Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Dec. 4, 1984, edition 1 / Page 8
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8The Daily Tar HeelTuesday, December 4, 1984 Ji ll HlPAY.7ur Jon. Broadway. Editor Mark Stinni iord. .irw-w- Editor Bi n Pi:rkoxski. .I...,, u, yr Ki i.i.y Simmons, Cwienitr Editor VANC.I; TRI i rTHI N. Stale and National Editor Melanii- Wi;i.ls. city Editor DAN Tll.l.MAN, Business Editor Lynn Davis, n- r Editor Frank Kennedy, sport Editor Jeff Grove. Arts Editor Sharon Sheridan. Features Editor JEFF NEUVII.I.E. PhotoKrapby Editor Blinded by the That six-pointed star is back atop the Morehead Planetarium, shining through the night and heating up controversy. Some like it up there, a few don't and most don't care. Those who don't like it argue that the star violates the constitutional separation of church and state with the questionable assump tion that it is a religious symbol. We disagree with that assumption and applaud Chancellor Fordham 's decision to display the star, which is used purely for advertising purposes. Fordham had ordered the star's removal in 1982, after a UNC law professor claimed it was a religious symbol and thus should not : adorn a public building. Until then, the star had publicized the annual "Star of Bethle hem" show for more than 30 years. Fordham's was a cautious decision, based more on avoiding a big fuss than on an interpretation of the law. When the Supreme Court ruled last spring that yuletide nativity scenes displayed by local governments did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state, Fordham decided that resolved the Taking education home A plan being developed by Student Government could help make living at UNC the total learning experience that college is intended to be. The University Relations Committee is working to set up a project by next fall that would allow students living in campus housing to volunteer to room with someone from a different culture. The plan is superior to a previously floated scheme that placed sole emphasis on the mix of black and white students and sought to integrate specific portions of campus. The Student Government initiative recognizes the cultural diversity of the campus and concentrates on the voluntary, one-to-one interaction most beneficial in generating understanding and harmony. We hope the new plan will mean the end of unrealistic proposals, dredged up every couple of years or so, calling for campus housing assignments to be made on a completely random basis in an effort to achieve greater integration. Many students looked distrustfully on a proposal first aired last year that would have integrated a North Campus resi dence hall on a voluntary basis, creating a floor consisting of 50 percent white and 50 percent black residents. Oppo nents saw it as a first step toward random housing, which might sound nice in theory but would threaten the progress UNC has made in integration. Those who want to see integration at work should take a walk beyond Kenan The Bottom Line Well, the scent of Christmas is in the air. Shoppers everywhere are flooding the malls, people are humming carols under their breath, and the streets are lined with decorations. It seems that everyone is gearing up for the big event. Even Central Prison in Raleigh is getting into the act. As Christmas approaches, Central Pri son's inmates receive all sorts of edible goodies from their family and friends on the outside. To cope with the influx of gifts, prison staffers have to work overtime cutting up all the cookies and cakes to make sure there isn't any contraband or weapons inside. One of the receptionists at Central Prison, Jennie Layton, says it breaks her heart to deliver cakes to the mail room for autopsy, but it has to be done. After all, who knows what evil lurks in the middle of a gingerbread man? Cakes and cookies aren't the only things at the mercy of the knife at Central Prison. Even peanut butter has to pass inspection; workers don surgical gloves as they hunt through the goo looking for pills. If there are any lumps in the stuff, they better have been put there by Peter Pan. You can change the shape of sugary delights, but you can't destroy the taste. The inmates at Central Prison seem to enjoy their Christmas cookies in spite of their crummy appearance. A child of letters. . . What's in a name? Stiff 92nd year of editorial freedom light question and agreed to put the star back up to advertise the planetarium's 35th birthday celebration. But the chancellor didn't need that Supreme Court ruling to justify display ing the star. While the star does have religious connotations, so does the show it advertises. Such a display does not affirm a particular religious faith but says, simply, "Come and see our show about the star of Bethlehem." In this case, opponents of the star have carried the separation of church and state to an extreme begging the question of what constitutes a religious symbol. Law professor Barry