Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Jan. 9, 1986, edition 1 / Page 1
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y "y "ft To the bitter end Well, if you made it through last night's low of 10 you'll see a warmer high of 45 today. Th-th-th-thanks. Copyright 1986 The Daily Tar Heel Slowly I turn . . . Feel like this week's taking forever? Check out the week's fare on page 3 for an incentive to endure. Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Volume 93, Issue 114 Thursday, January 9, 1986 Chapel Hill, North Carolina NewsSportsArts 962-0245 BusinessAdvertising 962-1163 r A- X- -, - i y w i i , ' 4 s? , DTH Jamie Cobb He'sbooldn' Paul Pasco, a freshman for Shelby, checking the prices of this semester's students who chose to brave the long lines and buy books early in an textbooks on the second floor of the Student Stores. Pasco is one of many attempt to get a jump on his studies. ffl A mrnemnilbxeirs w&M to dl mraoire By LINDA MONTANARI Staff Writer Although most of RHA President Tim Cobb's campaign promises have been fulfilled, some past and present members say RHA's activity list since February's elections looks bare. Springfest went off, as usual, with a $1,500 donation from RHA, and the Scott Residence College received financial help with the all-campus "Yure Nmomma" party on homecoming weekend. A few areas, such as SRC and Henderson Residence College, held inter-area mixers funded by RHA, and Granville Towers used RHA funds for a social event last spring. "A lot of the things that I set out for the organization to accomplish have been accomplished," Cobb said. But some present and former RHA governors say that RHA could have done more. Allen Gleitz, RHA governor for Stow Residence College, said that he was fairly satisfied with RHA's accomplishments but that he would have liked to have seen more programs. "I'm kind of disappointed that the programming board did not take planning responsibility away from the governors," he said. RHA did help students by providing enhancement money for improvements in the dorms, he said. Courtney Sanders, governor for Granville Towers, said she felt the programming board did better this year than last because of stricter attendance rules. But she said that once Cobb did forget to notify the 10 area governors that a meeting had been canceled and that there were other communication problems. "There's nothing really much to show for what we did," she said. "We did a lot of talking " Shannon Friend, RHA executive assistant under former president Mark' Stafford," said sTie was disappointed with RHA's accomplishments this year. "I haven't seen any all-campus sponsored events at all," she said. "It kind of makes me wonder where the money has gone." RHA's budget went up this fall from about $13,000 to about $20,000 because of a 75-cent increase in student fees. Cobb said RHA could account for the extra $7,000 in its budget. RHA used $2,000 to clear up an operating deficit, which occurred because not enough money was left from the last administration, he said. Another $3,000 will be left in the treasury at the end of this year to avoid future money problems, he said. RHA also allotted $1,000 for inter-area mixers and helped the Carolina Athletic Association pay for homecoming floats, he said, which hadn't been done in the past. Part of the remaining money is being saved for a personal computer for the office. Friend said the programming board also was not very useful this year. t "They should have been coming to the governors monthly with tons of ideas," she said." But Cobb said the programming board's job was to take administrative duties off the hands of the governors. . Cobb said he felt one big program a semester was sufficient. "I did not see a decrease in our organization's activities," he said. "If anything, I think there's been an increase in visibility." This year, the freshmen orientation coordinators were all RHA members, he said, so that freshmen could get to know their areas' governors right away. The alcohol policy for the dorms also has been a big issue for RHA, since the legal drinking age will go up to 21 in September, he said. Cobb said he wanted to reduce the amount of student fees going to dorm budgets because so much was spent on alcohol. Elections Board backbone off body politic By KAREN YOUNGBLOOD Staff Writer Behind every open-mouthed grin on a political poster, there are unseen people watching to make sure cam pus campaigning goes smoothly and legally. These people are members of the Elections Board. Bruce Lilley, chairman of the Elections Board, described how members of his organization man aged to keep up with the large amount of work they face during elections. "We go to Henderson Street a lot," he said. The Elections Board is in charge of administrating and policing cam pus elections, Lilley said. "We are a giant bureaucrat," he said. "We make sure petitions are signed correctly, we make sure the ballots are pnnted up and counted elections all the mundane stuff. We have to interpret the laws and make decisions." Before candidates can participate in an election, they must have a petition signed by students. The Elections Board validates the peti tions, Lilley said. If the petitons are not valid, the board steps in. "Only