VOLUME 114, ISSUE 52
Campus reacts to Middle East crisis
BY MAC MOLLISON
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
The recent surge of violence in the
Middle East has led to evacuations on
both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border,
where settlements in northern Israel have
been bombarded by rockets and signifi
cant infrastructure in Lebanon has been
destroyed by Israeli bombs.
And even in comparatively peaceful
Chapel Hill where the borderline of the
greatest controversy might be the small,
The elevator used by students to access the
basement exposes the innards of the building.
Venable’s time is at hand
BY NICOLE DUNCAN
STAFF WRITER
Venable Hall well-known around
campus for its one-of-a-kind and often
frustrating architecture might not be
well-known for much longer.
Many students are spending their last
days in the building this summer. It will
completely close in September and will be
demolished beginning in March 2007.
Constructed in the 1920 sand later
expanded in the 19505, Venable holds
laboratories, research facilities and class
rooms for a variety of the physical sciences,
including chemistry, marine sciences and
physics.
In its place will stand New Venable
Hall, which will be part of UNC’s new
Science Complex. The new building will
preserve the namesake of Francis Venable,
the famous tum-of-the-century professor
Local legislative ideas
fail to gain traction
BY STEPHEN MOORE
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
While the N.C. General Assembly is
pleased this summer with the generous
state budget, several issues favored by
officials in Orange County never made it
past the drawing board.
Given the approval of salary increases
for state and university employees, a
minimum wage increase of $1 and a cap
on the gasoline tax, it can’t be said that
county residents won’t be affected by this
summer’s work.
Yet proposal after proposal directed
toward helping Orange County and Chapel
Hill is foundering, most never escaping
House and Senate committee meetings.
“We didn’t have many local bills,” said
Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, I>-Orange. “During
the short session, we don’t really do major
CORRECTION
The July 13 article “New
technologies to change campus
life” states that UNC’s spam
filter will be incorporated into
Student Central. It actually will
be incorporated into the Onyen
Web site.
The DTH apologizes for the
error.
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brick wall between Franklin Street and
McCorkle Place Tar Heels are bring
touched by the outbreak of chaos.
Besides being host to students and
faculty hailing from the area, UNC hosts
a study abroad program with close ties
to several universities in both Lebanon
and Israel. Five students are to study in
Israel, two in Egypt, and one in Lebanon
this fall —but a decision about whether
or not to cancel travel plans for the stu
dents is expected around the beginning
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The hallway leading to "the cage' also exposes the building's plumbing students taller than about 5
feet have to duck to get through, but they can find plenty of seemingly random scrap material.
who helped identify calcium carbide and
who served as UNC’s president
“All the new buildings will have modem
technology in the laboratories, improved
building equipment, increased floor-to
ceiling height and more lighting in the
building itself” said Bruce Runberg, asso
ciate vice chancellor for facilities construc
tion and planning.
New Venable also will have a small
courtyard that will allow much more light
into die building than what gets in now.
All of that is welcome news for current
and future science students, for whom the
current building elicits feelings that are
mixed at best
Long, narrow hallways and low ceilings
often less than a foot above the heads
of the building’s patrons lead many to
liken Venable to the Labyrinth of ancient
myth.
bills.”
In the end, it appears that bills to fund
two new county deputy clerks, a child
abuse center and a historic district in
Hillsborough, anew arts center in the
northern part of the county, a fire training
facility and a tax for schools won’t make
it through.
A bill introduced in 2005 by Rep. Bill
Faison, D-Orange, would have increased
the number of county commissioners to
seven but remained in committee through
the short session.
“It’s very hard,” Kinnaird said. “Every
county has its needs and wants."
One bill that did make it through
changed the Chapel Hill charter so there
no longer are term limits for the position
SEE LEGISLATURE, PAGE 5
that’s all, folks
This issue is the last Daily Tar Heel of the
summer. If you have any questions about
its content, e-mail Summer Editor Chris
Coletta at colettac@gmail.com.
The DTH will resume publication with a
welcome-back issue on August 22.
WEEKLY SUMMER ISSUE
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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of August
“Together, collectively, here in the office,
we can process quite a lot of information
from around the world to make a judg
ment ... about whether a particular site
or a particular program is safe in light of
circumstances,” said Bob Miles, director
of the study abroad office.
“It’s conceivable that the existing hostil
ities may come to an end in the next week
or 10 days,” he said, adding that the office,
which is used to considering cancellations
New students in particular are often
heard complaining about the building’s
cramped spaces and confusing layout.
