The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, September 11, 19863
Students main writers of bad checks
Oy BRIAN LONG
Staff Writer
Did you forget to write down that
last check to Domino's during your
last late night eating binge? How
about the one to Student Stores for
that $10.00 (or was it $10.95?)
umbrella you picked up during the
last rainstorm?
You're not alone; bad checks are
bouncing all over Chapel Hill. But
the epidemic isn't as bad as most
people would think.
1 would say about 95 percent (of
checks returned to the UNC Student
Stores) are from students," said Bill
Scarborough, comptroller for the
Student Stores. The number of
returned checks at the stores is a
small percentage of the student
population though, he added. v
"It's the same (students) over and
over usually," said Sam Barnard,
university cashier. "It's a habit like
smoking or drugs."
Barnard said the University Cash
ier's office receives around 320,000
to 350,000 checks in an academic
year 1,500 of which are bad.
Dav id Harris, vice president of the
Franklin Street branch of North
Carolina National Bank, estimates
there are more returned checks on
accounts held by students than on
non-student accounts.
1 don't think we have a worse
problem here (in Chapel Hill) than
in any other town with a large
number of students," he added. "Few
students don't bounce at least one
check by accident in four years at
UNC."
Scarborough said when a bank
returns a student's check to Student
Stores, a redeposit is made. This
gives the student another opportun
ity to make the check good. If the
check is returned a second time.
Student Stores forwards it to the
University Cashier for posting on the
student's account. A $10.00 service
charge is added if the student does
not make arrangements to pay.
"If the University Cashier doesn't
collect (the money), they send the
check back to us," Scarborough said.
"We put the student on our bad
check list. That student will not be
able to write or cash a check in the
Student Stores."
In 1985, the Student Stores
received 856 bad checks from stu
dents, totalling $135,000. After the
checks were redeposited, only
$29,000 (.3 percent of all checks
received) remained unpaid.
Scarborough said the University
Cashier's office collected most of the
$29,000, leaving the Student Stores
with a final debt of $5,900.
Undergrad library leases
laser-disc catalog system
By JEAN LUTES
Assistant University Editor
Thousands of librarians and
researchers may be going near
sighted for no reason all that
rummaging through the Reader's
Guide to Periodical Literature
and searching through card catal
ogs is quickly becoming obsolete.
The Undergraduate Library
has leased a $1,600 laser-disc
computer index that allows stu
dents to type in subject headings
and get listings of recent magazine
articles relating to those headings.
"Well have it on an experimen
tal basis for at least a year," said
Gary Momenee, reference
librarian.
The four terminals in the
system are hooked up to a data
base, which has titles of articles
from 900 to 1,000 periodicals, he
said. The data base is on a laser
disc player, and the library
receives an updated disc each
month, he said.
About one-third of the access
ible titles are from general interest
magazines, like "Time" or "Peo
ple," and two-thirds are from
business journals, Momenee said.
"I'm just learning but 1 think
it's pretty neat," said sophomore
David Diamond of Canton,
Ohio. "I was just going through
it to see something to catch my
eye so I can use it later on."
After getting a list of related
articles, students can make a
print-out of the list. "You don't
have to sit here and write it all
down," Diamond said.
After the list is obtained, the
related articles can be looked up
in the reference section of the
library, Momenee said. Students
can get lists of sub-divisions
within a large subject or use cross
references to find a variety of
information, he said.
"IVe only used it a couple
times, playing around and look
ing up topics that interest me,"
said junior Michael Klein of Kill
Devil Hills. "It's so easy it's
quicker than the Reader's Guide
and you don't have to walk
around as much."
The system does have limita
tions, Momenee said. "It covers
only three years, just back to
January 1982," he said. Students .
who need less recent information
would have to use the conven
tional Reader's Guide system, he
said.
Both Davis Library and the
Undergraduate library have on
line card catalog computer sys
tems that students can use instead
of the card catalog.
"The whole idea is to not need
card catalogs any more," Mome
nee said. "Eventually the card
catalog will be closed and no
more new cards will be added."
Joe Hewitt, associate university
librarian for technical services,
said spring 1988 was the earliest
the card catalogs could be closed.