a junior can sign a petition for senior class officers," he said. "We diligently check every docu ment. Last year, we ran every single name on a student body president petition through a computer to find if there were duplicates. We used $60,000 worth of computer time in tne process." Lilley said his board also studied complaints made by candidates who felt they had not been treated fairly in the campaign. "Last year, there was some con troversy about posters, like the anti Doug Berger campaign," he said. "There was also the BSM (Black Student Movement), who felt there was an error on the ballot for constitutional funding, so we had that election over. That's more or less how it works a group or candidate will come to us and speak to us about it." Although negative campaigning was a problem in last year's election, both Lilley and Mary Evans, student attorney general, said there wasn't much that could be done to stop it. "In terms of what I'm allowed to do, there's nothing in the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance directed to negative campaigning," Evans said. "I have a problem because I'm against negative cam paigning personally, but I also feel people have a right to free speech. There's not much this office can do." Evans said most of the complaints her office received involved minor violations, such as property damage when posters were torn down. Lilley said the worst problem his office faced during elections was finding enough pollsters. "We need a lot," he said. "In fact, we asked the Campus Governing Council to compensate pollsters monetarily, but we didn't get it. I'm going to contact the fraternities and sororities to get them involved. Most pollsters in the dorms are people who live there." ft O omrapangim n By GUY LUCAS Assistant University Editor Wyatt Closs will turn in his resigna tion as speaker of the Campus Govern ing Council this weekend. Closs is resigning to take a position with the campaign of David Price, a Democrat running for the U.S. House of Representatives seat now occupied by Republican Bill Cobey. Closs also will not attend classes this semester. "IVe always kind of had some sort of interest in the political arena," Closs said. "The goals I wanted to achieve for this semester were financial stnb'lity and a change of pace from what I had been doing here and to get academic credit. Fortunately, I was able to get all three in one fell swoop." Closs will be a salaried campaign worker and will receive six hours of academic credit. The focus of his attention will be on making Price a stronger candidate in the University and black communities, Closs said. His responsibilities also will include coordinating activities from Price's headquarters. "The experience I'm gaining is a large reward in itself," he said. "The thing I had to ask myself was in making sure I was working for someone I really had confidence in." Closs said he had accomplished about 75 percent of the things he had hoped to do when he took office. "There were a lot of things I wanted to do as outgoing speaker, in terms of transition, and things I wanted to do with the budget process and things that had to do with the referenda coming up (in campus elections)," he said. "I wanted to be here to make students aware of different referendum items." He also had wanted the CGC to adopt a specific definition of what was a political use of student funds since definitions change with different interpretations. "I also wish our work load had been more consistent," he said. On some weeks there was a very heavy load, but on others there was almost no work, -WW ' ; mmm 'The goals I wanted to achieve for this semester were financial sta bility and a change of pace from what I had been doing here and to get aca demic credit ' Wyatt Closs which probably hurt the CGC's effi ciency, Closs said. - - Speaker Pro Tern Jimmy Greene is acting speaker in Closs's absence. The CGC by-laws call for a new speaker to be elected, but since there are only two .more meetings before a new CGC comes in, Closs said he felt an election for speaker was not needed. geft ftratfifocloglhitt By GUY LUCAS Assistant University Editor Workers have begun installing a traffic light at the intersection of Ridge Road and Manning Drive, between Hinton James dormitory and Chase Hall. Hinton James Governor Jack Zemp said he had been trying to get the state to install a light at the intersection since he took office last spring. "It was sort of like a rallying cry for the government down here at Hinton James," he said. "The traffic light was supposed to be (installed) in August, and they postponed it." The intersection has been a problem for a long time, Zemp said. He said he heard weekly reports of people almost getting hit, and sometimes people were bumped. There also have been two wrecks at the intersection. Zemp credited a petition drive that collected about 900 signatures with finally getting work started. "That really seemed to impress them," he said. "Everyone all the way up to the top wanted to put these lights in, but they didn't have the power (to release the funds)." Assistant Manager of N.C. Traffic Engineering W.A. Ward said there had been no problem in getting funds released or the project approved. It is not unusual for there to be a