10
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006
BOARD EDITORIALS
BLACK’S PAST IS BACK
With doubts about his questionable integrity growing each day, N.C.
House Speaker Jim Black should resign his position of leadership.
One of the keys to winning in poker is knowing
when to hold your cards and when to throw
them in and fold.
As more and more of the questionable that’s
putting it politely fundraising activities of N.C.
House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, come to
light, it is becoming increasingly clear that it’s time
for him to fold ’em.
Black has been awash in controversy for a while
now from shady, back-room dealings to passing on
sketchy campaign checks. Because of these repeated
issues, he no longer is worthy of the office of speaker
of the General Assembly.
The most recent allegations come from the N.C.
Board of Elections. On Friday members accused
Black’s campaign of accepting contributions more
than the legal limit, contributing money with another
contributors name and accepting more than $27,000
in illegal business contributions.
If these were the first accusations of impropriety
to be leveled against our fair speaker, calling for him
to surrender his gavel would be premature.
However, the accusations are part of a long line
YOUNGEST SCHOLARS
UNC has embarked on a quest to improve early grade-school education
locally— helping to fulfill its mission to serve all of North Carolina.
Recently the University announced a program
through the Frank Porter Graham Child
Development Institute designed to rethink
the way young children are educated.
And with all the talk of UNC serving the state
and helping to educating all its residents, it seems
the University is putting its money where its mouth
is.
During the next three years, FPG will work to
develop a program called the “First School,” designed
to create a national framework for educating students
ages 3 through 8, according to school officials.
With a budget of $2 million, officials at the insti
tute hope to make it a local program, pulling students
from kindergarten to second grade from Seawell
Elementary School here in Chapel Hill.
However, nothing is final.
With a demonstration site and using institute
research, officials are hoping to find ways to ensure
positive experiences and success for students by
involving parents, teachers, practitioners, adminis
trators, the child care community and researchers.
The proposed school— if given the go-ahead
from the school district would be built on
JUST A LITTLE SHIFT
“nr
After being named the new provost, Bernadette Gray-Little should be
sure she remains a friend to students when tuition time rolls around.
Bienvenue, brucha haba’a, merhaba and
willkommen we thought that would be a
fitting way to welcome Bernadette Gray-Little,
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to her new
post as the executive vice chancellor and provost.
But it’s not as if Gray-Little isn’t already familiar
with the few dozen languages UNC teaches she’s
been involved with the University in a variety of posi
tions since 1971, making her an excellent choice for
the job —and she should turn out to be a solid choice
for students, too.
Her experience includes time spent as a psychol
ogy professor and a department chairwoman, so
she’ll bring a faculty perspective to the job of chief
academic officer. That also means she spent years
actually talking to students at the University on a
daily basis.
Gray-Little’s more recent work as senior associate
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, executive
associate provost and now dean of the College of
Arts and Sciences shows both that she cares about
students and that she has what it takes to balance
the needs of several different constituencies some
thing that is not always evident in South Building.
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 six 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 Elizabeth Gregory at elizagre@email.unc.edu.
HEADERS’ FORUM
DTH staffers do great work,
and they all deserve kudos
TO THE EDITOR:
I want to commend The Daily
Tar Heel staff for an excellent elec
tion-day issue.
While much has been made of
recent DTH controversies, I believe
that at certain times of excellence
our fellow students should be rec
ognized for the hard work that is
required to produce such a publi
cation.
At times we myself included
are quick to judge the DTH
staff and writers and slow to praise
them.
The Feb. 14 edition was par
ticularly outstanding from the
eye-catching, boxing-themed front
page to the insightful candidate
profiles.
Nothing in news-making is
simple, and rarely is there a single
side to any issue. The DTH per
forms admirably in providing both
relevant facts and at the same time
thought-provoking opinion, often
leading to dialogue among campus
students, staff and organizations.
In light of recent events, none
of us should take for granted the
greater freedom that we have,
including freedom of the press.
We may not always agree with
the DTH I for one am quite fine
with that fact —but we should
appreciate the students who work
of behavior that calls into question too much and
shakes the public’s general faith in the assembly.
The cozy relationship that Black, his staff and
the lottery lobby shared, as revealed in the fall, is
just another glaring example of activities that have
prompted us to give him the all-too-fitting moniker
of “Slim Shady.”
After all this corruption or at least the appear
ance of corruption it’s unclear to what extent the
people of North Carolina can have confidence in his
leadership of its legislative body.
It has yet to be determined whether Black will be
held accountable for his actions before his peers. As
of this moment, there have been no formal charges
pressed against him.
But even up in our ivory tower, we can see that
Tar Heels deserve better than what they’re getting
from the speaker.
Even if Black is indeed an honorable man, one
who is innocent of the charges leveled against him,
he still should do the right thing.
