The Campus Echo
Number 4
Friday Oct. 26, 1984
Students organize to help
chauffeur voters to polls
Faster than a speeding bullet ...
That’s what you’ll be, all you NCCU supermen and
superwomen, in these special Diamond Anniversary
sneakers, now on sale in the NCCU Bookstore. Put a
little maroon and gray on your piggies.
Survey views pros,
cons of bloc voting
By Sonji Black and Donna Davis
The black vote is important, but bloc voting is more impor
tant.
At least that what some students at North Carolina Central
University believe.
Bloc voting occurs when ar" group of people decide to cast
their votes behind a particul? candidate or issue.
What are the advantages a. J disadvantages of bloc voting? A
random survey was taken at NCCU.
“Bloc voting at NCCU,” said Steve McClure, “shows
strength and unity. It lets people know college students are
mature enough to be committed into the spectrum of politics.
Numbers carry strength.”
Tommy Hicks, freshman class president, agreed with Mc
Clure, saying, “As Jesse Jackson pointed out, the 5,000 people
on this campus represent a large amount of people who are
together and only through togetherness can bloc voting be ac
complished.” Hicks added that the generation gap cannot play a
role in bloc voting but the issues at hand are the only concerns of
importance.
But Edward Thomas, a sophomore, doesn’t see any way that
students and faculty could agree on such a matter. “Bloc voting
would most likely succeed, but the faculty and students may not
See BLOC VOTE, p. 2
By Ronnie Hopkins
N.C. Central students met
Thursday to organize a drive
to assist voters in getting to the
polls in the national election
on Nov. 6.
At a 7 p.m. meeting chaired
by SGA president William
“Billy” Barber, SGA officials
and a few other students
gathered to organize commit
tees to assist disabled persons
and residents of single parent
homes to the polls.
According to Barber,
students have an important
role to play in providing
transportation, babysitting
service and voter education.
“Somebody may not be able
to get to the polls because they
have to babysit or because
they just don’t have adequate
transportation,” services that
NCCU students can provide.
Barber explained.
Barber said that the com
mittees will canvas 85 percent
of the black communities in
Durham, which may yield as
much as an 80-percent voter
turnout if they are adequately
covered by the voter assistance
drive.
In the past the turnout in
these precincts has been only
about 50 percent because
many voters could not get to
the polls. Barber said.
Earlier this year the SGA
registered over 2700 NCCU
students. Barber reported.
Barber also announced that
See ELECTION, p.4
Famed civil rights lawyer
to speak at Founder ’5 Day
NCCU News Bureau
Julius LeVonne Chambers made a promise
in 1%1. As the newly-chosen editor-in-chief of
the North Carolina Law Review, he pledged,
“After graduation (from the University of
North Carolina School of Law), I will work for
civil rights for colored persons. I think it is an
obligation that I have to do so.”
Chambers, the principal speaker Friday,
Nov. 2, at the 11 a.m. Diamond Anniversary
Founder’s Day of his undergraduate alma
mater, NCCU, has kept that promise for more
than two decades.
But if the beginning of the two decades saw
Chambers’ options limited—and his status in
the 1961 as UNC’s top law student was evidence
he refused to accept limitations—his gradua
tion came at the beginning of an era which
would see Chambers’ scholarly credentials and
his race combine to make him highly desirable
to law firms and government.
He has achieved honors since his graduation
from the UNC School of Law. He added one
more academic degree to his UNC Juris Doc
tor, receiving the LL. M. from Columbia
University in 1963. He already held the B.A.
summa cum laude for North Carolina College
(now NCCU) and the M.A. from the University
of Michigan.
While working toward the Columbia degree.
Chambers held his first teaching appointment
as a teaching associate in the Columbia Law
School. He currently holds adjunct status at
Columbia and at the University of Penn
sylvania, and also serves as a member of the
Board of Vistors at Columbia University
School of Law and at Harvard Law School
(where he has also held teaching appointment)
and of the Board of Overseers of the University
of Pennsylvania School of Law.
His honorary degrees include the LL. D.
from NCCU and two other colleges and univer
sities.
Chambers holds the record for brevity of
term on the Board of Trustees of NCCU. He
appeared in 1971 for his first meeting of that
board, as an appointee of Gov. Robert Scott, to
find that the first order of business after the
oath of office was the election of two members
of the newly-created UNC Board of Governors.
He was one of the two elected; the other was a
vetern member of the NCCU board.
Their election to the Board, which wouid
then govern all 16 senior state-supported col
leges and. universities in North Carolina, made
the two ineligible for service as trustees of in
dividual institutions. Chambers’ tenure as a
See CHAMBERS, p. 2
UNC poll: Hunt needs large black turnout
By Winfred Cross
Editor’s note: This article was written Sept. 18.
A large turnout among black voters may decide the
winner of the U.S. Senate race between incumbent
Sen. Jesse Helms and challenger Gov. James Hunt.
Data found in the Spring 1984 Carolina Poll (a
telephone poll conduci.. by University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism) show
ed that 86 percent of the blacks surveyed said they
supported Hunt. Sixty-five percent of all other
minorities said they would also vote for Hunt.
This overwhelming support by minorities is impor
tant to Hunt’s election effort because of his poor
showing among white voters. Only 40 percent of the
whites surveyed said they would vote for him. This
was down 10 percent from the fall 1983 Carolina
Poll.
In fact. Hunt lost support in all voter categories ex
cept blacks. In October of 1983 Hunt led Helms by
20 percent over all. By February of 1984 his lead was
shaved to only 3 percent. The poll had a 3 percent
margin of error which meant the two were virtually
tied. This was the first time since 1981 that Hunt has
not led Helms in this poll.
Helms now has a slight lead over Hunt, according
to results of the latest Observer Poll conducted by the
Charlotte Observer Sept. 5-11. Forty-eight percent of
those surveyed said they would vote for Helms.
Forty-five percent said they would vote for Hunt.
This poll also has a 3 percent margin of error.
The reason for Hunt’s slip may stem from his sup
port for the bill that made Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday a national holiday. Helms gained nationtil
attention by strongly opposing the holiday. He did
this before last spring’s poll was taken. According to
the poll, 44 percent of all North Carolinians thought
the idea of a King holiday was a bad idea. Sixty-three
percent of Helm’s supporters thought a King holiday
was a bad idea.
See UNC POLL, p. 2