VOLUME 113, ISSUE 71
THE WILL TO CONTINUE
BY KATIE HOFFMANN
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Hurricane Katrina swept
away thousands of homes,
erasing years of memories
in a matter of days.
And it will take years to rebuild
them.
Though organizations around the
country have gathered to provide
relief for the affected areas, people
still need more help
to rebuild their lives.
Recognizing this
need for long-term
relief, a group of UNC
students formed the
Extended Katrina
Relief Committee.
The group is rais
ing money to revital
ize one community
in the area affected
by the hurricane.
E
Elliott
Grudem spoke
Monday of the
need for sus
tained relief.
They plan to travel to the location
during Thanksgiving.
“The whole idea is to help one com
munity where we can make a definite,
concrete impact,” said sophomore
Mary Small, committee chairwoman.
SEE ONGOING, PAGE 4
DTH/VAL TENYOTKIN
Juniors Aikta Wahi (left), David Watkins (center), and Teresa Lee eat in
Ramshead Dining Hall. Officials hope to attract more interest to the hall.
Fees group bolts out of gate
BY KATHERINE HOLLANDER
STAFF WRITER
The student fee audit commit
tee dove right into the tangled
web of student fees in its first
meeting of the semester Monday
night.
The committee will root
through several different pro
posals for the 2006-07 academic
year and will present its recom
mendations to the Chancellor’s
Committee on Student Fees later
this semester.
In its first action, the commit
tee, led by Daneen Furr, student
Gossip popular, according to buzz
BY LEAH KONEN
STAFF WRITER
Students seem to be doing it
everywhere in the middle of the
Pit, the back of the library or at a
crowded fraternity party.
Gossip is an almost unavoidable
aspect of social interaction.
“I don’t think it’s a very nice thing
to talk about people behind their
backs,” junior Stephanie Atkinson
says. “But everyone does it.”
For years, getting the skinny has
been tainted by negative connota
tions, but the practice has been
Online I dailytarheel.com
LINING UP THE PIECES Vote Carolina
prepares efforts for this year's elections
GET ME MORE Town Council doesn't
act on UNC plan to expand power plant
RETURNING THE GIFTED County
schools explore options for gifted programs
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
dlu' Saila dar Mrrl
—
DTH/STEVE ANDRAWES
Nicole Duggins (left) and Robyn Riffe, two
employees at Carrboro Elementary School,
place donations made by students and their
families as part of the Coins for Caring campaign to
raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief in empty
Daneen Furr
led the stu
dent fee audit
committee in
launching into
work on this
year's proposals.
body treasurer, approved a pro
posal that will increase the edu
cation fee by $4.
The fee supports hundreds
of sub-fees, including computer
labs, curriculum fees, hardware
and software.
brought to academia by recent
research that shows gossip plays an
important role in social interaction.
Long-term studies on subjects
ranging from U.S. middle-school
children to their Pacific Islander
counterparts show that one-fifth
to two-thirds of daily conversation
is devoted to gossip regardless of
the demographic.
Mitchell Prinstein, a UNC pro
fessor of psychology, says gossip is
used as a tool for people, especially
during the adolescent years, to find
a sense of self based on the opin
CampUS | page 2
AN OPENING OF SORTS
Despite having housed UNC
students since August,
the new Baity Hill apartments
were officially opened by
administrators Monday.
www.daiiytarheel.com
RINGING IN THE EFFORT
An unbalanced meal plan
BY KATHRYN BALES
STAFF WRITER
Michelle Earp found herself lost
in Lenoir Dining Hall’s version of
musical chairs Wednesday.
After waiting in line for 20 min
utes, she was forced to eat lunch
outside.
“It’s stressful,” said Earp, a soph
omore English major. “You have to
fight for a table. It’s ridiculous.”
Students purchased 5,500 meal
plans this year, up 350 from last
year, said Ira Simon, director of food
and vending services.
“We believe a lot of it has to
Barron Matherly, assistant
provost for finance, said the
education fee could have easily
been proposed for a S3O to S4O
increase, but tuition increases
have kept the finance department
from requesting the hike.
“When we get off the tuition
rise bandwagon, we’ll raise
our proposal,” Matherly said.
“(Provost Robert Shelton) feels
tuition is too high to hit students
with higher fees.”
He said the $4 increase will
SEE FEES, PAGE 4
ions of their peers.
Research also suggests that gos
sip can be used as a way of coping
with emotional distress instead of
as a means of harming someone,
says Prinstein, who teaches a peer
relations course.
For Michael Reklis, gossip is
amusing because it’s a way to ana
lyze other people’s faults.
“That’s why people like it,” says
Reklis, a junior communication
studies major.
SEE GOSSIP, PAGE 4
ipF IM
water jugs Monday. The campagin ran from Sept.
