bvThe Daily Tar HeelThursday, April 23, 1991
JrTIUM
98th year of editorial freedom
Jennifer Wing, Editor
MATTHEW ElSLEY, Associate Editor
Beth Tatum, Features Editor JoAnn Rodak, News Editor
David J. KUPSTAS, Sports Editor DOUG HoogervorST, Sports Editor
GRANT Halverson, Photography Editor AlISA DeMao, Arts Editor
BUT ITS A GlAMOFotit i"iPC
- SO HOW COME MO OhlS lfVAN7$
win inks W& WNt
c 7.. .i liil' &
Residents' hauls waste energy
There's one sign of spring turning to
summer that's more frustrating than the
gloomy rain of earlier this week: the sight
of exasperated students whose homes are
far away from Chapel Hill returning in
overstuffed cars so soon after completing
the regular academic year.
Every year, between 600 and 700 stu
dents house themselves in central campus
dormitories during the two summer ses
sions. Many, especially out-of-state stu
dents, drive hours or days only to unload
what they had packed less than two weeks
before at the end of the spring semester.
This situation is unreasonable. Next year it
should be changed.
Before completing their spring studies,
students who register for summer school
should be allowed to transfer their belong
ings to their assigned summer room a day
after the 6,000-plus students going home
for the summer have cleared out, or else
store them in a designated University stor
age area until they return.
University housing officials haven't al
lowed such maneuvers primarily because
they like to give the rooms a thorough
cleaning during the brief interim between
spring semester and the first summer ses
sion. But the hassle of packing up, moving
away and moving back almost immedi
ately is far less attractive than an unmopped
room.
Under the storage plan, summer resi
dents still wouldn't be allowed to check in
until the weekend before the first session
began, but at least they wouldn't have to
lug their baggage needlessly across state
lines. In return, they would have to accept
Calendar defies reason
The designers of this year's summer
school schedule, apparently trying to fit the
two sessions between the majestically pre
scribed bookends of the calendar, seem to
have left out an important ingredient: com
mon sense.
Why else would they schedule the final
exams for first summer session so they are
split by a weekend a weekend that,
along with the registration day between
sessions, could have made a nice break? If
they had scheduled exams for Thursday
and Friday, June 20 and 21, the following
Monday could have provided a long week
end for those already registered for second
session classes. The second session could
then begin on Tuesday, June 25, with most
students having benefited from the physi
cal and mental refreshment of a short re
spite. The extra class day gained in the second
session could be used to remedy the second
thoughtless item in the summer calendar:
the scheduling of classes on Friday, July 5,
Wading for Godot
The only thing wetter than the grassy
lawns on campus during a storm is a creek
and that's what many of the brick paths
at the University become every time it
rains. A little common engineering would
solve the problem, and the summer is a
good time to get started.
Highway designers curve the surfaces of
roads they build so rainwater will drain off
the sides. Surely the same principle can be
made to apply to UNC's pathways.
Typically, when new paths are con
structed or old ones repaired, the bricks are
laid down in a more or less flat fashion.
Over time, heavy traffic has caused many
to bow down in the middle, forming a water
trap when it rains. Instead of smooth, rela
tively dry walkways, students, faculty and
staff must navigate around a series of brick
lined puddles with the dexterity of a white
water rafter, or else wear rubber boots and
wade through.
Interested In writing for The DTH? We're looking for arts, entertainment, sports and news
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the rooms as they had been left (probably
not spotlessly clean). The rooms could be
made over during the break between the
second summer session and the fall semes
ter. Students could sign waivers freeing the
University from any liability in case their
belongings were damaged or stolen while
being stored. Theft is a risk that a student
who wanted the convenience would have
to take. And it's a fair bargain. Housing
Director Wayne Kuncl agrees that the
present housing schedule is a problem, and
says he'll consider an "as-is" moving policy.
Kuncl says the alternative suggestion
establishing a common storage area for all
summer residents between spring semester
and the first summer session won't
work until there's more campus storage
space. As he puts it, "If we had some huge
storage space on campus, everyone would
be grabbing for it."
But if the "as-is" moving procedure isn't
adopted, then finding central storage is the
next best way to straighten out a ridiculous
situation. Tremendous energy is wasted in
the transportation flip-flop many students
endure each year. Surely less effort would
be expended in clearing the basement rec
reation rooms of several residence halls to
store boxes for a week and a half.
During a time of post-exam exhaustion
and too-quick visits with family, summer
school residents don't need to get bogged
down with wasteful packing and hauling.
Instead, the Division of Student Affairs
should get moving on the idea of spring
storage. Summer residents have been shuf
fling around long enough.
the day after a University holiday. How
many students do administrators expect
will stick around for a day of classes that
fouls up what could be a beautiful, long
holiday weekend with family or friends?
