VOLUME 112, ISSUE 150
On A STUDENT
ZUUD ELECTIONS
DEARMIN TRIUMPHS
IN TIGHT COMPETITION
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Student body president-elect Seth Dearmin celebrates his win with friends in 111 Carroll Hall. Dearmin garnered 51.6 percent of the vote.
WHISNANT WINS BY SLIM MARGIN
BY STEPHANIE NEWTON
STAFF WRITER
An unprecedented extension of the race for senior class
office left candidates with an extra week to zero in on their
campaign strategies and platforms. Tuesday night, it was
clear that the extra week made a difference.
Senior class president-elect Bobby Whisnant Jr. and
vice president-elect Jenny Peddycord narrowly took the
crown Tuesday, walking away from this year’s campus elec
tion season with 51.6
percent of the junior
class vote.
Of the 1,584 total
ballots cast in the
race, Whisnant and
Peddycord garnered
818, while oppo
nents Madison Perry
and Whit Walker
grabbed 766, closing
with 48.4 percent of the votes.
The two campaigns were forced into a runoff election after
last week’s general election results left neither ticket with a
majority of the votes. At the time, Whisnant and Peddycord
trailed Perry and Walker by one vote 914 to 915.
“I just want to say thank you to the class of 2006,”
Whisnant said. “We’re very honored that the junior class
picked us to be their senior class leaders.”
After hearing the totals and celebrating with his cam
paign staff, Whisnant called his mother. “She’s been talking
me through the campaign the entire time, telling me to
Youth battled to integrate school
BY BRIANNA BISHOP
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Braxton Foushee remembers his
high school as a place where fami
lies came together.
The Chapel Hill resident was
one of many students who attended
Lincoln High
School in the
late 19505,
when the all
black institu
tion strug
gled to meet
LOCAL
BLACK
HISTORY
Today:
Schools
the needs not
provided to it by a predominantly
white school board.
“It brought the whole communi
ty together,” the i960 graduate said,
recalling fund-raisers the school
held in order to make ends meet.
But only one year after Foushee’s
INSIDE
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SENIOR CLASS
RESULTS
■ WHISNANT, PEDDYCORD
818 votes, 51.6%
■ PERRY, WALKER
766 votes, 48.4%
graduation, black students would
see a vastly different educational
system. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro
school district became one of the
first in the South to voluntarily place
students in schools based on geog
raphy rather than race, The Chapel
Hill Weekly reported at the time.
The Chapel Hill Board of
Education voted 4-1 in July 1961
to integrate all schools, beginning
with first-grade students.
Later, toward the end of the
19605, the district opened anew
site for Chapel Hill High School,
which would be integrated.
While integration occurred after
Foushee graduated, he said stu
dents of his generation generally
supported the ideal.
SEE SCHOOLS, PAGE 8
INSIDE
ASG GOES TO WASHINGTON
Student leaders to take trip
to lobby federal leaders PAGE 5
www.dthonllne.com
walk by faith and not by sight,” he said.
Though they immediately planned to celebrate at Linda’s
Bar and Grill, Whisnant and Peddycord took time Tuesday
to stress the importance and urgency of their plans.
“You really do need to go ahead and jump right in,”
Peddycord said. “I think Bobby and I prepared our plat
form in a manner that was ready to go into action.”
Right off the bat, Whisnant and Peddycord said they want
to emphasize their desire to reach out to those who voted for
the opposing ticket, highlighting the need for unity. “Our ini
tiatives and platforms are for everyone,” Whisnant said.
During their first 100 days in office, the pair plans to
tackle senior class marshal applications first. Next, the pair
said they would like to get their senior celebration oft’the
ground and to schedule the first Commencement speaker
meeting before Spring Break.
Perry and Walker said they have no regrets.
“We knew it was going to be close for sure,” Walker said.
“I think we overcame a lot of folks who didn’t want us to
get this far.”
The pair said their unorthodox strategies and disorgani
zation contributed to a skeptical view of their campaign.
“We did it our way,” Perry said. “Whit and I don’t fit the
typical politician definition.”
But the two spoke highly of the way that Whisnant and
Peddycord managed to garner a wealth of support so early
on in the race something Perry said his campaign did
not do as well.
“It’s all about a network of people who want to support
SEE SENIOR CLASS, PAGE 8
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COURTESY OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN HALL
Faculty members at the all-black Lincoln High School pose for a photo.
The Chapel Hill Board of Education voted in 1961 to integrate all schools.
■
“Were very honored that the junior class
picked us to be their senior class leaders.”
BOBBY WHISNANT JR., senior class president-elect
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JH
DTH/JUSTIN SMITH
Jenny Peddycord (left) and Bobby Whisnant Jr. react to their victory in the runoff race
for senior class officers. The pair beat their competition with 51.6 percent of the vote.
Court to take Ist action
in lawsuit against UNC
BY KATHERINE EVANS
STAFF WRITER
The fate of three UNC students
and their Christian fraternity is in
the hands of lawyers today.
The Greensboro court hearing
of the “Alpha lota Omega Christian
Fraternity v. Moeser” case could
have significant ramifications
not only for the UNC fraternity but
for First Amendment applications
on campuses nationwide.
“It is an exciting time,” said fra
ternity member Jonathan Park.
“We have a lot of expectations.”
While members of AIO said
they will have little opportunity to
participate, they plan to attend and
to show support for their cause.
The students are fighting for
conniHs
'HOOS YOUR DADDY?
Tar Heels look to repeat success at UVa. in
friendly confines of Smith Center PAGE 11
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2005
BY BRIAN HUDSON
SENIORWRITER
A year after the most prolonged campus
contest in memory, student elections
ended without a hitch.
. Seth Dearmin was elected the
University’s next stu
dent body president
Tuesday, winning 51.6
percent of the votes in
a close runoff against
Seke Ballard.
Dearmin received
2,602 of the 5,046
votes cast Tuesday after
garnering 40 percent of the vote in the general
election last week.
After hearing the results, Dearmin spent sev
eral minutes rejoicing with his supporters and
taking phone calls from well-wishers.
“It’s just awesome,” he said, laughing and trying
to come to terms with the announcement.
Ballard, who picked up an additional 542 votes
since the general election when he received 27
percent of the vote said he believed that he did
all he could to close the original 887-vote gap.
“I think it’s just that the student body president
identified with one candidate more than
SEE SBP, PAGE 8
WEATHER
TODAY P.M. showers, H 71, L 38
THURSDAY Mostly sunny, H 51, L 26
FRIDAY Sunny, H 47, L 25
STUDENT BODY
PRESIDENT
■ SETH DEARMIN
2,602 votes, 51.6%
■ SEKE BALLARD
2,444 votes, 48.4%
Chancellor
James Moeser
is named as the
defendant
in Alpha
lota Omega
fraternity's suit
against UNC.
official University recognition of
their fraternity as a student orga
nization —a designation that was
denied when they refused to sign
UNC’s nondiscrimination policy.
The policy, which all student
organizations are required to sign,
lies at the crux of the lawsuit.
Any group seeking University
SEE LAWSUIT, PAGE 8