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% Ba% sar MM CAMPUS BRIEFS Government investigates UNC Hospitals controversy The federal government is reviewing whether UNC Hospitals violated federal law by refusing care to a toddler from rural Bladen County whose fingertip eventually had to be amputated. In March, Claudine Lee rushed her 20-month-old son, Marcus, to Bladen County Hospital after the boy’s finger had been crushed in a door. The tip of his right pinkie was hanging by a flap of skin. The emergency physician, Dr. Vicki Lanier, said the boy needed care at a larger hospital with surgeons who could repair it. Lanier tried UNC Hospitals, but a doctor there refused to see the child. She tried Duke University’s medical center, where a doctor agreed to treat Marcus after arguing that UNC should have. A Duke surgeon stitched Marcus’s finger back together more than seven hours after the accident, but the tissue died and his fingertip was removed. UNC Hospitals turned down Lanier’s transfer request because she had said the child was a pos sible candidate for reimplantation and the medical center doesn’t do such procedures, said Karen McCall, spokeswoman for UNC Hospitals’ parent, UNC Health Care. Reimplantation involves recon necting nerves and repairing blood vessels and muscle. State regulators who investi gated Marcus’ care recommended that the federal government find UNC in violation of the federal emergency care law. A decision by federal regulators could take months or years. UNC could be fined as much as $50,000 and threatened with the loss of its Medicare contract. In the future, McCall said, UNC will accept transfer requests even if there is debate about whether UNC is the best place for the patient to receive care. Moeser to serve on newly established advisory board Chancellor James Moeser has been selected to serve on a National Security Higher Education Advisory Board cre ated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The creation of the board was announced Thursday and is designed to foster outreach and promote understanding between higher education institutions and the FBI. Presidents and chancellors from at least 15 prominent universities will assist in the development of research, degree programs, course work, internships, opportuni ties for graduates and consulting opportunities for faculty relating to national security. Law school to host panel for Constitution Day celebration The UNC School of Law will host a panel discussion today to help the University community celebrate Constitution Day. The discussion, “Confirming Justice: The Supreme Court Confirmation Process,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Law School Rotunda on Ridge Road. All faculty, staff and students are welcome. CITY BRIEFS Local school modla specialist wins career-enrichment grant Sonya Terry, media specialist at Pathways Elementary School, has won a 2005-06 LSTA Career Enrichment Grant for $948 to attend the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) Conference, which takes place Oct. 5 to Oct. 9 in Pittsburgh. Career Enrichment Grants is a statewide program to aid North Carolina library staff by funding participation in selected profes sional conferences. Grant funds will be awarded to support library staff attendance at eleven other conferences in 2005-06. Elementary school begins weather-watching project Students from Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and the Orange County HAM radio club raised a HAM radio tower on the school roof Saturday to begin a weather observation project. Meg Millard, a fourth and fifth grade teacher at the school, was one of 50 teachers across the country to win a SIO,OOO Toyota TAPESTRY Grant in February 2005. Students will observe and mea sure local weather patterns at the school, then use the HAM radio to compare their findings to world wide patterns. From staff and wire reports. Campus green with energy Group eyes garden, pool BY ERIN ZUREICK STAFF WRITER With many successful projects under their belt, UNC students are continuing to push for more green energy resources on campus. Members of UNC’s Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee —a group devoted to promoting environmentally friendly energy on campus said they currently are exploring several project ideas. One of RESPC’s proposed under takings is the installation of solar panels to heat Kessing Outdoor Pool located between Woollen Gymnasium and Carmichael Residence Hall. The addition of a solar hot water system would extend the use of the ~ | DTH/STEVE ANDRAWES Vance Riggsbee stands in front of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools bus he drives every morning and afternoon. A 30-year veteran of the school system, Riggsbee was named the CHCCS employee of the month for September. Officials noted his values in giving the distinction. BEHIND THE WHEEL BY ANTONIO VELARDE STAFF WRITER Many students at Chapel Hill High School ride the bus home after class at 17, Vance Riggsbee, began driving a school bus. At $1.60 an hour, it was a good job for a student, getting Riggsbee to and from school and paying him a decent wage to boot. Riggsbee has driven for more than 30 years for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, maintaining a perfect record; earlier this month he was named the district’s employee of the month. “This is the culmination of a lot of things” said assistant superintendent for support services Steve Scroggs, who presented the honor to Riggsbee at the Sept. 1 city schools board of education meeting. Riggsbee, he said, “has got the charm and values that we’re trying to teach our kids.” Early mornings and late afternoons of yel low buses, screaming children and squeak ing brakes might seem like a lot for one per son to take. But for Riggsbee, 50, it’s been a 32-year labor of love. “You know, I don’t even see a hard part about it,” he said. Every day Riggsbee makes the rounds of Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools, Phillips Middle School and Rashids Student embraces Jordanian culture BY SAM DOLBEE CONTRIBUTING WRITER I hate being asked about my summer. Not because I don’t want to talk about it. I could talk about it for hours. But people seem to expect me to describe in one word the six weeks I spent studying abroad in Amman, Jordan’s capi tal, as part of a UNC Summer Abroad pro gram. It’s Travel Diaries A five-part series on travel complimenting education T < Today: Amman, Jordan Tomorrow: Nairobi, Kenya !