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Copyright 1986 The Daily Tar Heel
Volume 94, Issue 51
latin
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Tuesday, September 2, 1986
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
NewsSportsArts . 962-0245
BusinessAdvertising 962-1163
FraimEdnini Streets IBaslhedl amidl crashed.
Drinking age hike brings
party, damage to streets
IT
By JIM ZOOK
Editor
Chapel Hill revelers violently
ushered in the state's higher drinking
age Sunday night by staging a
boisterous send-off party on Frank
lin Street, causing thousands of
dollars in damage to downtown
businesses. Unofficial reports say
that 15 people were arrested.
Rumors of the expected party
attracted celebrators from surround
ing states as Chapel Hill counted
down the final hours before the legal
age to drink beer and wine rose from
19 to 21 at midnight Sunday.
"Ifs like a war maneuver," said
Wendell Williamson, an 18-year-old
freshman from Clyde. "Everybody
just put their bodies in front of the
lines of traffic. We knew it was for
real when we saw Bryan Hassel
(UNC student body president) in the
streets."
Officials with the Chapel Hill
Police Department and the South
Orange Rescue Squad said Monday
they would have no comment con
cerning the incident until Tuesday.
WRAL-TV reported Monday that
15 people had been arrested.
Ben Moore, an administrator at
N.C. Memorial Hospital, said Mon
day that 24 people were admitted to
the emergency room between mid
night and 5 a.m. Monday, about 10
more than usual.
Sunday's party was reminiscent in
size of the street-blocking bash after
Group protests age hike 4
UNC won the men's national bas
ketball championship in 1982. Kyle
Caddell, a junior from Charlotte,
even predicted the scene could be
repeated later this year.
"This is just a warm-up for the
7 national championship," Caddell
said.
Kevin Knapp, a student at Vir
ginia Commonwealth University in
Richmond, Va., said he came down
for the party after hearing about it
from friends.
"This is not Times Square on New
Year's Eve," Knapp said. "But when
we came down here we were in for
the shock of our lives."
The tone of Sunday night's fracas
shocked even witnesses of the 1982
celebration by its hostility and
destructive nature.
"This is a damn disgrace," said
Eric Smith, a Chapel Hill police
officer. "If it was basketball, 1 could
understand it. But this is just
senseless."
Roger Whittemore, manager of
the Subway restaurant on East
Franklin Street, said the wild
throngs in 1982 were tame compared
to Sunday night's mass.
"In 2, there were some problems,
but we stayed open the whole time,"
Whittemore said. "That was eupho-
See BASHED page 2
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DTHDan Charlsori
Bad craziness on F-Street
Editor's note: The following
column describes the experiences
of The Daily Tar Heel's Photo
Assault Team, which braved
Franklin Street the night of
Aug. 31. Because they were not
taking notes at the time, this
column should be taken as a
recollection, not a strict account,
of what happened. The Assault
Team was: Dan Charlson, pho
tography editor: Charlotte Can
non, staff photographer; Grant
Parsons, university editor.
The Plan, we told ourselves
Saturday, was to sit at home
until about 10 p.m., drop by
Franklin Street, take a few shots
and then go grab a beer. We
were thinking of your basic,
garden-variety F-Street bash.
The Plan, we told ourselves,
would take about an hour total
loss of life and destruction of
monstrously expensive camera
equipment were the farthest
thoughts from our minds.
The Plan, we discovered, was
screwed.
9:45 p.m. The chatter on the
DTH's state o' the art police
scanner had taken a distinctively
rattled tone. Cops, who had
been perfect examples of compo
sure in the face of hysteria, were
getting edgy. Most of the time
the communications couldn't be
heard they were garbled by
tension and screaming.
Someone pulled a gun in a
fight behind University Square,
the scanner said. Keep the traffic
moving, the scanner said. The
mobs couldn't take the street if
traffic was moving, the scanner
said.
Someone is drinking in public,
the scanner said. That's the least
of our problems, the scanner
answered.
Traffic flow had ceased.
10:15 p.m. "It's hopeless, we're
going to have to close off the
street," the scanner said, the
voice half-garbled with mayhem.
11:20 p.m. As we advanced
towards F-Street, laden with
about $2,300 of camera equip
ment, the mob-noise got louder.
From the alley next to the
Carolina Coffee Shop, we
realized that something had
gone horribly awry.
F-Street was alive. There were
no individual people, just a mass
swaying like wind over a grassy
field. A stench .of stale beer,
vomit and urine tainted the air.
"Up. We've got to get up." We
checked out the rooftops, look
ing for The Shot. A guy behind
Spanky's said it was cool to use
the roof, and we handed up the
gear. No good. Too many trees.
Midnight We walked the back
alley looking for a new perch,
and found one farther down the
street. Leaning over the top of
the storefronts, we started shoot
ing. Three people next to us
were smoking dope, and they
dropped a joint down to friends
on the street. Their friends
returned the favor by zinging a
few bottles our way. Hard.
