12
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2. 2008
na
NATHAN NYANJOM
A DIFFERENT ANGLE
Nathan Nyanjom is a senior biology
major from Columbia. Md.
E-MAIL: NYANJOMOEMAIL UNC.EDU
Why I
should
have gone
to Duke
Honestly. 1 have no idea
why anyone wouldn't
want to go to Duke
Happy (belated) April Fool's Day.
You have to admit 1 got vour
attention, though.
Before 1 spin this into a piece on
enriching our lives with laughter
and comedy, let’s give our rival to
the east credit where credit's due
they realized that then- was no
need to retaliate to the already piti
ful “Say UNCIe" T-shirts that the
gems working at Student Stores
came up with, and when the senior
class here at UNC was dealt the
graduation speaker card of singer
Jessye Norman. Duke once again
had the last laugh, acquiring the
services of nov
elist Barbara
Kingsolver.
AT-LARGE
COLUMNIST
Wikipedia says she’s big in
Kentucky.
In 1582, the human race
dropped the Julio-Roman calendar
for a Gregorian one, which meant
that New Year's Day would fall on
January 1. instead of the first day
of April. Life without cell phones
and Internet in this 16th century
meant that news traveled slower,
and those who still thought that
the new year commenced on April
1 were labeled “April Fools."
Just as Christmas means re
gifting and every other American
holiday means eating. Tuesday's
passing of April Fool's Day meant
hoaxes and practical jokes per
formed both on campus and off.
Some jokes 1 witnessed were
better than others. The one
fraternity brother 1 saw not
wearing Croakies was a smash
hit while a friend's text message
asking if I had heard about TYler
Hansbrough being seen on cam
pus in crutches was a bigger flop
than Ryan Leaf in the XFL.
Despite how many bad jokes
you and 1 were exposed to Tuesday,
April Fool s Day each and every
year is a resounding success, for it
encourages us to laugh both at our
friends and their gullibility and at
ourselves for pulling ofl’such an
amazing gag if for only one day
a tear.
There are few things healthier
in life than laughing, as sessions
with the likes of Dave Chappelle
and Pat Robertson give our bodies
mini-workouts muscles in our
face and body are stretched, our
blood pressure and pulse go up.
and our heart rate gets a boost.
A group of scientists with
nothing better to do even found
out that laughing for 15 minutes
bums 50 calories. Since it's hard
enough to laugh for 60 seconds
straight, let alone a quarter hour,
I'd draw the line when it comes
to laughing as a form of regular
exercise stick to proven simula
tion of power skiing away from
the mirror behind you that is the
Elliptical.
Laughing and humor enrich
our lives. Finding humor in our
shortcomings means that we're
less likely to find them depress
ing. helping us to not live in a
mental state of severity.
Best of all. laughter has no
translation barrier people of dif
ferent races, genders and religions
all over the world came together to
watch the Patriots lose.
We need to laugh in life,
because it helps us escape from
its hardships and find solace
in its sweetest moments. Eve
Carson’s celebration saw all of us
laughing at the anecdotes that
her friends told, and we left the
Smith Center that Tuesday as
better people because of it
Now that April Fool’s Day has
come and gone, you can look at
its passing in one of two ways.
On the one hand, you can take
a sigh of relief and know that you
have 364 more days until you
haw to suffer through a concen
tration of corny jokes again.
If you're up for something
completely different, you can use
Tuesday's passing as a challenge
to in fact start anew year —one
in which you strive to laugh both
in life and at it and bring your
friends and family along for the
ride.
I certainly try to do that each
and every' Wednesday.
EDITOR PLATFORMS
For the full-length platforms, go to the opinion section at dailytarheel.com.
Maximizing our potential
At its best. The Daily Tar
Heel is a spotlight on the
UNC community: illumi
nating issues, showcasing accom
plishments and lighting the way
to better collaboration between
the University and the world
beyond its w’alls.
The DTH is a student-run.
teaching newspaper at heart.
Students an 1 the soul of the paper,
and as editor I will work with our
news adviser to ensure that stu
dents maintain control of all edito
rial decisions. 1 will increase train
ing opportunities to re-emphasize
the newspaper's role in shaping
effective journalists.
Just as the DTH must provide
quality journalism to maintain its
readers' loyalty, the paper must
also provide a quality experience
to maintain its staffers' enthusi
asm. I will take steps to improve
the newsroom atmosphere and to
combat turnover and burnout by
alleviating the strain on editors and
increasing flexibility for staffers.
Focus on staff development
■ In addition to learning to
report accurately and write well, all
editors should be able to take pic
tures, post content online and cre
ate simple pullouts and graphics.
■ Desk editors will compile
“how-to" guides before new staff
orientation in the fall.
