Replacing its chairman, finding a niche and clarifying open meetings laws made the first year chaotic for a local economic development group. And just as the Downtown Economic Development Corporation seems to have gotten its bearings, the group is preparing to face more change. Members of the group must decide soon if they need to have such high-ranking University and local officials on the board. The corporation convened last July to represent jointly the inter ests of the town, the University and the private sector was scheduled to discuss how it should reappoint its members at its 7:30 a.m. meet .V. 3“ * * f .-r * . rr*rT, ' •' r DTH/JULIA LEBETKIN Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins shares some of his work with a.sold-out crowd in the Great Hall of the Student Union on Tuesday night. Collins, who was poet laureate from 2001 to 2003, explored topics such as writing, companionship and mortality in his selected readings. VERSED IN POETRY COLLINS BRINGS HIS UNIQUE WIT TO THE GREAT HALL BY BECCA MOORE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Mice incinerating a house. Disgruntled house pets visiting from beyond the grave. Even the tried-and-true tactic of honoring women via the simile. All of these were part of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins’ reading Tuesday to a sold-out crowd in the Great Hall of the Student Union. Collins entertained and touched the crowd with 24 poems in the course of an hour. Some were comfortably funny depictions of everyday activities. Some caused the crowd to take pause at the powerful last verse, the “oh” audible throughout the room. Either way, Collins read them in a paced and deliberate demeanor, and his perfectly dry delivery sounded eerily similar to that of actor Kevin Spacey. In the poem “The Trouble with Poetry,” N.C. teaching program may be national model Teaching Fellows may curb scarcity BY KRISTIN PRATT STAFF WRITER The push for education reform in Congress intensified with the proposal for a national Teaching Fellows program, based on North Carolina’s model, in an effort to relieve the nation’s teaching shortage. U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., proposed expanding the Teaching Fellows Act to the national level April 21 to curb the teacher short age. The legislation is part of the Higher Education Act, which is up for reauthorization this year. “The concept and idea has potential for helping with the teaching shortage,” said Laura Pottmyer Soto, director of N.C. State University’s Teaching Fellows program. Recruitment and retention have been problem spots, and Price said he hopes the national program would help alleviate both. “The national program will help as long as people acknowl edge there is a real problem,” said ing today. The mayoral task force that helped build the corporation sug gested appointing high-ranking officials from all sectors during the group’s early years to guarantee that the group’s work is valued until it becomes entrenched in the area. Roger Perry, a member of the University’s Board ofTrustees; Nancy' Suttenfield, UNC’s vice chancellor for finance and administration; and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy are among the current members. Interim Executive Director Nick Didow said the board’s current makeup is crucial to its success. “My understanding is that good people do this because they are passionate and supportive of the mission of an organization like “I’m a fan of his work, and it’s great to see a personality behind that . scott dill, engush teacher Collins slyly remarked that the trouble with poetry, in fact, “...is that it encourages the writing of more poetry.” In “Litany,” he joked about how women are compared too often to the many wonders of the world through similes and are prob ably “sick of them.” “Dharma,” a poem about Collins’ faithful companion, briefly explored the noble yet carefree life of his dog. The dog “provides a finer example of a life without encumbrance,” he read, and then compared his pet to both Thoreau and Gandhi. Collins stuck with the canine theme in “The Revenant,” a quirky work about a dog that has been put to sleep and that returns to tell his owner he never liked him. “Sorry, cat people it turns out that you are the hacks in the afterlife,” he said after the poem. Howard Machtinger, director of the UNC-Chapel Hill Teaching Fellows program. “Retention currently does not get enough attention,” he said. Within the first five years of teaching, 30 percent of teachers quit the profession —a number that jumps to 50 percent in urban areas. Machtinger said there is not enough accompanying support for new teachers, which contributes to the low retention rate. Price’s bill would provide schol arships and mentoring programs to help recruit high school seniors and undergraduate freshmen, as well as students in community colleges. “The extracurricular program would help socialize them into the teaching program,” he said. Price said the fellowship needs to be more than money for the stu dents, and mentoring programs would help provide the extra stim ulus to retain teachers. “North Carolina made the move to that approach,” he said. “I hope the federal program would have that same feature. SEE FELLOWS, PAGE 5 Top News “Good people do th is because they are passionate and supportive of the mission of an organization like this.” NICK DIDOW, dedc interim executive director this,” Didow said. Perry and Suttenfield are sched ule to serve until 2006 and 2007, respectively. Foy, who was appoint ed by the council in February follow ing the downtown group’s hiccup with the state’s open meetings law, is expected to serve until 2006. The three other town appoin tees are set to serve until 2007. The seventh member, Betty Kenan, was appointed by the corpo ration’s members to a one-year term Schools