*]■■ iJMft impossible to do, but I have 22 inches of text, so here goes: A giant ‘No Smoking’ sign naturally adjacent to a picture of the benevolent King Abdullah II glared at me as I exited the plane after a 12 hour flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport. At exactly that point, most of the passengers lit up. My lesson in Jordanian regard for signs finished, I moved onto Jordanian traffic. That night, our group decided to look for a restaurant around our apartment complex. Enter the Jordanian traffic system. With crosswalks virtually nonexistent, there we were, 14 severely cul- Top News pool into the cooler autumn months, said Cindy Pollock Shea, UNC’s sus tainability coalition coordinator. The pool now is open for rec reational use from mid-May until mid-September. Shea said the new system would keep the facility open from spring break until October. “Kessing is so appealing because it would provide a real new ame nity for students,” she said. “Most UNC students only get to use it for a few weeks a year.” Shea said she hopes the system will provoke dialogue about green energy. “(It’s) right smack dab in the middle of campus, where a lot of people will see it,” she said. “We’re hoping there will be a lot of conver sation about the technology.” Shea said that while the project still is in the planning stages, the system might be up and running as soon as summer 2006. Elementary School with the same dedication that has gotten him a safe driver commenda tion every year he has been on the job. “I’m not concerned about me,” he said. “I’m concerned about other people around me.” He’s learned the names of all the elemen tary school kids on his route, and many of them have come to adore him. Once, he recalled, a set of triplets on one of his routes were getting on his bus to go home one day and were surprised to see a substitute behind the wheel instead of Riggsbee. Riggsbee, who had taken the day off, said he later found out from their parents that they refused to get on the bus. “They just love you to death,” he said. “They really appreciate it, you know.” Most of all, though, Riggsbee has been a constant presence in the school district he once attended, growing up there and then watching it grow throughout three decades. Mary Lin Truelove, director of transpor tation for the school district, said many of his co-workers have come to admire him. “They love him,” she said. “They look up to him.” After graduating in 1975 from Chapel Hill High, Riggsbee took a year off from driving the bus to work at the Carolina Inn. A few years later, Riggsbee met his future Sophomore Sam Dolbee spent his summer in Jordan taking class and exploring. ture shocked UNC students fran tically Frogger-ing across four lanes of speeding traffic as amused Jordanians calmly crossed the street, calculating perfectly the speed and stopping distance for each whizzing car. Excited and intrigued, I slept soundly that night. Well, that is, at least until the 4 a.m. call to prayer —one of five each day. Appropriately, the morning call to prayer includes an addendum to the usual call: “Prayer is better than sleep.” Observing our weary eyes the next morning, our tour guide predicted that we would soon sleep through the morning call. He was right. Adjusting to morn ing prayer mirrored my gradual acclimation to Jordanian society. “Asif” and “shukran,” Arabic for “I’m sorry” and “thank you,” became bedrocks of everyone’s vocabulary. The predominance of Arabic so permeated my existence that I found myself muttering “asalaam Senior Jessica Potter, a member of the committee, said RESPC also might support a particular aspect of the N.C. Botanical Garden’s pro posed visitor’s education center. The center will adhere to stan dards promoted by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating system, Shea said. The system is a voluntary national standard for developing sustainable buildings. Shea said the center is still in the planning stages and likely won’t be completed for a few years. Members of RESPC also have pushed for green energy in campus buildings like Morrison Residence Hall. A solar hot water system will be in place following the building’s renovation. The committee was created in April 2003 after UNC students approved a $4 per semester increase in student fees to support a renew wife, Lewella, and eventually had three chil dren with her: Myranda, 24; Cassandra, 22; and Annie, 19. He continued working for the district and the Carolina Inn until the 19905. Riggsbee later got a job at the Chapel Hill Tire Car Care Center on West Franklin Street, all the while continuing his morning and afternoon routes. In those years, Riggsbee said, he saw the kids become a little less disciplined though they’re definitely much smarter now. “I think even the younger kids are smarter than they used to be,” he said. After spending so many years driving children around, dealing with the occasion al rabble-rouser, one might wonder why Riggsbee has stuck with the job so long. Ttuelove said she can’t imagine Riggsbee retiring. “He’s not the kind of guy I see in a retiring role,” she said. “If he retired, he’d probably come back and drive a bus.” Riggsbee, humbly, seemed to shrug off the question. “I really don’t know why,” he said. “I’m just paying the bills.” Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu. . * . ’ £Bllsl h mm \ -i- COURTESY OF SAM DOLBEE Jordanians look out onto the city of Jerash, north of Amman, where Sam Dolbee studied Arab history through the UNC Study Abroad program. alekum” to a bewildered customs officer at JFK when I returned. Once past these superficialities, the real learning and appreciation of Jordanian culture began. Entering the program, I tried to maintain an open mind, void ofbias. But I quickly realized the futility of my efforts: molded for 19 years by American culture and media, what ever semblance of global citizenship MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2005 able energy campaign on campus. The fee will fund at least part of all the RESPC construction projects. Potter said the projects can help set an example for other schools and demonstrate that sustainable energy projects are practical investments. “I think Chapel Hill is a land mark university for a lot of things in research, especially in green energy,” she said. “We’re trying to show that green energy is feasible." Graduate student Cameron Morgan, a member of the commit tee, said student efforts demon strate the impact that can be made on college campuses. “It’s very significant that stu dents are becoming so involved in these projects,” he said. “(It) shows that they can be at the forefront of issues like renewable energy.” Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu. I naively thought I possessed was debunked in Amman. Nothing could have prepared me for the relentless hospitality I received. Walking past the rows of pirated videos, CDs, the open air restaurants and shops, strangers offered me Arabic language lessons and invited me to tea. Imagine that SEE JORDAN, PAGE 5 Locals query council hopefuls BY TED STRONG CITY EDITOR Most of the time, Chapel Hill Town Council means fluorescent lights, speeches into microphones and people in suits and ties. Saturday, it meant drinking soft drinks in a shady yard on a quiet street on the south side of town. Morgan Creek neighborhood held a forum Saturday for the eight can didates vying for four avail- 1 I MUNICIPAL Selections 35*2005 able seats on the council as well as the two participants in the mayoral election. Council candidate Walker Rutherfurd and mayoral contender Kevin Wolff did not attend. Candidates divided their time at the forum between talking with the 30 or so residents in attendance and giving three-minute speeches. The speeches tended to hit the same major themes of Carolina North the University’s proposed satellite campus off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the Horace Williams Tract —and over all town growth. Mayor Kevin Foy said town government has approached the issue of area development with caution. “Anyone that wants to develop here needs to add to the value, needs to make that place better,” he said. Jason Baker, a sophomore politi cal science major running for the council, said that the key to a suc cessful Carolina North will be ami cable town-gown relations. Robin Cutson, a council chal lenger, attacked the body’s recent record on development. “We’re going to make this town, of Chapel Hill into a city,” she said. “They look at this kind of neigh borhood where you cohabitate with nature, with hawks and owls and raccoons, and they want to put three houses where there was for merly one,” she added. Challenger Laurin Easthom talk ed about her long record of service on behalf of neighborhoods and her concern about traffic, and how those SEE MORGAN CREEK, PAGE 5 Flurry of resolutions follow case Pledge reactions blur jurisdiction BY AMY EAGLEBURGER STAFF WRITER More than a few members of Congress were unhappy with a California federal judge’s ruling last week that the recitation of the pledge of allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling sparked the intro duction of new resolutions into both chambers of Congress and brought special relevance to The Pledge Protection Act of 2005, introduced earlier this year. Senate President Pro Tern Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, co-sponsored both a reaction resolution and the earlier Pledge Protection Act. “He believes that the phrase, ‘under God,’ is a part of our American tradition,” said Courtney Boone, press secretary for Stevens. What the legislation means for the future of the pledge and the case is unclear. One of the bills introduced in response to the ruling proposes a constitutional amendment protecting the pledge. Others simply state the Senate’s formal support of the pledge. The Pledge Protection Act is a little different. The act seeks to take away court jurisdiction specifically on matters related to the recitation of the pledge. The idea of a legislature being able to limit court jurisdiction on certain topics is not anew one, but it is creating a buzz among legal circles, said Eric Muller, a professor in the UNC School jof Law. “There is extreme scholarly debate on whether that is possible,” he said. “There really is no judicial resolution of that question.” Congress has never made an official move to strip the judiciary of any power. SEE PLEDGE, PAGE 5 3
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