I
P7j
V
TODAY: 20 chance of
showers; high lower 70s
ALL-AT-IZRICAN SKIHIS
r.iAMA r.:iA
junior forward Mia Hamm has returned to the UNC women's soccer
team from a one-year absence to lead the NCAA in scoring
FILED: For free agency, Toronto Blue
lays )immy Key and Tom Henke. The
pitchers from the World Champions
joined 58 other players who had ap
plied by Tuesday, including Oakland
A's outfielder Ruben Sierra and first
baseman Mark McGwire.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy;
After .more than 15 years of experience, two UNC water skiers
have earned national accolades
mgn near u .
Iff lailjj
As many as 1 07 can declare by Nov.
Delta Sigma Theta will
sponsor a self-defense workshop
at 6 p.m. in the Cobb training
room.
8. Others who might file includepitcher
Doug Drabek and outfielder Barry
Bonds of the Pittsburgh Pirates and
Chicago Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux.
100th Veat of Editorial Freedom
Est. 1893
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
1992 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
Volume 100, Issue 60
Wednesday, October 28, 1992
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
NcwiSponaAfti 9624245
BunoeuAdvcnainf 962-1 163
Committee decMe to
By James Lewis
Staff Writer
Members of the Campus Safety Com
mittee stopped short of calling the 24
hour residence hall lockup permanent
Tuesday, but they did decide to con
tinue the controversial safety policy for
what was called "the long-term."
Committee members, including Su
san Ehringhaus, legal assistant to Chan
cellor Paul Hardin, and Donald Boulton,
vice chancellor for student affairs, met
Monday at the South Building to dis
cuss the lockup and other security con
cerns and decided to maintain the policy
despite vocal student opposition.
The lockup, imposed in the after-
Learning skills
director resigns
iui frustration
By Steve Robblee
Stiff Writer
Margaret Saleeby, coordinator of
Learning Disability Services, is re
signing her position effective today,
due to what she termed a lack of sup
port from some University adminis
trators. In her letter of resignation, Saleeby
cited a lack of institutional support for
federally mandated services, violations
of section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973, discriminatory policies
and management; poHcies'as hin
drances that had undermined her abil
ity to fulfill her responsibilities.
Section 504 states, "no otherwise
qualified individual in the United States
... shall, solely by reason of .., handi
cap, be excluded from the participa
tion in, be denied the benefits of, or be
subjected to discrimination under any
program or activity receiving federal
financial assistance."
v; Saleeby said she was frustrated with
certain University administrators, in
cluding her immediate supervisor.
Dean Bobbi Owen. Carolyn Cannon,
acting associate dean of Academic
Services, is replacing Owen for the
semester, but Owen is expected to
return to her position next semester.
Owen, who is out of Chapel Hill
until next semester, was unavailable
for comment
"The climate on this campus is as
chilly for disabled students as it for
black students, said Saleeby, who has
worked at UNC full-time for six years.
Saleeby said one of the problems
she had with Owen was Owen's unin-:
tentional violation of section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act
Because students with severe atten
tion problems cannot work in com
puter labs, those students had been
allowed to work in the office at Learn
ing Disability Services, where there
would be fewer distractions, Saleeby
said.
Residents question $52
ByShaktiRoutray
Staff Writer
Some local residents questioned the
need for the $52 million school bond at
a forum Tuesday night.
The $52 million bond referendum
for the construction of three new schools
was discussed in the second public fo
rum since April.
The forum, which was held at Chapel
Hill Town Hall, was sponsored by the
League of Women Voters and the
Authorities still searching for
By Rama Kayyali
StaffWritcr
Authorities still have no firm sus
pects and are hoping to receive more
information regarding three fires that
occurred in Chapel Hill more than a
month ago.
The fires that occurred Sept. 20 de
stroyed The Intimate Bookshop on East
Franklin Street and severely damaged
the Food Lion located at Eastgate Shop
ping Center.
