VOLUME 116, ISSUE 89
diversions | page 4
MUSIC TO MY EYES
Minus Sound Research, an
art exhibit that exclusively
displays the visual art of local
musicians, opens atWootini
gallery in Carr Mill Mall.
win prizes
TO ALL UNC STUDENTS:
Want to help improve the
DTH? Take our survey and be
entered to win SSOO worth of
prizes. Visit www.dailytarheel.
com/survey today.
Ljhl,
football | online
ABOVE REPROACH
It's tough to criticize Bruce
Carter these days. The four
straight blocked punts. The inter
ception return for a touchdown.
The three tackles for loss.
opinion | page 12
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online | clailytHrheel.com
SPECIAL ELECTIONS
The Nov. 5 vote will fill six
Student Congress seats.
LESSONS LEARNED
Former gang member is now
speaking out against racism.
FOOTBALL'S NEW MVP
UNC's Bruce Carter earns high
marks in game against UConn.
this day in history
OCT. 9,1991...
Forbes names UNC-system
president C.D. Spangler one of
the 400 wealthiest Americans.
The magazine estimated his
net worth at $325 million.
Today's weather
iAfr T-Storms
H 77, L 64
Friday’s weather
Partly sunny
H 81, L 61
index
police log 2
calendar 2
nation/world 9
crossword 11
opinion 12
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
01ir Satlu ®ar Mrri
Ethics inquiry to focus on funds
McClendon: Request wasn’t inflated
BY ELISABETH GILBERT
STAFF WRITER
Student Congress’ ethics inves
tigation into Concept of Colors
will focus on whether the funding
request members presented was
justified, not on group treasurer
Shaniqua McClendon’s personal
integrity.
The investigation was
announced Tuesday after evi
dence surfaced suggesting that
McClendon had intentionally
inflated the modeling group’s
$7,535 funding request for an
upcoming fashion show.
Ethics committee chairwoman
Charissa Lloyd said she hopes to
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"Spirit of Uganda," a show using dance to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, came to Memorial Hall in April as part of
■ Carolina Performing Arts' season. CPA has grown through membership in the Major University Presenters consortium. ~ I
ARTS SERIES SHINES
IN PRESTIGIOUS COMPANY
Carolina
Performing Arts fl
Formed: 2005
Leader: Emil J. Kang,
Executive Director for the Arts
Staff size: 22
Main venue:
► Memorial Hall:
capacity 1,434
► Kang said CPA is also
looking into the potential
future use of Gerrard Hall and
Playmakers Theatre.
Approximate total
ticket sales:
► 2006-07:36,000
► 2007-08:40,000
Percentage of tickets
sold to students:
► 2006-07:32 percent
► 2007-08:35 percent
The St Petersburg Philharmonic
performs at Memonal Hall
few seasons
Money for local construction projects is tight
BY ANDREW HARTNETT
AND ANDY KENNEY
STAFF WRITERS
Economic woes could postpone
development of 300 E. Main St.
and affect other developers’ proj
ects in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Laura Van Sant, of Main Street
Properties, said the SSO million
project, which was approved last
week, could have trouble obtaining
credit to finance construction.
“It is very challenging right now
to get any credit for commercial
projects,” Van Sant said. “We’ll see
how that plays out and whether it
will be a problem for a few days or
weeks or whether it will drag on for
a long time.”
Stephen Cumbie, executive
director of the Center for Real
Estate Development at UNC’s
www.dallytarheel.coin
hold the investigation within the
next week. This is the first ethics
investigation in about two years.
McClendon and the other
Concept of Colors officers will meet
with the ethics committee to audit
the request.
“This group obviously is going
to be looked at as innocent until
proven guilty,” Congress Speaker
Tim Nichols said.
The controversy began when
students in McClendon’s business
class reported to Congress that she
told the class that she had embel
lished the budget numbers.
McClendon’s classmates said
she talked about inflating the num-
BY BENNETT CAMPBELL
SENIOR WRITER
% When Carolina Performing
Arts was invited to join the Major
University Presenters consortium
last December, people noticed.
