North Carolina Newspapers

8 TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008 CHARLES DAHAN EYE CANDY Charles Dahan is a political science graduate student from California. E-MAIL CDAHANDGMAII COM Judge men by actions, not societal stereotypes I'm saddened to see the Duke lacrosse case taught Mondays columnists noth ing. Men who completely fit their stereotype of-masculine" were unfairly accused of a crime they didn't commit and convicted in the court of public opinion large ly due to their own misguided stereotyping of masculinity. Monday’s columnists blamed a masculine culture for crime and rape, rather than criminals. These criminals, according to the colum nists. are motivated by a societal prohibition against venting their emotions and a hostile environ ment in which people watch pom and women an 1 viewed as objects. Yet, as our friends down the road learned COMMUNITY COLUMNIST two summers ago. creating a mas culine type, as radical feminists and cultural studies departments have concocted, leads to believing false accusations of truly criminal behavior. Instead of judging the tangible acts of individuals such as rape or violence judging the mind-set of men, such as their appearance, or affiliation with a sport such as lacrosse. Is easy. This type of thinking which assumes certain behaviors are inherent manifestatioas of per sonality traits or associations is wrong both when applied to tradi tionally oppressed groups and to the privileged class. Of course the kids at Duke aren't oppressed (around women's studies departments the sentiment that they did not suffer for the false accusations Is still regularly heard). Yet victims of crime suffer as much as the falsely accused through muddying law enforcement efforts with the latest academic theory of discourse. Basing safety policy upon discursive theory is too pro gressive, even for Chapel Hill. Violence does just happen. Despite tire efforts of some wishing to attain tenure, when the benefits of committing an action outweigh the risks and consequences, the likelihood of it occurring are pretty high. Monday's columnists' cri tique of tangible crime prevention measures, such as an expansion of warning alarms, blue lights and alert systems, is unfounded. The type of thinking from which such a column manifests is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Instead of the emergency blue lights and warning systems that provide methods of recourse for potential victims, gendered rhetoric such as claims about promoting a gender-neutral discourse work to mask the problem of evil. Crime and violence exist the goal Is to make them so costly that criminals don't commit crimes. A lack of gender enlightenment doesn't cause rape. Requiring men to attend gender re-education camps run by women's centers is less likely to diminish crime rates than increasing the cost of com mitting crimes that is, the likeli hood the criminal will be caught and the severity of punishment Despite what Duke and UNC’s most enlightened faculty members might tell you, writing letters and promoting "safe" dialogue (read: you say anything I find offensive and I'm hauling you off to the dean's office) doesn’t prevent rape. Shifting the blame for crime to cultural deficiencies specifically some intangible masculine culture that shuns the expression of emo tion by men and promotes such sins as pornography ls simple as these terms are so malleable. The politics of emotion are far easier than the politics of actual policy and if the 1990s taught us anything, it's that it’s easy to hide perverse policies behind big words. Words like, “exploitation’ and “harassment" and “offensive ness" often result in sending in the downs err. bureaucrats by equating disagreeable behavior with illegality and actual harms with self-victimization. But saying so will cause these individuals who so hate discourse that they must stifle any disagree ment with dose-mindedness to jump on you as not only wrong or misinformed, but evil and criminal EDITORIAL CARTOON By Louis Coppola, The Pitt News ifflEiEuwcmsswioml luiPpv uour KXiaSDt CftnQE Dfo m itms... I n ™' * " N One is the loneliest number Re-addressing failed single ticket plan is a waste of time Just when you thought they couldn’t think of anything else to complicate basket ball distribution, UNC once again proved you wrong. The athletics department and Carolina Athletic Association will host a forum tonight for stu dents to discuss the basketball ticket policy for next year. One issue on the agenda is to reopen the discussion about restricting students to only one basketball ticket if they should be lucky enough to win one in the lottery. Deja vu, anyone? This w-as part of last year’s initial ticket proposal, which also included making all stu dent seating general admission and instating the phase system for entry. Students at ticket forums last spring expressed dismay that they would not be able to sit with a friend, and many said they felt they had already been Help! I need somebody... Sadly, advising has proven itself unable to be of service To all the seniors graduat ing in May: We congratu late you for completing at least 120 hours of classes here at UNC, for putting in who knows how many more hours studying and for (presumably) lining up some sort of job/intemship to begin the next step in your life. But most of all, we would like to congratulate you for successfully wading through UNC’s cryptic and incompetent academic advising system. At a top-tier public uni versity, one would expect some sort of coherence when approaching academic advis ing. At UNC, this simply can’t be found. It is not too much to ask that every adviser on our campus be well-informed and available to students. Advisers should enable the graduation process, not inhibit it. But even with the best of intentions it is impos sible to help a student if no one keeps you up to date on the inner workings of your job. One thing that could help this is if there were more permanent advisers people whose only Quality balancing act States small budget surplus isn’t a cause for concern North Carolina is rather lucky that