VOLUME 113, ISSUE 75
HURRICANE
RELIEF:
HOW TO HELP
The Red Cross seeks
volunteers and donations.
E-mail occhapnc@
intrcx.net for more info.
Supplies fundraiser
The DTH is collecting new
socks and underwear for
victims in areas affected
by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita; bring them to the
dropbox in our office, in
Union Suite 2409.
GROUPS MARCH ON D.C.
BY ERIN GIBSON WASHINGTON, D.C.
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
Anti-war protesters from
Orange County, N.C., Orange
County, Calif, and everywhere
in between gathered Saturday to
show their disapproval of the occu
pation of Iraq in a rally and march
on the White House.
Estimated to be at least 100,000
strong, protesters filled one section
of the lawn between the Washington
Monument and the White House
with crosses, the Star of David and
crescent moons to honor the more
than 1,900 soldiers who have died
since the beginning of the war.
Cindy Sheehan, the mother of
a soldier killed in Iraq, ended her
Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour in
the capital and spoke to the crowds of people
flooding the White House lawns.
She was joined on stage by Rev. Jesse
Jackson.
“We need a people’s movement to end this
war,” she said. “We have to do our jobs as
Americans.”
“We’ll be the checks and balances on this
out-of-control American government.”
Sheehan, who made headlines camping
outside of President Bush’s Texas ranch,
thanked everyone for supporting her and
joining together to demand change.
Protesters marched down Constitution
Avenue and up 15th Street in the hopes that
their message would be heard within the
White House walls. Bush was not in town
for the protest as he was monitoring the
development of Hurricane Rita.
Among the protesters were veterans of
U.S. wars, soldiers’ families and friends,
concerned citizens and some soldiers who
still are active in the military.
Protesters carried several items designed
to evoke feelings regarding the brutality
of the war, such as a rope accompanied
by pictures of each soldier who had died
hanging from it.
Several groups from North Carolina also
came to show their support.
Mike Higgle, a self-proclaimed conserva
tive, came to the rally with about 60 people
SEE PROTEST, PAGE 7
With new initiatives, open discourse needed
Welcome back to campus. I hope
that your summer was as relax
ing and stimulating as mine. I
am pleased to say that while con
struction activity is still very high,
September brought the opening of
the new recreation facility at Rams
Head Center (the dining hall opened
last spring) and the reopening of
Memorial Hall after three years of
renovations. Both of these facili
ties exist to serve the students, and
I hope that you will take advantage
of both of them.
What does the Chancellor of
the University do in the summer?
GUEST
COLUMNIST
James Moeser
describes some
of his new
projects.
online | daHytarheel.com
TRAINING DAY UNC'S ROTC army
cadets hold an exercise in Duke Forest.
RESPONDING TO THE CALL Groups
see several different ways to provide relief.
MULTIMEDIA See more images from
this weekend's protest in Washington, D.C.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
01te Satin (Bar Mrrl
Smaller Rita still smashes coast
OFFICIALS TO EVACUEES: STAY AWAY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEAUMONT, Texas Hurricane Rita
pummeled east Texas and the Louisiana
coast Saturday, battering communities with
floods and intense winds, but residents were
relieved that the once-dreaded storm proved
far less fierce and deadly than Katrina.
After the storm passed, authorities plead
ed with the roughly 3 million evacuees not to
hurry home too soon, fearing more chaos.
“Be patient, stay put,” said Texas Gov. Rick
Perry. “If you are in a safe place with food,
water, bedding, you are better remaining
!
tint iimiiVu
** I* i,V'
mf§* ** t - •- - ~ -r t %e* Jfl
WnmlW Jell
.JbH
nr -4k -j[n
DTH/ELLEN PENNIN6ER
About 100,000 protesters swarmed on the nation's Capitol building this weekend for an anti-war protest.
Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour leader Cindy Sheehan were among the attendees.
In a general way all of the campus
administrators, including myself,
continue the activities that occupy us
during the academic year - working
with faculty, staff and student repre
sentatives on a variety of issues. My
work speaking to donors, alumni,
community groups and civic leaders
also continues. Through our state
wide outreach initiative, Carolina
Connects, I travel to communities
throughout North Carolina to help
strengthen the University’s connec
tions to the people that we serve.
I also represent the University in
the national higher education arena,
iirtS I j)UjV 2
SPOOK-TACULAR
Paul Miller, better known as
DJ Spooky That Subliminal
Kid, put on his multimedia
remix of "Birth of a Nation"
on Friday at Memorial Hall.
www.dailytarheei.com
there for the time being.”
