Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 22, 1989, edition 1 / Page 8
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8The Daily Tar HeelFriday, September 22, 1989 Solatia Star 97th year of editorial freedom Sharon Kebschull, Editor WILLIAM TAGGART, Managing Editor MARY Jo DuNNINGTON, Editorial Page Editor JUSTIN McGuiRE, University Editor KAREN DUNN, State and National Editor TOM PARKS, Business Editor Dave Glenn, Sports Editor MELANIE BLACK, Design Editor JULIA COON, News Editor JENNY CLONINGER, University Editor CHARLES BriTTAIN, City Editor CARA BONNETT, Am and Features Editor Kelly Thompson, Omnibus Editor KlM AVETTA, Design Editor DAVID SurOWIECKI, Photography Editor Assist awards process Support student initiative on teaching board opinion In the spring, stu- dents at UNC voted on a binding referen dum to establish an - undergraduate teaching award. The idea behind the an award was to give under graduates a way to recognize their best teachers whether professors or graduate students through student funding of the awards and student selection of recipients. Students voiced approval for this inno vative plan by a 4-1 vote in favor of setting up the award. And this fall for the first time undergraduates paid the semester's fee of 75 cents, which will be used to set up four $5,000 awards. The vision is well under way to becoming reality, and students now have a unique opportunity to set a strong precedent for the future success of the Un dergraduate Teaching Awards. While there are other teaching awards at UNC, the Undergraduate Teaching Awards are unique for three reasons. Students will have control and make the decisions throughout the entire selection procedure. A committee of 10 undergraduates, along with the committee chair and a non-voting faculty adviser, will conduct the process. Also, graduate students who independ ently teach courses will be eligible for the award. This is especially important, since the other awards offered at this university are limited to tenure-track professors. Awareness of the importance of graduate teachers on this campus is growing, as evidenced by the graduate student rally earlier this week. The eligibility of gradu ates for these awards certainly shows undergraduate support for TAs. Finally, the Undergraduate Teaching Awards will be the only awards at this university to be initiated by and entirely dependent on student fees. UNC students should be proud to know that their pay ment of 75 cents per semester and 25 cents per summer session makes a direct state ment of support and gratitude to UNC educators who excel in the classroom. The executive branch of student gov ernment is now accepting applications from any undergraduate interested in serving on the award selection committee. The com mitee's chairman, Grant Vinik, points out that students who serve on the committee this year will get to make the rules which will govern the selection procedure. This is a unique opportunity for dedicated stu dents to exhibit innovative leadership and get the teaching award off to a good start. Even students not interested in commit ting time and energy to the selection proc ess can help show appreciation for their best teachers by making nominations, which will be due in late January, and by submitting further information if they have taken classes from any of the finalists, who will be announced sometime in February. This is a time when the quality of educa tion in our state is slipping, when the compensation and respect due to our teach ers is lacking and when the emphasis for faculty in a university setting is too fre quently on performing research rather than communicating in the classroom. We urge students to j'oin together and make a differ ence. Years in the making "On my honor'' commands respect By this time most freshmen at UNC will be thoroughly introduced to the University code of student conduct, namely the Honor Code and the Campus Code. Throughout their years at UNC, students will notice these words printed inside blue books and notebooks, in catalogs and schedule booklets, but few will ever take the time to read them. The sad fact is this: most UNC students take the student Honor Court and the rules it upholds for granted; in actuality, they are a rare privilege one for which the students of this Univer- i s74,de The real responsibility Council" was organized a i to "dispose of aii cases lies with the individual Students uncovered a system of organized cheating on campus, and with the dismissal of 51 students from the University, eliminated a serious threat to the integrity of the school. Earlier that decade, a report by the General Education Board credited UNC "for having a system which approached absolute student self government more nearly than any other college in the nation." The Honor Code was strong, and students alone saw that it was obeyed. Today the Honor Code is just as strong, of hazing and violations of the honor system," a Stllddlt. system which had be- fore consisted of the ' self-governing rules of the University literary societies. Six years later the council expelled a student for cheating, but a faculty committee waived the students' decision and reinstated the guilty party. Student protests and Tar Heel 'editorials demanded that student authority be