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BM 104 yean of editorial freedom
Serving the students and the Umvtmty
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Student falls 4 floors off Winston Residence Hall
■ James Bumgardner fell
from a window Thursday
morning around 3:30 a.m.
BY CYNTHIA EAKES
STAFF WRrTER
A sophomore is in fair condition at
UNC Hospitals after falling from a four
story residence hall early Thursday
morning.
James “ Jase” Haskell Bumgardner 11,
18, of Laurinburg, fell from a fourth
Upcoming elections
interest few students
BY BRADLEY HOWARD
STAFF WRITER
Despite encouragement from elected
officials, student turnout for the Nov. 4
elections could be low if interest does
not increase.
Some students said Thursday they
had a lack of con
cern for the
upcoming elec
tions and are mis
informed about
issues.
“I didn’t even
know about the
Bg|r|
elections,” said Richard Leissner, a
junior from Lincolnton.
Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary
Waldorf said she wants students to be
involved and to vote.
“(The town’s) voter turnout is only 25
to 30 percent,”
she said. “I
wish it was
higher.”
Student
involvement in
Nearing deadline
to register to vote
prompts drives
See Page 5
local elections has never been high, offi
cials said.
“Given the historical student voice in
past elections, a student vote can’t pro
pel a candidate into office,” said Richard
Franck, Chapel Hill Town Council
member. “But in a close race, it could
make a difference.”
Local officials said they listen to the
student voice.
“I tend to give pretty strong listen
when individuals or student govern
mental organizations speak with me,”
Franck said.
Carrboro Alderman Diana
McDuffee said the Board of Aldermen
has been supportive of issues that stu
dents have a large input on.
“For Carrboro especially, (the student
voice) is important because we have a
lot of students living there,” she said.
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DTH/DAVID SANDLER
Senior political science major Alexis Slagle founded Giving and Reaching
Out to Women and International Education.
We’d all like a reputation for generosity and we’d all like to buy it cheap.
Mignon McLaughlin
floor window of Winston Residence
Hall about 3:30 a.m.
According to police reports, the inci
dent was accidental and alcohol-related.
Three witnesses, Patrick Mullis,
Temple Lee and Jonathan Dale, who
live in Winston, said they had been
drinking beer with Bumgardner. The
four decided to go out of the fourth floor
west bathroom window and smoke a
cigarette on the roof ledge.
Reports state Bumgardner slipped
and fell backwards when he attempted
to re-enter the window. A small tree
broke his fall, and he landed on the
“Given the historical student
voice in past elections, a
student vote can't propel a
candidate into office. But in a
close race, it could make a
difference. ”
RICHARD FRANCK
Chapel Hill Town Council member
Despite the concerns of local offi
cials, out-of-state students are especially
uninterested in elections.
Jacobe Foster, a freshman from
Seattle, said he had no clue about what
was going on in the elections.
“What elections?” he said.
Local officials said elected officials
affect students in many ways and
encourage student involvement.
“UNC students seem to have special
interests, and they ought to participate
more than they do,” said Joe Capowski,
Town Council member. “I would
encourage every student to get out and
vote on Nov. 4.”
Most students stressed the issue of
being misinformed about the candi
dates’ policies.
“We’re largely misinformed,” said
Greg Beal, a junior political science and
advertising major from Lincolnton. “A
lot of people focus on the party and not
the person.”
Beal said a write-up on the candidates
and their platforms would give the stu
dents some information.
“We’re so isolated,” said Nicole
Jeffers, a sophomore from Charlotte.
“We’re not really affected by (the elec
tions).”
Some students suggested that the can
didates should visit the campus.
See VOTERS, Page 4
Friday, October 3,1997
Volume 105, Issue 83
ground next to the building.
Orange County Emergency Medical
Services and the Chapel Hill Fire
Department responded. Orange County
Rescue rushed Bumgardner to UNC
Hospitals for treatment.
A student who lives on the first floor
of Winston said Bumgardner landed
near his window.
