4The Daily Tor Heel Tuesday, March 17, 1 0 4
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SlrSAN MAUNKY. Sliiuomo Editor
Mark Murrf.ll. .'ISAYUft' Editor
Jonathan Rk:h. .tvMff fc'fiw
Edwin a Ralston, vmvnity Editor
JOHN ROYSTER. City Editor
CHARLES Susie and National Editor
BETH BURRELL. Ntvt Blitor
Clifton Barnes. Shw Editor
Tom Moore. av Editor
DONNA WHITAKER. Features Editor
Scott Sharpe. photography Edit
ANN PETERS. Weekender Editor
NORMAN CANNADA. Ombudsman
By JIM HUMMEL
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Sfi year o" editorial freedom
Food options
Few issues on campus have evoked the degree of controversy and out
rage that has been raised over proposed plans to renovate and enlarge
student food services. Now that the possibility of a mandatory meal plan
has been discarded, student leaders have raised alarm over mandatory
student fees that would finance food services for a minority of students.
The Vice Chancellor's Food Service Committee is now preparing its
recommendations for improving the system and will submit these to Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs Donald Boulton by the end of the month.
The committee was asked to make recommendations on five food service
improvement options, ranging from $400,000 to more than $3 million in
cost.
Although one option to renovate only the Pine Room would cost stu
dents a low $1.30 a semester, there are serious questions about whether
primarily cosmetic changes would really improve food service operations.
Another option to renovate Lenoir Hall and close the Pine Room would
provide higher quality facilities with a greater seating capacity, but
would cost each student $6.50 per semester.
The question of the mandatory student fees needed to finance any
improvements, is at the crux of the food service debate. Although it is
certainly UNC's responsibility to provide economical and higher quality
food services, the University should not do so at the expense of the ma
jority of students.
Between the 60 percent of UNC students living off campus and the 25
percent belonging to fraternities and sororities, many students would
not be interested in any form of food service. Any costly renovation can
be justified only if it produces a multi-purpose facility that can be used
constructively by the entire student body.
Although student concern about mandatory fees is justified, student
reaction and involvement should not stop at criticism, Boulton's assurance
that any mandatory student fee would have to be proposed as a student
referendum puts the ball squarely in the students' court.
The student food service options raise complex questions and any 0
proposed improvement must take into account the best use of space, in
Lenoir Hall, competition with Student Stores, student eating trends and
a variety of other factors. Given the fact that a better student food ser
vice is needed, students and administrators must be willing to examine
all possible options and work together in implementing the most eco
nomic and equitable solution.
It's been a week since President Ronald -Reagan
was shot, and by now thousands
of journalists have offered their analyses,
interpretations and general impressions
about an assassination attempt that gained
instant world attention.
Many writers used the incident to launch
a renewed call for gun control or manda
tory death penalties. Others took us
through the last 20 years of their lives,
highlighting violent acts of the 1960s and
1970s and recalling exactly where they
were when John F. Kennedy was shot in
Dallas.
Many commentators have expressed
concern about how indifferent society has
become about violence and condemned
those who did not let the world come to a
standstill in the hours following the
shooting. Sure, they said, it was the topic
of conversation from Hollywood to
Philadelphia, but while people were
shocked by the suddenness of the attack,
many Americans had lived through similar
incidents before and were used to violence.
Perhaps it was the editorials and
columns in the days following the event,
coupled with the initial news coverage
Monday afternoon that rubbed me the
wrong way. Some papers played the media
event to its full potential, running enough
maps to make the American Automobile
Association proud, while other news
papers simply reported the incident and
offered a brief word of sympathy for the
four men who were shot and their families.
At The Daily Tar Heel, editors had to
decide which story to give more attention
Reagan or the national championship
if the Tar Heels happened to win. Fortu-
letters to the editor
nately or unfortunately the decision
never had to be made.
Papers throughout North Carolina and
across the United States decried the rise
of violent crime in America and offered
their opinion about the state of American
life in general. Terms like "crazed assas
sin" and "senseless murder" (is there
such a thing as a sensible murder?) plas
tered the nation's newspapers, but quickly
On the same day a columnist for the
Philadelphia Inquirer wrote zn article
titled, "The president was shot but they
played anyway," that criticized NCAA
officials for being heartless by deciding to
go-ahead with the college basketball
national championship. Hollywood step
ped aside on its biggest night of the year.
Oscar hung his head. Sadly, sports did
not, the article said.
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lost any meaning because they were weak
attempts to explain a situation that made
no sense.
