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©lp Sattg ©ar HM CORRECTION Due to an editing error, Wednesday’s page six headline, “Nobel Prize winner recants pro fessional trek,” is incorrect. Jocelyn Bell Burnell did not win a Nobel Prize; she contributed to the work of her adviser who received the honor. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error. CITY BRIEFS Suspects in Hillsborough armed robberies caught After a pursuit, the Orange County Sheriff’s department pulled over a suspect vehicle and detained three individuals around 11 p.m. Wednesday. The individuals were wanted in connection with two armed robberies earlier in the night in Hillsborough. No more information was avail able as of press time. Independent Weekly issues its candidate endorsements In the race for Chapel Hill Town Council, the Independent Weekly picked Mark Kleinschmidt, Laurin Easthom, Will Raymond and Bill Thorpe, along with Mayor Kevin Foy for a third term. For Carrboro Board of Aldermen, the magazine endorses Jacquelyn Gist, John Herrera and Randee Haven-O’Donnell, and current Alderman Mark Chilton for mayor. For the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education, the maga zine chose Lisa Stuckey, Pam Hemminger and Jean Hamilton. In the Hillsborough race, the Independent picked incumbents Mike Gering and Frances Dancy for Town Board and challenger Tom Stevens for mayor. Board discusses plans for fire substation in Carrboro The Carrboro Board of Aldermen is moving forward on plans for a fire substation. At a closed session meeting Tuesday, the aldermen discussed acquiring property needed to build the station, said Town Manager Steve Stewart. Stewart said based on the dis cussion Tuesday, the town can reach an agreement without using its powers of condemnation. The fire substation is a high pri ority item, Stewart said, and more information should be available by mid-November. STATE 6 NATION Black says he doesn't have any intentions to step down RALEIGH House Speaker Jim Black, in the middle of scru tiny about the North Carolina lottery and political donations by the video poker industry, said Wednesday that he has no imme diate plans to step aside at the General Assembly. “I don’t expect to leave any time soon,” Black, the four-term speaker, said. “I intend to win my seat next time, and I’m going to be running for speaker again next time.” Black has been criticized recent ly because two people with politi cal ties to him were found to have financial relationships with lottery vendor Scientific Games Corp. Lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings, a Black appointee, has revealed that he had a former financial relationship with a lob byist for Scientific Games, which might seek a contract to run the lottery in North Carolina. The unpaid political director of Black, D-Mecklenburg, worked as a consultant for Scientific Games dur ing the debate about the lottery. Questioning intensifies for Miers in committee hearings WASHINGTON, D.C. - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee served notice Wednesday that he intends to question Harriet Miers about the Bush administration’s policy of detaining suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, injecting new uncertainty into a Supreme Court nomination already in doubt. In a letter to Miers, who is White House counsel, Sen. Arlen Specter said he would ask what assurances she could offer that she would be independent, if confirmed, “and not give President Bush any special def erence on any matter involving him that might come before the court.” Specter, R-Pa., released the let ter as the White House struggled to build support for an appointment that has drawn withering criticism from some prominent conserva tives outside Congress and steady skepticism or worse from Republican senators. Three GOP officials said they no longer felt certain that Miers’ trou bled nomination would survive as long as the Nov. 7 target date for hearings, and that a withdrawal was not out of the question. From staff and wire reports. Honor Court sees efficiency boost Might announce new adviser soon BY LINDSAY MICHEL ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR With almost seven months and more than 100 Honor Court cases behind him, Undergraduate Student Attorney General Matt McDowell said the undergradu ate Honor Court has seen marked progress in efficiency. This fall, the undergraduate court has resolved 46 charges for 37 students. “I know definitively that we do have more cases that have a faster turnaround,” he said. “But we also still continue to have cases ... that still pull up the average.” Of the charges heard this semes “For drivers, slow down and look for pedestrians. For pedestrians, don’t assume that the drivers will stop, katy jones, highway safety research center spokeswoman "< * • tS- jNjf V 1 If ' 1 JPaPr ' NMf > ... - , r, , DTH/CRAIG CARTER Crossing guard Pam Dumont ensures students get across South Road safely while keeping traffic at a steady flow during the afternoon rush Wednesday when the Department of Public Safety and the UNC Highway Safety Research Center sponsored