Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 19, 1989, edition 1 / Page 10
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10The Daily Tar HeelTuesday, September 19, 1989 tfplatlgUlarlJM 97th year of editorial freedom Sharon Kebschull, Editor WILLIAM TaGGART, Managing Editor MARY Jo DUNNINGTON, Editorial Page Editor JULIA COON, News Editor JUSTIN McGuiRE, University Editor JENNY CLONINGER, University Editor TAMMY BLACKARD, State and National Editor CHARLES BRITTAIN, City Editor TOM PARKS, Business Editor CARA BoNNETT, Arts and Features Editor Dave Glenn, Sports Editor Kelly Thompson, Omnibus Editor MELANIE BLACK, Design Editor KlM AVETTA, Design Editor DAVID SUROWIECKI, Photography Editor TAs in trouble Graduate teachers need more credit board opinion At a large univer- -sity such as UNC with a limited num ber of full-time pro- fessors, the quality of teaching assistants is of great concern. But the University and the state have ignored their responsibility to provide satisfactory conditions for TAs and are jeopardizing the quality of educa tion for all students. The frustrations of TAs finally culmi nated Monday in a press conference and rally sponsored by the new organization Graduate Students United. The students presented the problems they face and their demands, which include a request that the University increase their salaries to at least $4,000 per course. The organization also requested other financial breaks, such as reducing the out-of-state tuition tp equal that of in-state tuition and providing some health insurance plan. GSU's demands are legitimate and they could probably ask for even more. Many TAs are married and just starting a family, and $3,200 per course cannot possibly meet the costs of raising a family, espe cially considering the high cost-of-living in Chapel Hill. Those graduates who are not fortunate enough to live in married student housing must pay the high cost of an apartment. Many of the assistants are forced to seek other jobs just to make a living, while simultaneously dealing with the workload of their own courses and teaching a certain number of undergradu ates. Compared with other universities that use many TAs in the classroom and for research, UNC assistants are some of the lowest paid in the nation, with only the University of Virginia showing lower sala ries. TAs at the University of California at Los Angeles are paid more than twice what UNC TAs are paid. TAs are also denied the respect full time professors receive. They are not considered for University teaching awards, reinforcing the idea that the graduate stu dents are not "real" teachers. More awards similar to the teaching award established by student government, for which all assis tants and professors are eligible, need to be created. In addition, many TAs are criticized for not knowing how tp teach, and several foreign TAs are criticized for not speaking English well. While these complaints may be well-founded, the University has a re sponsibility to train and screen all prospec tive TAs before putting them in a teaching position. Student government has taken an active part in this situation by holding forums and by establishing a teaching award which includes TAs. Student Body President Brien Lewis has voiced undergraduate support for the TAs demands. But student government could do more by using its General Assembly liaison to lobby state legislators for more money to give TAs a pay raise. The student body has a responsibility to support its TAs. Without that support, many undergraduates may lose some of their best teachers. KlMG- KOCH Battling a ban Bush's stance on rifles is dangerous A gunman with a history of mental problems a phrase that sounds hauntingly familiar used an AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle Friday to kill seven of his co-workers in Louis ville, Ky., and wound 15 others before shooting himself. The killings are so chilling because they could have been avoided a fact our president refuses to acknowledge. On Saturday, George Bush expressed his sympathy with the families of the dead and injured but continued to insist that the govern ment should avoid setting stricter guidelines on guns. He said he sees no evidence that banning a specific weapon could guard against the deaths. But Bush hasn't given, an opportunity to compile evidence on a ban. Conjecture would suggest that a ban could only help, but that is lost on Bush, who merely expresses his sympa thy, an easy thing for a president to do. Bush, a life member nnoBMHnmH SStSttSt Until we ban domestic rifles, the ban on im ports will prove utterly useless. a fact even Bush's chief of staff seems to recognize. Judging from his comments after the shootings, John Sununu seems willing to consider more stringent laws. Bush's membership in the NRA seems to blind him to the stand that would represent the best interests of his constituents. Congress asked the Justice Department last year to create a proposal allowing gun stores to run a computer check on the backgrounds of potential buyers. While that doesn't provide for a thorough check, it's a step in the right direction. The next logical step would be a ban on domestic rifles. While it will be impossible to keep the rifles out of the country altogether rifle sales would go underground a