VOLUME 115, ISSUE 75
Student leaders clash on fee process
Legislation changes lead to dispute
BY KELLY GIEDRAITIS
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
UNC’s student leaders have dif
ferent takes on how to handle stu
dent-fee increases.
While both factions say they
have students’ best interests at
heart, the process of determining
what is actually in students’ best
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N.C. State Public Affairs Officer Maj. Matthew Handley speaks at the Claude T. Bowers Military Center in Raleigh on the role the N.C. National Guard has
played since Sept. 11. Guardsmen assembled to celebrate the guard's 60th birthday. Several N.C. guardsmen will be deployed to Afghanistan next week.
STANDING GUARD
N.C. National Guard marks 60th year
BY ARIEL ZIRULNICK
STAFF WRITER
RALEIGH - The N.C. National
Guard celebrated its 60th birth
day Tuesday, and guardsmen at the
event acknowledged their role in the
heightened N.C. military commit
ment since Sept. 11,2001.
Most of the current Army and Air
guardsmen have enlisted since the
beginning of the War on Terror and
said they are aware of their increased
chance of deployment.
“The recruits we have today fully
RAs look to
find balance
BY DEBORAH NEFFA
STAFF WRITER
The balance between fulfilling
their responsibilities and enjoying
their college experience can be a
delicate one for resident advisers.
Those pressures came to a
head this week when several RAs
were fired after an incident at a
mandatory retreat.
Twelve RAs were sent home and
then disciplined further for their
involvement in an incident involv
ing alcohol during the event.
But while that particular situa
tion this year’s Sept. 7 through
Sept. 9 retreat was not held in
previous years has never hap
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WEB DOWN High-speed Internet access
decreased in Orange County last year.
FASHIONABLE READ A Chapel Hill
native returns today to promote her book.
TECH TALK Google holds a chat to
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interest often is a battle.
Leaders from the executive
branch of student government
and Student Congress have butted
heads recently about proposed
student-fee increases and Student
Body President Eve Carson’s veto
of an act about referendums.
“I see two groups that are des-
understand what they’re joining,”
said Maj. Matthew Handley, state
public affairs officer for the N.C.
Army National Guard.
“They have a very high level of
commitment. ... There’s a higher
level of patriotism.”
About 16 N.C. guardsmen are
scheduled to mobilize next week.
They will go to Afghanistan to train
and advise the Afghan army.
First Sgt. Ronald Judson is one of
the men in that group. He said he is
looking forward to the mission pre-
pened before, this wasn’t the first
time the housing department has
penalized RAs for drinking.
Housing Director Larry Hicks
said the department has fired
RAs in the past for drinking and
for abandoning their posts while
on duty.
“We expect them to abide by
the same expectations we have for
students,” Hicks said. “The role
they play is so critical to students
and to the University.”
Some former RAs said that the
best way to serve the students is
not necessarily by enforcing strict
SEE RA BALANCE, PAGE 9
tfity | pup .4
WANTED: RAIN
Orange County farmers now
are eligible for low-interest
loans after officials declared
Friday that the county is a
disaster drought area.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
www.dailytarheel.com
perately trying to do their job,
and there appears to be a little
bit of disagreement or misunder
standing as to what that is,” said
Lauren Anderson, president of the
Graduate and Professional Student
Federation.
And when student leaders get
caught up in the minor details of
the process, they are only setting
themselves back, Anderson said.
“We’re getting bogged down,”
paring soldiers to assume more
military responsibility so that fewer
American troops are necessary.
“Our job will help bring everybody
home,” he said.
More than 11,000 N.C. guardsmen
have been deployed since the Sept. 11
attacks —some of them more than
once. About 700 are waiting in mobi
lization stations across the country
for deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan
and Kuwait. And one Army military
police company is in Baghdad now.
The N.C. National Guard has about
11,500 soldiers total —IO,OOO in the
Army and 1,500 in the Air Force.
Handley said the majority of N.C.
How to apply
to be an HA
► Applications are available
online beginning in January,
with interviews taking place in
February.
► Final selections are made in
March.
Requirements:
► Must be an undergraduate or
graduate student enrolled full
time.
► Must maintain a minimum
2.3 grade point average during
employment and must have lived
on campus, either at UNC or at
another college or university, for
at least two semesters.
► Must take a four-credit class
about leadership and mentoring
skills, which includes going on
the RA weekend retreat.
SOURCE: housing.unc.edu
she said. “We’re getting in our own
way.”
