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Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point
Vol. XXVI No. 22
117 062201
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The Choice for Afiican American News
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2
inances, community top priorities for Martin
EVIN WALKER
IRONICLE
itures lined the walls of the
conference room adjacent
chancellor’s office at Win-
alem State University dur-
3 reign of Alvin Schexnider.
stinctive, vibrant photos
eemed to act as a timeline
chexnider’s career. There
photo of Schexnider with
r Virginia governor Doug
during Schexnider’s days
e provost at Virginia Com-
ealth University. There was
ing Schexnider with his wife
and young son and daughter at a
press conference soon after he
was named to the post at WSSU
in 1996.
The pictures have been cleared
away now, one of many subtle
changes made at the school after
Schexnider resigned last month.
Unfortunately, other things
that came to the university along
with the former chancellor can’t
be done away with so easily.
Years of animosity between
Schexnider and his harshest crit
ics has left a strain between the
campus and the city that sur
rounds it, and negative press has
had an adverse affect on the
school’s enrollment and alumni
support and contributions.
They are problems that
Harold Martin, WSSU’s new
chancellor, freely acknowledges
and ones he says he will battle
diligently over the next months.
“It’s my interest in being more
effective at advertising to the
broader community the goodness
of what we do,” Martin said last
week from the conference room.
“I have found a very enthusiastic
group of people here who, for the
most part, are very excited about
focusing on advancing this insti
tution.”
Martin hit the ground run
ning when he started the job last
Monday, holding what he calls
“very productive” meetings with
his senior administrators and cre
ating a list of eight top priorities
for the school.
High on the priority list is the
issue of the school’s finances.
Martin said he is “positive” about
the school’s financial outlook
and has faith in the school’s
financial officers.
Increasing enrollment also
made the priority list. Positive
promotion of WSSU will pay off
with increased applications at the
school’s admissions office, he
said.
“My vision is that this institu
tion, through the investments and
decisions we make, can be viewed
as one of the best education
opportunities that any young per
son can make. That’s not just
words; that’s a very serious per
spective I have,” Martin said.
Reengaging school alumni
See Martin on A9
Martin
Celebrating a King
'ommunity
;oes all out
br holiday
JERI YOUNG
E CHRONICLE
Youths will be the focus of the first citywide
artin Luther King celebration of the century.
Noon Hour Commemoration, which will be
Id Monday, will include a speech by Dr.
nest Wade, an educational consultant who has
irked with a number of area youths as well as
lost of programs aimed at teaching youths the
piificance of King’s work as a civil rights
ider.
“Needless to say, the focus of this year’s pro-
am is our youth,” said Mutter Evans, founder
' the event. “When Bill Tatum, Gene Williams
id I got together to brainstorm and plan this
ar’s observance we were in total agreement
at our focus this year needs to be on how we
uld make Dr. King, his life and legacy more
levant for them.”
This year marks the 20th time Evans’ group
IS held a citywide service. The event began in
>80 just as the activists around the nation
;gan putting pressure on Congress to create a
iliday for the slain civil rights leader.
“There were too many people in Winston-
ilem who didn’t appreciate what he stood for,”
iians said. “We didn’t need to wait for it to
:come legislation to appreciate the work he
d.”
The celebration, which has always been held
noon, was nomadic in its early years, traveling
om the old NCNB Plaza on Third street to the
irking lot of Mechanic & Farmers Bank on
[artin Luther King Drive and Winston Square
irk.
Eventually, organizers settled on holding the
rvice at the Benton Convention Center in the
te ‘80s.
As the years went by, more groups rallied
3hind the celebration and eventually, in addi-
an to the service at noon, a youth breakfast,
itially created by the Winston Lake YMCA,
as added as well as an evening service led by
See King on AlO
Dr. King's legacy continues to live on in the new millennium.
