5T nit rf
Snow?
Today and Friday will be
partly cloudy with a high
near 40 and a low near 20.
There is a chance of snow
either tonight or tomorrow.
Don Quixote
would be stunned
The world's largest wind
mill is being planned for
Howard's Knob, a knoll
rising above Boone, to
help alleviate electricity
demand in the area. See
page 4.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Volume 85, Issue NoJE
Thursday, January 12, 1978, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Please call us: 933-0245
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I beg your pardon
Local residents skeptical
PRC funds
By MEREDITH CREWS
Staff Writer
Editor's Note: The following is the last of two
articles examining changes in the UNC
department of dramatic art and the reactions of
faculty, students and townspeople to those
changes.
Controversy surrounding structural changes
within the UNC department of dramatic art is not
limited to the University community.
Chapel Hill residents also have expressed
concern over the establishment of the Playmakers
Repertory Company and the eventual elimination
of the bachelor of fine arts degree.
Questions have been raised by local residents as
to whether the University has the right to fund a
professional repertory company like the PRC.
"This is a state institution, and programs within
the U niversity should be for students," Chapel H ill
resident W. D. Perry said. "Programs for the
repertory company, the money and effort, have
been put into something that has no rightful place
as the students don't get it. State tax money for the
University should be for the training of
undergraduate and graduate students."
But Joseph Coleman, PRC managing director,
said the company was largely self-sufficient, thus
not relying on state tax money.
"Over 65 percent of total operating costs come
from box-office sales," Coleman said. "The other
35 percent of unearned income comes from grants,
donations and community patrons. A very small
amount comes from the University."
Coleman said the amount of money PRC
receives from the University is declining as PRC
becomes more self-sufficient.
According to John L. Temple, vice chancellor
for business and finance, PRC received $24,000
from the University during the 1976-77 academic
year. PRC received $12,000 from the University
for the academic year 1977-1978.
Families, experts, friends demanding
satisfactory answers to MIA probes
By DAVID CRAFT
Staff Writer
The slender, gray-haired woman was
looking out the window when she saw a
black station wagon coming down the street.
Trrestewed and pulled into the driveway of
.het new brick bome-The words "U.S. Air
Force" were printed on the door in small
men climbed out. Two of them were
dressed in military uniforms. The third wore
a suit. The woman recognized the third man.
He was her minister.
When the bell rang, the woman opened the
door and smiled.
"Hello, Mrs. Davis," the minister said.
"May we come in?"
The woman stepped aside and motioned
for the men to enter.
"It's Ed," one of the uniformed men said.
There was a pause.
"We received a telegram from Randolph
Air Foce base this morning. We think your
husband went down over Laos. We don't
have any particulars. All we know is that he's
missing.
Mrs. Edgar Davis :nt on the sofa with her
hands folded in her lap. She occasionally
touched the silver bracelet on her left arm.
The words "Maj. Edgar Fclton Davis, Sept.
16, 1968" were printed on it.
She recounted the story that she has told
to reporters ar.d friends many times. Her
husband was shot down while flying a
reconnaissance mission over Laos. She has
not heard from him since.
r
Using the camera's eye fo.' perspective, this single cow ot King Kong size looks like
she might walk into at least one of those silos while she grazes on a farm along the
Greensboro-Chapel Hill road. Staff photo by Allen Jernigan.
questioned
The University also provides "in-kind" support,
according to Coleman. In-kind support means the
University supplies facilities (such as the
Playmakers Theatre) to the PRC.
The money from the University is used to
sponsor a performance from the O'Neill
Playwright Conference, according to PRC
Business Manager Sandra Darnell. The
performance this year will be Uncommon Women
and Others.
But Perry maintained that PRC has no rightful
place art he University.
"The UNC department (of dramatic art) is set
up to work with students," Perry said. "Hiring of
professional actors is not an obligation for
training students; it's not the main goal of the
University department."
