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(02/14/08 5:00am)
As the deadline to replace Chancellor James Moeser draws closer it's time for the search committee to get down to business. But the University community is split as to how much.As fundraising becomes increasingly vital to remain competitive as a public university many members of the UNC community think the new chancellor should have at least some business background.The chancellor will take the reins as construction is supposed to start for Carolina North a research satellite campus that is set to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. UNC also has been struggling to keep faculty salaries competitive.But several faculty members said selecting a candidate solely for business experience could negatively impact academics at UNC.Bill Funk head of R. William Funk & Associates the consulting firm hired by the committee" said that he has not necessarily seen a trend of universities choosing leaders with business backgrounds but that institutions select the person who best meets their needs.He said he thinks that candidates without an experienced background - and at least some knowledge of academia - will not be frontrunners in the UNC race. ""Folks who have only narrow experience or perspectives are not the ones being sought out.""The committee has not ruled out people outside the academic world"" said chairman Nelson Schwab.""We're looking at candidates from a wide background"" from within academia and from without. And then it will be up to us to make that decision.""Senior writer Kelly Giedraitis contributed reporting. Contact the Investigative Editor at iteam@unc.edu.
(01/18/08 5:00am)
Two men were arrested and charged Thursday night for the March car accident that killed UNC mascot Jason Ray in East Rutherford, N.J.
(11/29/07 5:00am)
A UNC professor has a warrant out for his arrest in Shelby County, Ala., prompting questions about the University's policy for faculty background checks.
Troy Adair, an adjunct assistant professor of finance at Kenan-Flagler Business School, is on the most wanted list in Shelby County for domestic violence in the third degree, according to police.
"This involves a nonviolent dispute with my ex-wife," Adair said in an e-mailed statement. "I was not aware of this posting until recently."
The warrant is not extraditable, which means the UNC police do not need to take Adair into custody, said Jeff McCracken, chief of UNC Department of Public Safety, after he talked to Shelby County police.
"Essentially, if he is back in the area that the warrant was issued, it would be served on him," he said, adding that he does not think Adair poses a threat to the campus.
The University implemented a policy July 1 to perform criminal conviction checks on all newly hired faculty, but it will not perform checks on current faculty members.
University officials said conducting checks on previously hired faculty members would be intrusive.
"You've already got a lot of folks who've been here for a long time and are presumably doing a good job," Executive Associate Provost Steve Allred said. "Why would you make them go through a process that said 'Yes, 25 years ago I had a DUI?'"
Some students said they were concerned about the lack of background checks for existing faculty members.
"If they're going to start checking new faculty, the first thing that should be done is make sure that the people we have now are good," freshman Elizabeth Stephens said.
UNC also does not require faculty members to disclose criminal convictions while employed at the University.
Allred said if a professor's conviction comes to light while employed at UNC, it is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, looking particularly at the nature and time of the crime.
"There's no ironclad rule," he said. "If you get something that someone had a DUI 20 years ago, and their position in no way involves driving, that would be of less concern, then say, an axe murderer."
Adair was hired by UNC in January 2006. The warrant for his arrest was issued the next month.
According to Alabama law, people commit domestic violence in the third degree if they purposefully cause physical injury to another person, if they recklessly cause physical injury to another person or if they negligently cause harm to another person by means of a dangerous weapon. It is a Class A misdemeanor offense.
"It's a little surprising because a lot of faculty and students interact," said Tyler Brown, a junior anthropology and advertising major. "Students go to faculty houses all the time.
"Although, if my anthropology teacher had killed a man, I might pay more attention," he said.
Other students said they do not think the previous lack of background checks is a problem.
"There are other criteria for professors, like having a Ph.D," said Pamela Della Valle, a junior nutrition major.
"If you've done that stuff, you're supposed to be pretty stable. You're not off committing crimes."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(10/29/07 4:00am)
At the first chance for the public to voice opinions on the chancellor search process, few people spoke up.
Only seven people addressed the committee charged with replacing Chancellor James Moeser, who announced his resignation a month ago.
Friday's event had time allotted for local elected officials, alumni, members of UNC-affiliated foundations and organizations and local residents. The lack of speakers created empty blocks of time and ended the forum half an hour early.
