HAZING HAZARDS: Drawing line between fun, cruelty CAMPUS, page 3
AT THE MOVIES: Check out the best and worst local theaters .......OMNIBUS
ON CAMPUS
A seminar for underclassmen about
career planning sponsored by UCPPS at
3 p.m. in 306 Hanes.
1 991 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
Volume 99, Issue 87
Thursday, October 3, 1991
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
NcwsSporuAru 962-0245
BuiIiich Advertising 9621163
WEATHER
TODAY: Cloudy; high in upper 70s
FRIDAY: Cloudy; high in low 80s
Wm lain
Restaurateur
hints at lawsuit
Chan says Carrboro board
wrong in rejecting permit
By Chris Trahan
Staff Writer
Francis Chan, a local restaurant owner, is considering
suing the town of Carrboro over the Board of Aldermen's
:refusal to grant him permission to locate a restaurant down
town. ' "I have not consulted an attorney yet, but if I do, we may
have some good grounds to sue because they need to prove
why they turned me down," Chan said.
Chan, owner of two restaurants, said the board's reasons
for refusing his request were invalid.
"In the beginning, they turned me down on the grounds
that they did not know what kind of restaurant I was going to
open or what food I was going to serve," Chan said. "They
could have asked, but they chose not to."
At the board's Sept. 24 meeting, Chan applied for three
different use permits for the old First Union National Bank
building located downtown on the corner of Weaver and
Greensboro Streets.
The board granted Chan permission to use the property as
office and retail space, but denied him permission to use the
space for a restaurant.
Alderman Jackie Gist said, "What (the board) said was that
he had applied for three uses for that property.
"We gave him two uses. That means that once he has his
plans in better order and more definite plans for what the
restaurant is going to be and how it's going to look, he can
come back to us.
"I think the board's feeling was that we have never granted
such a wide-open permit to anybody saying that 'here is the
property, do anything you want with it,' and (the Aldermen)
felt uncomfortable doing that," Gist said.
Board member Frances Shetley said she was concerned
about the proposed restaurant's proximity to residential prop
erty. "I voted against the restaurant because residents said that
it would be adjacent to a residential area," Shetley said.
'The residents also said that the nearest house to the
garbage dumpster would be 20 feet away."
People who live near the building also said locating a
restaurant there would devalue their property, Shetley said.
Chan said the board's decision reflected an anti-business
attitude.
He also said he would not pursue plans to open a restaurant
on the property until after the next election, when the board's
membership may change.
Gist said she did not think the decision sent a negative
message to the business community.
"I think that the message it sends to the community as a
whole is that (the Board of Aldermen) is in favor of busi
nesses coming into our community, but we have a responsi
bility as a community to be cautious as to how (business)
proceeds," she said.
Chan, who owns Jade Palace, a Chinese restaurant in
Carrboro, and Marco Polo, a Chapel Hill restaurant which
serves Italian and Chinese cuisine, had planned to open a
Mexican restaurant in the downtown property.
"I was thinking about some simple restaurant, on a small
scale, serving Mexican food," he said."It would have sit-in
and take-out services."
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Caught in the act
OTHAndrew Cline
Wendy Sarratt, a freshman from Greensboro, plays catch with a friend at the Carmichael intramural fields
Wednesday. Sarratt had so much fun she continued playing despite the rain.
Library discards unwanted books in dumpster
By Marty Minchin
Staff Writer
Davis Library recently cleaned house
and threw 100 to 200 old books in a
trash dumpster outside the building.
Diane Strauss, head of the Davis
business administration and social sci
ences divisions, said the books were
from the library's gift department.
"We tried to sell and exchange the
books, but they are old and of no use,"
she said. "No one wanted them at the
state, and we couldn't sell them."
Most of the books thrown away were
old textbooks containing out-of-date
information, Strauss said.
The library is trying to clear the gift
department of unwanted books that have
been around for as long as four years,
she said.
The gift department includes many
books that people "donate" by leaving
them in the book drop or on the loading
dock outside the library.