For the sake of the speaker’s integrity, he must rest
his hand and pass the gavel.
University-owned land next to Seawell and
would hold about 500 students, according to The
(Raleigh) News & Observer.
And in a state working to educate every student
from the urban Piedmont cities to the far reaches
of its rural counties it’s vital to develop new ways
to educate all residents.
It sounds cliche something people always say.
But the fact remains that as the largest public uni
versity in the state, we must find a way to work from
the bottom up. After all, if improving education is
the goal, there eventually will have to be some work
on the early foundations of learning.
Furthermore, schools in the area continue to feel
the weight of sprawl projections show Chapel
Hill-Carrboro City Schools needing new elementary
school space by 2012, according to the N&O.
A project such as this one could help ease some
of the crunch.
What information and plans come out of this is not
entirely certain. But with a strong education becom
ing such a valuable cog in North Carolina’s engine of
economic growth, it’s important the University lend
a helping hand to our youngest scholars.
That record is made even more impressive by
the fact that Gray-Little’s appointment as provost
received the unanimous approval of the chancellor’s
faculty advisory council.
Such support is important in light of recent prob
lems with faculty retention. And if there’s one thing
that can help students, it’s slowing down the turnover
rate of UNC’s more distinguished professors.
Though Gray-Little comes to her new job with
an unparalleled understanding of the workings of
the University, it can’t hurt to remind her of the
increased responsibilities she’s taking on.
She’ll be co-chairwoman of the tuition advisory
task force, which forms tuition proposals to send to
the Board of TYustees —a crucial battleground for
students, and one in which she could prove her value
to those of us who pay tuition and fees.
We hope Gray-Little’s extensive work with admin
istrators, faculty and students serves her well and
helps her come to the table with a mind open to the
different parties’ points of view.
Gray-Little has long been a friend to students,
and we hope she’ll continue to be one in her more
influential role.
to make it possible and, from time
to time, make us think.
Jon Flaspoehler
Sophomore
Peace, War and Defense
Employee unionization is
more complex than stated
TO THE EDITOR:
The Daily Tar Heel editorial
board continues to amaze me with
its never-ending, anti-worker dia
tribes.
The editorial board purports
to be experts on unionization and
asserts that “there’s nothing stop
ping workers from unionizing” in
the dining halls.
It is easy for college students who
don’t have to worry about provid
ing for a family on poverty wages
to say such things, but it’s another
story for the workers themselves.
Besides being patronizing, the
editorial is lull of inaccuracies.
The editorial board did a great
disservice to the campus commu
nity in its mischaracterization of
what a card-check neutrality pro
cess means.
As opposed to a National Labor
Relations Board election, which is
called after 30 percent of the exact
same cards that are used in card
check are signed, where it is just
those workers who choose to show
up whose votes count, in the card
Opinion
check process it is 51 percent of all
workers who must sign cards for
the union to be recognized.
Thus card check is an inherently
more democratic process. It is also
a more streamlined process.
Whereas an NLRB election can
be delayed for months or even
years, allowing the employer to use
all kinds of intimidating tactics to
discourage workers from union
izing, a card-check process is over
as soon as 51 percent of employees
have signed cards.
This process also avoids the
hostility that is created between
the employer and employees lead
ing up to an election because the
company pledges to stay neutral in
the process.
Finally, saying that “there’s noth
ing Aramark could do to prevent
it” is just laughable Aramark
has already used various tactics of
intimidation, and they will contin
ue to do so until a fair, card-check
procedure is accepted.
Sascha Bollag
Senior
Political Science
There is more to women's
sports than just basketball
TO THE EDITOR:
Oh, how I hate women’s basket
ball. If only it weren’t so bloated of
latent symbolism here in Chapel
FROM THE DAY S NEWS
“Students deserve accountability ...”
JAMES ALLRED, STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT-ELECT
EDITORIAL CARTOON
(fILL'ERUPf)
COMMENTARY
Test-prep services play logic
games with law applicants
LSAT-induced panic makes
smart kids do dumb things
and dumb kids do even
dumber things.
Suddenly everyone miracu
lously has previously undiag
nosed childhood ADHD and
needs Ritalin for the test. People
buy S3O “silent timers” on the
Internet, spend entire summers
studying for this single test and
pay more than SI,OOO for Kaplan
trained “professionals” to read off
of a script and redraw diagrams
on the board.
Yes, we pay preparation ser
vices thousands for law-school
admissions-test help —and most
graduate school applicants are no
different.
The Kaplan bargain price of
$1,249 seemed a small price for
my parents to pay for my guar
anteed success on the LSAT. But
there’s a catch. If you’re a good
candidate for law school, you’re a
bad candidate for Kaplan.
