Hazing does not help form bonds between friends

TO THE EDITOR:
I write to express my disgust with many of the online comments attached to the Nov. 29 article “Sigma Chi guilty on hazing charges.”
You’d think that hazing severe enough to warrant a three-year sanction wouldn’t sit well with members of the University community, and I suspect that for the most part, that’s the attitude around campus.
But there are still people who hold beliefs such as this one, expressed by a commentor who bravely refers to herself only as “Greek Girl”: “I think the pledges and parents who tattled on Sigma Chi are the pathetic ones. If you don’t want to go through hazing, don’t join a fraternity. And if you do, don’t be a little wimp and go tell mommy. Simple as that.”
This attitude is morally repulsive and destructive to not only the entire University, but society at large. Are we in such sad shape that we must resort to degradation and humiliation in order to form bonds between one another? Is the Greek system in such disarray that the pledges who spoke out in hopes of fixing a broken system are thought of as gutless tattle-tales?
I worked at the DTH for eight semesters. Many of the relationships I formed there will last the rest of my life. And I didn’t have to dress in blackface, drive for hours on some menial quest, or dig my own grave and get pissed on for that to happen.
Sure, there’s a level of personal freedom involved here. No one is forced to go through hazing.
But hazing’s defenders are missing the larger point, which is that no one should be forced to go through it. How sad, how ironic, that fraternities — groups whose very names suggest the bonds of brotherhood — engage in actions that represent an utter breakdown of civility.
To be sure, not all fraternities and sororities engage in serious hazing. Even the ones that do usually perform charitable work.
But charity isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s not an end-all, be-all test of one’s moral fiber.
On the other hand, I’d say that one’s treatment of fellow human beings is such a test. And if the Web comments are any indication, too many Greeks have failed it.

Chris Coletta
Former Managing Editor
The Daily Tar Heel

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Number of students tickets available makes no sense

TO THE EDITOR:
Can someone explain to me why more student tickets were available for the Gardner Webb game, where about a quarter of the upper level was empty, than the Ohio State game?
Ohio State is arguably one of the biggest games of the season yet only 4,200 student tickets are available as opposed to 4,400 for Gardner Webb.
Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn’t the CAA and the ticket office want as many students as possible at a nationally televised game against an opponent ranked No. 1 in the polls? Someone needs to get with the program.

Chris Garrison
Junior
History

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Students should unite to change ticket distribution

TO THE EDITOR:
I’m a senior and one of many students who hasn’t received a ticket to any of the basketball or football games this year (and who got tickets to all games but Cleveland State last season). What I feared has come true.
I would argue that students sporadically getting tickets to games because of the random drawing decreases enthusiasm for the team. You feel invested in a season when you make the effort to get tickets to as many games as possible, but when you sit at home watching games on TV like any other bum, you feel distanced from the team.
I would also dispute the value of equality in ticket distribution. Almost any other service funded by fees equally paid by all students requires some effort by each student. You don’t get $25 of printed class material handed to you; you have to go to the print labs yourself. You only get child care if you have a child. There are many more examples.
The Athletics Department’s ardent refusal to adopt a compromise plan that would have some tickets distributed in person and the rest online will have to change. They’re not going to be able to deny the unhappiness of the most fervent fans much longer. Anger is only rising, which can’t be good for the basketball program in a season when everyone should be excited about a possible championship.
I know from personal experience that most administrators begrudge listening to individual students, but when thousands are speaking with one voice on such an important issue, it becomes willful malfeasance that ought to threaten the jobs of ticket honcho Clint Gwaltney and anyone else involved in continuing this unpopular system.

Dustin Ingalls
Speaker Pro Tem
Student Congress

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Those who remain in closet can only blame themselves

TO THE EDITOR:
Regarding the response from the editor of LAMBDA Magazine, if one is “in the closet” then obviously they aren’t comfortable with who they are in the first place. So please explain how this is everyone else’s fault, instead of the person who is in the closet. Until then, I’ll wait for responses about how oppressed the homosexual community thinks they are.
Furthermore, I have 2 words for you: grow up. You are who you are, mature people respect this. Now quit complaining, accept accountability, and be an adult.
Im sick and tired of the homosexual community whining about people not being able to come out of the closet because of the fear of what everyone else thinks of them. That problem lies within that person, not the society around them.
Chapel Hill is one of the most “gay friendly” communities in this state. Quit making excuses for yourselves.