Tuesday morning The Raleigh News
and Observer already had designed its
own "Reagan Shot" logo. It ran with'a
picture of Reagan that made it look as if
rigor mortis already had settled in. "Ap
parently, the paper wanted to help draw
attention to every story about the event,
but the tacky symbol just reinforced an
impression that the media were milking
the shooting for all it was worth.
The saddest thing to me is that the
Inquirer ran the writer's column. Maybe
the reason so many papers went over
board was because the shooting was an
event that touched every American and
for a few brief hours drew people closer
together. Readers were eager to see how
other people felt, reacted and viewed the
same situation, and columnists made an
attempt to satisfy that need.
But in the heat of the battle many
people lost all sense of perspective, as was
clear to anyone watching the three televi
sion networks that afternoon. This is not
to say Americans should be untouched
and detached from such a tragic incident.
The momentary paralysis that swept the
nation while Reagan was in surgery served
as a time for reflection.
It was the impassioned editorials, how
ever, that detracted from the reality of
the situation and bordered on desperate
commentary. One editorial said, "The
frightening thing is that yesterday it was
President Reagan. Tomorrow it could be
the mailman, the plumber, you or me."
The person who wrote that must be living
in a vacuum. .
The president was not shot because he
was Ronald Reagan the mailman. He was
shot as a result of his being the president
of the United States who is highly visible
and a person who takes a risk every time
he walks outside.
It hasn't taken long for politicians and
journalists to speculate about the political
ramifications of the shooting. How will it
affect the president's budget proposals
and his popularity ratings? To some, this
attitude may seem cold, but even Reagan
has made it clear that there are decisions
that have to be made.
The media should not be indifferent to
last week's shooting, but the sensationalist
journalism that appeared in many news
papers over the past week served no con
structive purpose.
Newspapers and television stations have
enormous influence in shaping American
opinion and policy. Americans should
condemn violence in this country, but if
. the media ever expects a change in society,
which it so fervently advocates, commen
tators must voice their concerns in a calm
and rational way. .
Jim Hummel, a junior journalism and
political science major from Grafton,
Mass., is editor oThe Daily Tar Heel.
Students cam protest Mid cuts in letters
THE Dallj CroSSWOrd by W.A. Henderson
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Ail Rights Reserved
To the editor:
By now, eveyone has heard of the much
publicized proposed federal budget cuts.
The threat that these cuts pose to higher
education interests has been made less
apparent. Financial aid experts have
stated that as many as 750,000 students,
nationwide, will be unable to attend school
if Reagan's proposals are accepted.
The shift in spending priorities is made
apparent when one discovers that the
Pentagon will enjoy its largest peacetime
budget increase in history, while some
students may be forced to drop out of
school. These cuts are directed at a
number of facets of the federal aid to
higher education. Of these, we should be
. most concerned with the significant reduc
tions which affect the Pell Grants, Guaran
teed Student Loans and the phasing out of
Social Security benefits as aid to students.
The Pell Grants, formerly known as,
Basic Educational Opportunity Grants,
will be altered by at least three noteworthy
changes. First, students will be required to
contribute more under President Reagan's
plan. The self-help expectation will be
increased from $500 to $750. Second,
families will be required to increase their
assistance toward defraying educational
costs. This change will be achieved by in
creasing the assessment rate for deter
mining a family's discretionary income,
that which could be spent for education.
Reagan wants the portion of income which
could be used to pay educational costs
increased from 14 percent to 20 percent.
Third, the maximum award could drop
from $1,800 to as low as $1,200.
Presently, 70,000 students in North
Carolina receive Pell Grants and many
will be unable to qualify next fiscal year.
Nationwide approximately 575,000 fewer
students will be able to receive Pell
Grants because of tightened eligibility
requirements.
The proposed changes to the Guaran
teed Student Loan program are said to
lead potentially to barring 90 percent of
the present borrowers from obtaining a
loan. The Reagan administration wants
the interest rate for these loans changed
from 9 percent to current market rates.
Another proposed change would be to
force the burden of costs onto the students
by requiring them to repay the interest
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which accrues, while attending school.
The third major program to be tar
geted for drastic cuts is the proposed
phasing out of Social Security benefits
to more than 800,000 students. More
than half of these students come from
families earning less than $8,000 a year.
These changes will increase the cost of
a college education at a time when insti
tutions such as UNC will be facing tuition
increases. A college education could be
come inaccessible to many who are in need
of financial assistance. We, in Student
Government hope to enlist your support
as we make plans to lobby our represen
tatives in Washington. To date, most of
the reaction that they have received from
their constituents has been "pro-cut."
