The Carolina Athletic Association will be distributing bracelets today, Wednesday and Thursday outside Kenan Stadium for four upcoming ACC home games. Bracelets will be given out this week for the Feb. 8 game against Florida State, the Feb. 12 game against Virginia, the Feb. 25 game against N.C. State and the March 1 game against Georgia Tech.
The Graduate and Professional Student Federation unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday that supports a referendum by Student Congress to increase the student activity fee. Student Congress' referendum, which passed Oct. 29, proposes increasing the student activity fee to $19.50 per semester for all students. Since 1984, there have been separate fees for graduate and undergraduate students, with the former paying $9.50 and the latter $11.50 per semester. GPSF officials said if the fee had increased with inflation, the respective fees now would be $16.51 and $19.63.
UNC's Advisory Committee on Transportation finalized Wednesday its recommendations for a long-term parking and transportation plan that includes construction of several new parking decks and a salary-based sliding scale for permit pricing. The proposal will be sent to the vice chancellor's advisory committee Tuesday before the final recommendations are sent to the UNC Board of Trustees within the next few months. The plan includes suggestions to address parking demands until 2010 by constructing several parking decks, resulting in an additional 3,030 parking spaces.
The Committee on Student Conduct unanimously approved Tuesday a watered-down proposal for revisions to the Honor Code, which will be sent to the chancellor and Student Congress for approval. After much debate about possible complications, COSC members decided to leave most of the discussed changes out of the proposal -- implementation of the "XF" grade, changes to students' basic rights and a complainant's right to appeal all were put off for future review. The committee did make numerous wording changes to the Honor Code but none that would significantly impact policy.
Senior Matt O'Brien was re-elected to Student Congress with five votes Thursday during a special election held after technical problems hindered Tuesday's election. Upon being re-elected, O'Brien said he might have aspirations of filling a soon-to-be vacant speaker position. The election, which took place from 7 a.m to 10 p.m on Student Central, was only for districts 16, 19 and 21, which were affected by the glitch Tuesday. O'Brien will represent District 19. No votes were cast for candidates in districts 16 and 21.
Several socially conscientious students met Tuesday in the Student Union to express their concerns about sweatshops and international globalization. The discussion forum, one of the many events of Fashion Week, was hosted by Students United for a Responsible Global Environment. Although students held differing views on how to improve workers' rights in factories around the world, everyone agreed that multinational corporations need to be more responsible.
Illinois Gov. George Ryan spoke passionately Thursday to a large and diverse audience about his personal experiences and his disillusionment with capital punishment. The speech, which took place in Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, was hosted by the School of Law. Ryan, a Republican who received national media attention in January 2000 when he issued a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois, was received warmly by students and faculty from several N.C. universities and by leaders from across the state, including N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice I.
For the first time in UNC-Chapel Hill's history, the University is offering a monthly installment payment plan for tuition, fees and on-campus housing expenses. The program, which is offered through the external provider Tuition Management Systems, allows students to spread payments over five monthly interest-free installments per semester. The enrollment fee for TMS is $40 for one semester and $55 for the year.
The University submitted Monday its response to an Oct. 4 motion for an amendment filed by the plaintiffs challenging UNC's controversial summer reading assignment. UNC had 20 business days to file its response. The U.S. District Court in Greensboro's clerk of court said Tuesday it had not yet received UNC's response. The plaintiffs, who are represented by the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy, were asking for an additional amendment to their original complaint.
The leaders of all three branches of student government and the Graduate and Professional Student Federation outlined their progress thus far and their plans for the future Tuesday in a student version of the State of the University Address. Most of the roughly 40 students in attendance were in some way officially involved in student government. Tony Larson, speaker of Student Congress, said he thought the attendance was acceptable considering this was the first address of its kind.