Adam’s Mark
loses key events
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Apparently bowing to pressure from supporters and community lead
ers, the local branch of the United Negro College Fund has yanked its
upcoming benefit from the Grand Pavilion of the Adam’s Mark Winston
Plaza.
The event - which will feature dinner, dancing, a silent action and a per
formance by Grammy Award-winning singer Peabo Bryson - was sched
uled to be held at the hotel this coming Saturday night.
The Chronicle has learned that Marilyn Richards, who heads the local
chapter, finalized plans Jan. 5 to hold the event at Winston-Salem State
University’s Anderson Center.
Officials at the local UNCF continued to be mum on the matter; last
Thursday, the office wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the event had been
moved. Kent Beaty, a technical assistant at the Anderson Center, said
plans to have the benefit at the facility had been finalized by Richards and
Anderson Center officials.
Beaty said it’s his understanding that lawsuits against the Adam’s Mark
chain were the cause for the sudden venue change.
Anderson Center staffers will put on their “best dress” for the mam
moth event, Beaty said, even though they have less than two weeks to pre
pare for it.
“We have a well capable staff....(Short notice) is not something out of
the norm,” he said.
A spokesperson for the national UNCF office in Fairfax, Va., said it
had nothing to do with the local branch’s decision.
See Adam's Mark on A8
Audit shows LIFT
shorted accounts
BY PAUL COLLINS
THE CHRONICLE
£eping track of stops Searching for a friend Threatening letters
w bill forces, officers to log race, gender
tERIS HODGES
IHRONICLE
?ears of complaints from
orists about unjust traffic
General Assembly is tak-
to see if the rumblings
5m are true.
Bill 76 was passed last
e bill requires all state law
nt agencies to record the
sex and location of each
officers stop.
forth Carolina Highway
vision of Motor Vehicles,
..aw Enforcement agents
; in the state administered
community of Butner all have to
keep statistics on the people they
stop.
Once the information is collect
ed, it will be given to the General
Assembly.
The bill went into effect Jan. 1.
According to Sgt. A.E. Morris
of the Winston-Salem Highway
Patrol office, keeping track of race
has resulted in more paperwork for
officers.
The North Carolina Highway
Patrol will be the agency using the
forms the most. The Highway
Patrol makes 90 percent of the traf-
sent to black colleges
BY CHERIS HODGES
THE CHRONICLE
See Highway on AT 1
Photo courtesy of Edward Hopkins
A local man is searching for clues to the whereabouts of his old
Army buddy. For full story, see page A3.
1
An independent auditor’s report for LIFT Academy said the school
underpaid its retirement account by $18,659 in the 1998-99 fiscal year, said
Paul LeSieur, assistant director of the State Department of Public Instruc
tion’s Division of School Business, when asked to comment on some of the
allegations that four former employees of LIFT Academy made against the
school in a lawsuit filed Jan. 4 in Forsyth Superior Court.
The audit report also said that employees’ health insurance through the
school was canceled because of lack of payment, LeSieur said. The report
found that LIFT continued to withhold dental insurance payments from
employees’ paychecks for a time after the insurance was canceled, but the
school paid some of the employees’ medical bills, LeSieur said.
LeSieur said LIFT should not have been withholding insurance pay
ments from employees’ paychecks if there was no insurance policy in effect.
He also said that the school should not have made direct payments for
employees’ medical bills.
Former teachers De’Shaundra A. Hampton, Anddrson Noble and
See Lift on A11
An anonymous letter threatening the destruction of the African Amer
ican race was mailed to several historical black colleges and universities
around the state, including two in the Triad.
North Carolina A&T University and Bennett College in Greensboro
both received a threatening letter laced with racial slurs and violent threats.
Johnson C. Smith University, North Carolina Central University, Liv
ingstone College, Shaw University and Barber-Scotia College also
received similar letters.
The letters were mailed on Dec. 24, 1999. They were all addressed in
the same way. The envelope had the university’s name, city and zip code.
The letters all bore a Fayetteville postmark.
See Letters on A9
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