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Fifteen named to pedestrian safety committee

Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy has named 15 people to a pedestrian safety committee. The committee was scheduled to hold its first meeting on Jan. 12 and will continue to meet until it develops recommendations on how to reduce the dangers employees and visitors confront when walking the campus.

On Dec. 1, faculty members led a march urging action to improve safety following the death in early November of a postdoctoral student hit by a car on Manning Drive.

Public Safety Chief Derek Poarch, who will serve as the committee chair, said University administrators and marchers agree that improvements could not happen without the full involvement and cooperation of the University, town officials and the state Department of Transportation.

Poarch said the committee was designed to put all three groups together to figure out what can be done -- and to move quickly doing it.

"I think the march served to reinforce the awareness and to heighten the level of concern for the issue," Poarch said. "I think everybody at the University has the same goals. We all want to see a pedestrian-safe campus, and this is the first time that I'm aware of that we've had a broad-based group to explore our alternatives."

Other members are:

a designee from the Faculty Council;

Vance Barham, a division engineer with the Department of Transportation;

David E. Eifrig, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology;

Lee Conner, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation;

Calvin Horton, Chapel Hill town manager;

Nick Heinke, student body president;

Ray Magyar, the University's transportation planner;

Jill B. Mayer, outreach librarian at the Health Science Library;

H. Douglas Robertson, director of the University's Highway Safety Research Center;

Mary Sechriest, associate University counsel;

Daniel Shugars, a dentistry professor and co-organizer of the pedestrian safety march;

Gary Slade, an assistant dentistry professor and co-organizer of the march;

Sheila F. Storey, an administrative manager in dental ecology;

Carolyn S. Stuck, deputy director for international affairs at the School of Medicine; and

Mike McFarland, director of University News Services.

Poarch said he did not know how long it will take for the committee to issue recommendations, but he expects it to act quickly.

"It's what we all want," he said.

For the record

Feb. 9 addendum - Some members have been changed on the Pedestrian Safety Committee. Drew Gold has replaced Lee Conner as a representative for the Graduate and Professional Student Federation. George Small will represent the Town of Chapel Hill in place of Town Manager Calvin Horton.

Two new members added to the group are Donald W. Reinfurt, a professor with the Highway Safety Research Center, and Ronald Strauss, a professor with the Department of Dental Ecology who will serve as the designee for the Faculty Council.

News Services Director Mike McFarland was not named to the committee.

The committee membership totals 16.

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