spokeswoman to retire BY KATHRYN REED STAFF WRITER Kim Hoke, spokeswoman for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, has seen the district grow from nine total schools to nine elemen tary schools alone. And after 23 years with city schools, Hoke will retire at the end of this school year. “I still have trouble using the ‘R’ word,” she said. “I’m far too young.” In addition to serving as the dis trict’s spokeswoman, Hoke super vises the Volunteer and Partner Program, the elementary and middle after-school programs and the parent involvement office. She is also the receptionist in the district’s print shop and a liaison for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with pub lic schools and the community to improve education in the district. “Kim knows everything about the district,” said Robin Nucilli, publications assistant and secretary for city schools. “I’ll miss her guid ance. She’s just a great person.” Hoke said her widespread involve ment with the schools has been both rewarding and challenging. “The most positive thing has been being able to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of students and staff,” she said. that expires in June. Kenan said she is unsure whether she will be reap pointed. “I serve at the pleasure of the rest of the board,” said Kenan, who also owns the University Square shopping complex. Foy has said he will stay on the corporation only if he is needed. After he was appointed, he said he would not have to be so involved once the group matures. SEE DEDC, PAGE 5 Throughout the reading, Collins shifted from more light and humorous topics to those that were more somber, such as death, mortality and silence. “Building With Its Face Blown Off” explored the vulnerability of a room after a wall has been ripped away by a violent explosion. Collins prefaced the work by noting that it was the type of photo he’s seen too often in his lifetime. “The Country” focused on perspectives of city life and life in the country. Collins read about laying awake at night, imagining a mouse igniting a “strike anywhere” match while crawling through a pipe —and subse quently torching a country house. Collins, who has been praised for his accessible but universally affecting poetry, held the title of national poet laureate from SEE COLLINS, PAGE 5 w v j * Bl- | Ifl DTH/NICK CLARKE Kim Hoke, spokeswoman for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, talks on the phone in her office Tuesday. She will retire at the end of this school year. “By the same token, the most difficult times have been when we’ve had student or staff prob lems, deaths. Those are always wrenching.” Hoke came to the district in June 1982 from a position as the communications director for Granville County Schools. She said she has seen a number of changes in the community since then, the most notable of which WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2005 Congress approves new crop of leaders Executive branch fills outside posts BY KATHRYN BALES STAFF WRITER Two dozen student govern ment appointees were approved at Tuesday’s Student Congress meet ing with a monotonous chorus of “I think the ayes have it” from Speaker Luke Farley. Though Congress members expressed a few concerns, the executive branch’s 24 external appointments were approved with out opposition. “Each of the different positions has different qualifications, but we want people who will represent the student body in a really support ive way,” said Student Body Vice President Adrian Johnston. The appointments included posi tions on the Student Supreme Court, Student Fee Audit Committee and the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor. Johnston said the appointments mark Student Body President Seth Dearmin’s interest in grassroots student government. “We want to reach out and get different perspectives and not just have the same people in student government and on the commit tees as there always have been,” he said. “We wanted to really get away from that.” Many appointees said they will strive to supply these unique per spectives. “We can be the intermediate between the student body, the rural community and the Christian com munity, which I represent,” said Jennifer Reardon, who was appoint ed to serve on the chancellor’s advi sory committee. “I hope to address the hot topics that Carolina’s facing with new perspectives.” Although Johnston was respon sible for the initial search for and selection of appointees, his candi* dates first had to garner approval from a Congress committee and then from the entire body. The appointees are confident in their credentials. Kelly Short, a freshman appointed to both the associate justice post and to the student legal services board of directors, said she feels qualified for her positions. “I’ve always had a strong passion for law, and I carried student gov ernment positions in high school,” she said. “I have the responsibility, passion and dedication, and I will try to be fair and open-minded.” The new student government members have many goals for their positions and their interactions with Congress. “(The Student Supreme Court) will be putting restrictions on their power to make sure they are work ing within their rights and in the cases that come before us,” Short said. “We will be upholding the laws that they’ve passed.” Freshman Matt Hendren, appointed to the chancellor’s advi sory committee, said he aims to aid SEE APPOINTMENTS, PAGE 5 has been the growth in the school system the student population has more than doubled during her tenure —and the separation of the town from the University. “When I first came, the com munity was largely dominated by the University,” she said. “Spring Break was scheduled with the University’s. Now, the district SEE HOKE, PAGE 5 3
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