That’s mainly because CPA is in
its infancy compared to other mem
bers of the consortium —a loose but
highly selective group of the nation’s
top performing arts presenters.
CPA’s four years of existence
are dwarfed, for example, by the
130-year history of the University
of Michigan’s University Musical
Society, another member of MUPs,
as the consortium is referred to.
Some credit CPA’s member
ship in MUPs to the meteoric rise
in prominence and substance the
series has seen. The benefits of that
membership, they say, will only fur
ther aid the series’ prominence.
Support from up top
Aaron Greenwald, director of
Duke Performances, the performing
arts series right down Tobacco Road,
said although Duke is not a member
of MUPs, he understands what the
collective values most
“There is a real deep buy-in
from senior levels of the schools’
administration, whether it’s from
the chancellor or provost or presi
dent,” Greenwald said. “It’s not just
‘Of course we want a performing
arts program,’ but like, ‘l’m going
to go to the meetings and figure
out how we integrate this into our
campus.’”
Emil Kang, director of CPA and
UNC’s executive director for the
Kenan-Flagler Business School,
said the financial crisis is affecting
developers across the board.
“This looks like it’s turning into
a classic credit crisis, but of much
greater proportion than in the last
50 years,” Cumbie said.
Cumbie said that the residen
tial housing market has been in
a slump for years, and in recent
months commercial real estate
markets have followed suit
Developers’ loan and credit
troubles are making it increasingly
difficult to finance new commercial
projects, such as office buildings
and shopping centers.
“Debt financing has really
become nonexistent for new proj
ects other than the absolutely
strongest borrowers, and even then
it’s very difficult,” Cumbie said.
bers she presented tp the Congress
finance committee on Sept. 30 so
the group could still get all it need
ed even if its budget got slashed.
McClendon said she tailored the
details of the story on the spot as
part of a class assignment but did
not lie either to Congress or to her
class.
Officials said rumors of stu
dent groups inflating their fund
ing requests, which are paid for
by student fees, are not new. But
this case is the first in which stu
dents have brought evidence to
Congress.
“We never caught anyone ‘red
handed,’ and that’s what the ethics
investigation is looking into with
this group,” Nichols said.
He added that he thinks the
arts, came to UNC while former
Chancellor James Moeser was in
office. While CPA doesn’t turn a
profit it actually ran a more than
$2.7 million deficit last year due at
least in part to subsidized student
tickets Kang said CPA is in its
current state due in part to Moeser’s
support, financial and otherwise.
“We generated over $lO million in
the past few years while Moeser was
in office,” Kang said, noting that the
Kenan Charitable Thist was respon
sible for $5 million of that total.
“Everyone there knew that a
healthy endowment was going to
be key to our artistic freedom.”
Kang said new Chancellor
Holden Thorp appears to have a
similar appreciation for the arts
on campus.
The art of collaboration
While administrative support
has been responsible for lifting
CPA to a status deemed worthy of
invitation into MUPs, once a pro
gram attains such a status, the pro
cess becomes self-perpetuating.
Ken Fischer, president of
University Musical Society at
Michigan, said the biggest benefit
of membership is the potential for
collaboration with other member
universities.
“It has become a very impor
tant network, not just for the chief
executive officers, but for our mar
keting staffs, for our development
and fundraising staffs, for our pro
duction people, for our education
SEE ARTS, PAGE 9
“We’re going to be stuck in this
cycle for a while.”
Downturns in the economy also
are making prospective tenants
more cautious, reducing demand
and straining developers.
“In order to build, we need to
have preleasing or some sort of
pre-commitments from tenants or
future tenants,” said Mark Moshier,
a senior vice president at Grubb &
Ellis/Thomas Linderman Graham,
which manages University
Square.
“People are being more conser
vative, being slower to make up
their mind,” he said.
A lack of preleases by tenants
makes it more difficult to secure
financing for large projects, espe
cially as lenders demand more pre
leases for each project.
investigation will deter other group
leaders who might be seeking to
pad their funding requests unnec
essarily.
Congress representative Michael
Betts also is drafting a bill to create
a legislative audit budget board to
prevent similar occurrences in the
future.