■ Training sessions throughout
the semester, held at a time com
patible to editors' schedules, will
develop and reinforce skills for all
staffers.
■ Editors from the news side
will shadow editors of visual desks
and vice versa.
Increase transparency
Utilize the public editor:
■ The public editor will open
the newsroom to readers by writ
ing weekly columns explaining
the editorial process and giving
voice to reader concerns.
■ Excerpts from commonly
themed letters or online com
ments will run with brief respons
es from the public editor.
Focus on accountability:
■ All levels of editors will check
facts. 1 will compile and distribute
monthly correction reports.
Setting a higher standard
The changes I propose will
institutionalize measures
that will better serve the
DTH staff and. in turn, its read
ers. Each point helps accomplish
my philosophy and \ision for how
The Daily Tar Heel can continue to
excel next year and into the future.
Restructure for online age
■ 1 will create the position of
managing editor for online. The
deputy managing editor job will
be eliminated.
■ The ME for online will: read
and post stories that are finished
before print deadlines, brief edi
tors at daily budget meetings on
the Web's most-read and most
commented stories of the day and
focus the newsroom as a whole on
innovating online.
■ The Web site must be a
resource for the community.
Content will be logically organized
for immediate accessibility. We will
develop a mom concrete style guide
for the Web.
■ 1 will hire someone to work
during the summer to begin put
ting basic hyperlinks into past sto
ries for the most important recur
ring things we cover. From then on.
those links will be added when the
paper is posted each night.
■ Blogs will give readers details
and anecdotes that don’t fit into
news stories, with an eye toward
analysis and conversationality.
■ I will update the editor's blog
at least once a week to highlight the
focus of our coverage and to initiate
dialogue with readers.
■ I will continue to support and
encourage growth of the multime
dia desk, with the ultimate goal that
the desk will haw enough staff to
pursue original content ideas regu
larly. Multimedia presentations will
be archived more accessibly.
The print product
■ I will provide a varied front
page to draw in readers and will
give arts, features and nongame
sports stories prominent places in
the paper. 1 will increase creative
alternate story forms.
■ I will increase photo stories.
The photo editor will be more
concerned with long-term strat
egy to increase the functionality
and creativity of the DTH’s use of
photos for both print and online.
Opinion
lift
ELIZABETH DEORNELLAS
JUNIOR, ENGLISH. FAIRFAX. VA
■ 1 will emphasize* collaborative
editing: Editors must thoroughly
question writers to ensure accuracy
and to make editing a learning pro
cess. Reporters should play a role in
writing headlines.
Increase accessibility:
■ I will hold office hours and
spend time Pit-sitting.
■ I will meet regularly with key
sources and will participate in
community forums to promote
collaboration with campus and
town groups.
■ I will reassess distribution sites
to provide better service and ensure
the broadest possible readership.
Integrate the visual desks
into the editorial process
Hire a visual editor to:
■ Oversee the visual desks, act
ing as a liaison between the visual
desks and the news side.
■ Help plan orientation and
training sessions.
■ Attend enterprise and daily
meetings to craft story packages
and manage the visual elements
of long-term projects.
■ Put together multimedia
pieces like slideshows to reduce
the burden on the online and photo
editors and to ensure quality.
■ Study other newspapers to
learn the best industry practices
on graphics and multimedia.
Expand orientation:
■ Photographers will attend a
pre-orientation session to learn
camera skills and will practice at
orientation. Online and multime
dia staffers will practice reporting
skills at orientation.
Increase efficiency:
■ Desk editors will promptly put
in photo, graphic and multimedia
requests for enterprise stories and
for events whose schedule is deter
mined several days in advance.
■ All staffers will be encour
aged to consider potential visual
elements with their stories.
■a
ALLISON NICHOLS, JUNIOR
COMP LIT.. JOURNALISM, WEST CHESTER. PA
■ I will increase graphic and
photo illustrations. The visual and
writing sides of the newsroom will
engage in a creative process.
■ I will continue the expansion
and variety of arts desk coverage.
The features desk will rededicate
itself to covering the human-inter
est side of news and will return to
a small core of experienced writers.
■ Diversions will incorporate
more features and photos and main
tain an independent structure.
■ City desk will focus on suc
cinct. informed coverage of town
news and not force a student
angle. Writers will be encouraged
to tap a variety of sources.
■ The state and national desk
will refocus on the UNC system
and on analyzing the relationship
between UNC and the state.
Reporting and writing
■ The Investigative team will
produce hard-hitting coverage
with a focus. I-team members
will be treated like professional
beat reporters, expected to work
on multiple projects at once.
■ The 1-team will not wait to
request records until it needs one for
a specific story, but will continually
request a large number of them to
provide a database of information.
■ I will encourage writers to
develop their own voice and dis
courage editors from editing it out
■ 1 will promote clarity and
organization in writing that contex
tualizes the story in a broader sense
to explain and analyze the news.
