Potter Admits to Tampering with Athletes' Mail for Last Five Years by CRAIG WHITLOCK to Him
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THE CHRONICLE THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1990 DUKE UNIVERSITY DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA CIRCULATION: 15,000 VOL. 85, NO. 140 Potter admits to tampering with athletes' mail for last five years By CRAIG WHITLOCK to him. If an agent's return ad A University advisory commit dress was showing on an envel tee intercepted and opened mail ope Potter would record it with addressed to Duke athletes — out tampering with the letter, he not necessarily with the athletes' said. knowledge or permission — for Brodie said he was notified of about five years in an attempt to the diversion process between six keep track of sports agents, The weeks and two months ago in a Chronicle has learned. meeting with Executive Vice The practice was discontinued President Eugene McDonald, by President Keith Brodie after Law Professor John Weistart and he was informed of it earlier this Athletic Director Tom Butters. semester, Brodie said Wednes "When that was brought to my day. attention, I told them that that The Duke Student-Athlete was unacceptable," Brodie said. Counseling Committee began re Brodie also said football head routing mail addressed to ath coach Barry Wilson was not in letes about five years ago, said favor of the mail review process. Jeff Potter, a member ofthe com "It was coach Wilson's impres mittee and director of real estate sion that this was wrong," he STAFF PHOTO/THE CHRONICLE administration at the University. said. President Keith Brodie Any mail sent to athletes' mail McDonald was out of town boxes in the athletic department Wednesday and could not be Washington, D.C. by sports agents was regularly reached for comment. Butters, University campus mail is re diverted to Potter by coaches and Weistart and Wilson were not sponsible for delivering mail to secretaries so he could record the immediately available Wednes athletes addressed to them at the JIM FLOWERS/THE CHRONICLE agent's name and attempt to reg day afternoon. University. Spiegeldome! ister the agent with the commit Brodie said he did not know if Birch did not rule out the pos tee, he said. opening the athletes' mail was il Mirecretians Greg Dworzanowski (with ball) and Mike Gold- sibility that state laws may have Potter said he opened about 20 legal, but said he did not approve been violated by Potter. farb demonstrate the next big sports craze. Or maybe not. percent of the athletes' mail sent of it. At least one Duke football "This committee that was set player said he was upset with the up was perhaps a bit practice, and as a result signed overzealous," he said. "Certainly with an agent without using the TIP program builds on its success it might violate any ethical stan advisory committee's services. dards." "I've always thought that was Potter or anyone else who may By DON JOHNSON illegal," said wide receiver have tampered with the mail Clarkston Hines of his surrep If you took the SAT or ACT coursepacks mailed to them by tractive to the highly intelligent probably did not violate any fed titiously opened mail. "For some when you were in the seventh the TIP staff. students it serves. eral laws, according to a U.S. reason my mail was being grade, you were probably a part Sawyer is preparing the The program recently received Postal Service official. opened . sometimes I didn't get of what is known as a talent program for the future. Last funding from the White House Once the postal service trans something for a week, a month, search for gifted youth. month, he moved TIP's adminis Commission on Presidential ports mail to an institution such sometimes even three months." At the University, the Talent trative offices into the former Scholars and will be able to dis as the University, "that mail is "I certainly understand Identification Program (TIP) is Coca-Cola bottling plant near tribute $1,000 scholarships to considered delivered" and is no Clarkston's concerns," Brodie on the verge of becoming the East Campus. From there, he 140 rising high school seniors longer subject to postal regula said. largest and best-known talent will seek ways to expand the based on their academic and ar tions, said Jim Birch of the U.S. Hines has since signed with search in the country. program, expand its national tistic achievement. Postal Inspection Service in See MAIL on page 17 • Ten years have passed since prominence and make it more at See TIPS on page 5 • Robert Sawyer saw ways to im prove upon a talent search at Johns Hopkins University and began TIP at Duke. More student food dollars going to grocery stores TIP has grown tremendously in those years. Now it includes a residential program for 13 to 17 By JONATHAN WRY cludes the CL, the B.P., the Rat, year olds across the Southeast The average student spends the East Campus Dope Shop, Ar and Midwest that brings several food dollars with much greater thur's, the North-Central Con hundred precocious youngsters freedom and with a much wider nection and the Pub. to the University, and a "by- choice at the University when Twenty-two cents of each stu 1 .1 l^fTVfl hs< mail" program which lets youths compared with students at other dent food dollar goes to the cam :.:. J : v^f: >wf: -m* J :• r../ J -m*.mi -T -f .:: •.