“The continuing need for additional
research space, the lack of reliable air
conditioning, the leaky roofs and vibra
tion-prone areas are what prompted the
construction of die Science Complex,” said
Dick Forbis, science complex facilities
users coordinator, who has been involved
with the Science Complex project since
planning started in 2000.
“We’ve tried off and on to renovate
it, with the last significant renovation
being in the 1980s,” said Holden Thorp,
chairman of the chemistry department.
“Venable has outlived its time as a safe
place and useful science facility.”
It will take about nine months for
SEE VENEBLE, PAGE 5
Rathskeller is set to reopen next month
BY GRAY CALDWELL
CITY EDITOR
After a brief scare, patrons of the
Chapel Hill staple The Rathskeller can
rest easy. The Rat will reopen.
Owner Francis Henry said he expects
the restaurant to be open by the Week of
Welcome Aug. 17 when students
arrive back at Carolina for the new school
year.
“I need to be open for them,” he
said.
The restaurant, located in Amber Alley
below Franklin Street, has served meals
such as lasagna, steak and even a bowl of
cheese for more than 50 years. It closed
its doors about a month ago, citing the
need for “long overdue repairs.”
After talks with the property owners,
Henry said, he can reopen the eatery.
He said some of the repairs expected
to be completed before the reopening
include fixing up the Cave room, which
was flooded about two years ago. An
artist will come to the restaurant in
campus I page 2
ANYTHING BUT COMMON
Hie University hopes that
with the demolition of West
House, it can move forward
on S2OO million plans for a
campus Arts Common.
of programs out of concern for students’
safety, is “not in a state of panic.”
Clark Letterman, a junior, is one of the
students planning to study in Egypt. He
wasn’t too daunted by security concerns.
“(Violence) is a shame,” he said. “But
the way I look at it is: The more we hear
about it in the news and the more activ
ity going on there, the more need there is
for people to study abroad and begin to
understand the dynamics of the conflict
on the ground.”
Never forget those
cold, clammy halls
BY SPENCER PERKINS
STAFF WRITER
Even those who’ve been spared from
having to set foot in Venable know it’s
there that mysterious, morbidly old
building sunken between two prison-like
chemistry towers and the journalism
school.
For those of us who have set foot
there —be it for a single class or years
of research in labs it’s an experience
not soon forgotten. It will always be
that building.
That building that almost appears to
be living —and definitely dying.
That building with the heavy air
air that you think will probably put
the next few days and fix up “a few fine
points,” he added.
“Basically, we’re going to try and spend
this time refinishing and trying to figure
out what to do with the graffiti,” Henry
said, clarifying that he doesn’t plan to
completely eliminate the markings that
generations of students have made in the
restaurant
“Graffiti will never end in the Rat but
I’m gonna get it out of the front room
for sure,” he said. “The kids seem to
enjoy it so much, but we need to make
it a little more reasonable.”
John Riddle, who was a graduate stu
dent at UNC in 1963, said he doesn’t
mind the markings.
“Normally, I don’t like graffiti, but it
seems to be so much of the ambiance of
the place that I like it,” he said. “I’ll still
come, but if they paint ft like a hospital
then it won’t be the same thing.”
Riddle said news of the Rat’s reopen-
SEE RAT, PAGE 5
sports | page 7
HOOP DREAMS
Former Carolina basketball
standouts Sean May and
Marvin Williams put up big
numbers in the NBA's
summer leagues.
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2006
Val Kolko, an N.C. Hillel employee,
returned from the region last weekend.
“I got back and learned that there
were some cities that were threatened
and attacked that I had been in earlier,”
she said.
“I think at least in Jerusalem, it’s still a
safe place to be.”
Kolko added that she saw an elevated
number of security guards on the cities’
SEE CRISIS, PAGE 5
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DTH PHOTOS/JULIA BARKER
Claustrophobia can set in when you're traveling
through some of Venable's most narrow hallways.
something carcinogenic into your body.
That building littered with signs
warning against radiation, lasers, bio
hazards and “flammable hydrogen.”
And it will always be that building
with nothing more than a single pane of
glass or a wooden door between those
warning signs and the very machine
being warned against.
I’ve been a mouse wandering the
maze-like halls ofVenable since my fresh
man year, when I worked in the marine
geochemistry lab. My first impression of
Venable was that it had been the inspira
tion for a video game like “Wolfenstein”
SEE COLUMN, PAGE 5
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DTH/JUUA BARKER
The Rathskeller restaurant is closed for
repairs, but it is expected to be open by
the time students arrive back for school.
weather
T-Storms
H 98, L 70
index
calendar 2
briefs 3
crossword 7
entertainment 9
editorial 10