North Carolina Newspapers

    10
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005
BOARD EDITORIALS
ROLLING IN DOUGH
The expansion of the Carolina First campaign is exciting because
administrators have their priorities straight for spending the money.
It’s no secret that the University brought James
Moeser here from Nebraska because it thought
he could be a heck of a fundraiser.
Now, Moeser is delivering. The Carolina First
campaign, his major fundraising effort, is bringing
in the bling at a fantastic rate so fantastic, in fact,
that UNC is increasing the campaign’s goal from $l.B
billion to $2 billion.
That’s good news in and of itself. With the state
budget tightening each year, public universities in
the Tar Heel state need private contributions to fund
growth and expansion. And since donations appear
to be steady, increasing the goal and extending the
target date was a smart move.
Furthermore, whatever you think about Moeser
and the rest of the South Building officials, it’s hard
to deny that their work on Carolina First is a tribute
to their leadership. While many including this
page often disagree with the administration’s
fiscal decisions, they can’t be afraid to give credit
where credit’s due.
It’s good that our financial future is in the hands
of people who know what they’re doing.
IT’S TIME TO DERAIL
light rail is a good idea for the Triangle, but its current incarnation is an
impractical waste of taxpayers’ money that’s become difficult to defend.
This week, The (Raleigh) News & Observer
is publishing a series of articles that, for us,
highlight a basic truth: At the end of the day,
the light rail system planned for the Triangle is just
a colossal waste of money.
It’s not that the idea of light rail in the Triangle
is a bad one. The urban sprawl and environmental
impacts of the area’s development merit a strong pub
lic response, including smarter growth, better public
transit and an increased focus on open space.
But with a $759 million price tag that keeps on
rising, the current light rail system just isn’t worth it.
Even the Triangle TYansit Authority, the organization
that would be administering the system, estimates
that a paltry 14,000 riders would immediately use
the alternative to driving.
To be fair, the system started out sounding good.
For a mere SIOO million, a mass transit rail system
was to link Orange, Durham and Wake counties and
would be up and running by the year 2000.
Alas, it was simply not to be.
Years behind schedule and facing costs seven times
the original estimate, the light rail’s supporters can’t
even predict that it will make a significant dent in
SHOW A LITTLE LOVE
As the tuition task force winds down with its work, it’s important for
our trustees to do what they did last year and keep that work in mind.
It seems that every year, the idea of tuition talks
makes everyone tense and gear up for battle.
But deciding who has to pay more doesn’t have
to be as ugly as it has been if the Board of Trustees
listens to the campus’s tuition task force as much as
it did last year.
The task force —a group of three students, three
faculty and three administrators is a valuable
resource charged with researching the University’s
needs. It consistently does a good job of determining
what UNC needs and how we should get it.
But the task force isn’t worth a dime if the men
and women who direct our tuition requests to the
UNC-system Board of Governors don’t listen.
Last year, things seemed to go well. Trustees sent
out a recommendation of a $950 out-of-state tuition
increase and a S2OO hike for in-staters numbers
that were close to the task force’s recommendations,
though they put more of a burden on nonresidents
than the task force would have liked.
Debates in the 2003-04 academic year turned
vicious, however, when the trustees proposed a
$1,500, one-year hike for nonresidents after the
task force recommended S9OO during a three-year
EDITOR'S NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel editorial board and were reached after open debate. The
board consists of four board members, the associate opinion editor, the opinion editor and the DTH editor. The 2005-06 DTH editor decided
not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials. Address concerns to Public Editor Elliott Dube at dubee@email.unc.edu.
READERS’ FORUM
DTH should show support
for democracy, not disdain
TO THE EDITOR:
Democracy on this campus is
under attack.
By suggesting the student body
of this great university is unedu
cated, The Daily Tar Heel edito
rial board has insulted students
and our very system of self-gover
nance. If students are not informed
enough on stipends, how can they
vote for their own representatives?
And who determines how educated
students are?
If there is concern that stu
dents are uninformed about the
issue, the answer is not to deny
them the right to vote, but to
inform them.
The petition and referendum do
not propose to end stipends, but to
give students a choice. In fact, one
of us is for stipends and the other
against, but we believe the matter
is best settled by our constituents.
Tell your representatives in
Student Congress not to treat
you like children. Go to http://
congress.unc.edu. You put your
trust in us in the last election; now
we’re putting our trust in you.
Rep. Caroline Spencer
Student Congress
Rep. Dustin Ingalls
Student Congress
But the best part about the higher goal for the
campaign is that S7O million will fund scholarships
and SIOO million will go toward faculty support
two of the most pressing needs on a campus that
isn’t lacking for them.
In fact, we would like to see all the money go to
scholarship programs such as the Carolina Covenant
and to ensuring that faculty get better pay. An extra
S3O million toward either of those ends would go a
heck of a long way, especially considering that we
hike tuition annually in part to deal with the issue
of low faculty salaries.
