Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Thursday, June 22, 1989 Chapel Hill, North Carolina NewsSportsArts 962-0245 BusinessClassifieds 962-1 1 63 VVvASNVVSV Making a point felliiifll David Rubright of Chapel Hill stays glued to the baseline as he smashes a forehand return at the Cobb tennis courts Monday. Students question moped bi By SARAH CAGLE Staff Writer If a bill under consideration by the N.C. House of Representatives passes, some University students will not be able to drive their mopeds. The bill, sponsored by Rep. George Miller, Jr., (D-Durham), would pro hibit mopeds on streets where the speed limit exceeds 35 miles per hour. It also prohibits people who have lost their driver's licenses from oper ating mopeds and requires that moped riders wear helmets. The bill makes a distinction be tween mopeds and scooters. Mopeds have pedals and currently do not re quire a driver's license. Scooters go faster and require a driver's license, insurance and inspections. 1 v 1 '' ' K 4 K' js K v X . y "S Tar HeelEd Matthews "Basically this bill would do away with mopeds," said Mark White, a senior from Florida. White rides a moped to class from his house on Finley Road, where the speed limit is 45 mph. "I wouldn't be able to take it out of my driveway," he said. Rep. Fred Bowman (D-AIamance) said the bill was designed to target drunk drivers, not students. "I've had constituents complain that people who have lost their li cense for drunk driving have been running mopeds up and down the highway," Bowman said. "My con cern is that I don't want people who have lost their license on the street" Sgt. Ned Comar of the University police said that he supports the bill for safety reasons. UNC foysht By SARAH CAGLE Assistant Editor Five employee grievances are pending against the University po lice, and the attorney for the five po lice officers involved said that both the department's promotion process and the grievance process are unfair to employees. A letter sent to Chancellor Paul Hardin and Robert Sherman, direc tor of the University police, by attor ney Alan McSurely calls two recent promotions in the department "se cretive, arbitrary and insensitive, to say the least." The department's promotion proc ess, the letter alleges, was designed Chinese By PAUL BREDDERMAN Staff Writer It is uncertain whether Chinese students will remain the largest con tingent among foreign students at UNC following the period of politi cal unrest in China. The number of Chinese coming to UNC to study or do research in the fall is sull unknown, but there ap pears to be a slow-down in the issu ance of passports and visas, said David Austell, acting director of the Inter national Center. The Chinese government is double screening applicants who wish to leave the country. The Chinese must ac quire a new government-issued per mit in addition to a passport and visa, It is unsafe for moped riders to be on roads where they will be traveling more slowly than the flow of traffic, Comar said. If moped riders want to ride on roads where cars will be going faster than 35 mph, they should purchase motorcycles, Comar said. Mopeds usually can only travel at speeds between 20 and 28 mph, ac cording to John Rail of Motorcycle Sales and Service of Chapel Hill. "We sell one moped that can run at 35 mph, but the police can cite you for going more than 25 mph," Rail said. Rail said that although the bill would cut moped sales by 30 per cent, he supports it. Mopeds are an asset to students police from or "unconciously developed in such a way as to permit increased racial antagonisms to develop between African-American and white officers." The most recent complaint alleges that Sgt. A.J. Womblc was denied a promotion March 18 in favor of Wil lie Bell, Jr., a black officer who the officers allege was given special consideration because of a past griev ance. "It is common knowledge that officer Bell threatened to 'sue' the University if he did not get this pro motion," the letter said. The grievance, filed by officers Womble, Lonnic Sexton, Ollic Bowler and James Lassitcr, is at step two in students stallec said Jijie Liu, President of the Friend ship Association of Chinese Students. "They (those students and schol ars trying to leave China) are not even sure what the new permit looks like," said one Chinese graduate stu dent at UNC. Chinese military intimidation at the embassy in Beijing may also be a contributing factor in the slow-down of visa issuances, Austell said. Austell said the Chinese govern ment may also have complicated matters for Chinese students who want to study here by controlling which type of passport they can apply for. This probably occurred through recent discrimination between "spon sored" and "unsponsored" students, because of the parking problem on campus, Comar said. Rail said he is concerned thai moped riders who switch to scooters will have more accidents because the scooter has smaller wheels and is harder to handle. Bowman said he would be willing to consider making exceptions to the 35 mph clause for students who use mopeds to get to class. "I'm not trying to restrict kids who can't afford a car," Bowman said. "I'm thinking more in terms of people out in the country." Comar said that student exceptions to the rule would be unwise. "That is wimping out," he said. 'There would be no way to enforce the rule if that happened." policy withnim the grievance process. Officer Bell could not be reached for comment. Officer Womblc filed a separate grievance alleging that he was never given a pay raise when he was pro moted to sergeant in June, 1987. He is requesting a raise and back pay. Womblc's complaint has been denied by Sherman and assistant per sonnel director Dan Burleson, and will be heard by a special chancel lor's committee at step three in the grievance process. Officer Sexton also has a griev ance hearing pending, alleging that See POLICY, page 11 Austell said. "Sponsored" students are those funded by cither the Chinese govern ment, by U.S. agencies, such as the Institute of International Education, which operates the Fulbright program, or by established exchange programs, like UNC's Beijing exchange, he said. Chinese students who come to American universities using personal or family funds, or being funded through research and teaching assis tantships arc considered "unspon sored" by the Chinese government, Austell said. Chinese government officials have apparently declared that "unspon- See CHINESE, page 2 Inside China announces executions of protesters ....2 Bush welcomes new proposals for verification ...3 Town Council approves rezoning for sorority 4 Chapel Hill ranked high in cost of living 5 Yackety Yack beats deadline.... 6 Literary conference held on UNC campus 7 Murray, Aykroyd return for 'Ghostbusters II' 8 Group plans memorial for Hiroshima anniversary 9 Who'll go where in the NBA draft 10 l t f r r

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view