"We had to sit down and talk to ourselves for a while, which was nice but not as productive as it could've been," said Nelson Schwab, chairman of the search committee and a member of the Board of Trustees.
The event, held at 1 p.m. at the Friday Center, might have been at an inconvenient time and place, but it was the only match for the committee's schedule, Schwab said.
"Everybody's got a day job," he said.
He also said that the forum's target audience was "a little removed" from the search process and that the next forum - set for students, faculty and staff at the Carolina Inn - should draw a larger crowd.
"We did get some good comments and feedback, which is what this is all about," he said.
Speakers suggested a variety of qualities they wanted the new chancellor to possess, highlighting faculty recruitment and retention and campus development as the most important issues the incoming chancellor will have to deal with upon taking office July 1.
"The next chancellor has to face the challenge of what happens after the retirement of the baby boomers," said Joseph Jenkins, a member of the Board of Visitors.
Lisa Stuckey - chairwoman of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board and the only local elected official at the forum - asked the committee to choose a leader open to working with town officials on Carolina North. The proposed satellite campus has been a point of contention between the town and the University as plans develop.
The committee also should explore candidates outside the academic world, said Kevin Almond, the president of the Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina, noting that chief executive officers could function well as chancellors.
"North Carolina's been very good to us for education funding," Almond said. "We need to be held accountable for our funds, and we can't always expect academians who have no experience running huge organizations like UNC to do that."
After the meeting, Schwab said the committee would consider candidates outside academics. He noted that only about 5 percent of searches led by R. William Funk & Associates - the search firm hired by the committee - selected candidates outside academics.
The committee also should not fret about salary negotiations, said Doug Dibbert, president of the General Alumni Association.
Moeser receives an annual salary of more than $390,000 while the 80th percentile salary of peer institutions' presidents is $455,000.
"Anyone you might wish to consider who insists that Carolina match or better their current $700,000-or-more salary should be dismissed from further consideration," Dibbert said.
"That expectation alone confirms that they don't understand the state of North Carolina and the relationship of our University to our state."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(04/27/07 4:00am)
The Iraq war hit the four-year mark March 20 - surpassing the length of the Civil War.
The war now has outlasted all U.S. involvement in military engagements except for the Vietnam War - which lasted eight years and five months - and the Revolutionary War - which lasted six years and nine months.
And as the length of the war has grown, tensions have been mounting along with it.
Hundreds of UNC students walked out of class March 20 and marched to Franklin Street to mark the four-year anniversary of the conflict's conception.
Students weren't alone in their protests. A crowd of about 300 war protesters and 25 counter-protesters rallied March 17 in Fayetteville. About 10 residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro joined a Critical Mass bike ride March 20 to protest the war.
"I think that there is a feeling now that opposition to the war is not a fringe position," said Peter Gilbert, a leader of Students for a Democratic Society.
"It's clear now that the majority of Americans want a resolution in Iraq."
The growth of SDS is a testament to that, he said. The group had two or three members when it restarted on campus in September. That number grew to 50 to 100 in October and then to about 500 in March with the walkout.
"The election this past November, I think, was a mandate that the people in this country want an end to the war," Gilbert said. The Democratic Party won a majority in both houses of Congress in November.
"We sort of have the assumption now that we want the war to be over, and that's a big shift than what we saw a year ago."
Some students and community members noted fatalities as a cause of their concern with the war.
There have been 3,334 U.S. military deaths in Iraq as of 5 p.m. Thursday. Of these deaths, 79 were N.C. residents - including two from Chapel Hill.
"When people knock on your door to tell you your son has died ." Chapel Hill resident Randy Beard told The Daily Tar Heel in November, unable to complete his sentence. Beard's 22-year-old son, Brad, died in Iraq in October 2004.
War fatalities have shown no sign of slowing down. More than 40 percent of N.C. fatalities in Iraq have occurred since 2006. There have been 331 U.S. deaths so far in 2007, meaning that if deaths continue at this rate, it will be the deadliest year in the war.
North Carolina has strong military ties, including Fort Bragg, the largest Army base in the world by population. The war has killed 259 people who were stationed at Camp Lejeune, which also is in North Carolina. The total is the third highest for any base in the country.
About 45 students have graduated from UNC's Army ROTC in the past three years and have gone on to serve as officers in the Army, said Lt. Col. Greg Daddis.
