UNC students find home
with 99-year-old woman
By Kim Costello
Arts and Features Editor
On Cameron Avenue, right past the
assembly of fraternity houses, an unas
suming white house sits back from the
road. But as ordinary as it looks, the
house harbors decades of memories of
Chapel Hill and UNC.
For 50 years, the house has been a
home not only to owner Josephine
DeLancey, who turned 99 on Tuesday,
but to the UNC students who have
boarded with her. She and her relatives
estimate that nearly 1,000 people have
stayed in the house since she began
leasing her upstairs rooms in 1942.
“I first got interested in (keeping
boarders) in my house in Reidsville,”
DeLancey said. “I kept some of the
baseball players from there.”
When she arrived in Chapel Hill dur
ing World War n, the residence halls at
UNC were crowded with men who were
being trained to serve in the military.
University officials asked local resi
dents to help by boarding students, and
“Mrs. D.,” as she affectionately is called,
was happy to help by renting out her
spare rooms.
“I’d always had such a big house. I
didn’t like it being empty,” said
DeLancey, who has three children of
her own.
During the early years, members of a
fraternity lived upstairs. DeLancey said
it was the only time she had any prob
lems with her residents. “I had boys
then that drank. The boys I’ve had since
then have been real good.”
Although most of her residents have
been men, she boarded women for a
short period of time as well. However,
one of DeLancey’s grandsons who lived
with her at that time said that having
females there presented a slight prob
lem: “She just couldn’t keep the men
from coming around.”
DeLancey generally rents to eight
students at a time, and most of the men
are members of the Fellowship of Chris
tian Athletes. The boarders are respon-
Freshmen
cancellations.
“Last year, we lost about 50 between
Aug. 1 and the beginning of the year,”
Strickland said. “It could be the largest
class in University history, and it cer
tainly will be the second largest.”
Overall, the large class is a good
thing for housing, Kuncl said. The hous
ing department is totally dependent on
rent, so the more residents, the better.
“Our goal is to run on full occu
pancy,” he said
“Vacancies are a problem just like
Graduation
Copland said that the University should provide better
counseling and advising for students.
Geoff White, a fifth-year senior majoring in political
science and speech communication who plans to graduate in
December, said he did not graduate in four years because he
decided to double major in speech his junior year to make
himself more marketable to employers.
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sible for cleaning their rooms and bath
rooms and must provide their own meals.
Those who graduate or leave for the
summer decide who will take their place,
a system that has worked well through
out the years, said DeLancey’s daugh
ter Connie Medders. Among the UNC
notables who have lived with her in
clude former UNC basketball player
Steve Hale and football player Rob
Rogers.
Medders also said her mother en
joyed playing occasional pranks on the
boarders, such as the day several years
ago when residents of the house awoke
to a fire alarm in the wee hours of the
morning. They straggled outside, only
to find Mrs. D. saying, “April Fool’s!”
Her sense of humor also came in
handy to cartoonist Bill Keane, creator
of the “Family Circus” series, who used
some ideas that DeLancey sent to him
based on her own experiences with her
children, Medders said.
In addition to leaving a legacy of
alumni, a jazz collection was estab
lished in the Music Department in honor
of DeLancey in 1985 by the Johnny
Satterfield Orchestra, a band her son
once played in. Satterfield said she had
helped him tremendously in his music
career when he was a student at UNC.
But her most ardent admirers are
probably the young men who board
with her. DeLancey still finds time to
get together with her boarders for an
occasional game of Scrabble. “I used to
be able to beat everybody,” she said.
Kevin Moran, a senior international
studies major from Windsor, Conn.,
who lives in the house, said Mrs. D.
always looked out for “her boys.”
“She always worries that we’re not
getting enough to eat, so sometimes
she’ll invite one of us to eat with her,”
Moran said. “She makes sure that we
get seconds and thirds before we leave
the table.”
He added that living with Delancey
had been a wonderful experience.
“She’s so sweet really a remark
able lady.”
from page 3
they are for any landlord.
“We’re pleased we’re full, but we’re
hoping we can take care of the women,”
But the large class is not such a good
thing for departments in the College of
Arts and Sciences, which will have to
find extra sections in classes such as
English 11 and 12, which are taken by a
majority of freshmen. '
At this point, the Department of En
glish plans to offer 85 sections of En
glish 11,15 sections of English 12 and
15 sections of English 13 this fall.
“I knew two people who had graduated from here with
political science degrees,” he said. “One was selling comput
ers. One was selling lawn-mower equipment.”
White said there should not be such an emphasis placed on
graduating in four years. “I think it is reasonable if you have a
single major for you to graduate in four years,” he said. “(But)
it’s unfair for somebody who maybe added on a major late.”
ARTS AND FEATURES
N.C. Zoo: Where the wild things are
By Lisa Smith
S*?ff Writer
Call it the call of the wild. Gazelles
running across the grasslands. A tropi
cal forest alive with the calls of exotic
birds. Chimps playing under a tree.
Armchair travelers who always have
wanted to journey to Africa but thought
it was too far, take note: Africa can be
found just outside of Asheboro at the
N.C. Zoological Park.
Zoo officials have planned the park
to simulate conditions of selected Afri
can regions, with no bars or cages to
mar the picturesque landscape. Exotic
animals such as impalas, kudus and
ostriches roam freely on the grassy
plains. Elephants and white rhinoceros
splash in shallow pools while giraffes
and zebras graze peacefully together.
“This is the zoo of the fiiture,” said
Roger Toler, business officer for the
N.C. Zoo. “It’s what they will all look
like eventually.”
Toler explained that the zoo was dedi
cated to the natural habitat philosophy,
one that requires that the animals be
kept in areas as much like their natural
homes as possible.
Artists take a swing at designing golf course
By Kim Costello
Arts and Features Editor
It’s par-tee time.
For golfers who never get around to
checking out art exhibits, or art lovers
who never have time forthe links, there’s
finally a solution.
Next week, the Southeastern Center
for Contemporary Art in Winston-Sa
lem will open “Putt-Modernism,” an
exhibit that features 18 miniature golf
holes designed by contemporary artists.
Visitors are supplied with balls and
clubs and are invited to play the course
for anew experience in art.
“We have had some other hands-on
exhibits, but it’s rare to have this sort of
interaction,” said Jenny Rutter, public
relations and marketing coordinator for
SECCA. “We’re pleased to be the first
stop on the tour.”
“Putt-Modernism” was the brainchild
of Ken Buhler, the registrar of Artists’
Space, a New York City gallery that has
specialized in modem art for 20 years.
“(Buhler) grew up in Ireland, and he
and his brother built a miniature golf
course in their back yard,” said Laurie
Radford, the exhibit coordinator. “He’d
always had ail idea to do some sort of
exhibit like this.”
The project received the go-ahead in
1991, and the organization began call
ing about 20 artists and architects to
from page 3
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ROAD TRIP X
“We don’t do anything cute with the
animals, like put hats on them or give
rides,” Toler said. “Animals have dig
nity, and we don’t want to demean them
by making them something that they are
not.”
However, there is a constant tension
between what is best forthe animals and
the demands of the public, he said. The
more space the animals have, the less
accessible they are to zoo-goers.
“Many folks don’t appreciate the
natural habitat philosophy, particularly
when it means they have to walk far
ther,” Toler said. “But there is no ques
tion that it is better for the animals.”
Other aspects of zoological manage
ment also are changing. In the past,
animals were brought from Africa, but
today importation of animals is illegal.
Instead, they are bred within the United
States and exchanged through coopera-
contribute to the exhibit. The plans they
made were then examined by a crew
that constructed them into viable course
material.
Peter Whitney, a former member of
the crew who now serves as the travel
exhibition coordinator for “Putt-Mod
emism,” said that although several art
ists’ drawings couldn’t be translated
precisely, most were good representa
tions of the original ideas expressed.
“The artists were given parameters,”
he explained. “It had to be playable
it had to be able to function as a minia
ture golf hole.”
Many of the works deal with serious
subjects, such as AIDS, racism and cen
sorship, while others are more light
hearted in nature.
“We’re raising serious issues, but
they’re presented in a way that’s fun,”
Whitney said. “You’re able to present
art in a way that people can understand.
“We did this to broaden the audience
of people who came in and appeal to as
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The Daily Tar Heel/Thursday, July 29, 1993/
tive efforts with other zoos.
“There is much more scrutiny in
volving how we handle animals,” he
said. “The AAZPA (American Asso
ciation of Zoological Parks and Aquari
ums), of which all major zoos are mem
bers, has a strict code of ethics.”
Toler said animals were no longer
bred for money by zoos, and species
survival plans had been enacted using
the exchange of animals of the same sex
and species between zoos to keep the
gene pool viable.
Also, zoo keepers avoid handling the
animals to keep them as wild as pos
sible. “We want the animals to interact
with each other, not with people,” he
said.
The result at the N.C. Zoo is eight
expansive outdoor exhibits, in which
the larger animals roam, and two indoor
exhibits —one housing the smaller
African species and the other enclosing
a tropical forest and aviary.
A walking tour of the zoo takes visi
tors over about two miles of trails, which
can be hot and tiring on a 90-degree
summer afternoon. A tram also is avail
able at minimal cost for weary walkers.
But the walk won’t get any shorter.
many people as possible.”
Artists of all ages, races and genders
participated, providing a wide range of
social commentary.
One work by an African-American
artist, called “Welcome,” consists of
obstacles made of signs that read, ironi
cally, “No Trespassing” and “Beware
of Dog.”
Another, named “Censorama,” sports
a life-sized inflatable doll, which
Radford describes as having an “amaz
ing likeness” to Republican U.S. Sen.
Jesse Helms of North Carolina.
But Whitney said one of the works
that had consistently received the most
attention was Hole 3, by Sandy
Skoglund. Titled “Sketching withCheez
Doodles,” the work features an orange
felt carpet lined with trees and mechani
cal bunnies, all covered with the snack
food.
“That’s one that’s definitely more on
an artsy level than a commentary,”
Whitney said. “It caught people’s eye.”
Radford said those involved with
“Putt-Modernism” were surprised at
how popular the exhibit became.
“It was a complete shock,” she said.
“We always thought of it as just a fund
raiser, that it would cover the rent for
August. In that one month, we had
30,000 visitors.”
The exhibit was extended for an ad
ditional month, and by that time, it
The zoo still is growing. The African
exhibit is the first of seven geographi
cally diverse areas planned forthe 1,450-
acre park.
The next region to be completed,
North America, will feature the Sonoran
Desert found in Arizona and California.
The 14,000-square-foot indoor facility
will include roadrunners, helamonsters
and scorpions among other things as
well as a nocturnal animal exhibit.
“We’re going to change the animal’s
biological clocks so that they visitors
can observe their behavior during regu
lar hours,” said Rod Hackney, publicity
information officer at the zoo.
Long-term plans include the con
struction of regions simulating all seven
continents plus a “World of the Seas.”
“This whole process is going to take
about 50 years or more to complete,”
Hackney said. “But I think it will all be
worth it in the end."
The N.C. Zoological Park is located
on Zoo Parkway (N.C. 159), six miles
southeast of Asheboro off U.S. 64. Sum
mer hours are 9a.m. to sp.m. weekdays
and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends and
holidays. Admission is ss for adults and
$3 for children and senior citizens.
caught the attention of many members
of the art community.
“We got calls from people who had
seen about it or read about it or heard
about it from all over the place,” she
said.
Whitney agreed that it was the first
time that such a large response had been
received from other arts organizations.
“It was an unusual type of exhibit for a
lot of places, so eventually we devel
oped the idea of taking it on a national
tour.”
The tour, scheduled to last through
1995, will enable people across the coun
try to take a stroke at “Putt-Modern
ism.”
The exhibit will open in Winston-
Salem on Saturday, Aug. 7 and con
tinue through Sept. 30 in SECCA’s
Main Gallery. Participants will be
charged a $3 “green fee” for playing.
For more details, call (919) 725-1904.
At the opening party Aug. 13, a spe
cial prize will go to the first person to
sink a hole-in-one on Hole 13, a par 3
entitled “I Don’t Think So.”
Radford said she believed one reason
people found the exhibit so interesting
w as because it was something they could
relate to easily.
“Everyone has played miniature golf,
whether it was on a family vacation, or
at summer camp or wherever. It’s a
chance to interact with art.”
5