respected, and as a result, the trustees recog nized the council as an official government while creating a faculty council to act as a court of appeals. Faculty members continued to question student ability to handle large violations of University rules, and disputes continued. In 1927, however, the Student Council suspended 13 students for gambling in Manly Dormitory, a measure taken after thorough investigation and without interference by the faculty. Stu dent and faculty confidence in the council grew over the years until 1936, when student govern ment made one of its greatest achievements. but many UNC stu dents don't seem to understand or appreci ate the responsibility of governing their own mmmmm behavior within the University. Both inside and outside the classroom, faculty members place a great deal of trust in students and their Honor Code, concentrating more on teaching and less on being watchdogs. Students should be aware of this trust, because it is essential to academics at Carolina. Learning would seem a lot less democratic with administrators peering over your shoulder, wouldn't it? But the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance covers more than academics, in cluding student behavior toward other students and, most recently, issues of sexual harassment and assault. The Undergraduate Honor Court and Student Attorney General's staff work hard to maintain awareness of the Honor Code on campus, but the real responsibility lies with the individual student, beginning with freshmen. Understand the guidelines and importance of this system, and live it. But most of all, be proud to have it. James Burroughs 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; B Buckberry and Steve Wilson, news; Lisa Reichle and Richard Smith, Omnibus; Evan Eile, photography; Andrew Podolsky, Jay Reed and Jamie Rosenberg, sports: Kari Barlow, state and national; Will Spears and Amy Wajda, university; Writers: Craig Alien, Cathy Apgar, Marcie Bailey, Crystal Bemstein, Jennifer Black well, Lynette Blair, Wendy Bounds, Stephen Bryan, Sarah Cagle, Terri Canaday, Heather Clapp, Blake Dickinson, Judy Dore, Wagner Dotto, Mark Folk, Julie Gammill, Kevin Greene, Chris Helms, Joey Hill, Susan Holdsclaw, Katherine Houston, Stephanie Johnston, Stacey Kaplan, Jason Kelly, Lloyd Lagos, Tracy Lawson, David Lloyd, Rheta Logan, Jeff Lutrell, Alan Martin, Kimberly Maxwell, Beth Meckley, Helle Nielsen, Glenn O'Neal, Simone Pam, Gus Papas, Jannette Pippin, Myron Pitts, Becky Riddick, Vanessa Shelton, Kyle York Spencer, Mike Sutton, Bill Taggart,Tim Truzy, Emilie Van Poucke, Stephanie von Isenburg, Sandy Wall, Sherry Waters, Chuck Williams, Nancy Wykle. Sports: Neil Amato, Mark Anderson, Jason Bates, John Bland, Laurie Dhue, Christina Frohock, Scott Gold, Warren Hines, Doug Hoogervorst, David Kupstas, Bethany Litton, Bobby McCroskey, Brock Page, Natalie Sekicky, Eric Wagnon and Steve Walston. J Arts and Features: Cheryl Allen, Lisa Antonucci, Noah Bartolucci, Clark Benbow, Shields Brewer, Gretchen Davis, Diana Florence, Werldy Grady, Vicki Hyman, Mara Lee, Tim Little, Matthew McCafferty, Carrie McLaren, Elizabeth Murray, D'Ann Pletcher, Leigh Pressley, Eric Rosen, Hasie Sirisena, Heather Smith, Brian Springer, Bevin Weeks and Laura Williams. Photography: Steven Exum, Regina Holder, Tracey Langhome and Kathy Michel. Copy Editors: James Benton, Susan Comfort, Rebecca Duckett, Joy Golden, Stephanie Harper, Angela Hill, Susan Holdsclaw, Anne Isenhower, Debrah Norman, George Quintero, JoAnn Rodak, Kristin Scheve, Joe Seagle, Kelley Shaw, Clare Weickert, Steffanie Woodfin and Cameron Young. 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; Sabtina 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 Locklear, John Nipp and Greg Miller, assistants. Printing: The Village Companies. Ship Deserting Sinking Rats. eaders9 Foram Flag burners' rights are also protected To the editor: On Monday you published a cartoon which purported to show the "proper way to display the American flag burner" pros trate and underfoot. Let me remind your readers that objec tionable views, and those who express them, are protected by the highest law of the land. And for good reason. The flag of the United States is a symbol of the values this coun try was founded on, values such as social progress and liberty. These values should not be de fined for us by our politicians, who in the pursuit of power will typically compromise anything. The Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual to express his view, that the Republican Party was intent on defining for us the values the flag symbolizes, by burning the flag. It is not patriotic to castigate flag-burners. It is the opposite; it is partisan. Sadder is that a cartoonist would fail to see that First Amendment protection is all that stands between himself and his own prostration, underfoot. WILLIAM M. BROWN Graduate Economics Orientation jobs were gratifying To the editor: I, too, served as an orientation commissioner this past year. I found the job very rewarding. However, just as with any other job, there were frustrations. It was hard for me to believe the University does not provide an attractive housing package for commissioners. The stipend set for orientation commission ers is well above minimum wage, but due to