Nakell argued that because the star is a solitary display it is more difficult to prove it is secular than the display of the nativity. Perhaps. But to substantiate his argu ment, Nakell would require an exact definition of a religious symbol. We certainly don't claim to have this definition, but we are convinced that the planetarium's star is there to advertise a show about a star not suprisingly and should not be subject to broader interpretations. Stadium in the region known as South Campus. On South Campus, white and black students live together, not as part of some experiment, but as a day-to-day reality. Depite misconceptions held by those who have never lived there, South Campus is not a black enclave; it is the most integrated place on campus. Those worked up by the racial distribution on campus should remember that housing assignments are based on preference, and the Department of Housing has displayed an admirable dedication to the freedom-of-choice concept. Still, with more than 90 percent ol the black students in dormitories living on South Campus, it can be argued that North Campus residents are missing part of the collegiate experience by not being regularly confronted with hallmates from different cultures and back grounds. But with blacks making up only 9 percent of the student body, the numbers simply aren't there to signif icantly integrate the entire campus. And random housing would destroy a suc cessfully integrated South Campus community that makes coming to UNC a more attractive choice for minority students. The University will have to do a better job of recruiting black students to achieve true integration here. All of this is not to say that the new voluntary program being developed by Student Government is the last word on promoting integration, but it may be one the best things we can do for now. More than 8,000 letters, if you happened to be born weighing 7 pounds 7 ounces at Wake Medical Center Wednesday (of course, if you had been, chances are you wouldn't be reading this). The child, whose name begins with Dr. Semajalohalovejoy hawaiimorningsunrainbowacirema, goes on to embrace every country in the world not to mention world-renowned recording artists Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, to name but two. The obvious question: Why not some thing simpler, like Fred or Barney? Accord ing to his dad, Dr. Odechi Aal anubiaimhotepokorohamz the former Cecil McGirt Jr. the unusual moniker is symbolic of the brotherhood of man. The tyke's middle name, Pi, denotes infinity, but is a heckuva lot easier to write than 3.1416. . . Surnames of this lexical length are nothing new for the family, which adopted the practice back in 1980 for some unknown reason. But the newborn's nom is the wordiest of them all, says Dad and a sure bet for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. An auspicious beginning, to be sure. But have they considered practicality? Job applications will be a job. SAT applications don't contain enough spaces. Introductions could take hours. And a checkbook would require a briefcase. Think again, folks, before committing thousands to clothes tags. Name-dropping would appear to be in order. And that, in a word, is the bottom line. ntegrating some truth into By SHERROD BANKS The whole idea of campus integration and segregation is a very complex matter, much more so than was projected by the DTH in the Nov. 28 article, "Banks criticizes integration plans." Using an inaccurate headline and a militant picture of me, the DTH distorted the Black Student Movement's position. I never criticized an integration plan there was never one put before me. I criticized a pilot project which was intended to lead to a randomized housing policy. This is an extremely important issue, so read on while I explain the pilot project's background and the BSM's position. Last year, some concerned students described this campus as being segregated because 90 percent of the black population lives on South Campus while relatively few live on North Campus. What most students did not realize however, is that blacks comprise only 30 percent of South Campus's total population. Having a 70 percent white population, South Campus is the most integrated area of this campus. This obvious statistic (but somehow overlooked) functions as the bedrock of our problem. If 90 percent of UNC's black population produces only a 30 percent black population on South Campus, then the problem is not so much where blacks live as it is how many black students are at UNC. Now the pilot project. Amidst all the debate concerning how to end UNC's "segregation" and because the student body overwhelmingly rejected the randomized housing scheme, the pilot project idea arose. The project called for grouping 50 percent black and 50 percent white students together voluntarily in a dormitory. And its purpose, of course, was to see if dorm "integration" would actually work. In essence, the pilot project became a