4 The Tar Heel Thursday, August 5, 1971
Mrs.
B
r
rooks
ring
II
brings bad memories
Odd
cap
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Mrs. Elizabeth Breaks, a leader
of the food service strikes at UNC
two years ago, has been released
from her duties as supervisor of the
Union Snack Bar.
Mrs. Brooks impressed us two
years ago as being an honest and
intelligent woman. She has given
The Tar Heel her side of a dispute
and we find cause to sympathize
with her plight.
Robert Greer, director of the
UNC food service, and Lawrence
Joseph, director of personnel for
Servomation-Mathias, Inc., have
given us what appear to be
legitimate reasons for the firing of
Mrs. Brooks.
We cannot at the moment find
reason to doubt the word of these
two gentlemen. Although we will
miss Mrs. Brooks, we feel that
perhaps there were legitimate
reasons for her release.
However, there have been
indications given by the food
service workers that they are
unhappy with Servomation. There
was talk this spring about the
possibility of a strike.
That possibility remains. The
firing of Mrs. Brooks, coupled with
the earlier grievances of the food
service workers, may result in a
strike this fall.
We would hate to see that
happen. The University has enough
problems without having to hassle a
food service strike like the one two
years ago, which saw highway
patrolmen brought on campus to
keep the peace.
This is not to say that perhaps
the workers don't have legitimate
grievances. This is not to say that
perhaps there is something
Servomation isn't telling us, and
that Mrs. Brooks was wrongly fired.
We don't want to give too much
coverage to an incident which
perhaps doesn't warrant it, but we
wish students to know that there
was talk this spring lubout a strike.
The firing of Mrs. Brooks may
prove to be a catalyst for an
unfortunate situation; we hope not
but that possibility exists.
Servomation should move to gain
their workers' opinions about
possible improvements; the workers
should not take physical action
without first giving the art of
argument and persuasion a try.
We don't want another strike.
We remember the last one.
Student conference
holds great promise
A press conference today
revealed plans of a student
conference scheduled on the UNC
campus this month.
The Student Action Conference
holds great promise for the students
of North Carolina. The purpose of
the gathered student leaders will be
to discuss mutual political and
educational problems and to plan
action to solve those problems.
Although the major focus of the
conference will be to push voter
registration among the students of
this state, its significance is far
greater than that.
There are many problems in this
state and nation which concern
students; the mass protest actions
of the past have done some good on
many fronts but their
accomplishments have never been
good enough for students.
Now we .have a chance as
students to form a type of lobby; a
lobby which we can use with great
success if we all pull behind it.
The students of North Carolina
have recognized the participants in
the upcoming conference as their
campus leaders. These campus
leaders will now take on statewide
importance and power.
Students should support that
power. Perhaps a democracy can
really work.
We now have a chance to find
out.
The Raleigh News and Observer
universities: neea ior realism
The problem that higher education
presents for the General Assembly of
1971 differs little from that faced by the
General Assembly of 1931. This is the
urgent need to establish a single,
state-supported university composed of a
number of campuses governed by a single
board and administered by one executive.
The legislators of forty years ago
succeeded and North Carolina's eminence
in the field of higher education is a
monument to that fact. Whether the
legislators who will reconvene in October
can do likewise and thus preserve that
eminence remains to be seen.
Even the opposition to the attempt at
unification now is similar to that
expressed then. A small group within the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill fought the creation of the
Consolidated University. A similar group
is fighting the move for reconsolidation.
Certainly, no campus profited more from
consolidation than Chapel Hill. And
perhaps none has a greater stake in
reconsolidation.
A description of the competition, the
empire-building and the wasteful
duplication that marked the crisis of
1931 would fit that of today nicely. The
public colleges and universities vied
against each other in the legislature for
funds and favors. Planning and
coordination were left to the individual
institutions. Each was an independent
operator, pursuing its own conception of
The Chapel Hill Weekly
Tongue-tied University
The University at Chapel Hill, which
can be stunningly articulate on such
matters as academic freedom, student-faculty-administration
interaction, the
need for State funds and the like, is
downright tongue-tied when it comes to
discussing its financial relationship with
the Town of Chapel Hill.
Take the Universities reaction to the
new Town budget.
Each year the University has made a
contribution to the budget, as a voluntary
payment for the services it receives from
the Town. Since the University pays no
Town taxes, the contribution seemed
only fair.
As the University grew and the cost of
Town services increased, the University's
annual contribution to the Town budget
increased accordingly, although there is
reason to doubt the University ever paid
its fair share.
This year, with the Town budget
swelling as usual, the University was
asked to increase its contribution by
$20,000.
The University said no, it would not
toss in a dime more than last year, even
though student enrollment will be up
again this fall and the University's use of
Town services will be greater than ever.
Asked why it would not increase its
contribution, the University was silent in
several languages. Vice-Chancellor for
Business Affairs Joe Eagles met inquiries
with a flat "no comment."
With hat in hand, so to speak, the
Town had the dandy alternative of taking
what the University condescended to give
with no questions asked, or getting lost.
Unfortunately this arrogance of power
is characteristic of the University in its
dealings with the Town, and, sad to say,
it is also characteristic of Joe Eagles in his
official role.
Too bad.
the public interest and thereby charting,
its own course for the future. The
difference today is that the competition
has resolved itself into a game of the
Consolidated University vs". everyone else.
And, on occasion, even one of the
presidents of the latter group shows up in
the State House corridors to lobby for his
school's favorite project.
The October session provides an
opportunity to bring all of North
Carolina's universities into one house and
to free them of the corrosive effects of
sectional politics. State Sen. Ralph Scott
of Alamance County believes it could
offer the last such chance. And few
political leaders in North Carolina have
closer ties to the universities and the
people who foot their bill of $167 million
a year.
Senator Scott feels that unless the
universities accept a single-board
administration and the coordination and
efficiency this will bring they will be
undercut by other branches of education.
"We can't justify an oversupply of
lawyers and professors when we don't
have any kindergartens and vocational
education is starved," he said in an
interview last weekend. "These are the
things that help the mass of the people
and they will take the money." Given the
growing public disenchantment with
colleges and universities not only in this
state but elsewhere, the senator's warning
is timely.