You will benefit from Kaplan if:
You shrink into the fetal posi
tion upon contact with a No.
2 pencil and multiple-choice
answer sheet.
You are unable to read clock
hand positions and determine
how many minutes you have per
question.
You read a paragraph or pas
sage and then three seconds later
cannot answer a question about it.
You like to practice saying “You
can’t handle the truth!” in your
bathroom mirror or saw “Legally
Blonde” and are contemplating
your outfit for your admissions
video essay.
If you can read, write, think
and take a test without panic, you
are wasting $1,200.
I won’t fully unveil the elusive
“Five-Step Kaplan Method for
Reading Comprehension,” but the
gist of it is: Read for main ideas,
look at topic sentences in para
graphs and answer each question
strategically.
Hill,
Unfortunately women’s basket
ball has been mOrphed into more
than the game itself. We live in a
political climate where we search
for the means to create male
female equality.
In the field of collegiate athletics,
too much attention is misapplied to
women’s basketball. Some feel guilty
that while they cheer for Roy’s boys
they neglect co-ed student-athletes.
What do I do? Am I such a bad
person? Must I watch women’s
basketball lest my spirit burn in
politically correct hell?
Truth is there’s a lot more to
women’s sports here in Chapel Hill
than women’s basketball.
I’ve followed women’s soccer,
women’s lacrosse, gymnastics and
women’s track not because of a
burning desire to be politically cor
rect but to catch some great ath
letes doing some amazing feats.
If only the DTH and other PC
clamorers would awaken to these
facts and stop trying to force-feed
the world on women’s basketball to
the neglect of the rest of the UNC
women’s sports.
Bill Gouin
Carrboro Resident
Discuss letters
from the readers'
forum or add
your own at the
Editor's blog
[BLOCOIN’;
http://apps.daily
tarheel.com/blogs
/editor.php
GINNY FRANKS
TENDENCY TO START FIRES
If you didn’t learn this at some
point before senior year in college,
I beg you please do not become
an attorney. Work in a field that
requires less... literacy.
There are no secret methods
to logic games Kaplan’s is
“do it step by step” and “draw
diagrams” on its easy practice
games. ’Rims out, Kaplan can’t
teach you how to determine if the
puppet wears a red sweater when
the sun is shining in Kentucky,
and the biologist lectures on
Tuesday, and Mary orders lobster
but not alfredo. Kaplan doesn’t
sell “secret methods” because
there aren’t any.
And they don’t sell you exper
tise, either.
Most of the Kaplan teachers are
folks walking around on campus
with you. The guy in a Hawaiian
shirt at a keg party screaming
“I am Captain Jack Sparrow!” is
the same guy hired by Princeton
Review as a professional.
Another Kaplan instructor I
know pitied his students for wast
ing their money because he was
preoccupied with his own law
school work.
It’s “one-size-fits-all” training
and several of your “classes” are
just proctored exams.
Kaplan questions are stale and
some easy practice exams give
a false impression of progress.
According to Internet lore from
ex-Kaplan professionals, its “suc
cess rate” is based on a more-than
a-decade-old Price Waterhouse
study that it’s not dying to update.
Many folks improve only one or
two points enough that you
Speak Out
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Sattij (Bar Hrri
By Mason Phillips, mphil@email.unc.edu
can’t collect your “money-back
guarantee.” Sure, you could retake
the class for free, but who wants
to waste time on a class that didn’t
work the first time? That’s like get
ting a free haircut from the Hair
Butchery after it gave you a mullet.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Kaplan doesn’t necessarily sell
actual success.
So what does your $1,200 get
you? Some books you could buy
cheaper replicas of at Barnes &
Noble?
Kaplan really only sells one
thing the company. It’s all sales
psychology, old test questions and
the illusion of success. It’s effec
tively an eight-week-long canned
sales talk. I know one when I see
it I did door-to-door sales.
Some folks need only the illu
sion of success anyway. A little
test-taking confidence and some
test familiarity surely will improve
some panicking seniors’ scores.
Applying to law school is
expensive enough. You pay slls
to take the LSAT. Then you pay a
service for data assembly $lO6 to
let you send it transcripts. You pay
sl2 every time you apply to a law
school to send out the data you
just sent in. You pay law schools
even more to look at your sl2
transcripts and slls LSAT scores.
Sure, Kaplan can bring up your
score, but you can bring up your
own score for less than $25 with
a trip to the nearest bookstore.
Save your Kaplan money for law
school loans.
In my post-LSAT clarity, I
realize that $1,200 is real money
valuable funds that could have
been better invested in neces
sities such as rent, food or a
sequined bikini and a Coppola
to direct my “legally-brunette”
admissions video.
Contact Ginny Franks,
a senior communication major,
at ginny.jranks@gmail.com.
www.dailytaiheel.com
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