No known UNC alumni had died in the war as of two weeks ago.
College Republicans Chairwoman Charissa Lloyd said she knows that many students are not in favor of the war but that she wants them to be respectful of troops.
"I felt that the protesters in the recent SDS rally were being very disrespectful of our troops," Lloyd said, referring to the walkout. "So we handed out yellow-ribbon pins to show our support for the troops."
Daddis, a professor of military science, said he thinks the protesters have been respectful. Although Daddis has been at UNC for only one year - he taught history last year at the U.S. Military Academy - he said he has not seen any backlash against ROTC students.
"I think the fact that they're willing to debate the issues, in what I see as a respectful matter, is positive and important," he said of UNC students.
"I've been pleased with the relationships the cadets have with their peers and friends outside ROTC."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
Your mother probably always told you never to open the door for strangers.
But that's exactly what Danielle Doughman, 29, did in July 2005. She opened her door - and her couch - to traveler Edwin Tanedo, 32, who just had quit his job, bought a car for a thousand dollars and was making a cross-country pilgrimage from Oregon to New York.
Doughman, executive director of UNC's Difficult Dialogues Initiative, decided to let Tanedo stay with her in Atlanta for two nights.
"He was just taking a whole bunch of time off to do this trip," she said.
"I thought, you know, this guy is doing something I've always wanted to do."
Doughman hosted Tanedo as a member of CouchSurfing.com, an online network of travelers looking for cheap places to stay abroad - and who are willing to let strangers stay in their homes.
The nonprofit site is just one of several travel networking Web sites that have popped up in recent years, promoting communication between travelers around the world.
The idea for the site came in 1999, when Casey Fenton, now a 29-year-old computer programmer, got a cheap ticket to Iceland. He needed a place to stay at the last minute.
His solution? He accessed the student directory at the University of Iceland and sent about 1,500 e-mails asking for cheap lodging recommendations. About 50 to 100 students responded, saying Fenton could stay with them.
"On his way back on the plane, he decided he would never pay for lodging again," said Rico Lesage, communications director for the site. "And the idea for couch surfing was born."
When the Web site debuted Jan. 1, 2004, CouchSurfing had 100 members. As of Monday evening, the site had more than 198,000 members from 214 countries.
"Basically, we're tripling our membership every year," Lesage said.
Doughman, who moved to Chapel Hill in June, joined CouchSurfing.com when she and her boyfriend Raj Ghoshal went to Guatemala in summer 2005.
Their host, Juan Carlos, met the pair at the airport. But they didn't just get a place to stay - they got a tour of Guatemala City from a local resident.
"He took us to his house, introduced us to his wife and two young kids and cooked us lunch," Doughman said.
"We were able to talk about U.S. and Guatemalan politics. He was great."
Ghoshal became a couch surfer in January 2005. He has ridden the couch wave seven times and has hosted two people - one man who was visiting a friend in Raleigh and one who came to the Southeast on a barbecue tour.
"It's a great way to see lots of different places . and helps you have more money to spend on traveling instead of giving to corporate hotels," Ghoshal said.
"It's a step toward building a world that's based more on cooperation and sharing."
However, opening your door to strangers presents inherent safety issues, Lesage said.
"We are definitely concerned about our members' safety," said Lesage, who added that there never has been a safety problem reported to the site. "We try to give them as much information as possible to ensure their safety."
The site has several checks to help members make sure the people they stay with - or the people they let into their homes- are trustworthy.
Each member can be verified by paying a $25 fee with a credit card. If the address and name on the credit card matches those given in the profile, the member is verified.
Members also can be vouched for, which means other people are declaring their trust in the person. Once members are vouched for by three people, they can vouch for other people.
"It's one sign of non-sketchiness," Ghoshal said.
No member has to be verified or vouched for, but it serves as security measures for couch surfers. Ghoshal and Doughman, who are both verified and vouched for, said they never have had any safety problems with the site.
Also, joining the site does not mean you are obligated to host anyone.
Doughman said that she can't host right now because she has multiple roommates but that she uses the site to arrange get-togethers with area couch surfers to talk about traveling.
"It's just, you know, swapping stories from the road and stuff," she said.