ban could only help. The AK-47 used last year in the massacre of five children in a Stockton, Calif., schoolyard was Chinese-made. Buyers HHHHaaaBi may not be easily able to find those in the United States anymore, but the domestic mar ket has more than filled the void. Until we ban domestic rifles, the ban on imports will prove utterly useless. It's difficult to understand Bush's tion, has made imports of semiautomatic as sault rifle illegal, say ing they had no "legiti mate sporting use." But he refuses to ban do mestic rifles. This political pos turing makes no sense. How could domestic stubbornness on this issue. With the recent an- rifles have legitimate spoiling uses? And even nouncement of his war on drugs, it would seem if one buys into the argument that everyone has logical that he would want these weapons out the right to a gun for self-protection, less potent of the hands of drug pushers. It's time now for guns can fill that hole shooting someone full Congress to "just say no" to the NRA's power of holes is not the point of self-defense. and require stricter standards. If John Sununu Stricter laws, ones that allow a waiting pe- can provide a rational voice in the White House, riod for all weapons to check the background of maybe there will be hope that Bush will not license applicants and another that bans all veto such strong measures. Sharon semiautomatic weapons, are desperately needed Kebschull The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Writers: Tammy Blackard, James Burroughs and Jennifer Wing. Assistant Editors: Jessica Yates, arts and features; Jessica Lanning, city; Staci Cox, managing; Anne Isenhower and Steve Wilson, news; Lisa Reichle and Richard Smith, Omnibus; Andrew Podolsky, Jay Reed and Jamie Rosenberg, sports; Kari Barlow, state and national; Will Spears and Amy Wajda, university; Writers: Craig Allen, Crystal Bernstein, Jennifer Blackwell, Wendy Bounds, Sarah Cagle, Brenda Campbell, Terri Canaday, Heather Clapp, James Coblin, Blake Dickinson, Wagner Dotto, Mark Folk, Julie Gammill, Kevin Greene, Joey Hill, Susan Holdsc la w.Jason Kelly, Lloyd Lagos, Tracy Lawson, David Lloyd, Rheta Logan, Jeff Lutrell, Alan Martin, Kimberly Maxwell, Helle Nielsen, Glenn O'Neal, Simone Pam, Gus Papas, Jannette Pippin, Becky Riddick, Vanessa Shelton, Kyle York Spencer, Mike Sutton, Laura Taylor, Emilie Van Poucke,Tim Truzy, Stephanie von Isenburg, Sandy Wall, Sherry Waters, Chuck Williams, Nancy Wykle. Sports: Neil Amato, Mark Anderson, Jason Bates, John Bland, Christina Frohock, Scott Gold, Doug Hoogervorst, David Kupstas, Bethany Litton, Bobby McCroskey, Natalie Sekicky and Eric Wagnon. Arts and Features: Cheryl Allen, Lisa Antonucci, Noah Bartolucci, Clark Benbow, Shields Brewer, Gretchen Davis, Diana Florence, Wendy Grady, Vicki Hyman, Mara Lee, Tim Little, Matthew McCafferty, Carrie McLaren, Elizabeth Murray, D' Ann Pletcher, Eric Rosen, Hasie Sirisena, Heather Smith, Bevin Weeks and Laura Williams. Photography: Evan Eile, Steven Exum, Regina Holder, Tracey Langhome and Kathy Michel. Copy Editors: James Benton, B Buckberry, Susan Comfort, Rebecca Duckett, Joy Golden, Angela Hill, Susan Holdsclaw, Debrah Norman, George Quintero, JoAnn Rodak, Kristin Scheve, Joe Seagle, Kelley Shaw, Clare Weickert, Steffanie Woodfin and Cameron Young. Editorial Assistant: Mark Chilton. Design Assistants: Kim Avetta and Melanie Black. Cartoonists: Jeff Christian, Pete Corson, David Estoye and Mike Sutton. Business and Advertising: Kevin Schwartz, director; Bob Bates, advertising director; Leslie Humphrey, classified ad manager; Kirsten Burkart, assistant classified ad manager; Janet Gordon, Angela Spivey, classified assistants; Amanda Tilley, advertising manager; Sabrina Goodson, business manager; Allison Ashworth, assistant business manager; Lora Gay, Kristi Greeson, Beth Harding, Lavonne Leinster, Tracy Proctor, Kevin Reperowitz, Alicia Satterwhite, Pam Thompson and Jill Whitley, display advertising representatives; Kim Blass, creative director; Pam Strickland, marketing director; Sherrie Davis, Ingrid Jones, Shannon Kelly and Tammy Newton, sales assistants; Laura Richards, typist. Subscriptions: Ken Murphy, manager. Distribution: RDS Carriers. Production: Bill Leslie and Stacy Wynn, managers; Anita Bentley, assistant manager; Brian Campbell, Stephanie Lockkar, John Nipp and Greg Miller, assistants. Printing: The Village Companies. Watching quality plummet by 1999 The earth could be a scary place in 10 years. The war on drugs will still in raging, the greenhouse effect will be kicking in, Dan Quayle might be running the country and Japan will own the rights to every American couple's firstborn. But surely there are some things to which we can look forward. Mick Jagger and Jerry Garcia will still be touring, even as they approach the age of 60, the Warsaw Pact countries will be liberalized and Tiffany will have completed puberty. One of the most disturbing trends materi alizing now is the deterioration of this uni versity. Not a day goes by without the an nouncement of another UNC program (in evitably an academic program) which had to be cut because of insufficient funding. If these trends continue, Chapel Hill could be a different place in 10 years when we bring our loved ones back to the alma mater for a weekend tour. Here are