Tom Kenan, another Chapel Hill resident, said
structural changes within the department of
dramatic art will eventually benefit both students
and local residents.
"The department of dramatic art has made a
long-range plan and this is the first part of the
plan," Kenan said. "The emphasis has shifted
away from students, but eventually there is
involvement and the plan is better for students as
well as theater-goers.
"I don't look at it as an immediate thing, 1 look
at it as long down the road. With the opening of
the Paul Green Theatre, there will be more focus
on Chapel Hill and the department of dramatic
art.
Tom Lambeth, UNC Board of Trustees
chairperson, said changes within the department
of dramatic art had not been brought before the
board of trustees. He said he was unaware that the
drama department was shifting its emphasis in the
undergraduate program from acting to drama
criticism and appreciation.
"I would not like to find that the physical
education department was only turning out
See PRC on page 2.
Davis remembers the day the three men
came to her house in Kernersville.
"You couldn't say that I was shocked to
hear that Felton that's what I call him
had been shot down. He had talked with me
several times before he left about the
possibility that he wouldn't come back."
One of her first thoughts was whether the
pilot had survived. "That was my biggest
concern. Felton was the navigator, so I
thought that maybe the pilot had survived
and could tell me what happened."
She called Randolph A.F.B. the next
morning. She was told that the pilot had
lived but was in the hospital with serious
injuries.
"I finally got in touch with him. He came
and spent 10 days with us. I just wanted to
meet him to satisfy my own mind.
"He remembers very little. He told me that
he gave the command to eject twice as the
plane was going down. He didn't know
whether Felton was unconscious at the time
or already out of the plane."
Daivs has three children: Martha, 17,
Buck, 16, and Alan, 14.
"I didn't have any trouble telling the
children, but it was pretty hard for them to
accept that their father was missing. If they
had told us that he had been taken prisoner,
at least there would have been some positive
hope."
Davis had to learn how to answer
countless questions from reporters. The Air
Force would not let her disclose how and
where her husband was missing during 1968
and 1969.
mill
Weather services
By BETSY FLAGLER
Staff Writer
The National Weather Service Wednesday
issued a winter storm watch for North Carolina
for Thursday night and Friday. ACCU-Weather,
a private service provided by a group of
meteorologists at State College, Pa., forecast the
same watch three days earlier.
The National Weather Service of the U.S.
Department of Commerce and ACCU-Weather
have access to the same maps, charts and other
weather information, but SkipCarpenter, weather
forecaster at WTVD-TV in Durham, says the
She went to Washington to see her
husband's military file. She found only his
name, rank, serial number and the letter
notifying her that he was missing.
"I can't for the life of me see,why so much
information was classified. Nobody would
tell me anything.
"After the POWs were released, all kindsof
information was available. I even saw the
affidavit from the helicopter crew that went
into investigate the crash. I can't see how any
of it was harmful to our national defense."
Davis joined the National League of
Families in 1969.
"Our goal was to try and gain a full
accounting for all MIAs and POWs. We
tried to get better treatment for the POWs.
We started a letter-writing campaign, urging
congressmen to press for an accounting."
She talked with legislators in Raleigh and
Washington. "Lots of people were willing to
listen to our problems, but few ever made a
serious effort to solve anything "
Congressman G. V. Montgomery
organized the House Select Committee on
Missing Persons in Southeast Asia in
September 1975.
During their 15-month investigation, the
10 members questioned 50 witnesses about
the possibility of Americans being held after
North Vietnam had said there were no more
POWs. Military officers, intelligence agents,
former prisoners and MIA families testified.
"A review of the intelligence community's
holdings show that we have no confirmed
See MIA's on page 6.
in commission
By JAY JENNINGS
Stiff Writer
The UNC Residence Hall Association
Wednesday objected to Southern Bell's
proposed rate increases for Chapel Hill,
presenting 40 pages of testimony to a hearing
of theN.C. Utilities Commission in Raleigh.