Cameron's in University Mall also
math of the Aug. 29 rape of a UNC
student in her Granville Towers room,
has received mixed responses from resi
dents. In the wake of the Granville Towers
rape and two daytime assaults near
Kenan Stadium in early September,
some students have questioned the ef
fectiveness of the policy and have sug
gested that UNC administrators could
come up with better ways of ensuring
campus safety.
But Major Bob Porreca, a committee
member representing the University
Police, said he thought the policy was
an effective crime-prevention tool.
"Most of our crimes are crimes of op
portunity, and this lowers the opportu-
Saleeby said she had received a
memo from Owen saying that stu
dents should not be working in the
office. ,
: - Saleeby said another reason for her
frustration was that despite the fact
that she was the coordinator of Learn
ing Disability Services, she was not a
: member of the Advisory Committee
to the Chancellor on Disabilities or
the Subcommittee on Disabilities in
: the admissions office.
Aa coordinatorof the Learning Dis-
' ability Services, Saleeby 's job was to
' supervise the five other academic eon-1
sultants and consult with students of
her own.
Students who are declared eligible
for the learning disability program
meet with an academic consultanteacb
semester to review students' class syl
labi. A consultant works with each
; student to develop a plan for the se
mester so the student will have equal
: access to materials and performance
; in class. In addition, the consultants
act as advocates on behalf of the stu
dents. As advocates, consultants some
times must negotiate with professors
and find special equipment for stu
dents. "For the most part, professors have
been very cooperative." Saleeby said.
Students who have worked with
Saleeby said they would be deeply
affected by her leaving.
: Tim Lindsay, a senior in the learn
ing disability program, said Saleeby
had a major impact on his academic
career.
"I'm glad I'm going to be graduat
ing in December," he said. "If I were
two years from graduating, I'd con
sider dropping out
"No one can do what she does."
Cannon said Jane Byron, a staff
member of Learning Disability Ser
vices and the University Counseling
Center, would act as interim coordi
nator until a successor for Saleeby
was chosen.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Com
merce. Money from the bond referendum
will be used to build two new schools in
the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, to
build a new middle school in the Orange
County system and to upgrade technology-Members
of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
and Orange County school systems and
members of the Orange County Board
of Commissioners headed the panel that
discussed the issue of funding the new
caught on fire, but sprinklers in the store
extinguished the flames before they
spread.
Authorities released a statement fol
lowing the fires stating that they sus
pected arson.
Chapel Hill Chief Fire Marshal Joe
Robertson said that information regard
ing the fire would be evaluated by the
N.C. Awareness Council and that an
award of as much as $ 10,000 would be
offered.
Robertson said the investigation was
being conducted by a joint effort of the
Man, if you
nities," he said.
Boulton said complaints about the
policy were not a fair assessment of the
lockup. He said the University was not
trying to "lock students up" as many
have maintained.
"We're not trying to lock students
in," he said. "Frankly, we don't want to
this is not Central Prison (in Ra
leigh)." Porreca said he would like to see the
lockup continue for the long-term.
"I don't think it's been in effect long
enough to analyze," he said, adding that
the UNC policy is less restrictive than
those at other universities.
Charles Streeter, Residence Hall
Association president, said he thought
Jail escapee shot after holding
By Jackie Hershkowitz
Assistant City Editor
and Rebecah Moore
State and National Editor
DURHAM A gunman who was
charged last April in connection with an
armed robbery in Carrboro escaped from
a High Point jail Tuesday and held four
Duke Hospital employees hostage in a
three-hour standoff that ended when
police shot the convict.
Durham County police identified the
gunman as Ricky Lamont Coffin, a resi
dent of Durham.
Coffin, who escaped from the Or
ange County courthouse in May, was
being held in Guilford County in con
nection with a Greensboro burglary and
for escaping Orange County authori
ties. He was one of three suspects charged
last April for an April 1 0 armed robbery
at Highland Hills Apartments in
Carrboro.