2 through last Friday, but all donations, which will
be given to the American Red Cross, are still being
counted. For the full story on all county schools’ efforts
in raising relief money, visit www.dailytarheel.com.
do with the fact that we opened
Ramshead (Dining Hall) in the
spring,” he said.
The new students, however, are
not making the mid-day transit to
the new center.
So far this year, there are about
2,300 students eating lunch at Top
of Lenoir and about 800 eating at
Ramshead, Simon said. The num
bers reverse at dinner, when 1,300
to 1,500 students swipe their UNC
One Cards at Top of Lenoir and
2,000 to 2,200 go to Ramshead.
“They do balance themselves a lit
tle bit,” Simon said, “We’re just trying
UNC to respond
to investigations
CMS report to determine funding
BY BRIAN HUDSON
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
A federal investigation has found
UNC Hospitals at fault for refusing
to care for a patient in March.
Hospital officials received a let
ter Monday afternoon from the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services’ regional office in Atlanta
citing UNC for failing “to provide
transfer from another hospital in
an emergency condition.”
The investigation began in
March when Claudine Lee went to
a small hospital in Bladen County
seeking emergency care for her
son, whose finger had been par
tially detached.
The emergency staff was ill
equipped to handle the compli
cated reimplantation procedure,
and a physician contacted UNC
Hospitals.
When the physician called, UNC
Hospitals officials redirected Lee to
Duke University Hospitals because
they said they also could not reat
tach the fingertip.
The delay in care ultimately
resulted in the loss of the child’s
national | page 7
A GOOD TALKING TO
U.S. Rep. David Price spoke
to the Young Democrats on
Monday about a laundry list
of complaints he has with the
current administration.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
to encourage it a little bit more.”
Officials are doing all they can to
hype up the new mid-campus facili
ties.
With 250 seats in the Top of
Lenoir and 650 seats in Ramshead,
there is enough room for students
to eat comfortably and fairly quickly,
Simon said.
“It’s great to have business, but
if you have too much business cus
tomers become dissatisfied,” he said.
“Our goal is to balance the number
of students at meal times so that
SEE MEALS, PAGE 4
fingertip.
“The physician we were talking
to didn’t understand,” said Karen
McCall, vice president for com
munications for UNC Health Care.
“She thought we were turning her
down. We didn’t communicate
with her well.”
The letter from CMS said hos
pital officials must reply within 10
days with a plan to rectify its inef
ficiencies, or it could lose its fed
eral funding for both Medicare and
Medicaid.
Though the threat of termina
tion is real, it is rare, CMS officials
say.
“We’re not in the business to
exclude providers from the pro
gram,” said Lee Millman, director
of communications for the Atlanta
regional office. “So we work with
the facilities to get back in com
pliance. ... What’s important is
patients’ health and safety.”
CMS has conducted about 400
investigations each year for the past
12 years, and only one program has
SEE INVESTIGATION, PAGE 4
city I page 9
A RESTING PLACE
After scouting locations for
months, the N.C. Children's
Hospital found a temporary
home at Laughing Turtle
Home on Franklin Street.
HURRICANE
KATRINA:
THE AFTERMATH
HOWTO HELP
The Red Cross
seeks volunteers and
donations. E-mail
occhapnc@intrex.net
for more info.
The Center for
Public Service
has full listings of
ways to help online at
www.unc.edu/cps
FUNDRAISERS
Supplies fundraiser
The DTH will be in
the Pit from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. collecting new
socks and underwear;
We also have a drop
off box in Union Suite
2409, to collect sup
plies for areas in need.
We will continue until
the end of the month
before mailing them to
local relief chapters
LOCAL EVENTS
Give blood
Student Union Board
and the Red Cross will
hold a blood drive,
all day, Hooker
Center Atrium
Collection drive
St. Thomas More and
the Newman Center
are accepting food and
clothing donations.
11 a.m.-3 p.m., St.
Thomas; 9 a.m.-
5p.m., Carolina Inn
Counseling
CAPS continues to
offer psychological ser
vices to all students.
9 a.m.-5 p.m.,
Student Health
Ongoing effort
The School of Social
Work will continue its
efforts to collect needed
supplies all week,
all day,
301 Pittsboro St.
INSIDE TODAY
A needed break
Government officials
announce a plan to relax
health costs for Katrina
victims Page 7
No taxes
Bush promises to hold
the tax rate even as
relief spending
increases Page 10
W
MULTIMEDIA
For a photo slideshow of
the DTH's coverage from
Louisiana and Mississippi
visit dailytarheel.com
weather
■ifaTh. T-Storms
H 94, L 74
index
police log 2
calendar 2
crossword 9
sports 15
edit 16