"We get a lot of books donated to us
as gifts," she said. "Some of them do not
make sense for our collection."
Often when people die, their spouses
clean out their offices and find many old
books they can donate to the library, she
said. "People just don't want to throw
away books."
Strauss said the library staff explored
every option for disposing of the books
before throwing them into the dumpster.
"We have a whole routine of possi
bilities," she said. "These books didn't
sell at our annual book sale."
She also said bibliographers go
through the books to see if any of them
would be good to trade with foreign
countries in return for books from their
countries.
"Ultimately, these books are things
that no one wanted," she said. "We
don't throw things away casually. We
keep anything we can use in any way."
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100 to 200 books were tossed in dumpster behind Davis Library
DOT supports
Pittsboro t.
extension
plan
By Peter Wallsten
City Editor
State Department of Transportation
staff officials announced Wednesday
they will encourage the extension of
Pittsboro Street, a project that would
destroy buildings on Little Fraternity
Court and other structures.
"With all the development (near
South Campus), we don't see any other
way to provide access from 1-40 into the
campus area," DOT project engineer
Diane Zimmerman said in an interview
after a Wednesday meeting in which
staff members outlined their positions
on plans submitted by the towns.
The Pittsboro Street Extension, which
would run from the present ending of
the road by the Carolina Inn to North
Columbia Street, originally was pro
posed by the state and still is on the
thoroughfare plan approved in 1984. Its
construction would destroy several
buildings in itspath, including Walker's
Funeral Home on West Franklin Street.
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted
to remove the extension and the pro
posed Laurel Hill Parkway, which would
extend from N.C. 54 to Jones Ferry
Road in Carrboro, from this year's thor
oughfare plan.
The DOT staff presented its opinion
Wednesday morning about the thor
oughfare plans submitted by Chapel
Hill, Carrboro and other municipalities
and supported by the regional Trans
portation Advisory Committee (TAC).
Chapel Hill Mayor Jonathan Howes
said he expected the DOT staff's an
nouncement, but stressed it is not official.
"I view this only as a staff recom
mendation," he said. "It is no big deal in
that I expected the staff would feel that
way. I also think it's a little bit prema
ture to get excited about something that
hasn't been put in writing. ... This is
kind of the first preliminary response."
Negotiations will continue between
the town and the DOT, although the
TAC gave its approval of the plan that
excluded the Pittsboro Street Extension
and the Laurel Hill Parkway.
University officials wanted the
Pittsboro Street Extension built because
it would expedite traffic on the western
edge of campus. The road was part of
UNC's first land-use plan, released in
1987, and was taken off the updated
plan released last spring after UNC of
ficials agreed not to push for the exten
sion. The road appeared on the maps in
the new plan, but UNC administrators
said it was the result of a printing error.
Zimmerman said the DOT works
closely with the University, but that she
was surprised UNC decided to take the
Pittsboro Street extension off the plan.
Ben Tuchi, UNC vice chancellor for
business and finance, said the Univer
sity no longer would be involved with
plans for extending Pittsboro Street.
"I think it's a matter now between the
town and the DOT," he said. "After all,
the town has voted to remove it."
Zimmerman said in an interview af
ter the meeting that the town would
have to prove that its goals of reducing
vehicular use are realistic before the
staff would agree to axe it from the plan.
"If the town of Chapel H i 1 1 can prove
See STREET, page 4
University used to
own and operate
telephone company
By Sarah Suiter
Staff Writer
Although the University will assume
control of residence hall telephones next
year, it will not own its own telephone
company like it did throughout most of
the 1900s.
The University owned and operated
a telephone company, electric company
and water company from the early 1 900s
until 1977, said Robert Peake, physical
plant associate director.
"We were a licensed public utility
during that time," Peake said. "We were
theSouthern Bell, the Duke PowerCom
pany and the OWASA (Orange Water
and Sewer Authority) at that time."
The University provided services to
the entire University and the surround
ing communities.