Yield to Heels Day. CAMPAIGN LOOKS BOTH WAYS YIELD TO HEELS DAY ADDRESSES PEDESTRIAN SAFETY BY COLIN CAMPBELL STAFF WRITER Many students received a lesson in crossing the street as they walked to class Wednesday. Those who used crosswalks correctly were given free T-shirts, while others who jaywalked were informed of the penalties for their illicit shortcut. Twice a year, the Department of Public Safety and the UNC Highway Safety Research Center team up for Yield to Heels Day, distributing fliers and T-shirts to pedes trians at major crosswalks around campus to raise awareness of pedestrian safety. This fall’s event is particularly timely because daylight-saving time ends this weekend causing more student traffic after dark —and some walkways near con struction sites will close. Health care system ups retention rate Officials: Results in better service BY NICK ANDERSON STAFF WRITER Every employer aims to keep high-performing employees from leaving, and UNC Health Care is winning that battle. The system reduced the number of vacated positions at the end of June 2005 to 175 from 300 the year before, according to the system’s annual survey. “One hundred seventy-five is, for an organization our size, a low number. And that’s what we want,” said Peter Barnes, senior vice president and director of human resources for UNC Health Care. The organization employs 5,500 hospital administrators, clinical and support personnel and nurses, said David Perry, executive associ ate dean for administration in the Top News ter, 26 were for academic dishon esty, while 20 were for alleged con duct offenses, which include drug and alcohol violations. Generally, it takes longer for stu dents charged with a conduct viola tion to get their cases heard than it takes for students facing academic dishonesty violations to get from charge to hearing, McDowell said. Academic dishonesty includes violations such as plagiarism, unau thorized aid and misrepresentation. And while the turnaround rate from charge to hearing is about 30 days, students facing conduct cases gen erally must wait eight to 10 weeks before the conclusion of their cases. “We have a large campus under construc tion,” said Katy Jones, spokeswoman for the Highway Safety Research Center. “Any chang es like that call for awareness of safety.” The theme for the Pedestrian Safety Awareness Campaign is “Be Aware. Be Safe. Be Considerate.” “For drivers, slow down and look for pedestrians,” Jones said. “For pedestrians, don’t assume that the drivers will stop.” Jaywalking is one of the safety issues raised by the campaign. Crossing streets outside crosswalks or against a “Don’t Walk” signal is against the law and could cost viola tors up to $l2O in fines and court fees. But DPS is not issuing any citations, although it recently has been considering enforcing the law. “Nothing’s been set in stone,” said DPS UNC School of Medicine. Leaders are proud of this year’s figures because they indicate that UNC Health Care is achieving its goal, Barnes said. “One of our objectives is to be the employer of choice in health care.” Low turnover means an improved quality of care, said Norman Klase, director of human resource services for UNC Health Care. “Any employer wants to have a stable workforce,” he said. “You want to maintain your talent pool. It allows us to provide better ser vice to our patients.” There also are economic reasons employers favor a high retention rate. “TVimover is expensive,” Barnes said. “It’s a cost to the system. There are recruitment costs, hiring costs and orientation costs.” The improved retention this year is due to a combination of factors, SEE RETENTION, PAGE 13 Student Attorney General Matt McDowell has seen more than 100 cases in seven months. To relieve the stresses on honor system members and on the stu dents facing charges, the Honor Court Alternate Resolution pro gram has allowed 12 students to get in and out of their University hearings more quickly. The program began last spring as a way to bypass the time it takes for the court to receive police reports needed to hold a full hearing on a conduct case. Students who say the spokesman Randy Young. “Were still inves tigating it at the committee level.” Young said the department plans to pub licize any changes that are made to enforce ment policies so students won’t be caught by surprise if they receive a citation. “We hope we never have to issue a single citation,” he said. Representatives were joined at four cam pus crosswalks by student volunteers recruited through the Carolina Center for Public Service. The volunteers included eight members of Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority Inc. “I really think it’s important to raise aware ness,” said Rima Patel, a sophomore health sci ences major who volunteered with the sorority. ‘We’re all guilty (of jaywalking).” The Pedestrian Safety Awareness SEE YIELD TO HEELS, PAGE 13 High schools embrace technology New uses, skills spark interests BY JOHN WULSIN STAFF WRITER Technology is increasingly becoming an integral component in the quest to improve North Carolina’s K-12 schools. Frances Bradburn, director of instructional technol ogy at the Department of Public Instruction, said the state ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION Friday; Students learning from home try to integrate into schools and college legislature is making technology development more of a priority. Ftom the 2004-05 to the 2005- 06 school year, statewide funds for school technology increased from $7-5 million to S2B million, he said. The extra funding has encour aged schools to look for new and innovative ways of incorporating technology into their curricula. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2005 allegations against them are true have been able to complete their hearings within two weeks. “The feedback we’ve gotten from students has been overwhelmingly positive” McDowell said. The student leaders in the honor system have had to juggle more administrative tasks than in the past, he said. Dave Gilbert, who served as an assistant dean of students and the judicial programs officer at UNC for seven years, left the position in July to become assistant dean of judicial affairs at the College of William and Mary. “We’ve needed to be more ‘Type A’ to make sure we follow our pro- SEE HONOR COURT, PAGE 13 Chapel Hill High School has part nered with UNC to give students the opportunity to become more directly involved in scientific inves tigation. The University’s Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research in Chile will allow CHHS students to submit requests for images of the night sky. Rob Greenberg, a science teacher at CHHS, will facilitate the project for the students in spring 2006. SOAR will take the specific imag es that were requested, which then will be e-mailed back to students. Using technology in these kinds of programs offers students a low-cost opportunity to get experience in sci entific experiments. Transporting high school stu dents to an observatory at night can be too difficult and expensive for most schools, Greenberg said. But with a computer and an Internet connection, CHHS students will be able to collect firsthand data. David Thornburg, director of the Thornburg Center, emphasized the need for creativity, technological fluency, problem-solving ability and entrepreneurial skills in education. Fall Honor Court activity The Honor Court resolved 46 charges for 37 students so far this semester. type of charges 12 Plagiarism 8 Driving while impaired 7 Unauthorized collaboration 5 Cheating 5 Drug-related charges 5 Other 4 Violating integrity of the University SOURCE: UNC HONOR SYSTEM DTH/CALUE MCIEANE Forum attracts largest crowd Held for people in Carol Woods BY JESSICA SCHONBERG STAFF WRITER At the best-attended candidate forum of this year’s municipal elec tions season, about 75 residents of Carol Woods Retirement Community heard where the seven candidates for Chapel Hill Town Council stand on various campaign issues. Much of the dialogue Wednesday afternoon centered around ways to foster positive growth in the com- munity. Incumbent Mark Kleinschmidt highlighted the town’s recent approv al of plans to redevelop parking lot 5 with a com bination of 4 i MUNICIPAL M ELECTIONS TS* 2005 ONLINE School board candidate forum focuses, on how best to decrease achievement gap stores and residences. “We saw where that dead spot was and we said, ‘We need to cre ate activity there,’” he said. Candidate Will Raymond sug gested energizing the area by add ing a large central venue such as a grocery store that could draw people in from both the north side of town and the University. Candidate Jason Baker said he would like to see the council’s enthusiasm for development extend outside the downtown area. Candidates spoke about the idea of providing wireless Internet access throughout the downtown area. Candidate Laurin Easthom said, “(The Internet) is something that opens up the world to people in terms of education, in terms of job seeking, in terms of general knowl edge. If you have the Internet, you have the ability to search the world.” In addition to addressing com mon forum issues, candidates were asked whether they would recog nize a town obligation to support senior services such as the Chapel Hill Senior Center. Incumbent Ed Harrison said the request is legitimate. “I don’t think you are asking for the world.” Candidate Bill Thorpe, who has emphasized the need for a people’s SEE FORUM, PAGE 13 “Were finding that kids begin to realize that information is a commodity.” FRANCES BRADBURN, director The center’s programs focus on help ing instructors make transitions into more effective teaching methods. Teaching toward those goals instead of just memorizing content will give students valuable skills to distinguish them from their peers around the world, Thornburg said. In an increasingly competitive global economy, any job that can be automated or outsourced likely will be, he said. Thornburg cited three new foun dational skills for learning: know ing how to find information, how to determine if it is relevant and how to decide if it is accurate. Technology is valuable for SEE TECH SCHOOLS, PAGE 13 3
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