VOLUME 115, ISSUE 31
Arts series trying to balance books
BY MARGARET HAIR
SENIOR WRITER
The arts don’t make money,
and neither does the Carolina
Performing Arts Series.
“It’s not like running a private
performing arts venue. It’s not the
case where we’ll be making money
on this,” Executive Associate
Provost Steve Allred said.
“We’re trying to bring top-level
artists and still balance the books
at the end of the year.”
It is a fact of funding that is com
mon knowledge within the arts com
munity but is not always understood
outside of it, Executive Director for
the Arts Emil Kang said.
And it is the central reason why,
going into the third season of the
Carolina Performing Arts Series,
fundraising and University support
have become the two factors most
ALL WALKS OF LIFE
BY CATARINA SARAIVA
STAFF WRITER
Like the millions worldwide who
travel great distances for daily necessi
ties, Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents
walked four miles Saturday for local and
international hunger.
Sunday marked Chapel Hill’s 21st Annual
CROP Community Reaching Out to
People Walk, an event held nationally
by Church World Service and sponsored
locally by the Inter-Faith Council for Social
Service.
Church World Service uses 75 percent of
the money raised from each CROP Walk
to aid international Find domestic hunger
and development problems. The remain
ing 25 percent comes back to the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro area to aid local hunger.
"We get between $15,000 and $20,000
for local purposes,” said Chris Moran,
executive director for the IFC.
Charles Williams, assistant to the exec
utive director at the IFC, said the money
will go to the organization’s food pantry
and its community kitchen.
“This year we’re on target to serve over
92,000 meals,” he said. “This money goes
a long way.”
The CROP Walk aims to create a sense
of community by involving people of all
religions and University students, Moran
said.
“One of the symbolic efforts behind the
walk is to bring people together who rec
ognize that there is a great divide between
the haves and have-nots,” he said.
With Delta Sigma Pi, a University busi
ness fraternity, running the registration
table and providing crossing guards, par
ticipants walked down Rosemary Street,
through campus and back to the starting
point of Carrboro Town Commons.
Marie English, an East Chapel Hill High
School sophomore with the University
Presbyterian Church walkers, said the
international hunger aspect of the walk
was what initially interested her.
“Then I found out, oh, dang, it’s also
here,” English said of local hunger prob
lems.
Chapel Hill resident Vincent Wingate
SEE CROP WALK, PAGE 8
Bills seek to ease Medicaid’s chokehold
Poor counties struggling
to pay for program’s costs
BY LINDSEY NAYLOR
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
WINDSOR ln counties such as Bertie, where
more than a third of residents are eligible for
Medicaid, the drive to expel poverty often is stalled
by state demands for contributions.
But last week, four legislators introduced a bill
in the N.C. House that would cap county Medicaid
spending and provide millions of dollars in additional
relief to the state’s poorest counties.
North Carolina is the only state to require its coun
ties to pay a fixed portion —ls percent —of the cost
of Medicaid, a federal program providing health
insurance for low-income individuals and families.
CORRECTION
Due to a reporting error, the
Friday front-page story, “Arts
series set for new season,” incor
rectly states the total ticket rev
enue taken in by the Carolina
Performing Arts Series. So far,
the 2006-07 has taken in about
$1.15 million. The Daily Tar
Heel apologizes for the error.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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AN ANALYSIS OF HOW THE UNIVERSITY FUNDS THE CAROLINA PERFORMING ARTS SERIES
important for the sustainability of
the program.
Boasting acts such as Aretha
Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma and STOMP,
Kang said the new season, which
was announced Friday, is the
strongest yet.
But maintaining a series with
so many internationally recog
nized acts is, of course, expen
sive. The average artist fee for the
2007-08 season is $28,000, Kang
said. Franklin cost SIOO,OOO, Ma
$75,000, STOMP $50,000.
Add on the $1.3 million in total
salaries of 19 full-time performing
arts staff members, plus the cost
of putting on 35 shows, and things
get pricey quickly.
There is, Kang said, a “long- term
imperative to create a sustainable
source of support to ensure that
this won’t drop off in the future.”
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Jane Merrifield 14, Emma Lo, 13, and Annie Lo, 10, made the four-mile walk for hunger Sunday afternoon during
the CROP Walk. Starting at the Farmers' Market in Carrboro, groups of supporters made the trek despite the rain.
Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb said the bill could
go a long way toward easing the expense of care.
“It is strangleholding some of our counties,”
Lamb said. “The sooner we can get relief, the bet
ter off we are.”
A foot in the political door
The amount that N.C. counties pay toward
Medicaid costs is determined by the number of area
residents who are eligible for the program.
But counties with the highest percentages of low
wealth eligible citizens often don’t have the tax base
to foot Medicaid expenses while adequately provid
ing for other county initiatives.
“The current policy has the effect, though it might
not have had the original intent, to punish and to
penalize poor counties for being poor,” Lamb said.