"It's really interesting because they're all different kinds of people. It's not all just backpacking hippies."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
Other travel networking sites
ISLAND ODYSSEY
Think of a Facebook.com, throw in a travel agency, and you'll get Island Odyssey.
The site, islandodyssey.com, allows members to create a profile and network with friends - similar to Facebook - but they also can use the site to book hotels, flights and entertainment tickets in hundreds of cities around the world.
The site, which was launched in March, had more than 9,000 registered members from 70 countries as of 3 p.m. Monday.
The site is constantly evolving. Future features include custom vacation packages and news feeds about friends' travels.
The site also guarantees that its "Save Rate Hotel" prices are the best online. If you find a lower rate on another Web site for the same dates and hotel within 24 hours of booking with Island Odyssey, the site pledges to match the price - plus pay 10 percent of the difference in price. This guarantee applies to more than 30,000 global properties.
FLIGHT CLUB
Bored with those two-hour airport layovers? Don't want to sit next to the woman with the screaming baby?
Flight Club - which can be found at flight-club.org - might have the answer. The site helps travelers meet up on flights, in airports or in common destinations to alleviate boring travel and to create a global network of travelers.
Users can create a profile and post their travel itineraries. They are then matched with other users with similar itineraries and can decide, based on the other person's profile, if they want to meet before, during or after a flight. Major international airports are included in the site's network, and the site is building its network of worldwide airlines.
The club is free for now, although the Web site notes that it eventually might have to charge members. Charter members - those who are members now or who become members before the site starts charging fees - will not be charged.
(02/23/07 5:00am)
The Daily Tar Heel followed student body president candidate Nick Neptune from the outset of his campaign to give readers an inside look at what it takes to seek the highest office in UNC student government.
It's fitting that Nick Neptune's favorite show is "The West Wing."
"It gives an insider view of how politics works," said Neptune, a junior American Studies major who said his favorite place is Washington, D.C. "It's the art of government."
(02/13/07 5:00am)
Add another top ranking to UNC's r
(01/18/07 5:00am)
As Rita Bigham read "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" in the N.C. Children's Hospital, four-year-old Chozzyn Randolph was quick to point out the story's hero: pizza.
But it was laughter that entertained Chozzyn and her sister Cherish, 2, while they waited for their 1-month-old sister to finish her doctor's appointment.
Laughter is the best medicine, after all.
Bigham comes to the hospital about once a week as part of the Carolina Health and Humor Association, a nonprofit service group that takes a Patch-Adams-style approach to health care.
"When we visit a patient, we give them a little humor treatment," said Ruth Hamilton, who founded Carolina HA HA in 1986.
"We get them to give a good belly laugh."
Hamilton worked in the facility accounting department at Duke Medical Center when she noticed patients seemed bored. She quit her job, and Carolina HA HA was born.
Now a self-described humor therapist, Hamilton teaches humor workshops to help others learn to keep stress out of their lives. She's even encountered the real Patch Adams, a doctor who preaches the curing power of laughter; she went to Russia with him in 1989 as part of a hospital clown troupe.
"It's a diversion," Hamilton said. "Patients are in a lot of pain. They're so uncomfortable."
In 2003 a study by Stanford University showed that laughter stimulates the same parts of the brain as methamphetamine, cocaine and the sight of an attractive face. Research has also shown that laughing can boost the immune system.
"There's a kind of humor we call caring humor," she said. "You want to help them get their humor started back - and their families, too."
Hamilton's organization expanded to UNC, bringing laughter to patients through people and programs.
Bigham, who taught at Carrboro Elementary School for 19 years, is going on her sixth year of volunteering at the children's hospital. She's even trained her dog - a Bichon named Pippin - to be a therapy dog at the hospital.
After she retired, she found that reading to children filled the gap. Shel Silverstein poems and the Amelia Bedelia books are among the kids' favorites.
The most wonderful thing about children, Bigham said, is that they are upbeat and grateful for anything. She brings glitter bracelets for the girls and rubber insects for the boys.
"Sometimes when I go into a room, until I see the band on their wrist I don't know they're sick," she said.
"I walk away so inspired," she added. "I think they give me so much more than I give them."
