Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 15, 2008, edition 1 / Page 8
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
8 FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 15, 2008 SAM PERKINS THAT'S WHAT HE SAID Sam Perkins is an environmental studies and |Ournalism double major. E-MAIL: SSPERKIN©£MAIL UNC EOU Tuition for your thoughts? Not quite Congratulations, J.J. Raynor. I'm sure you will be all that a student body president can be. But what does UNC allow a student body president to do? About 40 years have passed since students held sit-ins. pro tests and other demonstrations to clearly let it be known that they deserved and desired better. Yet little is done today as students remain effectively complacent with the authority above us and the scraps of authority given to us. Student government highlights this. During my time in student government two years ago, I found that various campus departments were more than open to discus- sions. but it was nothing that any other student UNIVERSITY COLUMNIST or group couldn't go out and do. Student government does many great, important things, but it should bo able to do more. .As adults we contribute to the state appropriations given to the University, which comprise about 25 percent of UNC’s revenue. Yet University administration treats the campus like TV-designated market areas, with rights given to people by age range. We all know a 40- to 65-year old adult can be just as irresponsi ble. ignorant, uneducated and bad at policymaking as can an 18- to 24-year-old or a 25- to .'39-year old. Why is it OK to discriminate by age but not race or gender? We can't help our age. All adults, regardless of age, are fully equal under the eyes of the law, as are people of all races. Even if it's representation via those in their 20s who were at least recently in school, students need and deserve a more integral part of bigger-issue decision making. Our presence, tuition and fees are the foundation for this University. Of the 12 members on the Board of Trustees (excluding the student hotly president's ex officio seat), only two received their undergraduate degrees after 1980 (1983 and 1984). The aver age graduation year for them is 1972. and plenty of them are old enough to be our grandparents. What kind of connection does that demonstrate with today's student? Back then, tuition and fees were only a few hundred dollars. For the Board of Governors, the situation is even worse and more disproportionately repre sentative. The average age goes up, and students only get one seat, which belongs to the head of the Association of Student Governments, out of a few dozen. So what is the result from administration and the boards? We get a bunch of unanimous votes from a marketplace of ideas about as diverse as the Soviet Union would have ever wanted. While we get to elect the student body president, we haw no say in electing any University adminis trators. Not the chancellor. Not the Board of Trustees. Not the Board of Governors. We’w gained little more responsibility- since high sch<x>l, and we're adults now tax-paying, voting adults worthy of a more representatiw presence. In trying to maintain more accurate, equal representation, how about mandating that a few board members be no more than X years out of college or no more than X years old? Maybe younger administrators and board mem bers would dig a little deeper and try a little harder to develop policy of which students can be a bit more supportiw. Do I want to incite a riot and encourage students to lock them selves in South Building? Well, not unless the right moment and issue were to come about. Maybe people will come to demand "no tuition without representation.” Or maybe this country will devel op a youth movement to address this age discrimination. Next time the administration makes (or fails to make) a policy move, and it gets under your skin, remember that you can't do any thing about it. But you or some one you elect should be able to. EDITORIAL CARTOON By Don Wright, Palm Beach Post J numkiS^ktE^^ T -’i) / \ HajncsoFTWEn&sT A A , TWPOUGU THE POWBPOF In the zone Carolina North talks need to get off on right foot Stop the conspiracy theo ries now: Carolina North does exist. The Chapel Hill Town Council voted Monday to allow Roger Stancil, the town manager, and Ralph Karpinos, the town attor ney, to meet with the University about the development. It’s nice to hear that the town council is actually doing some thing concrete about Carolina North, especially since the University plans to break ground on the first building in 2009. The aim of the meetings is to discuss zoning issues with the mixed-use satellite campus. This is sure to be the first of many conversations between the town and the University about the development. We’ve all heard that the first step is the hardest, so hopefully talks will remain civil and zon ing restrictions for the develop ment can quickly be finalized in a form that is acceptable to both Fiscally challenged Federal loans shouldn’t be cut to increase grant funding We often wonder what exactly our elected officials are thinking. Such was the case when President Bush announced his 2009 budget, which will elimi nate a federal student loan pro gram in order to increase the maximum Pell Grant award. While it might sound good on the surface, cutting low-interest federal loans will hurt more lovv to middle-income students than boosting Pell Grants will help. Plus, with Bush’s proposed record-breaking 53.1 trillion budget that will run a deficit of S4lO billion, even after cuts to health care, we have to ask whs student loan programs are the ones being cut. If the budget passes Congress, the Federal Perkins Loan Program and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant will be eliminated. The savings from these cuts would fund a $2.7 bil lion expansion of Pell Grants, increasing the maximum award by $69 to $4,800. Eliminating the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants