8The Daily Tar HeelThursday, September 6, 1990
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(Sty Uailij Star BM
9Sfi year of editorial freedom
Jessica Lanning
JENNIFER WING, University Editor
LYNETTE BLAIR, Forum Editor
Cameron Tew, City Editor
MYRNA MlLLER, Features Editor
Jamie Rosenberg, Sports Editor
EVAN ElLE, Photography Editor
Steve Wilson, News Editor
MELANIE BLACK, Layout Editor
and Kelly Thompson, Editors
NANCY WYKLE, University Editor
Crystal Bernstein, Opinion Editor
STACI Cox, State and National Editor
Cheryl Allen, Features Editor
ALISA DeMao, Omnibus Editor
JOE MUHL, Photography Editor
Jo ANN RODAK, News Editor
James Claude Benton, Ombudsman
Every little bit helps
Durham project will prevent AIDS spread
Officials at the Durham County Health
Department are experimenting with a new
anti-AIDS tactic: They are placing bottles
of bleach to clean the needles of intravenous
drug users at the cash registers of eight
convenience stores in the inner city. The
question is, of course, will it do any good?
The department hopes to reach the city's
2,500 intravenous drug users, who are a
high-risk group for acquiring and trans
mitting the AIDS virus. The needle
cleaning kits come in plastic bags with
bottles of bleach and diagrammed instruc
tions. Bleach has proved an effective agent
in killing the AIDS virus.
The kits were originally distributed in
the county health clinic in downtown
Durham, but only 50 packets were given
away in six months. So the department
found eight stores in problem areas who
volunteered to distribute the packets. The
result was the distribution of an impressive
457 packets in the first three weeks.
That's an unbelievable success rate,
assuming drug users picked up the kits and
not people with stained clothes. Of course,
success also depends on whether the drug
users use the bleach correctly, if at all. And
considering that drugs impair both memory
and motor skills, that is a concern.
But any project that can prevent just one
person from giving or receiving AIDS is a
successful one. The new location of the kits
has two advantages over the clinic site:
convenience and visibility. Drug users who
frequent these stores can't help but see
them on the counters and have no excuse
not to use them.
The health department is trying to obtain
a $50,000 grant to pay two employees to
monitor the program and measure its ef
fectiveness. In the meantime, however,
store owners are trying to make sure the
kits fall into the right hands. Even if only
two-thirds of those packets were picked up
by drug users, that's more than 300 clean
needles and 300 fewer chances that AIDS
may be transmitted.
In the '80s, the push to encourage ho
mosexuals to protect themselves from
contracting AIDS by using condoms met
with widespread success. Buying condoms
is no longer taboo or embarrassing, but
simply a fact of life. With any luck, bleach
kits will reach a similar status. Jessica
Lanning
A counting catastrophe
Inaccurate formula misrepresents poor
How does one define "poverty?" Obvi
ously, income and expenses are a good
place to start, but what about needs, wants
and desires? Wealth (or lack of it) is a
relative term that involves not just dollar
figures, but subjective values about money,
work, time and standards of living. It's not
easy to reduce that to a simple mathematical
formula.
But you can still come closer to it than
the federal government.
In the '60s, federal administrators sat
down and decided to establish a "poverty
line" to help determine eligibility for benefit
"programs. Since it was created, the poverty
line has been adjusted each year to account
for inflation, but the basic formula has
remained the same: Estimate a minimum
food budget and multiply that amount by
the number of people in the sample family.
Not a very good system, is it? For the last
20 years, the federal government has been
determining poverty without taking into
account factors such as changing spending
patterns, medical expenses or cost-of-living
figures which differ from state to state. One
model, based on housing costs, would make
a dramatic difference: for a family of three,
the poverty line would jump from $10,560
to $15,050.
Some cynics may say that adjusting this
formula will just allow even more people
to qualify for benefit and welfare programs,
which in turn could prompt a tax increase.
Yet the government has an economic ob
ligation to refine this system. Statistics
about the number of poor people in the
United States are used by experts to help
determine the nation's economic status and
by politicians and citizens to gauge the
need for benefit programs. Considering
that many economists are talking about a
recession in the near future, this informa
tion must be accurate.
More importantly, however, is the moral
obligation involved. Perhaps refining the
poverty line will eventually result in a move
to boost social programs. But it is pathetic
and wrong to continue using inaccurate
measures just so this nation will feel better
about the status quo.
In recent years, the size of the middle
class has begun to shrink, while that old
cliche about the rich getting richer and the
poor poorer has kicked into action. In Au
gust, the Internal Revenue Service reported
that the assets of the richest 1.6 percent of
Americans are more than the total gross
national product. The IRS also showed that
the number of American millionaires has
doubled in the last decade. The number of
people below the poverty line has increased
too, but the trend may have been underes
timated, considering the process.
American society is undergoing obvi
ously dramatic changes. As the number of
poor grows, the current system will prove
even more inadequate. People may com
plain about abuses, but the main problem is
that most social programs are not provid
ing solutions just increasingly expensive
Band-Aids. Voters and politicians will have
to reassess their commitments to and goals
for those programs. Whatever their deci
sion, the Bush administration has taken the
first step by working to adjust the measure
ment of poverty. As with all social issues,
the mathematical formula may never be
perfect, but it can be improved. Kelly
Thompson
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Budget one inconvenience that' s hard to accept
After three years of college life, I've
found there are some things at UNC
that are just inevitable. Those things
will drive you crazy, if you let them, and no
matter what you do, you just can't get around
them.
