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£hr Satin Sar Hrrl CAMPUS BRIEFS Wake Forest wins food drive competition, UNC takes 3rd The Beat Hunger Beat Duke Campaign has ended, and the par ticipants haw collected enough food to support the Food Bank CENC. In all, UNC collected 15,945 pounds of canned goods and equiv alent monetary donations. UNC received more donations than Wake Forest, which raised 15,186 pounds, but Wake Forest won the competition because donations are calculated on a per student basis. UNC s donations were 0.6 pounds per student and Wake Forest’s were 2.5 pounds per student giving it its second consecutive win. N.C. Wesleyan was second, with donations of 2 pounds per student. UNC was third. N.C. Central University was fourth, and N.C. State University finished fifth. Sanders honored for years of dedication to North Carolina John Sanders, a former direc tor of the institute of Government, received the John McNeill Smith Jr. Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section Award. Sanders received the award Feb. 21. The award is given to someone committed to ideals of the N.C. Constitution. Sanders helped write the N.C. State Constitution Study- Commission's report on revisions to the document. Sanders has been praised by former UNC-system President Bill Friday as “the most sterling exam ple of public service." Former La. governor to give speech tonight on Katrina Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, will be on campus today to discuss the lessons of the natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, causing massive destruction and a series of policy issues for the future of the area. Blanco's free public speech, sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South, will start at 7 p.m. and be in the Chancellor's East Room in the Carolina Inn. Volunteer opportunity for students during the summer Students looking to get involved with volunteering this summer can consider the Yuva For Sewa pro gram, a one- to six-month volun teering project in various locations. The projects focus on education, self-employment, women's empow erment and health care, among several others. For more information, visit www.sewausa.org/vuva-for-sewa. Applications are due March 15. CITY BRIEFS Woman stabbed with small knife in domestic dispute Chapel Hill police responded to a domestic dispute on Gomains Avenue about 10 p.m. Wednesday. The woman was transported to N.C. Memorial Hospital, but her wounds are not deemed to be life-threatening, police Lt. Donald Bradley said. Buses will run on reduced schedule for Spring Break Chapel Hill Transit will oper ate on a reduced service schedule during UNC’s Spring Break from March 8 to March 16. Not all routes will be affected by the schedule, but routes CM, CW, D, J, NU and V will end earlier. Safe Rides, SU and the Saturday and Sunday U and NU will not operate. On March 16, the NU route will begin at 1:45 p.m. and the U route will start at 2:15 p.m. Visit www.chtransit.org for more information. STATE BRIEFS New Hanover legislator's future is still to be decided Today will be the fourth day of testimony in the hearing on uneth ical conduct allegations against N.C. Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover, led by an N.C. House of Representatives ethics committee. Although it was scheduled to end Tuesday, it is unclear at this point when the hearing will wrap up. However, when the committee has finished hearing evidence, it could recommend a punishment as severe as expulsion from the N.C. General Assembly. At that point a majority of the House w-ould have to support the motion to finalize it. If W'right is expelled, it would be the first expulsion of a sitting legislator since 1880. From *tqff arui wire reports System prioritizes security BY ERIC JOHNSON SENIOR WRITER The UNC-system Board of Governors will hear details today about a significant shift in the sys tem’s annual budget request. Officials plan to ask state law makers for more than $29 million in new funding for campus safety, putting security- at the top of the system's budget priorities. The move is a response to last year's systemwide safety review, which was undertaken after the murder of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech University. The request will include $17.5 million for one-time investments and nearly- sl2 million in recurring funds. The majority of the annual amount will pay the salaries of new “For many student* coming from small North Carolina towns ... they may not have been exposed to anything like this before taylor brown, GLBTSA TREASURER . \ I||l , - A> / ", I J K - fc- m i r^B i A, ' /'■ 5 . ' ; \V 1 - !' . dv M Mr f| ? 1 • * *w* - .-1 i mg * mom DTH/MELANIE HAYWOOD Junior Amy Olsen performs as 'Angry Orson" in front of a packed crowd at a drag show held by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender- Straight Alliance in the Student Union Great Hall on Wednesday. See dailytarheel.com for a slideshow of the night's photos. DRAG KINGS, QUEENS REIGN BY ANDREW RYAN COSGROVE STAFF WRITER Senior Jess Scruggs has sat watching in the audience for every drag show UNC’s Gay, Lesbian. Bisexual. Transgender-Straight Alliance has held. Wednesday night, it w-as her time to perform. She took to the stage as a drag king in the Student Union Great Hall with several other amateur student performers dressed with spiked green hair, black dresses and belly shirts. Scruggs always wanted to perform but never decided to act on it until now, when she went on stage in front of about 350 people. "This was my last semester to perform, and I knew had to do it," she said. Performing drag. Scruggs said, is a chal lenge to what gender really means in our society. “I love watching people in the audience become attracted to performers on stage and realize their gender is reversed,” she