VOLUME ill, ISSUE 117
Tepper mulls
plans to rally
student voters
BY ANDREW SATTEN
STAFF WRITER
In light of the lackluster voter
turnout among UNC students for
the 2003 municipal elections,
Student Body President Matt
Tepper is revisiting the issue of
how to elevate civic participation
on campus.
Only 329
people 18 to 22
years old voted
in the recent
elections
despite an
extensive voter
registration
drive spon
sored by stu
dent govern
ment that reg
istered 2,300
students.
q
Student Body
President
Matt Tepper
wants to make
voting easier.
Tepper is investigating the
option of consolidating UNC’s
voting precincts to make it more
convenient for students to cast
ballots.
The campus now is divided
into five precincts, and several of
the voting locations are not with
in walking distance from campus.
“We are trying to make it as
easy as possible because a lot of
the students that live on campus
are first- and second-year stu
dents who don’t have cars and
don’t really know the area,”
Tepper said.
He added that if bus schedules
Leaders’ writers
take their mantles
BY KELLY OCHS
STAFF WRITER
Ginger Travis never expected
to write speeches.
Asa special assistant to the
chancellor, Travis has been gath
ering information and drafting
speeches for Chancellor James
Moeser for 11/2 years.
Before filling the position, she
worked for 10 years in the Office
of University Development,
where she occasionally drafted
remarks for University leaders.
She said that is where she gained
experience writing speeches.
Much of her job consists of
talking to people who coordinate
events at which the chancellor has
been asked to make an address
and finding out how long he will
speak, what issues he should
address, where he can park and
who else might be speaking.
Travis said the chancellor often
will have seven or eight meetings
in a day —a schedule he might
not be able to keep without a lit
tle help.
“(Chancellors) have an incred
ibly full calendar, and they can’t
write every single thing,” she said.
Moeser writes his own speech
es for larger, more public appear
ances and prepares the State of
the University address and others
DTH/JESSICA RUSSELL
Rut Tufts, director of auxiliary services, will
leave UNC to become executive director of
the Fair Labor Association in Washington, D.C.
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Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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do not fit students’ schedules,
they might be discouraged to
vote.
But Carolyn Thomas, director
of the Orange County Board of
Elections, said no changes can be
made until the state makes a deci
sion to allow counties to redis
trict.
“Right now, everything is
frozen. There cannot be any
changes,” Thomas said.
Despite Tepper’s sentiment
that the campus is a logical center
for a voting precinct, Thomas
said that because of the large
number of registered student vot
ers, it cannot be consolidated into
a single district.
“It depends on the census map
and where we can find a location,”
she said. “We can’t just draw a big
circle around the campus.”
In the weeks before municipal
elections, all citizens registered to
vote in Orange County had the
option of voting early at the
Morehead Planetarium, located
on campus.
Thomas noted that this loca
tion had a low student turnout
and that the majority of people
who voted at the planetarium
were town residents.
The elections board attempts
to cap each precinct at 2,500 reg
istered voters.
According to figures given to
SEE VOTING, PAGE 4
“There’s not a big
difference in the
way he expresses
himself and the
way I would.”
GINGER TRAVIS, speechwriter
of similar significance, Travis
said. “He enjoys talking about the
University,” she said.
During a busy week, Travis
said, she usually works on four or
five remarks the chancellor has
been asked to make.
She gives her remarks to the
chancellor a couple of days before
an event so he can review them
and make revisions if necessary.
Most of the time, Moeser is
asked to give remarks about new
buildings and to welcome students
to the University. “Just exactly
what you’d expect,” Travis said.
She said the chancellor is easy
to write for because he has a very
direct and simple way of speaking
to an audience.
“There’s not a big difference in
the way he expresses himself and
the way I would express myself,”
SEE SPEECHWRITER, PAGE 4
Tufts to head labor group in D.C.
Work at UNC prepared him for new post
BY KELLI BORBET
STAFF WRITER
After 31 years of service, Rut Tufts,
director of auxiliary services, is leaving
UNC to take the position of executive
director of the Fair Labor Association in
Washington, D.C.
The FLA is a nongovernmental organ
ization that promotes adherence to inter
national labor standards and improves
working conditions worldwide.
Tufts will begin his position officially
Dec. 1 but already has begun working with
FLA by getting associated with proce
dures and management information.
“When I was offered the opportunity to
work full-time for FLA, it made more
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N.C. House members discuss the redistricting proposal late Monday night in the hallway of the Legislative Building before adjourning without voting
on the plan. Both chambers approved new maps Tuesday. Below: Sen. Virginia Foxx, R-Watauga, speaks Tuesday before the N.C. Senate voted.
STATE DIVIDES
ALONG NEW LINES
BY LAURA YOUNGS
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
RALEIGH After more than two years
of debate, multiple court cases and mount
ing frustration, the N.C. General Assembly
approved new redistricting maps Tuesday
in time to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Senate voted 25-23 in favor of the
legislative redistricting bill in the 2003
extra session. The House approved it 63-52.
“We can now present to you a map that
leaves 88 counties undivided, which is four
more than the interim maps,” said Sen.
Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, chairman
of the redistricting committee. “This was
not done without some difficulty.”
The new Senate districts are more com
pact than past ones, with 12 districts con
taining two-county clusters, three more
than the previous maps, and with fewer
split counties. “This more faithfully adheres
to the (state) constitution,” Clodfelter said.
Clusters occur when a county of more
than 67,000 people, which constitutes a
district, is divided into more than one dis
trict. The divisions are kept within the
county or are paired with neighboring
counties to keep districts compact.
“Nobody can show fewer counties that
aren’t split that I’ve seen,” said Sen. Tony
Rand, D-Cumberland. “It fits together like
a jigsaw puzzle.”
The bill now goes to Gov. Mike Easley. If
he signs it, the new district lines will be in
place until 2010. “The maps are not that ter
rible,” said Sen. Virginia Foxx, R-Watauga,
in an interview after the Senate meeting,
although she added that they should have
been taken care of earlier in the year.
Both sides of the political spectrum
seem to agree that the maps are a reason
able outcome and are in compliance with
the state constitution and the federal
Voting Rights Act, which was designed to
protect minority voices in elections.
sense for me to take the position than to
stay here because for the last couple of
years my main focus at UNC has been
workplace conditions,” he said.
That view was shared by James
Peacock, who worked with Tufts as co
chairman of UNC’s now-defunct
Licensing Labor Code Advisory
Committee. “Tufts is the only person in
the U.S. that is on the board of both the
FLA and the Workers Rights
Consortium,” he said.
Through his work for the University, the
FLA and the WRC, "Rifts has visited facto
ries, workers and government leaders in
the United States, China, Thailand, the
Dominican Republic and Indonesia. \
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REDISTRICTING
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DTH//ASHLIE WHITE
“Overall, it appears they attempted to fol
low court directions,” said Rep. Carolyn
Justice, R-Pender.
But Justice said the final House maps
unfairly split Pender County while leaving
neighboring New Hanover County whole.
“There are just some areas that could have
been better,” she said.
Though Sen. Hugh Webster, R-
Alamance, said he doesn't think the Senate
maps are bad, he said legislators were not
consulted adequately. “If it had not been
for the taint, the stench that comes with
darkness, I probably would’ve voted for
(the maps),” he said.
In 2001, Republican legislators took
Democrats to court arguing that the dis
trict lines drawn at that time were uncon
stitutional. N.C. Superior Court Judge
SEE MAP, PAGE 4
Tufts played a major role in labor and
licensing when UNC signed an eight-year
contract with Nike for $28.34 million in
2001. Tufts served as co-chairman of the
advisory committee that was formed to
ensure that licensed factories provided
fair wages and conditions for laborers.
“Not only has Rut made UNC the
leader in the country in licensing by
reforming labor practices, but he is also a
national leader in the effort to improve
labor regulations,” Peacock said.
In his new position, Tufts will oversee
FLA’s day-to-day operations and work in
partnership with new President and CEO
Auret van Heerden. He also will proride
leadership and represent the FLA in
meetings with its many governmental,
business and university constituents, stat
ed Adele Simmons, chairwoman of the
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2003
Morgan draws
ire of enemies
BY CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR.
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
Some say there is an underlying theme in the N.C.
House’s redrawn district maps: Co-speaker Richard
Morgan’s enemies will have an increasingly difficult
time getting re-elected to the General Assembly.
The House closed Tuesday the
deal on district lines that will be
used in elections until 2010.
But some legislators assert that
the lines, which were drawn in pri
vate by the Moore County
Republican and Co-speaker Jim
Black, D-Mecklenburg, unneces
sarily pit some Republican incum
bents against each other.
The ones negatively affected,
they say, are those who have voiced
opposition to Morgan.
Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-
Johnston, who vehemently
opposed Morgan’s bid for the speakership this year, is
up against Billy Creech, R-Johnston, who also has
spoken out against Morgan.
Rep. Ed McMahan, R-Mecklenburg, said he also
has been placed in a district with a Republican
incumbent Connie Wilson, also of Mecklenburg
even though he sees no reason to do so.
In an interview Monday, Morgan said he drew the
lines “all the while thinking about the best interests
of the people.”
He said that in redistricting, some legislators
including some of his opponents probably will be
placed in districts with which they are not satisfied.
SEE MORGAN. PAGE 4
FLA board, in a press release.
Tufts said he will miss his involvement
with the students and faculty at UNC who
are interested in labor regulations.
But he said he plans to remain in
Chapel Hill and periodically commute to
an apartment in Washington, D.C., while
keeping in contact with the University.
“I have made a lot of friends here, and
we have worked hard trying to make stu
dents aware of labor standards,” he said. “I
just hope that students will continue to
stay involved.”
"Rifts has held many management posi
tions while at UNC, including director of
campus merchandising since 1985 and his
current position as director of auxiliary
services since 1990.
SEE TUFTS, PAGE 4
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THURSDAY Mostly cloudy, H 71, L 49
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Co-speaker
Richard
Morgan
is under fire
from his party.
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