LET TERS
From ’60s Breakthroughs
to Today’s Hovering Parents
Kudos to Kathleen Kearns for both of her
stories in the January/February 2008 issue
(“Hover Craft” and
Four Years That Changed Carolina / Student Photographers Exposed
C “Four Years, Forty
AR OLINA
January/February 2008 ALUMNI REVIEW Years Ago”). Her
piece on helicopter
parents made my hair
stand on end. Even
though I’m the
mother of a recent
Keep This Line Open
Colleegge Is Notthhee Getaway It Once Was college grad and a ris-
ing sophomore —
and guilty of my fair share of hovering — I
can’t imagine ever calling anyone at my sons’
schools on their behalf.
The second piece, on the way things
were for women at Carolina back in the
late ’60s and early ’70s, got it exactly right,
except for the headline. Forty years ago?
That just can’t be true, can it?
Deborah Potter ’ 72
Chevy Chase, Md.
Converting Tragedy to Action
in Memory of Eve Carson
The Chapel Hill alumni, again, have a
unique opportunity to provide leadership to
the state of North Carolina. Eve Carson ’08
was a Georgia girl who went to Chapel
Hill to test herself in a new environment. I
certainly think she passed the test as has
been exhibited by the love and concern the
state of North Carolina has exhibited.
I would only pray that the concern might
be converted to action. We have too many
senseless deaths. The people of North Carolina, and specifically UNC alumni, can lead
the charge to change this situation. You must
demand more of yourselves; you cannot
ignore crime because it is happening on the
next block, or in the next city. You have to
immerse yourselves and create a system that
does not tolerate crime. This might require
new politicians, new judges, new police, new
methods, but if it is to happen at all, it will
be because of you. You have the power to
make things better, and it doesn’t require
Washington, Raleigh or anyone else to make
it happen. You are the solution, but if you
choose to do nothing — then the problem
will become more acute as crime creeps foot
by foot, block by block, neighborhood to
I would like to think that the sacrifice
of Eve Carson will actually make a difference. She deserves it.
Ed Dennis
St. Simons Island, Ga.
Library No Longer a “Mistake”
I enjoyed the article in the May/June
issue about the building boom on campus
(cover story, “Just Around the Bend”). As an
employee, I have many opportunities to
enjoy this bounty every day.
I want to clarify a statement that could
be misleading, however. The Health Sciences Library is called “one of the more
notable building placement mistakes in
campus history.” It is true that the library
stands in front of MacNider Hall. I am told
that this was a hotly debated decision back
in the 1960s, when the site was chosen.
But it was done because the library needed
to be at the heart of the health affairs campus, accessible to the students, faculty and
clinicians from all of the health affairs
schools and clinical facilities.
Today the Health Sciences Library has
been transformed into a beautiful, modern
21st-century library, its renovation also partially funded by the Michael K. Hooker
Higher Education Facilities Financing Act.
Last year, more than 484,000 persons visited the library, an all-time record high due
in no small part to its convenient, central
location. We are fortunate that the exquisite
renovation of Bondurant Hall now serves
as the entrance to the School of Medicine
and that the Health Sciences Library need
no longer be considered a “mistake.”
Carol G. Jenkins
Director, Health Sciences Library
JERRY BLOW
In-Staters’ Contribution
Via the Tax Code Overlooked
This is in response to the letter about
tuition bills for out-of-staters (Letters
department, May/June Review).
Allow me to remind the letter writer
that in North Carolina, residents pay something called the state income tax that,
among other things, supports the University
that he attended. Nestled as he is in New
Hampshire, he does not incur any state
income tax. I found it laughable for him to
bemoan the need for “an affordable college
option like Carolina” for out-of-staters and
to lobby for N.C. families to pay more in
tuition just to make attending Carolina
more affordable for those like himself. His
higher tuition costs were only four years in
duration and entirely voluntary. Our tax
support is involuntary, never ends and over
time will dwarf any increased tuition costs
he paid while a student here. The writer
wants to live in a state (New Hampshire)
with no income taxes and pocket that savings and then get reduced cost tuition on
the backs of N.C. taxpayers in a state where
he is a nonresident.
It is not the responsibility of in-state parents or N.C. taxpayers to pay the freight to
subsidize the tuitions of students from other
states. He claims that “wealthier in-state students [should] begin paying a ‘fair share’ of
the cost of their educations.” I say that since
he’s never paid a dime in tax revenues to
this state and never will with his N.H. residency, he has no idea how much the families of those students already pay year after
year, on top of their in-state tuition costs.
UNC is still a bargain for out-of-state
students, and I applaud any and all efforts
by the University to recognize the contributions that it receives via the tax code
and to keep costs for residents as low as
possible.
Perry Collette ’ 84
Chapel Hill
Scholarship Report Raises
Questions of Equity for Men
An interesting article on the GAA’s Web
site described the four recipients of Class of
’ 38 travel scholarships. (“Four Awarded
Class of 1938 Travel Scholarships,” posted
April 28.) All were highly qualified