One of about 12 other trained Carolina Ha Ha volunteers, Vonnie Torbert started with the humor group at Duke. Six years ago this month, she started coming to UNC, as well.
Now once a week she dolls herself up in an ever-growing costume - including red lipstick hearts on her cheeks, a denim jumper and striped rubber boots "that everyone covets" - and pushes a laugh mobile through the UNC Rehabilitation Center.
"You can't buy what the patients give me," Torbert said.
The laugh mobile was donated to UNC from a Duke patient who wanted to spread the laughter he experienced. The colorful wooden cart is packed with games, CDs, videos, a candy basket - even a rubber chicken and a fake mustache.
Armed with instruments of laughter and a name tag that says "Smile Patrol," Torbert said the smallest things, such as stickers saying "URAQT" or "Love Transfusion," can make a patient's day.
"I have discovered that sometimes you can't save the outcome of a person," Torbert said. "But what you can do, you can distract them at the time, and that distraction can allow the body to laugh."
"I realize twice a week how lucky I am," she said. "I would pay the hospital to do this if I had to."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(01/10/07 5:00am)
For many students the new year means a clean slate - an opportunity to improve their lives. But, despite bold talk and initial dedication, one word seems to characterize the New Year's resolution. Failure. The overcrowded gyms will revert back to normal in mere weeks, students predicted; old habits will win out. The Daily Tar Heel chose four students to follow. In two weeks we will check back with them to see if they have stayed true to their resolutions.
Nikki Pratt:
New Year's resolution: To floss every day and only have one
dessert per week.
(09/21/06 4:00am)
It wasn't something Matt Telford really considered when looking at colleges.
But after coming out as a gay student his freshman year at Wake Forest University, the Winston-Salem native realized the importance of a gay-friendly campus.
"The students there were hostile to alternative lifestyles," Telford said. "I felt like I stood out in a bad way."
That feeling was the main reason he transferred to UNC, where he is now a junior.
"I feel like this campus is really willing to work with gay or lesbian people," he said.
While Telford and other students said there's still room for improvement, they said UNC has made strides recently in becoming more accepting of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender-Straight Alliance, which began in 2003, has grown from a small group to one that received more than $22,000 in student fees this year.
"When it first began it was just a group of kids in a room," said senior Julian Wooten, GLBTSA co-chairman. "People used to put in their own money for programming."
Members said the group is now the largest gay-straight alliance in the Southeast. Its listserv has grown to more than 620 students.
Many students said it was primarily a social group to begin with, but a hate crime against a gay student in spring 2005 changed all that.
"Activism is now at the forefront," Wooten said.
A photograph of hundreds of students participating in a candlelight vigil following the attack still hangs in the GLBTSA's office, a constant reminder of the spur to activism.
GLBTSA has begun fighting - and winning - battles one by one, Wooten said.
After a year of advocating for gender-neutral bathrooms, University officials recently committed to establishing the facilities on campus, said Jessica Scruggs, GLBTSA co-chairwoman.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Office, which opened its doors in 2003 under the Office of the Dean of Students, also has made significant strides in recent years.
Effective July 1, the office became the LGBTQ Center, uprooting it from the dean's office and thereby broadening its focus to helping faculty and staff as well as students.
The center also has increased its number of Safe Zone allies - community members trained to create spaces for LGBT students.
"If you think of the desert that is heterosexism, Safe Zone is the oasis in that desert," said Terri Phoenix, assistant director of the center.
The number of allies has increased by 167 from the beginning of last school year - bringing the total to 723.
Students also have become more accepting of the LGBT community.
"We've been having a lot of groups we've never worked with before approach us about programming," Scruggs said. "It's encouraging."
But make no mistake - members of the LGBT community said there is still room for improving UNC.
While the University's nondiscrimination policy protects students from discrimination against sexual orientation, it does not cover gender expression and gender identity - an exclusion the LGBT community has been battling.
"People who don't fit the norms for gender . are likely to be harassed," Phoenix said.
"I once had a student walk around the quad six times before he had the courage to walk into the LGBTQ Center for fear that someone would see."
But the nondiscrimination argument might be coming to a close. Scruggs said Chancellor James Moeser said publicly last year that gender identity and gender protection are protected implicitly in the policy through the word "gender."
"We're definitely glad that statement has been made by the chancellor," Scruggs said.
