Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Oct. 1, 1991, edition 1 / Page 1
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A CAPPELLA FEST: Loreleis play host to singing groups ...ARTS, page 2 TOWN-GOWN TALK: Hardin disputes communication barrier ..CITY, page 3 ON CAMPUS Ticket distribution for the Blue-White game begins at 7 a.m. in the Smith Center. Serving the students and the University community since 1893 1991 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Volume 99, Issue 85 Tuesday, October 1, 1991 Chapel Hill, North Carolina NcwjSporuArts 92 0245 Business Advertising 962-1163 WEATHER TODAY: Sunny; high around 80 WEDNESDAY: Cloudy; high mid-70s Dorm vacancies steadily increasing Rent hikes, enrollment decline blamed for estimated 93-percent occupancy ItopoisolijtoiilooW ArtsCenter branches out, addresses ethnic diversity By Jackie Hershkowitz Staff Writer A night of African dance, a South American concert and a discussion on Chapel Hill's civil rights movement are pro grams that represent the growing emphasis toward multiculturalism at the Carrboro ArtsCenter. The ArtsCenter, which has been under new management since July 1990, is offering a broad array of programs to appeal to a more ethnically diverse audience. General Man ager Eileen Helton said. "In the past, the ArtsCenter was perceived as a white organization," Helton said. "From the board on through, we want to involve minority communities." Fred Good, ArtsCenter board chairman, said the center has undergone significant changes since its founding in 1974. What began as an art school has developed into a commu nity center for theater, music performances, teen workshops and educational programs for school-age children, he said. It also has retained its vision as a place to explore the arts. Helton said that during the early years of the ArtsCenter there was a noticeable absence of minority participation. But, under new management, the center is seeking to involve diverse community groups. Susan Gramling, the ArtsCenter family programmer, said the shift toward multiculturalism is in response to the grow ing diversity of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. "More people today are from different backgrounds and cultures," she said. "It is important that people be exposed to different cultures and that their cultures be reaffirmed." One example of the ArtsCenter's multicultural focus is its "School Show Series" for young children, Gramling said. Topics such as Native-American and African-American culture, literature and theater along with disability awareness were among the themes of the 1989 series. The arts are helpful to children with feelings of inadequacy, she said. Good stressed that one of the ArtsCenter's major goals was to be responsive to the needs of the community. "Rather than programming for minorities, we'd like mi norities to be involved in that process themselves," Good said. "We are a tremendous resource for the community, but we want as much community involvement as possible." Helton said the ArtsCenter suffered in the past from "the Founding Fathers Syndrome." The organization revolved around a centralized management structure with only mar ginal community input, she said. As part of the center's trend toward multiculturalism, it has actively sought minorities to serve on the board and to take part in the decision-making process. Three of the board's 1 2 members are black. Good said. Fred Battle, a member of the ArtsCenter board, said the reason minority involvement was so limited in the past was because it was not a focal point of the organization. "We must recognize and assess the needs of the commu nity as it relates to the arts," he said. Good said a number of recent ArtsCenter events have been targeted specifically at the black community, such as a step show, a musical drama contrasting history and religious life of blacks, and a jazz-blues review. ArtsCenter board member Soy ini Madison said she would like to see more "traditional, indigenous" programming. "A lot of people have the idea that the ArtsCenter is very mainstream," Madison said. "That has definitely changed." By Marty Minchin Staff Writer For the first time in at least eight years, every residence hall area has vacancies, including North Campus. About 93 percent of the space in residence halls is filled, according to Department of University Housing figures. Hinton James Residence Hall has the most vacancies with only 87 percent of its spaces filled. Henderson Residence Area, the SpencerTriad Residence Area and residence halls on the upper and lower level quads have the least number of vacancies, with 99 percent of their spaces filled. Residence halls also do not have waiting lists this year, said Scott Peeler, Residence Hall Association co-president. "There are vacancies for every area on campus," he said. "It is very rare for North Campus to have vacancies usually there are no vacancies. That's not the case right now." Housing Director Wayne Kuncl said the increase in vacancies this year followed a trend that began in 1986. In 1 986 and 1 987, 97.7 percent of the residence hal Is were filled. In 1 988, 97.3 percent were filled, 96.3 percent the next year and 95.3 percent in 1990. Rick Bradley, Morrison area director, said: "I don't think this is any different than the trend in the last five to six years. Housing all over the country has dropped in the past five years." Christy Pons, RHA co-president, attributed the increase in residence hall vacancies this year to a smaller freshman class and the rise in costs for on-campus housing. Residence hall rates increased eight