“If you have a county that has a high Medicaid
online I dailytarheel.com
GET UP, STAND UP Liberian activist set
to come to campus for Human Rights Week
CHECKING IN ON YOU UNC S Board
of Visitors hears from Chancellor Moeser
GREEN THUMBS, WALLETS Elementary
school gets grant to buy gardening tools
www.dailytarheel.com
In 2005, the series received a $5
million challenge grant from the
William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable
Trust, which would create a $lO
million endowment for the pro
gram. Half of the $5 million
promised was given up front, and
the other half will come once the
series has met the match.
The performing arts series has
raised $9.2 million toward that
goal, and Kang suspects he will sur
pass it by the Dec. 31 deadline.
Until that endowment comes in,
all of the series’ financial shortfalls
will be covered by the University.
Because much of die money donat
ed was pledged, as opposed to cash,
it might be a while before all of it is
readily available.
“We probably won’t see that
SEE SERIES, PAGE 8
Carolina Performing Arts Series revenues SOURCE:CAROLINA “SecuroIfe
A look at the Carolina Performing Arts Series tickets sales and revenues to date, comparing sales in the past two years.
Annual ticket sales Total ticket sales Key
2006-2007 30 BB Number of
$1.15 million _ student tickets
f A 20,000 —■ purchased
2005-2006 I 1 H H| ■■ Number of
$900,000 \ / 10,000 *- ™ all other tickets
' 4w--r-Wt t
Ticket breakdown for five shows 2005 2006 • 2006 2007 •
1,200[ Z ", "
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End of Cinematics Nickel Creek King Britt Cleveland Orchestra Wynton Marsalis
Sept. 28 and 29,2006 Sept. 19,2006 Feb. 16,2007 March 18, 2007 March 25,2007
eligible population, as we do, it just compounds the
problem.”
For a long time, he said, county commissioners
lobbied for the state to assume more of the Medicaid
burden, only to be ignored by their elected state offi
cials, especially the powerhouses who hailed from
urban and wealthy regions.
But today the N.C. General Assembly has six
Medicaid reform bills in the works, including the
one introduced last week.
Co-sponsored by a former county commissioner,
two Democratic chairmen of the House appropria
tions committee and the House minority leader, the
bill has 119 signed supporters: every representative
except House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, who
declined because of his post.
Todd McGee, director of communications for
SEE MEDICAID, PAGE 8
campus I page 6
REAL AMERICAN HEROS
Students face off against
Campus Recreation staff Friday
afternoon in the annual
Gladiator Challenge, which
mirrors American Gladiators.
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2007
Jones wins
ASG helm
in landslide
Some take issue with vote
being conducted by voice
BY ERIC JOHNSON
SENIOR WRITER
DURHAM Cole Jones, a two-term student body
president at East Carolina University, cruised to an easy
victory in Saturday’s election for the presidency of the
UNC-system Association of Student Governments.
Opposed only by the delegation from UNC-Chapel
Hill, Jones’ election marks a continuing trend of
strong influence among campuses outside the tradi-
tional power centers of UNC-CH
and N.C. State University.
Jones and his running mate,
Student Body President Cody Grasty
of Western Carolina University,
defeated UNC-CH juniors Stephen
Moore and Jake Parton, both in
their first year as ASG officers.
“Ever since December when I
expressed my interest, there was
overwhelming support for me and
my campaign,” Jones said. “I’ve
been a member of the association
for the past two years, and the
work I have done and my charac
ter speaks for itself.”
As late as three weeks ago, Jones
was facing no opposition in his bid
for the presidency and had secured
Moore as his running mate. But
the revelation of pending criminal
charges against Jones, which had
not been disclosed to ASG officials,
Cole Jones
has served in
the ASG for
two years.
ONLINE
Group also
adds a vice
president
position for
minority affairs.
prompted Moore to run independently.
Though a number of delegates privately expressed
unease with the idea of a president-elect facing mis
demeanor counts of assault and breaking and enter
ing, the issue provoked very little public discussion.
The charges stem from a February custody dis
pute involving Jones’ 2-year-old son, and Jones has
insisted there’s no basis for them. He is scheduled to
appear in court May 8.
“I have no concern in reference to anything next
month, next semester or next year,” he said.
With little time for either ticket to mount a genu
ine statewide campaign, Jones and Grasty benefited
from long-standing relationships within the associa
tion. Both are two-term student body presidents.
Moore and Parton have been praised for their work
as ASG officers, most notably their successful effort to
create a systemwide textbook policy. But the fact that
both hail from UNC-CH was considered a liability, as
Moore acknowledged during Saturday’s debate.
“Politically, it doesn’t make any sense,” he told del
egates, referring to his choice of Parton as a running
mate. “That’s how you know I was just looking for
the right expertise.”
Though neither UNC-CH nor N.C. State have held
the presidency since the 2004-05 academic year, a
history of dominance by the two flagship schools still
looms large in ASG elections.
During Saturday’s debate, Jones made reference to
his status as ECU’s first black president and suggested
that having a ticket from two non-flagship campuses
would help the association with its focus on diversity.
SEE PRESIDENT, PAGE 8
this day in history
APRIL 16,1945...
UNC is named the headquarters for
a proposed permanent Conference
of Southern Students including
more than 50 colleges and
universities from the Southeast.
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games 8
opinion g
sports 12