Members said the group should now focus their attention to other areas, such as racism and sexism within the LGBT community.
"We're always trying to make this a better community for everyone," Wooten said. "We're fighting against all the 'isms.'"
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(09/14/06 4:00am)
(09/13/06 4:00am)
Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, will deliver the spring commencement address, Chancellor James Moeser announced today.
Albright served as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States and was once the highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. government.
Student Body President James Allred, who nominated Albright to the chancellor's selection committee, said he thinks Albright will give students a good perspective about entering an international job market.
"We think someone like Dr. Albright with a global perspective will be able to address students interests very well," Allred said. "The idea of a global environment and the idea of graduates working in a global environment is already at the forefront of graduates minds."
"Few people in the world know as well as Secretary Albright know what it means to be an American in a global setting," he said.
Commencement is set for May 13, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(09/12/06 4:00am)
When the next class enters UNC, they might not be purchasing IBM ThinkPads.
The Carolina Computing Initiative released Aug. 22 a request for bids from computer manufacturers. IBM's eight-year-old contract with CCI expired this summer.
The chosen manufacturer will become the official vendor for UNC, which requires all undergraduate students to own a laptop.
"The idea is to give everyone a fair chance to bid on the business of the University," said Charlie Green, assistant vice chancellor for teaching and learning. "It could mean millions of dollars a year for the selected provider."
Computer vendors must submit their bids by Oct. 18. A committee comprised of faculty, staff and students will review the proposals, Green said.
The new contract will be announced Nov. 3 and take effect Jan. 1. It will last four years, with two possible one-year extensions pending University administration approval.
Green would not comment on which vendors have proposed or plan to propose bids, but he said UNC is not counting its original provider out of the race.
"It may very well be IBM, but it's intended to be an open process so that it's equal and fair to every provider," he said. "There's no bias for our existing provider."
The University is looking particularly for a computer provider that explores innovative computing trends, he said.
"The computer environment we live in is constantly evolving," he said. "We're now seeing a greater interest in mobile computing devices, including tablet PCs, PDAs and new cell phone technologies."
He said CCI wants to offer students these options - not just desktops and laptops.
"If you look at the campus, the majority of students have handheld devices, but they often leave their laptops in their rooms," Green said. "We're trying to bridge that gap."
Another criteria for choosing the next vendor will be the price at which it will sell its hardware to students.
"Hopefully they'll compete a bit to try to win our business," Green said. "We are a major contract because of the sheer number of students that attend the University and the number of faculty and staff that need computers."
But he was quick to add that price will not be the only point of evaluation.
"We want to assess the total value of the proposal to the whole University."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(08/30/06 4:00am)
Senior year in high school normally is marked by traditions such as homecoming, senior skip day and prom.
Katy Doll's senior year was marked by disaster.
Two weeks into the school year, anticipation of Hurricane Katrina uprooted the now-UNC freshman from her home in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans. Her family evacuated to Arkansas - where they had sought refuge from hurricanes twice before - for two weeks.
She made her way to Chicago, where she stayed with her grandparents for the semester, while her parents returned to New Orleans to assess the damage.
Doll is just one of many UNC students from New Orleans whose normal life was shattered by Katrina, and who - one year later - is still picking up the pieces.
Sophomore Samuel White, who has lived in New Orleans for 12 years, had just come to UNC for his freshman year when Katrina struck.
"It was about three weeks before we knew what happened to our house. The water hadn't receded enough," White said.
"I'd come back and check all the Web sites I could think of to see if anybody knew anything," he said.
Other students expressed similar feelings of hopelessness of being so far from their affected homes.
"I couldn't get in touch with my family for a week, which was really hard," said senior Alex Wright, who is from outside of New Orleans. Her parents and younger sister found refuge in Florida with her aunt.
The process of moving on from the ordeal has been a slow one for these students - and one that is still going on.
Doll rejoined her parents in New Orleans a few days before they rang in the new year.
Her family had a lucky break when three of her uncles, her grandfather and a cousin - all contractors - were able to replace her roof.
"It was impossible to get a contractor," Doll said. "You basically have to know someone."
"You would go to Lowe's, and there would be a group of people looking for jobs. Or there would be people waiting for a shipment to come in. After it came in, it would be gone in 30 minutes."