some of the projec tions for UNC in 1999: ATHLETICS: The tradition of fine athletics continues at the University of National Cham pions, but with some notable changes. The Educational Foundation (a.k.a. the Rams Club) has decided to eliminate support for non revenue sports. Women's soccer was spared in the purge, but only on the condition that students pay $20 a ticket. The authorities have decided to concentrate on the money sports -basketball and football. The football team had some winning seasons in the early '90's and is now a nationwide powerhouse. The Mack Brown show is nationally syndicated, and the Heels will play Notre Dame in the Chris Landgraff Staff Columnist "Mercedes Benz Turn of the Millennia Bowl" for the national championship. UNC basketball is still as great as ever, but it just isn't the same since Dean Smith retired in 1995 to win Jesse Helm's Senate seat in a heated race. Sen. Smith and two time Masters champion Michael Jordan still attend a few games each year, but the excite ment isn't what it used to be. LIBRARIES: Because more highways and athletic centers needed to be built, Davis Library is closed. Subscriptions began to plummet in the early 1990's (even as an army of construction workers, remodeled the already-remodeled press box at Kenan Stadium) and eventually the failing library became the victim of a hostile takeover by the Rams Club. Once a bastion of cutting edge literature, Davis is now a gym for alumni who want to stay in shape during their football weekend visits. Students can buy a lifetime membership to the state-of-the-art fitness center for only $10,000 (half off the regular price). FACULTY: There aren't too many profes sors still waiting for decent pay and reason able benefits. Several classes are taught by television monitors hooked up to universities that have wisely decided to pay their profes sors for their work. Like the graduate students of 1989, the UNC professors who have hung around hold an average of 2.6 jobs in order to supplement their income. Rather than holding office hours, students receive assistance by going to visit in structors at their second or third job. For ex ample, students can enjoy the fine dining at Breadmen's and discuss Southern literature with their professor who is waiting on their table (the ethical question of "tipping for grades" has not become a pressing issue yet). Since their are no real libraries on campus, they have plenty of free time to waste. State legislators still deny the need for a faculty pay raise despite the mass flight of pro fessors from Chapel Hill. The governor, named Jim (they all are), says there's no reason to increase faculty pay. "Come on, y'all, Chapel Hill's a nice place to live. Why should we have to pay someone to live there. Besides, we're still payin' off that third Alumni Center we built a few years ago." STUDENTS: The student body is still just as cool as ever. The year is still kicked off with that big party where everyone crowds together and drinks wildly and occasionally lets out a rebel yell. This type of gathering continues throughout the year, especially after big foot ball victories. Outside of parties, some stu dents have noticed that tuition has gone up and there is some discussion of protesting the tele vision monitor method of teaching, but most Tar Heels seem content. The Southern part of heaven is in for some big surprises in the next decade. Chris Landgraff is a political science major from Atlanta, Ga. Readers9 For em Editors' complaints about Phoenix petty To the editor: I was very disappointed at the pettiness and immaturity demon strated by Kyle Hudson of the Catalyst and Anthony Woodlief of the Carolina Critic in their let ter of Sept. 12 ("Phoenix not worthy of new computers"). The new desktop publishing system is an expensive, major endeavor that deserves careful scrutiny. These gentlemen were certainly proper in questioning the need for such a system and suggesting alterna tives. But there was no call for the sophomoric insults directed to wards the Phoenix which accom panied their concerns. It is a mystery to me why campus publications cannot exist in an atmosphere of cooperation to promote journalism as a whole at this university. Whatever the faults of the Phoenix may be, it has never wasted space in its own publication, or in the DTH, to defame another campus peri odical. The arch-conservative Critic and arch-liberal Catalyst set aside their differences to write their joint letter, why on earth can't all newspapers do the same? Even more unforgivable were the inaccurate "facts" included in their case against the desktop system. They stated throughout the letter that the system was to be available to students only at " the convenience of the Phoenix, when in fact all University-recognized publications are guar anteed access. And since the Phoenix has not missed a publi cation deadline in more than three years, where do they find the basis for their snide comment that the Phoenix is "usually late"? I found this especially ironic since I quit the Catalyst staff due to a several-month delay in print ing the first issue. Campus publications will wither away if they lose the re spect of their readers. Respect is especially important for journals of opinion such as the Critic and Catalyst. These two editors have