the amount of money we (commissioners) spent on housing, the stipend seemed incredibly small. For the large amount of service commission ers render to the University through the C-TOPS program there should be some way com missioners could be housed for 11 weeks without paying a ri diculous amount of money. And until the University, as a whole, publicly acknowledges the outstanding work coming from the third floor of Carr Building itwill be tough recruiting stu dents to be orientation commis sioners. I challenge Gene Davis to take an active role in the orientation program before he graduates. I also challenge him to never write another letter to a University official without representation of the entire staff. We all had complaints to air. Together we could have written or talked with University officials to improve conditions for commissioners. If he had taken the time to talk with others, he would have realized that the satisfactions of each commissioner outweighed the dissatisfactions. I also challenge freshmen, sophomores and juniors to con sider becoming orientation commissioners andor counsel ors. The gratitude parents and students express compensates for the time and effort spent on ori entation planning. Both positions deserve a large amount of credit and respect. I think the investi gation will change the negatives of orientation and provide in centives to the program for fu ture commissioners and coun selors. I will take my experi ences of orientation with me wherever I go after graduation. I gained a lot from the program. CHANDA DOUGLAS Senior Public Policy Analysis Residence college retreat necessary To the editor: I am writing to readers who were led astray by Mr. David Israel's misconceived opinions in his letter "Morrison officers use trip as perk" (Sept. 19). Mr. Israel was referring to this past weekend's residence college retreat, which he accused Morri son dorm officers of "unethi cally" attending. He is wrong to emphasize the officers of Morri son alone because the retreat was campuswide and was supported by the Residence Hall Associa tion. As president of Granville Towers West, I feel it necessary to state that the following re marks belong to me personally and are neither those opinions of the body over which I preside nor the administration alongside whom I work. The retreat is an annual tradi tion where the focus is team building and planning not va cationing, as implied by Mr. Israel. He has no concept of the effectiveness of a retreat. The retreat environment is designed to completely remove retreaters from everyday distractions. This has continually proven to be the most effective method to obtain optimum results. The subjects discussed during retreats are not easily studied over a week of nightly meetings. They require undivided attention, which is exactly what they receive even though the retreats are held at the coast. Yes, the retreats do prove to be enjoyable, and time is spent in "the sun and surf." But recrea tion occurs only after work is completed. There is no question of "ethics" here; there is only the question of necessity. That Mr. Israel sees things "in terms of "we' and "they"', is his own tragedy. Dorm officers are elected and personally commit ted to serve iheir residents and to be completely accessible. They find personal satisfaction in the jobs they are doing; that is their only compensation. The impli cation that the retreat is a "sti pend" is ridiculous. I guarantee no officer has ever felt, much less ever stated that he "deserved an all-expense paid trip." That remark is simply an inference made by a frustrated writer grop ing for words to support his weak argument. Should Mr. Israel decide to involve himself in dorm government, he would quickly discover that a beach "vacation" (even if it were) is no where near a compensation for one year's worth of thankless work. My only aspiration is that you, Mr. Israel, will become a part and find our for yourself how valuable a structured retreat is to your dorm govern ment. And by the way, David, thanks for your concern; the weather was nice. FRANK M. SUTTON JR. FrenchPre-Medicine Sophomore SATs don't reflect lack of intelligence '.; To the editor: It seems that as Mr. Humphreys was formulating ideas for his car toon "North Carolina, Home of:," he made a rather unintelligent as sumption about the intelligence of the North Carolina high school student. He expressed his opinion elegantly with his drawing of a "typical" student with a finger in his nose labeled "the Dumbass." Apparently Mr. Humphreys feels the low SAT average in North Carolina is due to a high concen tration of feeble-minded residents. This is absurd. Having attended high school both in and out of this state, I never perceived a differ ence in the intelligence of my peers at either school I attended, but I did recognize a significant dis crepancy in the curricula taught and the facilities available. There is a problem in North Carolina schools. Mr. Humphreys has, however, incorrectly identi fied the cause. North Carolina high school students have as much po tential as any students. Unfortu nately, the curriculum and facili ties here are generally inferior to those in the rest of the nation. This is the cause of lower scores. Mr. Humphreys ignored this in his cartoon. He could learn