The Student Newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Volume XVI, Number 60
Thursday, April 16, 1981
1
Has Jam-Up Outgrown UNCC?
By Rick Monro*
Carolina Journal Staff Writer
Is UNCC’s annual Jam-Up more than the campus
can handle?
Director of Public Saftey Jerry Hudson believes
so, following last weekends 5,000-plus crowd and en
suing seven DUI’s and two accidents involving
Jam-Up participants.
Hudson feels Jam-Up has gotten so big. it takes
all the resources of the University to control. Last
Saturday’s event filled all the school’s parking lots
and involved 16 of the campuses 17 police officers.
“We can’t handle anything bigger with our
resources .. . it’s beyond the scope of the resources
of this department and the University to handle
anything bigger,” Hudson said.
One of the most serious problems with the
overload of Jam-Up is the inability of campus police
to control the traffic and crowds and at the same
time watch for drunken drivers leaving campus.
Seven persons who had attended Jam-Up were ar
rested by the Mecklenburg County Police Depart
ment and the N. C. Highway Patrol late Saturday
afternoon and night. At least one traffic accident
with serious personal injury was reported involving
persons who had attended Jam-Up and alcohol was
suspected to have been a factor.
Emergency personel in the area reported four
accidents involving intoxicated Jam-Up goers and a
total of ten DUI’s, although these numbers could
not be confirmed as a breakdown of arrests made by
Charlotte Police was unavailable.
“All we were after up there was traffic control,”
said UNCC police officer William T. Harper who was
shift supervisor during Jam-Up. “We were unable to
screen for DUI’s with a crowd of 5,000.”
“We just got them the hell off campus,” Hudson
said, “But if someone came to our attention as being
a hazard, we would have taken care of it.”
Although Harper would not agree that DUI’s
were taking a back seat to other problems, he did
agree that it was a matter of too few officers for the
situation. “We had to keep the areas blocked off; we
had to deal with vandalism; we were tied up direc
ting traffic, When you’re breaking up a fight, you’re
not going to see a car swerving.”
Hudson said it would be difficult to spot a drunk
driver on campus even with the additional officers,.
He said that the slow rate at which campus traffic
was moving made it easy for intoxicated drivers to
conceal the effects of alcohol. Not until they were on
the highway were the county police and Highway
Patrol able to recognize the drunken drivers.
According to Hudson, the county police was con
tacted two weeks before Jam-Up, and ordinarily
that would have been sufficient, However with the
discovery of the body of Neely Smith, a five year old
New Changes Await Approval
By Ray Gronberg
Carolina Journal Nowa Editor .
Chancellor E.K.
Fretwell will decide
sometime in the next
week whether to accept
or reject changes in the
student body constitu
tion as proposed by the
Documents Review
Committee.
The revisions will in-
cldue new procedures for
governing the activities
of the student bank and
the Elections and
Publicity committee,
but fail to provide for
minimum academic
qualifications for elected
officials.
“We didn’t know ex
actly where to put it,” is
the reason legislature
chair and review com ¬
Photo By Rick Monroe
Alexander Raymer, 18, of 3320 Winterfield Place in Charlotte single-vehicle accident on Old Concord Rd. while leaving Satur-
and Michael Wayne Berry, 16, of 3525-D Taurus Drive (seated day’s Jam-Up. The accident report and officers at the scene in-
at rear of truck) are aided by emergency personnel from the dicated alcohol use was a factor in the mishap.
Newell Volunteer Fire Department. The two were involved in a
east Charlotte girl reported missing since mid
February, and the emergency landing of an airliner
at Charlotte Municiple Airport, many of the county
officers who would have normally been patrolling
the UNCC area were diverted. To help alleviate the
manpower shortage, the Highway Patrol was
notified late Saturday afternoon.
Is Jam-Up a little bit out of hand? “A little bit,
hell!” says Hudson, “It’s a lot out of hand.
“When we get through a day like that without a
major incident, we feel lucky. We just prayed a lot
and somebody heard us.”
Hudson is working on a report to Chancellor E. K.
Fretwell, outlining the problems of Jam-Up and
possible solutions. Although the report is in
complete, Hudson indicated some suggestion would
include: moving the event off campus, limiting it to
students each of whom could bring one guest and
hiring bands which attract less rowdy crowds.
The new chair of the University Program Board,
and the persons responsible for next year’s
mittee member Barry
Brown gives for the
failure to establish
minimum course loads
and grade point
averages for officials.
Brown explained that,
although the Elections
and Publicity Act sets
qualifications for can
didates for office, it says
nothing about standards
once the candidate takes
office. Neither does the
constitution.
Ginny Newton, chair
of the committee, said
they first considered
placing the standards in
the constitution, but
decided against it,
because, she said, “We
(Continued On Page 2)
Jam-Up, Charles Simms agrees with Hudson’s
assessment of the Jam-Up Situation. “We’re plann
ing to increase the size of Jam-Up and bring in bet
ter bands, so we’re having a meeting Thursday with
Hudson to come up with some ideas to better con
trol the crowd.”
Some of Simms’ suggestions will include keeping
the date and bands to perform at Jam-Up a secret
between the two or three top members of UPB and
moving the event to Charlotte Memorial Stadium.
Past measures to control the size of Jam-Up have
been met with limited success. This year UPB
issued wristbands to students with validated ID’s
Thursday and Friday before Jam-Up. Free beer was
distributed only to those with a wristband.
According to present UPB chair Mac Ritchie, only
75 kegs of beer were available for the 5,400 students
with wristbands. That ratio, one keg for 75 persons,
was established by the Dean of Students Office. Rit
chie noted that a keg usually serves 35 persons.
“We took as many precautions as we could,” Rit
chie said, “We didn’t want to promote it as
something where people go out and get sloppy
drunk. We don’t promote it as a big beer blast.”
Dean of Students and Interim Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs. Chuck Lynch said the ratio was
established out of concern for the University’s
responsibility during Jam-Up. Lynch said there are
instances where schools have been sued by students
who were in accidents following Jam-Up type
events.
But Lynch feels the beer given away at Jam-Up is
only a part of the problem. “I know more beer is con
sumed by the people who bring their own than by
those who take part in the give away.” Lynch said,
“But what students do on their own, I don’t think
we can control.”