Bicycling Accidents Common Task Force Approves Campus Drive Bike
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Going for Numbe r One mi I m THE CHRONICLE : •:•: : •:. • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10,1991 © DUKE UNIVERSITY DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA CIRCULATION: 15,000 VOL. 87, NO. 30 Bicycling Task force approves Campus Drive bike path By BRAD RUBIN restricting bike parking to bike facilities—including covers." accidents Improvements in facilities for racks, and restricting riding on Gerwe plans to present this peti bikers may be in store for the heavily traveled pedestrian walk tion to University officials this University in conjunction with ways such as the Bryan Center. week. increased regulation of biking. Also proposed is the purchase The petition, which currently common The Bicycling Task Force, com of twenty additional bicycle racks has about 640 signatures, also By BRAD RUBIN posed of students and faculty, to be placed around campus this states students' willingness to received approval on Monday to fall, Siemer said. adhere to the safety regulations Several bicycling inju design a bicycle path from East to that the University may imple ries have occurred on the Siemer estimated that thei'e are West Campus along Campus currently between two and three ment as part of the plan. University campus over the Drive. past year. dozen bike racks on campus. "Circulation ofthe petition was Approval came from the They ranged from close Several recent accidents involv very helpful. The success of this University's Committee on Fa ing bikers on Campus Drive, some project depends totally and com cilities and Environment, which occurring within the past week, pletely on student cooperation. will also approve the design ofthe have convinced the task force of We've got to stop this anarchy of bike path before construction be the need to act quickly. everyone does what he wants with gins. "We thought we had all fall to his bike," said Psychology Pi'ofes- The administration hopes to design this pathway," Siemer sor Martin Lakin, a member of complete the bike path on Cam said. "The accidents have made it the bicycling task force. pus Drive by the end ofthe 1991- CHRISTINE KEMPER/THE CHRONICLE a key issue sooner than we- "Some of the responsibility for 92 school year, said Richard thought." Biking paths will be improved. bike safety on campus must go to Siemer, director of the Led in part by Beth Gerwe, a the students. They've got to want University's internal audit office. involves steps to regulate the in Trinity junior who was involved to participate," said Charles The path is only part of a general crease in bicycle traffic on cam in a biking accident on Campus Putman, executive vice president plan the University has adopted pus. Drive, students have circulated a for administration. to improve safety and facilities Proposed regulations include petition expressing their desire Based on an ever-inci'easing for biking on campus, he added. requiring students to register bi for "bike racks, bike paths and population of bicycles on campus, Another portion ofthe program cycles with Public Safety for a fee, convenient and adequate storage See BIKES on page 4 • Improvements in the works for 911 system By ERIK GERDING receives approximately 7500 calls A rash of calls to the Durham a week, said Rause Kissell, com 911 system and slow responses munications center supervisor for by operators in recent months 911. The system is run by the city have prompted city and county police department but it handles officials to investigate proposals fire and medical calls as well. for sweeping improvements to the In August, 911 operators took old system. over three minutes to dispatch The cost for changes in the sys assistance in 364 cases, said tem could be borne by a flat fee on Mickey Tezai, director of Durham Durham phones. The county com Regional Ambulance Division. mission should vote on proposed Three minutes is significantly improvements before the end of too long and could in many medi the month, said Bill Bell, chair of cal emergencies mean the differ :;: ; the commission. ence between life and death, Tezai ,..:.Ji;li;:gi:' ' "The number of calls has said. He did not know whether • v -V • •*•• •• • - doubled or tripled in the last two the delay in any ofthe 364 calls in CHRISTINE KEMPER/THE CHRONICLE or three months," said Dewey August caused any fatalities. Davis, chairman of the Durham The increased number of calls Head to head County Emergency Medical Ser is only partly due to the spread of These two soak up the day's rays on the quad in comfort. vices Council. drugs and crime in Durham, Tezai The Durham 911 center now See 911 on page 5 • Community Service Center to build on successful first year By JULIE HARKNESS ginning its second year of opera for funding. "It will be a big step people do on Thursday after The Duke Community Service tion, also publishes a newsletter in gaining legitimacy" and it will noons," said Allison Best, chair of Center has firmly established it and oversees publicity. be a powerful bargaining chip for the Coalition for Hunger and self as a clearinghouse organiza "We've been extremely suc increased coordination, Caputo Homelessness, one of the two tion for service groups cessful so far this year in our said. major issue groups within the campuswide and continues to ability to coordinate among the Caputo has a personal vision center. "It should change people's evolve in new directions. various groups," said Caputo. for the Center. "My big thing this lives somehow." "We have a very flexible struc Before the onset of classes, thirty- year is to change what people Toward that ideal, the Center ture right now, so anything is five chairs of different groups think of when they think of com helped Vice President and Vice possible," said Dave Caputo, stu gathered for a retreat. "We spent munity service." Most impor Provost Leonard Beckum de dent director ofthe center. a couple days out in the woods. tantly, he wants to promote "in veloped a course over the sum "In terms of recognition on That really set the tone for the teractive relationship-building mer. The class, "Poverty and Pub campus, we've grown a lot, but we year. We're committed to work over serving." lic Education," is offered for credit probably have a ways to go." ing together." "We're uncomfortable with the through the Public Policy depart As it was originally envisioned Several new initiatives are idea of'serving.' It's a dangerous ment, and encourages students nearly four years ago by former underway. A change in account attitude for Duke students to to relate their community service Vice President of Student Affairs ing procedure will make the have. They have things to give, experiences in Durham schools William Griffith, the Center coor Center's budget a line-item entry but they also have things to to academic work. dinates programs between stu in the ASDU budget, pending learn," he said. "Our motto is Matt Hammer, full-time staff CHRISTINE KEMPER/THE CHRONICLE dent groups and helps interested ASDU approval. Then, the indi 'thought in action."' director for the Center, hopes to students contact appropriate or vidual service groups will submit "Community service should expand experiential learning op- David Caputo, student director ganizations. The center, now be proposals directly to the Center become more than just something See SERVICE on page 4 • PAGE 2 THE CHRONICLE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1991 World and National Newsfile President Bush continues to back Thomas Associated Press Sandinistas v. Contras II: The By ANDREW ROSENTHAL ments, administration officials betrayed sion caused by the last-minute disclosure threat of renewed war loomed N.Y. Times News Service no anxiety that defending Thomas and of Professor Hill's assertions. Wednesday as the Sandihista army WASHINGTON — As the Senate Judi attacking Professor Hill could in the end Much of this struggle was carried on in launched an operation to disarm ciary Committee prepared to reopen hear backfire and subject Bush to the same private, among Republican and Democratic former Contra rebels who have been ings on Judge Clarence Thomas, a deter charges of insensitivity about sexual ha senators and between the Senate and the making sporadic attacks on soldiers mined President Bush rushed to support rassment that have been hurled at the White House. But in public as well, Sen. and police. his Supreme Court nominee Wednesday. Senate. George Mitchell, D-Maine, the majority The White House plotted a counterat The abruptly redrawn lines of battle leader, was still trying to rebut accusa Friendship strained: u.s.-is- tack to present Thomas as a family man over the nomination took focus during a tions from women's groups that the Senate raeli relations are stumbling from with greater credibility than the woman day in which the high drama and open had given short shrift to the sexual harass one quarrel to another over settle accusing him of sexual harassment. confrontation ofthe Senate debate shifted ment allegations. ments, immigration aid, the peace "I've got strong feelings, but they all end into an equally tense and high-stakes And the partisan fighting over the nomi process, and now the accusation that up in support for Clarence Thomas," said backroom contest over shaping both the nation continued, with Rep. Newt Gingrich, Israeli warplanes overflew Iraq. Bush, who drew Thomas out ofthe seclu public debate on the issue and scope ofthe R-Ga., the Republican whip, accusing sion in which he had been weathering the reopened Senate hearings. Democratic senators and aides, whom he Nationalism growing: A teddy sudden storm over his nomination and The White House took pains Wednesday did not mention by name, of deliberately bear perched on a chair is the only brought him to the White House for a high- to say that it expected the committee to disclosing an FBI report on Professor Hill's sign of happiness left in the apart profile meeting.