gap of up to six months between when a project is approved and when it is started, he said. "WeVe got quite a work load of traffic work," he said. "It's moving along as quick as it can. "It used to be you could put in one (traffic light) fairly quickly because they were fairly simple," he said. Changes in technology and where materials come , from have made the job more complex and lengthened the time it takes, he added. ftatt afctls $1 dtetd o Q D n cn itq to onwesfeaifte cthSy abtuie By KATHY NANNEY Staff Writer A gradual increase in child abuse cases and five years of funding requests by protective service officers in North Carolina have resulted in additional workers to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect. The N.C. General Assembly has provided an additional $l million for each of the next two years due to steady increases in reported child abuse incidents and an increasing proportion of cases involving severe injuries and sexual abuse, said Mary Lee Anderson, program manager for the protective services division of the Depart ment of Human Resources. "As the number of these reports went up, the (protective service) staff did not," she said.."So we started making requests five or six years ago to get more state funding...this is the first time we have had an actual monetary response." Support for the funding came from Gov. Jim Martin, who included a request for the $ l million appropriation in his budget plan last year, Anderson said. Because the Department of Human Resources did not include the request in its budget package, the General Assembly initially did not provide the funds, she said. However, the problem of child abuse received increasing media attention in North Carolina, and the appropriation for additional workers was included as a special bill in the final session of the legislature, she Said. Over 34,000 children received protective services from the state last year, an increase of about 1,500 from the year before, according to the protective services division's annual report. "We have not seen a tremendous increase in North Carolina," Anderson said. "If you look at the figures, it's a gradual increase." However, the increase in the percentage of severe incidents reported means protective services workers often have to spend more time on individual cases, she said. The Orange County Department of Social Services has had a dramatic increase in the number of reports dealing with sexual abuse, said Lane Cooke, supervisor of child protective services in Chapel Hill. Reports of sexual abuse have been doubling every six months, she said. "I don't think it's more incidents, but more reports of incidents," she said. The increase in cases reported is a result of increased media attention on child abuse and the training of schoolteachers to identify the signs of possible abuse, she said. The appropriation by the General Assembly gave Orange County enough funds for half an additional position, meaning one protective services part-time worker has been added to the Hillsborough office, Cooke said. For the first six months of 1985, Orange County protective services received 35 reports of child abuse, Cooke said. Every county department of social services is required by law to offer protective services for children, Anderson said. Child protective services workers receive and review reports of child abuse or neglect. By law they are required to initiate an investigation of reports of abuse in 24 hours and investigate reports of neglect within three days, she said. As defined by N.C. law, abuse occurs when a parent or another person responsible for the care of a child inflicts or allows the child to be inflicted with a personal injury which can cause death, disfigurement, danger to physical health or impairment of abilities to function. The definition of sexual abuse includes photo graphing or filming a child engaged in a sexual act. Under N.C. law, abuse also occurs when a parent or guardian inflicts serious emotional damage upon a child, or refuses to permit, provide or participate in treatment for the child. "Investigating emotional abuse is tricky," Anderson said. "We pretty much have to have medical proof and also have to show the parent or caretaker created it (the abuse) or allowed it to happen." About 40 percent of child abuse reports are substantiated and further action taken, Ander son said. "In those other cases, there may be something going on, but it does not fit our definition of abuse by law," she said. "We're concerned not only with protecting the child but also with strengthening the family," Anderson said. Children are removed from the home only when no alternative for protection exists, she said. "If we think the family can cooperate, protect the child, we try to keep the family intact. If a child is removed, we try to work with the family, so they could get the child back as fast as possible," Anderson said. If a case of severe neglect or abuse is found, social service workers may report to the district attorney, who decides whether to prosecute, Anderson said. It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness The Christopher Society
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 9, 1986, edition 1
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