done much to erode respect for student journalists with their childish mudslinging antics. BAILEY IRWIN Public Policy Junior Morrison officers use trip as a perk To the editor: As I write this letter, members of the Morrison Dorm govern ment are vacationing on the Outer Banks. Many of these people are my friends and I wish I could be with them now ... but not by charg ing Morrison's residents. If you are a Morrison resident you might be concerned about the possibil ity of rain on the Outer Banks. Without enough sun and surf your representatives will not be able to plan this year's activities, and your money will be wasted. The dorm government is not involved in a scandal the size of HUD but they are being trained to expect perks for services ren dered. I believe that this is taxa tion without representation or actually by representation. Their vacation, the retreat, destroys the spirit of volunteering. Their counter-argument is that they deserve the all-expense paid trip and they would volunteer even without the vacation. But they will never know for sure whether they would work without this stipend. Perhaps someday I will call up one of my pals in politics and be told to make a campaign donation if I want an appoint ment. I will exclaim, "But we're friends!" and he will explain that all of his friends invest in his retirement fund. I've always seen things in terms of "we" and "they". Like a wall separating myself and those close to me from the hordes who don't give much thought to ethics. Now that wall seems more like a smokescreen which my friends can pass through. After all, "they" are on the take. DAVID ISRAEL Physics Junior Playboy protests similar to Helms' To the editor: Re l'affaire Playboy, the Chapel Hill Newspaper reported last week: "Since (the DTH) receives $59,000 in student fees from the University for operations, some students said the paper should more closely adhere to what stu dents want." I wonder if these students realize how closely this parallels Jesse Helms' arguments as to why "Piss Christ" and Robert Mapplethorpe's work shouldn't receive federal funding from taxpayer-supported organizations. I'm surprised there is so much support for the Senator's thinking on this campus, or at least that this support should come from the same quarters. ROBERT F. LAUTERBORN Advertising professor Journalism school OCs deserve respect, equal treatment To the editor: In response to Monday's article, "C-TOPS complaints spur investigations," I wanted to explain my position regarding C-TOPS and Carolina Orientation 1989. As an orientation commissioner, I wanted to get more involved with the actual workings of freshmen, graduateprofessional and junior-transfer orientation. As an orientation counselor, I was very interested in the com missioner position. At the introductory meet ing in November 1988, Dean Shirley Hunter attempted to tell us about the tremendous work load and the pitiful salary. I and other commissioner applicants naively nodded our heads and thought we understood the job we were about to take. As the news article stated, we 1 0 commissioners worked unpaid through out the entire spring semester. We were re sponsible, for three office hours a week plus orientation counselor recruitment. Personally, I spent an excess of eight hours per week (unpaid) on orientation. It was toward the end of the semester when I began to see problems developing in the orientation program. My complaints toward Dean Hunter and orientation are not of a personal nature, as some commissioners think. I just wanted to see some changes implemented so future commissioners will be moderately satisfied with their job. It would be selfish for me to think, "Well, we didn't have free housing or a good salary, so why should next year's com missioners?" That would be silly, and frankly, I am surprised that other commissioners haven't come forward with their complaints. It seems that I am the only one who will voice concerns. Each commissioner complained about the aforementioned problems of salary and recognition by the University, but no one seems willing to step forward. One commis sioner, Gretchen Diffendal, expressed con cern at our meeting with Dean Wiggins that I was somehow distorting the other commissioner's viewpoints. That simply is not true. My concerns rest with University housing concerning housing rates and with the University itself over recognition of the com missioner position. It is not, as Dean Hunter said my "paranoia." I see a downward trend in orientation, particu larly in the number of applicants. As I said to Dean Wiggins, I believe there are going to be some problems if changes aren't implemented. I personally challenge the housing department to give the commissioners the low housing rates that, incidentally were given to conference as sistants. (Conference housing personnel were only charged $100 for the entire summer. Those commissioners who opted to stay on campus were charge $920.) I also challenge the Student Affairs Division to seriously look at orientation and decide to take action. Give the orientation commissioners of the future the recognition and respect they deserve. JUSTEN HIX .English Junior M.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 19, 1989, edition 1
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