Only if heartless professors schedule tests
for July 5 will any students be on campus
that day. Most will be AWOL.
As for the day thus taken away from the
first summer schedule, there's no reason
why the first session couldn't have begun
Friday, May 17. There's nothing magical
about a weekend move-in date. After all,
most students during the regular academic
year neither arrive nor depart during a
weekend for either semester.
Undoubtedly there's a well-established
reason why this year's summer school dates
are scheduled so illogically. But common
sense should have won the hearts, or at
least the minds, of the calendar planners.
Let's hope that in 1995, when July 4 falls
on a Tuesday, a similar oversight won't be
allowed.
And the area around the Pit, through
which almost all students pass each day,
becomes a veritable inland sea, with is
lands of brick, our own little Outer Banks,
peeking through.
The whole mess seems silly and easily
avoidable. The pathways should be curved.
The Pit area should be better sloped. Fre
quent re-laying of the bricks won't help
much unless the dirt and sand under them
are shaped to force the water into ditches
and sewers instead of sneakers.
If the University's Physical Plant cannot
figure out a way to curve the walkways,
then maybe it's time to call on the services
of a certain engineering and agricultural
school in Raleigh. Its inhabitants may fa
vor bricks over books, but r:t least they
know how to lay the paths so people can get
to their buildings without having to walk
on water.
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962-02450246.
Professors, not
In the fall of 1941, on the eve of the United
States' entry into World War II, University
of North Carolina President Frank Porter
Graham held a Sunday afternoon open house
for students. Dr. Graham was addressing the
fact that, yes indeed, the University at Chapel
Hill was again in hot water because The Daily
Tar Heel had been throwing barbs at the powers
in Raleigh.
President Graham said he really would worry
about UNC when the Tar Heel stopped being a
gadfly to the conscience of the state.
I remembered that 50-year-old conversation
while reading about the present debate over
whether public school teachers and principals
ought to have tenure in North Carolina and
other states.
Today, too many school board members,
legislators and citizens fail to understand the
purpose of tenure, I believe, just as the power
ful men in Raleigh in 1941 failed to see the
value of letting student writers take editorial
potshots at them. Only a fraction of those in
volved in the debate consider historical and
societal reasons why that enviable form of job
security evolved.
The roots of tenure go back to the Middle
Ages, to the birth of modern university systems
in free city-states in Italy. The first modern
university was created in Padua by activist
youth who demanded the right to know.
Students of wealthy burgher families hired
and fired the faculty and insisted that the fac
ulty level with them on all educational matters.
Tenure was created as a mechanism for protect
ing the right for academic freedom of expression.
Wishing farewell to an old buddy - a dormitory
Next to naving my pancreas removed, tne
greatest fear that I have is the closing of
Old East Residence Hall. This place has
been around for nearly two hundred years. It's
kind of scary to think about the stories that these
walls could tell if they were able to talk, but
they'd better speak their mind pretty soon be
cause they are going to be knocked down (at
least on the inside) in the near future. Who
knows? Maybe they can talk if we just listen
really close. . .
Hinton! Did you see that hot chick in the
carriage headin' toward Pittsboro? She was
bad. . ."
Jimmy K. Polk, how do you expect to
become president by playing cards until all
hours of the morning?"
1 ve got a Current History test tomorrow.
I'll never learn this War of 1812 crap by eight!"
t n De Dack in a minute. I m just going out
to the well for a drink."
"It's 1840. Happv New Year! Man. how
time flies!!"
"The Yanks are comin'. No classes tomor
row." "Hot damn! There letting in women now.
There's at least one for every hundred of us
guys!"
Letters policy
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
reader comments and criticisms.
We attempt to print as many letters
to the editor as space permits. When
writing letters, please follow these
guidelines:
If you want your letter pub
lished, please sign and date it. No
more than two signatures, please.
All letters should be no longer
than 400 words. Remember, brev
ity is the soul of wit.
All letters must be typed and
double spaced.
Please include such vital sta
tistics as your year in school, ma
jor, phone number and hometown.
Because The Daily Tar Heel
publishes Thursdays, all letters
should be submitted Monday by
noon for publication that week.
If you have a title that is rel
evant to your letter's subject, please
include it.
The DTH reserves the right to
edit letters for space, clarity and
vulgarity.
administrators,
Eugene Lehman
Quest Columnist
It was scholars' obligation to speak, write
and teach what they believed to be true in the
areas of their scholarship without fear of re
prisal from a less-informed and often reaction
ary public.
The ancients felt that these mild and usually
harmless intellectuals, unlike militant compa
triots in law and theology, would surely perish
if forced to compete in a harsh marketplace.
