OCTOBER 25, 2006
1801 Fayetteville Street
Durham, NC 27707
North Carolina Central University
Feature
VOLUME 98, ISSUE 4
919 530 7H6/campusecho@nccu.edu
WWW.CAMPUSECHO.COM
Campus
14
Homecomin£f
Campus
Election Snecial
Beyond NCCU ..
6
A letter from the SGA
Read about NCCU’s HIV
Will the Democratic
Homecoming ..
11
president, plus a calen-
Rapid Testing Event,
Party take Congress or
Feature
12
dar of activities
Thursday, Oct. 26
stay Republican? Your
A&E
13
vote will decide
Sports
15
Opinions
16
Page 11
Page 4
Insert Inside
Urban Ministries in
downtown Durham
feeds hundreds daiiy
Page 12
Campus Echo
Obama may run
The first-term liiinois Senator opened the possibiiity of a 2006 presidentiai run on NBC’s
‘Meet the Press,” saying that he’ii wait untii after the Nov. 7 elections to make any announcement.
By Dan Balz
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack
Obama, D-Ill., opened the
door to a 2008 presidential
campaign Sunday, saying he
has begun to weigh a possi
ble candidacy and will make
a decision after the
November elections.
“Given the responses that
I’ve been getting over the last
CBS
shows
weak
case
2nd dancer
changes story
By Rony Camille
ECHO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
It’s been more than seven
months after the alleged
rape of a 27-year-old N.C.
Central University female
student by members of the
Duke University lacrosse
team, but the national media
attention continues.
“60 Minutes,” a CBS News
program, aired a segment
about the case Oct. 15. In the
segment three lacrosse team
members charged with rape
asserted their innocence.
The segment also aired
video obtained by CBS News
of the alleged victim dancing
at a strip club nearly two
weeks after she reported the
incident to Durham authori
ties.
The accuser was hired
with another woman to dance
at a party March 13 at a house
owned by Duke University
and rented by captains of the
lacrosse team.
Kim Roberts, the other
dancer at the house on the
night of the alleged rape,
gave CBS a contradictory
account of the events of the
evening.
Roberts, in her first
account to police said the
allegations were “a crock.”
She later said that some
thing probably happened
that night.
In the CBS segment she
returned to her original
skepticism about the
■ See LACROSSE Page 3
several months, I have
thought about the possibility,
but I have not thought about
it with the seriousness and
depth that I think is
required,” Obama said on
NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“After November 7th, I’ll
sit down and consider it, and
if at some point I change my
mind, I will make a public
announcement and every
body will be able to go at me.”
Until Sunday, Obama, one
of the brightest stars in the
party since electrifying the
2004 Democratic National
Convention with his keynote
address, had said he
planned to serve out the full
six years of his Senate term,
which would have ruled out
a presidential or vice presi
dential campaign in 2008.
But Democrats around
the country have encour
aged him to consider a. cam
paign and there has been
fevered speculation inside
the party about the possibil
ity that he will do so. His
advisers have been forced to
adjust timetables for a possi
ble run in later elections
and have begun to do the
research that will help
Obama make his decision.
■ See OBAMA Page 6
Barack Obama addresses a press conference as Senate
Democratic and Republican leaders discuss a compromise immi
gration bili April 6, 2006 in Washington, D.C.
Olivier DouLiERv/Abaca Press/KRT
Sister SoUljah signs her books, “The Coldest Winter Ever,” and “No Disrespect” in the L.T. Walker Complex.
Khari JACKSON/Stajf Photographer
AN ARMY OF ONE
Sister Souljah uses words to battle oppression
By Geoffrey Cooper
ECHO STAFF WRITER
Like a general delivering
orders to her troops and then
leading them.into battle. Sister
Souljah marched into N.C.
Central University’s LeRoy T.
Walker Complex on Tuesday, Oct.
24, to deliver an arsenal of
encouraging words and positive
groundbreaking life lessons.
The delivery of her message
came off to some students and fac
ulty as very offensive, but well
needed.
“I curse because I want to,”
said Sister Souljah. “I am a truth
ful person with a solid purpose.
When I talk about things that I am
very passionate about, I have no
reason to hide my feelings.”
She discussed issues such as
black brotherhood and sister
hood, relationships, self-worth,
and self-tests of morality, spiritu
ality and mentality.
“It was a speech that everyone
on campus should’ve been
required to hear,” said business
sophomore Corderro Jenkins.
“Sometimes you have to come off
a certain way to get the crowd’s
attention. It definitely got mine.”
Born in 1964, Lisa Williamson
a.k.a. Sister Souljah, 42, was
raised in the dilapidated borough
of Bronx, New York.
She grew up fighting her way
through racial injustice and eco
nomic disparities that threaten
blacks and what she encountered
on a daily basis.
■ See SOUUAH Page 2
NCCU boxers a hit on YouTube
“Fight Nights 3, Round 2” as seen on YouTube.
NCCU math and computer science junior Tory
Gaier (left) boxes with an unidentified pugilist.
By Quentin Gardner
ECHO STAFF WRITER
Students at N.C. Central
University are becoming
familiar with the latest
online hangout — and it’s
anywhere there’s a computer
terminal to access
YouTube.com.
And some are putting their
own videos on the popular
free video-sharing website
that lets users upload, view
and share video clips.
YouTube.com was created
by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen,
and Jawed Karim of PayPal, a
California-based e-commerce
business.
According to a July survey,
YouTube surpassed
Myspace.com as the 10th
most popular website with
over 100 million video clips
viewed daily.
Approximately 65,000 new
videos are uploaded daily.
Computer science juniors
Tory Gaier and Ryan Wren
have placed boxing videos of
themselves on YouTube.
“We were bored and frus
trated, so we bought two
pairs of gloves as a solution
to our boredom,” said Wren.
The video clips show
Wren, Gaier and other
friends sparring in the
kitchen of their Eagle
Landing apartment. Last
semester, no complaints of
noise were filed by any resi
dent assistant or Campus
Police, despite these fights
■ See YOUTUBE Page 2
Living
life
with
lupus
Two students
tell their story
By Candice Mitchell
ECHO STAFF WRITER
Imagine a good day; you feel
rested. You have the energy to run
to class and stay out late with
friends.
Imagine a bad day: your joints
hurt so much it’s hard to get out of
bed. You can’t keep your eyes open
in class because of fatigue. You
can’t stay outside because the sun
will irritate your skin.
Now imagine that you have a
disease most people have never
even heard of, a disease in which
your body’s immune system is
attacking your own body’s cells and
tissues, and that there’s no cure.
That’s the situation that nursing
junior Faith Smith and elementary
education sophomore ViAngela
Roach live with every day.
Smith and Roach both have a
chronic, autoimmune disease
called systemic lupus erythema
tous. It’s commonly referred to
simply as lupus. The disease prin
cipally affects the joints and the
skin, but it also can damage other
systems of the body like the kid
neys.
Lupus is not infectious.
According to the Lupus
Foundation of America, about 1.5
million Americans suffer from the
disease. It is two to three times
■ See LUPUS Page 3
ViAngela Roach prepares to take her
daily medication. Roach, 19, was
diagnosed with lupus in 2004.
Morine Etieisin's./Stajf Photographer