The standoff, which began at ap
proximately 1:30 p.m. when the es
capee entered the Baker House, a wing
of Duke Hospitals, ended at 3:20 p.m.
when police shot Coffin in the head and
evacuated all remaining employees and
students.
Coffin was immediately taken to the
Duke Medical Center, where he was
listed in critical condition, according to
Associated Press reports.
Coffin escaped from Guilford County
Jail at about 7:40 a.m. Tuesday and
headed to the Durham area in a stolen
vehicle. Witnesses said the escaped
convict sped into the parking lot of the
Baker House and entered the building.
Leo Holleran, a chaplain for Duke
Veterans Administration Hospital, said
he and three others were in his office
two doors away from the room where
Coffin was holding the hostages.
After patients and some bystanders
were evacuated from the Baker House,
Holleran said police instructed every
one left in the building to lock them
selves in the nearest room.
"There are lots of mazes inside the
building, so they wanted us to stay in
side," Holleran said.
Jennifer Epstein, a Duke University
senior who was working with a patient
when Coffin entered the building, said
nurses saw the escaped convict roam
ing the corridors before he took hostages.
million bond at forum
schools with local residents.
After a slide presentation about the
bond issue, residents were asked to ad
dress the panel on matters that con
cerned the bond.
Some questioned state enrollment
projections for the systems, which esti
mated a 22 percent growth in the school
system by the end of the decade.
Mary Bushnell, chairwoman of the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Educa
tion, responded, "Our experience with
the current projections is that the only
suspects in September fires
Chapel Hill police and fire departments,
the State Bureau of Investigation and
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms.
"We' ve had tons of leads," Robertson
said. "A lot of people have come to us
with information about people in the
composite which we have made avail
able to the press."
Chapel Hill police Capt. Barry Th
ompson said police also still were in
vestigating. "We have interviewed many people,
but we have no firm suspects," Thomp
gotta ask you'll never know. Louis
mamtaini dorm
the committee should suspend the policy
until all of the problems could be worked
out.
"As long as it remains as it is, a lot of
residents are going to have problems,"
he said. "Until matters such as conve
nience can be addressed, we're going to
continue to have a lot of complaints."
Members of the Campus Safety Com
mittee rejected a recommendation from
the Housing Advisory Board, which
called for an end to the lockup until the
problems with the policy could be
worked out.
Scott Peeler, HAB chairman, said he
was disappointed with the committee's
decision to continue the 24-hour lockup.
"The HAB basically felt as if the
r
am
ft '
"Nurses said that my back was to him
when he was getting a drink of water,"
Epstein said.
Nancy Torre, a Duke University jun
ior, was working in the chaplain's of
fice when Coffin came into the Baker
House. Torre, who serves communion
to sick patients at the hospital, said she
could see the suspect from thechaplain's
window.
"There were cops everywhere," Torre
said. "Before we knew it he was in the
hallway, and they told us to lock the
doors. We could see him in the window
across the way."
Coffin released two of the hostages
but locked himself in an office with the
remaining two.
After the suspect fired two shots
through a fourth-floor window at po
liceman below, officers on the scene
tried to appease the convict by asking
problem we have is that they are too
low."
The enrollment in the schools now
stands at 6,830 students, 73 of whom
arrived since the first two weeks of
school, Bushnell said. She added that
the schools were now at 550 students
higher than capacity.
"The need is there," Bushnell said.
"You don't even have to rely on projec
tions." See FORUM, page 2
son said. "We are still hoping for more
information to come in."
Thompson said it was difficult to
determine whether the two fires were
connected.
"You can always speculate it is the
same person," he said. "It makes you
suspicious that both fires occurred in
close proximity and occurred in areas
not accessible to public."
Both Robertson and Thompson urged
anyone who had information on people
See FIRE, page 2
l ,i ' li fH
V"-V A- l
policy was not doing what it was de
signed to do, and that was to increase
the level of security for residents of
housing," he said.
