6 The Daily Tar Heel Monday, September 26, 1977
Greg Porter
Editor
Ben Cornelius, Managing Editor
Ed Rankin, Associate Editor
Lou Biuonis, Associate Editor
Laura Scism, University Editor
Elliott Potter, City Editor
Chuck Alston, State and National Editor
Sara Bullard, Features Editor
Chip Ensslin, Arts Editor
Gene Upchurch, Sports Editor
Allen Jernican, Photography Editor,
SI
Batttj
(Ear Hrrl
85th year of editorial freedom
letters to the editor
Partying: Is Carolina the 'Iowa of the ACC?'
Decisions glossed over,
slowed by overworked panel
A large organization generally creates committees to study more closely
issues which the body, as a whole, cannot examine because of its size. But by
referring too many issues to the Educational Policy Committee, the Faculty
Council has done itself and the students a disservice.
At present, the Educational Policy Committee is studying possible
changes in the Honor Code, drop policy, pass-fail option and plus-and-minus
grading. Each one deserves thorough research and attention, for each
is crucial to the student interest. But because the committee is
overburdened, one has to doubt the quality of consideration each of the
issues will receive.
The committee is scheduled to report on the drop policy at the council's
October meeting, on the Honor Code at the November meeting and on the
pass-fail option in December. "I'm not sure we can give proper
consideration to all these issues," said Associate Prof. Mark Appelbaum, a
member of the Educational Policy Committee, last week.
Some members of the council feel
that, with many major education
decisions centered on the
Educational Policy Committee, it
has in effect assumed the role of the
Faculty Council. To a certain extent
this is true. Though the whole
council, of course, has the chance to
modify proposals coming from any
committee, it usually rubber stamps
them. Assistant Prof. Diane H.
Leonard, a member of the Faculty
Council's committee on
Committees and Operations of the
Council, said that when committee
proposals are brought up before the
entire council, the council usually
follows the committee's
recommendations.
All issues, of course, should be
discussed in committee before
reaching the Faculty Council for Prof. Mark Appelbaum, a mber of the
ax,: u .. u Educational Policy Committee, doubts
discussion, but one committee such the committee can give proper
as the Educational Policy consideration to the three Important
Committee should not have to deal issues before it Honor Code changes,
with such a broad range of topics. continuance of pass-fall option and
length of the drop period.
When committees within the Congress, for example, find themselves
overburdened, they generally establish subcommittees to investigate
specific issues. The Faculty Council should follow the same practice, if it is
determined to make decisions on important educational policies this
semester. The council could appoint separate ad hoc committees to look at
issues the Educational Policy Committee feels it does not have time enough
to consider.
The Educational Policy Committee simply has been asked to do too
much. Though the committee would try hard to give each issue the
treatment it needs, the time limit involved has to curtail the committee's
effectiveness. Students deserve to have closer scrutiny paid to issues that will
significantly affect their college careers.
To the editor:
As a newcomer to the UNC campus. I
have naturally noted the various bumper
stickers and the T-shirts making various
claims both about Tar Heels and Chapel
H ill. 1 have accepted these images as a sign of
University pride. One particular reference,
however, often forces a smile on a hot.
humid Carolina day. for if God were a Tar
Heel, it would rain a hell of a lot more.
A recent article in the Daily Tar Heel
("Dooley worried about Northwestern
defense." Sept. 21) has prompted me to
represent my alma mater, the University of
Virginia. I found the sportswriter's
description of N orthwestern as the "V irginia
of the Big ICquiteappropriate.especially in
light of each school's proper balancing of
academics and athletics. Each conference's
all-academic athletic team bears this ideal
out. To borrow from the sportswriter's wit, a
description of UNC as the"OhioState of the
ACC" might beanappropriatecomparison.
I must also point out the editor's error in
referring to Playboy's once alleged ranking
of UNC as the "professional" party school
("Party reputation jeopardized." Sept. 21).
As any hellraiser south of Canada (Playboy
included) knows, all party roads lead, albeit
erratically, to Charlottesville. Account of
UNC T-shirts and car decals at Virginia last
Easter's weekend indicates that a large
number of students here have realized this
fact. Virginia's attitude toward parties is also
entirely consistent with Mr. Jefferson's
"work hard, play hard" philosophy, and is
firmly instilled (distilled) in every Wahoo.
