TECHNICIAN
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Raleigh, North Carolina
Panel makes system recommendations UNC HATE CRIMES PANEL SUBMITTED ITS FINAL REPORT TUESDAY TO OUTLINE HATE CRIMES POLICY Ty Johnson News Editor
The UNC Hate Crimes Panel submitted its final report Tuesday on the future of hate crimes policies in the UNC System. The report awaits UNC President Erskine Bowles’ approval before he will present it to the Board of Governors, likely at its May 8 meeting. Geoffrey Hunter, an N.C. State alum and member of the commission, said
the panel’s final recommendations are in accordance with the panel’s previous meetings in suggesting a system-wide hate crimes policy, though student input impacted the details of the report. “Specific recommendations were made in consideration of not only legal fact but [also] questions brought up by students in the February meeting,” Hunter said. Hunter said while the weekday morning forum in Chapel Hill wasn’t convenient for students to attend, concerned
members of the UNC community took advantage of e-mail to have their voices heard. “The forum time wasn’t great for students,” Hunter said. “But the e-mail account was heavily used by different organizations and individuals and other people throughout the system.” Hunter said he was pleased with the response from students, and felt there was plenty of time for the public to have their ideas heard. “[There] was enough time for any
comments or information people wanted to send out to be presented,” he said. “As far as I know we haven’t had any more information to come in [for us to] consider over the last two meetings.” The details of the report haven’t been released yet, Hunter said, as it is still pending Bowles’ approval. “We will pretty much finalize the draft and then it will be presented to the Board of Governors for their opinions,” Hunter said. “It’s pretty much all put together.”
AFTERNOON GARDENING
Student Body President Jay Dawkins, a member of the University’s Campus Culture Task Force, hopes the report will have kept student concerns its main focus. “I hope student input was top priority,” Dawkins said. “I’m certainly eager to hear what they’ve decided, as is everyone, I’m sure.” While Hunter couldn’t release details of the report, he said student accountPANEL continued page 3
New division official today Transitional meetings to priority, consolidating the take effect, concrete financial main All-campus card with the Wolf decisions not yet in place Copy card will be his secondary James Cox Senior Staff Writer
TIM O’BRIEN/TECHNICIAN
Grounds maintenance staff Lucy Mabry and Robert Bradley discuss the garden surrounding the fountain they fixed in the Court of North Carolina Monday. Mabry was optimistic while she was filling the reservoir. “The true acid test will come when I flip the switch,” Mabry said.
Registration changes create mixed responses Overhaul has not created any major problems, University registrar says Derek Medlin Managing Editor
NC State Bookstores
SOURCE: REGISTRATION AND RECORDS
The new registration system allows students to add classes to a wish list.
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the fall semester but almost dropped a
REGISTRATION’S NEW FEATURES Wish list : allows students to plan for classes in advance Swap : allows students to switch classes without giving up their current seat in the process Edit: allows students to change lab and problem session or adjust grading methods
insidetechnician
SOURCE: REGISTRATION AND RECORDS
CHANGES continued page 3
DIVISION continued page 3
Plans for Hunt Library move forward See page 6.
class from this semester. “You had to make sure you chose the right term,” she said. “It would have been 2008
could look up classes before I enrolled and I ended up not caring that it was harder to find classes.” Clayton did say the new system is somewhat harder to navigate and has more steps than the old system. “The new system makes it harder to view your schedule and try to add classes at the same time,” he said. “You had to either browse by subject or by course number. It just took a little longer.” Elizabeth Stevens, a freshman in psychology, also said she had trouble when she registered Monday. “Once you find the class you want, there are like three steps to actually add it,” Stevens said. “And it doesn’t have the time table like the old system for printing your schedule. You can’t read the new one so I ended up drawing my own.” Another problem Stevens said she had came when she tried to drop a class from
2007
The major changes made by Registration and Records to the MyPack Portal registration page, which overhauled how students register for classes, has been met with mixed response from students and faculty alike. Louis Hunt, vice provost and University registrar, said the reactions to the new system have been what he expected. “The reactions are mixed,” he said. “It’s quite a bit of change and people are having some difficulty adjusting at times.” The changes, introduced in mid March, included things like automatic prerequisite enforcement and the addition of a wish list feature and were designed to make the registration process easier and smoother for students. Hunt said the transition for Registration and Records has been smooth despite the somewhat mixed feedback from students. “We’ve heard some very positive feedback and others have said they wanted the old system back, it’s been really mixed,” he said. “Our [transition] to the new system has really been quite smooth. The folks from [the Office of Information Technology] have done a good job to mitigate problems and minimize the change.” Michael Clayton, a junior in parks, recreation and tourism management, said he didn’t have too many problems when he registered March 24. “My first impression was that I thought it would be harder to look up classes by sections and it took me a while to do that,” he said. “But I liked the wish list feature because I
The Campus Enterprise Division will begin its work today though details about this new division and what it will accomplish are still unclear. Charlie Leffler, vice chancellor of finance and business, said a series of transitional meetings will begin today. “The first few weeks will be mainly getting information from people,” he said. Leffler said the new division has a lot of sorting out to do before it will be able to make progress. “We have to restructure the organizations to fit the new division,” he said. Leffler also said the transition of the bookstore will be straight forward, but the transition of Talley Student Center will be complicated because there are so many sub-divisions working there. Bob Wood, director of materials management of the purchasing department will be heading this new division and will serve as interim associate vice chancellor. Wood said his job is to get the wheels of the new division moving so his successor won’t have to wonder who plays what role. However, Wood said he doesn’t fully know what the new division will accomplish, other than to serve as an umbrella for all revenue entities on campus. He did say that the primary and secondary goals of the division are in place. Wood said his main goal of the project is to renovate Talley Student Center. “I want it to be so the first time you walk into Talley. I want your jaw to drop and for you to say ‘this is what a student center should be’,” he said. Wood said he wants to keep the Talley project moving for his successor, who will be a major player, and help it build up steam before the design team starts meeting with students and making a “wish list.” Wood said while Talley is his
goal. This will allow students to have one all-purpose card. However, he foresees problems with the transition. “The stripe has to be in just the right place for the cards to work in the machines,” Wood said. Wood’s secondary goal coincides with Student Body President-elect Jim Ceresnak’s goal, despite no communication about the topic between the two. “I’m happy they understand this is a problem that needs to be fixed,” Ceresnak, a junior in political science, said. However, Ceresnak said the University can’t just jump into this blindly, and the costs need to be evaluated. Wood agreed and said with any project, it is a dance between how much money the University has and what it wants to do. “We can’t give everything to everyone — there is not enough money,” he said. Wood said there are many projects students don’t know about — projects buried in the system — which he wasn’t willing to provide details about. “We don’t announce projects until they are under way and can be achieved,” he said. “We don’t want to get students’ hopes up.” From a financial standpoint, Leff ler said no decisions have been made about the division. “There’s nothing mandating that decisions have to be made quickly,” he said. Leff ler said there will be no changes to the budget until after July 1 but said he doesn’t know how the budget will be affected in the long run. Wood said the budget will be tough for this fiscal year and the year after. “We don’t have a crystal ball,” he said. Alex Miller, associate vice chancellor and director of University Scholars, said discussions on the budget topic will begin soon. Miller also said the overarching business division is a good idea. “It will be good to have all [the
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