dhr Daily Oar Hrrl
CORRECTION
Due to a reporting error,
Thursday’s pg. 6 article "Group
set for spring visit" incorrectly
states that Sally Couch Vilas came
to UNC as a physics student.
Although she graduated from
UNC, Couch Vilas did not come
to the University as a physics stu
dent. The Daily Tar Heel apolo
gizes for the error.
CAMPUS BRIEFS
All-female a cappella group
to perform spring concert
Cadence, an all-female a cappella
group at UNC will perform its spring
concert today beginning at 8 p.m. in
Hanes Art Center, Room 121.
The group was formed in 2003
and recently recorded its first
album Banana A Cappella.
Other University a cappella
groups Psalm 100 and Grains of
Time will guest-perform.
Environmental organization
to screen documentary film
The Student Environmental
Action Coalition will host a free
screening of “11th Hour," a feature
length documentary, at 6 p.m.
today in Manning Hall. Room
209.
The documentary was produced
and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
and is about the current state of the
world’s natural environment.
There will be a discussion panel
following the screening, featuring
“11th Hour" expert Stuart Pimm,
as well as Richard Dent, the co
director of the “11th Hour" Action
Campaign.
Maple View Ice Cream Shop
to host running challenge
A local version of the Krispy
Kreme Challenge, the Maple
View Challenge will take place
Sunday.
The race, which is cospon
sored by Nourish International,
will start at 2 p.m. at Morehead
Planetarium and Science Center.
The cost of entering is sls, and
all participants will receive a T
shirt.
Participants will have to run
from the planetarium to the Maple
View Ice Cream Shop, eat a pint of
ice cream and run back to complete
the challenge.
Prizes include an Apple
iPod touch, a SIOO gift card to
Maggiano’s and a 10-day European
tour from STA Travel.
Students organize support
for undocumented peers
About 30 students convened
in the Campus Y on Thursday
night to create an advocacy plan
that will ask N.C. legislators not
to pass bills that might bar illegal
immigrants from attending N.C.
colleges and universities.
“The UNC voice is very impor
tant in this debate, because it has
the potential to affect our cam
pus," said senior Kristin Economo,
a member of the Scholars' Latino
Initiative, who organized the
meeting.
The group, called the Coalition
for College Access, is planning to
gather signatures from all UNC
system schools to demonstrate
student support for illegal immi
grants in the state’s public col
leges and universities.
Visit State & National News
at dailvtarheel.com for the full
story.
From staff and trine reports
Jones highlights activism
Has been vocal voice for Rogers Road
BY DAVE PEARSON
SENIOR WRITER
When told she’d been described
as a “fireball," Neloa Barbee Jones
laughed and said she’s having the
best time of her life.
Jones is one of three Democratic
candidates on the May 6 primary
ballot for the at-large Orange
County commissioner seat
A steady voice in the Rogers
Road neighborhood debate about
a waste-transfer station, Jones
said she thinks the skills she has
accrued from both her activism
and her education career prepare
her for the county commissioner
position.
“I’m not a politician," Jones said
in an interview last month as she
waited for her hamburger.
Jones said she has been so busy
campaigning lately that it’s often
been hard to find time for three
meals a day.
She said she’s glad to have a
flexible work schedule so she can
put as much energy as possible
into advocating not just for her
own neighborhood but for areas
around the county that need some
one who can help them work with
government.
Jones spoke about the towns of
Students protest for labor
Sit in South Building to lobby Moeser
BY KELLEN MOORE
STAFF WRITER
Ten student members of the
Carolina Sweat-free Coalition spent
Thursday night in the lobby of South
Building protesting Chancellor
James Moeser’s refusal to accept the
Designated Suppliers Program.
Armed with sleeping bags and
pizza, the students —and the
police officers watching them
were allowed to stay past the
building's close.
The students said they plan to
stay until Moeser adopts the DSP, a
system that requires a university' to
buy 75 percent of its licensed apparel
from factories that pay living wages
and allow collective bargaining.
“We’re committed to this, and
we’re going to put our lives on hold
until the lives of these workers are
„
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KSUfl**
DTH/STACfV AXEIROC
Sarah Hubbard cuts out a photo removed from a time capsule that her first grade class and a buddy fourth grade class put together and
buried in 2000. Now a high school freshman, Hubbard returned to Mary Scroggs Elementary School on Thursday to open the time capsule.
TURNING BACK TIME
BY KATY DOLL
SENIOR WRITER
The molded pages laid across the entrance
to Mary Scroggs Elementary School look
much older than their 8 years.
But those eight years seemed like a life
time to the high school freshmen and seniors
gathered around them.