We hope to counter this response with a
letter-writing campaign involving as
many members of this educational com
munity as possible. Please write a letter,
which expresses your concern for the
threatened security of your college educa
tion. It is important that our representa
tives receive our input. Please address
your letter to:
The Honorable L. H. Fountain
Room 2188 v ,
Rayburn Office Building
Washington, DC
Instead of mailing the letter, please
bring it by Suite C of the Union so that
the Student Body President can deliver it to
Representative Fountain, in Washington.
Scott Norberg
Student Body President
Alfred Perry
Director of National Affairs
Student Government
Food drive
To the editor:
On behalf of the staff of the Orange
County Dept. of the Social Services, wc
would like to express our gratitude to the
brothers, sisters and pledges of Alpha
Phi Omega Fraternity for the food drive
they conducted in March. Their efforts
provided us with more than 20 boxes of
canned goods, which will benefit the
agency greatly.
Thanks also to everyone at UNC who
donated food to the APO drive. In these
difficult times, it's heartening to see
college students responding so generously
to the needs of the community.
Kathy Putnam
Bill Kastanotls
Children & Family Services Staff
Department of Social Services
Carr Mill Mall
Budget cut
egal services for time
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By ALEX CHARNS
The Fifth Amendment to the United
States Constitution does not read, "All
people are guaranteed equal. protection
under the law if they can afford it.'
However, to be protected by the law you
must have access to the courts. Effective
access to the courts requires an attorney.
Prior to 1965, a poor person could not
obtain an attorney for a noncriminal case
- without the outlay of money. The scales of
justice demanded payment before they
would balance. Under the guise of fiscal
auNtcriiy, President Ronald Reagan would
have us return to the pre-1965 form of
justice justice contingent on the ability
to pay. Reagan's budget mcv.a?? to
Congress requeued that the Leal
Service Corporation not be funded.
In 1974 the ISC was formed. Itv prede
cessor daied back to IV65 as part of
UvJon Jchn,on'$ "Gret Society," ISC
is a prhate, nonprofit, federatly funded
corporation which provides fee,al ser
vice to the indigent. The $321 minion a
car ISC budget fundv 32;) le; a! aid pfo
-rur7; aero. the country, ztr'sir?
ur.S-t hMt) tten-ev and 2.M) r-ra-k-t'.ih.
I e;;J eid suitc4 the xur in, 1.5
' m.l'.ion i.dc hi csf.
Attorneys at legal aid attempt to ensure
that the poor receive the rights and bene
fits guaranteed them by our constitution
and laws. Legal assistance is provided for
family law problems, housing evictions,
utility cutoffs, welfare and Medicaid eli
gibility and consumer disputes. Legal ser
vices is not a handout or a privilege. It is
a protectorate of legal justice; it is a right.
President Reagan" s effort to kill legal
aid reveals the fallaciousness of his as
sertions that his budget cuts w ill not hurt,
the truly needy. The proposition that cut
ting off legal aid for the poor will not
hurt the poor is an affront to the intc":ence
of the American people. The effect of such
a cut would be devastating.
A legal right is worthless if it cannot
be enforced. Excluding the poor from
the judicial system will render impotent
their constitutional guarantees. Their
rights will become no more than hollow
and unfulfilled promises, cacd in the
paper on which they are written. To eli
minate legal aid for the poor is to set the
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executioner's hand in motion upon the
ideal of equal justice.
Funding legal services is not a liberal
versus conservative issue. Legal aid for
the poor is an issue so fundamental to
our democratic system of gcrvcromcnt that
it should transcend petty partisan politics.
Many politicians, caught up in the
reactionary fervor, have not confronted
the real mue equal aces to justice.
Even President Reagan can't shake his
unfounded and myopic view of fcal aid
developed white he was governor of
California. Lcal aid lawycri, the
former governor once said, are "a
bunch of junbularxc chafers who do thdr
own thin$ at the expense of rural poor."
l-r;:i! services must be saved. The still
unfulfilled premise cf chatty under the
law mua be fought for through the law,
FijuiLiy cannot t obtained on the court
house irps. If l-; ;l aid for th poor is
r.ot funded w? will hae to chan? th?
end of the Pled,:? cf Alliance to read
"with Lberty and justice fr s?l who can
afford it" so out thddftn may rcvite the
tnr.h Si they fxe the fhj tJscii- future.
AU'i Client, a uxonj-r hw uj-Jsnt
frvrrt ItiOfdj, Atch,, h i&vrj-tejrpfe
sLS-nt vf the Student I'-.:r Antxtettvn.