percent this fall. Kuncl said the decrease in freshman and undergraduate class sizes contributed to the rise in residence hall vacancies. The freshman class this year has 3,179 members, com pared to 3,253 last year. The undergraduate class also has 202 fewer students now than last year. Darby Thomas, a junior from Greenville, said she lived in Morrison Residence Hall for two years. "I moved off campus this year because the dorm prices went up and it's cheaper to live in an apartment," she said. Kuncl said the vacancies probably would increase next semester because the University will not accept transfer students spring semester. "There are usually about 75 students who enroll second semester who replace the students who graduate and move off campus," he said. "This is just a normal phenomena." Pons said RHA members hoped some students would want to move to North and Mid Campus after hearing about the vacancies. Peeler said, "We hope that those minority groups will look at these figures and take advantage of the vacancies." Kuncl said the housing department was trying to make residence halls more appealing to incoming freshmen, trans fer students and undergraduates who are deciding whether to stay on campus. "Before, we used to discourage transfer students from staying on campus," he said. "Now we are marketing ourselves to them. We are also trying to see how to make it easier for students to return to campus and we are giving students flexibility to move from one area of campus to another." 4 l . " ' ' '' "' 1 -1 j 1 Helping hands DTHKjlhy Michel Instructor Anthony Conner helps Kelvin Patterson glue another layer of newspaper on his "Kitty Cat," while Erma Cleary adds papier-mache to her creature. The Orange High School learning-disabled class was visiting the Carrboro ArtsCenter Monday for an art class. See Tuesday Up Front. Students support law on smoking Hardin criticizes proposed rules By Amber Nimocks Assistant City Editor Yearbook editor resigns, media board to disband By Stephanie Johnston University Editor Yackety Yack Editor Lorrie Pate re signed and the UNC Media Board de cided to disband sometime in the near future at the board's meeting Sunday night. Publications that are part of the me dia board are the Cellar Door, The Phoe nix, the Carolina Quarterly and the Yack. Charles Overbeck, Phoenix editor, said the board decided to delay disband ing for several reasons, including giv ing board members an opportunity to vote on Pate's replacement. But Overbeck said he thought the yearbook staff should select the new editor without the media board's par ticipation. "I don't think it's any of the board's business who the next editor is," he said. "It's really an internal thing." The board will not make choices such as this for the yearbook in the future, so they should not now, he said. Overbeck said he thought Pate was under pressure from her staff to resign. Pate could not be reached for com ment Monday. Kevin Schwartz, Daily Tar Heel gen eral manager, said the new Yackety Yack editor must be chosen by media board members. "It's my understand ing the staff had someone in mind," he said. The DTH's general manager serves on the board, although the newspaper is not affected by the board's decisions. Overbeck said SheaTisdale, a former Yack staff member, was the only per son he knew about who had expressed interest in the position. Tisdale cou Id not be reached for com ment Monday night. Schwartz said the media board usu ally advertised for people to fill open positions on publications, but he didn't know if that would be done now. Pate's resignation becomes effective when the board chooses aneweditor.he said. Overbeck said the media board also wanted to ensure that each publication was ready to stand on its own before disbanding. "There also was a question about if each group should have bylaws before disbanding," he said. Schwartz said the board had no spe cific date fordisbanding, but he thought it would take place this semester. "It's going to take a few meetings to get all the other organizations squared away," he said. "We don't want to leave anybody hanging." Overbeck said board members agreed that it was time to disband. "Everybody realizes there's not much point in having a media board," he said. "We haven't acted with solidarity." The board's decision to disband will have little impact on The Phoenix, Overbeck said. "We've always pretty much chosen our own editors and put them up for the media board to approve." The decision also shouldn't hurt any of the other publications under the me dia board, he said. "It won't hurt the Yack once they get through this crap." Schwartz said the media board prob ably hindered the publications to some extent. "It (disbanding) will help the organi zations ultimately work more effi ciently," he said. Jordanian university officials 'really impressed' with UNC By Anna Griffin Staff Writer The southern part of heaven may be closer to the Middle East than the aver age world map indicates. Three Jordanian university adminis trators visited the UNC campus Mon day, remarking on the abundant simi larities between college life in the U.S. and in their native homeland. "We have been pleasantly surprised at how similar U.S. students are to Jor danians," said Ibrahim Issa Wezermus, dean of student affairs at Yarmuck Uni versity in Irbid, Jordan. "Although our schools are very American in nature, we were not expecting you to be this similar. I guess students are similar ev erywhere." UNC served as the first stop for the three Jordanians. The officials' 30-day tour is part of the U.S. Information Agency's international visitors