Christian athletes
Athletes in Ac' ton ,
( A I A ) created
controversy recently at
a basketball game. See
story page 7.
Cold, clear
It will be clear and cold
today with no chance
of rain. The low last
night was 15.
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Serving the students and the University community since IH9J
Wednesday, January 12, 1976, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Volume No. 84, Issue No.4 1
Please call us: 933-0245
4)
I I I i
Flames gut
frat house
over break
Arson ruled out
as cause of fire
Gaskin
by Elizabeth Swaringen
Staff Writer
A fire of undetermined origin destroyed
the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity house at 1 07
Fraternity Court last Wednesday afternoon.
No one was hurt, although Dwight
Ferguson, a sophomore brother of the
fraternity from Greensboro, was asleep in
the house at the time. He escaped uninjured
through a second-floor window.
Two other brothers, Tom Steinberg, a
senior from Baltimore, Md. and Claude
Snow, a graduate student from Red Springs,
N.C., had left the house before noon, but
returned shortly after the fire began.
According to Snow, no official estimates
of damage have been made.
The fire apparently started in the living
room and spread throughout the first floor.
The first and second floors were gutted, and
the third floor received extensive smoke and
water damage. The dining room and kitchen
are additions to the original building and
were not damaged.
After the fire was discovered at 2: 16 p.m.
by several persons in Abernathy Hall, 30"
firemen and three trucks responded and had
the fire under control within 30 to 45
minutes. One truck and a group of firemen
remained until 5:30 p.m.
The Chapel Hill Fire Department, the
. Detective Bureau of the Chapel Hill Police
Department and two teams from the State
Bureau of Investigation have investigated
the fire and ruled out arson as a cause.
Most of the 20 brothers who lived in the
hosue last semester lost all of their
possessions in the fire, as most were out-of-state
students and had not taken many things
home.
"The fire was a great loss to a number of
brothers," Snow said. "It would be safe to
say that each brother lost between $2,000
and $4,000 of personal property in the fire."
Most personal losses will be compensated
through the brothers' parents home owner's
insurance policies. According to Snow, all
but one of the brothers were partially
covered by their parents' policies.
The national Pi Lambda Phi organization
has assured rebuilding the house, providing
the present outside structure can be used.
Currently the brothers are awaiting the fire
inspectors' reports before taking action.
"If the report gives us the go-ahead, we
plan to begin building within the next 30
days and hope to live in the house by the end
of the semester," Snow said.
The majority of the brothers are living in
Granville Towers and apartments of friends
until their house is rebuilt.
"All the brothers are especially grateful to
the Office of Student Affairs and Granville
Towers," Snow said. "They have helped us in
every way possible, and we are very
appreciative."
The Pi Lambda Phi house is the fourth
UNC fraternity house damaged by fire in the
past two years.
The Pi Kappa Phi house at 216 Finley
Road was destroyed on Dec. 1, 1976 by afire
that possibly started from a burning candle
or a faulty electrical switch. '
Fire, snvA? and water extensively
damaged the gma Nu and Delta Kappa
Epsilon (DKE) houses around 3 a.m. on Oct.
6, 1975. A lone arsonist was suspected, but
investigations revealed no leads.
According to the Chapel Hill Police
Department none of the fires is related.
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Firemen finish putting out the blaze that destroyed the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity
house last Wednesday. No one was injured.
by Tony Gunn
Staff Writer
Assistant professor of geology David Stewart was unsuccessful in
the first of what may be several attempts to reverse a December
decision that denied him tenure.
Stewart's appeal to James Gaskin, dean of the college of arts and
sciences, was denied Dec. 9 after Gaskin heard arguments by Stewart
and Roy Ingram, chairperson of the geology department.
Stewart will now appeal to the Faculty Hearings Committee at
3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Coker Hall. The hearing will be closed to the
public.
Gaskin said his decision "was centered on the manner the decision
was reached in the department. The decision was a professional
decision made in a professional way." He added that he tried to make
sure everyone received a fair shake.
Stewart said that Gaskin did not rule on the merits of the case but
only made sure the geology department followed the correct
procedures in denying tenure to Stewart.
"The regulations don't require him to do anything else," Stewart
said.
According to University rules, the Faculty Hearing Committee
will deal with the written specification of reasons for the intended
discharge.
The department's reasons for denying tenure to Stewart were
unfavorable comments by his colleagues, only a fair quality of
scientific achievement and an insufficient potential for future
contributions to geophysics and geology.
The department cannot consider personal malice, discrimination
based upon the race, sex; religion or national origin of the faculty .
member, or exercise by the faculty member of rights of freedom of
speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
"Freedom of speech is subjective," Stewart said. "It opens the door
for them (the Faculty Hearings Committee) to make a judgment.
They will have to draw the line at their discretion."