political stepping stone to a randomized system for housing assignments. The Student Government Task Force on Dorm Integration, chaired by former Morrison Dorm Governor Angie Robbins and composed of then Student Body President Kevin Monroe, Resi dence Hall Association President Mark Dalton and myself, opposed the pilot project on those grounds. Furthermore, the BSM contended that the experiment would not produce realistic conclu sions. This campus is not 50 percent black; it is nine percent black and shrinking. Hence, any possible insights offered by the project about whether random integration would work would be misconstrued. If one wants to experiment with how random integration would affect UNC, then one should set up an experiment to reflect the campus' true demographics. That is, establish the pilot project with a 9 percent black occupancy instead of 50 percent, and select the occupants randomly as random integration would. What LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Personally perturbed by Stinneford's banal epic To the editor: Having authored a classified personal that seems to be of the genre so frantically reviled by an associate editor of our DTH ("Per sonally revolted by classifieds," Dec. 3), I feel uniquely qualified to respond to his breathless condem nation of "mail order dating" and, concomitantly, his utterly banal defense of romance. Some weeks ago I approached my suitemate with a rather unique proposal. We had each reached a nadir of frustrations. We are both 22, reasonably attractive, inargua bly extroverted, and yet two weeks ago we could count on one hand the undergraduate women we had met since our arrival in Chapel Hill m ill hiit -ii UX AFTER Alt. V At i eraATOAis "ID COMB,., Writing not To the editor: It came to pass that during the nones of November, a decree went out from 13 (interesting number) student Caesars in Chapel Hill calling upon the powers that be in "Town and Gown" to lower the Star Spangled Banner as a sign of mourning should the highest author ites in our land take an action with which these verdant Caesars dis agree! These questions occur: Upon what meat do UNC's pseudo Caesars feed that they have grown so great? Through them does our Alma Mater speak because they are the Campus Governing Council? But, if these Caligulas are the voice of Alma Mater, she has spoken with a poor, lisping, stammering tongue. But, was Alma Mater speaking? It is reported that these fledgling Caesars could muster a quorum -s5rf ,s 700 A& V3J MEETING iWltQ J MT7D HAVE U t -&P6 KlMSLP o UHAT COULD BE WORSE FOR UMC BLACKS THftU CONTlMUtt OVJ SOOTU ISOLTIOU OV4 MOUTH would one find in such an environment would not be integration, but probably introversion and assimilation. The difference between integration and assimilation is paramount here. Integration involves a mutual respect that leads to a mutual exchange of ideas and culture. Assimilation involves neither, for it requires one to give up one's ideas and culture for acceptance into a different environment. Understand that if the BSM endorsed the pilot project as originally intended, then it would lead to random housing that, in turn, would produce black introversion or assimilation. I would essentially be endorsing a policy with manifestations ultimately of self denial, not only for me but for other black students as well. Last year in response to the problem, the BSM proposed North Campus residence assistants sponsor a cultural event (as one of their RA projects) inviting the BSM Gospel Choir, Opeyo Dancers, and Ebony Readers Onyx Theatre. This way, the black cultural presence would be preserved while North Campus students could experience these ideas and expressions as well. Today, I propose the following modifications to the pilot project in order to reduce the probability of it being used as a stepping stone to randomized housing, and to improve the idea overall. First eliminate the 50 percent black and white requirement, and encourage (in fact, reserve room for) students of all ethnic origins. Second, last August. This rather dismal state of affairs was attributable not to our individual characters or personali ties, but to the fact that graduate and professional students have prohibitively rigorous schedules and requirements which leave little time for socializing. So jovially we penned a classified over a few beers one evening. The response was rather impres sive. Some 50 women wrote to us within a week of the publication of our personal. We have met with several of the respondants already. None, to my knowledge at least, has yet been sold into a sex-slave ring or received a letter from Moral Majority. I think that each of these women would testify that they are quite happy with their decision to respond. A good time has been had by all: no rapes, no heartbreaking disappointments and no premature marriage proposals. I am quite honestly at a loss to understand how Stinneford arrived at his conclusion that personals of this