But while her physical house remained, many things that made the city her home were absent.
Her high school, which reopened Jan. 17, was the only building open in a 10-block radius, forcing the school to hire a security guard. One of her friends who relocated to Texas never came back, and her church remained closed until Easter.
White's house has yet to be completely restored.
By the time his home was accessible after the storm, the first floor was still three feet under water, secluding his family to the second and third floor and forcing them to resort to a mobile home for a shower.
His parents decided to put off rebuilding until the end of this year's storm season. They are not the only ones cautious of embracing the below-sea-level city again, he said.
"There were entire neighborhoods with no lights," White said of his return to New Orleans during the winter and summer breaks. "You could tell no one was living there."
"People are unsure of if they want to be there," he said. "Before, people just assumed they would be there forever. They're sort of reassessing."
But despite destruction - and the looming possibility of future storms' damage - Big Easy natives said the city is still, for the most part, the vibrant place it always was to them.
"It is still really just like a huge family down there, where everyone knows everybody," Doll said. "You go to the grocery store and the checker remembers you."
"It made me realize how much I do love New Orleans," Wright said. "I never realized how unique it really is. I guess I took it for granted."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(08/25/06 4:00am)
As students gear up for the first weekend between class, some of their glasses won't just be half empty - they will be completely empty.
No, they're not extra-pessimistic. They simply have decided, for one reason or another, not to consume any alcohol.
For Vesall Nourani, a junior who said he has never take a sip of alcohol, the reason mostly stems from his faith. His religion, Bahai, rejects any substance that changes people's rational capacity, he said.
"The influence it has on the mind and on rational capabilities, it causes the individual to lose himself in his self," Nourani said.
"These are things I feel the station of a human being should strive to go beyond," he said.
Whether for religious reasons or not, Nourani is not alone in his decision to stay away from the spirits.
Twenty percent of college students do not drink, according to a study by InteliHealth. More than 100 UNC students are part of Facebook groups devoted to not drinking.
While senior Lori McArthur said Christianity was a factor in her decision to abstain from alcohol, she said she mostly just felt the need to stay in control.
"I wanted to make sure I was old enough to handle drinking because a lot of people start too young and aren't mature enough," McArthur said. The senior English major waited until she was legal to take her first sip.
"I didn't want to get drunk . and say and do things that I wouldn't do under normal conditions," she said.
Even now, almost four months after turning 21, she said she still only drinks occasionally, and when she does, moderation is the name of the game.
Although nondrinkers make up a minority of college students, most have said they are not hard-pressed to find acceptance at UNC.
"I feel that I've been able to surround myself with a group of people who don't judge me because I don't drink, and I don't judge them if they drink," Nourani said.
He said he generally stays away from parties, choosing instead to go to prayer meetings or poetry readings.
But not drinking does not necessarily mean not going to bars and parties.
McArthur, who is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, said mixing traditional Greek social life and not drinking has not been as difficult as many would think.
"I try to go out about as much as everyone else," McArthur said. "I just don't drink as much."
"You can still be the same person," she said. "You don't have to drink, and you can still be respected."
Choosing to not drink is not always such smooth sailing.
Sophomore Michael Dunbar said pressure to drink was high his freshman year.
"It was not fun. Sometimes it becomes the focus - like, 'we have to get this guy to drink,'" he said. "It's awkward."
When he arrived at UNC, Dunbar had not drank any alcohol since he was 16 - and even then, he'd only had two or three drinks. He said a newfound interest in Buddhism, among other reasons, kept him from drinking in high school.
"Once I was caught by my mother," Dunbar said. "That was really not a good experience."
But at college temperance gave way to peer pressure and he decided to start drinking socially when classes ended last year.
"If a whole bunch of my friends are going to a party and there's drinking there, I might have one or two," Dunbar said.
"I don't drink any more than I want to, but I have kind of stopped my bar on it.
"My mother still doesn't know about it."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
(08/24/06 4:00am)
By taking snapshots of you on your first days of school, your mother tracked your progress each year, making that initial day a benchmark of growth for the following year.
Although the days of fresh crayons - and probably your mother's pictures - are long gone, the idea stays the same.
Whether freshman or senior, Wednesday's first day of school marked a turning point.
