VOLUME 112, ISSUE 147
BOG panel hears tuition requests
MOESER PITCHES INCREASES,
BUT COMMITTEE IS SKEPTICAL
BY ERIC JOHNSON
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
WILMINGTON Despite strong
appeals from the chancellors of 13 uni
versities, it remains almost certain that
the UNC-system Board of Governors
will refuse any proposed increases to
in-state tuition this year.
Meeting on UNC-Wilmington’s cam
Chancellor
James Moeser
is attempting to
lobby for tuition
increases.
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President Bush speaks as Dawn Baldwin looks on at a town hall meeting Thursday afternoon at the BTI Center for Performing Arts in Raleigh. During
the meeting, his first trip to the state since his re-election, Bush outlined his plan for Social Security reform and answered questions from the audience.
BUSH TALKS UP
SOCIAL SECURITY
BY MARK PUENTE
STAFF WRITER
RALEIGH ln his first trip to the state
since being re-elected, President Bush told
about 1,700 Tar Heels what he’s been telling
the nation for weeks that Social Security
reform sits atop his agenda this term.
Bush, who spoke at the BTI Center for the
Performing Arts, said he would work diligent
ly to convince voters that Social Security is in
jeopardy of going broke in 2018.
“I’ll make it clear that there is a problem,” he
said. “It’s gonna take me a while.”
Many past presidents acknowledged that
Social Security needs some sort of reform but
Bill could facilitate
voting for students
BY SETH PEAVEY
STAFF WRITER
Sen. Elbe Kinnaird, D-Orange,
is hoping to convince legislators to
reform the way voters go to the polls
in a move that might directly affect
student voter turnout at UNC.
Kinnaird introduced a bill
Thursday that would make Orange
County the first county in the state
to allow voters, regardless of which
precinct they are registered in, to
cast their ballots at any polling
place in the county.
The bill would take UNC stu
dents a step closer toward a goal
long-stressed by student govern
ment: creating a single voting
precinct for the campus.
Students would no longer be
restricted to voting at their assigned
polling locations the campus cur
rently is divided into six voting pre
cincts, with polling places ranging
from the Chapel Hill Public Library
to General Administration.
UNC Student Body President
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INSIDE
URBAN CHIC
Local officials, with a little help from the outside,
try to find ways to beautify downtown PAGE 2
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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pus, the board’s budget and finance com
mittee voted unanimously Thursday to
advise against campus-based increases
for in-state students. There is little
doubt that the full board will approve
the measure at its Friday meeting.
The board came out against sys
temwide tuition increases earlier in
the school year.
failed to gain support for any initiatives. But
Bush said he will solve the problem and not pass
the buck to others. “We got a lot of work to do.”
His proposals would allow young people to
invest a portion of their wages voluntarily into
private investment accounts, which he says will
give them a stake in their future.
“If you own something, you have a vital
stake in your community,” he said.
The purpose of conducting town hall meet
ings, Bush said, is to allow voters to also hear
about his recently submitted budget proposals.
“It’s lean, focused and sets priorities,” he
said. “If we have programs that are not work
ing, let’s get rid of them.”
■
Orange County
Sen. Ellie
Kinnaird
introduced a
bill that would
allow residents
to vote at any
local polling site.
Matt Calabria, who has been work
ing with legislators to push the sin
gle-precinct goal, said the current
system is too confusing for many
students. “(Kinnaird’s bill) would be
a really helpful solution,” he said.
If the bill passes, a number of
one-stop voting sites known as super
precincts would open on the first day
of early voting and would operate
through Election Day. Previously,
students have been able to vote at
one-stop locations such as Morehead
Planetarium, but one-stop voting has
ended before Election Day.
The super precincts would be
SEE PRECINCTS, PAGE 4
www.dthonlixte.com
The committee listened for more
than five hours as university offi
cials including UNC-Chapel Hill
Chancellor James Moeser, Provost
Robert Shelton and Judith Wegner,
chairwoman of the faculty argued
for increased revenue.
But while board members said that
the needs of the system’s campuses are
not in dispute, they added that students
should not have to bear an unnecessar
ily large part of the burden.
“The case for need is clear,” said
BOG Chairman Brad Wilson. “I think
At that point, the tightly packed conserva
tive crowd, which spent hours waiting in the
blustery wind, honored Bush with one of many
standing ovations.
The president’s stop in North Carolina
was part of a five-state tour. He headed to
Pennsylvania after his stop in Raleigh.
With former Sen. Jesse Helms, a Tar Heel
political legend, in the audience, Bush stumped
in a state whose own Republican delegation is
leery about the plan.
“For those worried about the politics about
Social Security, I ran on it twice,” Bush said.
SEE BUSH, PAGE 4
Berry kicks off history month
Civil rights expert focuses on past leaders
BY HEATHER ANDREWS
STAFF WRITER
Although small in stature, distinguished
scholar Mary Frances Berry brought grand
personality and grace to the stage Thursday
night as spoke of a relatively unknown fig
ure in the reparations movement.