Rising tensions sparked recent
ly when Congress Speaker Tyler
Younts changed proposed legisla
tion from bills to resolutions and
then delegated them to the student
affairs committee for review.
Two of the pieces of legislation
concerned proposed fee increases
for APPLES and Student Legal
Services.
guardsmen who have been deployed
overseas have gone to Iraq. The rest
have gone to Afghanistan, Kuwait
or the Balkans. Many have stayed
stateside on security, maintenance
and personnel missions.
“This is the most experienced
National Guard that we’ve had since
World War II,” Handley said, citing
the high number of active veterans
created by the many deployments.
And that experience has trans
lated into their civilian lives.
Judson said he has used techniques
and training learned during deploy-
SEE GUARD, PAGE 9
Board discusses day laborers
BY ANDREW DUNN
SENIOR WRITER
Almost every morning, dozens
of men gather at the corner of
Jones Ferry Road and Davie Road
in western Carrboro.
Construction trucks come by,
and most of the men jump in to
perform a day’s labor. But some
men don’t come to the corner to
find a job.
To combat an increasing con
cern with illegal behavior by those
who stay after the workers leave,
the Carrboro Board of Aldermen
passed several resolutions to give
town police more authority and to
work toward a long-term solution.
“There seems to be a somewhat
clear situation between those who
are there to be picked up for work
SEE WORKERS, PAGE 9
university I iw 7
CLOSING RACIAL DIVIDE
An event at the Stone Center
engaged students in
thinking about how to eliminate
stereotypes as part of National
Pan-Hellenic Council Week.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
The committee met Tuesday
and decided to report favorably
on the Student Legal Services fee
increase. But it voted against the
referendum for an increase to the
safety and security fee and the
APPLES fee.
“The response from Congress
was extremely disappointing espe
cially in the light of (the fact that) a
referendum is to allow the student
body’s voice to be heard,” Student
State draws
government
contractors
BY CAROLINE DYE
STAFF WRITER
North Carolina’s military-oriented work force
it has the fourth-highest military presence in the
nation makes it an attractive locale for private
contractors.
Several thousand people transition out of the
state’s military operations annually, creating a pool
of attractive candidates for private security recruit
ment, said Scott Dorney, executive director of the
N.C. Military Business Center.
North Carolina is home to the Army at Fort Bragg,
the Air Force at Pope and Seymour Johnson bases,
the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune and the U.S.
Army Special Operations Command, also at Fort
Bragg.
Col. Bill Buckner, chief of public affairs for Fort
Bragg, said the military pumps money to the tune of
$7 billion per year into the local economy.
The strong presence of the five major military
installations in the state makes North Carolina
appealing to government contractors, Dorney
said.
But the U.S. Department of Defense’s reliance
on private contractors in the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan has many questioning how big a role
they should play.
A mishandled firefight Sunday in Iraq has deep
ened the controversy about the role of private securi
ty contractors in military operations and has singled
out a N.C.-based company.
The Iraqi government decided Tuesday to review
its policies regarding foreign security companies
after the deaths of several Iraqis on Sunday prompt
ed threats to revoke the license of the Moyok-based
Blackwater USA.
Blackwater is one of several private security orga
nizations hired by the Department of Defense to
assist the military.
But Dorney said the rise in government contracts
with private security firms has been a positive devel
opment for the state.
“From an economic standpoint, that’s very, very
good,” he said.
“We’re seeing a lot of functions that were previ
ously done by the military being done for DOD by
contractors.”
Military bases in North Carolina also reach out to
private contractors to supplement force that might
be sapped by deployment abroad.
Fort Bragg employs private contractors to man
SEE CONTRACTORS, PAGE 9
DTH/ELYSSA SHARP
Day laborers wait at the comer of Jones Ferry and Davie roads early Tuesday
morning to pick up jobs in fields such as construction and landscaping.
this day in history
SEPT. 19,1944...
UNC appoints the first woman to a
full-time instructor position. Helen
McDevitt, a teacher of algebra and
trigonometry, was promoted in the
mathematics department.
Body Treasurer Jordan Myers said.
Myers, who originally entered
some of the legislation as bills,
objected to the decision to change
the legislation to resolutions. The
difference between a bill and a
resolution lies in the impact.
“A bill or act is more or less a
law,” Myers said. “A resolution is
more or less an opinion.”
SEE FEES, PAGE 9
weather
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index
police log 2
calendar 2
sports 6
games 9
opinion 10