Craig Brown, coordinator of the RHA
offensive against the rate increases, noted
that installation charges will have risen by
967 percent since March 1977 for new
phones and 661 percent for phones already
installed if the increases are approved.
"The massive size of these sudden
increases," Brown said, "constitutes a severe
and unacceptable financial burden
upon UNC students."
A decision on the rate proposal is expected
from the utilities commission by late March
or early April. Brown said Wednesday it was
his impression that the commission would
not grant all of the installation charge
increase.
Brown said he. was encouraged also by a
suggestion by Hugh Wells, N.C. Utilities
Commission chairperson, that a committee
be formed of representatives of Southern
Bell, utilities ' commission and interested
parties including RHA, if RHA is
dissatisfied with the commission's decision.
Before Southern Bell purchased the old
Chapel Hill Telephone Co. on March 31,
vie for reliability
difference in the two services is a matter of how
each group interprets the information.
"In the long run, ACCU-Weather is not as
conservative as the National Weather Service,"
Carpenter says.
WTVD, he says, uses both services and each
service is about 87 percent accurate. "We feel that
if we use both, we have a better grasp of the
weather."
A meteorologist at ACCU-Weather calls
Carpenter twice a day to answer any questions he
might have. Carpen,-r says the personal service
ACCU-Weather gives is not provided by the
See WEATHER on page 4.
"-r
f-" ...
A hits phone rates
1977, installation charges were $7.50 for
both new and already-installed telephones.
The charge now levied for hooking up an
installedphone is 15.90, after a cost study by
Southern Bell showed that $4. 10 of the $20
charged returning dorm residents in Fall
1977 was inapplicable, the $4. 10 adjustment
was made Nov. 7, 1977, after most students
had already paid the $20 fee.
"We hope that the utilities commission
will consider a rebate of these overcharges
($4. 10)," Brown said.
The proposed rate hikes would more than
triple the charge for hooking up an already
installed phone, to $49.55. Installation of a
new phone would cost $72.50.
Approval of the rate hike will pose
financial problems for the UNC Student Aid
Office, according to Director William Geer.
Based on the $49.55 charge, Geer said the
Student Aid Office will have to find and
provide $178,315 per year in additional
funds for students dependent on its
resources.
"This is a large amount of money," Geer
said, "and it is not available."
The RHA testimony also included the
results of an RHA survey taken of on
campus students. Based on 569 random
responses, 20 percent of students reported
delays of more than one week in telephone
hook-up following their request for service.
More than 20 percent said they had had
Drama's scene shop moves
to Paul Green Theatre
By ROBERT THOMASON
Staff Writer
After years of moving from building to
building, the dramatic art department's scene shop
apparently has found a permanent home in the
Paul Green Theatre.
The scene shop moved from the Caldwell
Annex, a two-story wooden structure torn down,
during the holiday vacation.
Theatrical set producers expect to find work a
little easier and a lot more comfortable in the new
location.
Caldwell Annex, which was located southeast
of Caldwell Hall, near Hamilton Hall, was ouilt
during World War II as barracks for a Navy
training program. In the early '60s, the scene shop
moved into the annex and stayed there for more
than a decade.
Production workers are not sad about the
demise of the old building. The look forward to
working in the new, more spacious scene shop.
"The square footage is about the same, but there
is more workable space," said Pete Baselici,
technical director. "The old building had a
support beam every 12 feet or so."
The new scene shop is triangular. Cinder block
covers the inside wall, and a light gray brick is on
the outside.
Baselici said the triangle shape has no
functional purpose but is part of the architect's
blueprint.
The new scene shop is about two-and-a-half
stories high, allowing full-sized scenery to be
constructed and viewed upright.
After the sets are produced, a vertical sliding
door can be raised and the sets moved a short
distance to the thrust stage of the Paul Green
Theatre, if they are to be used on that stage and not
on that of the Playmakers Theatre.
hearing
major problems with Southern Bell's service.
