Thursday, October 18, 1984
The Pendulum r T
Page. 3.
Special section:
fir
y
WSOE to join collegiate
network to report election
By Vivie Yen
Staff Writer
WSOE, Elon College’s radio
station, will broadcast the Nov.
6 election returns in the U.S.
Senate race between Gov. Jim
Hunt and Sen. Jesse Helms, as
well as other local election re
turns. WSOE will be the only
N.C. campus station to partici
pate in a nationwide college
network that will report the
balloting.
The station will have one
representative at the Hunt
headquarters and one repre
sentative at the Helms head
quarters. WSOE is sending
Scott Wood, news director; Jim
Cahill, general manager; and
Jim Farrell, production mana
ger, to Raleigh for the election.
As the results come in, the
representative will phone
them to the radio station,
where announced will relay
the information to the public.
Local races, such as Hunt-
Helms, will then be transmit
ted by phone into the Intercol
legiate Election System (lES).
The central collection point of
the system is a radio station in
St. Louis. The coordinator of
the entire system is KSPC in
California.
“I’m really excited about the
whole thing. This has never
been attempted before,” com
mented Cahill. “For a non
commercial station to be
broadcasting the returns is
really impressive. I’m also a lit
tle scared because WSOE is the
only station that is covering the
election returns in the state.”
i
w
IF You ooM'T vore
the govs’lc
Young Democrats, Republicans boost parties
By Seth B. Pomeroy
Staff Writer
Like it or not, politics
dominate the news. In North
Carolina, the Senate race
between Gov. Jim Hunt and
Sen. Jesse Helms has been
long and increasingly bitter.
According to recent polls.
President Reagan is ahead
of Walter Mondale, although
the Democratic challenger
may have gained some
ground in the aftermath of
the first televised debate
two weeks ago.
Two campus organizations
have formed to help direct
political discussion among
Elon College students. They
are the Young Democrats
and the Young Republicans,
Elon’s first constitutionally
established political orga
nizations.
Tom Jones, a senior
accounting major and presi
dent of the first chapter of
Young Democrats at Elon,
said that his major goal was
to “get participation from
the students.” Jones said his
concerns center around the
fact that students don’t know
all they could about the
American political system
or about the differences be
tween Democrats and Re
publicans. As a result, he
said, political participation
by Elon students is very low.
Jones hopes to reduce
apathy by working with fel
low members of his orga
nization.
Jones.and Steve Williams. .
Tom Jones
(a now former Elon student)
began to discuss a political
forum in the spring of 1984.
They initiatedia grassroots
effort to enlist persons in
terested in the Democratic
Party into a single organiza
tion. He then attended an
April conference in Raleigh
that included Young Demo
crat groups from all over the
state. He learned there what
was needed to get the club
started, and obtained a sug
gested constitution. Jones
then lined up as faculty
adviser Dr. George Taylor,
associate professor of poli
tical science and public
Derek Bates
administration. The orga
nization held a few spring
meetings and drafted and
submitted a constitution to
Dean of Student Affairs Ron
Klepcyk this fall. The YDC
constitution was recently
approved.
Jones said he believes that
his group will attract mem
bers because “The Demo
cratic Party represents
progress, appealing to young
minds new with ideas.”
These “new ideas,” he said,
will be coming from “many
groups who have been in un-
traditional roles...others
than white males.” Taylor
shares Jones’ objectives for
the club. When asked what
he saw as goals, he men
tioned four. To establish a
forum for political dis
course, to work for and get
involved with the Democra
tic Party, to generate a poli
tical system, and to get peo
ple involved.”
On the other side of the
political spectrum, Derek
Bates heads up the Elon
Young Republicans. A
senior majoring in business.
Bates got his start with Re
publican politics back home
in Montgomery County, Md.,
where he worked on the Bob
Pascal for Governor Com
mittee. He has helped form
the first Elon Young Repub
lican group with a constitu
tion.
Bates, like Jones, traveled
to Raleigh with member
Lisa D’Alessandro last
spring and met with other
Young Republican groups
f^om around the state. After
gaining approval of his con
stitution, the Young Repub
licans held a first meeting in
September, which attracted
30 members.
Bates said he believes that
the turnout at the first meet
ing is exemplary of the poli
tical mood of the country
right now. He sees college
students as “seeing through
Democratic rhetoric, that
throwing money at problems
is just not effective, it’s not
the solution.” He added that
“Responsibility, personal
initiative and hard work are
all part of the Republican
Party.”
Former college president
and chemistry professor Dr.
J. Earl Danieley has pledged
his support as sponsor of the
Elon Young Republicans.
Danieley, who has served at
Elon for 43 years now, com
mented that he has never
seen such interest in a Re
publican club as he has this
year. “There have been Re
publican groups here in the
past, briefly three or four
times, but they have never
had official constitutions,”
he commented.
Danieley sees the goals of
the Young Republican
group as centering around
one issue: To increase
awareness of issues in
volved. He recognizes vot
ing as essential and an
underpinning to our demo
cratic system, but believes
that people must know and
understand the issues be
fore they can vote on them
and the candidates repre
senting them.” Why have
Elon students chosen to get
involved? “Everyone should
be concerned with the coun
try and the future.” Maureen
Sweeney joined the Young
Democrats “because Elon is
passive, people are not in
formed, and they are not in
volved with the issues.”