The protective cloak of tenure was granted to
scholars not for the good of scholars but to
assure that society would have objective teach
ers for its children.
By protecting scholars' right to speak the
truth, it was hoped that the youth in each gen
eration would arrive at adulthood with an ob
jective body of knowledge and of truth as it was
understood at the time. It was hoped that youth,
thus armed, and with the help of Providence,
would develop the wisdom needed to face an
inclement future.
Tenure was not designed to provide job
security for classroom teachers although
that is its result or to protect them from the
consequences of stupidity, incompetence, sloth
or moral turpitude. Neither was it intended to
shield them when they expressed views outside
their area of expertise nor to preserve education
officials in their jobs.
Principals are administrators and need not be
academicians, although most are former teach
Thomas Paylor
Guest Columnist
"Mr. Kenan, if this behavior continues you
will have to write an essay on why we cannot
build a football stadium in the Big Woods."
"Did you hear that, guys? We gotta go and
see all of that new, modern architecture at those
buildings over in Durham. It's a brand new
school or something!"
"I'm scared to death, Steven. I don't even
know where Yurup or Jermuny is. . ."
"Mr. Wolfe, will you please try a little harder
on your math assignments."
"Do you think she likes me?"
"Guys, we'd better go and get in line for
some soup. They'll run out soon."
"This new radio is loud. I can even hear it out
in the hall! What did he just say about Pearl
Harbor?"
"I can't believe it. We actually dropped it.
We dropped THE bomb."
"The student police officer of the year award
goes to. . . Andrew Griffith."
"Unbelievable. He asked ME out!"
"The Russians shot that ball up into space.
Does this mean they'll bomb us?"
"Man, that new basketball coach, Smith, is
terrible. I hate him. We'll never win again. We
were 8-9 this year! How sorry!"
"President Kennedy is dead. . ."
"Lyndon Johnson today announced that the
U.S. would send an additional 50,000 troops to
Vietnam."
"Man, if I don't get a C in here I'm gone.
You'd better give it to me. My blood will be on
your hands if I don't get a 2.0!"
"Hell, no! We won't go!"
"This country is 200 years old. How can
deserve tenure
ers. Therefore, until they return to the class
room, they do not deserve tenure any more than
any other members of the maintenance staff in
an educational institution.
It is as simple as this: teacher and adm inistra
tors perform entirely different services to soci
ety and deserve to be treated differently.
Tenure is an affirmation of the necessity for
scholars to be free thinkers and especially to
protect the truly original ones who are often
mistaken for oddballs and kooks. In granting it,
society takes the risk that the teacher could lose
the incentive to do a good job.
It is entirely legitimate, however, for people
to question whether rules for challenging ten
ure are too restrictive and whether schools
would benefit from greater ease in ridding
themselves of ineffective teachers.
For evidence that the system still works to
the good of the state, one need only look at the
North Carolina legislature and make a head
count of those who came to Chapel Hill or other
branches of our university system.
Parents fight to get their progeny into our
universities and then bemoan the fact that their
poor dears not only immediately begin to think
for themselves but get their minds confused by
considering two or more sides to every issue.
The young people then become dangerously
liberal in suggesting preposterous new solu
tions to old problems instead of continuing to
use the failed methods of the past.
By this means is progress made in the climb
of civilization.
H. Eugene Lehman is a professor emeritus of
biology at UNC.
anything survive that long?"
'The Iranian government announced today
that the 52 American hostages will be released.
"Jordan, from 17. . .Good. Carolina leads
Georgetown by one. . ."
"Man, can he coach. . ."
"And on your left is Old East. The oldest
state university building in the nation."
"Duke wins its first national championship.
Son of a . . ."
"I think I'll write something to the DTH
about this old dorm."
I guess this dorm is showing that it maybe
does possess a soul of some sort. Just last
weekend a sink fell out of the wall. I hope that's
not the dorm telling us that it doesn't want to
change, for when we tear down these walls we
tear down the memories of thousands of people,
most of whom have long since passed on. A few
months ago I was sitting on the front steps of the
dorm waiting for a ride. A couple, in their 30s,
walked by me holding hands. I heard the woman
whisper to the man, "Look, honey. There's
your old room." That moment hit me pretty
hard. I wonder what I'll say about this place
when I come back here, many years from now.
This dorm has many special memories for
me some good and some bad. From the long
talks at night with my friends in the dormitory
to dealing with the girl problems that every guy
faces, this place has been pretty special to me,
and I don't want it to change.
So, Old East, as you lay down to rest after
198 years, have a good sleep. You sure have
deserved it. A piece of me will always be with
you, and a piece of you will always be with me.
Good night, oid friend. Thanks for the memo
ries. Thomas Paylor is a junior geography major
from Charlotte.