said. “It says something about what we are really attracted to." This year’s theme, “Body Language," tries to break down the gender barrier, said Court to rule on fee revote Decision will come later this week BY ALICE MILLER STAFF WRITER After hearing arguments sur rounding controversy about stu dent fee increases, the Student Supreme Court withheld its verdict until later this week. Chief Justice Matt Liles will announce Friday whether anew vote will have to be held to pass the safety and security- fee increase. TVler Younts, speaker of Student Congress, questioned the validity ofthe past election when he found out the student safety- and secu rity committee had sent a message through its listserv urging students to support the referendum. Title VI of the Student Code prohibits the use of student gov ernment listservs to campaign for or against referendums. “They violated the rules, while everyone else played by the rules," Younts said. “Allowing one group to break the rules while others followed them is fundamentally unfair." The 25-cent fee increase in ques tion would help the victims assis tance program supply rape kits for UNC students. The court acknowledged the validity ofYounts' argument, allow Top News counselors, case workers and police officers. ‘I would expect us to get a sizable portion, if not all of it,’ said Andy Willis, UNC-system vice president for government relations. In assembling their proposal, system officials focused less on infrastructure improvements and more on resources for troubled students. The system is seeking $1.9 mil lion in annual funding for case managers to track the progress of students thought to pose a risk and $1.7 million annually- for increased counseling services. That gels with the overall mes sage of the system’s safety task force, which reported its findings last fall. While task force members rec Catherine Adamson, chairwoman of the planning committee for the drag show. “People are incredibly- good at reading gender, but by playing with this outward language we can entertain and educate by showing how the rules can be reversed," she said. The drag show is one of GLBTSALs biggest events of the year, and the about SBOO raised at this year's show goes to the generated funds of the organization. GLBTSA officials said. At last fall’s drag show, GLBTSA raised more than SI,OOO. The money raised from the drag show will go toward the annual Unity Conference that the organization holds later in the year. GLBTSA TYeasurer Taylor Brown said he hopes those attending the drag show will think about what they have seen after they leave. “We are really hoping to challenge social ly constructed gender norms and that goes beyond drag to include sexism and talking in gender-neutral language," he said. Some student performers took the oppor tunity to try something they said they would not be able to do in their home towns. ing him to voice his reasoning in favor of a revote. Younts argued that the use of the listserv compromised the integ rity of the election and might have affected the outcome. Although he noted that he can not prove the exact effect the e-mails had on the election, Younts did state examples of people who received the listserv message, sending it on to other listservs and one case of the message being posted in a Facebook group. “A revote may or may not change the outcome of the election, but that is not for us to determine," he said. Val Tenyotkin, the defense coun selor for both the safety and secu rity committee and the Board of Elections, who also is a Congress rep resentative, refuted Younts’ claims. He argued that the safety and security committee is not actu ally part of student government, meaning members did not violate the Code. Tenyotkin also questioned how much the listserv e-mails could have effected the outcome of the election. If the verdict falls on Younts’ side, a revote will be called for the ommended a number of physical improvements to campuses better communications systems and warn ing sirens, for example they placed greater emphasis on prevention. “There’s only so much you can do to change the physical environ ment of the campus," said task force chairwoman Leslie Winner, speak ing when the group presented its findings last fall. “The best thing we can do is work to stop an inci dent before it even happens." That attitude can be seen in the way university officials trimmed safety proposals from each cam pus. Rob Nelson, the system's vice president for finance, said the total cost of all the original requests ran to more than $47 million. In paring down the campus wish “I come from a small town in North Carolina, so this is definitely a change of pace," freshman Karen Cooke said. “I don't think any of the schools in my town would allow a drag show." Many students attending the event. Brown said, might not have seen drag before. “For many students coming from small North Carolina towns or from Southern states, they may not have been exposed to anything like this before," he said. “I think it is amazing that the University allows us to hold the event so these students can experience something like this for the first time." Scruggs also said she thinks it is impor tant for the University to hold these types of events. “I am from Seattle, Wash., and come from a very open-minded family, so I was nervous about attending a university in the South." she said. “But this University is so open-minded and really takes into account... the diversity of its student body." Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu. U A revote may or may not change the outcome ... but that is not for us to determine." TYLER YOUNTS, speaker of congress referendum. The revote will either occur during a special election or at the next general election, which would be held next war. If a special election is scheduled for this referendum, at least 10 percent of the student population will have to vote for it to be put into action —a feat that could be nearly impossible as special elections are notorious for low’ turnout. “We will not be able to gather 10 percent of the vote in a special elec tion." Tenyotkin said. In general elections, though, more than 10 percent of the stu dent population generally votes. The safety and security fee was passed Feb. 12 with a 71 percent majority. The increase was origi nally passed in October, but the results were voided by the Court because of elections violations. Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu. THURSDAY. MARCH 6, 2008 lists. Nelson eliminated a lot of basic infrastructure requests. “If there were fences, gates, land, police substations those are the kind of things I removed from the request," Nelson said. “What I was trying to do is build a reasonable, rational proposal." Officials also want to avoid the perception of putting basic campus improvements under the banner of safety and security. Willis said he’s confident that every dollar of the system’s pro posal is well-justified. “It'll be hard for anyone at the legislature to pick this request apart," he said. Contact the State t£ National Editor at stntdeskfa unc.edu. UNC chemical waste cleanup set to begin Effort to cost school 54.5 M BY SARA GREGORY CITY EDITOR The University will begin clean ing up a site that has been contami nated with chemical waste since the 1970s later this month. Parts of Municipal Drive will be closed as Tampa-based WRScompass prepares the site for excavation, expected to be complet ed by July at a cost of $4.5 million. There are an.expected 18 burial sites in the 0.2-acre waste site located off Municipal Drive on the University’s property slated to become Carolina North. It was used to dispose of waste from the University and UNC Hospitals between 1973 and 1979- “We’re really going to be moving in laterally and excavating those areas one bv one,’ said Larry Daw, an environmental engineer with UNC’s Environment. Health and Safety department. “It is essentially going to be an archaeological dig." The chemicals were disposed in accordance with state and federal Results prolong primary contests N.C. awarded more delegates BY ARIEL ZIRULNICK ASSISTANT STATE AND NATIONAL EDITOR Hillary Clinton's wide-mar gin victories Tuesday in the Ohio and Rhode Island primaries and a slight lead in the Texas primary resurrected her faltering cam paign. ensuring that the race for the Democratic nomination won't end anytime soon. Barack Obama won comfort ably in Vermont and is leading in the Texas precinct convention, a second round of voting that deter mines about one-third of the state's delegates and has yet to be fully counted. With every Democratic contest that fails to yield a clear front-runner, the importance of North Carolina's primary on May 6 grows. “It makes North Carolina a play er in the process," said Jerry Meek, chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party . “There's only one major state between now and North Carolina, and that's Pennsylvania." The Democratic National Committee has recognized the state's unprecedented role by award ing North Carolina 25 percent more delegates to the national convention in August, about 33 more delegates than initially allotted. Meek said. Clinton gained 155 delegates to Obama's 137 Tuesday, not including those allocated based on the Texas precinct results. Obama retains a sizable lead overall, with 1,520 del egates to Clinton’s 1,424. Before Clinton's triumphs in Ohio and Texas, many political pundits were sounding the death knell on her candidacy. “I think that there has been a certain feeling among the media of Obama's inevitability of the nomi nation." UNC journalism professor Leroy Towns said. -. ‘The media seemed into that and failed to consider some polls showing that while Obama was closing the gap. she did have a chance to win in those states," he said, citing hard-hitting ads as a possible factor in her victory. The campaign has been a series of comebacks among the can didates, said Steven Peterson, a professor of politics at Penn State Harrisburg university. “Clinton started off slowly, then won in New Hampshire, then hit some stumbles and then has come back strong in Texas and Ohio," Peterson said. He added that he was one of many who wrote off John McCain early in the race. McCain secured the Republican Party 's nomination Tuesday night when he crossed the 1,191 delegate threshold. “It will be interesting to see w ho the final comeback kid is," Peterson said. Pennsylvania's primary on April 22 is the next big contest for the Democrats. Because its demograph ic makeup and many of its issues SEE PRIMARIES. PAGE 11 guidelines of the time, he said. UNC is cleaning the site as part of a voluntary agreement made with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2004 that removed the site from a list of con taminated areas. The deadline for completing the cleanup is 2012. After site preparations are com plete, WRScompass will begin the actual excavation. The burial pits are between 13 feet and 15 feet deep. The top six feet of soil have been tested and are not contaminated. They will be removed and used to refill the pit once the cleanup is complete. The next three feet of soil are suspected to be contaminated and will be tested. The soil in the bottom six feet, where the bottles themselves are buried, is contami nated and will be removed. The excavation process calls for testing and removing each bottle. “There will be extensive sampling done of all this,” Daw said. “Nothing will be put back unless we can docu ment that it’s clean." Some of the bottles might contain potentially explosive materials. “They didn’t pour the stuff SEE CLEANUP, PAGE 11 3
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