Thomas Jones
Junior
Information Science

Improving diversity means knowing those around you

TO THE EDITOR:
It is my sincere hope that the DTH Nov. 21 Editorial can call attention to conversations that have been taking place on campus for some time now (“Black/White: No. 1 isn’t enough when segregation still exists at UNC”).
The editorial correctly notes that the recent survey conducted by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education ranking UNC first in the country for the proportion of African American students in the entering class of freshmen. The DTH is right to call our attention to the fact that statistics do not represent the real health of diversity and respect for social differences. Respect for diversity, is not something that can be created by an admissions committee.
The kind of diversity that the DTH alludes to is almost always a personal decision to involve yourself in the lives of those who are different from you (and to involve them in your life). The DTH correctly observes that nothing will change unless students, faculty, and staff make it happen.
What concerns me is that some readers may have been left with the impression that the self-segregation of some reflects what is happening on campus when new students are admitted to the university. This is not the case. There are many students on this campus taking advantage of UNC’s efforts to promote diversity by encouraging respect for social differences in students’ daily lives.
I do not intend to speak for any of these organizations, but the following is a partial list of undergraduate and graduate organizations whose mission statements reflect the intention to promote respect for differences of all kinds: Students for the Advancement of Race Relations, Campus Y, Table Talk, Carolina United, Alpha Phi Omega, Campaign to End the Cycle of Violence, Feminist Students United, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender – Straight Alliance, South Asian Domestic Violence Initiative, Conference on Race, Class, Gender, and Ethnicity, Feminist Action Initiative, Physicians for Human Rights, Theta Nu Xi (a multicultural sorority). If you are not involved in such a group and you believe that diversity is about more than statistics, then you should get involved in one or more of these groups.
But you could begin with a smaller effort. If you have been working with someone from a different racial or ethnic background, ask that person to get a cup of coffee and try to get to know him or her outside his or her role as a student. At a minimum you might learn about another culture. Beyond that, you may learn that there is more to you than you previously understood.

Michael Waltman
Associate Professor
Communication Studies

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Editorial’s sarcastic tone muddied its valid points

TO THE EDITOR:
In response to Tuesday’s editorial titled “All Iraq needs is a draft,” I urge the editorial staff to be more careful when experimenting with sarcasm.
The editorial legitimately discusses many of the advantages of a draft, including increased opportunities for women and full recognition of gay and lesbian soldiers and officers.
The problem here is that these legitimate advantages were thrown into the mix with other, more outlandish advantages such as motivating those who “were not brave enough to step forward without that extra nudge.” The editorial also states that a draft would bring gumption to people who would have otherwise “lived dull and reticent lives.” And finally, the editorial staff presents its most ludicrous argument in favor of the draft — population control.
Clearly the sarcasm has taken over by this point. By the end of the editorial, it becomes clear that the editorial staff is not in favor of a draft, which explains some of the more outlandish arguments made to the contrary.
However, the message is muddied by including the legitimate positives of a proposed draft. One could almost believe that the staff does not wish for increased opportunities for women or full recognition of gay and lesbian members of the armed forces simply because of the way this article was written.

Joshua Berkov
Graduate student
Information and library sciences

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Column ignored stigmas of being gay and coming out

TO THE EDITOR:
In response to yesterday’s column regarding dating hardships at the University, I want to ask if “closeted gays” are really the worst of the “painful dating experiences” listed by columnist Elizabeth Freeman. Compared to the “Applebee’s romancers,” at least with closet gays you are going to get a white table cloth with your meal.
Speaking more seriously, though, I think that if the community did more to attack the stigma associated with the LGBT community more students would be comfortable asserting who they are rather than remaining in the closet.
Therefore, to avoid some of those awkward dating woes, maybe students should think about opening up their minds instead of logging onto Match.com.

Thomas Cluderay
Editor-in-chief
Lambda magazine

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SRC should uphold spirit rather than letter of law

TO THE EDITOR:
Greetings and salutations. As we know, since 9/11 we’ve had to rewrite all the rules. It’s no longer good enough to sit idly by and wait for tragedies to happen, we’ve got to be proactive about preventing them. So it is with a solemn sense of pride that I’d like to thank the little blond girl that kicked me out of the SRC tonight for jumping the turnstile gate.
My naiveté is almost limitless; not knowing there was a bell for alerting the desk, I assumed that since they weren’t looking at me and the little blond girl was, that merely waving my recently obtained SRC workout towel and smiling would be good enough, and I jumped the gate.
Oh happy fault! Were it not for this heinous error, I might have finished my 5-year graduate school tenure without ever coming to grips with the frightening reality of the situation. Not only might the bright, budding existence of an SRC patron be stamped out by a falling 45 pound plate at any moment, but people might try to use the workout facilities for free, without spending roughly 5% of their yearly stipend on fees destined to the enjoyment of such facilities.
Denying my workout privileges was the best way to ram the message home: We don’t uphold the spirit of the law anymore; the letter of the law is what we maintain. In more innocent, carefree days, I would have recommended merely pointing out the existence of the bell with a warning. What did I think this was, Canada or France or something? Est-ce que je veux coucher avec cette petite fille blonde? No, God no. Let it be said now that this kind of lackadaisical, terrorist loving attitude doesn’t cut mustard around here. Lesson learned.
As I sit here on my couch, excess carbohydrates turning to lipids, I can only reflect on one thing: that tonight I will sleep a little more soundly knowing that rough men and self-assured little blond girls stand ready to do violence on my behalf.

Philip Remes
Graduate student
Chemistry

Too bad they are missing out at Fox News. The organization slammed “the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill” for its coverage of the protest to a military recruitment center in Chapel Hill. It’s true, we did cover it. Tracey Theret wrote a superbly balanaced article that quoted both protesters and veterans. But Fox took asserted that “The research-challenged author of the article said the SDS ‘is known for supporting peaceful anti-war movements and participatory democracy.’” Tracey’s story contained no such sentence, a piece by The Technician — our colleagues at N.C. State — does. Fox even links to N.C. State’s site, which is fitted with a red decor. So who’s the research-challneged author here?