In a letter to Eugen Merzbacher, chairperson of; the Faculty
Hearings Committee, Stewart requested a hearing and stated, ult is
my intention to present a case to the committee demonstrating that
my rights to freedom of speech have been violated and that, in
addition, there has been a considerable element of personal malice in
the making of the decision for my nonreappointment."
Stewart pointed out that until his earthquake prediction last
January, the department was friendly toward him. After that, several
remained friendly, but the majority of them changed, he wrote.
Stewart wrote that the department attempted to limit his freedom
to speak out by the threat of losing his job. "It was their intent, 1
believe, to intimidate me into silence."
Stewart added that one geology professor, David Dunn, has made
no secret of his intention to put him to professional ruin. Dunn once
wrote to the journal that published Stewart's article on the possibility
of earthquakes occurring in Wilmington and apparently criticized
them for printing the article.
"Dunn's personal vendetta against me," Stewart wrote, "has
unduly influenced others in this department, particularly the
chairman, Roy Ingram, and constitutes an instance of malice
entering into a tenure decision."
The newly formed Faculty Hearings Committee is composed of
Kenan Prof, in the School of Law Daniel H. Pollitt, acting
chairperson; Prof, in the School of Nursing Betty Sue Johnson;
Kenan Prof, in the Department of Environmental Sciences and
Engineering Daniel A. Okun; Asst. Prof, in the School of Social
Work Barbara H. Cleaveland, and Prof, in the School of Law
Kenneth S. Broun. The Stewart appeal will be its first action of this
kind, Pollitt said.
The committee will make its recommendations to Chancellor N.
Ferebee Taylor within 10 days after its hearing concludes. If Taylor
decides against Stewart, then Stewart may also appeal to the UNC
Board of Governors.
Bernholz, Richardson file complaint against legal aid law
by Chip Pearsall
Staff Writer
Student Atty. Dorothy Bernholz and
Student Body President Billy Richardson
are among four plaintiffs who have filed a
complaint in Federal District Court
challenging the constitutionality of a North
Carolina statute that prohibits a program of
prepaid legal service for UNC students.
Bernholz said Tuesday that the court's
decision could affect the future of student
legal aid services both here and in other
states. -
The complaint arose when a legal services
program submitted by Student Government
was rejected by the North Carolina State Bar
Council last February. The program would
have allowed Student Government to
contract an attorney for student legal
services while paying for the service with
student fees.
The council rejected the plan on the
grounds that it violated a statute prohibiting
prepaid legal services which restrict the right
of a client to select his own attorney.
The Student Government proposal was
then amended to include a provision
allowing students to select their own
attorney if they choose not to use the one
provided by Student Government. Students
would be partially reimbursed for fees
charged by the outside attorneys.
The amended proposal was approved by
the council on April 16, 1976, and the UNC
student body had its first student attorney in
its 18hyear history.
But by amending the system to allow lor
reimbursements of students using other
attorneys, the state had "reduced the amount
of legal service we can provide for the
students," Bernholz said. Even a partial
reimbursement from Student Government
substantially reduces the funds we have to
work with, because we're on a fixed budget
of $20,000 for this year."
Bernholz explained that there are two
types of prepaid legal services. One, the
open-panel system, uses the services of
several attorneys, while the other, the closed
panel system, uses only one attorney. "The
closed panel system that was proposed (and
later amended) is analogous to the Student
Health Service," she said. "The student pays
the fee for the service as part of his student
fee, then he uses that particular service when
he needs it."
The difference in expense between the
opcq and closed-panel systems seems to
indicate that a closed-panel system is better
for the students from the standpoint of costs
and amount of service, Bernholz said. But
she added that the plaintiffs were not simply
seeking approval for a closed-panel system.
In the filed complaint, Bernholz and the
other plaintiffs say the statute is
unconstitutional because:
the statute resulted in a more expensive
plan and fewer legal services for students
Attorney Bernholz has been limited by a
fixed budget from carrying out all the
services possible for students under the
plan and could possibly suffer a decrease
in salary in the event that budgeted money
must be paid to outside attorneys
consulted by students
Student Government and the students
it represents "have a protected right, under
the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to
seek legal representatior( of their choice
under conditions of their choice,lncluding
representation under a closed-panel group
legal-service plan."
The North Carolina State Bar Council
and its president, George J. Miller, have
been named as defendants in the complaint,
which was filed on Dec. 14, 1976 in U.S.
District Court for the Western District of
North Carolina.
Staff photo by David Dalton
Bernholz
Transfer of electricity ownership to result in higher rates
by Russell Gardner
Staff Writer
The Dec. 3 1 transfer of ownership of
the area's electric utility from the
University to Duke Power Co. will
result in higher utility bills this month
for most residents, utility officials said
Tuesday.
The UNC Board of Trustees voted
last spring to sell the electric system,
which serves the University, Chapel
Hill, Carrboro and parts of Orange
County, to Duke Power. The final
selling price was $ 14,387,235. University
officials received a check for the full
amount on Dec. 31.