Nichols said the board would
conduct an annual review to make
sure groups had spent the money
they received from Congress for the
purpose defined in their requests.
Funding use deemed inappro
priate would lead to sanctions on
future funding for the group in
question.
“This is just going to make sure
the money is being spent the way it
was authorized to be spent,” Betts
Duke Performances
Formed: 2005
Leader: Aaron Greenwald,
director
Staff size: 6
Main venues:
► Page Auditorium:
capacity 1,232
► Reynolds industries Theater:
capacity 643
► Nelson Music Room:
capacity 300
Approximate total
ticket sales:
► 2006-07:20,000
► 2007-08:32,000
Percentage of tickets
sold to students:
► 2006-07:18 percent
► 2007-08:24 percent
Composer Jason Moran's mul
timedia project "In My Mind:
Monk at Town Hall, 1959*
came to Duke last year. Duke
Performances commissioned
the work, which was part of a
more thesis-driven series that
the organization is known for.
In some cases, a lender might
ask that 50 percent of a project be
preleased when before he would
have only demanded that 33 per
cent be filled, Mosier said.
Federal interventions, such
as the bailout bill passed Friday,
could ease the long-term impact
of the crisis.
“The market will find a floor
eventually, but without federal
action it will presumably be a much
lower floor,” Cumbie said.
“Even as the markets start to
heal and open back up, only the
most creditworthy projects and
most creditworthy borrowers will
be able to borrow for a while.”
Adam Klein, vice president
of economic development and
government relations for the
Chapel Hfll-Carrboro Chamber of
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008
said.
Betts said he hopes to gain
support and feedback for the bill
and to introduce it at the next full
Congress meeting in two weeks.
Lloyd said Concept of Colors’
request likely will have to be resub
mitted to the finance committee,
followed by full Congress, after the
investigation concludes.
McClendon said the request
will not be changed, though group
members said lesser-quality, less
expensive items could have been
requested.
“There’s no need to change it,”
McClendon said. “It wasn’t inflated
in any way.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
Some:
raises
still not
enough
UNC increased
minimum salaries
BY MEERA JAGANNATHAN
STAFF WRITER
Monday’s minimum sal
ary increase was a positive step,
employee leaders said.
But some feel it was not enough,
and administrators said financial
constraints could hinder future
increases.
The University raised the
minimum annual salary for full
time employees by $4,888, to
$25,000, on Monday. The total
amount used in the wage i;aise
was $144,000.
Tommy Griffin, chairman of the
Employee Borum, said he thought
the salary raise was a step in the
right direction.
“I’m just glad the chancellor
found some money to help folks
out,” he said.
Griffin also said there remains
a significant disparity between
the average employee wage on
campus, which he estimated to be
about $35,000, and the cost of liv
ing in Orange County.
“I’ll be honest with you, a liv
ing wage is a little bit more than
$42,000,” Griffin said. “At today’s
prices, that’s what everybody needs
to make.”
Brenda Malone, associate vice
chancellor for human resources,
said the concept of living wage did
not play a role in calculating the
increase. Dick Mann, vice chancel
lor for finance and administration,
said he disagreed with Griffin’s
estimate.
“A $42,000 living wage? That’s
nonsense,” Mann said. “My sense
is that the state’s minimum is well
below what we’re setting as a floor.
I don’t know where they got their
number. We operate in relation to
what the state numbers are.”
The increase for UNC employees
came mostly from a pool of money
called the pay improvement fund.
The fund was set aside several
years ago to deal specifically with
SEE WAGES, PAGE 9
Commerce, said the credit crunch
is affecting many other local busi
nesses as well.
“I think where people are being
affected most is they’re not able to
get loans,” Klein said, adding that
retailers and restaurants have been
among those particularly damaged
by the crisis.
“They need to get a credit line to
purchase new goods and materials,
which is typically not a problem, but
now people are not able to get access
to those loans as they have before.”
As part of the 300 E. Main St.
project, the Arts Center will be
expanded, but Executive Director
Jon Wilner said the crisis will
likely not affect construction of
his facility.
SEE ECONOMY, PAGE 9