■ I will stress that accuracy is a
priority and emphasize fact-check
ing at all stages of editing. The ME
for print will write a corrections
report monthly.
Teaching and recruitment
■ I will build time at editors'
retreat for management and lead
ership training.
■ I will work with the news
adviser to create weekly enrich-
Ease the editors' workload
Turnover and burnout rob the
paper of its most experienced
staffers, ultimately weakening
coverage. Easing the editor bur
den is a long-term investment in
a better product.
Restructure prebudget:
■ Prebudget will be a planning
session for the three main news
desks and photo.
■ Attendance will be optional
for all other desks, whose edi
tors will speak with management
before they leave, provide a writ
ten update and remain on-call.
All editors will be welcome
to attend for brainstorming pur
poses, especially on nights before
long-term projects or planned
packages are set to run.
Meet staff needs:
■ Staff salaries will be re-evalu
ated to more effectively utilize
our budget and to better reflect
the amount of time and effort put
into each position.
■ Purchasing equipment will be
a budget priority.
■ I will emphasize flexibility
during recruitment. Staffers will
be encouraged to work two days a
week but permitted to work one.
I will continually offer interested
students an opportunity to join
staff.
■ Each desk will keep updated
staft'lists and contacts in an acces
sible location. The server will be
cleaned out and organized.
■ Each night a member of man
agement will update a central list
of the writer, photographer and
graphic designer, if applicable, for
each story.
Amplify online resources
■ Recruitment will focus on
attracting staffers with multime
dia experience.
■ Information needed to under
stand each desk's coverage area
will be put online as a resource.
■ Ongoing coverage, in partic
ular multipart series, will include
links to previous articles.
■ Online sports coverage will be
increased to better showcase all
sports and to provide a platform
for in-depth multimedia features.
■ Blogs will focus on providing
fresh content.
ments geared toward editors and
senior staffers because learning
shouldn't end with the acquisition
of a title. The visual and digital
desks will not be neglected. Staff
will be encouraged to attend writ
ing, visual and digital enrichments
regardless of background.
■ 1 will work with the news
adviser and a recruitment editor
to develop a recruitment strategy
that will draw a diverse cross-sec
tion of the University to the news
room for the purpose of increas
ing variety of coverage and better
relating to our readership.
Management philosophy
■ 1 will work with each desk
editor to formulate with them a
vision for their desk and then let
them run with it because people
learn when they have ownership.
I will communicate trust and con
fidence in my editors to thrive in
their areas of expertise.
■ I will support the editors by
giving them feedback monthly.
■ 1 will re-examine the distribu
tion of newsroom pay in light of the
recent wage increases.
Opinion page
■ I will assemble a diverse edi
torial board of people with very
strong opinions and reporting back
grounds by advertising and recruit
ing in nontraditional areas.
■ Board members must be vigi
lant consumers of local news, come
to meetings with ideas prepared
and do original reporting.
■ Columnists will: do research;
write columns that are current
and pegged to something relevant;
focus on building a readership
during the semester; blog. I will
proofread columns two days in
advance of when they run.
■ Viewpoints will return
monthly to increase the diversity
of opinions in the paper and to
emphasize the issues most being
talked about by readers.
Pulse of the community
■ DTH will provide a public
forum for debate to continue and be
further informed when our cover
age sparks considerable discussion
online or in the community.
■ The public editor will call and
meet sources and readers each day;
write a biweekly column; blog.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
‘7 call him Teezy. I’ve always
called him Teezy because he calls
me Weezy”
WAYNE ELLINGTON, ON TYLER HANSBROUGH
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Feel strongly about something that has been printed? Post your own
response to a letter, editorial or story online.
VISIT www.dailytarheel.com/feedback
Students must be willing
to put time into their pets
TO THE EDITOR:
Male students buy dogs to
be “chick magnets’ Females
buy them as a cute “accessory."
Students often underestimate
the time-consuming and costly
demands of owning a pet.
Our schedules are filled with
classes, sports, parties, jobs and
more. There is little time for
walking, training and loving a
dog. Most of us are on a limited
budget and don’t realize how
expensive it is to raise a dog.
Many female students rush to
buy a rhinestone dog collar and a
Burberry dog scarf to accessorize
their adorable “accessory.” Instead,
they should budget for veterinar
ian check-ups. medicines, vaccines
and spaying/neutering.
Orange County Animal Services
urges students to take the respon
sibility of owning a pet seriously.
Make sure you have a sensible rea
son for buying or adopting a dog.
Animal Services provides
students and residents with
low-cost spay/neuter education,
rabies vaccinations and adop
tion services. For more informa
tion, call 967-7383 or visit wvvw.
co.orange.nc.us/animalscrvices/
index.asp.