-Joe

Today we ran a couple of stories about inspections of downtown Chapel Hill restaurants. We wanted to do this story in light of the recent E. coli outbreak that has sickened nine locals - seven of whom reported eating at McAlister’s Deli on Franklin Street.
What we wanted you to take away from these articles - one on inspections and one on the McAlister’s link to a foodborne illness - was a better understanding of those inspection grades that are posted in each restaurant. We also wanted to shed light on an inspectors’ duties and flaws within the system. And, of course, we wanted to tell you the top violations in area restaurants.
For this story, we analyzed inspection records for about 70 downtown restaurants (didn’t know there were that many in the downtown area?). We obtained these records, which are public according to the N.C. Public Records law, from the Orange County Health Department’s Environmental Health Services Division. There were some difficulties in acquiring these records at both the state and local levels. First, I thought it would be simple. I knew the county’s environmental health department kept some sort of database on their computers. I have a right to that, since it is public record. However, I was told they weren’t able to pull the data I needed electronically. This was on Monday, and I needed the data to begin analyzing by Tuesday evening. So, I put in a request with the state department, hoping they would get back to me in a timely manner. Then I went down to the department in Hillsborough and physically sorted through their filing cabinets for records of the 69 restaurants I needed. After that I was told that the copying of these hard-copy records could take up to a week, since the department is short-staffed. That was Tuesday, and I needed this story to run today (Monday). So, I did something I wasn’t expected to do and something that was beyond my duties - I went back the next day and made the copies of the past four inspections for each restaurant myself using their copier (which had several flaws, such as cutting off half of the pages and inspection dates). On Friday, after I had spent hours entering the hard-copy data into an Excel spreadsheet for sorting and analyzing, I received an e-mail from someone at the state department who told me they could send me electronic records of the county’s restaurants, but not sorted by city. I received that data Friday. I rejoiced for a moment, thinking I could do a lot more with this data - such as posting it in a database online. That was until I discovered that their spreadsheet did not include many of the restaurants’ most recent inspection data. So I stuck with what I had.
Had I had more time and wasn’t planning to run this story today, I would have fought for better electronic records that fulfilled my requests. In the computer-assisted reporting world, I’ve always been told, “Where there’s a data, there’s a database,” and “Where there’s a database, there’s access to it.” Time was merely of the essence in this case.
At the end of my copying “duties” I told the kind interim director at the Orange County environmental health department that he should find a way to keep better records online. Luckily, WRAL-TV and other major newspapers and stations have compiled such data online for consumers to access. That’s not their jobs. Some states, such as Florida, provide their data on their government’s homepage (GOOD IDEA!) With most all government agencies using computers every day, there has been a tremendous move to keeping data online or at least in the computer - and that also means having to share it to the public.

-Shannan M. Bowen,
Investigative Team Editor

North Carolina cornerback Quinton Person just came up with a tipped pass for his first interception of the year and second of his career. With six minutes to play, the Tar Heels are in a good position to drain the clock.

NSCU plackicker John Deraney just converted a 41-yard field goal to pull the ‘Pack to within a touchdown. There haven’t been this many three-pointers on the UNC campus since Shammond Williams went pro. Each team is now 3-for-3 in parting the uprights, accounting for a total of six field goals in the game. Also, in the first quarter, UNC PK Connor Barth converted a 25-yard attempt, but then had to kick it again — from 20 yards out — due to a Wolfpack offisides penalty before the snap.

After converting a 54-yard field goal, with plenty of leg to spare, to extend UNC’s lead to 13-6 midway through the third quarter, placekicker Connor Barth is now 8-for-8 on the season. The field goal was his career long and second longest in school history. Dan Omer kicked booted a 55-yard field goal in North Carolina’s 30-22 victory at Syracuse on Sept. 7, 2002. That kick still stands as the longest field goal in school history.

After a NCSU 44-yard field goal, the Tar Heels head into the half with a 10-6 lead, their first halftime lead since leading Furman 24-14 at the break on Sept. 16. North Carolina has not held a halftime lead against an ACC team since they led Duke 17-14 on Nov. 19, 2005.

It’s not conventional, and a couple of times this season it hasn’t been very safe, but North Carolina punter David Wooldrige’s awkward punting technique has been good enough to get him the gold trophy in Madden mini-camp in this contest. His patented three-step punt has been money thus far, pinning the Wolfpack inside their own three-yard line earlier in the half and his most recent left NCSU at their own seven.

If you were unaware, today’s kickoff was preceeded by a fly-over performed by a fleet of four F-15 Eagles. With a little less than seven minutes to play in the half, the four pilots were seen walking toward the west endzone of Kenan Stadium where they’re now shaking hands with what I presume to be some campus big-wigs. My fellow DTHers and I figure they’ll probably be honored at halftime and they should, they certainly deserve it.