North Carolina Newspapers

6 Friday, April 7, 2000 Cybervoting Poses Few Glitches By Jonah Mitry Staff Writer Despite some initial security con cerns, N.C. State University’s online voting system for student body presi dent went off without any noticeable hitches this week. This marked the second-year stu dents have had the online option, and student leaders said last year’s problems were addressed effectively. Newly elected Student Body President Harold Pettigrew said most students saw online voting as a plus. “I know a lot of students voted online because of the convenience,” he said. Wes Moyer, chair of the elections board, said 2,000 of the 2,850 voters participated online. Taking cues from N.C. State’s voting tactics, UNC is slated to implement SPORTS SHORTS! This Weekend at Carolina... Saturday. April 8 Men’s Tennis vs. Georgia Tech 1:00 pm at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center JT „ J®|j Men’s Lacrosse vs, Virginia 2:00 pm at Fetzer Field - UNC Softball in the Tar Heel Invitational ■ ■ Noon vs. Virginia at Finley Field 2:00 pm vs. Florida International at Finley Field H Sunday. April 9 UNC Softball in the Tar Heel Invitational Noon vs. Radford at Finley Field 2:00 pm or 4:00 pm vs. TBA at Finley Field Men’s Tennis vs. Clemson 1:00pm at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center Hardee’s Students & Faculty Admitted FREE w/ID! The 2000 Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards have been awarded to thefollowing professors and teaching assistants: PROFESSORS TEACHING ASSISTANTS Chip Gerfen Linguistics Shane Boylan Biology Peter Kaufman Religious Studies Amy Dudley English Donna LeFebvre Political Science Tracy Francis Communication Studies Travis Raines Economics Matt Smith Philosophy Estelle Taraud Romance Languages Plaques and monetary awards (professors - SSOOO and Teaching Assistants - $1000) will be presented at the Chancellor's Awards Ceremony - Thursday, April 13, 3:oopm in the Great Hall of the Student Union FULL LIST OF NOMINATED TEACHING ASSISTANTS AND PROFESSORS TEACHING ASSISTANTS TEACHING ASSISTANTS PROFESSORS PROFESSORS ~ Arturo Bagley History Amy Lorion Religious Studies SaharAmer Romance Languages Douglas Kelly Statistics Lucaßarattoni Romance Languages Anita Macmorrow Operational Research Christopher Armitage English James S. Lee Communication Studied Kat ‘ aßasse " Biochemistry Mark McCormick Religious Studies Todd Austell Chemistry Stephen Leonard Political Science Olaf Berwald German LisaMerschel Romance Languages Ashley Reid Barbour English William G.Lycan Philosophy Konstantin Bobkov Physics Matthew Montoya Psychology Judith Bennett History Robert G. McMurray Exercise & Sport Science DaylianCain Philosophy Laura Morgan PhUosophy Susan Bickford Political Science Charles P. MitcheU Dramatic Art Kelly Camigan Psychology Matt Raney Psychology Maurice Brookhart Chemistry Gordon Pitz Psychology Jennifer Coffman African Studies Jawana Ready Psychology Elizabeth Brown English Christopher Putney Slavic Languages Jenmfer Deville Romance Languages Marianne Reeves Anthropology Frank Church Biology/Pathology Ricahrd Rust English Megan Echevarn Romance Languages Nereida Segura Rico Comparative Literature Christopher Clemens Physics & Astronomy Michael Schlessinger Mathematics Michael Everton English Chris Rodning Anthropology Ann Coble Dramatic Art Joel Schwartz Political Science Adam Fitzgerald Mathematics Ekard Rolz German AlthaCravey Geography PaulShinkman Psychologv David Galaty Economics Richard RusseU English Robert Daniels Anthropology CJSkender Business Bill Grant Economics Scott Schwartz Psychology Deborah De Rosa English Kevin Stewart Geology Alex Grasos Communication Studies Carla Stec Russian/Slavics Brian K. Doyle Music Thomas Stumpf English Martha Greene English ChadTrevittc English Peter Filene History CraigTurnbull Biostatistics Andrew Harvey English MarkVitali Romance Languages Leon Fink History Dorothy Verkerk ; \ r , Shane Hawkins Classics Miranda Wilson English Malcolm Forbes Chemistry Stephen Weiss Computer Science Robert Horton Psychology Elizabeth Wright English Jeffery Fuchs Music James W. White Political Science Jason Johnson Political Science Zhengjun Zhang Operational Research Larry Goldberg English James A. Wiggins Sociology Brandtley Jones Classics Robert Greenberg Slavic Languages Haven Wiley Biology Lisa Klotz English Elliot Hirshman Psychology Rachel Willis American Studies KykKneisel Mathematics Dan Huff Music LeoE.Zonn Geography Erin Kruiewicz Communication Studies JoyKasson American Studies SUTA awards are the only teaching awards at UNC funded by and selected entirely by undergraduate students For more information go to http://www.unc.edu/student/orgs/suta online voting next year. Pettigrew, who voted online himself, said voting in person was less efficient, which was why more students opted to vote via the Internet. But convenience almost fell victim to security when President Pro Tern John Borwick discovered a problem with the software that allowed students to vote for anyone rather than the official can didates. Borwick successfully voted for The Beades during a trial run to illus trate his point. Moyer said all technical problems were fixed before the election, prevent ing the Fab Four or any other illegiti mate candidate from being elected. While UNC struggled with its own computer glitches on election night, problems at N.C. State plagued the existing system that tallied paper ballots. Student ID scanners normally used at State & National voting stations were not Y2K compli ant, making them useless. “Normally, you scan an ID card