The Daily Tar Heel

Serving the students and the University community since 1893

Friday March 24th

Women's Tennis


Master Plan Revisions Concern Chapel Hill Residents

Peg Rees once rescued ferns from the Smith Center's construction site and planted them in the refuge of her garden, but a pending version of UNC Master Plan development threatens to uproot the ferns again.The Board of Trustees will vote Thursday on a version of the Master Plan, a blueprint for campus growth for the next 50 years. The plan could include campus growth onto land now occupied by residents.The triangle of land where Rees lives, formed by the junctions of Fordham Boulevard, Mason Farm Road and Otey's Road, stands directly in the path of proposed development.

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N.C. Politicos Rally for Patient Rights

RALEIGH -- Gov. Mike Easley and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., held a news conference Monday at Wake Medical Center to highlight their plans for state and federal patient-protection laws.Both Easley and Edwards have vocally supported state and federal legislation, which would give patients and doctors more flexibility in choosing health care options.Edwards said he is co-sponsoring a bipartisan patients' bill of rights in the U.S. Senate with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

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Edwards May Use Bill to Jump-Start\Presidential Bid

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., toured Wake Medical Center in Raleigh on Monday to rally support for legislation that has become his centerpiece in recent months -- the patients' bill of rights.But it is unclear if Edwards is simply following through on campaign promises or trying to build a political portfolio for a possible bid for the presidency.Edwards is sponsoring the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, commonly called the patients' bill of rights, along with Sen.

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Badge of Cowardice

And so it begins ...Yesterday, the U.S. Senate began what is expected to be a two-week debate on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform measure.Conventional wisdom holds that the Democrats support "government for the people" and Republicans are "bought and sold" by corporations. So it would logically follow that Democrats would support any measure that would help take the corrupt influence of money out of politics.It's time for the Dems to put up or shut up.

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New Program Fuses Math, Decision-Making

Revisions to the curriculum of mathematical sciences have created opportunities for a new degree in mathematical decision-making at UNC.The new Mathematical Decision Sciences program will teach students quantitative methods to making difficult choices involving calculus, probability, operations research, statistics and the accompanying sophisticated computer software.While a similar degree has existed at UNC for more than two decades, the MDS program offers a new form of the discipline.

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CAA Needs to Address Student Concerns About Organization Immediately

TO THE EDITOR:As I watched letter after letter be printed about Matt Dees' article about the Carolina Athletic Association and how "astonished" and "shocked" people were that he expressed his own opinion, I thought I would stay quiet. But after reading Lisa Vucelich's March 8 letter claiming that Dees wrote an "awful opinion piece and no class whatsoever," I had to respond.Regardless of the validity of the arguments, there is a wide belief on this campus that there are serious problems with the CAA.

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Sue Estroff Responds \To Clarify Her Position On Graduation Speaker

TO THE EDITOR:It is important that the University community has an informed and accurate understanding of two issues about which there has been much recent misinformation: 1) the selection process for this year's Commencement speaker; and, 2) what I said about the process, speaker, and why.First, the process. A Commencement speaker committee of five students (one from the GPSF), two faculty members (myself and Joe Ferrell, secretary of the faculty), and two administrators met twice to consider potential speakers.

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Rewards Offered to Spark Leads Into Shelter Arson

Information is still being sought on a fire at the Orange County Animal Shelter on Feb. 25 that claimed the lives of five of the shelter's animals.Three baby squirrels, a rabbit and a ferret were killed as a result of the fire, according to a release from the Humane Society of the United States. The release also stated that the Humane Society is offering a $2,500 reward for information on anyone involved in the fire. The fire caused more than $10,000 damage.

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NBA Needs A Jordan Comeback

As I lay on a sofa bed in a condo just south of Myrtle Beach on Wednesday night, Rick Reilly suddenly appeared on the television screen smiling.The back-page columnist for Sports Illustrated was on TV to announce that Michael Jordan was "90 percent committed" to returning to the NBA next season, according to a source "very close" to His Airness.Jordan's plan, said Reilly: release his ownership stake in the Washington Wizards, take the veteran minimum salary of $1 million along with fellow retiree Charles Barkley and lure a big-time free agent to Washington to pursue a

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N.C. Senate Fills 9 BOG Positions

The N.C. Senate filled nine open seats on the Board of Governors on Thursday, re-electing five incumbents and selecting four new members.New members are Anne Cates, chairwoman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees; John Davis, an investment banker from Winston-Salem; Hannah Gage, a radio station executive in Wilmington; and Willie Gilchrist, who serves as superintendent of Halifax County Schools. Irvin Aldridge, Bert Collins, Ray Farris, Jim Phillips Jr.