•.m*mXy,yr/\,4 J.rfiJ::s| from across the country study colleges. pus grocery stores, the number university-level material from By the end of this year, stu which has risen steadily since dents at the University will have the introduction of Uncle Harry's in 1985 and of The Lobby Shop spent approximately $7,783,620 j jUm-mjl-mjUlmJlUim:./ Inside in food points at DUFS locations. and the East Campus Storein When the estimated total of 1987. In 1985, Uncle Harry's ac Try and try again: Attor $2,345,310 in points spent at gro counted for just 13 cents of every ney John Ingram hopes this cery stores such as Uncle Har dollar. Pietrantoni attributed the m& will be his year to face down ry's, The Lobby Shop and the rise in grocery stores' popularity Jesse Helms as the state's East Campus Store is added in, to the increase in the popularity Democratic Senate candidate. the total amount of food points of refrigerators and microwaves See page 3. spent for the 1989-1990 school in students' dorms. year will be approximately Grocery stores have in recent Weather $10,128,930, said Joe Pietran years become "the hottest thing IE toni, assistant vice president of on college campuses," said WSi> JJJJJJJUJJ 'v' Almost there: Thursday auxiliary services. Pietrantoni, but the University is sunny. High in the upper 60s. Of that total, 47 percent, or 47 the only college in the nation cents out of every dollar, goes to which allows students to pay for Almost perfect for the groceries on their meal plans. perspectives coming this the category of DUFS service weekend. Pietrantoni calls "delis/fast-food Restaurants such as the Oak /convenience stores" which in See FOOD on page 4 • BRENDEN KOOTSEY / THE CHRONICLE PAGE 2 THE CHRONICLE THURSDAY, APRIL 19,1990 World & National Newsfile Soviets cut off oil supply, Lithuanians say Associated Press By ESTHER FEIN Earthquakes strike: — About 75 N.Y. Times News Service Soviet officials denied that orders for a earthquakes jolted Northern Califor MOSCOW — After a confusing day of cutoff had yet gone out. But managers at nia on Wednesday, the anniversary of threats and denials, Lithuania reported Mazeikiai, the sole refinery in Lithuania, the catastrophic Great Quake of 1906. Wednesday night that the Soviet author said that the pipeline supply from the city ities had cut off the principal supply of oil of Polotsk in the republic of Byelorussia in Treatment endorsed: —A chemo to the republic as part of the Kremlin's the western Soviet Union was stopped therapy combination that includes a campaign to force Lithuania to retreat Wednesday night. drug used to deworm farm animals from its declaration of independence. "The Soviet Union, being unable to find was endorsed by a panel of experts as a The Lithuanian information office said a humane solution, is resorting to eco standard treatment after patients in a the pipeline supply of crude oil to the nomic coercion against a neighboring late stage of colon cancer undergo sur Mazeikiai refinery in the northwest part country," the Lithuanian president, gery. ofthe republic was cut off at 9:30 p.m. Vil Vytautas Landsbergis, said after receiv nius time, five minutes after notice was ing the news and vowing that the pres Democrats unveil plan: — telephoned to the plant in the name of sure would only deepen the republic's House Democrats unveiled their own Kremlin officials. commitment to independence. $1.2 trillion budget for next year, a On Tuesday, Lithuania said it had been There was no immediate indication of plan that calls for $8 billion less in mil warned that the supply would be halted how long the reported cutoff might contin itary spending than Bush wants. in keeping with an ultimatum issued by ue. The struggle between the Kremlin and UPI PHOTO President Mikhail Gorbachev last Friday. See LITHUANIA on page 6 • Mikhail Gorbachev Chaos controls India: — Fires, Even as the announcement came, it was bombings and poisonings have killed clear that some attempts to find a solu more than 280 people in recent days, tion to the crisis were continuing. During the result of lax safety regulations, the day in Vilnius, the Lithuanian Parlia Grenade destroys a schoolbus ethnic violence and an overcrowded ment offered a clear conciliatory gesture transportation system.