Grey Culbreth, former UNC utilities
director and now an assistant to the
vice-president of Duke Power's eastern
division, said the first electricity bills
affected by the transfer of the utility will
be mailed Jan. 1 1 .
Duke Power's rate structure is
approximately 15 per cent higher than
the rate structure used in the University
owned system, but the exact increase in
individual utility bills will not be
uniform, Culbreth said.
However, students living on campus
should not expect a major hike in dorm
rents due to the utility sale because UNC
will still be able to generate some of its
own electricity and because electricity is
not a major part of a dorm's operating
budget.
Duke Power sends out bills three
times a month. Bills mailed on Jan. 1
were computed on the basis of the
University's rate structure and will not
be affected by the utility transfer. The
next cycle of bills was mailed on Jan. 1 1
and covers approximately 20 days in
December and 10 days in January.
Service prior to Dec. 31 will be billed
according to the University's rate
structure, and service after that date will
be computed on the basis of -Duke
Power's rate structure.
The third cycle of bills will be mailed
on Jan. 21 and will cover the last 10 days
in December up to Jan. 20.
Both Duke Power and the University
set electric rates according to the total
number of Kilowatt hours (K.WH) of
electricity used in a residence during the
month. A quantity discount is applied
so that the more electricity a consumer
uses, the less he pays per KWH.
In addition, residences are classified
into one of three categories according to
their rate of electricity use. The highest
rate per KWH is levied to those
residences without electric water or
space heating. The lowest rate per KWH
is levied to all-electric residences.
Culbreth said increased consumption
of electricity will also be a factor in
increased electric bills this month.
"Increases will be due either entirely
to the rate increase or to a combination
of increased consumption plus rate
increase," Culbreth said.
Electric bills can be paid at the Duke
Power office in Kroger Plaza in person
or by mail (P.O. Box 2000, Chapel Hill)
or at most local banks. Persons having
complaints about their electric bill
should contact the Kroger Plaza office.
All unpaid balances due the
University have been transferred to
Duke Power and must be paid to the
Duke Power office at Kroger Plaza.
UNC has maintained ownership of
the Gore steam plant, which generates
steam used in heating, air conditioning
and providing hot water for most
campus buildings.
Although there is no way to predict
how much electricity will be needed on
campus, assistant vice chancellor John
Temple estimates the steam plant might
be able to generate as much as 30 per
cent of the electricity needed. The
additional power needed will be
purchased from Duke Power on a
commercial rate.
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Schedule pick-
mailing is too exp
upg
oes on;
While UNC student braved long lines to pick up their schedules
and go through drop-add, other students in the University
system got their schedules by mail.
Staff photo by David Dalton
by Leslie Seism
Staff Writer
It may be cold outside, but there are
reasons why UNC students must trek to
the Student Union to pick up class
schedules while students elsewhere
receive schedules in the mail.
For example, registration officials at
UNC-G mail computer print-out
schedules and cards to each of the
approximately 9,200 students prior to
Christmas break.
According to UNC Director of
Records and Registration Raymond E.
Strong, mailing schedules presents too
many problems for a school the size of
UNC. The University numbers more
than 17,000 students.
In an interview Tuesday, Strong cited
three reasons for UNC's distribution
policy: postage would cost too much,
students are not always available at their
home addresses during break and
University officials keep a tally of the
number of students enrolled by totaling
the number of schedules picked up.
"We need to know how many
students are not here, so that we can
release their positions in classes to other
people," Strong explained.
Numa Andrews, a data processing
coordinator in the Registrar's Office at
UNC-G, agreed that postage costs are
undesirable, but said no plans have been
made to change UNC-G's distribution
policy.
"Every year the cost comes up for
discussion, but we plan to stick with the
system for the foreseeable future," he
said. "This system has evolved over the
years and works for us."
Postage costs for mailing schedules at
UNC-G range from $700 to $1,250 per
semester, depending on the letter
weights. UNC-G officials do not pay
postage for on-campus mailing, but
only about a third of the students live on
campus, Andrews said.
Andrews said the distribution policy
allows students to stay home until the
last minute, unless students wish to
change their schedules. When the
schedules are mailed to students, they
have the option of. approving the
schedule and returning the computer
cards to the registrar's office, or going
through drop-add in January and
exchanging computer cards for other
classes.
A spot check of area schools showed
most schools do not mail schedules to
students. N.C. State mails schedules to
graduate students, but undergraduates
must pick up their schedules. At N.C.
Central University in Durham, students
pick up schedules. Duke University does
not mail schedules.
In addition to the monetary factor,
UNC's Strong said there is no urgent
need to mail the schedules. He said
UNC's policy has worked fairly well
over the years, and no major complaints
have been made.
! knnw it's co d out mere, strong
said. But he said, students could avoid Y?-
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inc uncs oy gumg
which are 8 to 10 a.m.. the first day.
"We run them through there mighty
last." Strong said.