Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 1, 2008, edition 1 / Page 10
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10 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008 t — .-^SHEauL— SAM PERKINS THArs WHAT HE SAID Sam Perkins is an environmental studies and journalism double major. E-MAIL: SSPERKINOEMAILUNC.EDU Doctor Moeser, tear down this fence Do you ever feel like a mouse on campus, weaving through a maze of fences and construction? When vou see beautiful pic tures of our campus, do you wonder where all the construc tion is? After all, you do go to UNC the University of Never ending Construction (at CH Construction Hell). Unfortunately many of us will have four-plus years of memories here tainted by ugly metal fences and construction sites. UNC is known for its beautiful campus, so it's tragic for it to be infested by construction, which might improve individual struc- tures but ruins the experience of the setting as UNIVERSITY COLUMNIST a whole. 1 have a quite viable solution —a DREAM, vou might say. I call it the 3-and-l plan. Given the general four-year college experi ence, every student should have (at least) one year on campus construction-free. How would this be achieved? Begin and complete all construction projects in a three year span. Then take a year off to let the campus be. Is that really too much to ask? It certainly isn’t for the town of Chapel Hill, which allowed a con struction moratorium set last May to expire Thursday. A nine-month construction moratorium. Doesn’t the idea just make vou giddy? The University is still complet ing its sl.l billion construction bite, $5lO million of which vot ers approved to finance from the Higher Education Bond. ‘Forty-nine percent of this bond money will be spent for renovations and/or replacement space of existing facilities," accord ing to the Facilities Planning and Construction Web site. “Seventeen percent will renovate and upgrade utilities infrastructure while 34 percent will be spent on new construction." Sounds like it’s the perfect time to implement the 3- and-1 plan. The site lists 43 active and accepted construction projects. None of the projects run for much longer than three years. Most look to take about a year. Understandably construction projects won't always meet their completion date. However, perhaps with a year off, construction com panies could devote some more time to better planning for quicker, better construction. Another solution is to cut back on some construction altogether, in the process saving both time and money in addition to saving us the inconvenience. On the Active Capital Improvements page of the Web site, there are 130 projects funded by hundreds of millions of dollars. Some of the construc tion projects have been absolutely absurd. Did Gerrard Hall really need columns on the south side of the building? Is there an ancient civilization under UNCs campus, or is there really that much work to be done underground? You don’t see that much underground con struction elsewhere. A REAL need for construction is a buckling, collapsing building (Le. the law' school) or a structure infested with more toxic chemicals than Keith Richards (Le. Venable). Maybe we and our parents did this to ourselves, as can be inter preted from a Chancellor James Moeser quote on the facilities Web site. “You, the voters, have unlocked this University’s future by support ing the bond referendum. It is a tremendous investment in educa tion, and it will return benefits for decades to come.” Uh, that future turned out to be more like a construction man ager dressed up in a kilt and face paint screaming at his workers to unleash hell upon the passage of the bond referendum. It’s sad how this campus would seem so naked without all those green fences, which is all the more reason administrators owe it to students to provide some sort of respite from this perpetual orgy of construction. Buy an organizer, plan ahead and give us a break. EDITORIAL CARTOON By Alex Lee, lobtnOemail.unc.edu TEAiLai6 fee? CMbttara,,*ift( For the public good ASG should be allowed to spend money on campuses Nonews is good news when it comes to the UNC system Association of Student Governments. The schizophrenic organi zation held its first uneventful meeting in quite some time last weekend. We’re not quite ready to say the ASG has turned the comer and left its troubled past behind; while nothing bad happened at the meeting, we can’t say any thing great occurred either. But the apparent absence of walkouts, racial tensions and pointless bickering bodes well. If it holds, we might have a use ful organization on our hands. What’s even more shocking is that the delegates actually dis cussed some mildly productive uses of their massive $190,000 budget. Well, some of their ideas were good, anyway. The delegates decided to spend $2,400 on T-shirts that read, “I’ve got your dollar," ref erencing the $1 fee the ASG col lects from each UNC student. Ironically enough the shirts cost about $7 apiece. That’s 20 Wasted effort Orange County can’t botch waste-transfer center again The complaints about the initial plan to put a waste transfer site in the Rogers and Eubanks roads community were loud and numerous. Now that the Orange County Board of Commissioners has started listening, they need to make sure they do the job right this time. The 411 on the waste-trans fer site is that the community already is bordered by a land fill. In March the board voted to close the Orange County Landfill and replace it with a waste-transfer center. Back in the 19705, then- Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee guaranteed neighborhood residents that no other landfills would be placed there. But thanks to the county’s population jump, the landfill already was expanded once. And since no “official" promise was made, residents were left with no legal recourse. Hang the code Carrboro should change the rules for the taco trucks Since Watergate, the