"Closing basically means that
we will not add any more cards,
and well also be pulling some
cards," he said.
When the card catalogs are
closed, theyll have to be com
pacted to make room for more
computer terminals, Hewitt said.
"ltU be a big advantage," he
said. When microcomputers are
installed in all of the dormitories,
students will be able to search the
catalog without going to the
library, he said.
Students, faculty and staff with
questions about personal compu
ters can contact the Micro
computing User Services, which
moved from the back of the
Student Stores to the Undergrad
uate Library in August.
Renovated Wilson Library to reopen
next semester with updated collections
By NANCY HARRINGTON
Staff Writer
The University will begin a
$400,000 interior renovation of
Wilson Library in late October,
which will reopen in the spring,
according to the office of the Uni
versity Librarian.
According to Larry Alford, assist
ant university librarian in charge of
business and finance, the renova
tions should have been completed in
January. However, the architects
should turn the library back over to
the University later this month.
In addition to the collections
previously housed in Wilson, plan
ning includes a special computer
room for the on-line catalog system.
It also includes an expansion of the
North Carolina Collection.
A John Edwards Collection,
consisting of folk music of the
southeastern United States, will also
be featured, according to Willie
Owens, administrative assistant.
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Scarborough estimated the
number of checks received by the
store last year to be about 260,000.
In addition to checks written to
Student Stores, the check-cashing
booth located in the store cashes
about 120,000 checks a year.
Barnard said his office writes a
letter to the student who wrote the
bad check, encouraging him to pay
the money owed. If the student does
not pay, the Cashier's office with
holds the student's grades and
prohibits him from registering for
the next semester.
Barnard said the University Cash
ier's office will only accept cash from
a student if he writes two bad checks
to the university.
Connie Dean, head cashier at the
UNC Traffic Office, said she does
not have to worry about returned
checks for traffic tickets because
"most students charge the tickets to
their student accounts anyway. .We
(UNC Traffic) get reimbursed by the
university cashier's office."
Bill Dux, food service director for
Marriott Corp., said his office has
just received its first report of
returned checks from Marriott's
accounting office in Buffalo, N.Y.,
and is still working on a policy for
returned checks. He did say that the
dining service's policy will involve an
automatic closing of student
accounts paid for with bad checks.
Harris said there are two reasons
students usually "bounce" checks.
Either they simply don't have the
money to cover all their expenses at
one ' time, or they aren't familiar
enough with checking accounts to
keep track of them very well.
Harris added that he arrived at this
conclusion because of the number of
"casual checks" those for small
amounts of money that students
bounce. "A student may write a bad
check to Pizza Hut, for instance,"
he said.
C A A to sponsor safari trip to Kenya
By JUSTIN McGUIRE
Staff Writer
A wildlife safari to Kenya in
February is one of 12 tours the
Carolina Alumni Association is
sponsoring for its members in 1987.
The Alumni Association has been
sponsoring package tours since 197 1 ,
according to Ruth Boyce, director
of records for the Carolina Alumni
Association. Kenya's 16-day tour
will be the first to Africa since 1977,
Boyce said. The $2,950 price includes
hotel accommodations, ground
transportation, airfare and chauf
feured safari-bus tours. Stops in
Nairobi, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the
Serengeti plains highlight the tour.
Among the tours planned for
January 1987 is a seven-night cruise
of the Grenadines islands and the
Orinoco River in Latin America.
Closer to home will be a voyage to
New England and Canada that will
include stops in Montreal and
Quebec. In October and November
the alumni association will sponsor
a trip to the Orient, with visits to
Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok and
Hong Kong. Trips to Australia, the
Mississippi River, Spain, Northern
Europe, the Canadian Rockies,
Alaska and the Soviet Union will
also be offered this year, Boyce said.
These trips are open to all
members of the Carolina Alumni
Association, and non-members may
also travel with the group for a $20
surcharge, said Boyce.
Anne Cates, a UNC alumna, said
she loved the tour she took of East
and West Germany in September
1984. "Governor Moore, who just
recently passed away, and his wife
were on that trip," she said. "We
particularly enjoyed the Passion
Play and Munich. It was a great
group of people we traveled with,
and we had a wonderful time."
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