We hit the tar-covered roof
like a bug hits a windshield. The
only way to shoot was to jack-in-the-box
up, focus, iire and go.
belly down. We had taken only a
few shots when the cops found
us.
See CRAZINESS page 2
Downtown
uprising
Campus, city, county and state
police were called in to deal with
the 1 2,000 to 1 5,000 people crowd
ing Franklin Street Sunday night,
but they could do little to stop the
damage caused by the celebra
tors. The impromptu street party
celebrated the last legal day of
drinking for 1 9- and 20-year-old
North CaroliniansNormal traffic
flow was resumed about 5:30
a.m. Monday, nearly eight hours
after the fracas began.
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Special to the DTHCharles Ledford
Residence halls edge out dorms
By GUY LUCAS
Staff Writer
All you on-campus residents
probably think you've been living in
a dormitory. Nope. It's a residence
hall.
For several years now, the Depart
ment of Housing has been trying to
get students to think "residence hall"
instead of "dormitory." But this year,
there is a stronger effort, said Allan
Calarco, associate director of
housing.
"The original origin of 'dormitory'
is a place to sleep," he said. "What
we're attempting to do is make the
concept more alive."
But not everyone sees it quite that
simply.
"If they were just going to leave
us alone and let us live there, that
would be fine," said Residence Hall
Association President Ray Jones.
"But no, they want us to learn there,
they want us to grow there."
"I guess it could help justify the
rent increase last year," he said.
In fact, Calarco mentioned learn
ing and growing among the activities
students now perform in . . . well,
dormitories.
"We're trying to involve students
in the idea of it being a place to live
and learn rather than just telling
' See LIFE MODULE page 3
Soviet passenger liner sinks
From Associated Press reports
MOSCOW A 61-year-old
Soviet ship big enough to carry
at least 870 passengers collided
with a freighter at night in the
Black Sea and sank with a loss
of lives, officials said Monday.
They did not give a casualty
figure. .
Foreign radio monitors said
they did not hear a distress signal
after the collision between the
passenger ship and the Soviet
freighter Sunday night.
Search and rescue operations
continued Monday night, about
,20 hours after the ship went
down, according to officials in the
Black Sea ports of Odessa and
Novorossiysk. ,
A Naval Ministry official said
by telephone late Monday that
the freighter remained afloat. He
would not answer other
questions.
Soviet media carried only a
brief statement from the Commu
nist Party Central Committee and
Soviet government. It was the
second sinking of a Soviet pas
senger liner in seven months.
LJeF-ffr5eed!y computer- science taildiinig opens in Feb
By JENNIFER ESSEN
Staff Writer
Sitterson Hall, the computer science
building under construction behind Peab
ody Hall, should be completed by February,
according to Vernon Chi, director of
microelectronics systems laboratories on
campus. The hall was originally set for September
1986 completion, Chi said Compared to
other campus buildings under construction,
he said, "1 think we're doing pretty well."
Named after former UNC Chancellor
Joseph Carlyle Sitterson, the building will
cost over $9 million, Chi said. The funds
were provided by the state Legislature after
Microelectronics and Computer Technol
ogy Research decided to locate in Austin,
Texas rather than the Research Triangle
Park, he said.
North Carolina is strong in the field of
microelectronics but weak in the field of
computers, and former Governor James
Hunt decided that UNC's computer science
facilities should be improved, Chi said.
"Our department is probably the premier
computer science department in the state
system," Chi said, so UNC received the
funds. "James Hunt decided it should
happen and the state Legislature made it
happen," he said.
Because of a forward-looking and
cooperative legislature, the entire sum for
construction was allotted and construction
began promptly, Chi said.
"It really dropped out of the sky on us."
He said that there is usually a 5- to 10
year delay before projects begin, ". . . but
here we are."
The brick and limestone building is four
stories tall and and has 73,000 square feet
of floor space. A high bay-windowed area.
complete with mahogany cabinetwork,
serves as a reading room.
Selwyn Bryant, director of the depart
ment of engineering and construction, said,
"There's a lot more wood than you would
find in other buildings."
It was a strong intention of the computer
science department to not have a steel and
concrete, "high-tech" building, Chi said.
The department didn't want a "Darth
Vader" building, he said, because compu
ters are already intimidating.
Sitterson Hall is traditional yet useful,
and it has a softer, friendlier environment
than concrete blocks, Chi said.
Offices occupy the windowed perimeter
of the building, and the basement area
houses windowed offices and equipment
storage rooms. "Equipment doesn't care if
it can see out," Chi said.
The outer architecture of Sitterson Hall
was designed to match the architecture of
the Carolina Inn and Peabody Hall, Chi
said.
Bryant said an entrance designed for the
handicapped leads from the southeast
See SITTERSON page 3
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann