Homecoming next year and University officials to
implement policies to make the Homecoming process
consistent and fair. 1 suggest, for example, making
sure that every year there is an interview and that there
is a consistent election policy in place so that some of
this past drama can be avoided. Officials claimed that
in the past, interviewing was used to narrow down the
candidates and since there were only 2 candidates, the
election didn’t necessitate an interview. But, those are
the wrong reasons to interview; you interview to find
out what they [candidates] are about and assess
whether or not the
candidates are
qualified so they
can make an
informed decision
about who to vote
for. In addition, I
would make sure
that all Queens
receive a crown
and that the court
sits together. They
said that they did-
not know that they
were supposed to
get one for the win
ners. They thought
crowns were sup
posed to be passed
down from last
year’s winners. It’s
a reflection on how
the University feels about the Queen and King these
days. It’s not necessarily about giving me a crown
because I’m Queen; it’s the principle behind it. A lot
of things that happened this year have never happened
before. We need to make sure that no future court has
the experience that we did. Nevertheless, it will
always be a memorable experience.
One last thing, out of everything that came out of this
and despite how discouraged 1 telt at times, the amount
of support I got from the Black community, was over
whelming. I definitely felt the love from my commu
nity.
Ash: It hasn’t had an effect on me because I know who
I am and the things I’m trying to do. Just because the
DTH goes about its business the way that it does to get
people to read doesn’t mean it’s all true. The real issue
is the Carolina Athletic Association. It seems like the
CAA was lax. Had the CAA been tight with every
thing, had they told us we couldn’t put pub up, had
they had election boxes instead of cardboard boxes,
had they gotten scantron ballots, a lot of confusion
would have been eliminated. The whole thing turned
out to be a chaotic scenario.
Q: How do you
respond to the
Daily Tar Heel’s
lack of support
and refusal to
congratulate you
on your accom
plishments thus
far?
Jan: Another
reflection again on
how the University
feels about
Homecoming. It is
more than just
journalism. This is
the first year there
has not been a pic
ture in the DTH.
There was not
even a DTH pho
tographer on the field to photograph the court. That
was really disappointing. It seems that the positive
things about the Black community are not important to
them, but anything controversial is. The top officials
do not seem to be aware of the intensity of the situation
either.
Ash: I mean we’ve seen that all year round. They print
just so people will read that. People want to see bad
things; they don’t want to hear about good things. It
didn’t really surprise me.
Q: Janora, you mentioned authoritative figures and
their role in this situation. How did you perceive
Chancellor Hooker’s address to the Black Student
10
Black Ink