No, it’s not that the Carolina First campaign is
just about funding scholarships and faculty; it is
a campaign to fund all aspects of the University.
Strengthening our endowment and making capi
tal improvements should remain priorities, as they
should for any serious institution.
But if the goal is to be boosted, as it will be, those
additional donations should target our most obvious
and pressing needs: students and faculty.
Those are people who alumni and students alike
can agree are worthy of contributions.
rush-hour traffic. Not only that, but potential stops at
key places such as Duke Medical Center and Raleigh-
Durham International Airport won’t be included,
despite the huge increase in funds. Even Chapel Hill
will be skipped in the project’s first phase.
And now the federal government understandably
wants answers. You see, TTA is five years behind
schedule, and it hasn’t actually broken any ground.
In addition, there are now tougher standards on the
cost-effectiveness of transportation projects that
can receive federal funds. A rating of “medium” cost
effectiveness is needed to qualify; under the old
guidelines, the standard was “medium-low.”
U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat whose district
includes Chapel Hill, says the light rail should get an
exemption —but that smells a lot like pork-barrel
waste. Let’s just face the fact that the rail should be
scrapped while it’s only $43 million in the hole.
It’s a shame, really, because a light rail system isn’t
a bad idea for the Triangle. But right now, there’s no
demand for its services especially in a parking-rich
area like ours. There’s no end to the spending. And
there’s no self-control among its biggest supporters.
The rail, at least for now, has got to go.
period. Many thought the trustees simply had crafted
their own plan with little consultation of any other
parties, and those people really didn’t have a good
reason to think otherwise.
And it’s not as if things were peachy keen last year.
The trustees’ tuition proposal was on solid ground,
but an llth-hour hike in the athletic fee came amid
the protests of both the student fee audit committee
and the chancellor’s committee on student fees.
Obviously, the trustees are more than willing
to go their own way. So we think this message is
still important: Please continue to pay attention to
the tuition task force. No one realistically expects
a freeze on tuition, but inclusion can help stem
resentment and anger.
And if trustees prove they can’t listen, the school
should make them. Require the task force to come
up with a set number of recommendations that could
meet the needs of the University, and inform the BOT
that it must pick one.
Until that time comes, we ask the trustees one
thing: Either love it or leave it. Don’t waste anyone’s
time or money if you aren’t going to take the task
force seriously.
Bowles' new appointment
raises some hard questions
TO THE EDITOR:
As the proud father of a daugh
ter who is about to apply to the
University this fall, I have a keen
interest in the affairs of UNC. For
the past few weeks, I have detected
a sickening stench emanating from
Chapel Hill.
Our University has selected a
rich, white man with no higher
education background and with a
record of financial impropriety as
its incoming president. My opinion
is that the scenario is both coward
ly and disappointing.
Immediately, the hero-worship
ping begins at the newspapers.
Interestingly, not one mention
of Bowles’ unethical financial
behavior while a general partner
at Forstmann Little is ever men
tioned, nor is his close relationship
with Bill Clinton ever reviewed at
least not in the Charlotte Observer.
A standard joke in Connecticut is
that Erskine Bowles “Enronized”
their state.
Molly Broad, C.D. Spangler and
Bill Friday maintained wonderfully
high ethical standards for UNC. I
am sorry to see those standards
have fallen so far so fast.
John Kemp
Class of’74
Opinion
DTH editorial board ignored
the nobility of SAW's cause
TO THE EDITOR:
I am not a member of Student
Action with Workers because I do
not necessarily support all that
they stand for. For example, I am
not a huge fan of unions.
I do, however, support the right of
UNC dining workers to unionize. Are
you too busy to see that people barely
make it above the poverty line and
that the threat of being fired looms
over their heads every day?
This whole team cleaning busi
ness is completely degrading to the
housekeepers. Taking workers out of
their familiar groupings and thrust
ing them into anew surrounding
while commanding them to com
plete tasks in a definitive amount of
time is indecent. Each housekeeper
has a specific task that must be done
in a specific amount of time.
At the chancellor’s open house,
SAW did propose “Team Office
Work” to the administration.
Chancellor Moeser did not like that
too much. It seemed efficient to me.
Oh, wait was it insulting?
SAW does not have much of a
following. But it will put out news
letters to inform the masses soon
enough. Protests create change.
flan Keene
Senior
Communications
FROM THE DAY’S NEWS
Its a tribute to leadership on campus , to the great volunteer
leaders that we have, the wonderful product that we have”
MATT KUPEC, vice chancellor for university advancement, on the Carolina first campaign
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Bi picked +ke LesF
COMMENTARY
Efforts against superprecinct
only serve to silence students
Jesse Helms never got the
chance to put up a fence
around Chapel Hill, but his
Republican successors in the state
have shown that they are quite
adept at containing the liberal
UNC student vote.