as of January it had a $l4O million budget surplus for this fiscal year, which ends in June. That’s because, in just three months, that surplus dropped to between sls million and S2O million above revenue forecast. This is the point in time in which we thank our state for actually budgeting intelligently so that life’s twists, such as eco nomic downturns, don’t com pletely ruin us. Though our projected sur plus has been reduced by more than 85 percent, were still in the black, and fiscal analysts say that because of conservative planning during the budgeting phase, North Carolina's spending this year should be in the dear. Opinion denied group seating with the online distribution policy. Reintroducing the one-ticket idea is part of an effort by Clint Gwaltnev. associate athletic director for ticket and Smith Center operations. Gwaltnev hopes that bv awarding only one ticket, there will be more student winners in the online lottery and that fewer tickets will go unused. Empty seats are a perennial complaint, but general admis sion and rearranged seating sec tions exacerbate this problem. The 2007-08 CAA President Colby Almond said the new seat ing arrangement means unused seats are in the same area and are therefore more visible. We appreciate Gwaltney’s dedication to getting student feedback on the ticket policy. While we mostly feel like our voice goes unheard when deal ing with the administration, he has made changes in the policy job is to understand the require ment system instead of ask ing professors to moonlight. Also, if advisers were to attend mandatory, regularly scheduled sessions in which they were updated on the ever changing credit information, they would lx* much more well informed and able to, at the very least, tell students what they need to do to graduate. If they were then to make a mistake, we would hope that some sort of measures would be set in place to hold each adviser accountable for the blunder. In addition, some sort of inter departmental communication is an essentia] part of academic advising that is currently miss ing from UNC’s program. This semester, more than 2,700 students have declared a double major. Each of these stu dents has more than one advis er, and it is crucial that their advisers form a tight network and work together in order to help the student stay on track. Things would be a whole lot easier for members of the class of 2009 if UNC would bring However, the real surplus or deficit won’t be known until all the state income taxes have been collected. North Carolina is actually in a lot better shape than some of the rest of the country. With the recession hitting the states' bot tom lines, 27 states are already projecting budget shortfalls for the next fiscal year. California for example, is looking at a sl6 billion deficit for the next year, about 15 percent of its annual budget. New York is next in line, coming up $4.9 billion short in the next year. Even South Carolina is coming upon dark days, looking at being Sl6O million in the hole. Most states, unlike our dear federal government, cannot to address student complaints. But he’s already asked the student body how we feel about one ticket per student, and we have responded clearly that we prefer two tickets. We predict more empty seats if students are expected to attend games alone. Nobody wants to stand alone, outside in the cold and rain for two hours waiting for their phase to be seated. The atmosphere in the Smith Center might also take a hit. You’re always more vocal and excited when you’re with people (or a person) that you know. If you're like us and you would hate to walk to the Smith Center, stand outside and then sit in the stands alone, let Gwaitney and the athletics department know. Go to the forum at 7 p.m. today in Murphey Hall, Room 116. It will be vour only chance to speak out this semester. back the academic degree audit for the old requirements, an online advising support sys tem that allowed students to check their academic progress without having to schedule an advising appointment. Even if it was tedious to keep updated, the online degree audit not only helped students it helped advisers to all stay on the same page. Without an adequate aca demic adviser or any online guidance, students are left on their own to take the classes that lead them along this path. This often means completing hours that don’t end up count ing toward a degree and wasting time and money taking one step forward and two steps back. When it comes time for the seniors to walk across the stage next month, there will be many people to thank, many depart ments to which students owe credit for helping them come so far. Academic advising should be one of those departments, and with some big reforms and over hauls, it very' well could be. run a budget deficit and must somehow balance their bud gets before the end of the year. North Carolina is one of those states, with a constitutional mandate to have a balanced budget. So N.C. residents need not freak out just yet. In fact, if anything, our state officials deserve a little pat on the back for conducting conservative fiscal planning and keeping their spending habits on a tight chain. And as for all those recession doubters out there, some state governments might have a few’ enlightening words for you. We just hope in the future our state officials continue to keep our the taxpayers* finances in good order. QUOTE OF THE DAY: 7 guess since he is older ; his hones just weren't that strong ” ROB HOGAN, OWNER OF HOGAN'S MAGNOLIA VIEW FARM, ON MASCOT RAMESES LOSING HIS HORN 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.daflytarheel.com/feedback DSP would cause more poor people to lose jobs TO THE EDITOR: In recent days 1 have been swamped with information regarding the Designated Suppliers Program. Though its aims are quite noble, I believe that it is a blatant example of mis guided idealism. Programs and legislation like the DSP simply do not work. The Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1992, which prohibited imports made from child labor, resulted in an estimated 50,000 children los