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SEAC Working to Increase Recycling, Needs Your Help\

TO THE EDITOR:Imagine this: It's a Thursday night about 2 a.m. and a solid stream of people are coming down from Players. Now count all those people and multiple that number by how many beers they each drank. That's a lot of bottles right? Well that nice pile of Buds happens to be no, not recycled, but trashed. Add all those trash bags from Players to the ones from 23 steps, Woody's Tar Heel Tavern & Grill and Linda's Bar & Grill.

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Estroff Way Off With Criticism Of Speaker Pick

Shame on Sue Estroff.Before we left for Spring Break, the chairwoman of the Faculty Council was busy badmouthing our graduation speaker.And that just ain't right.Estroff told The Chapel Hill News that UNC's choice of Stuart Scott, ESPN funkmaster and sportscaster, rubbed her the wrong way. She disapproved."I'm disappointed," she said. "It has to do with my views about the nature of the (Commencement) ceremony.

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Tar Heel Swimmers Finish 10th

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- North Carolina's women's swimming and diving team merited its best NCAA Championship finish in 14 years Saturday in the NCAA Championships at the Nassau County Aquatics Center. Coach Frank Comfort's Tar Heels finished in ninth place with 175 points, their best NCAA finish since 1987 when North Carolina also finished ninth. Georgia won its third successive NCAA championship, edging Stanford 389 to 387.5.

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NRC Investigates Prior Shearon Harris Ruling

Spurred by concerns of local lawmakers, an independent board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is evaluating whether the decision to give a power giant the go-ahead to expand its nuclear waste storage capacity was made too hastily.A March 1 NRC ruling allowed Carolina Power & Light Co.

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Great Decisions Makes Better, Well-Informed Global Citizens

A good bit of thinking is required to conjure up a notion of 1.3 million people. It's unthinkable, however, to imagine that many dead.Leave it to big thinkers like the folks in Carolina's Great Decisions program to take on the world's most pressing issues -- like war in Africa, which has claimed 1.3 million lives since 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone.

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Women's Golf Finishes 2nd in South Carolina

The North Carolina's women's golf team fired a team score of 322 Sunday to finish the weekend at 954 and in seventh place at this weekend's Lady Gamecock Classic at The University Club in Blythewood, S.C. Duke overcame a two-shot deficit entering the day to win the event with a team score of 887 (23-over-par).For the Tar Heels, junior Beth Lever led the way, finishing in 19th place with a 16-over-par 232.Gymnastics Finishes Fourth in Fla.The North Carolina gymnastics team finished fourth with a score of 192.275 at the Florida Invitational in Gainesville, Fla.

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Caution Needed With N.C. High School Exit Exam

Since when did proceeding with caution signal a change of heart? The State Board of Education's recent decision to extend the implementation date of the North Carolina High School Exit Exam to affect the graduating class of 2005 is not an indication of back peddling on the decision to require passage of an exit exam before graduation. It is an indication that the board is proceeding carefully and reasonably before implementing a high stakes test as a requirement for graduation.

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CAA Portrayed as the Enemy, But Is an Ally to UNC Students

As the Carolina Athletic Association administration prepares to leave office, we feel it's time to set things straight. During the past two months, the CAA has received an onslaught of negative press. Rumors of cheating, hidden agendas and tyrannical practices have appeared almost daily in The Daily Tar Heel. Recent articles and editorial pieces have been shocking, even considering the unpleasant history between the CAA and the DTH.During this time, a loud and angry minority of CAA Cabinet members has stepped forward to demean their organization.

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Law Enforcement Program to Offer Paid Education

A booming economy has left some N.C. police departments struggling to find recruits, but one has started to offer incentives such as a paid college education.Greensboro Police Chief Robert White started Student Outreach and Recruiting in 1999 to boost a slumping number of law enforcement applications.Fred Rafilson, president of the International Fire and Police Recruitment, said the number of new people entering the law enforcement field has reached an all-time low."It's a very national problem," he said."The numbers started to decline seven years ago.

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