First time around
Walking into a college classroom for the first time can be a bit like walking into the lion's den.
"It was massive. There were about 300 people in there," said freshman Jordan Puckett.
(04/28/06 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>UNC roped in corporate sponsorship this year, making the school one of the last to make the move.
Following years of contentious debate, University leaders signed an eight-year deal with Wachovia Corp. in November to cultivate on-site sponsorship in UNC athletics facilities.
The contract will rake in $1 million this year for UNC and will reach almost $1.3 million during the final year - totaling $9.1 million by 2013.
The deal will garner substantial and needed funds to improve UNC's Olympic sports facilities and student athlete programs.
Administrators also are looking to secure additional funding via another contract with a multinational corporation.
Director of Athletics Dick Baddour said UNC always has planned to sign two such corporate sponsorships - leaving one contract with a company left to be penned.
Baddour would not comment on the status of a potential deal but said the University is pursuing options.
"We continue to have that interest, and we'll see how that develops," he said.
The money from Wachovia's sponsorship will help sustain what officials describe as a financially needy athletics department.
Despite the increase in revenue generated by the sponsorship, the Board of Trustees approved a $50 student athletic fee hike.
Baddour said the Wachovia deal will help keep UNC athletics up at the level it should be.
"It's a great partnership, and it's a great relationship," Baddour said. "I think the association is good for both teams. Obviously, there's a financial impact that already has been helpful to us."
Baddour said the money has helped retain some sport coaches - particularly football coaches - and has helped fund programs for student athletes.
"It's going to have and already has had an impact," Baddour said.
He said UNC was in the minority as a university not participating in a corporate sponsorship, adding that Duke and Wake Forest universities have them.
But the sponsorship has forced UNC sports to yield to all the commercialism of professional sports.
A 6-foot by 8-foot permanent display on two video boards located above the upper-level seating in the Smith Center will be added as a result of the contract. A display on the courtside LED board also will be installed.
The contract does not call for logos on the court or benches, and officials maintain that the sponsorship will not compromise the integrity of UNC athletics.
"If the school has a mission and a philosophy about the way they want to operate, then regardless of where the money is coming from, that can be in place," said Martina Ballen, senior associate athletic director for business and finance.
Many students said they doubt that the sponsorship will affect UNC athletics in a negative way.
"I don't think it's going to change a whole lot," said Kirk Francis, a sophomore English and Chinese double major.
"Capitalism and sports go hand in hand. As long as it's kept in the venue, I don't think it's a problem."
Baddour reinforced that the character of UNC athletics will stay the same.
"I think the way we have done this has been very classy," Baddour said. "I don't think it's changed the culture. I don't think it's had impact on the culture.
"That's not what Wachovia wanted. That's not what we wanted."
And signage means?
(04/28/06 4:00am)
When Mohammad Taheri-Azar drove through the Pit on March 3, he struck nine people and the perception of religious tolerance on campus.
The 2005 UNC alumnus told police that he was trying to kill as many as possible to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world at the hands of the U.S. government.
With a rented Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Charlotte native brought the world's attention to campus, as a firestorm of debate about religious terrorism was left in his wake.
But as time passed and attention shifted to other concerns - such as Spring Break and the March 13 Duke rape allegations - the community began to heal and move on.
"The Taheri-Azar incident is now being seen in an appropriate context and perspective - as one person acting alone . one of those almost freakish situations," Chancellor James Moeser said. "I don't think there is a safer place in the world than this campus."
Members of the campus community have said that perceptions of safety are no longer the main aftereffect of the attack- rather fostering healthy religious discussion.
"There isn't a significant amount of dialogue or visible interaction between different student religious groups," said Franklin Horn, a senior who helped organize a vigil weeks after the Pit attack.
The University has a recent history of heated religious controversies that drew national attention.
UNC assigned "Approaching the Qur'
(03/27/06 5:00am)
Correction: Due to a reporting error, this story states that tenure-faculty teach an average of 10.4 credit hours per semester. They teach 10.4 hours per year. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
It's something every student at UNC is familiar with: waking up at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday, opening five Web browser windows and preparing their fingers to relentlessly hit the "back" button.
It's just a part of students' efforts to nab a spot in one of those intriguing lectures they've been eyeing.