They’ve set back student
efforts to simplify voting on
campus and managed to trum
pet their xenophobia for voters
back home all in a stroke that
would make Senator ‘No’ proud.
Credit goes to William
Knight, a Republican member
of the Orange County Board of
Elections.
Knight cited the lack of a
mandate for voter identification
as his reason for voting against
the “superprecinct” measure,
which would have allowed stu
dents to vote at sites such as the
Morehead Planetarium & Science
Center on Election Day.
His one dissenting vote on
the three-person elections board
was enough to squash the mea
sure, which needed a unanimous
vote.
He also has the support of
N.C. Sen. Andrew Brock, R-
Davie, who told The Daily Tar
Heel that identification is a criti
cal part of life.
“It should be mandatory,”
Brock said. “You can’t get on a
plane, train or motor machine
without identification.”
Plains, trains and automobiles,
eh?
Steve Martin and John Candy
make a great duo in that movie.
But I don’t see what motor vehicles
have to do with voting reform,
unless Brock sees voting reform as
the next battlefield in the war on
terrorism.
Until somebody demonstrates
a need for voters to have a solid
form of identification at the polls,
I don’t see a reason to stop people
from casting a ballot just because
they don’t have cars or driver’s
licenses.
Focus on African poverty
was lost at Live 8 concert
TO THE EDITOR:
Daily Tar Heel staff writer Beth
Dozier must have attended a differ
ent Live 8 UNC concert than I did,
because what I saw was a complete
disaster.
To say that this concert was
a complete success is a severe
overstatement. When the crowd
wasn’t whooping and hollering for
the performers, it was suffering
through half-heard speeches about
statistics. The speakers were read
ing directly off papers, and it’s hard
to be inspired by monotone.
The thing that struck me about
the concert the most was the lack
of pictures and video of actual
suffering in Africa. How can you
convey the magnitude of the suf
fering and pain these people face
with statistics and words?
Live 8 at the University was a
way for certain individuals to pat
themselves on the back for a job
well done without actually doing
anything.
Way to go, guys; you did it.
You had a free concert to pro
mote the end of poverty in Africa,
and all you promoted was Edwin
McCain’s new album.
Tara Whittington
Sophomore
Political Science
m
JEFF KIM
NO LONGER A VILLAGE
Should the fact that you’re
poor also make you ineligible to
vote?
It makes Knight’s dissent
just plain infuriating. The pro
posal would have made voting
much easier for students, who
are divided into a ridiculously
confusing map of six different
precincts.
Knight’s action also stops the
wheels of motion on a politi
cally intelligent proposal that was
years in the malring and that had
involved several student body
presidents.
The way it stands right now,
a voter in Craige Residence Hall
has to go to a polling place a
long way from the site required
for the voters registered in
Carmichael Residence Hall
—and both of the polling sites
are off campus.
It’s almost as if the system
were designed to keep students
from voting at all.
Students can vote at the
Morehead Planetarium during
early voting, but on Election Day,
they can’t. And so many of them
stay home shutting students
out of the local political scene.
Knight wants to delay a
reform of that system for an ID
provision?
(Don’t get me wrong. I’d like
to go to Davie County and cast 10
votes for Andrew Brock just as
much as anyone else. But those
like me are probably pretty few in
number.)
Requiring voter identification
sounds to me like double-speak
for keeping undocumented
Speak Out
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Chapel Hill, N.C., 27515. All letters also will appear in our blogs section.
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By Evann Strathern, evann@email.unc.edu
Hispanics out of the polls.
It’s also an artificial problem
created by Republicans to screw
student voters who tend to be
Democrats.
First, what about illegal
immigrants? Will they actually;
vote illegally?
I don’t have direct evidence
either way, but I’m pretty sure
the Board of Elections could
easily catch a double vote.
So I’m compelled to believe
that illegal immigrants wouldn't
take such a risk at a time when
they’re afraid to release any
information about themselves
for fear of deportation.
A recent report, for instance,
by researchers at the Wake Forest
University School of Medicine
showed that 60 percent of Latino
poultry workers had suffered
work-related injuries in the past
month, yet only 9-4 percent of
poultry workers reported injuries.
These workers sometimes
made the same cutting motion as
many as 40,000 times a day. Asa
result, 45 percent of those work
ers had injuries to their hands or
arms.
Another 36 percent had neck
or back injuries from tripping
and falling on floors littered
with water, fat and chicken
excrement.
They’re letting these injuries
go by unreported, yet we’re con
cerned that they might cast an
illegal ballot?
Give me a break.
Republicans are running a
completely unnecessEiry political
circus in Chapel Hill.
The off chance of an illegal vote
is no reason to fence in UNC’s
student voters.
In case you haven’t noticed,
we’ve got already got a zoo in
Asheboro.
Contact Jeff Kim,
a senior economics major,
atjongdae@email.unc.edu.
www.dailytarheel.com
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