Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 7, 2017, edition 1 / Page 4
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NEWS democracy „.. t- -V Organizers from Democracy North Carolina and a group of citizen lobbyists gathered in Raleigh to speak to their representatives about gerrymandering. Citizen lobbyists show up in Raleigh to speak out against redistricting and discrimination MAGGIE HADDOCK News Staff Writer mhadclock@unca.edu Participation in political advocacy increased recently, stemming from mo bilizing events such as the Women’s March on Washington and the Moral March on Raleigh. On March 1, cit izen lobbyists gathered in Raleigh to speak to their representatives about gerrymandering, honing an exponen tial number of participants, according to Jen Jones, communications director for Democracy North Carolina. “The energy is high here in North Carolina for advocacy at this point. Normally, this type of redistricting Lobby Day gets 60 or 80 people. There were 600 to 800 people there,” Jones said. “The energy you’re seeing at moral march and the women’s march is spilling over to what’s happening at the A A THE ENERGY YOU’Rf SEEING AT MORAL AND THE WOMEN'S MARCH IS SRILLINO OVER TO WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE GENERAL ASSEMDLY RIGHT NOW AND ALSO WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE 60ARD OF ELECTIONS MEETINGS AND CITY COUNCIL MEETINiS." = J§n Jon§8 general assembly right now and also what’s happening at board of elections meetings and city council meetings.” The successful Lobby Day took place to address gerrymandering, the redrawing of districts in order to ma nipulate election results. “It’s the strategic drawing of districts to advantage some party,” said Ashley Moraguez, assistant professor of polit ical science at UNC Asheville. “It is when some people draw lines for dis tricts, whether it be for congressional districts or state legislative districts, to make some advantage toward one side or the other.” Partisan gerrymandering, the act of redistricting in favor of political par ties, proves to be condemned less fre quently than racial gerrymandering, redistricting in order to isolate racial groups. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Resident students await winner of Green Olympics BRGGKE RANDLE News Staff Writer brandle@unca.edu The Green Olympics, a month-long competition among UNC Asheville’s six residence halls to reduce their waste and energy consumption, wraps up this week with a big response from students. Riley Judge, freshman fine arts stu dent and Eco-Rep coordinator for the Student Environmental Center, said the competition aims at improving energy use and awareness. “We’re trying to get people thinking about being more environmentally sus- Every m is ih oay rliPl Project Coordinator Jenna Ventrella tainable and help them figure out what they can do,” Judge said. “It takes 30 days to form a habit, so 30 days is how long we do Green Olympics.” Judge said participation among the halls has been widespread. Along with reducing waste contributing to climate change. Judge said this year’s prize may be behind the extra boost of en thusiasm: a Whitewater rafting trip. “I’ve had a lot of people really ex cited about t|ie whitewater rafting trip. Everyone wants to go on that,” Judge said. So far. Founders Hall leads the com petition, with Mills Hall trailing close ly behind. CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 SGA passes new legislation pertaining to eiections MAGGIE HADDDCK News Staff Writer mhaddock@unca.edu The Student Government Associ ation’s weekly meeting on March 1 resulted in the signing of two new pieces of legislation and the ad dition of a new member who will serve as elections commissioner for the year. “Election time is coming up. It’s coming near the end of our terms and so we need someone to fill the position of elections commission er,” SGA President Charlie White said. Two bills were passed during this meeting. The first bill. Senate Bill 14, regards the nomination of the elections commissioner. Liz Torres, a senior history stu dent at UNC Asheville, will hold the position as elections commissioner for the next calendar year, as voted by the senate. “Liz is very impressive with her campus involvement as president of HOLA, as a building manager here on campus and as an intern with interna tional student services,” White said. “She has ^ a really great can-do attitude that I think will be really great when it comes to recruiting Torres people.” After a period of debate, Torres was voted in as elections commis sioner by the senate, passing Senate Bill 14. “It would be really great to work with you guys and I think elections are really important,” Torres said. The second bill. Senate Bill 15, has two sections. The first section' acknowledges pre-existing govern ing documents which set the time- CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
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