Ally Baker
Senior
Journalism
Ben Aydt
Senior
Journalism
The best way to stay safe
is to be a good neighbor
TO THE EDITOR:
The front-page articles by
Sarah Frier and Keely Stockett
(“Residents’ safety concerns
heightened" and “Police offer tips
for housing break-ins." March
28) failed to recognize a key com
ponent of safer neighborhoods:
knowing your neighbors.
While public officials certain
ly have some responsibility for
keeping our communities safe, as
residents we must also take ini
tiative. Meeting and maintaining
relationships with neighbors on
your street or in your apartment
complex not only fosters a friendly
environment day-to-day, but also
creates a safer neighborhood.
Neighbors can look after your
house when you’re away and can
be alert to suspicious persons or
situations in the area. Beyond
these crisis-oriented needs,
neighbors can also provide child
care, add team members to a
pick-up softball game, host com
munity potlucks and other things
that promote the overall security
of the neighborhood.
When we focus solely on the
fear that violent acts and robber
ies can evoke, we overlook the
deeper human need to be part of
a secure, welcoming community.
I’d like to encourage you to get
past some of the fear. Leave your
blinds up and your doors open
on warm days and be a good
neighbor by smiling and intro
ducing yourself to others.
Restoring the village atmo
sphere that so many of us value
isn’t just dependent on “people
knowing how to protect them
selves" as the articles suggest, but
on people knowing and trusting
each other.
Cara Wittekind
Junior
Public Policy
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.
EDrrors NOTE: Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
The Daily Tar Heel or its staff. Editorials are the opinions solely oMhe Daily Tar Heel edito
rial board. The board consists ol nine board members, the associate opinion editor, the
opinion editor and the editor The 2007-06 editor decided not to vote on the board.
ahr Daily ear firrl
Description was reflection
of statistics on criminals
TO THE EDITOR:
(In response to) “False report
makes a stir" (April 1), although
(Brian) Sharpe’s recent report
might have gained credibility
by mentioning race, I challenge
those who think this demon
strates widespread racism in
society.
Based on U.S. Census and
Department of Justice data in
2005, a person who commits
robbery is statistically eight
times more likely to be black.
Why is this important?
Because it shows that even if
Sharpe’s story was more cred
ible to the general population
because he stated a race, this isn’t
necessarily due to irrational rac
ism in society, but rather because
it's statically- more probable.
Similarly, Sharpe's story was
likely more credible because he
labeled the attacker male.
Is this because our society is
irrationally sexist? Or is it simply
because men commit a higher
percentage of crimes?
Also, in case someone tries
to attack my comparison, real
ize that based on the size of the
attacker, it could easily have been
either sex, so physical differences
do not explain why using male is
more credible.
C.P. Helms
Junior
Business
Please continue to donate
to the Senior Campaign
TO THE EDITOR:
Thank you for your March
20th editorial. “Time is running
out," supporting participation in
the 2008 Senior Campaign for
Carolina. While time is running
out it isn’t too late. Participation
is so important, not just to reach
our goal and to meet our chal
lenge gifts, but also because of the
incredible impact gifts from all
individuals have across campus.
Many students don’t realize
that 24 percent of UNC-Chapel
Hill’s annual revenue is a result
of private donations.
Last academic year, through
the Carolina Annual Fund alone,
gifts from 34,668 alumni, stu
dents, parents, faculty, staff and
friends of Carolina added up
to 85,480,692.63 in additional
support for academic endeavors
at the University.
In a recent survey of Carolina
students. 68.5 percent of respon
dents stated they philanthropi
cally supported causes they
cared about. I hope students wiil
consider including UNC in their
philanthropic giving so that the
University may continue to open
doors to unparalleled opportuni
ties and experiences for future
generations of students.
Making a gift is easy- by credit
card at annualfund.unc.edu/gift
or One Card at annualfund.unc.
edu/onecard. You can support any
of over 7.000 funds across cam
pus. Learn more in the "Students’
section of annualfund.unc.edu.
Rebecca Bramlett
Associate Director. Annual
Giving
Office of University
Development
ahr Daily aar licrl
Established 1893,
115 years
ofeditorialfreedom
ERIN ZUREICK
EDITOR. 962-4086
ZUREICKOEMAIL.UNC.EDU
OFFICE HOURS
MON.. WED. FRI 1-2 PM.
ADAM STORCK
OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750
APSTORCKOUNC.EDU
JONATHAN TUGMAN
ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR. 9624750
TUGMANOUNC.EDU
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
JESSICA SCISM
TED STRONG
SARAH WHITWORTH
KATHRYN ARDIZZONE
SARAH LETRENT
DUNCAN CARLTON
ELYSE MCCOY
GRAHAM ROWE
DAVID GIANCASPRO