sort or counter-productive to romance. In our case at least, women are meeting men, and each are enjoying the other's company, be it over lunch or a few pitchers of beer. Perhaps this is not love, but it is certainly harmless fun. Need every relationship between men and women lead inevitably toward romance or be motivated purely be the desire to fall in love? I think a, SccSKc off mm, 1 6Tt?S?Zr& l5S YJ J 'iv -WMP' ; ' -J- mcmi 0AI7He PHONb, to praise Caesars only by including those who refused to go along with their most boda cious ploy. Do these Caesars give any thought to what effect their feckless action may have upon the citizens of this state who are called upon every two years to appropriate millions of dollars to aid our beloved Alma Mater? Do they think that such an action strengthens our friends in the Legislature? If so, they are living in a land of dreams where "hoot owls are hooting," and a red gibbous moon beams. Apparently they haven't read the election returns, for they have out Mondaled" Mondale, a candidate who has been repudiated over whelmingly by the voters of this very state. I say feckless action. Why? It is because these crusading Caesars have called upon their betters to violate Federal Statutory Law; 36 . U.S. Code Service, Section 175-(m), provides that our flag may be flown at half staff only upon the order of the president except in particular circumstances set out in the statute. What our careless Caesars would be doing is directing a violation of federal law. If war should result, they would be counseling treason; and in any event, they direct a possible unlawful assembly. If they think ignorance is bliss they better think again. Bliss based on ignor ance most often comes to a sudden disasterous end. Smarten up, fellows! John Wilkinson Class of 32 Washington, N.C. the 6 T9 write into the policy statement that the sole purpose of this project is to provide the participants with a cultural and educational experience and that the project should never be used politically to support a random-housing policy. In conclusion, let me state honestly what bothers me most about this issue. The DTH's front-page headline suggested that I criticized integration and below it I was pictured as an angry, ruthless, militant S.O.B. Thereafter, the readers' otherwise clear interpretation of my position is colored opaque and my message cannot be transmitted. Such a misrepresentative depiction targets not only me, but the entire BSM as being the cause and propagators of the integration problem, when in fact, the BSM serves as a major recruiter of minority students for the purpose of integration. We should all understand that the BSM tries to make mean ingful inroads into the race-relations problem by raising such issues as apartheid, recruitment of minority students and faculty, establishment of a Black Cultural Center, etc. But we are set back each time the DTH irresponsibly distorts our intent. And so I say to the DTH, please be fair. You are impeding both the progress of the BSM and the betterment of race relations on this campus. Sherrod Banks, the president of the Black Student Movement, is a senior political science and Afro-American studies major from Edenton. not. Neither of us is so naive as to believe that love can be made to order something which the condescending Stinneford seems loath to concede. How Stinneford can link person als such as ours with "a conspiracy to drive romance out of American life" is simply beyond me. That any informed college student could make such a disappointing enough. When such a ludicrous and preten tious assertion is made by a senior journalism major and associate editor of our campus newspaper one wants to hide his head in shame. Mark R. McGrath Craige Mr. Curious To the editor: The story "Cocaine use up, pot's out at UNC" (Nov. 29) quoted Rex (not his real name) as saying, "Pot is so prevalent on campus that the average student should have no trouble finding it." Well, I'm an average student, and while I agree with Rex (not his real name), I'm having a little trouble this time. Could you please ask Rex (not his real name) if he could help me find some? I certainly would appreciate it. Rob Stuart (not my real name) Chapel Hill To the editor: I have a question regarding Monday's story, "The pill remains popular among UNC women." You report that "sper micides have flooded the contra ceptive market." I was wonder ing if you have any pictures? James Leitess Granville Editor's note: We're rigging our underwater camera equipment now. Letters ? Letters to the editor and edi torial columns should be typed on a 60-character line and should be triple-spaced. Dead line for letters and columns is 2 p.m. the working day before publication. The Daily Jar Heel reserves the right to edit sub missions for length, grammar, clarity and taste. fl. JL JLi
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Dec. 4, 1984, edition 1
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