Alas, in party comparison, UNC is the"lowa
of the ACC."
Michael J. Dorrian
Virginia '75
North Carolina '79
Ascerbic attacks
To the editor:
Julian Grajewski's "retort ("H uman rights
policy invented to confront Soviets," Sept.
20) to my recent column on Soviet dissidents
and socialism would hardly merit further
comment in the pages of the Daily Tar Heel
were it not for the possibility that his
comments on "socialism" might prove
confusing to those not acquainted with his
organization, the U.S. Labor Party.
. His slanders against blacks, women and
gays give some indication of the philosophy
of the U.S. Labor Party, which, in reality, is
a virulent right-wing sect masquerading as a
leftist political party. It is somewhat curious,
however, though not inconsistent with the
bizarre turns of this organization, that he
should simultaneously accept the ridiculous
idea put forth by the Soviet bureaucracy that
the dissidents there number only twenty and
are "mentally ill."
Contrary to Mr. Grajewski's fantasies, the
Socialist Workers Party and its affiliated
organization here on campus, the Young
Socialist Alliance, are unrelated to the
current of "Fabian socialism." The U.S.
Labor Party, on the other hand, is totally to
any kind of socialism and, beyond its name,
has nothing to do with the labor movement
in this country.
Those who are interested in what the U.S.
Labor Party represents should refer to the
front-page New York Times article of Jan.
20, 1974, where it is reported that in the
previous year the group beat up more than
40 black-power activists and members of
leftist political parties. A Nov. 4, 1974 NYT
article reported that the U.S. Labor Party
l Hi Core ukcMt (py? fifc)
ran a candidate for the Michigan House of
Representatives who later turned out to be
an FBI agent.
Articles in the North Carolina Anvil of
Nov. 1 1 and Dec. 23, 1976, report that,
following the group's poor showing in the
November elections, it "launched an
intensive drive to recruit support from the
traditional American 'Right Wing,' "
including the Young Americans for
Freedom, the American. Conservative
Union, the Young Republican National
Federation and other similar groups. The
Nov. 1 1 Anvil article goes on to report that
USLP presidential candidate Lyndon
LaRouche claimed during a Baltimore
campaign speech that his closest political
allies were "the John Birch Society and the
Republican National Committee."
Even though the group claims it is the
victim of a vast conspiracy involving the
CIA, the KGB and the Rockefeller family,
the same article states that the USLP does its
banking at the Rockefeller family-run Chase
Manhattan Bank.
The Dec. 23 Anvil article states that "the
U.S. Labor Party and its affiliate, the
National Caucus of Labor Committees, has
long claimed to be a leftist, Marxist group.
However, many of its critics contend that the
organization is, in fact, financed by right
wing groups whose real intention is to
destroy leftist political organizations." The
Anvil refers to a report which "estimates the
U.S. Labor Party's annual expenses at $1.4
million and earnings at only about $300,000
leaving an annual deficit of $ 1 . 1 million"
(Nov. 11, 1976). One Baltimore USLP
member was quoted as saying, "It may be
true that we get money from the CI A. At this
point we will take money from whereever we
can get it" (Anvil, Nov. II, 1976). Another
Anvil article reported that former CIA
Director W illiam Colby contributed $27,000
to the U.S. Labor Party.
These documented observations may
serve to place Mr. Grajewski's column in its
proper context and help to explain the
philosophy behind his acerbic verbal attacks
against blacks, women gays and the Socialist
Workers Party.
Douglas W. Clark
Young Socialist Alliance
Box 121,Carrboro, N.C. 27510
Ersatz bluster
To the editor:
We now see that the administrators of the
housing department have mastered that
basic technique of bureaucrats the world
over losing ideas it dislikes in a maze of
committees and authorities, and then
burying the corpse under a pile of paperwork
and regulatory agencies. At least this seemed
to be the import of the item on housing's loft
policy ("Students may get special permits for
lofts." Sept. 22).
Housing seems to be delaying a decision
on this issue, as much as possible, by routing
the proposed standards through a myriad of
committees, offices and jurisdictions, some
of them only peripherally concerned, in the
hope students will have forgotten the whole
matter. Perhaps this might be hoped to
retroactively clear the egg from M r. Condie's
face. And really, Mr. Perry, how resourceful
to leave the health and safety office as a last
administrative backwater in which to enmire
the issue.
