t's been a wild ride over the last four years here at UNC.We have seen the rise and fall of the stock market and the nation's economy, Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment proceedings and last year's insane presidential election.
One 4-liter bottle of a certain chemical solvent can facilitate almost 800 sexual assaults when used as a date-rape drug.And it's perfectly legal in North Carolina.N.C. Sen. Virginia Foxx is introducing a much-needed bill that would not only make it illegal to ingest these chemicals, but also would classify using them to facilitate sexual assault as second-degree rape.Date-rape drugs involve the well-known odorless, tasteless "roofies" and other drugs that affect the central nervous system.
Lottery opponents make for strange bedfellows, but those beds are fertile grounds for the movement.Although lottery supporters often group the opposition as ultra-religious Bible-beaters, those against a lottery span a broad ideological spectrum.No matter what your political affiliation or ideology, they're sure to have an argument that appeals to you.All of their arguments appeal to me.Former UNC-system President Bill Friday is one of the leaders of the anti-lottery movement and himself engaged in a bipartisan effort.
I was shocked to read in Friday's Daily Tar Heel that John Sanders was not re-elected to the UNC Board of Governors. Granted, my experience with the university system's governing body has been limited to the last two years, but Sanders has been the heart and conscience of the BOG during that time. He has been one of the board's most knowledgeable members and students' most stalwart supporters during his two-year tenure.Above all, Sanders believes in the University and its capacity to do good with its students and the state.He has spent his career in service to North Carolina.
North Carolina is not meeting its constitutional duty to educate students most likely to fail, but state leaders aren't willing to sacrifice elective programming to save them.Judge Howard Manning ruled last week that the state must develop a plan over the next year to ensure that the neediest students in rich and poor school districts are better educated.The catch is that state and local funds in all districts must be allocated as effectively as possible before the court considers whether to require additional funding.Yet leaders already are looking past this fundamental part of Manni
Two bills are currently before the N.C. General Assembly that would reduce the government's intrusion into residents' personal lives.
Spring Break doesn't have to be about getting the best tan or spending entire days on the beach.Among the alternative Spring Break plans that spread students across the country doing service and good works, one UNC organization headed north for the break to explore transit systems in other metropolitan areas.As its members explored and learned, Teaching How to Incorporate New Kinds of Transit (THINK Transit), cemented its position as a campus organization focused on issues outside the stone walls.THINK Transit's members spent the break in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and
Imagine a bunch of elected representatives getting together to maximize their chances of getting re-elected next time around.But the focus isn't on serving their constituents. It's on drawing their districts along party lines.This could be the case if the N.C. Senate and House committees continue to control the redistricting process.Bills were introduced in the General Assembly last week to keep that from happening by instituting an independent redistricting commission.It's a much-needed idea in theory. This state is notorious for legislators' gerrymandering of the 1990 districts.
Service-learning courses are so commonplace at UNC-Chapel Hill that many students never think twice about them. It's easy: In courses requiring community service to fulfill in-class requirements, students spend a couple hours each week in community placements that complement what they're learning in class. APPLES, the program facilitating these courses, has been a fixture on campus since 1990. It was one of the first student-run service-learning organizations in the nation.Service-learning courses have a number of benefits for college students.
The line separating church and state grew blurry last week when President Bush created a new office to grant federal funds to religious organizations providing social services.But if the government can make the program work in practice as well as it does in theory, the new initiative is cause for cautious optimism.To receive the funds, the agencies must separate their service and religious functions.