Look farther south Burr might not be McCains best choice of running mate Let the speculation begin. With John McCain virtually guaranteed the Republican presidential nomi nation, political pundits have now shifted their focus onto who will be his choice for the vice presidential spot on the ticket Among those names being tossed around is that of Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who is serving his first term as a sen ator and was mentioned by McCain in 2006 as a potential vice presidential candidate. At first glance Burr could be a savvy choice for McCain’s presi dential ticket, but appearances in this case are deceiving. At 52 years old, Burr is much younger than McCain, and he hails from the South, Opinion the town and UNC. This is \ital if the University wants to begin construction on schedule. We hope that this meeting isn't a repeat of past ones on Carolina North, during which a lot was said but not much is done. We’re not asking that the town roll over or that the University stall plans, only that both sides will be willing to compromise as they've done in the past. In addition to zoning, the town has a number of concerns that the University needs to pay heed to as it proceeds with the development. Residents of Chapel Hill have voiced reservations about the satellite campus on the basis that it will tax already strained resources and destroy some existing trails. In addition, there are con cerns over the additional vehi cle traffic that the development will bring to the area. is not as big of a deal, as they go to far fewer people than Pell Grants do and people already receiving Pell Grants are* gener ally given priority, so it’s more of a consolidation of programs than anything. However, it’s illogical to elim inate loans to fund grants. Pell Grants and Perkins Loans are aimed at two fundamentally different populations. While Pell Grants are pri marily awarded to families with incomes less than $20,000, the loans go to students who don’t qualify- for grants but still can’t pay for college on their own. Even more importantly, these loans provide relatively low interest rates that private com panies can’t (or won’t) offer. Even if you ignore the fraud that has plagued the private loan industry, taking out a loan from a private company is rather costly, as they demand a higher interest rate because students are less financially stable and therefore less likely to be able to repay a loan. About 24 percent of people take out private loans for edu which appears reluctant to support McCain’s nomination. Presumably a Southerner on the ticket would make McCain more palatable to Dixie voters. Furthermore, adding Burr to the ticket could also help pla cate co use native voters who remain distrustful of McCain. According to the National Journal, a nonpartisan politi cal magazine. Burr had a con servative rating of 70 percent in 2006, lower than some other Republican senators but certainly higher than McCain’s rating of 57 percent. However, like his distant relative (and former vice presi dent) Aaron Burr, Richard Burr has some shortcomings. Burr’s approval ratings are fairly abysmal, which isn’t The University would be wise to not only listen to the concerns of the town but also work with Chapel Hill to come up with compromises before the cam pus is built and the concerns become full-fledged problems. A half century is a long time for Chapel Hill and UNC to be working together on this proj ect as it is constructed, so get ting off on the right foot with these negotiations is vital. If either side comes in and tries to dictate how the devel opment will occur, it could potentially further delay the project, which has been in the planning stages since 1998. Discussion is the first impor tant step to work out how the town and the University can best address conflicts in the competing visions that each have for Carolina North. We hope this will be the begin ning of many fruitful conversa tions between the two parties. cation, which has increased 12 percent in the past decade. In addition, the numbers just don’t make sense. About 5.4 million people receive Pell Grants, compared to just 501,000 for Perkins Loans. That means that, on average. 5.4 million people will get an extra $69 and half a million will get nothing. Included in those half million are 2.643 UNC students who received a total of $8 million in Perkins Loans last year. We’re not saying people receiving Pell Grants don’t deserve them; clearly they need them. But the government can’t neglect others who are slightly better off financially but still need help paring for college. This isn’t some Robin Hood esque act on the part of Bush. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor; Bush is tak ing from the poor to give to the poorer. Surely there must be some thing else in his $3.1 trillion budget that he can cut instead of student loans. what a presidential candidate should be looking for. In a poll conducted in November 2007, Burr had an approval rating of 30 percent. Using historv- as a guide, it probably isn’t the best idea to pick a N.C. senator with low r approval ratings for your vice presidential slot just look at the last presidential election. Instead of Burr, McCain would be better off with a Southerner who is more popular and expe rienced. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who helped McCain win the primary there last month, could be a good fit, as could S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford. But if McCain has to have someone from North Carolina as his running mate, we hear John Edwards is still available. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It is the only job I can think of that gives you the opportunity t 0... put a Carolina blue wig on Dickie V' ANDY BLACKMORE, UNC BLUES BROTHER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR To read the full-length versions VISIT http://dailytarheelpublic.wordpress.co(n Post your own response to a letter, editorial or story online. VISIT www.dailytarheel.com/feedback Wage gap was accurately represented by bake sale TO THE EDITOR: Although I can sympathize with a cookie-craving not ful filled, 1 cannot help but feel that Lance Dunlap's reaction in his Feb. 13 letter (“Bake sale in the Pit was sexist and discrimina tory'”) was misguided. The Wage Gap Bake Sale is intended to raise awareness, and Mr. Dunlap seemed well on the path to greater awareness as he went on to do further research on this existing inequality. However, he neglected to understand the lifelong frus tration that women experience performing the same jobs as their male co-workers vet earn ing substantially less money. Be it 75 or 88 cents on each dollar, this amounts to millions of dol lars lost by women in the work force each year. These numbers are actu ally based on comparing w ages within the same professions, meaning that males and females in the same job are earning dif ferent salaries. Women still pay the same prices, thus spending a higher percentage of their salaries on necessities. One would assume these facts would strike a chord in anyone professing concern over discrimination. Perhaps with more reflection Mr. Dunlap might understand the goals of the Wage Gap Bake Sale and the problems it intends to address. Or maybe next year someone should just loan him a quarter. Emily Kiser Junior Spanish Out-of-staters are better off than illegal immigrants TO THE EDITOR: The N.C. Constitution grants all people the inalienable right to a public education (Article 1, Section 15). If we are bound to provide everyone with K-12 schooling, it only makes sense to capitalize on that investment. So-called illegal aliens are economic refugees. They come here to escape extreme poverty. Let’s stop demonizing desperate people in desperate situations. The dishonesty- lies in how we frame immigration, not in the character of the immigrants. Unless of course we'd be OK with living in a dirt-floor shack, earn ing an average of §1,372 a year. Maybe our high and mighty morals or, even better, our flaw less logic, would keep us from feeling hunger. I have many out-of-state friends, some of whom are fac ing mounting debt. The U.S. has a terrible higher education sys tem, no question about it Yet, I doubt my friend from Texas would equate her option of attending the University of Texas-Austin with an undocu mented student’s option of dig ging through a garbage dump in Tegucigalpa. The out-of-state/undocu mented comparison argument fails the moment you consider the wildly disparate meanings of “home state" for each. Rachel Craft Spanish, Inti. Studies Junior SPEAK OUT WRITING GUIDELINES: ► Please type: Handwritten letters will not be accepted. ► Sign and date: No more than two people should sign letters ► Students: Include your year, major and phone number. ► Faculty/staff: Include your department and phone number. ► Edit: The DTH edits for 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 editdeskOunc.edu ► Send: to P.O. Box 3257. Chapel Hill, N.C., 27515. EDITOR'S NOTE: Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Daily Tar Heel or its staff Editorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel edito 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 board ahr Daihi Oar Hrrl Kvetching board kvetch: v.l (Yiddish) to complain Notice to all out-of-state stu dents: Claim to be an 'undocu mented' immigrant and save thousands on tuition! Are you serious with that orange tan? I am half expecting you to bust out in the Oompa Loom pa dance. Thank God our English majors are not working for the Department of Transportation. Otherwise, we would not be treated to the somewhat pathet ic but highly entertaining "Yeild to Pedestrians' sign on the cor ner of South and Columbia. I voted for JJ. Raynor because I thought standing in the Pit all day was part of her plat form, but she wasn't there on Wednesday. I feel so betrayed! Why couldn't Logan (Liles) be SBP? At least he was cute, even in the eyes of this heterosexual man. Please don't pull your com pact car all the way up in the space. Parking on campus is hard enough without fleeting moments of false hope. Dear Shrek, we know there's a drought, but when we can smell you coming even over the stench of Lenoir, it's time to take a shower. Dear GAA, please never again give out those stupid 'We got here first' T-shirts at basketball games. Last year we lost to Va. Tech and probably should've lost this year to Clemson. Lenoir and Rams Head, we love the specialty nights, yes, we do. But why can't we have that good of food every night? We know you can do it! I don't care what anyone says; Q has stepped up. I believe in you, Q. Blaring rap music in the Pit is more annoying than it is effec tive. Unless its purpose is to annoy, in which case it is very effective. To the girl in front of me at the Clemson game: Kissing your boyfriend after EVERY made basket made an already horrible first half of the game nauseat ing, as well, so thanks. WHY were there hundreds of empty seats in the Dean Dome Sunday night?!?! I know plenty of people who would have loved to be there! If you can't go, give your tickets to someone who wants to go! Morrison Package Center girl... please stop being so sexy. I’m losing a fortune shipping things to myself for a chance to see you for eight seconds. Send your one-to-two sentence entries to edit desk@unc.edu, subject line ‘kvetch/ ahr tkilil aar Hrrl Established 18S3, 114 years of editorialfreedom ERIN ZUREICK EDITOR. 962-4086 ZUREICKOEMAIL.UNC.EDU OFFICE HOURS: MON .WED .FRI. 1-2 PM ADAM STORCK OPINION EDITOR. 962 0750 APSTOnCKOUNC.EDU JONATHAN TUGMAN ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR. 9623)750 TUGMANOUNC EDU EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS JESSICA SCISM SARAH WHITWORTH KATHRYN ARDIZZONE SARAH LETRENT DUNCAN CARLTON EIYSE MCCOY GRAHAM ROWE DAVID GIANCASPRO
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 15, 2008, edition 1
8
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75