Further, why must students with
unapproved lofts pay to have them taken
down? Is it really assumed that the same
persons competent to build such a structure
could not dismantle it, or is the fee a
punishment for challenging the divjne right
of sovereigns of the Department of Housing?
Admirably, the Housing Office has
realized that Mr. Condie's ersatz-parental
bluster just will not do. And at least the
graduation to a more mature form of
arrogant intransigence might herald a
somewhat less hostile stance toward student
opinion.
Paul Masser
206 Alexander
CGC elections
To the editor:
The purpose of this letter is twofold. First,
I wish to call into question the practices and
priorities of the Daily Tar Heel. I spoke with
a member of the reporting staff several days
ago concerning the necessity for some
publicity of the fact that there is an
upcoming election to fill three vacant seats
on the Campus Governing Council. I was
assured that an article of some type would be
published in the Daily Tar Heel this (past)
week. However, there has been none. I feel
that this election is a very important matter,
for it is the CGC that determines, among
other things, how our student fees are spent.
I have noticed, in the past, editorial remarks
in the Daily Tar Heel bemoaning student
apathy, But how can students be involved
unless they are informed?
This brings me to my second and most
important point. Petitions are still available
in Suite C for those interested in running for
one of the vacant CGC seats. The vacancies
are in district 1, a graduate district, and
districts 17 and 20, both off-campus
undergraduate districts. Precise descriptions
of these districts are also available in Suite C.
There is still time to collect the necessary
signatures to file for the Oct. 5 race. 1 urge
everyone to support the democratic
institutions on this campus.
Michael Harkin
Elections Board Chairman
Public records statute
Dilemma of the administrating journalist: Adams on five-year plan dispute
At the UNC Board of Trustees' Sept. 16
meeting, the board postponed discussion of a
draft of the lastest edition of the five-year plan
for the University at Chapel Hill. The
postponement was at the request of several
board members, who said they had not had a
chance to read the draft.
Strictly routine. But then an unusual thing
happened.
A reporter, Elizabeth Leland of the Chapel
Hill Newspaper, asked for a copy of the draft,
which had been prepared by the UNC Planning
Council and distributed to board members
before the meeting.
Leland felt the draft fell under the state public
records statute, G.S. 132-1, which states that all
documents made or received by a public office of
state or local government in the transaction of
public business is open to public examination.
But the Board of Trustees disagreed, calling
the draft a working document subject to revision.
The board refused to release a copy of the draft
until it had been discussed and approved or
revised by the full board.
Andrew Vanore, deputy attorney general in
charge of University affairs, backed the trustees,
saying that including drafts in the public records
statute "w as not what the legislature intern... J."
However, the statute, which journalists see as
all-important to the concept of press freedom, as
it stands makes no mention of drafts or working
documents, and the Chapel Hill Newspaper is
considering a suit to resolve the fuzziness.
I he importance of the public records statute
certainly does not escape John B. Adams, dean
of the School of Journalism and a scholar on the
legal rights and responsibilities of newsmen.
Does he feel that the draft of the five-year plan
falls under the statute as it now reads?
"that's the opinion of the counsel of the N.C.
Press Association, and I can't disagree, the way
the law is phrased, it seems to cover it."
But Adams acknow ledges the usefulness to an
administrator of working documents in which
unrefined and potentially foolish ideas are not
ubjected to public examination.
"I'm in a dilemma here as an administrator
who has had various kinds of things going on in
the paperwork area. 1 can see there are times
w hen there arc legitimate reasons for considering
a document a working document.
"I think the trustees action in this, it seems to
me, clearly has no justification in law. There's
nothing in the law that says there should be
special consideration given to working
documents.
"But there is a reality for administrators that
there are times when you have to have
uninhibited expressions of opinion in the process
of developing policy or procedures or curricula
or anything else.
"I would like to hope that most reporters
would respect an agency's statement that what
they have in their hands at this point is
unformulated; it isn't policy, it's a basis for
further development, further information-
IN QUOTES
Bv J A Y JLNMNGS
53
seeking, further writing, and so on.