The fourth- and first- grade classes 0f1999-
2000 unearthed memories as they explored
the time capsule they buried June 9,2000.
“It was the (school’s) first fourth-grade
class," said Julie Dermody, the fourth grade
teacher who developed the idea. “It just
seemed with the millennium going on there
was excitement going on, and I was trying to
think of what would be special for the kids."
That year, her fourth grade class served
as buddies to Pat Flynn’s first grade class.
They made the capsule together and buried
it 1 foot out and 4 feet over from the garden,
representing their grade levels.
But no shovels were needed Thursday as
Editor 's note: Mary Wolff also is a Democratic primary candidate for an at-large county commissioner seat but declined to be interviewed.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro annex
ing county lands and the prob
lems that sometimes result, such
as dividing traditionally unified
voting districts.
“If they’re happening in my
community, they’re happening
elsewhere," she said.
“It does not have to be the disen
franchised and impoverished who
are affected."
Jones is honest about the issues
she isn’t as familiar with, and she
said she thinks it’s better to admit
when you have something to learn.
“Knowing what questions to ask
is a skill, and I’m not afraid to ask."
she said.
In conversations with Jones,
her ability to confront fear and dif
ficulty comes across.
After moving to Chapel Hill in
her early teens, Jones settled into
the community as a fourth-gen
eration member of the Rogers and
Barbee families. She said one of her
fondest memories is the dedication
of the Barbee Chapel.
Her career in education had
a bumpy start, but she said she
doesn’t regret taking a few years
off before finishing college.
A UNC alumna and educa
tional consultant, Jones said it’s
Top News
respected," said senior Salma Mirza.
an organizer for Student Action
with Workers, a group within the
Carolina Sweat-free Coalition.
About 30 more chanting, sign
holding protesters rallied outside the
building before its 5 p.m. closure.
N.C. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-
Orange, who stopped by the rally,
said she favored Moeser signing the
DSP, adding that she plans to write
Moeser a letter sharing her views.
“We’re not going to change any
thing until we realize that people
in other countries have the same
rights as workers in this country,"
Kinnaird said.
Thursday’s sit-in was the most
recent of UNC social justice groups'
endeavor to have the University
SEE SIT-IN, PAGE 7
the capsule had spent the past seven years
in Flynn's office.
She removed it before the school put a tool
shed over where the capsule was buried.
And this was a fortuitous move, as the
capsule's contents had started to mold.
“If wv had left everything in there, it would
have been really disappointing because every
thing would have been yueky," IX'rmody said.
The students wrote letters to themselves
and included hand-prints and school musi
cal programs.
"Some of those things I put in there I still
do," said freshman Derek Bryant. His favor
ite sport then was football, and he now is a
quarterback at Carrboro High School.
First-graders drew pictures and wrote
short notes, including Josie Hollingsworth’s
drawing of herself with /.its and braces.
“It's true, I definitely have zits," she
laughed with her friends.
And these exclamations were common as
students reflected on “how grown up" they
Neloa Jones
is one of three
Democrats on
the primary
ballot for
county
commissioner.
never a bad idea to get more edu
cation.
As the conversation turned to
water use and the environment,
Jones recalled the days she spent
as a “flower-wearing hippie."
She said that the environment
has been a hot issue since the
1960s but that relatively little has
been done.
Jones said her work regarding
the waste transfer station opened
her eyes to the interrelationships
between issues.
“The more I got involved, the
more I began to see things," she
said.
“I saw the issues get bigger."
In September she represented
the neighborhood and spoke at
the Assembly of Governments
meeting between local govern
ments to implore commissioners
to look for anew site for a waste
transfer station.
Jones said her motivation stems
SEE JONES, PAGE 7
IflFf ' ~
DTWELISE HARWOOD
Members of the Carolina Sweat-free Coalition sit in South Building to ask
Chancellor James Moeser to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program.
were now compared to 2000.
“I miss all the good times we had," fresh
man Sarah Hubbard said.
But Dermody said many students didn’t
expect to unearth these memories.
“We never really thought people would go
through with it," senior Alex Mask said.
But then the e-mails started pouring in.
“I was so impressed and amazed that
seniors would be talking about what they
did in fourth grade," Dermody said.
Five seniors and nine freshmen returned
and quickly got down to reminiscing.
“1 haven’t seen any of them since fifth
grade," senior Naziha Shafi said.
Of Dermody’s original 20-person class,
two students now live in Korea and three live
out-of-state, but they still contacted her.
“If someone in Korea has been thinking
about this, we’ve got to do it." Dermody said.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk (S unc.edu.
Pelissier stresses perspective
Has served for OWASA, Sierra Club
BY DAVE PEARSON
SENIOR WRITER
Bernadette Pelissier started a
long way from here.