something from the student in his illustration in the future he should dig more deeply into the issues at hand. PHILIP DISCLAFANI Senior Chemistry Fight crime rather than restricting guns To the editor: I am writing this letter in response to an editorial printed in the DTH entitled "Battling a Ban: Bush's Stance on Rifles is Dangerous" (Sept. 19). I believe the editorial presents a misconception of firearms and firearm own ers. Demonstrated over time, laws do not stop nor hinder criminals from obtaining weapons. Criminals are criminals because they operate outside legal limitations. Therefore, another law will not impede their illegal behavior. Focusing attention on criminals instead of law-abiding citizens is the only way to inhibit violent crime involving firearms. Many times I have heard opponents say they want to keep drug dealers, mentally in competent people, convicted felons and mi nors from obtaining firearms. What they fail to understand is that it is already illegal for these people to purchase firearms. Obviously, present laws have been unsuccessful in stop ping these people from obtaining firearms. So, why do firearms opponents believe an other bill will magically solve all the problems if the present laws have failed? In regards to the importation of foreign made "assault rifles," placing an import ban on these firearms will not retard crime. The criminals and not the firearms are the cause of crime. Tons of drugs are imported into our country everyday. With each boat or plane load of illegal drugs, fully automatic firearms are also brought into the country. These fire arms, which have been illegal for years, con tinue to enter our country on a regular basis. Do the opponents supporting these importa tion bans believe drug dealers will not trans port their illegal firearms into the country when they make their next delivery? Maybe the anti-gun politicians believe the drug dealers will surrender their firearms on the Senate or House floor following their next shipment. If the drug cartel can regularly import tons of illegal drugs into this country undetected, then tons of firearms can be im ported just as easily. Exactly as these crimi nals violate our drug laws, they do and will violate our firearms laws. Confirmation of these facts is apparent in the number of fully automatic weapons available illegally every day on the streets. Furthermore, anti-gun supporters argue that "assault weapons" have no sporting purpose in our society. I emphatically disagree. How do the anti-gun supporters define the terni "sporting?" Many firearms listed in proposed legislation are used by hunters, sportsmen and competitors alike. Such rifles include the H&K model 91 and the Colt AR-15. Furthermore, many rifles are used in legal, NRA sanctioned high-power matches for competition. Are these not sporting purposes? Law-abiding citizens should have the choice to purchase whatever style firearm they desire. When government dictates the firearms that may be purchased, "Big Brother" government will be in power. A similar example of freedom of choice involves traffic laws and the types of automo biles available to the general public. At most, the speed limit is 65 on interstate highways and 55 on state highways. Many automobiles today speed. Some are even able to travel up to 200 miles per hour. Why do safe, law abiding drivers need automobiles capable of such speeds when they can only drive 65 miles per hour at best anyway? I fail to see any jus tification for purchasing such powerful auto mobiles. Drivers would be enraged if someone denied sale of such automobiles even though nowhere in the Constitution of the United States or the Bill of Rights does it state that such sales are guaranteed. I am positive these drivers would think their rights and freedom of choice had been violated. Just as these drivers feel they lost their rights, gun owners believe their guaranteed rights have been similarly violated. The fact of our country is free means that we can do whatever we want as long as it does not violate the rights of others and is within the legal limits of the law. There fore, as long as owners of "assault weapons" use the firearms legally for sport, recreation, compe tition in high power matches sanctioned by the NRA or self-defense, gun owners should have that choice without the government stating ' anything contradictory. ; Sen. James McClure of Idaho declared, "It is deceptive to tell the American public that we are getting tough on criminals by restricting gun owners' rights." Instead of making it tougher for the law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms if they so desire, the government should concen trate its efforts on imprisoning criminals and ensuring they are prohibited from repeating their crime. The philosophy that all criminals can and should be rehabilitated is misleading. Some criminals can be successfully rehabilitated and should be given the opportunity. Many others fail and go on to become repeat offenders. If these criminals had been incarcerated to begin with, our nation would be safer and law-abiding citizens could keep their firearms. HAMLIN T. RANEY III Freshman Political Science
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 22, 1989, edition 1
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