"1 think if 1 were on the Board of Trustees, I
would have thought it would be perfectly
appropriate for it to be released, with the
understanding that this is a draft document,
subject to revision. I can't believe there's
anything in it that would be disruptive to
anybody, embarrassing to anybody. Hugh
Holman (chairperson of the Planning Council)
doesn't write reports that are embarrassing or
dysfunctional."
Adams said he doesn't think the Board of
Trustees is hiding anything.
"I can't believe that they're being sinister, no. 1
don't think the board is at raid that some
statement put in this draft will irritate the
legislature. I think they're perfectly sincere in
their feelings that it's a working document that
needs work.
"The principal reason that 1 think there is
nothing sinister in this particular document is
because Margaret Harper is on the Board of
Trustees. And I think how strongly she feels
about open meetings and open records. She and
her husband spent a great deal of their own
money fighting a closed meeting of the
Brunswick County Board of Commissioners,
and got an injunction against that board through
their own personal efforts. She felt this one
shouldn't be released at this time. I think she has
to have a good reason. She's not anyone who
does things in this area at whim.
"Yet there's still no legal justification for it
according to the way the law reads now; at least
I've been unable to find any provision that a
governing body of any sort can even have
w orking documents. But, good grief, a fact of life
is that every administrative office in the country,
at some stage in the development of the policy,
has to have material that is unevaluated,
unrefined, unshaped and potentially foolish, in
fact. And I suppose that there's some reason to
feel that you'd just as soon as not be a
laughingstock for something that you hadn't
finished working one."
But Adams still feels strongly that carrying out
the letter of the law is important.
"1 always have. I felt the same way about the
open meetings la w, and I feel the same way about
the open records law. I'm of two minds on this
thing. If the law is to be interpreted literally, to
make open every piece of paper, every report
made on any subject by anybody to any
administrator 1 would find this an extremely
hard concept to live with.
"So there's the dilemma. I he principle, 1
think, is absolutely sound. The idea of closed
Board-of-1 rustees meetings chills me; although 1
have the greatest confidence in the Board of
Trustees. I don't have that confidence in some
county boards and sonic boards of education.
1:1
I f. - ''v
Lw.i. ,nii ,a. . r L- u-r rrirriTri
Dean John B. Adams
Adams said he feels that a suit by a media
body, whether in this case or in a similar one,
may eventually force the General Assembly to
amend the public-records statute to make a
provision for drafts. But he wonders whether
tinkering with a good law is wise, because one
exception tends to grease the way for more.
"This is the risk that I find in pushing too far in
this area," Adams said. "You may get the
legislature saying we'll make some exceptions. I
always worry about tinkering with the law,
because legislators have a way of resenting the
need to revise something that they have done in
the past. I'hey could start putting in exceptions,
which could include working documents. They
could define it so that, it you put the word 'draft'
on it, it would be exempt from public
examination. You may be worse off than you are
now."
On the other hand, Adams fears that a records
law which includes drafts may be unenforceable
as a practical matter.
"What I'm afraid of is, say, a case comes up
and the court says the law is clear. Any record
made or received is open. You have an
injunction, and the body is required to release
that report, that specific report. You can almost
be positive that, not the Board of Trustees, which
; 1 think consists of honorable persons, but some
other bodies in the state with base motives will
say, okay, if that's the situation, if every report
that comes in here is going to be made public,
what we're going to do is meet down at Charlie's
house. Have dinner. And we'll go over all these
things and if anybody says we did it, we'll just
deny it. And then, when we get the final report,
then we'll comply with the law.
"You can be sure that those against whom the
law was originally designed not the Board of
Trustees, they're just caught up in this thing
are going to find ways that they can subvert it.
No question about it.
"What I would be particularly worried about
on this thing is not the five-year plan, and not
really the Board of Trustees, except as a matter
of principle. What I'm worried about is if you
tinker with the records law you're going to
encourage deviousness among some
administrators who, goodness knows, are prone
to be devious by nature. But there's no way for an
administrator to function without some
discussions where no holds are barred, you just
lay it out the way you think in the search for
consensus. No way. If you can't do it legally, I'm
afraid that some groups will do it illegally. And
the ultimate loser there is going to be the public."
Jay Jennings, a senior economics and
journalism major from Bethesda, Md., is a staff
writer for the Daily Tar Heel.