American public has expe rienced all natures of gates, but never has one been so gas tronomically insulting. Tacogate has come to Carrboro. After one quick run through the facts it’s clear; Carrboro’s left some of its entrepreneur class out in the cold and needs to work swiftly to bring it back. It started when an anonymous complaint was filed against the taco truck located in the parking lot of Cliff’s Meat market earlier this month. Taco trucks set up in locations around Carrboro, serving short order Mexican cuisine from early evening until midnight It’s against Carrboro’s zoning code to sell food from a vehicle. However, every truck has been Opinion shirts for each of the 17 system campuses. As much as we hate to say it, 20 shirts on a campus of more than 30,000, as is the case at N.C. State University probably aren’t doing a whole lot to raise awareness about the ASG. The organization did also talk about some more constructive projects, including a program to award S2OO grants to stu dent groups conducting voter registration drives. Besides being a good idea in itself, that’s also the archetype for how the ASG needs to be spending its money to ben efit or give back to the system campuses in some way. This line of thinking opens up a wealth of other projects the ASG could fund for instance, diversity initiatives on system campuses to help ease racial tensions, something the ASG itself has struggled with. The only question is whether the General Administration will approve the program. The GA imposes overly stringent spend ing constraints on the ASG, and recently tightened its oversight After the waste-transfer site was selected, cries of envi ronmental racism tainted any thoughts of proceeding with building the facility. Due in part to the rabid pro tests of residents, the commis sioners decided in November to find somewhere else to put the waste-transfer center. Now they are back to the drawing board, dedicated this time to coming up with the necessary criteria for properly selecting the site. The fact that the commis sioners are back to stage one in determining what would make an acceptable site not only makes the commissioners look bad, but it gives significant weight to the residents’ charges that the siting was made incorrectly. The commissioners need to make sure they get it right this time around. However, the final vote for the location of the site now is set for vetted by the health department and is up to the same standards as traditional brick-and-mortar establishments. Since the complaint has been filed, the local authorities have notified three property own ers that the taco trucks renting space on their properties must cease operations. Members of the restaurant community in Carrboro oppose the trucks, saying they hold an unfair advantage. Some have also leveled charges of xeno phobia as a possible source of the complaint But there's a hero to be found, lb the rescue of the taco trucks comes Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton. He’s a man on a spicy midnight snack-related mission, saying that the taco trucks have of the group’s budget. The ASG can’t, for instance, give money back to individual campuses, even in the form of grants or scholarships which seems to be contrary to the ini tiative it’s considering. That kind of restriction defeats the purpose of the ASG. Since UNC-system students are putting money into the ASG, we should be able to get something concrete in return. The organization was estab lished in order to benefit the system schools and has with initiatives like the systemwide textbook rental program. However, it can put resources into an important project that a particular school couldn’t fund on its own. The idea is much like how the federal government can give grants to states for projects that it sees as important. ASG must be afforded the ability to do the same. Imagine the irony if the ASG actually got its act together to do something to benefit the UNC-system campuses and GA held it back. Let’s not go there. Dec. 11. That’s the date anew board will take office, meaning that new members would have this be their first vote. Given the sensitive nature of the issue, it makes sense that the current board should over see the search until its comple tion, even if it means speeding up the timeline a little bit The board is doing well to exert some peacemaking skills by hiring a consulting firm to aid in the search for an alterna tive site, so the Rogers-Eubanks community can give them a pat on the back for that Also, bringing in ecological and social justice organiza tions to avoid a repeat of the problem with the Rogers Road site would be a wise decision. These organizations exist for a reason, so use them. The commissioners bungled the last siting of the transfer facility. They need to put in the work to get it right this time. received strong public support and that they are an excellent example of Carrboro’s entrepre neurial spirit At next week’s alderman meeting, Chilton plans to push the board to amend the legal framework barring the trucks. We stand firmly behind Chilton and ask that the board come to a swift conclusion to this tasty drama. The longer this takes, the longer the owners of the taco trucks are going without income. So aldermen, remember these wise words of advice as you are determining the fate of late night deliciousness in Carrboro: “Hang the code, and hang the rules. They’re more like guide lines anyway." Viva la taco. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “College is like a bubble. Its pretty scary all of a sudden to go outside of that bubble and into the real world? KELLAN WHITE, SENIOR ON 100 DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR To read the foil-length versions VISIT http://daßytartieelpubik,wordpress^oin Post your own response to a lettet editorial or story online. VISIT www.dattytafheel.cofn/feedback Men wouldn't agree to be sisters in a coed sorority TO THE EDITOR: In Kate Capehart’s Jan. 28th letter to the editor (“Female brothers are proud members of Mu Beta Psi,“) she writes that she’s a ‘brother’ who is female and that the brother who posted fliers for Mu Beta Psi (“Co-ed ‘fraternity’ needs to use inclu sive language, Jan. 24) simply had pride in her fraternity. Imagine if male students could join a hypothetical ser vice sorority and posted fliers to join it in men’s bathrooms? How would men react? I imagine that most of them would think it’s a joke or be angry at the idea of being included in the term “sorority." I’d worry that some might send hate e-mail to the man listed as the point of contact on the flier, calling him a “sissy,” or worse. Yet female members of a coed fraternity feel proud to be called “brothers," and most women on campus who saw the flier to become a brother barely blinked an eye at the wording. In fact, the bulk of the 82 comments online criticize the woman who pointed out the contradiction in “female broth er’ does “brother" now mean “person"? Imagine if all the passion, energy and time spent on justi fying male-based generics were spent on getting rid of them? We’d all be speaking nonsex ist English. Andrew Frost Senior Sociology Rudy Giuliani dropping out of the race was news, too TO THE EDITOR: I have always heard that The Daily Tar Heel prided itself on being a nonbiased newspaper and was very strict about main taining that reputation. So imagine my surprise when I picked up a copy of Thursday’s issue and saw (John) Edwards’ name sprawled across the front page (“Edwards out of race,* Jan. 31) and no mention of (Rudy) Giuliani anywhere. At first I couldn’t believe it, but as I searched through the issue, the only reference to the end of the former New York mayor’s campaign was in the editorial cartoon. Both Edwards and Giuliani were major candidates for their parties’ nominations, so the news of them both dropping out of the race were equally important, yet the DTH seemed to completely ignore the end of Giuliani’s bid for the White House. I understand that Edwards was a part of this University and should receive more atten tion, but that doesn't mean Giuliani doesn't deserve any coverage, as well. I have become used to attending a liberal university, but I had at least hoped that the college media could remain somewhat neutral, and I am very disappointed to have been proven wrong. Rosie Bucherati Freshman Business SPEAK OUT WRITING GUIDELINES: ► Mom type: Handwritten litters will not he accepted. ► Sign and date: No more than two people should sign letters. ► Students: Indude your year, li major and phone number. ► Faculty/staff; Indude your department and phone number. ► Edit: The OTH edits lor space, clarity, accuracy and vulgarity. Limit letters to 250 words. SUBMISSION: ► Drop-off: at our office at Suite 2409 in the Student Union. ► E-mail: to editrieskOunc.edu ► Send: to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel WB, N.C. 27515. EDITOR'S NOTE: Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Daily Tar Heel or Its stall Editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel edrto rial board The board consists of eight board members, the associate opinion editor; the opinion editor and the editor. The 2007-08 editor decided not to vote on the bowl Shr Saiiii (Ear Hrri Kvetching board kveteh: v.l (Yiddish) to complain Don't come to dass if you’re just going to look at Facebook and send text messages. I really don’t care to see that Jill posted new pictures from the weekend or hear the obnoxious buzz of your phone every 3 minutes! Now that people cannot smoke within 100 feet of buildings, at least put ash trays around those designated areas. Maybe that way these folks will feel less like second dass citizens that UNC is making them out to be. You may be in one of foe “pri vate* study rooms in Davis but when you insist on screaming your entire conversation I can still hear you. Maybe your mom taught you a different definition of sharing, but sneaking in our room to steal large amounts of food and leaving crumbs for evidence is not it PS.we DO notice. “Mangers help keep campaigns running." Come on DTH. don’t you have editors!? Next time you randomly wander into our apartment Mid try to steal a 400 degree pizza out of foe oven by putting it up your shirt. I'm not going to stop you. Actually I’ll let you bum your seH. laugh, then call foe police and have you charged with attempted robbery. Sure, I'd love to donate my shoes at the Dook game. Unfortunately, I HAVE NOT been randomly selected to receive a single ticket in two years because I’m apparently black listed by the CAA. Bring back foe bracelets - now that’s a system that worked. INFORMATIONAL advertising spam filters is still considered spam Please don’t try to strike up a conversation with me on the elevator on your way to the accessible-by-stairs 3rd floor. I already hate you. To everyone who loves to bash fiats in this column: we party harder than you, do better in school, make more money and get with hotter girls. Get over it BoUNCe Magazine sucks for holding foe SBP Smackdown on Super Tuesday in Hamilton 100 at 8.-00 pm. 11l be too busy watching the polls! Thanks for foe free Bluebook, DTH! How about S bucks next time? Send your one-to-two sentence entries to edit desk9unc.edu, subject line 'kveteh / (Thr Daily (Ear Brri Established 1893, 114 years of editorial freedom ERIN ZUREICK EDITOR. 962-4086 IUREICKOEMAJLUNC.EDU OFFICE HOURS: MON. WED. FRI. 1-2 KM. ADAM STORCX OPINION EDITOR. 962-07S0 APSTORCKOUNC.EDU iONATHAN TUGMAN ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750 TUGMANOUNC.EDU ANDREW JONES PUBLIC EDITOR TONESAWOEMAIL.UNC.EDU EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS JESSICA SCISM SARAH WHITWORTH KATHRYN ARDI22ONE SARAH LETRENT DUNCAN CARLTON EIYSE MCCOY GRAHAM ROWE DAVID GIANCASPRO
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 1, 2008, edition 1
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