ing their jobs in the Bangladeshi garment-making industry. This doesn’t mean these chil dren suddenly received an edu cation and better life. UNICEF reported that they turned to far more dangerous and exploitative jobs like “stone-crushing, street hustling and prostitution." What many antisweatshop activists fail to realize is in the con text of the countries where sweat shops are located, they are often a desirable source of employment Though working 12 hours in a unairconditioned factory sounds miserable, it's probably better than working 16 hours scratching a liv ing out of subsistence agriculture, especially when sweatshop work often pays double the average* local income. If a higher “living wage" is instituted, the employer will replace labor with capital. This will mean thousands of workers already below the poverty line will lose their jobs, their one and only source of security . Clearly the conditions in sweat shops are awful and need to be improved, but seeing them only in black and white in a world of grays will only cause greater problems. Anybody interested in reducing poverty should take to mind the words of world-renowned devel opment economist Jeffrey Sachs: “My concern is not that there are too many sweatshops but that there are too few." Tom Koester Junior Economics The time is now to make UNC respect human rights TO THE EDITOR: The sit-in in South Building ask ing UNC to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program, which would ensure that our UNC apparel isn't made by exploited workers, is not suffering from bad timing as the editorial board suggests (“Timing is everything," April 21). Chancellor (James) Moeser has had three years to learn about the DSP, and still he does nothing. It is Moeser, not the protesters, wbo has a flawed concept of time. Forty-two universities have already signed onto it Even Duke adopted the DSP! It is pretty sad we have a worse apparel policy than our elitist rival. More than 20 student, worker and community groups endorse the DSP. The fact that students have had to resort to a sit-in is an embarrassment to our University. It is time that UNC embrace an apparel policy that respects human rights. We do not need to wait around for anew chancellor to make it happen, and the peo ple who suffer for our decorated hoodies and T-shirts can’t afford for us to. Rachel Craft Junior Spanish, International Studies 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 DTW 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 editdesk®unc.edu ► Send: to P.O. Box 3257. Chapel HMI, N.C., 27515. EMTOrs NOTE: Cotumns, cartoons and tetters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Daily Tar Meet Of its staff. Editorials arc the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel edito rial board The board consists of nine board members, die associate opinion editor the opinion editor and the editor The 2007-08 edrtordedded not to vote on the board iThr Daily (Tar Hrrl Sit-in goal would empower factory workers abroad TO THE EDITOR: As one of the students who has been peacefully occupy ing the lobby of South Building since Thursday morning, I want to address a number of inac curate statements included in Monday's opinion piece, “Timing is Everything" (April 21). The editorial board worries that a commitment to sourc ing from factories where work ers have the right to collectively bargain would hurt workers in Bangladesh. However, they fail to mention that the UNC labor codes of conduct adopted in 1999 already mandate this right. It also fails to mention that these workers are the ones demanding that their right to organize be respected. Also University production tends to make up less than 5 per cent of the total volume of pro duction in any given factory . This means that, even if UNC uses its power to demand better working conditions, factory managers will ignore these concerns, choosing instead to please the larger buyers making up the other 95 percent of their production. The DSP would reward facto ries that support the human rights of the workers who suffer to make our UNC-licensed apparel. Our current approach is not working. The time has come for UNC to join the 42 universities around the country- that have already adopted the DSP. W'e have the opportunity to make a differ ence in the lives of thousands of workers, and we should not allow this opportunity to pass us by. Dida El-Sourady Sophomore International Studies Member. Student Action with Workers Fishing does as much good as voting in this election TO THE EDITOR: Following the politicos’ buzz just gives me the headache, /know? Here in Chapel Hill it is very like a political vacuum, with the novelty of the Obama “move ment," movin' and shakin' all over the UNC campus, all lonesome like in space. Novelty Is insufficient to excite me; the lack of novelty all over the test of the political spec trum is plenty nough to just tee totally bum me right on o-u-L What's a thinking person to do? The only viable candidate wbo is not a holdover from the 20th century is Obama, but... in the end analysis, 1 think we’ll all take it up the collective of wazoo again. But then 1 quit voting after the last two presidential elections were outright and quite nefarious ly seized. That is not to mention such egregious grievances as the meddling by the Supreme Court in the 2000 fiasco. (There arc) plenty of former voters, like myself, who simply distrust the ballot tallying too much to vote and not feel as if we are collaborating in our own oppression. Etc. and so on and ... YAWN; I’m going to go fishing. Phillip Rodney Personette Carrboro aljr Daily aar lirrl Established 1893 , 115 years ofeditorialfreedom ERIN ZUREICK EDITOR, 962-4086 ZUREICKOEMAiI UNC EDU OFFICE HOURS MON., WED., FRI. 1 -2 P.M ADAM STORCK OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750 APSTORCKOUNC.EDU JONATHAN TUGMAN ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750 TUGMANOUNC EDU EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS JESSICA SCISM TED STRONG SARAH WHITWORTH KATHRYN ARDIZZONE SARAH LETRENT DUNCAN CARLTON ELYSE MCCOY GRAHAM ROWE DAVID GIANCASPRO