to vote, but because they did not have access to those (scanners), they had to find alternate means,” Pettigrew said. The alternative was connecting lap tops to the Internet at the voting stations and verifying student identification numbers through a Web page. “Online voting was several times more secure than paper voting,” Borwick said. He said all that was need ed to place a fake vote in-person was a social security number, an ID and a name. Moyer was pleased with the success of online voting. “We are hoping that in the future it will be all we use.” But with the new voting system came new regulations on campaigning. Moyer said the election board ruled that computer labs would be considered poll sites and any campaign material put up in computer labs would be in violation of regulations. Outgoing Student Body President Raj Mirchandani, who was defeated this year by Pettigrew, was criticized last year for campaigning in computer labs. No candidates were penalized, Moyer said. “All the candidates realized what they could and couldn’t do.” But Mirchandani did print the Web address for voting on his handouts. “He was a lot closer online than on paper,” Moyer said. Mirchandani would not comment on whether online voting helped him or hurt him. The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu. First Annual ■Nt AES 3-011-3 GYM IAM This Saturday April 8 CO/v^s> Fetzer Gym *-lt Up * sls per team 'b 4 people per team max. .'\ \f> /y 'jff - :* ©ift CwttScafatiff 2nd: SSO Gift Certificate ®s! Mill® §®Hi@ 106® epi tieii IST: $75 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO SOUTH SQUARE MALL gjS'®@W® @ffll New Generation Campus Ministries Activists Turn Attention 1 To College Dining Services A national protest group alleges that college dining service Sodexho-Marriott also feeds private prisons. By Taena Kim Staff Writer Student protesters nationwide have recently started to target their schools’ dining services - for reasons other than bad food. Students at 10 universities began protesting Sodexho-Marriott Services on Thursday, alleging that the company, which provides dining services for many colleges including UNC, also has links to private prisons. The student protesters claim that Sodexho-Marriott’s parent company invests in such correctional facilities, which are owned and operated by prof it-seeking corporations. Schools participating in the boycott include American University in Washington, D.C, the State University of New York-Albany and the University of Califomia-Santa Cruz. Kevin Pranis, campaign coordinator for Not With Our Money, a nationwide student protest group helping to orga nize the movement, said students were refusing to eat at the schools’ cafeterias. The main reason for the boycott was to show that the public’s interest was not met when prisons were controlled by businesses, Pranis said. “We think it’s wrong to give a private company the power to run prisons,” he said. “Sodexho-Marriott’s parent com pany, Sodexho Alliances, is the largest investor in the United States for private prisons.” But Sodexho-Marriott has denied any ties to the prisons. “(Student protest groups) have put out information I consider to be mis leading,” said Sodexho-Marriott spokes- woman Kathy Boyle. ”We have no ownership (in pri vate prisons).” Boyle also said Sodexho-Marriott did not have a par ent company. She said Sodexho Alliances, its alleged parent “(Student protest groups) have put out information I consider to be misleading. We have no ownership (in private prisons).” Kathy Boyle Sodexho-Marriott Spokeswoman company, was only a stock investor of Sodexho-Marriott and did not have any direct affiliation with the company. In efforts to resolve the protests, stu dents have met with individuals from Sodexho-Marriott and its alleged parent company, Pranis said. “The demand we’ve expressed with the company is to end their investment in private prisons,” he said. Parking 2000 The Department of Public Safety is offering parking pre-registration for the 2000/2001 academic year Tuesday, April 4, 2000 through Friday, May 19, 2000. Visit the Department of Public Safety’s website to pre-register and find out more information about student parking for next Fall: “www.dps.unc.edu” The pre-registration process is a lottery; all those who pre-register between April 3 and May 19, 2000 have an f A 1 equal chance of receiving a permit. So, pre-register online. V 7 and put yourself in the driver’s seat when it comes to parking next year. For more info, call the Department of Public Safety: at (919) 962-3951 The UNC-CH Department of Public Safety “ Working in Partnerships for the Future of North Carolina ’’ (Thr Daily (Tar Boyle said the company was con-1 cemed with students’ interests. M But she said Sodexho-Marriott was! not involved with private prisons in any! way. \ Pranis said Sodexho-Marriott wasj proving to be unresponsive so far bift, would eventually agree to the students’ terms. Until they do, Pranis said, Not With Our Money would continue protesting, on campuses around the country, trying to increase awareness about private pris ons and their connection with dining services. “We hope to' increase (partici pation) to around 20 campuses,” he said. Even though Sodexho-Marriott has a contract with Carolina Dining Services to oper ate campus dining facilities, UNC student activists have no immediate plans to protest or boycott the company. “I don’t think (a protest) will come out very strongly at this campus,” said Erica Smiley, a student activist. “But it might in a couple of years.” The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.