Carlyle Sitterson, who was chancel
lor from 1966 until 1972, said the Uni
versity got involved in the utilities busi
ness before Chapel Hill had an urban
population.
After World War II the Research
Triangle grew and utilities became a
major business, he said. Acquiring per
sonnel to operate all of the utilities
became difficult, he said.
Peake said interest on campus and in
the N.C. General Assembly about
whether the University should remain
in the utilities business led legislators to
create a commission to research the
issue. After an in-depth study, the com
mission recommended to the UNC
Board of Trustees that the school sell its
utility companies, he said.
The University sold all of its off
campus electric facilities to Duke Power
in December, 1976, Peake said.
OWASA purchased all of the water
facilities on and off-campus in Febru
ary, 1977, and UNC sold its telephone
facilities to Southern Bell in March.
Silterson said about $30million from
the sales was used to build Davis Li
brary and additions to Wilson Library
and the Health and Sciences Library.
The state received the other $ 1 0 mi llion
from the sales, he said.
"I think it was a wise decision for the
University to divest itself," Sitterson
said. The University ran the utilities
effectively, but the business was grow
ing too large, he said.
State open meetings law casts little 'sunshine' on University committees
Editor's note: This is the first article
in a two-part series.
By Lauren Chesnut
Staff Writer
and Matthew Eisley
Special Assignments Editor
One day in 1977 a group of Univer
sity law students found themselves be
fore the N.C. Supreme Court, arguing
for access to a closed meeting of their
professors.
Thelawyers-in-traininghadtheirday
in court, but lost. Overturning two lower
court decisions, the state Supreme Court
ruled that the law faculty meeting, like
those of dozens of other University com-
EZ3
SPECIAL
ASSIGNMENT
mittees, was not covered by North
Carolina s open meetings law.
Since then administrators have occa
sionally butted heads with students and
reporters who objected to the closing of
committee meetings, but no one has
formally challenged the way the state's
"sunshine laws" apply to the Univer
sity. Some University committee meet
ings need to be closed to be effective,
Chancellor Paul Hardin said.
"It's just common sense to me that
meetings where action is taken should
be open to the public," Hardin said,
"and that early meetings where people
are brainstorming can arguably be more
effective if they are not open."
Press coverage of informal discus
sions would dampen the free exchange
of ideas, restricting progress and hurt
ing the University's mission, he said.
"I like for people to throw out auda
cious ideas and to really pick at each
other's position," Hardin said. "Weneed
to allow as much audacity and creativ
ity as possible."
The problem, said Cathy Packer,
media law professor in the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication,
is that University administrators make
many of their decisions that directly
affect students, including how to spend
money, in private.
"That alarms me," Packer said, "be
cause I want to know how they make
these decisions."
Students can't participate fully in the
decisions if they don't know what's
going on, she said. "Philosophically,
it's objectionable. It's (the students')
University, and yet we don't trust them
with this information."
North Carolina's open meetings law
states that official meetings of state and
local governments' "public bodies"
must be open to the public except in
special circumstances. Exceptions in
clude deliberations about personnel
matters and land acquisition.
The law defines a public body as one
created in one of five ways, including
by the state constitution or by resolution
of the N.C. General Assembly.
The UNC Board of Governors and its
committees, and the boards of trustees
of the 1 6 UNC-system schools and their
committees, are the only UNC groups
that meet this requirement, said David
Lawrence, professor at the Institute of
Government.
Last May, Ben Tuchi, vice chancel
lor for business and finance, barred a
Chapel Hill Herald reporter from at
tending a meeting of a University com
mittee reviewing the campus' land use
plan. Tuchi said the committee's meet
ings were not required to be open, though
reporters had often attended.
The Herald published a prominent
news story about the closing and an
editorial criticizing the action. But the
newspaper never filed a formal com
plaint, bureau chief Mark Schultz said.
Jean Lutes, editor of The Daily Tar
Heel in 1988-89, said the closing of
See MEETINGS, page 2
Why does it take so much trouble to keep your stomach full and quiet? Shirley Ann Grau