“I heard someone yell, ‘Call 911,’”
said the student, who asked that his
name not be used. “Then the cops came
It took a while for the ambulance to
show up, and I could hear the guy
moaning.”
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DTH/JON GARDINER
Fourteen-year-old Stewart Lyon (right) shares a cigarette with friends on the walkway beside the Franklin Street post
office. The mellow attitude of the post office scene keeps them from coming back.
Hangout provides ‘mellow’ mood
■ The post office on
Franklin Street is popular
with area high schoolers.
BY MARY WILLIAMSON
STAFF WRITER
Donned with fresh buzzes, baggy
garb and a little attitude, the group of
teenagers who hang out in front of the
Chapel Hill post office are schooled in
the art of chilling on Franklin Street.
People that pass by recognize them.
They are known as a posse.
Their style smacks of flavor and
leisure. Most of all, their style is unique.
They usually are seen catching air on
skateboards on the different planes of
sidewalk, playing with their animals or
Alexis Slagle started GROWISE to
combat illiteracy among women.
IVIgLU UUW, Wt It WVJ
■ | T _ African Women’s Educal
W TaT "I program for African won
Way wi Lii
BY AMANDA GREENE 1A( fj f~ fj
STAFF WRITER
BY AMANDA GREENE
STAFF WRITER
A portrait of Scarlett O’Hara, a fictional woman who tri
umphed over adversity, adorns Alexis Slagle’s wall.
It is a haunting reminder of the many women in the world
fighting to overcome their own adversity illitercy.
Enabling those women to read anything from “Gone
With the Wind" to prayer hymnals is one of Slagle’s goals for
the group Giving and Reaching Out to
Women and International Education
which promotes women’s education.
Slagle, a senior political science major
from Hayesville, started the group with
an idea she and her roommate had during a summer visit to
Washington, D.C., when they were sophomores.
They were inspired by an article they read about women
in Chad, Africa, who did not have educational opportunities.
“We were completely unaware of the extreme problem
with women’s literacy in the world,” Slagle said.
Cinda Saunders, Slagle’s summer roommate and current
president of GROWISE, said the issue just came up.
“The whole beginning of it came from conversations
Alexis and I had before bedtime,” Saunders said. “I had the
idea, and Alexis arranged the rest.”
Slagle’s ability to organize and persevere helped the group
get started and establish long-range goals.
“It is unfortunate that the
media is going to put an
alcohol-related spin on this. A
sober person could have
fallen ...just as easily.”
BRETT BOWERS
Junior from Winston-Salem
Media sources rushed to the campus
Thursday. The recent alcohol-related
death of a student at the Massachusetts
just sitting with friends.
Most UNC students had contact with
these kids the first time they visited
Franklin Street. Some just observe them
and others even join the posse.
Shannon Goodrum, a sophomore
from West End, explained how she felt
when she first saw these kids with
counter-culture style.
“My first reaction is ‘What are they
trying to prove?”’ Goodrum said. “But
then I think, ‘They’re not trying to start
any (trouble), so what they do is fine
with me.’”
Rice Davis, a transfer student from
the Chicago Art Institute who spends
his free time hanging in front of the post
office, blames the difference in values
between UNC students and Chapel Hill
residents for misunderstandings.
“Most students have never even spent
“This year GROWISE had two main goals to create
education opportunities for students and to try to establish
contact within different countries to possibly provide schol
arship-based programs for women," Slagle said.
“Right now, we’re working with the Ghana Forum for
African Women’s Education to help establish a scholarship
program for African women to go to college,” she said.
Slagle encountered this group when she went to Africa for
a month this summer.
“We are mainly based in Africa right now, but we are look
ing to broaden our horizons to Latin America and other
Third World countries because we realize that Africa is def
initely not the only area that has problems.”
Slagle recalled attending a literacy class in Ghana.
“One of the most memorable instances happened when
Slagle said her experience in Africa changed her life.