In any other hurricane season, Rita might
have seemed devastating. It knocked out
power for more than 1 million customers,
sparked fires across the hurricane zone and
swamped Louisiana shoreline towns with
a 15-foot storm surge that required daring
boat and helicopter rescues of hundreds of
people.
But the new storm came in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, with its 1,000-plus death
toll, cataclysmic flooding of New Orleans
and staggering destruction in Mississippi.
speaking on issues such as athletics,
accessibility and academic freedom.
This summer I had the chance to
address the University’s role in an
international arena.
In June my wife Susan and I led
a delegation from Chapel Hill to
Singapore and Bangkok. Our trip
had several purposes, one of which
was to participate in a meeting of
university presidents and chancel
lors representing the Association
of American Universities and our
counterparts from the Association
of Pacific Rim Universities who
came from Australia, China, India,
mi]
By contrast, Rita spared Houston, New
Orleans and other major cities a direct hit.
By Saturday evening, the only reported
death was in Mississippi, where one person
was killed by a tornado that spun off the
remains of the hurricane.
“The damage is not as serious as we had
expected it to be,” said R. David Paulison,
acting director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. “The evacuations
worked.”
Damage to the vital concentration of oil
refineries along the coast appeared relatively
light, although industry officials said it was
too early to assess whether there would be
an impact on oil prices. Valero Energy Corp.
Japan, Thailand and South America.
We were hosted by the National
University of Singapore, which was
celebrating its centennial.
While in Singapore, we met 25
rising Carolina sophomores and
were able to hear about their expe
riences studying abroad. We also
met with colleagues at the National
University of Singapore to discuss
our relationship and potential new
programs, including a proposed
undergraduate degree between the
two universities. Officials at the
SEE CHANCELLOR, PAGE 7
campus j page
PEEKING INSIDE
Protesters organize Saturday
to call attention to UNC's
use of rats in alcohol studies,
gathering on Franklin Street
dressed with rat makeup.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2005
said its 255,000-barrel-per-day Port Arthur
refinery sustained significant damage to two
cooling towers and a flare stack and would
need at least two weeks for repairs.
Rita roared ashore at 3:30 a.m. EDT
close to the Texas-Louisiana border as a
Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 120
mph and warnings of up to 25 inches of rain.
By evening, it was downgraded to a tropical
depression with top sustained winds of 35
mph as it moved slowly through east Texas
toward Shreveport, La
Before it weakened, Rita showed its
strength across a broad region between
SEE RITA, PAGE 7
Officials
look to
halt GPA
swelling
BY STEPHEN MOORE
STAFF WRITER
Officials at UNC-Chapel Hill have begun
discussions of a possible change in the way
student grade point averages are calcu
lated.
Continuing national concerns about
grade inflation prompted the Educational
Policy Committee, a subcommittee of the
UNC-CH Faculty Council, to look more
closely at ways of curbing the problem.
The committee is still in the early stag
es of a debate about whether any action
should be taken to correct a measurable
increase in the percentage of A’s awarded
at the University, said Peter Gordon, com
mittee chairman and psychology professor
at UNC-CH.
“We have begun to explore techniques
that give an alternative to the traditional
grade point average,” Gordon said.
One system being considered would
continue to use standard letter grades but
also would account for the difficulty of the
courses students select and the grading
practices of their professors, he said.
“I make the comparison, and it should be
a loose comparison, of it to the RPI that’s
used in college sports,” Gordon said, refer-
SEE INFLATION, PAGE 7
Candidates
dial into
blog scene
BY JAKE POTTER
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Some of the candidates vying for munici
pal office this year are taking a progressive
approach to winning over an evolving con
stituency they’re modernizing their com
munication methods.
The practice of blogging emerged from
the “What’s New” sections of various Web
TS*2OOS
TODAY:
HOW BLOGGING
CAN AFFECT
CAMPAIGNS
Three of the eight Chapel Hill Town Council
candidates keep blogs on their campaign
Web sites. One candidate each from both the
Carrboro mayoral and Board of Aldermen
races also maintains updated journals.
Orangepolitics.org, a local issues forum
maintained by Chapel Hill resident Ruby
Sinreich, also is playing an active role in this
fall’s municipal elections.
The blog, whose discussion threads
SEE BLOGGING, PAGE 7
sports | page 14
MAKING A STAND
The UNC football team earns
its first win of the season
against ACC rival N.C. State,
combining solid defense with
an impressive run attack.
sites and has trans
formed into a major
trend toward aver
age-citizen journalism
hundreds of sites
such as Live Journal
and Xanga boast easy
to-start blog hosting.
weather
j&f Ml.. PMT-Storms
H 86, L 66
index
police log 2
calendar 2
crossword 7
edit 10
sports 14