program, said Maurice Raiford, the U.S. State Department official who is accompa nying the administrators throughout their journey. "This program is designed to show these university administrators what student life is like," Raiford said. The Jordanian administrators are in the United States to exchange educa tional ideas and strategies with their U.S. counterparts. During their visit Monday, the three Jordanian officials Wezermus, Numan Ahmad and Ali Zaghal toured campus, met with Dean Donald Boulton, vice chancellor for student affairs, and ate lunch at Lenoir Dining Hall. The administrators were scheduled to meet with Student Body President Matthew Heyd, but the meeting had to be canceled because of scheduling con flicts. UNC's students and faculty im pressed the Jordanians with theirenthu siasm, Raiford said. "We are really impressed," Wezermus said. "We looked in class rooms, and the students looked really interested." The visitors were astounded by UNC's system of student government. "We are very impressed by the stu dent government system and by how involved students are in administrative decisions," Wezermus said. "Students have less autonomy in their affairs in Jordan. They have to abide by some regulations." Although all three administrators expressed admiration for UNC's honor code and the honor court system, they did question the practicality of allowing students to have so much say in univer sity affairs. College students may not be able to deal with complex legal issues objec tively, said Ahmad, dean of student affairs at Mu'Tah University in Karak. "I question the attempt here by stu dents to govern themselves," said Ahmad, who also serves as a lawyer in Jordan. "Maybe if I saw this court in action, I would understand better." The abundance of services and ac tivities available to U.S. students paral lels those offered at Jordanian colleges and universities, Wezermus said. "By and large the services here are the same," Wezermus said. "Some ac tivities are different. We saw you have a bowling alley and billiards ... We have additional things like darts and chess that I did not see here." Tomorrow, the Jordanian officials will tour N.C. State University. The remainder of their U.S. stay will take the Jordanians to Texas and the West Coast to visit several colleges and uni versities. The three officials expressed an ea gerness to return home but worried about flaring tensions in the Middle East. Although their schools were not in terrupted by the Persian Gulf conflict, Jordanian students and faculty mem bers are worried about the uncertainty in the turbulent region. "It is something that you cannot worry about all the time," Wezermus said. "Just like you cannot worry about nuclear weapons (all the time)." ' The University administration will not support the Chapel Hill Town Council's proposed ordinance to regu late smoking in public areas, but UNC's student government will. Mark Chilton, the student govern ment liaison to the council and a candi date for the board, said student govern ment supported a ban on smoking in all campus buildings except those that had smoking sections with separate ventila tion systems. In addition, student gov ernment supports banning smoking in all public areas within the town. Chilton spoke at the town council public hearing Monday night, in which the speakers were split on their support of proposed townwide restrictions on smoking. The proposal would regulate smoking in most public areas, including UNC's Smith Center and restaurants. The first public hearing on the pro posed ordinance, which would regulate smoking in retail stores, restaurants, bars, sports arenas, theaters and con vention halls, was held May 20. Sim ilar to a plan developed in Greens boro, the ordinance would require res taurants and bars with seating capaci ties for more than 30 people to desig nate 25 percent of their public areas as non-smoking. Chilton pointed out that banning smoking in restaurants and bars would affect employees as well as customers. "Some people in this town are des perately looking for work and compro mise their preferences in terms of expo sure to environmental tobacco smoke in order to hold a job down at a restaurant or bar, possibly to continue to go to school here," he said. "For those rea sons I recommend that you pass the strongest possible version of this ordi nance." While no one spoke on behalf of the University administration. Mayor Jonathan Howes read a letter from Chan cellorPaul Hardin. In the letter Hardin commended the efforts of the council, but said the Uni versity was taking its own steps to deal with the problem of environmental to bacco smoke. "While our goals on the question of a smoke-free environment are compat ible with those of the town, while we're working on a parallel course to achieve them, we cannot endorse the proposed smoking pollution control ordinance insofar as it proports to apply to the University buildings and the campus," Hardin staled in the letter. Under the proposed ordinance, seat ing areas in sports arenas, such as the Smith Center and Carmichael Audito rium, would be designated smoke-free and access to these areas also would be declared smoke-free. Bonnie Parks, a Chapel Hill resident, said that because she is al lergic to smoke, there are only a few restaurants in Chapel Hill where she can eat. Her allergy also prohibits her from attending concerts See SMOKING, page 2 An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world. George Santayana
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 1, 1991, edition 1
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