Mike Carson, Southern Bell district
manager, said company records showed that
96 percent of the student requests for service
were handled within five business days.
RHA also objected to charges for
directory .assistance calls. Southern Bell
instituted a charge of 20 cents for each
directory assistance call in excess of five calls
per phone per month, a national policy by
the Bell System to discourage frivolous use
of directory assistance.
But RHA objected to the charges while a
current phone directory is not available, as
was the case during most of the fall semester.
"We have few objections to directory
assistance charges when the student
directory is relatively current," RHA
President Bain Jones said.
"Individuals who dial' 13' rather than find
the number in the student phone book
should pay, hut it is unfair to ask students to
pay for directory assistance when the student
directory is less than 50 percent accurate by
the beginning of fall semester prior to the
issuance of new student directories."
Jones noted that the free Student Locator
Service is unable to handle the number of
inquiries common at the beginning of fall
semester.
RHA asked the utilities commission to
See RHA on page 6.
A small row of offices, repair shops and
classrooms line a wall of the second-story level.
The rooms are connected by a walkway, from
which the main working area can be overlooked.
The shop was moved to the new facility Dec. 1 3.
Much of the property is still in storage, although
the machines, principally carpentry machines, are
in the working area.
Last summer, when the North Campus heating
loop became inoperative, the Caldwell Annex was
the hardest hit. Thirty-two radiators burst,
Baselici said. The U niversity was forced to replace
them, although officials knew the building was
coming down. The new radiators went to the
demolition contractor, according to Baselici.
The last days of the annex were plagued even
after the radiators were replaced. "Workers would
come over, two or three weeks before the closing
of the building, with orders to turn off the heat and
eleetricity," Baselici said.
Set builders complained of the cold in the old ,
scene shop. "It was horrible," one said. "It was
cold all the time."
Tommy Rezzuto, production adviser for the
Playmakers Repertoty Company and a dramatic
art professor, recalled crew members finding scene
paint frozen in the can. Rezzuto also remembered
taking a freshman English class in the annex in
1948. That classroom later became his office.
The shop has been moved around a bit before
settling in the annex. In 1948, the scene shop was
housed in a building located where Carroll Hall
now stands. Then it was moved into an old house
along old fraternity row.
There, sets were constructed in the living room,
Rezzuto said, while costumes were completed on
the enclosed porch. Today, costumes are made in
Graham Memorial.
I n the early '50s the shop was moved to Caldwell
Annex.
Alderman
thinks Bell
should pay
By EVELYN SAHR
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill Alderman Bob Epting is
considering petitioning the state utilities
commission to order Southern Bell to make some
form of payment in lieu of the 1977 property taxes
which the company has avoided paying.
Epting says that Southern Bell benefits from
city services and that it charges subscribers rates as
if it were paying local property taxes, even though
it does not.
Through a tax loophole, almost 99 percent of
the property Southern Bell purchased last March
from the UNC-owned Chapel Hill Telephone Co.
was assessed as tax-exempt for 1977. According to
tax officials, Orange County, Chapel Hill and
Carrboro will lose approximately $400,000 in tax
revenues from Southern Bell because of the
'exemption.
Epting's petition, however, would not be aimed
at directly recovering this lost tax revenue.
Epting suggests instead that Southern Bell
either give a rebate to its subscribers or make a
voluntary contribution in lieu of taxes.
"My bone of contention is this," Epting said.
"Southern Bed's rate schedule, which is overseen
by the utilities commission, allows them to realize
a fair and reasonable amount of profits based on
their receipts and expenses for the year. Southern
Bell includes the payments for its property taxes in
with its expenses when figuring this rate.
"However, for the year of 1977, Southern Bell
isn't paying this tax money because of the
loophole in the law. Consequently, Southern
Bell's customers are helping Southern Bell pay for
taxes which Southern Bell isn't even paying. This
simply creates a huge windfall gain for Southern
Bell," Epting said.
See ALDERMAN on page 3.