But the path that took her to
Orange County has had a deep
impact on her perspective, she
said.
Pelissier is one of three candi
dates for the at-large county com
missioner seat that is on the ballot
for the May 6 primary.
After working until retirement
in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Pelissier has spent time on the
boards of the Orange Water and
Sewer Authority and the Sierra
Club, as well as several county
planning commissions.
“I’ve always had this thing of
wanting to work for the larger
good of the community," she
said.
In an interview Pelissier smiled
frequently as she spoke of a range of
topics. She spoke passionately and
intensely about national incarcera
tion rates; she giggled and remi
nisced about Carrboro Alderman
Dan Coleman’s novel.
The UNC alumna spoke at
length about the ways her expe
riences have given her a unique
perspective.
“People just want crime to be
taken care of," Pelissier said. “We
should take a step back and ask
what causes crime."
Pelissier said she intends to
implement what she’s learned to
offer a different but informed posi
tion on the board of county com
missioners.
“I hope to bring more discus
sions to the table," Pelissier said.
Pelissier was bom to French par
ents in Senegal; her father worked
for the United Nations and her
family moved often. The family
moved to the U.S. when she was
an infant, and she spent much of
her childhood in New Jersey.
She said the several years she
spent firing in Syria as a young girl
taught her to recognize differences
between cultures and the impor
tance of perspective.
“Issues are what motivate me,"
she said, adding that she sees
Orange County as a good place to
start addressing wider-reaching
topics such as crime and climate
change.
“A lot of the issues are not
unique to Orange County,"
Pelissier said.
She said the time she spent
growing up in other countries
FRIDAY. APRIL 18, 2008
Seniors
to play
Wii in
the UL
Game night after
library closes
BY LAURA MARCINEK
STAFF WRITER
The senior class will get an
opportunity to compete in Olympic
games tonight in the Undergraduate
Library on a Wii, that is.
At 6:30 p.m.. after the library
closes. thesenior class will hold
a Wii tournament using the two
gaming systems the Undergraduate
Library purchased for students.
“I really love video games, and 1
know a lot of students do. too." Senior
I Class Vice President Veronica Mora
said, adding that it will gist seniors a
; needed break from studying.
“It's just supposed to be a laid
! back environment instead of a com
petitive tournament. Everyone that
wants to play will get to play."
Winners will receive S2O gift
cards to Student Stores.
Seniors will be able to play other
board and computer games, as well
as enjoy free refreshments.
“We ll probably have Catch Phrase
and Life because we’re about to go
out into the real world," Mora said.
She also said she is not yet sure
if they’ll be able to get the popular
video games Guitar Hero and Rock
Band from student government.
Senior Patrick Smith, who plans
to attend the event, said he has per
fected his Wii skills at Best Buy.
“I'm pretty solid at video games."
Smith said. “Don't tell my mom
though. It’s one of those things
j I’ve perfected in college instead of
perfecting my major."
Leah Dunn, director of the
Undergraduate Library, said the
event will be held in a screening
room and in the entry- and upper
level atria The tournament should
not interfere with students study
ing at the library, Dunn said.
“We took that into consideration
and held it at a time that the library
would have been closed anyway,"
i she said. “We look at the library
as the central part of the students'
fives, and our services are not all
| exclusively academic.”
For example, students can rent
movies from the Media Resources
Center for recreational purposes.
This will be the third senior week
event the Undergraduate Library
has hosted since it was reopened
after renovations in 2002.
Past events include a poetry night
and a dub-themed dance party.
The Undergraduate Library, how
ever. is not regularly open for rent,
mainly because of staffing issues.
“This is just something we try to
do each year as a way to congratu
late the seniors on graduating,"
| Dunn said.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk(a unc.edu.
ATTEND THE TOURNAMENT
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today
Location: Undergraduate Library
Info: seniors.unc.edu
Bernadette
Pelissier is on
the Democratic
primary
ballot for
county
commissioner.
■i A
taught her the importance of
water conservation, an issue she
worked closely with during her
time on the OWASA board.
She served as chairwoman of
the board during the historic 2002
drought.
Former fellow OWASA board
member Penny Rich has worked
with Pelissier not only on water
issues but in local politics, as
well.
Rich said that she doesn't always
agree with Pelissier but believes
that she will work hard to finish
what she starts.
‘Overall I think she will look
out for the community," Rich
said. "I think she will be a good
leader."
Today she lives with her hus
band on a 20-acre farm where she
grows her own vegetables.
Pelissier said she hopes to focus
on streamlining sustainability pro
grams.
SEE PELISSIER, PAGE 7
3