For example, I just adore freshmen who
carry maps around campus, looking like pool
tables very green and twice as square.
Woollen Gym and drop-add are enough to
make you wonder why you left that vacation to
come back to school. Endless rows of depart
mental tables with "Closed" signs on every
class you thought you might want to take. And
mobs of people, in a place with a temperature
close to that of Hades. Thank goodness there
will be no more of that hassle anymore. Of
course, Caroline would be installed only one
semester before I graduate.
For an out-of-state student, yearly tuition
hikes are just par for this collegiate course. The
main question my parents ask each fall, with a
grim look on their faces, is "How much more
this year?" Thanks to the N.C. General As
sembly, it's another $200. Love you too, guys.
Long lines everywhere during the first week
of school, especially at Bynum Hall and in the
bookstore, are another favorite. Those are two
of my least favorite places on campus, because
for some strange reason, I get the feeling I'm
being ripped off. The trouble is that I can't
reach out and touch (read: punch the lights out
of) the person who is causing the problem in the
first place.
The past two years, I've learned to accept
most of these delightful inevitabilities. You
know they're coming, so you might as well be
prepared. But even though I knew that the
Kimberley Maxwell
University was having budget problems spring
semester last year, I wasn't prepared for just
how deep these problems would be this fall.
About 40 classes were canceled because of
the budget cuts. Now, I realize it beats the
daylights out of the 300 classes that were pre
dicted to be canceled, but the point still remains.
It isn't fun sitting down in a class only to
discover there won't fee a class this semester
especially when you only have nine hours in the
first place. I know people who are in that
situation, and my heart goes out to them (but not
my checkbook, because the Cashier's Office
has dibs on it).
And the list goes on. The libraries are closing
earl ier at night. That means less time to work on
those research papers we put off. The reason,
you ask? Budget restraints. I called campus
long-distance in August, only to be told the
person I needed to speak with couldn't call me
back. Why? Budget cuts, of course! Graduate
students almost lost their jobs because of (you
guessed it) budget cuts.
UNC is one of the top three "public Ivy
League" schools in the country. The fact that
Carolina offers an excellent education for a
relatively low price, even for out-of-state stu
dents, is the University's best selling point.
And for those who are fortunate enough to live
in North Carolina, it's a steal.
But with the University's current financial
situation, that reputation is sliding, and it's
sliding fast. UNC already had problems retain
ing its top faculty members, and the libraries
haven't been able to maintain their collections
because of (no, not budget cuts this time) infla
tion and the increase of book prices. Again, it's
important to note that UNC is one of the top
research institutions in the South, in part be
cause of Davis Library. The quality of our
education, and this institution, is in danger.
To a certain extent, I'm glad I'll be graduat
ing in May, because I won't have to face the
problems those pool-table-like freshmen will
have to deal with. To some extent, my concerns
with the budget will end May 12, 1991. But I
won't really stop caring about this institution
then, and the freshmen have three more long
years ahead of them.
Yet what can we do? I know I can't solve the
University's financial problems, because I'm
trying to handle my own. Actually, Bynum's in
control in that situation. However, we as stu
dents must make ourselves aware of what state
government is doing about the budget, and we
must be prepared to deal with it, or counter it, if
necessary. We are the ones paying to go to this
school and get an education; we must make sure
the quality of the education remains strong.
There's a joke about N.C. State University
graduates being able to use their diplomas in the
dashboards of their cars to park in handicapped
parking. I love that joke, but I'll go down
fighting before anyone can say the same about
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Kimberley Maxwell is a senior journalism
and political science major from Marietta, Ga.
READERS' FORU!
Editorial writers whine
about UNC budget cuts
To the editors:
One would think that this school
was in a predicament worse than
Kuwait's after reading the front
page of any given DTH.
Not only am I a freshman, but I
am also from out of state. As can
be expected, I knew very little of
the budget problems in North
Carolina. Needless to say, the ad
missions office failed to include
the University's budget cuts in my
profile on UNC.
However, I am here now (and
wouldn't want to be anywhere else)
and I am completely astounded by
this fine university's reaction to
the current shortage of funds.
During one of my placement
examinations, aTA regretfully in
formed the class that he would
need to have back the pencils that
students had borrowed for the
exam. What on earth was this uni
versity supplying every student
with a pencil for in the first place?
I know my contract with UNC
didn't come with all the pencils I
could use in four years.
The one facet of these cuts that
I find most irritating is the mock
ery expressed on the editorial pages
of the DTH. The editorialists make
fun of the calls for the University
to rise above the cuts and continue
the strong academic tradition at
UNC. If the citizens from this great
state are facing a budget crisis,
surely Chapel Hill can make some
sacrifices for the next year or two,
without sacrificing the integrity of
this school.
I hope the students will recog
nize that the current financial diffi
culties of the school are only tem
porary and that, together with the
faculty and administration, we can
make UNC a more financially
strong and fiscally responsible in
stitution. JULIE DAVIS
Freshman
Economics
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