A diverse, vibrant audience reacted with
laughter, nods of approval and sounds of
surprise as Berry delivered the first African
American History Month Lecture, titled
“Callie House and the Enduring Significance
of the Black Reparations Movement, 1987
to Present,” at the Sonja Haynes Stone
Center for Black Culture and History.
The talk focused on Callie House, a
little-known black woman who advocated
for reparations for ex-slaves in the 1890s
and who is the subject of Berry’s forth
coming book. House was born a slave
and later, as a widow with five children,
worked as a washing woman. She was
jailed during her fight for reparations.
“This is an important corrective to
the history,” Berry said, highlighting the
importance of remembering the work of
early black activists.
A ceremony preceded the lecture to
we should take that case, which has
been elaborated here, and go to the
General Assembly.”
Standing before the committee, most
of the chancellors seemed to know the
outcome was already certain.
Even so, most schools brought forth
detailed information to indicate that
last year’s campus-based increases went
toward funding the BOG’s priorities of
improved access and faculty retention.
UNC-CH’s presentation elicited one
of the liveliest discussions of the meet
ing, as Moeser, Shelton and Wegner
honor Berry and to celebrate the first of
many annual lectures to commemorate
Black History Month.
Representatives from several sponsor
ing departments spoke, including William
Ferris, associate director of the Center for
the Study of the American South.
Ferris cited Berry as “a national trea
sure” and a “truly outstanding scholar.”
Ferris also stressed the importance
of forging a partnership across the
University to recognize black culture.
“It’s time to come together,” Ferris said.
“It’s time, and we’re proud of it.”
Performances by the Black Student
Movement’s a cappella group, Harmonyx,
and junior Pierce Freelon added a youth
ful flavor to the ceremony, representing
the next generation of African Americans
to observe Black History Month.
“We are very pleased with the response
from the campus community,” said his
tory professor Genna Rae McNeil, who
presided over the ceremony. “And the
lecturer set a very high standard.”
Berry said she was pleased with the
SEE LECTURE, PAGE 4
SPORTS
MCCANTS BITES DOG
Tar Heels' junior swingman needs to have a big game
for UNC to beat the Huskies in Hartford PAGE 7
Big platforms
propelled pair
of candidates
Hopefuls in runoff made key promises
BY BRIAN HUDSON
SENIOR WRITER
In student body president
campaigns, it seems that size
does matter.
Promise for promise, candidates
Seke Ballard and Seth Dearmin
had the largest platforms of the
four original contenders, offering
incentives to many campus voters.
Dearmin and Ballard will meet
in a runoff election Tuesday after
having won 40 percent and 27
percent of the vote, respectively,
in this week’s general election.
Both candidates pointed to their
platforms as the tool that increased
their leverage over former student
body president candidates Leigha
Blackwell and Tom Jensen.
But what Blackwell and Jensen’s
platforms lacked in size they made
up for with concrete themes.
Jensen’s campaign, promising
“more for your money,” offered
an intensive reform of student
government geared toward serv
ing students better and cutting
$60,000 from the budget.
Blackwell proposed reorganiz
ing student government as a hub
for events and information perti
nent to the student body.
Despite their promises, both
wound up short in the election.
Ballard and Dearmin attributed
the strength of their campaigns to
the wide variety of student inter
ests addressed in their respective
platforms.
Ballard promises to create
an endowment that will bring
top speakers to campus, while
Dearmin plans to bring wireless
Internet to Franklin Street.
“We started out brainstorming
ideas that would be good ideas,”
Ballard said. “We picked the high
est priorities on wide-ranging
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Renowned civil rights expert Mary Frances Berry
speaks at the inaugural African-American History
Month Lecture at Cobb Theatre on Thursday night.
WEATHER
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2005
argued that the University will face a
crisis in faculty retention without addi
tional funds to address the problem.
“Two-thirds of the faculty at Chapel
Hill have had people approach them
and try to hire them away,” Wegner
told the committee.
Moeser addressed concerns about
affordability, citing the University’s
Carolina Covenant program for low
income students and the fact that UNC
CH funds 100 percent of financial need
SEE TUITION, PAGE 4
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Seke Ballard and Seth Dearmin
will continue to campaign until
the runoff election Tuesday. Both
candidates credit their successes
to far-reaching platform ideas.
interests for students.”
Adrian Johnston, Dearmin’s
campaign manager, attributed his
candidate’s success to an extensive
and comprehensive platform.
“It was so strong because it was
all about making life easier for stu
dents,” Johnston said. “I think that
there are just so many different
themes running through this cam
pus. ... There are a lot of diverse
needs on campus.”
Though success in student elec
tions can be linked to the size of the
platform, the strategy has potential
to result in failure in office. Promises
aimed at diverse interests require a
president to devote attention to
numerous fronts.
But Ballard said he has no doubt
that his campaign promises could
be completely fulfilled in office,
pointing to the explanations that
accompany each platform plank.
“You don’t see a promise,” he
said. “You see a plan of action.”
Dearmin also assured the feasi
bility of his platform.
During the fall semester,
Dearmin researched and organized
his platform with the help of about
20 campaign workers, Johnston
SEE SBP, PAGE 4
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