"Sometimes I felt like I was in a National Geographic arti
cle,” she said. “It was so unbelievable. And sometimes I
thought ‘There’s so much we could learn from them.”’
Slagle said watching the women’s passion for learning
made her appreciate her education more.
“It just puts it all into perspective when you think about
how you hated to go to school in third or fourth grade and
how others might never get that chance,” she said. “The expe
rience has made me very humble.”
Since her trip, Slagleand six members of the GROWISE
See SLAGLE, Page 4
Institute of Technology has attracted
national attention to student drinking.
“It is unfortunate that the media is
going to put an alcohol-related spin on
this,” said Brett Bowers, a junior from
Winston-Salem who lives in Winston
Residence Hall. "A sober person could
have fallen off the ledge just as easily.”
Nathan Stowe, a junior from
Wadesboro who also lives in Winston,
said he thought the incident would help
heighten alcohol awareness on campus.
“I hope this will take away the luster
of drinking just to get drunk,” he said. “I
guess this will refuel the debate about
the night outside their dorm (room),”
Davis said.
“The students all see us as just home
less street kids. The truth is they all just
have nowhere else to go. I bring vitamins
and macaroni and cheese to the kids
because their parents don’t care about
them.”
Bamie Slutsky and Brian Lloyd, both
students at Chapel Hill High School,
said the mellow attitude of the post
office scene kept them coming back.
“This place is chill,” Lloyd said.
“There’s also a teen center underneath
the post office where kids can come and
watch TV. Everybody knows everybody
around here.”
“Lots of people come up here,”
Slutsky said. “This has been the place
See POST OFFICE, Page 4
She researched women’s edu
cation in Ghana and spoke with
many African women involved in
a movement education.
Slagle brought back contacts
and goals from the experience.
I asked a woman what reading and
writing meant to her life and she said it
was so exciting because now, she could
sit at the front of her church and actu
ally read the hymns she was singing.”
News/Featurcs/Arts/Sportt:
Business/ Advertising:
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
O 1997 DTH Publishing Corp.
AH rights reserved.
the intellectual climate on campus."
Executive Vice Chancellor Elson
Floyd met with Bumgardner’s family
Thursday morning. “As I told them, the
University is tremendously relieved that
Jase was not more seriously injured in
the fall,” he said.
Floyd said the incident highlighted
the fact that alcohol can impair a per
son’s good judgment.
“Individuals need to take the person
al responsibility associated with drinking
very seriously,” Floyd said. “This inci
dent really does strengthen our resolve
to continue to work on this issue.”
Enrollment
figures show
steady rise
■ Trends also reveal an
increase in older students
on college campuses.
BY BRADY DENNIS
STAFF WRITER
Robert Bosworth HI is 27, married,
and father of a 7-year-old girl.
He is also a UNC junior majoring in
psychology and sociology. Bosworth
said he
came to
school leav
ing his fam
ily behind
in West
Virginia, because he was ready for a
career change.
More students than ever are packing
up their bags and heading off to college.
After a steady rise between 1972 and
1991, total college enrollment decreased
slightly between 1991 and 1994, but it
once again appears to be on the rise, due
to anew generation of students and
added incentives for enrollment.
In a world where knowledge of new
and ever-changing technologies is essen
tial, many students consider a college
degree a necessary requirement.
“There are areas of expertise today
that did not even exist years ago,” said
Anthony Strickland, associate director
for undergraduate admissions at UNC,
adding that university applications have
nearly doubled in the last 25 years.
“New technology skills are required
now more than ever before,” he said.
High schools are doing their part to
prepare students for the continuing edu
cation they will need in today’s job mar
ket. "As counselors, our aim is to
encourage every student to get some
See TREND, Page 4
IMSIDE
Trial comes to early end
William Boychuk
pleaded guilty to first
degree murder of his
wife in Cary and
received a life
imprisonment
sentence. Page 5
*
Exhibiting stereotypes
Beginning its season, the Dramatic Art
Department’s Studio I presents The
Colored Museum,* a play about the
myths of Black America. Page 4
#
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