Porreca said relaxing the restricted
access policy, as the HAB had sug
gested, would not be wise. "If we undo
the system we have, we've lost the
moment to inform and alert students to
the security risks," he said.
Al Calarco, assistant directorof hous
ing, told the committee that University
Housing officials were continuing ef
forts to make the policy more conve
nient for students.
He cited one example as new de-layed-alarm
doors, which allow stu
dents to leave through only one door in
Mr- v
Police wait outside Duke Hospital during hostage situation
him to state his demands.
Molly Welch, an employee in the
department of medicine who was in the
room with the chaplain, said Coffin
asked the officers for a soda and the key
to his ankle shackles.
"He was making demands through a
window," Welch said. "They gave him
a chance to give up."
Scott Rimer, a graduate student in
the Duke Divinity School who was also
in the chaplain's office, said police tried
to persuade Coffin to release the two
women who were being held hostage.
"There were a lot of negotiations
going on," Rimer said. 'The officers
were waiting with shotguns."
The four people in the chaplain's
office slid the police a note under the
door telling them that officers would
have a better vantage point if they ob
served from the office window.
Edwards ruling appealed
By Anna Griffin
University Editor
After five years and countless court
room hours, the saga of University
Police officer Keith Edwards has
reached the state's highest judicial
body.
University lawyers have appealed a
recent N.C Court of Appeals decision
in favor of Edwards to the N.C. Su
preme Court in the hopes that the court
will end the officer's fight agaiast the
University Police force's 1987 reor
ganization. Edwards, an 18-year veteran of the
University Police and the first black
woman hired for the campus force,
claimed in a September 1987 griev
ance that a June 1987 departmental
reorganization resulted in gender and
racial discrimination against herself
and several other University Police
officers.
; The grievance, which was rejected
at every step of the University' s four
level grievance procedure, contended
that Edwards was improperly denied
the opportunity to apply for an inter
departmental transfer.
Armstrong
lockup
the residence hall without triggering an
alarm.
"You can go out the door, and if it
closes within seven seconds the alarm
doesn't go off," Calarco said. Doors
equipped with delayed-alarm systems
still are locked on the outside, he said.
University officials also are working
to install more telephones outside cam
pus residence halls, Calarco said.
Calarco said Upper Quad residents'
keys now would access the door of
Manly Residence Hall, which has laun
dry facilities located in its basement.
Residents also are encouraged to use
the laundry facilities across Raleigh
Street which can be accessed without a
key, he said.
hostages
DTHayson Singe
Tuesday afternoon
"After the shots were fired, every
thing took on a whole different mean
ing," Torre said. "So we sent a note to
police saying we had a good view from
our window."
Police followed the instructions on
the note and moved the four into an
adjacent office, Torre said.
"We all got pretty shaky when we
heard the shots," Rimer said. "This is
something you see on the news and here
it was happening to us."
Welch said a police marksman en
tered the building and fired a shot at
Coffin about 30 minutes after the first
two shots.
"It got quiet for a while, and then we
heard a gunshot," Welch said. "We
couldn't tell whether it was from (the
suspect) or the police."
See ESCAPE, page 2
Because the new position in ques
tion included more responsibility and
better pay, Edwards and her attorney,
civil rights activist Alan McSurely,
contended it constituted a promotion
and therefore should ha ve been opened
to all applicants. UNC officials have
denied that the transfer legally quali
fied as a promotion.
The Court of Appeals ruled 3-0
earlier this fall that the Suite Person
nel Commission and the Orange
County Superior Court, both of which
refused to rule whether Edwards had
been discriminated against could rule
in the case. In the decision, the appeals
court ruled that the Orange County
court must send the case back to the
SPC for consideration.
But in the request filed last week,
David Parker, the assistant state attor
ney general representing the Univer
sity, asked the Supreme Court to re
consider the Court of Appeals' rever
sal. In the document, Parker writes that
he is "seeking review by the Supreme
Court because of the serious errors of
See APPEAL, page 2